Scrapbooking is one of the funniest ways to store your pictures because aside from keeping your pictures in a safe place, you get to display your pictures in a fun and creative manner. You also can tell the story behind the picture with how you create the pages. One of the best things about scrapbooking is you don’t have to be a professional to do it, by simply using your imagination and being creative you can scrapbook with the best of them. One of the great things about scrapbooking is you can buy pre-made kits or you can create your own using stencils, paper, and other art and craft supplies. But the fun doesn’t stop there; the good news is with scrapbooking you can finally empty out those boxes of pictures that you have been storing in your closet for the last ten years.
Here is a list of the supplies you will need to start scrapbooking.
Photo Albums – Photo albums come in two standard sizes, 8.5" x 11" and 12" x 12", but you can use smaller albums what you use is up to you. You can also choose from a variety of different kinds of albums such as 3-ring binders or D-ring binders, post-bound albums, or strap-hinge albums to name a few.
Sheet protectors – you will need to buy these separately if you choose to use 3-ring or D-ring binders, otherwise most other types of photo albums come with their own sheet protectors.
Adhesive – what kind of adhesive you use is going to depend on what you are doing and what you prefer. A favorite type of adhesive is glue sticks, most people use glue sticks for the embellishments and any journaling that is to be put on the page. Photo tabs are recommended for pictures because that way you don’t have to tear apart the page if you want to take the picture out to make copies. There are other adhesives out there, just keep in mind no matter what you use you need to make sure that it is acid-free.
Paper – this besides pictures is probably the most important part of scrapbooking, without the paper you wouldn’t have the backgrounds and designs. You can choose patterned paper, but if using patterned paper you should mat your photo on solid paperYou can also choose solid colors, and if you mat your picture with a solid background you don’t want to use patterned paper for the same reason as above. You can also use old greeting cards to help add decoration to your page. No matter what paper you choose just make sure that it is acid-free, many craft stores sell scrapbooking paper.
Journaling tools – You can use a black pen to journal by hand or you can use a typewriter or computer, but again make sure that you use acid-free paper.
Photos – One thing that you can do is separate your photos into activities or ages and start from there or you can start with your most recent photos. Just choose whatever method you feel is the best.
While those are the basic supplies you are going to need to begin scrapbooking there are other supplies out there that you can buy. Many of these optional supplies are going to be tools that you can use to spice up your scrapbook pages. Here are some other popular supplies that are used in scrapbooking.
Stickers – You can find stickers for almost every occasion, and best of all they are rather inexpensive.
Tags – You can buy plain tags and decorate them yourself or you can buy pre-decorated tags that you cut out and add to your scrapbook.
Cut-outs or punch-outs – both of these are the same thing except that one requires the use of scissors. But they can come in all types of forms including letters, numbers, tags, toys, etc.
Punches – you can buy punches in a variety of shapes and sizes to use to punch your own shapes and stuff out of paper.
Embellishments – this can include lace, stamps, glitter, craft beads, etc.