Photographs are generally stored in paper and plastic, many types of which contain acids that will cause our photographs to lose their color and image. And remember: writing on the back of the photographs can also damage them. Only use pens labeled as acid-free.

Choosing the Right Paper

Whether you’re storing your photographs to use later, or placing them in your scrapbook, it’s important you look carefully into what you’re using to store them. You’ll need to choose scrapbooks with paper that has an acidity of 6.0 or above, and is labeled as lignin-free, to prevent photographs turning yellow.

Finding Safe Plastics for Scrapbooking

Plastic will emit a gas that will also eventually fade your photographs. Many scrapbookers choose to cover their pages with plastic sheets to help protect the items against damage, but you’ll need to find the right kinds of plastic. Here are the points you’ll need to bear in mind:

•    Avoid plastics that contain PVC, which emit damaging chlorine gas,
•    Choose plastics that are free of PVA,
•    Use alternatives such as acrylic, polyester, or acid-free paper.

Sometimes products will be labeled as safe for archiving, indicating that the materials won’t harm your photographs. There are also a number of scrapbooks available to buy that come with plastic sheet protectors inside them. These are usually safer, and designed to be used with photographs.

Lastly, remember to keep your scrapbooks and photographs out of direct sunlight, and take photographs or scans of all your pages so you’ll always have a digital copy should anything happen to the original.

You can opt for ready-made mat frames if you want to save time, but if you want to save money then it isn’t too difficult to do the matting yourself.

How to Mat Your Own Photo

1) Choose Your Mat: They come in a number of different materials, but paper or card mats are generally most popular. Make sure you measure your photo first so you can choose a mat that accommodates both the photograph and a small border around the edge (usually creating no more than an inch and a half border). Some choose to have an extra large border on the bottom to add more prominence, or include text about the photograph.

2) Check the Layout: Now you’ve got the material you need for your mat, lay it out to test how it’s going to look beforehand. Make sure the mat really does enhance your photo, and place it to where you’ll ultimately want it to be.

3) Attach Your Photo: Use your adhesive to attach the back of the photograph to the mat. You’ll need to put your photograph upside down to apply the adhesive, so make sure you keep it protected on a clean sheet of paper.

4) Cut the Mat to Shape: Now you’re ready to cut the mat around your photograph, making sure the border is even on all sides. If you don’t have a paper cutter, make sure you use a ruler to get the edges completely straight.

5) Add Extra Layers: People often choose to add a second, or even a third, mat to make their photograph stand out even more. Make sure the second mat contrasts with the first, but still complements it.

Matting photos is a perfect technique for making them stand out in scrapbooks, and also to prepare them for framing. Just make sure to place your photograph carefully in the centre of the mat and you’ll create a fantastic focal point to the page!

First of all it is a great way to organize old photographs and news articles. Most people have a lot of photographs in many different albums that have no organization to them what so ever. To accomplish this, first decide on the categories for each scrapbook, for instance wedding, graduations, college years, etc. Having an idea on the categories will male organizing easy.

Next pull out all the collected photographs, and attempt to remember when each photograph was taken. For each category think of exactly how the scrapbook will look like. Next comes the fun and the reason why scrapboooking is the fasted growing hobby in the world.

Designing a scrapbook is fun if the person has the right materials. It does not have to be expensive either. All a scrapbooker ever needs is a great and wild imagination. The supplies do not even need to be expensive either. Most of the supplies can be found around the house, like an old photo album, construction paper, scissors, etc.

Lately, some people have gone a step further with the use of the internet. Social networking software are great tools to create an online scrapbook for many people to share without leaving the comfort of the home. Again a lot of these websites are free to use.

Scrapbooking is a wonderful hobby to enjoy with family and friends. It keeps all the wonderful memories alive in an organized fashion.

For the novice scrap booker, there is nothing better than a scrapbook kit to help you get your creative juices flowing. The kit provides you with everything you need to create the beautiful book of memories you’ve been dreaming of, without the confusion and cost of buying each piece of paper and embellishment separately.

Simply choose a kit with a color scheme or photo theme you like. When you’re ready to start, open it up and lay out every thing inside. You’ll find the album, papers, frames and embellishments are already beautifully coordinated and ready for your photos. Most kits even come with a helpful tip and idea guide to assist you in your designs and layouts.

The more you work with a scrap book kit, the more confidence you’ll gain to branch out and experiment with your own ideas. You’ll find you want a page to look a certain way or want a certain embellishment that isn’t included in the kit. Suddenly, that trip to the craft store isn’t so daunting. You know exactly what you’re looking for to make that page perfect. Before you know it you’ll be designing all your pages yourself, browsing the papers and embellishments in the store racks like a pro, and all because you jumped in and bought a scrapbook kit.

Newspaper Clippings: Newspaper clippings are extremely common for inclusion in scrapbooks, as they often mark important events and times. However, newspapers generally don’t last for a long time as the paper contains an ingredient called lignin. This will make it turn yellow and brittle, so you need to be careful and take steps to preserve it.

Wrapping Paper, Wallpaper and Greetings Cards: Including things like wrapping paper or greetings cards can be a good way to remember special events, though they generally contain acid which means the paper will turn yellow and brittle and could also damage other items in the scrapbook (like photos).

Printer Paper: Many people like to print out certain items on standard printer paper, which is fine for inclusion in scrapbooks. Just opt for the paper that’s acid free and lignin free, or labeled as “archival paper”. This means it won’t fade and won’t cause other items to fade. Most inks are safe for scrapbooking.

Vellum: You can often buy vellum marketed specifically for scrapbooking, which is safe to try as long as it’s acid and lignin free.

What To Do If A Material Isn’t Suitable

Many types of paper aren’t good for your scrapbooks and they’ll eventually deteriorate over time. In the case of items that you don’t want to include for fear of damage, you could take a photograph or scan of the item to copy it on acid-free paper, or you could laminate it (but make sure the laminate material is suitable for scrapbooking).

Lastly, you could try an archival mist – but make sure any items you’ve sprayed still stay protected inside the scrapbook.

Scrapbooking has been a favorite past time for women of all ages for many years and continues to attract quite a following. For those of you just starting out, here are some scrapbooking tips to help you save time and money with your scrapbooking projects.

Scrapbooking Tips #1

Organization is the key. Don’t waste your time looking for your supplies. It is best to set aside a certain area where you can keep all of your supplies together. Keep paper separated by color. Pens, scissors and embellishments should be kept in separate bins or drawers. Label as much as you can so you can get right to work when an idea strikes you.

Scrapbooking Tips #2

Don’t spend too much money on fancy pens and markers. A computer can create any font and color you want. Make use of it and print wording for your pages then cut and paste into the page.

Scrapbooking Tips #3

Always use acid-free glue, pens and markers. If you don’t your pictures will be ruined and you will have to start all over.

Scrapbooking Tips #4

Make copies of your pictures before you start your page. In case you make a mistake or change your mind you can have a back up picture. Plus you may want to keep a set of the pictures in their original condition.

Scrapbooking Tips #5

Create a mock layout before you adhere anything. Place everything where you think you want it to go and step away for a few minutes. Come back to your page and make sure things are where you want. There’s nothing worse than ruining embellishments and pictures by trying to peel them off the page to move them around.

Scrapbooking Tips #6

It is best to use one picture as inspiration for a page. Pick a certain color or object from the photo that may help as a jumping off point for the theme of the page.

Scrapbooking Tips #7

See what’s free on the internet before you spend a ton of money on stickers or embellishments. There are many sites that offer free clip art. Simply cut out the items out and paste them into your page.

Megapixels: In short, the more megapixels a camera has, the better the resolution of the photographs will be. Think honestly about the sizes you’ll need to print.

Memory: Most digital cameras come with a small amount of internal memory, but you’ll also want the ability to add external memory (most cameras today offer this feature). This means you can buy several memory cards and switch them if one becomes full.

Zoom: Most digital cameras come with some kind of zoom, described using a multiplier of the standard view, such as 5x, 10x and so on. There is a difference between “optical zoom” and “digital zoom” – the latter is a poor quality zoom, whereas the former is very useful for maintaining quality.

Macro Lens: This describes the ability of the camera to take very close-up images of items. This is a useful feature for your digital camera to have if you want to take large photographs of items to include in your scrapbooks.

SLR Vs. Point and Shoot: Digital SLR cameras come with more manual settings and interchangeable lenses, suitable for those who know more about photography or are very willing to learn. If you want something that’s easy to use, then opting for a standard compact point and shoot camera could be your best option.

There really is no best camera for taking photos for scrapbooking. It really depends on your budget and what you want to take photographs of. You can expect to pay at least a couple of hundred dollars upwards for a decent camera.

What you can be sure of that choosing a good digital camera is a great investment. Digital cameras more than match traditional film cameras these days, and the digital format can give you the flexibility to store and use your photos however is best for you!

Type of Scanner

First you might want to consider the type of scanner you’ll need. If you don’t already have a printer and/ or a photocopier, then there are a number of three-in-one scanners available. These are usually bigger than your average flatbed scanner, but good value if you need all three functions.

The type of scanner you choose also depends on what you want to scan. A few things you might scan in include:
•    Old photographs,
•    Your scrapbook pages,
•    Birth certificates,
•    Any other documents that can’t be used in the scrapbook,
•    Small items you’d like to remember.

Larger Scanners

Many scrapbookers not only use their scanners for photographs, but to keep a digital copy of their scrapbook pages in case anything should happen to the originals. Large format flatbed scanners are the perfect choice for this.

Larger than standard scanners, these models allow scrapbookers to easily fit in and scan the pages of their scrapbooks without having to split up files and scan sheets in many different stages.

What to Look For

No matter whether you’re going for a standard sized scanner (suitable for scanning A4 pages) or a large flatbed scanner, you’ll need to look at the specifications.

The resolution of the scanner is an indication of the image quality, measured in dots per inch or dpi. Try to find a scanner that has at least 2400 dpi and also note that the higher the color depth, the more realistically the scanner will replicate the colors of the item.

1) Choose Your Materials: Many scrapbookers choose to use leftover card or paper for their photo corners, and vellum is also popular. You can use whatever you feel would look best for the project.

2) Cut A Square: Use a square cutter or paper trimmer to cut a square out of your card (2 inches is a good size).

3) Fold the Square: Now you’ll need to fold that square in half (so it becomes a rectangle). Then fold this again into a smaller square.

4) Fold Again: Now look for the part of the square that features all of the outside corners. Fold one of them up and over the other half of the square (so the inside layer of the card is now facing out, creating two triangles that form the square).

5) Continue Folding the Layers: Continue folding each layer of the square in the same way as in step 4, leaving a small margin between the folded layers each time for decorative effect. Make sure you leave the last layer in tact – this will be the back of your corner, allowing you to slip the corner of the photograph in to keep it in place.

These create a nice alternating effect on the folded corners, though there are also other folded corner techniques out there depending on the kind of look you want to create. Some choose to fold more plain corners but use scalloped scissors to dress up the outer edges.

Photo corners are fantastic on more old fashioned layouts and can make your photographs look more elegant. Try practicing with a few different techniques and coloured materials to find one that suits you.