Scrapbooking

"Stop and pause,
remember the precious moments,
the mundane and the challenging -
for herein lies life.
Lusiana Austin "

I was asked a question about what scrap booking was all about at a workshop and open house I once attended. Quite a few people dropped in just to satisfy their curiosity about why people were coming into the building where the event was being held. I was glad there were some albums on display to show people the beautiful things you can do to create a personal book full of photos with journaled memories recorded in your own handwriting or on your computer.

I invite you to think about your current photo album. If someone who did not know you well (say, your great great grandchild or a new family member) looked at it:

• Would they understand who the people are?
  
• Would they know what the pictures are about, or when they were taken?
  
• Would your stories be remembered?
  
• Is your book interesting to look at, inviting people to spend some time examining it?
  

Journaling allows you to tell your story so others can read and understand what is important to you. Future generations will be grateful for the time you spend recording your story for them.

I find this craft provides me with a creative outlet as well. I love to be creative with embellishing my pages, sometimes including designs that remind me of the events that I have recorded with my camera, like the page I made above. This page tells about my ninth birthday. My cake had pink roses on it, so I made some pink paper roses to embellish my page.

I will gradually add more ideas for enhancing your own albums. I hope you will check back often!

You might like to subscribe to Paper Twists so you can have even more exclusive paper craft ideas. Here's what one of my subscribers thinks:

	Susan, I totally love your site!!!!! Right now I use the scrapbooking site most because I just started that hobby and your scrapbooking pages help me by teaching me the art of scrapping but most of all it has just endless ideas that inspire me. Thanks for such a great site! Bobbi Paper Twists(Michigan, USA)

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And Now for some more Layout Ideas & Tips:

• Have you ever tried a Retro Layout using a very old photo? This one I did shows a sponged, heat embossed background and some hand made paper flower instructions.
  

  

• Make some double layouts for your album. Think of the extra impact you could have with a double!
  

  

• Try a layout using the principles of a White Space Design for a focused and balanced looking single or double page for your album.
  

• Acid free Lignin free and Buffered are terms you may want to know a little more about before deciding how to make your albums.
  

• Circle Journals are a friendly form of papercrafting. Learn more about them here.
  

• Friendship Scrapbooking is a great way to let a special friend know how you feel about your friendship, or that she will be missed if she is going away.
  

• Would you like to know How to Make Paper Flowers using your heart punches to decorate your pages? I'll show you!
  

• Have you ever heard of Inchies? How about Twinchies? Come on in and find out how to make a bunch of these!
  

• Host Recipe Card Swaps:
  
• Christmas Recipe Cards
  

• Savoury Red Lentils
  

• Lemon Meringue Pie