Easy Scrapbooking Ideas and Solutions - Layouts for Beginners

The most difficult part about beginning a new scrapbooking hobby is to actually get stuck in and begin.  Once you start, you will be surprised at how much your imagination juices will start to flow.  You just need a couple of tools, some mementoes that you would like to use, and off you go.

When I started scrapbooking I was always looking for easy scrapbook layouts, and spent quite a bit on scrapbook layouts and kits.  But as the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and the more you scrapbook the more the ideas will begin to flow.  You may even surprise yourself.

There are many different types of scrapbooking, and it isn’t necessary to always scrapbook photo’s.  Some people like to scrapbook their recipes, or birthday cards, or even their children’s drawings.  Loads of scrap bookers use the same techniques to make cards for loved ones.  Some people even scrapbook worthy news clippings.

To make easy scrapbook layouts for yourself, start by getting together the items that you would like to scrapbook.  Take note of the colors that jump out at you, and then choose some patterned or plain paper that bring the colors out even more.  Decide on what type of embellishments you would like to use on the layout and what size you want the layout to be.  Most scrapbooking albums are made in a 12 x 12 inch size, and most of the scrapbooking papers are also sold in this size, but you can do any size you like, as there are no rules.  You can get a lot of information on a double 8 x 8 scrapbook layout, and even make mini booklets within your layout if you have a lot of things you would like to include.

Look at your items and with a scrap piece of paper and pencil, sketch a plan of how you want your completed scrapbook layout to look.  Using this rough sketch as your guide, lay all your items on your page and check if everything is going to fit before you stick anything down.

If you are not sure where to start with your layout, there are always books as well as templates of varying sizes that you can purchase to help you out with the planning stages. 

If I am doing double 12 x 12 scrapbook layouts, I always try to make the pages flow into each other by using the same theme and papers.  If I only have one page of a certain color, I try and include a little of the same on the opposite page somewhere, so that the layout flows across the entire breadth of the page.

Scrapbooking With Material

For this weeks scrapbooking idea and solutions, we are going to experiement with using fabric or material for our layouts.

Material can add something extra to those scrap booking pages. Never throw those remnants of material away because there will always be a place for them in your scrapbook layouts. Why not try framing or matting your pictures on cloth mats for a slightly different look.

Felt:
Felt is one of the most versatile and easy materials to work with in your scrapbooking, and best of all, it doesn't fray when cut. Felt is also available in some beautiful colors. You can cut or punch felt into forms and shapes that can be pasted with glue or stitched into place. Felt is great for cutting letters for your titles, using a printed font as a template.

Why not try this idea for something a bit different. You can to use felt to mat your photos, or even another piece of material that you've sewn or embroidered some journaling onto.

Start by cutting out a piece of felt around 1cm bigger than the fabric or photo you want to stick onto it. Trim the edges as closely as possible with pinking shares.

Next using the leather punch set to make a small hole in each point of the pinked edge. Now you just use this as your mat for a pretty frame for your photo. This scrap booking idea makes a very beautiful edge.

Woven Fabric or Material:

Woven material can also be used to the mat, but remember that it frays once it has been cut. Although the frayed edges may become something of an advantage, as we can use frayed edges to make decorative edges. For best results with this technique, select a fabric in which warp and weft threads are different colors.

Using dress makers chalk, mark a piece of cloth about the size of the photo, plus the width that you'd like fraying around the photograph. Cut carefully along the grain. (Be sure to cut along the grain, and not diagonally, or it wont fray nicely).

Next pull out the threads along the edges of the fabric to fray to the depth that you need.

Relief mat the photograph onto the fabric and slightly raise the photo with foam backs. Use foam and double sided tape running down the entire length and width of the photo. Make sure the picture is centered between the frayed edges of your carpet.

NOTE: Remember that material only frays on straight grains, and you wont be able to fray around curvy corners, so the corners must be cut square.

Here are some more great scrapbooking ideas and solutions with fabric or material for you to try:

Some of My Favorite Scrap Booking Techniques

Once you have been doing scrap booking for a while, you'll notice that when you look through your albums, lovingly made, you will see certain styles and techniques repeated from time to time. We all have our favorite techniques, and those that we tend to repeat again and again, but the joy of scrapbooking is that no matter how much you use the same technique, you will never create the same page twice. Each page of your scrapbooking album will be unique as it should be, even if you use the same technique on all your layouts.

Looking through my albums, these are my three clear favorites:

1. Puzzle Pieces

A few years ago I bought this wonderful little tool from our local craft shop that cuts your photo's puzzle style. I then enjoyed piecing together the photograph again, and then matting it with the corner piece slightly away from the rest of the puzzle.

Another way to do this, is to slice your images in random places and then join it  leaving the pieces slightly apart. Make sure you are not using your original photos for this one.


2. Tearing

This is very common in my album. Almost every other page has something torn in the layout. I usually use this technique a lot to matt my photographs. I love the look of plain white cardstock framing a photograph with a ragged appearance. This works especially well on black and white photographs.

I also enjoy tearing out wording for my layouts. Maybe it's because the tear is such a fast technique and it has the element of surprise, you never really know how it's going to pan out.

Some of my backgrounds have been torn in half and pasted onto a different colored card stock, which also can be very effective.

3. Brads and Eyelets

Nearly all my layouts have brads or eyelets, or both. I invested in a punch tool a few years ago, and have really gotten my money's worth out of it. It's great for punching holes anywhere on your layout for your brads, and also to set your eyes in place. A good tool will give you many different size holes, and also options to upgrade for embossing.

Brads and eyelets are handy little goodies that can be used in many creative ways. You can add embellishments or simply decorate your layout.

4.  Foam Squares
I use foam squares a lot as these give my layouts a 3D look.  You can use them to adhere elements to your layout that you want elevated.

Elevating a photo now and then or even every second letter in a heading looks very effective and gives your layout more depth.

It would be great to hear from other scrapbooking enthusiasts what they use regularly on their layouts.

Scrapbooking Ideas For Your Family Vacation

We all know how many pictures we take while we are on vacation. Scrapbooking is the perfect way to preserve these memories in an interesting and original way. Our  holiday for most of us is a precious little time out from our daily activities. Vacations are normally quality time with family and friends. In many cases, the places we visit on holidays will be places that we will never see again, so while you visit different places, try to collect some memorabilia such as tickets, postcards, timetables, menus, shells and so on. These items will add a personal touch to your holiday memory layout.

For a beach holiday is a good idea to pick up items such as shells, coral or seagull feathers that you can add to your layout. On your layout, you can attach your shells to your layout using handmade cords. You can also make shaker boxes for the larger shells and display them on your layout in this way.

Another fun idea for a beach layout is to take blue paper with a white backing and tear strips. You can then join these up in the bottom of your layout to create the look of the sea with the white foam from the of waves.

While traveling to your destination you can try using images that you see along the road. I took a picture of the road ahead once and then enlarged it on my computer and used it as background for pictures of our road trip. Another great scrapbooking idea and solution is to make a pocket and place a map of the city you are traveling to inside.

If taking a vacation near a forest, you could try with leaves and flowers and dry them out to use on your layouts. I've also seen small sticks and twigs that have been glued on a layout to frame it in a very effective manner.

If you have children, tell them to collect things that you can use, and you will be amazed at what they will find. I also have a carefully preserved butterfly wing that was picked up by a child on one of my layouts.

Menus from restaurants or coasters collected along the way can also make lovely decorations and backgrounds for your setup.

Just using your imagination will save you lots of money on embellishments for your scrapbooking and make your layouts more unique and personal.

Ideas For Festive Christmas Scrapbooking Layouts

It is time to start getting into the Christmas Spirit.  Here are some embellishment ideas and solutions to get you going with those festive layouts.  Christmas Scrapbooking Embellishments in felt or velvet give a great festive feel to your scrapbooking layouts.

The colors that we think of at Christmas time are mainly red, green and gold, so make sure to include these in your Christmas layouts.  Felt and velvet in these colors look rich and opulent.  Felt and velvet make wonderful materials to use on any Christmas Scrapbooking Layout.

Here are some great scrapbooking ideas and solutions for Christmas Embellishments in Felt or Velvet that you can make for your layouts.
 
Snowman
This one is just too easy.  Cut two or three white circles in felt and then join one on top of the other and decorate with a red velvet scarf, orange felt carrot nose, black felt buttons and eyes and a hat made from either felt or velvet.

Christmas Tree
This Christmas embellishment is great fun to make, and you can get the kids involved.  Cut out your basic Christmas tree shape in green felt, and then go mad decorating it in scraps of felt or velvet, or even things like glitter glue, sequins, beads or buttons.

Round Christmas Decorations
These are also great fun to decorate for the next family project.  Cut out your balloon shaped bases in various colors of felt and decorate as you like to make them look like decorations that you would hang on your Christmas tree.
 
Gifts
Gifts cut out in box shapes with your felt, and then decorated with velvet ribbon are effective embellishments to use with your Christmas Tree.

Velvet Bows
Velvet bows make very pretty Christmas Scrapbooking Embellishments.  You can make miniature bows in velvet ribbon, or bigger bows that can be used to decorate your velvet presents.

Santa Clause
You can make a Santa in felt.  First, find is a simple template that you can trace, then all you do is add his white beard with either white felt or cotton wool, black belt and his face, which can also be cut out of light pink felt.  A small pom-pom at the end of his hat is also a nice touch.  Use a gel pen to draw in some facial features.

Holly and Ivy
This traditional Christmas foliage can also be cut out easily with velvet and lines and other details can be drawn in with a gel pen.

Velvet Ribbon Borders
Velvet ribbon is available in many different thicknesses, and can be used to make borders for your scrapbooking layout, or even to frame individual items on your layout to give your layout that special festive feeling.

Journaling and Headings
A heading for your Christmas layout will look great cut out in felt and decorated with velvet ribbon.  A thin ribbon wrapped around a felt letter looks stunning.

So as you can see from the above suggestions, with a little imagination you can’t go wrong making your own Christmas Scrapbooking embellishments in felt or velvet.