Top Scrapbook Tools Reviewed. Scrapbook Tools Online Video Review

Top Scrapbook Tools Reviewed. Scrapbook Tools Online Video Review

Ali tells you about her four favorite scrapbook tools.



Top Scrapbook Tools Reviewed.

Scrapbook Tools Review. Scrapbooking Crock-A-Dile Tool Video

Scrapbook Tools Review.
Video demonstrates the Crock-A-Dile scrapbooking tool...

How To Make Scrapbook Paper Look Aged. Make Paper Look Old

How To Make Scrapbook Paper Look Aged. Various Techniques To Make Paper Look Old.

The aged look is in -- whether it's for heritage layouts, shabby chic looks, vintage designs, or to indicate distressed paper.

"How do I make paper look old?" A number of products will help you get that aged look you want -- many of which are found in your own kitchen.

You will have to experiment to get the look you are going for -- or perhaps you will inadvertently discover a look you just love! Serendipity is a big factor in making altered books.

Tips for Making Paper Look Old

Tea Bag Staining
Drag a wet (not dripping) tea bag over your paper. Weight your paper down while it dries to avoid warping. The paper will be stained a brownish color. A lingering tea-smell might remain. Tea-bag staining is not acid free, if this matters to you.

Coffee Grounds Staining
Like tea, you can use coffee grounds to make paper look old. Apply wet coffee grounds to your paper. Remove grounds. The paper will be stained brown. Dry paper under a weight to avoid warping. As above, there is likely to be a coffee odor afterwards. Coffee grounds are also not acid free.

Balsamic Vinegar Spattering
Same as above. Expect odor. Vinegar is not acid free.

Lemon Juice
Paint your paper with lemon juice, then heat with a heat gun. The paper will take on a brownish, aged look. It will continue to darken as you continue to apply heat. Lemon juice is not acid free.

Decorating Chalks
These chalks are my favorite way to make paper look old. Apply the chalk (one of the brownish colors) to the paper using a cotton ball, makeup sponge, Q-tip or swab. This is especially effective on the ripped edges of paper or vellum. Allow the chalks to set, or spray with a fixative if speed in important. Decorating chalks have many uses when making altered books. Acid free decorating chalks are available at joann.com.

Walnut Ink
Walnut ink is made from black walnuts. It is usually sold in crystallized form, and must be hydrated before using. Apply the wet walnut ink to the paper, lace, fabric or other material. You can create various effects as you strive to make paper look old. For more information about walnut ink, refer to the Definitions page of this web site.

Paper Tearing
Instead of cutting your paper neatly, tear it. Holding the paper towards you while you tear will produce one look; holding it away from you will produce another. Color the torn edges with decorative chalk, walnut ink, tea bags, or similar to give an aged appearance.

Bleaching
Apply household bleach to your paper. Apply directly with an eye-dropper, brush or sponge, or use a water-color pen. If it is available in your area, a Chlorox Bleach Pen is also a good choice. Note that some papers could contain inks that are colorfast and bleach-resistant. You will find more information about bleaching in the tip on using bleach in this section of the website.

Sanding with Sand Paper
Lightly sand shiny paper or other paper to produce "tooth" or a worn look. Sand the same way you sand wood -- in a directional move, rather than circular.

Paper Crumpling
Crumple up your paper. Flatten it out, then crumple again. Repeat as often as you wish before using the paper in your layout. Iron the finished paper if desired, for a special look, or try placing the (thickish) paper in water before crumpling for yet a different look.

Paper Burning
Another way to make paper look old is to burn the edges of the paper. For safety's sake, do this over a sink, using a candle or stick of incense. Pinch the firey edges out with your finger. If desired, wet an inner border on your paper before applying the flame. You can do the wetting with a damp Q-tip, paint brush, or your finger. This prevents the paper from burning more than you want, since the wet inner border will prevent the flame from going further.

Candle Waxing
Write over your paper with a white candle, covering as much area as you can. Crush the paper so the wax cracks. Apply paint over the surface, forming random cracks. Remove the wax by ironing your paper. Place it between two sheets of paper towels padded with newspaper on both sides and use a hot iron.

Matte Gel or Matte Medium
These products will take the shine off paper or pictures, etc.

Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook Album. Basic Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook

Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook Album. Basic Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook

This brown paper bag scrapbook album is a great recycled look for your scrapbook albums and shows you how to make a basic brown paper scrapbook bag album as a base for your own designed scrapbooks.

This brown paper bag scrapbook album uses non gusseted lunch bags which can be found in supermarkets in the food packaging sections.

Brown paper bags without gussets are quite lightweight which means your album will not have the same Bulk as a traditional gusseted brown paper bag album.

Start by folding each of your bags 1 inch (2.5cm) in from the bottom. This will create a strong spine for your album.

Stack all your bags together to form the album, making sure they are aligned together.

Next mark out your holes for punching. If you use a metal hole punch that requires you to hit it with a hammer you can punch multiple bags at one time, making the process much faster.

If you want your scrapbook album to be more durable and stable you can include a cardboard front cover and back cover.

Binding your scrapbook album -
There are many different ways to bind a brown paper bag album, you can use ribbons and tie bows, cords and tie knots or you can bind it in a more traditional book binding way as we have done here.

Take your string or cord and thread it through the holes , looping under each hole to form a blanket stitch style.

To finish off the binding we simply threaded it back through each of the loops.

You can bind your scrapbook album however you want, it really is a simple method and there are no rules as such, just make sure it is loose enough to turn your pages.

Once your brown paper bag scrapbook album is bound you can begin creating your scrapbook.

While the majority of scrapbook supplies and papers are considered acid and lignin free, paper bags are not. So please make sure you use duplicate photos when making this project. Non-digital photos can easily be color copied or scanned and printed in a copy store or photo lab.

Scrapbook Brown Paper Bag Materials
Non Gusseted Lunch Bags or Brown paper bags
String or Cord
Hole Punch
Hammer

Scrapbooking As Easy As Cut and Paste

Scrapbooking As Easy As Cut and Paste

Remember back in elementary school making cut-and-paste Mother's Day cards scribbled with crayon flowers and hearts? Or using bright-colored construction paper to build anything from hats to snowflakes?

The possibilities were endless, and it always felt great to finish a one-of-a-kind art project for someone special.

It might be a distant memory for many adults. But for some, those childhood crafts turned into a sophisticated hobby. They call themselves croppers, and there is no formula for their art. Just like when they were kids, they take time to assemble colorful, textured works no one can replicate.

"Forms of scrapbooking have been around for a long time," says consultant Annette Green of Close to My Heart, a direct sales company for scrapbooking materials. "Today, it's a family hobby."

It's such a big family hobby that people spend $2.6 billion on it each year, according to the Craft and Hobby Association, making it the most popular segment of the craft industry.

Green of Melbourne, Fla., says she has at least a dozen completed scrapbooks filled with pictures, cardstock, brads and other objects helping to preserve her family memories.

"I have a room to myself," she says. "It's such a good feeling to sit, remember and go through those old photos. It's an art. I try to make the prettiest pages I can, and I truly enjoy it."

Finding time

"A lot of the feedback I get is, I don't have enough time to scrapbook,' " Green says. "Everybody's busy."

To help free up time, many craft stores sell scrapbooking kits, complete with color-coordinated paper and all the materials needed to make a book.

"If you get a 12-by-12 album kit, you could literally finish it in a day," Green says.

Some scrapbookers add personal touches after the kits are complete.

"People have gone as far as the toolbox and pulled out washers to use for embellishments," Green says. "They use paper clips, ribbon. I use coasters as picture mats."

Scrap trends

Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson often are cited as early scrapbookers, and some say the craft dates back even further. It's easy to wonder what scrapbooking pioneers would think of today's pages, which are full of glitz and glamour.

One technique that's become popular in recent years is stamping, which is exactly as it sounds. The stamps and inks are much more advanced than they used to be.

Another scrapbooking trend, says Close to My Heart consultant Laura Irsfeld, is adding lots of embellishments.

Candy Forbes, co-owner of the Craft Boutique in Indian Habour Beach, Fla., recently started designing her own line of scrapbooking materials. She says what's hot in scrapbooking depends on the time of year.

"Right now, we're doing all different kinds of flowers with leaves, balloons and ribbons," Forbes says.

Stress relief

Scrapbooking shouldn't fail to spark inner creativity, but if it does, there's another plus side to it - it's an excuse to get out of the house. At scrapbooking events, it's not really about what you're making, it's about the conversation that happens while making it.

"On an open crop night, we sit down and work on our own projects and socialize," Irsfeld says. "It's kind of like a quilting bee."

And it's not just for women. Irsfeld says scrapbooking is starting to attract men, particularly retirees.

If nothing else, scrapbooking is an avenue for escaping the day-to-day.

"It's where I find relief of stress," Irsfeld says.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/

Speed Scrapping In 11 Steps. Organize Your Scarbook Supplies

Speed Scrapping In 11 Steps. Organize Your Scarbook Supplies

Here is a way to organize your supplies for speedy scrapping even if you have no previous page kits stockpiled. You can get an album done in a week or two this way if you want to! But you need to really follow the instructions or it ends up not being so speedy! In other words, don't deviate so much from the speed scrapping instructions that you are no longer saving yourself time. After all, a finished album that highlights the photos in a creative way is the goal.

1) Plan and Do Only ONE Album at a Time. Here is what I would do for each album I wanted to speed scrap. This is speed scrapping from scratch so to speak. Being able to focus on one project at a time is vital. It is just as important to getting a finished album as good intentions or vast arrays of supplies. Don't get distracted or overwhelmed. The keyword today is FOCUS! :)
2) Get a Container or Tote. Find a big sturdy tote bag or Rubbermaid box with handles to keep your supplies in it JUST FOR THIS ALBUM! There are many great smaller totes designed for scrapping. Any of them would be wonderful. Just make sure it will allow an album and all your papers and tools to fit. However, you don't have to have a new bag for this.

Use a canvas tote bag or plastic bin if you have one. It will need to be big enough for a binder, and album, your photos, and several basic supplies. You will not need 90% of your other supplies for this job! Also try to find a large 3 ring binder for short-term storage of the speed scrapping page protectors as you work.

3) What is Your theme? Is it a specific year? vacations? a child? your heritage? sports events? holidays? Decide on whatever theme you want to put into this particular album.. Pick an album style (top loading, strap, binder, 8.5x11, 12x12) and the cover color. Try to choose this cover and color to further the theme of your album photos.

The album type should be one that allows you to move pages. I prefer binder or post bound for this. They usually come with 10 pages of page protectors. (This means 20 ages for photos if you count both sides. ) I automatically add another set of ten page protectors in the same style/manufacturer. Now you know you will have 40 pages to create for this specific album. Spiral bound albums are a hard one to use for speed scrapping but if you really want to, it can be done! You will need to REALLY plan out the layouts of the pages a little more thoroughly using a spiral bound album.

4) Plan for the Inside of the Album. Based on the album theme and perhaps the color of the outside cover of the album, decide on the album's interior. This is where we keep it harmonious, SIMPLE, and focused!

A) Choose two colors of solid cardstock that are coordinating and harmonious with the cover. Buy at least ten to twelve sheets of these two colors of cardstock. And if you want all the background paper to be identical, buy 40-45 sheets of one color.

B) Choose two kinds of patterned papers that coordinate in color with the two colors of cardstock already chosen in step A.

C) Pick two template shapes for photos to be cut into. Keep it simple. Squares, rectangle, oval or circle. Don't choose cutesy pillow shapes or intricate stars. If using a cutting device, put this in the speed scrapping tote now. If you are doing heritage work and do not want to cut the photos, skip this one step. I kept my shapes very basic... rectangles with some corners rounded and one or two pages with ovals.

D) Select two types of corner treatments . Photo corners come in many styles (corner punches, stickers, laser cut, clear plastic, black, gold, white, etc) . But pick just two that coordinate. You can also decide not to include photo corners at all. Just mat the pictures. For heritage work, I say use corners. Someday a great-great grandchild will have to redo your work-- so use corners and make it easy on them! No adhesives go directly on heritage photos. Save the adhesives for mats and other embellishments.

E) Pick two pen colors to use for journaling. These pens should show well on both solid cardstocks in Step A. Many speed scrappers choose black and white. Put all the other pens away except the pens you choose here. If you like to journal ion matted squares of paper, cut about 10 pieces of each color solid cardstock measuring 2 inches by 3 inches. Use a paper trimmer or see scissors tips in Step G. When it comes time to actually journal, keep it simple. Who, What, When, and Where. Never just put the title "Grandpa". Make sure that three generations from now, they will know his full name, date, and location! Speed scrapping doesn't mean being incomplete!

F) Embellishments should be kept simple. Only use the colors you have already chosen in Step A to create the borders, punch art, paper piecing, etc. Don't get too carried away on embellishments. The same simple flower or two or border throughout a whole album looks elegant and classic and harmonious. AND it saves you time! After you get this far, you might take a look through your sticker binder or punch art stash and be surprised how many things do coordinate with the colors you have chosen. Try to use what you have. If you have to make something extra, keep it simple.

Designate just a couple of pages for being extra-artistic. Do those time-consuming technique pages at the end of the speed scrapping process. You can certainly do a page or two or three that can be time intensive and 'artistic' within each speed scrapped album. Those can take longer and have pop ups, lovely punch art or paper piecing, etc. No problem. . What I refer to here as speed scrapping is for the BULK of the album. That means get 34 pages done in the speed scrapping style and then go back to do about 4 to 6 later in a more 'artistic" way.

G) Chose one Decorative Scissors that You Love. Or perhaps the same scissors in regular and jumbo cut--like deckle regular and deckle jumbo. This keeps the eye from registering the cuts used as too "busy". Using straight edge scissors on some pics and mats and one decorative scissors on others is enough variety in the scissor dept. I chose the mini postage stamp to echo the Norwegian postagestamps on my title page.

5) Clear the Floor! Now for the fun!! Clear the kitchen table or your scrapping desk! Get rid of the family! You will need lots of space for this. Pets and small children love to "help" so this may be a good time for them to be out of the house. :)

6) Lay Out the Page Protectors on the Floor. Place two pieces of cardstock or pattern paper in each protector to be the background. Hurray! You are making progress!

7) Get Out Your Photos. Whether in a box or an old album, bring it to the work area. Arrange them in the sequence you want to use. Most albums are chronological within the event theme. Start taking out 4-6 photos to go into each page protector. How many will fit on each page depends on the size of the photos. Keep it as an estimate for now. You don't have toactually lay them out on the backgrounds exactly yet. Just loosely place them in the protectors. Poor pictures can be weeded out at this time. Keep going until you have all the photos divided up.

8) Use that Binder! Now put the page protectors with the background paper and the photos into a large 3 ring binder if possible. Don't put them into the final album until the END of the scrapping process. This will give you flexibility to move them easily or work with them more than once until you get the page sin a 'final' sequence that you like. The 3 ring binder is only a temporary sequencing aid to a quicker final album.

9) Tuck Your Simple Embellishments into the Page Protectors. This includes any poems, stickers, die cuts, pre-made page toppers or other additions you already have on hand. Save the time intense embellishments for other albums or do a minimum of them when speed scrapping. Need something? Make a master shopping list. Go for the quicker embellishments. Shop for only the items on the master list. You have not actually started scrapping pages yet but you are getting ready.

10) Now Pack Up that Tote. Pack your bag, box, or tote (chosen in number 1) with the adhesive of your choice, scissors, binder of photos and papers, pens, journal squares, extra corners, and the extras of the papers you chose to coordinate in step A and step B. Add your photo corners to the tote. Terrific! You are ready for cropping either at home or at a cropping party!! Put everything else away for a while! Your speed scrapping kit is ready to go!

11) Set Aside Some Time and Enjoy Your Speed Scrapping! Now you know that you are focused. You have all your supplies together. You have a goal in mind. Go Girl! Have fun with it! As you work, keep in mind that you want to FINISH this album. Focus, Focus, Focus! Set aside time to work on it on a regular basis. :) With a start like this, your album will be done in no time!

Source: http://organizedscrapbooks.com/