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How to Start Making a Baby Scrapbook

The blessed event. That long and painful journey that ends with unspeakable joy. The birth of a baby.

Babies are the authors of much change in our lives. Sleeping patterns are re-arranged, the sports car is traded in for the mini van, and people who never took a snapshot in their lives are suddenly in the throws of scrapbook fever.

And, along with the baby, the baby scrapbook is born.

However, there is a problem. Just as new parents lack much of the real world experience required to be parents, new baby scrapbookers are novices as well. And while there are many books and articles available for parenting, the baby scrapbooker is left out in the cold. We will try to bridge that gap with this article.

Step 1: Get a good camera before the baby is born.

While there are a lot of people who swear by the old school film cameras, your best bet is to go digital, for several reasons. First, it's cheaper. You will want to take lots and lots of pictures, and while only a fraction may appear in your scrapbook, you will be glad that you had a lot to choose from. Digital photos can also be easily re-worked before before being included in your project. Inexpensive and even free software is available that will assist with cropping the photos, enlarging or shrinking the image to fit, and correcting for problems like poor lighting and the red eye affect from the flash.

Digital also has the advantage of being automatically compatible with electronic formatting software used to layout and print entire scrapbook pages. Digital photos can be imported into the layout and will be printed onto the actual scrapbook page itself. This avoids the 'layered' effect that you get when you past photos or photo quality prints to the page.

Step 2: Start taking pictures.

So, now that you have the camera, what do you take pictures of? Everything. You have a digital camera, take pictures of everything that you can think of. You may annoy people at the time and incur their lack of smiles and scorn, but it will be worth it when you go to make your baby scrapbook and find just the right picture.
Then who will be laughing.

Step 3: Get your technology upgrade.

At this point, we need to talk about image storage. Digital pictures may not require film, but they do require storage space. The higher the resolution of the original photo, the more room you need for the image file.

Storage options include:

Get a bigger hard disc for your computer. This will allow you to store more stuff. Get an external hard disc. These devices are plugged into any USB port on your PC and will immediately be available as an external storage device. Once you have stored the images, the disc can be removed and stored in a safe place. This has the advantage of being able to protect the images should your main PC crash. Solid state USB drives are also an option. These are small, inexpensive and reliable and can store multiple gigabytes of information. CD Rom and DVD discs can also be used to burn copies of your images, but you should be aware that CD Rom discs have a history of fading with time, and should only be used as a short term solution.

Step 4: Start planning the baby scrapbook.

Now that the baby is sleeping through the night, and you have time between feedings to consider the baby scrapbook, how do you proceed from here.

First, consider and underlying theme. Don't just cram the thing full of every picture that you can imagine. If you used a digital camera, you can create PC based and online albums for that.

Most baby scrapbooks are chronological, starting with the first ultrasound pictures and continuing through the pregnancy, the delivery, the nursery, the trip home, and on through he next few weeks of infancy. This is a hard format to beat. But that doesn't mean that you can't liven things up a little.

Include sections on the rest of the family. The work on the baby's room. Furniture shopping. Trying to figure out the first car seat.

In addition to the 'and here is Jenny when she was 3 weeks old' shots, consider sections with specific sub themes.

For example: A sleeping section. One or two pages devoted to pictures of the baby sleeping. Not very exciting, but there are few things more cute than babies sleeping.

How about adventures in eating? As the baby begins to work with real food (or a strained and mashed thereof), include a montage of the more spectacular successes and failures in this key developmental process.

Some babies seem to have an inborn fashion sense and presence. A section on the cutest outfits is always good.

Step 5: Make it happen.

Now it when you begin putting all of those great ideas literally down on paper. You will need to choose the cover style, page color and texture, and other accessories that you will include in your baby scrapbook.

The layout of the scrapbook is as important as the pictures themselves. Choose papers and colors that enhance the theme and content. Accessories for baby scrapbooks are easy to find. Toy themes, boys and girls backgrounds, lace and other textures can add a lot of flare to your effort.

Spend some time planning, be willing to edit and be flexible with the format and you to can produce a baby scrapbook that people will really want to see.

Heritage Style Albums

Scrapbooks and albums are not just a collection of photos of the family vacation and kid's first days at school. The scrapbook concept has been used in many ways to hold onto the past.

Heritage style albums are an attempt to preserve, record and honor the heritage of those who have gone before. While it is typically about your family, it can also be your home town, your nationality, or any aspect of your personal history.
Here are some thoughts and ideas on how to assemble heritage style albums.

First, come up with a theme that will be applied to the project. This will help guide you in your choices of materials, layout and, of course, content.

For family scrapbook, a genealogical outline cam be very effective. By combining the family tree with photos and memorabilia, you can add a new dimension to the study of your family history.

Genealogical outlines help you to remember the relationships among the family members included in the heritage style scrapbook.

In addition to naming and dating each photo, you might want to include a short paragraph about each individual. General information about family branches will also be useful for someone who wants a complete picture of the family.When creating a genealogical format, there are a number of software packages and services available that not only help you find your ancestors, but can store and organize photos and information about each family member. Many will allow you to arrange the material in a scrapbook like format, which can be printed and included in your heritage style albums. This can produce a very professional result with less effort on your part.

Another format idea is to include the history of specific individuals, families, or groups. This format is well suited to community scrapbooks or scrapbooks that less about a specific family and more about a larger group. This format is likely to include newspaper clippings, notices, reproduction of historical documents, fact pages and other examples of tangible history. For example, if your community was once a center of the arts and crafts style of furniture building, assembling a scrapbook featuring this heritage could include the following:

• Photos of key artisans who worked in this industry, along with photos of their work.
  
  
• Newspaper clippings featuring reviews, articles and interviews.
  
  
• Historical facts about the arts and crafts movement and how it applied to your community.

Other community based themes for you heritage style albums could include:

• Important musicians, artists or artisans in a particular style or location.
  
  
• How a community responded to a significant event or tragedy, such as a storm, flood, or fire.
  
  
• The history of a genre in arts, science or literature. This could include things like 'Stars of Detective Movies', 'Pioneers of Space Flight', and 'Important Artists of the Midwest'. As long as it is a subject that you feel passionate about, heritage style albums are a good way to literally collect your thoughts.


• A scrapbook biography of a famous person or group of people.


• A collection of memories of your home town. Often people who immigrated here would settle near other people from the same village or city. Heritage style albums can be made documenting the old town. The people who came here, as well as those who stayed behind. Preserving precious memories for the first generation transplants, and showing the next generations a little about their heritage and past.

Don't limit your content. Be creative.

As mentioned above, newspaper clippings are common elements in heritage style albums, but there are other items that can be included as well:

• Tickets, programs and small posters or handbills. These can be from sporting events, plays or shows, speeches and conventions.


• Formal marriage announcements and invitations to a wedding can also be preserved in heritage style albums.


• Birth announcements, along with first photos.


• Graduation programs, senior pictures, a scanned image of the persons diploma.


• Maps showing the locations of important people and events related to your scrapbook.
  

Make sure that your media matches your subject. If your focus is on a historical period or people who lived in a previous generation, consider using bindings and pages that are reminiscent of that time. Lace and floral borders for a late nineteenth century/early twentieth century family book. Art Deco styles, backgrounds and illustrations for later in the twentieth century.

The sixties, seventies and eighties also had distinct design elements in popular culture.

Be careful about the paper and mountings that you use. Bargain albums and mounting supplies usually don't hold up as well as archival quality supplies. The cheaper stuff will dry out quickly and your layout will begin to fall apart.Also, common supplies and paper often have a high acid content, which can cause your photos and documents to decay more quickly. Since the point of heritage style albums are to preserve history for future generations, make sure that the supplies that you choose are up to the challenge.

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Scrapbooking has been around for many years now and is one of the most fun-filled hobbies you can play at. Whether you're planning a quick digi-album or making a card or an elaborate hand made album for a loved one, we've got just what you need at your fingertips to help you create simply stunning scrapbooks in a flash guaranteed! Isn’t it about time that you gain back your precious time and start srapbooking like the pro's do with little or no effort.

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The Virtues of Firefighter Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is one of those activities that, while relying around a central theme, allow the person freedom to express him or her self. What does this signify? Well, scrapbooking revolves around one principle: organized chaos. This means that while you can practically put anything in a scrapbook, you should do it in a way that lets the objects relate to one another.

However, inanimate objects cannot really “relate” can they? What you need to do is build bridges between these objects as to let the viewer experience the bigger picture. You need to have a central theme upon which the chaos is based. For chaos that revolves around chaos is just plain, dare I say it, chaotic.

One popular theme among young boys is the firefighter. You see, these true to life heroes are admired by many people. Young boys are not the only ones fascinated by the idea of being a firefighter. In fact, many adults still find themselves wishing that they achieve their childhood dreams of being a firefighter.

So why not think of a firefighter scrapbook next time you are lost for ideas for young boys - they sure will love it.

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Getting Started Scrapbooking with Basic Supplies

Scrapbooking is one of the most popular hobbies in the country. Scrapbooking gives you a way to preserve not just your pictures, but the memories that go along with them. But with thousands of scrapbooking supplies out there, it can be very overwhelming to someone who is just getting started. While all the new scrapbooking supplies out there are fun, there are just a few basic supplies you need to get started.

Paper

The most basic scrapbooking supply you need is paper. Most people like to include a mix of cardstock (thicker, plain colored paper) and patterned paper in their scrapbooks. Scrapbook papers come in the same sizes as albums (with 12x12 the most popular) and are acid-free. Before using a paper in your scrapbook, make sure that it is acid-free; this will keep your photos and scrapbooks safe for generations to come. All of the open-stock scrapbook paper sold at major craft store chains is acid-free. Choose colors that you like and that go well with your pictures. There are also a multitude of themed paper for occasions (holidays, vacations, etc.).

Adhesives & Pens

Next to paper, the scrapbooking supply that you will use most often is adhesive. This is what you will use to glue down all of your paper and pictures in your scrapbook. Adhesive should also be acid-free, and comes in a wide variety of styles. I prefer a roller-type adhesive that comes in a refillable dispenser. Adhesive squares are also popular as are glue sticks. You will also want a pen to journal in your scrapbook with. A plain thin-tip black pen will go the farthest (of course, make sure that it is acid-free and designed for scrapbooking), but you can also buy a wide variety of tips and colors to add doodling, titles, and flair to your pages.

Albums

Finally, you need an album to put your scrapbook pages in. Choose an album that opens flat and that comes with refill pages, as few scrapbookers can complete an entire album in the 10-15 pages that come in a standard album. The easiest type of album to use is a post-bound album, which makes it easy to add extra pages and generally opens flat even when it is full.

Embellishments

Beyond the basic scrapbooking supplies are embellishments. These are the little extras that you can add to your scrapbook pages. Stickers are a very basic scrapbook embellishment supply that can add a lot to your pages. They come in every theme imaginable; there are also hundreds of letter stickers to create your titles. As you add more advanced scrapbook supplies to your pages, you can also incorporate brads, buttons ribbons, rub-ons, stamping, and more.