Most people have a box or drawer (or maybe closet?) full of photos and momentoes that are so precious to them that they can't get rid of them, but since they exist in boxes, they can't enjoy them, either. ENTER THE SCRAPBOOK!!

Scrapbooking has been around forever, and basically is a means to preserve and to allow you to revisit and enjoy memories and events important to you. Scrapbooking can be by theme (geneology, first Christmas, school days, sports, favorite vacation . . . the possibilities are truly endless), or chronologically. There is no right and wrong way.

How to start? You want to be sure that the materials you are using are acid free and archival. First you will need a cutting tool. Our favorites are the Purple Cow cutters. These unique guillotine cutters have no blades, but actually shear the paper. Used properly, you can accurately cut a straight piece of paper as narrow as a shave! No blades mean no blades to dull or replace, and no blades for children to cut themselves on. The 2 models made with scrapbookers in mind also feature a rotary cutter. Our second choice of brands is Carl. Carl has a very solid line of paper cutters. We believe that Fiskars are a lower quality, and you pay primarily for the name. Remember: just our opinion!! For those who want the cheapest possible, yet very adequate cutter, we recommend Provo Craft's Zision cutter. At just over $10.00, it is a real deal. Perfect for someone just exploring scrapping or cardmaking who doesn't want or can't spend more. 

Secondly you will need adhesives. We recommend that you collect a variety of adhesives. Some work better for metals, lumpy, uneven embellishments, or on altered projects. Others are easier to apply to certain surfaces, and then there is vellum and transparency adhesives. Our best recommendations for a very strong bond, those that work well with metals and on altered projects requiring heavy duty adhesion, include Wonder Tape, PVA glue, and though not as tough as the two first mentioned, for small projects glue dots and glue lines are very good. For all around page and card making, I recommend a tape runner. While there are too many to mention on the market, my recommendations are the 3M ATG gun, (huge! you get good value because the refills are less expensive and have more adhesive, and you don't have to change them often), Kokuyo and Tombow mono-adhesive, in that order. Everyone needs some glue sticks, and wet glues that are very excellent include art institute dries clear, Zip Dry and Diamond glaze. All of these produce a superior bond, but since they also require drying time, they are not suitable for every application. Never ignore Xyron. Take any paper and make a sticker from it. This is the best choice for when you intend to die cut later. Last of all, for transparencies and vellum, we recommend the V2 spray adhesive from Helmar (follow the instructions on the can). You can use Xyron for vellum, and we have had good success with glue dots for vellum. Each person will develop their own favorite, and I personally use a wide variety, as some are better suited than others for specific tasks. Just getting started? I recommend beginning with an acid free glue stick and a good tape runner. Mono adhesive from Tombow is our top seller, therefore our customers' #1 pick.

Finally you will need papers and albums. You must select your page/album size. 12x12 is the most popular, but many other sizes are available. Many beginners favor a smaller format, as a big, blank 12x12 page can be intimidating. I was apparently not the typical beginner, because even as a rookie, anything less than 12x12 felt too restrictive to me. It really has a lot to do with the amount of embellishment you want to do, and the amount of journaling.

As you grow as a scrapper, you will find that you "need" a great many embellishments, eyelets, brads, metals, fibers, die cutting equipment, etc., but for the beginner we recommend keeping it simple. You can still make outstanding, meaningful pages with much less. We recommend that each page have a focal point. The easiest, and often the most striking, is to select one large photo, and then artfully arrange other smaller photos, titles, journaling, embellishments, etc. around it. Frame it out by layering a coordinating paper a bit larger behind (around) it. We recommend approaching all layouts as 2 page spreads. When doing this, you can have just one large photo on one of your pages, and the adjoining page (which will be viewed at the same time) can have other sized and shaped photos, titles, momentoes, etc. to further draw attention to your focal point. 

You will want a couple of nice journaling pens. Our new favorite (as things are always changing) are Jet Pens. The Jet Pen white opaque are without question the best on the market. American Crafts, Micron and Copic all offer excellent choices. Consider doodling on your pages; this is a great, quick, easy and inexpensive technique! We offer a book called pens and needles that will help you overcome your fears of doodling, and give you great ideas!

The beginner many times still finds this overwhelming. For them, consider purchasing page kits. These can be as simple as crop and add your photos, journaling and titles. These "Quik Page" page kits are sold by theme. The difficulty levels and complexity graduate as the price does, and we have kits that will include everything from an album, metal embellishments, buttons, eyelets, and more to help you to coordinate all types of embellishments with your papers and themes. When purchasing kits, you typically get a collection of coordinating papers and embellishments, making it much easier to make a series of attractive pages for any given theme or occasion.

If you have no personal trainer or scrapbook store nearby, we recommend the Pages by Design system. Actually, I recommend this system to scrappers of any skill level. This system is a complete approach to high end scrapbooking. It can take a beginner and turn them into an accomplished scrapper in a week! If includes a huge idea book with many, many page recipes. Templates. Storage. Everything to make the best possible layouts! The company that developed and marketed this system went out of business. We bought lots of stock and have only a small amount left. The systems are increasingly difficult to find. We think you would find it worth it, though.

I want to leave you with a few simple thoughts:

1. A good scrapbook is one that is meaningful to you. It does not have to be a major work of art, it does not have to take a lot of time or money.

2. Those with little time or creativity will love "Quik Page" kits. Those who want more complexity and room for creativity will graduate to more complex kits, or go it alone, selecting and buying each component individually.

3. We are more than just an eBay store. We will take special orders, through our eBay store, and even offer online customer support when necessary. Contact us for more details! I would love to hear from you!

Tonya