Scrapbooking Guide

A history of scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is made up of memorabilia such as artwork, photographs and information that is arranged in an album to preserve personal and family history.

It originates from commonplace books that were popular in the 15th century. A commonplace book contained information such as poems, letters and recipes that were of interest to the owner of the book. In 1775 A History of England was published by James Granger who left blank pages at the end of the book to give people the opportunity to add their own memorabilia and therefore personalise the book.

Another form of scrapbooking were friendship albums. An example of this was A Memorial of Friendship scrapbook which was created by Anne Wagner between 1795 and 1834. Her scrapbook included written entries, clippings, locks of hair, contributions from friends and family and other personal information and items.

In modern times scrapbooking is still a very popular way of documenting personal information and keeping memorabilia in a decorative and interesting way.

Techniques of scrapbooking

Organisation
Gather together any pictures and text you might want to include and sort them by date and event or subject. Label material for identification purposes.

Planning
When deciding on a theme for your scrapbook you should start with recent material to ensure you can recall enough relevant information. You should also have clearly defined parameters, such as a holiday or important social event.

Scrapbook Album
Having chosen a subject for a scrap book, you should select a suitable album in which to store the pictures and text. Factors to consider include size, with the 12x12 being the most popular, the ability to add more pages when and if required. Scrapbook albums are available in a wide range of colours, designs and textures to suit your requirements. You should also ensure that the album is photo-safe.

Pages
Each page could have several photographs, cropped to focus on the most important part of the picture, with supporting captions. Additional text could expand upon the pictures, describing the people and events in them. Background colours, borders and stickers could be used to enhance the page and its content.

Storage
It is important to properly organise and store both your scrapbook albums and scrapbooking supplies. This should be done to ensure that they are not damaged by exposure to heat, light and damp. Also it should be easy to find any particular material when you need it for a scrapbooking project.

Ideas and inspiration for scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is all about preserving and remembering the good times. You can create a scrapbook to remember any occasion or time, here are a few suggestions:

A year in your childs live or a school year. You can include train tickets, cinema tickets, photographs, reports, awards, certificated, etc. Decide in advance and you may find you do more to make the book special.
Anniversary give for your, wife, husband, parents or grand parents. Sorting through old memories and grouping them together can make a very special and unique gift for someone you really love.
Dont think that you need to be limited to paper. A scrapbook with texture and depth added by using anything and everything will standout from the crowd. Why not use materials like cloth, metal coins, bank notes and flowers. If you are feeling high tech you could make a sleeve and include a cd, with holiday photos and movies.

It is so easy to forget the little things that are often the most important because they mean so much to us. The baby shampoo we used to use, the smell of the flower outside your grans house, the taste of your favourite food from that amazing place you visited on holiday.

If you can capture the essence of the time then your scrapbook is a success.