Scrapbooking Tips

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

When I first started papercrafting, I was looking for all the scrapbooking tips I could find. I needed to learn everything from scratch and try things out for myself. If you are in that position, I hope you will enjoy these ideas and take a hands on approach to learning about the papercraft world.

"Tell me and I'll forget;
show me and I may remember;
involve me and I'll understand."
~Chinese Proverb

There seemed to be so many tools and techniques when I first started crafting, I was excited about learning them. I soon realised there was a knack to doing most things and I needed to learn those shortcuts and secrets. I'll tell you about some of them on this page.

Just to reassure you if you are just starting out, you will find your own best and comfortable way to scrapbook over time.

I hope those of you with experience will add your own scrapbooking tips below to help get some beginners scrapbooking with confidence a little sooner. And maybe I will inspire you to stretch your own honed skills a little.

It is true that it takes practice to get to be good at new skills, so do give yourself some time to perfect your techniques. Practice makes progress! I needed confidence when I first started out, and getting familiar with these ideas and going ahead to make pages gave me that. Remember, it's all just paper! Let me encourage you to take risks with that paper.

There are lots of ideas that help make scrapbooking the pleasure it is. You might like to bookmark this page as I will add more hints and tips as I discover them myself.

Scrapbooking Tips and Hints

In no particular order, here are some scrapbooking tips and hints from myself and others that may also help you:

• Discover some of the differences between the different types of card stock
  
• Find out what scrapbook paper actually is and see some of the many ways to use it
  
• Try making your own embellishments using your paper punches and die cuts. Many items can be made with basic shapes like circles, squares, hearts and ovals. Here I have made a teddy bear using circles and ovals. I made some Hearty Ladies with hearts shapes. Try these ideas too: Hand Made Broom How to Make Flat Paper Flowers How to make 3-d Paper Flowers How to make Paper Butterflies
• Is your Mojo on holiday? Do you need some inspiration or new challenges? Try these ideas and see if they help bring your Mojo/Muse back home
• Got ink on your skin and can't get it off? I discovered a way to remove Stampin Up!'s Classic Inks from my skin. Let me share the idea with you.
• Here are some tips on Designing your own page layouts by sketching
• See how guest crafter Dawn Hall simplifies scrapbook page layout creation with her article on six secrets to simple scrapbook page layouts
• Once you have created a special page, you want to protect it, right? Here's how to get a Page Protector on your completed layout easily and smoothly, without knocking your new creation around.
• Find out what Rubons are and how you can use them
• Have you ever tried drawing up your own Page Sketches? It may be easier than you think to get started
  
• Use border or apron punches to make your own decorative borders instead of buying them. You can match the colour more easily than looking for something that might suit in the shops
• Pick a couple of colours that blend or contrast nicely with your photos to concentrate on when making an album page
• Lay things out without glueing them down at first. When you like your arrangement, start glueing from the bottom layer first. It is amazing how many subtle changes you might make when you still have the choice. Once it is glued, it is possible to prise things up again, but you might find you remove the finish on something unless you are very careful
  
• A fellow crafter once told me that mistakes are an opportunity for embellishment. If you make a mistake, consider covering it with a flower, a new photo or other element. Sometimes the result is even better than you first imagined
• CASE (Copy and Share Everything)! Other people's work can be an inspiration. If you like an idea you see, use it on your pages. Just remember to acknowledge the original crafter's ideas if you publish your work on your blog or elsewhere
• Decide what you want your focal point or feature to be and make it stand out by matting it or angling your embellishments to draw the eye toward that photo
  

Now, as I said at the beginning, I need your help. If you are already an experienced crafter, what things helped you when you first started paper crafting? How do you think about layouts before you create them? Did someone help you when you were a beginner or did you figure out most of it yourself?

If you would like to add your own helpful scrapbooking tips, please do. And thank you for taking the time to do so.

If you are a beginning crafter, what else do you need to know about that I haven't yet mentioned on this page? Tell me what you would like to know and I will see if I can help with more scrapbooking tips.

Happy crafting!