The handicraft hobby of decorating albums, greeting cards or envelopes is a seemingly simple activity. But how to properly prepare for it?
Scrapbooking is one of those artistic activities that doesn’t require much artistic skill. All you need to create an impressive scrapbook is a good idea, some basic equipment and an aesthetic sense. In the kit, which allows you to start working, you should first of all find a base or an album, which you want to decorate.
In the beginning, you can buy a ready-made album base, and over time you can start preparing the album yourself, for example, from sheets of hard bristol. You can also make the decoration on a piece of paper, on which you will place the photos, and make decorations around them
For scrapbooking you will also need sharp scissors or a wallpaper cutter, glue, a hole punch, a stapler, double-sided adhesive tape or hot glue, sheets of decorative paper, decorations (beads, sequins, pieces of material), old magazines, stickers, a ruler, a protractor and colored markers or pens.
Decorative sheets of paper are worth looking for in the store, because in the offer of many brands you can find sheets dedicated to scrapbooking. Such paper has the right thickness and flexibility, which does not cause any problems during cutting out or gluing.
The work should start with designing the arrangement of all decorations. If you are making a photo album it is a good idea to start by sticking individual photos onto each page of the album and then use a pencil to draw the places where you want to place the decorations. Before gluing the photos, the white side of the base can be sealed with a colored piece of paper to create a more distinct background.
After proper planning, you can get to work. In the case of photo albums, works that fill the entire space without leaving empty space or unsightly holes look best. An additional element is the decoration of the photos themselves, for example, through fun stickers, shiny sequins or additions with colored marker. In the initial stages of creating decorations, ready-made templates, which can be purchased in paper stores, may come in handy.
Artistic activities consisting in decorating various objects with scraps of material or decorative paper give many possibilities. The only limit to scrapbooking is your imagination. Simple projects, such as photo frames or photo albums, can be prepared as training to get a good start and become thoroughly familiar with the techniques of attaching specific materials
As your skills and ideas grow, take advantage of more rigid materials and hot glue and start preparing more challenging projects. Scrapbooking is great as a do-it-yourself method for making invitations, such as for a wedding or family party, or greeting cards
More advanced scrapbooking enthusiasts can creatively decorate photo frames, photo albums and even entire posters. You can look for inspiration and interesting technical solutions on social media from people who scrapbook professionally or as a pastime.
Main photo: Dominika Roseclay/pexels.com
