Tuesday's Tip: Punches

When purchasing punches select those that can be used in multiple ways, such as a heart for flowers, Valentine's, or split it to make a ladybug, leaves, or whatever else you may think of. Many of the punches can be used in this manner. 

See what I mean with the graphic below...

A heart punch can make a heart, but it can also be used to make a flower with leaves and a stem! It can also create a beautiful blossom! Try it as a vine with leaves! What about a broken heart? And look at the darling ladybug!

The same sort of creativity can be used with other punches as well. A star punch can make a star, but what about the using the piece where the star was punched out of? Try cutting around it with decorative edged scissors in a square shape or circle or even star shape! Did you ever think of punching along the edge of the paper to create a custom border? 

Be sure to save any scraps of paper so when a page calls for a bit of color you can use scraps rather than punching a whole new sheet of paper. Slip your scraps into large mailing envelopes and label as solids, prints, or other descriptions. Now you can make photo corners, punch out shapes, and have a variety of colors and patterns to choose from! 

Place photo scraps in another large mailing envelope and label it. For a different approach you can trace lettering on the photo scraps, cut out, and mount them on a scrapbook page for a title with patterned letters.

Tuesday's Tip: Supplies

To start paper scrapbooking, you can start with the basics, and as you form preferences or want to try something new, you can branch out. The basics include the following supplies:

Adhesive glue stick, segmented tape, and plastic dispenser. A black medium point marker for titles. Page protectors. Papers and cardstock in neutral colors for backgrounds and several colors for accents and matting photos. A black small point pen for journaling. A photo safe pencil. A plastic template to make circles and ovals. Sticker lettering in a few basic colors, medium size with upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols. Stickers that coordinate with your pictures.

When your budget permits, add the following supplies so that you have a few more choices when completing layouts. Die cuts of hobbies and sports, and some words or phrases. Markers or pens in a variety of colors. Patterned papers in holiday motifs, heathers, polka dots, stripes, and etc. A plastic template page for creating squares. A straight-edge cutting tool.

The following items can be added as you have the need for them. Stickers, decorative-edged and corner clipping scissors, metallic pens, novelty edged rulers, punches, metallic alphabet stickers.

Tuesday's Tip: Adhestives

Adhesives come in several forms and you should use only those that are acid free.

Double sided segmented tape is easy to use and was designed for mounting photos, but works well for die-cuts and other page accents.

Glue sticks are inexpensive to use and a good choice where children are involved in scrapbook page layouts. Glue sticks work best on photos and paper page accents.

Glue pens with a fine point are used for small areas where a glue stick or tapes are too wide for application.

A double-sided tape runner is similar to the segmented tape, but is a continuous piece that can be torn off at the desired length. This is my personal choice for pictures and papers because it's repositionable for a short time in case I need to move my picture a bit, and it isn't wet so there is never any paper curling or dry time.

Self-adhesive foam dots are another choice if you want your designs to have dimension and stand out from the paper. One of the drawbacks to dimensional design is that the raised surfaces can leave impressions on other pages.

The adhesive that you choose to use will depend on the materials and layout for your pages and designs as well as your personal preference.

Tuesday's Tip: Die Cuts

Using die cuts to embellish scrapbook pages is easy and inexpensive. Because die cuts are pre-cut shapes of images that have been cut from acid-free paper or cardstock, generally they are used alone. When additional color and detail is desiring, die-cuts can be layered. Pens may be used to make decorative freehand borders around die-cuts, and even around photos and backgrounds.

Tuesday's Tip: Handwriting

Last time, we talked about journaling. A great way to journal is to use your personal handwriting as a part of your scrapbook creations. Writing personal feelings and adding captions about the subjects gives scrapbook pages added value and interest. Include family stories, traditions, poems, and songs that correspond with the photographs. A child's first words are a perfect enhancement when the journaling is done in their elementary school handwriting. You can turn your handwriting into a font HERE!

Creative lettering is a way of decorating scrapbook pages. The decorative text becomes an element of the page design, drawing attention to the words as well as the photographs. If you are looking for something a little larger or in a different font from your personal handwriting, alphabet stickers can also be used. They come in every color and pattern you can imagine! Fun phrases or messages can be added with letter and number stickers. Use coordinating alphabets or mix them up on the same page for added dimension and interest.

Tuesday's Tip: Journaling

Journaling is the term used for documenting the who, what, where, when, and why of each photograph or group of photographs. Journaling will help explain a subject or record an event more clearly. It should be done with a permanent, acid-free, lignin-free marker or pen.

There are many pens and markers to choose from, varying in purpose and width of point. They should be pigment ink, acid-free, fade-proof, and waterproof. A journaling pen has a fine-point tip (0.5mm) and is used for writing under photos and labeling.

Markers are used for lettering on pages or doing background designs around photos. A marker with a scroll tip can add variety to a page, providing a perfect parallel line or design work on page borders or around photos. A brush marker is great for enhancing around photos and on backgrounds.

There are various types of calligraphy pens that come in an array of colors and point sizes as well. These are used for titling pages. The dual-tipped fine and chisel markers are also good for lettering in various sizes, from small captioning with the fine-point tip to large headers with the wider felt tip.

Metallic pens of gold and silver and bronze are a must for every scrapbooker's collection. Just a stroke of a metallic pen on a certain pages gives enough sparkle to add that finishing touch.

A white opaque pen is fabulous on dark papers, great fun to experiment with, and will give a whole new look to a page. The opaque pens also come in other colors that you will want to try.

A photo-safe pencil is specifically designed for labeling photos. you can also use it to trace a template onto the photo surface without damaging it. My advice to beginners is that it may be best to buy a package of pens or markers in assorted basic colors and add specialty colors and types as desired.

Tuesday's Tip: Edges

Decorative edged scissors are used for cutting decorative edges on paper, cardstock, photos, photo mattes, and just about anything else. You will find many designs to choose from. At first you may want to try those of a fellow scrapbooker. Then you can acquire a few of the designs that you like best.

Die cuts are pretty punched-out designs and usually come in a heavier paper or cardstock weight so they do not bend easily. A number of shapes, designs, and words are available. 

You can also purchase dies and a die cutting machine so that you can customize your die cuts to perfectly match your layout!

Novelty edged rulers come in handy when you want precise trimming on a border or elsewhere. There are rulers available with a different design on each edge of the ruler, which is two-for-the-price-of-one. Patterns come in different styles, such as scallops, zigzag, and much more. Straight rulers are essential for marking strips of paper or card stock and photographs that need to be cut straight. They are also used to draw straight lines when creating borders on your scrapbook pages. Decorative rules come in a variety of styles and allow wonderful options for enhancing borders.
Transparent rules are also called quilters' rulers. Because they are transparent, they allow you to line up your layout perfectly. They are particularly handy for lining up lettering.

Page protectors are clear sleeves into which a finished page can be slipped for protection with holes punched on the side so they can be placed into an album. Some open from the top with others open on the side. Read the package to verify that they are acid for you. Or scrapbook pages that will be handled often, these sleeves offer an invaluable protection.

Use a circular blade paper cutter for a perfectly straight cut. The paper cutter will probably be of more use than any other tool for scrapbooking. This paper cutter has a round blade, which is pulled from the top to the bottom of a photo or paper for a precise cute. the cutting blade and straightedge are attached to a ruled surface, making it very easy for measuring. Ribble or other decorative-edged blades are available for some of these paper cutters. They can save a lot of time.

Corner clipping scissors or punches are used for making decorative designs on photo or paper corners, you can get ones that will round your corners or ones that will make very detailed punches.
Punches are used to punch out small designs and can be found in a number of designs and sizes. One of the best features about punches is that you can use the punched out shape as well as the void or negative area by trimming around it. And the pieces that fall out make great confetti!

Templates are manufactured from a still plastic. They are made in various sizes with various shapes. The shapes are machine cut to give a firm edge to trace around.

Tuesday's Tip: Matting photographs

Matting is one of my favorite parts of scrapbooking! It's where the colors start to pop and your layout really starts to take shape!

Most photos look better when surrounded with a bit of color and/or decoration. Matting is a simple thing to do, and with some experimentation you will create wonderful mats that accent your photo(s) and enhance your entire scrapbook layout. 

Making a matte is simple. Just select an archival paper or cardstock that is complementary to your photo, then cut the matting paper a bit larger than your photo (usually from 1/8 to 1/2 inch) and adhere the photo onto the paper. That's it!

Solid papers come in every color imaginable! Metallics, heathers, glossies, pearl finish, vellum, and patterned papers... plus too many more to list. But if you are looking for something a bit more unique or custom, paint on a piece of watercolor paper or cardstock with bright colors, or pastel washes. This will make an attractive background, and is fun to create! Use decorative edged scissors to cut and matte and give an instant decorated edge. Cut all four edges with decorative edged scissors or just one, two, or three sides. Cut mattes large enough so a design can be drawn around the edge of your photo with a marker or pen. Patterned papers can be as attractive as solid papers. Matte a round photo on an oval mat, use a corner punch to make decorative corners on your mat, double or triple-mat your photos with other complementary colors. When selecting a paper for matting, you may want to lay your photos on top of several colors of papers you think will enhance your photos, then select the best choice.

White album pages, patterned papers, and cardstock are the types of papers that will be used for background, matting, and decoration on a scrapbook page. It is important that all papers and pages used in an album are acid-free and lignin-free if you intend to keep photos and other items from decomposing.

Selective matting may accent your photograph and enhance your entire scrapbook page. Select an acid-free paper or card stock that is complementary to your photograph. Small patterned papers, as well as solid papers, make attractive mats. Using the photo-safe adhesive of your choice, adhere the photographs to the paper or cardstock. Trim around the photograph with a trimmer or decorative scissors to leave a mat of the desired width. Wider mats are nice for larger photographs. When double or triple-matting a photograph, the outer mat is generally wider than the inner mats. Pre-cut mats are available and make an attractive accent to most photographs.

This photo has a double mat:

Tuesday's Tip: Cropping Photographs

My friends always tell me I have a "good eye." I was never really sure what that meant until I was helping someone hang a framed photo on the wall and told her it needed to go a bit more left. She moved it a bit left and then her husband came by with a level. To all our surprise, the frame was perfectly straight on the wall. This is how cropping photos works for me, I can just tell what needs to happen. This can often get me into trouble, as my 'eye' doesn't see in standard photo dimensions, so sometimes my crops aren't 4x6 or 5x7 or 8x10. Thankfully, this doesn't matter on a scrapbook page, lol!

So in order to help explain how to properly crop photos, I went back through my photos and tried to understand what my 'eye' sees when its telling me to crop this or that. When I crop photos for a layout, I look at the photo and determine what the main action of the photo is. Many times there is too much background or foreground and it can be trimmed off. If you choose to crop your photos (you don't have to!) it will make the subjects appear closer by trimming off some of the foreground. Also, this will allow you to place more photos on the page to tell the story (i like a lot of photos on my pages). If you choose to crop your photos, make certain to use a paper trimmer to ensure straight lines (my 'eye' NEEDS straight lines). If you need to crop an irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind photograph,  PLEASE have a copy made and crop that. Also, instant photos should not be cropped because of the chemicals inside them (don't crop old polaroids or the new ones either, they consists of several layers with chemicals sealed inside, you'll ruin the photo and the chemicals inside will ruin anything they touch).

Now, I know there are people out there who are going to cringe as they read what I write next, so hold on... Photographs can be cropped into any shape from a template. Yes, it is ok to crop your photos into shapes! However, it is NOT a requirement! You don't have to crop anything, ever! However, if you get the urge, or someone has photobombed you and you are ready to crop them out, a soft art pencil can be used to trace the shape onto your photograph. Once the photograph has been cut into the traced shape, the excess pencil can usually be wiped away with a soft cloth without damaging the photograph. Templates are available in hundreds of designs and themes. Keep in mind that cookie cutters make great templates! Circle and oval cutters are also available (my circle cutter means I never have to trace and cut, it does the job for me). If you choose to crop several of your photographs into circles or ovals, these tools will save you a lot of time. Check out my layout below. See? The circle thing isn't all that bad! ;)

If you cringed at the photo cutting, don't read this part... Silhouetting a photograph is another option. This simply means trimming around the subject in a photograph, following its contours. This technique is not for every page or photograph, but sometimes it enhances the page and/or the photograph as well as enables you to place more photographs on a page. When silhouetting a photograph, use a small pair of scissors so you can cut around corners and delicate areas. Take extra care when cutting around hair to ensure that heads are not misshapen! Here is one of my silhouetted photos on a scrapbook layout, its not a technique I use often, but... well, let me know what you think.

Be sure to leave a comment below telling me how you have cropped your photos or why you don't crop or if you like my silhouetting, you know I love hearing from you!

Tuesday's Tip: Taking photographs

This month, we are going to talk about something that I get email questions about constantly: taking photographs. This can be a tough topic to tackle because there is a lot of technical info on how to use cameras as well as how to take good photos. Yes, it's true that great scrapbooks start with great photographs. And while professional photographs are a wonderful addition to any scrapbook, personal snapshots capture unforgettable moments of everyday life that a professional photo shoot would never cover. I think the more scrapbooking you do, the better your photography will become. The reason is because you will become tuned-in to the subject matter and will eventually learn to crop out unnecessary backgrounds, get a good angle, and at the same time capture those rare and beautiful moments that really make the memory. Don't be afraid to try new angles and take more than one or two shots of your subject. Don't be afraid to really zoom in and capture intimate details and priceless expressions. Don't be afraid to take candid photos, sometimes those turn out amazing! You don't need a fancy camera to take great photos, and I can prove it! Besides having your photographs printed at a reputable company to ensure the best possible color and quality, just look at what I can capture using my out-dated phone and a couple extra shots; no props, no fancy lights, no special equipment, just me and my phone with my kids playing around being kids...

Tuesday's Tip: Stickers

Are you ready for February's Tuesday's Tip?! It's everyone's favorite... STICKERS!!! Stickers are a simple to use and are a fun way to decorate any scrapbook page. Sticker collecting has been popular for decades (I still have several of my sticker books from my childhood) and scrapbook enthusiasts have found a great way to put those stickers to use. Long sticker strips can be used to border or divide a page, while smaller stickers can be used to fill in or accent a decorative theme. If you are unsure if a sticker is photo-safe, check the labeling. Recently, manufactured stickers will be labeled; older stickers may not be. When in doubt, do not use them near you photos.

Sticker letters are great to use when you are still trying to master hand-lettering on scrapbook pages, or for their ease, or to coordinate with a certain theme. There is a wide array of stickers available in segments or packages, which include hobbies, talents, florals, pets, strips, page accents, or just about everything else you can imagine! I'm really into the 3-D stickers with dimension and lots of glitter!

Check out the way I have used the "Take A Hike" stickers by Simple Stories on my double page spread below featuring my son's first Boy Scout camp out. Leave a comment showing me how you have used stickers in your layouts, you know I love hearing from you!

(click for larger image)

Tuesday's Tip: Serendipity Squares

Why has scrapbooking become such a hot topic? In an interview in the New York Times, Deirdre Bullock,  a consultant of Creative Memories says, "It keeps the art of storytelling alive." Even beyond that, sociologists have noticed a trend towards 'cocooning' that started somewhere in the 1990's. Home and family are more important to us now than in the wild and crazy years that came before. Scrapbooking is a great family activity, as well as a good excuse to get together with friends for cropping parties and to teach each other new techniques. Finally, in the time since that awful day we call 9/11, it's become even more important to all of us to try to hold on to our relationships with friends and family. Sharing scrapbooks is one good way to bring people back together, and to remember those who won't be coming home again. "Memories," says Bullock, "are priceless."
In order to help us all keep those priceless memories for generations to come, I am introducing a new segment on my blog this year called: Tuesday's Tips. Each month, I will feature a special new tip for you to make your scrapbook pages keep your storytelling alive. This month's tip is Serendipity Squares.

As scrapbookers, we NEVER throw away scraps -- there are just too many wonderful things to do with them! One of my favorite things to do is make Serendipity Squares. These are 1 inch by 1 inch squares you can use to decorate just about anything from a scrapbook layout to a card to a home decor project. To make a Serendipity Square, first take a blank piece of paper, then glue down (in any random way) all of the scraps from your last project. When you're done, you will have something that looks like this.

The next trick is to cut the paper into 1-inch squares. Actually, feel free to cut it into any shape, I prefer cutting the 1-inch squares in half from one corner to the other creating photo corners, but this is scrapbooking after all, so get creative! A bit larger square or rectangle and they would make gorgeous picture mattes, a long rectangle would be beautiful on the front of a card, or three 1-inch squares (or circles!) down the side of a scrapbook layout would make lovely embellishments. I can't wait to see what your project with Serendipity Squares looks like, please leave a link to your project below!