What You Should Know about Scrapbooking

Now that the New Year is just around the bend, you should already have made your New Year’s resolutions. Don’t forget to include scrapbooking in that list.

Your emotions and your mind stand to benefit by scrapbooking about them

The first scrapbooking albums were actually just collections of letters, sketches and drawings, quotations and prayers that people put together as memoirs. What better way to express thoughts than in the words of people who wrote them in private to people them loved or made graphical representations of them on paper. Thus it was that the first scrapbookers devoted time to making elaborate diaries in their scrapbooks. There are quite a few famous personages who are included in the ranks of scrapbook hobbyists, not the least of them is author Mark Twain. He invented the first pre-made scrapbooks on which people pasted images that he himself made and treated with glue. He was said to have made over $50,000 on this invention, the only one that ever made money for him. There were not many photographs in those days. Therefore, lacking in pictures, they had to portray everything in words. The old scrapbooks were really documented memoirs or diaries. If Anne Frank had written her famous diary in more conducive surroundings, she would have probably pasted newspaper clippings in them. Among many famous historical figures who were also scrapbooking are Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain. In fact Mar Twain made a fortune on his only creation that ever earned anything for him. This was a scrap book on which people pasted his pre-fabricated stickers most of which were about the things he was interested in. He had more than 50 versions of this scrapbook circulating by the time they had made a small fortune for him. The best scrapbooking enthusiasts had deep spiritual reasons for doing so. There must indeed be definite benefits to be derived from this activity.

Acid-free paper and acid-free glue should be used in your scrapbook

But before you even start your first scrapbooking project, you ought to know some basic things about it first.

Your efforts to immortalize your sentiments in a scrapbook will be of no use if the paper of the album is acidic. In a brief time, the paper will have corroded itself together with the pictures and clippings that you included in the album. Take the time to inquire from the vendor if the album you are purchasing is made of alkaline paper and cardboard. You will also need to get alkaline glue to paste things on the paper. In those conditions, you can anticipate your scrabooking album and everything it contains to last for tens and even hundreds of years, a true memento for future generations. You can acquire alkaline glue in many stores catering educational supplies. Therefore you should see to it that the paper you include in your scrapbooks will be relatively free from corrosive and acidic content. Although most of the commercially available paper is acid-free it will still be a good idea to verify this from the store where you purchase your scrapbook. You can expect your scrapbook to last for hundreds of year if you use the best alkaline paper and cardboard. Besides having a long lifespan, acid free paper will not ruin, discolor or blur the photographs that you paste into your scrapbook.

Fresh flower petals and decorative foliage should be dried thoroughly before including them in the scrapbook. The moisture content of fresh vegetation will discolor, if not rot, the page. The water content can also be damaging to the paper. Even the glue that you use for your scrap book has to be alkaline. You can purchase acid-free glue in bottles or sticks in most book stores and even on the internet.

Identify the photos and memorabilia with appropriate labels

In order for other people to appreciate the masterful way you assembled your scrapbook you need to include descriptive tags on everything you paste there. A dried petal, for example. Is just a dried petal to anyone else? But if you were to label it as a petal from the rose your husband gave you when he started wooing your hand, that petal gains immense emotional significance. More than just tagging them with labels, you should take the time to ‘blog’ in your scrapbook about the items that you have included. In this way, your scrapbook will gain something from your own personality; will be the embodiment of your sensibility.

Don’t forget to add decorative and attractive embellishments to the scrapbooking album

Make sure your scrapbook will look good enough for people to want to read through its contents. Aesthetics plays a great role in the making of a good scrapbooking album.
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