Basic Tools You Need For Your First Ever Scrapbooking Venture

By Elysse Biaca

Keep your memories alive by adding embellishments and putting them into a scrapbook. Scrapbooking is one of the most popular hobbies nowadays. You can also try this activity so that you can come up with good scrapbooks that will bring out more the sentiments in your pictures even better.
What do you need when you are just a beginner in scrapbooking? If you are just learning the ways, you will be astounded by the number of available tools for paper crafts and scrapbooking. Therefore, just consider a few things that you need most.
Since you will most likely be working with paper, you have to have a paper trimmer. This comes in different sizes which you can choose from. It is an important tool because you may need to cut straight and square pieces of paper and card stock.
Scissors are also essential. There are plain straight scissors which are for cutting straight edges and craft scissors that you can use for designing and adding texture. A smaller pair of scissors is preferable for cutting ribbons, trimming papers and die cuts, and poking small holes. Just make sure to keep your scissors sharp at all times and be careful while using it. Also remember to keep them out of reach of the young ones.
Self-healing mats will protect your working space when you are stamping or painting. Also, a craft knife involves the use of a self-healing mat. This tool is easy to clean by wiping or washing. This will also provide you with a repairable and even surface to work on with your scrapbooking projects.
When you are a beginner, it is also important to know the three kinds of adhesives to use. Acid-free glue sticks will be helpful in sticking large areas of paper while tape runners will be for adhering lightweight materials to the paper. If you use three dimensional embellishments, use liquid adhesives.
With these basic tools, you can now begin your very own scrapbooking project.

Elysse Biaca enjoys writing articles on a wide range of topics. Come and visit her latest post on making a First Birthday Invitation. She has also written on how to find the best deals on buying 40th birthday invitations plus a great deal more.

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Scrapbooking and Its Different Varieties

By Connor R Sullivan

Are you fond of scrapbooking? Then you must be aware about the fact that there are various types of scrapbooking albums available in the market these days. You can make your choice from a diverse selection of albums such as post bound, strap bound, paper bag, binder based, spiral bound and etc. Apart from different types, there are different sizes of albums as well. When there are so many varieties available in the market, it becomes quite difficult to make a decision about the most suitable one. Find out how you can get the best album that will serve your needs perfectly.

Making your mind about the size of the album is the first thing that you need to do. In the market, you will find many cheap options of such albums and most of the low priced ones are small in size. You can definitely buy a small album, if the number of photos to scrapbook is less. If you got a huge number of photos, then it is hardly possible to fix all of them in a single album and that means you have to again invest on buying another album. Therefore, it is important that first you need to make sure the number of photos that you want to place in the album. If it is less, then an 8X8 or a 5x7 size small album is good. If the number of photos is higher, then a 2x12 size album is suitable.

When you are done with the size, now it is time to select the album type. If you choose a post bound variety, then you must know certain aspects about this type of album. Metal posts are used so that the pages can be fixed to the album. It is very easy to maintain and re arrange this type of album as there is no need to disassemble it completely.

Strap bound albums make use of straps that are made of rubber along with a metal axis for holding the pages. The pages are spread on opening the album and it lays flat. So, it is also easy to look at the photos. You can also design appropriately over the two pages that spread out while lying flat. However, there is a disadvantage of this type of album, which is that you need to disassemble it completely if you want to add page somewhere in between, or if you need to change sequence of the pages. You need to be careful about planning your pages if you want to use a strap bound album.

You can also choose a ring bound scrapbook album, which uses a large ring to hold the page protectors. This type of album can also be viewed by spreading its two pages, but there will be a gap between the pages where the rings are placed. This album is again easy to maintain and disassemble as you just need to take out a page and place it wherever you want easily.

Connor Sullivan recently bought some scrapbooking albums [http://www.mousememories.com/] online for his family to record their trip to Disney World. His wife ordered some scrapbooking [http://www.mousememories.com/] supplies online for her art students.

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