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Scrapbooking Questions Answered

By , About.com Guide

If you are getting started scrapbooking and have more questions than answers, you are not alone. This FAQ for scrapbooking will help you get off on the right foot. Find out what supplies you absoultely must have to get started scrapbooking, how you can protect you precious investment of time and money - your albums, and how to come up with creative scrapbook page layout ideas as Rebecca answers some of scrapbooking's most burning questions.

1. What Supplies Do I Absolutely Need to Get Started Scrapbooking?

Ludens
Supplies to get started scrapbooking can be broken down into two lists - the must have's and the want to have's. The must have list is actually fairly short. In this article, I share with you the 6 items that a scrapbooker can not live without.

2. How Do I Creatively Design a Scrapbook Page?

Ludens
Scrapbook page sketches are the easiest tool to help a scrapbooker come up with a page design idea. A sketch is simply a drawing of how a page could be put together. It usually includes a space for the background design, the photos, a title, and a journaling box. Use these sketches as a map to guide you to creative scrapbooking.

3. Journaling Has Me Stumped. What Should I Include on My Scrapbook Pages?

Ludens
Journaling is simply the words that tell the story that goes with the photos on your scrapbook pages. How much you include and what style you use are totally up to you. The most important thing is that you make sure that your story is not lost as time progresses. You need to include it on your scrapbook page layouts. This article will show you 5 styles of journaling so that you can pick one that works best for you.

4. Where Should I Store My Scrapbook Albums to Keep Them Safe?

In museums, documents and photos are never touched with bare hands and they are stored in dark rooms that are kept at the perfect humidity level. We want our scrapbooks to be looked at, and used as tools to reminisce. So while we want to protect them, we also want them to be accessible. Some things that we can do are: Keep them away from direct sunlight, keep them away from the possibility of water damage, and store pages in albums with page protectors. You may want to take digital photos of your pages and burn the photos to a CD to store somewhere away from your home so that in a disaster, such as fire or flood, you have a back-up "copy" of your pages at least in digital form. This article will help you take better photos of your pages.

5. What's the Best Way to Include Newspaper Articles in My Scrapbooks?

The paper that newspaper is printed on is full of acid and lignin and turns yellow and breaks down very quickly. The first thing that you might want to do is to make a color photo copy of the article so that you for sure have a saved copy of it. The color copy will make a more exact duplicate of the original even if the article is printed in black and white. Second, you can use a de-acidification spray such as Archival Mist to preserve the original article. You can also laminate the article to help preserve it and to protect other items in your scrapbook from the newspaper.

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