Scrapbooking Ideas for Senior Citizens

Creating a scrapbook is an easy, enjoyable activity for all ages. There is no right or wrong way to create a scrapbook, and it's a great option for anyone less creatively inclined. Senior citizens can take special pleasure in such an activity, as it's an opportunity to celebrate their own personal youths and travels while incorporating the newer experiences of more recent generations.

Photo Arrangements

A common form of making a scrapbook is by creating an arrangement of photos. Photos can be arranged either chronologically or by special grouping such as family gatherings, birthdays, holidays or individuals. Stickers or handwritten captions can be added within the pages of the book to add personalization, and pages can even reflect different themes of color or style. Small photo embellishments can be purchased to preserve picture quality or add the illusion of a small frame.

Anecdotes

A less common but equally worthwhile idea for a scrapbook is to create different anecdotes and post them according to theme, style or chronology. This is an opportunity for a senior citizen to share less-publicized stories or memories. By handwriting the anecdotes onto specially designed paper and adhering them to the pages of a scrapbook, it creates a highly personal reflection of life and family. Photos as well as small stickers can be used as embellishments.

Gathered Materials

Creating a scrapbook of personal items and materials gives a senior citizen the opportunity to display treasured belongings while simultaneously reflecting on past stories and memories. A larger scrapbook with heavy-duty paper is suggested here in order to best accommodate thicker, weighted items. Things to include could be pressed flowers, ticket stubs, birth announcements or theater guides. Handwriting explanations or captions for each item adds a special, personal touch.

Joint Effort

Making a scrapbook does not have to be a solo effort; by including other members of the family such as siblings, children and grandchildren, a scrapbook can be a large compilation of pages that are meaningful to an entire family. One person can be assigned a page on which he can add anything he wishes, or the family can generate scrapbook pages together by choosing pictures, items and captions. Either way, this scrapbook provides the opportunity to reminisce, reflect and celebrate.

Scrapbook Ideas for Honoring a Principal

Of the many ways you can honor a principal at your school, one of the most heartwarming and meaningful is making him a scrapbook. A scrapbook is a book in which you can paste various images, drawings or other clippings. It is a personal gift that can contain artifacts and/or trinkets that honor the principal and stand as a keepsake for him to remember you by.

Design

One of the most important aspects of any scrapbook is the way it is designed. Consider how its components are arranged in the book, the size of the font, the type of paper and even the size of the book itself. While you can spend a good deal of time perfecting the design, it may also form itself naturally as you begin to arrange the items you place in the scrapbook. As long as the scrapbook’s items are clear and any message it purports to send is apparent, consider allowing the design to flow from the items you choose, and not limiting the items you choose based on your design goals. This way, the scrapbook will prioritize the meaning of the book as opposed to its design.

Images

Effective scrapbooks have a lot of images. Whether they are collages, photographs or drawings, images convey a personal touch to the scrapbook that mere text cannot. Consider overlapping photos to fit more on a single page or single out particularly meaningful photographs on a page of their own. Remember to label the images with detail regarding names and dates so the principal will remember his students years later.

Collaboration

Although it is wise to have a leader and focus point of the scrapbook project ro organize its construction and timeline, a collaborative scrapbook compiled by numerous people will convey a more meaningful message. It will show the principal you are honoring that many people respect her work and will allow different students to express their appreciation and respect for the principal in their own distinct ways. Consider giving students their own pages to design, or in a small scrapbook, having groups of students design pages.

Interactive

There are a number of computer programs on which you can make an interactive scrapbook, too. Although perhaps less personal than a handmade scrapbook, interactive ones can incorporate handmade items if you scan the handmade items into the computer. You can either make single pages on a program like Adobe Photoshop and print them out individually to collect together in a scrapbook or use specific scrapbooking software like My Memories Suite, Memories Mixer or Digital Scrapbook Artist.

How to Pack for a Scrapbooking Crop

Part of enjoying a hobby is being able to share that hobby with like-minded hobbyists. For scrapbookers, this means a crop. Some crops are evening events that take place over the course of a couple of hours. Other crops can be lengthier events that take up the better part of a weekend, requiring snacks and drinks in addition to scrapbooking tools. Knowing how long your scrap will last will ultimately determine how to pack for a scrapbooking crop.

Instructions

• Choose the projects you wish to complete during the crop. Plan to complete just a few pages for a shorter crop and several more for a longer crop. Keep in mind how long it will take you to complete each project and pack accordingly.
• Make a list of the projects that you wish to complete. This helps you to decide what materials and tools you will need to complete your projects, including basic supplies and project specific supplies.
• Package your materials for each scrapbooking page together in a large zip-close bag. Use one bag for each page or project.
• Pack up the basic tools you will need. This includes scissors, paper trimmers, a mat, glue or glue dots, stamps, pens and other regularly used items.
• Pack up any additional tools that you will need to complete your specific pages such as paper punches and craft knives. Keep your tools together in one compartment.
• Pack all of your supplies into a scrapbooking tote. Totes on wheels are more convenient if you need to walk a long distance to the crop from your car, and they often can accommodate more supplies.

Simple Scrapbook Ideas For Creative Scrapbooking

Many people who do scrapping know that when you get started there are numerous scrapbook ideas you can use for your scrapbook pages. Sometimes you begin to understand that you are using previous layouts over and over. You get bored without fresh ideas for your album. What you need is an inspiration. You can find many unique ways to get fresh and creative scrapbooking ideas for your future project. And the best is creative scrapbooking.

A creative scrapbook does not focus on the scrapbook designs, rules and procedures. All what you need is a creativity and ability to create or find a creative scrapbook idea. It will help you show a story from photos and another details. You can cut out and create your own details for use in an album or you can use the right scrapbooking supplies, elements, details for your needs. Using these scrapbooking supplies do not limit your creativity in creating your pages. Your ingenuity in using these details requires your creativeness. Creativity is the thinking without limitations in creating your scrapbooks. You can use the usual scrapbook elements, some creative objects on your page to enhance your photos, to give more dimension, texture and color to your pages and add your own creative touch.

Develop your creativity by practicing some sketches in your designs. You can create your own sketches by using photos and adding some supplies. You can find the perfect original sketch for your creative scrapbooking. They have a variety of designs, themes and layouts that help you to create your creative scrapbooks. You can choose a different visuals and use them with great creativity. You can develop these sketches that other can decide that it is your own creative work. Your sketches easy enhance creative look and impression of your work.

There are no rules in the scrapbooking. Usually the most creative and free person can make a really unrepeatable art of work. You must think only about photos, your thoughts, your feelings and how showcase these things altogether in the finest way. Play around with your pics, notes, words, thoughts. Try to choose another layouts, color schemes, techniques.

You can get an inspiration not only by viewing your photos. Colorful words can discover you a new bright solutions for your pages. You can use a comic or famous quotes as a fine decorative elements. Sometime an eye-catching phrase could become the theme or title of your pages. Only what you need is relax and feel yourself free. Stop your scrap activity and read interesting book or see a breathless film. And many various hints come to you in easy and fast way. These changes can really activate your imagination and inspiration for creating a perfect pages. You really can fire your creative engine.

Be true with yourself and readers. Express your real feelings. Do not try to embellish your real life events. It is a life and a history. And you must be a true historian. I hope these scrapbook ideas will help you to enrich your scrap booking and your ife.

Scrapbook Ideas for Newspaper Clippings

Newspaper articles are often lost or destroyed when clipped out of the paper and stored. Incorporating the clippings into a scrapbook is a creative way to display and preserve the memorable clips. The paper must be treated before it is stored and can be enhanced with personal photographs or captions to create a unique scrapbook display and layout.

Prepare and Protect

• The paper that newspapers are printed on contains lignin, an impurity that causes the paper to quickly deteriorate. Newspapers will either need to be scanned then printed or treated with spray before they are placed in a scrapbook. Print articles on archival paper with an antique finish to give the impression of a newspaper. Use archival spray with a deactivation ingredient to stop the paper from yellowing and falling apart. Place older newspapers in a shallow baking dish and soak in distilled water for about 20 minutes. This will clean the paper, as well as help the paper regain rigidity; allow the paper to dry before use. Treated newspapers can still cause other paper in your scrapbook to yellow and decay. Place the newspaper in a page protector to keep pages safe.

Sports Captions

• A newspaper article is an informative caption to a memorable photo. Pair sports photos with corresponding newspaper articles that feature game highlights. This is especially ideal for children who have been featured in the paper for making a memorable play. Scrapbooks that highlight an entire sports season are enhanced by articles with play-by-plays that are placed beside personal photos that showcase the player in action.

Wedding and Birth Announcements

• Preserve wedding announcements from the local paper in your scrapbook by pairing them with special wedding photographs. Birth announcements are also enhanced by articles placed underneath a birth photo or on the same page. Use this process for historical articles that are paired with old family photos, which give context and depth to the visual story.

Personal Highlights

• Combine newspapers with memorable photos of a loved one that has recently passed as a memorial. Collect historic newspapers that feature military service and achievements, community involvement, announcements and obituaries. Find correlating images within your own photo collection to pair with appropriate articles. The scrapbook can be a form of healing, as well as a fount of information for future generations as you discover facts about the family member that was lost.

Good Scrapbooking Layout Idea Can Distinguish Your Work From All Others

We all wish that only if the good times would last forever but only if wishes were horses! The best we can do to hold on to the memories is click snapshots of the good times or make videos of the moment and hope to relive the memory through these means. A photo album has always been one of the best methods to remember old times and it is sure to bring a smile to our faces when we remember special incidents and people through the pictures. An interesting way of preserving these memories in a different manner is the concept of scrapbooking. The concept has been around since ages and most of us remember creating colorful scrapbooks with various themes while we were in school.

The hunt for a good scrapbooking layout idea is perhaps the most interesting aspect of making a scrapbook. Once you have shortlisted a theme and a layout idea, half the battle is won. A unique scrapbooking layout idea is a sure shot method to make your creativity stand a class apart from the others. The modern day options and facilities available for creating scrapbooks has seen a tremendous surge in this kind of activity with adults participating in making their scrapbooks as enthusiastically as children. Various online scrapbooking sites have come into existence and these are some places where one can get a great scrapbooking layout idea for their own scrapbook making project. The various accessories available for decorating your scrapbook simply add to the fun of pursuing this activity.

A scrapbooking layout idea can be inspired from any event, person or perhaps even from one’s surroundings. A birthday party or a wedding in the family could be as good a theme as perhaps the last day at college. The availability of online scrapbooking sites has made the process of experimenting with ideas an even easier task. One can simply select a theme for a scrapbooking layout idea and choose the designs and styles accordingly. It can then be applied to your virtual scrapbook and you can get a look at how your final scrapbook will look if this layout idea were to be implemented. In case you are not happy with the result you can simply remove the effects and try out something else which is completely different. As the time and effort taken to create and recreate scrapbooking layouts are minimal, thanks to the web applications, you can let your creativity run wild.

A person can also purchase various scrapbooking accessories like paints, paper, glue and even embellishments from the online stores selling scrapbooking accessories. All these additional attractions to the basic concept of scrapbooking have made this art survive and achieve popularity through ages. Initially scrapbooking was a concept like that of storytelling but the difference has always been the visual and tactile effect rather than the oral focus of storytelling. And the additions to the art will ensure that scrapbooking continues to be an immensely popular activity for times to come.

Frog Scrapbook Ideas

Scrapbooking incorporates a layered technique that uses paper, photos, stickers, lace, ribbon, card stock and other materials to create a themed collage on one page. A frog themed page works for outdoor photos or for fans of the Disney movie "Princess and the Frog." As you create your scrapbook page, arrange your photos first on the page to get an idea of design and how to place all of the elements.

Frog Tales

Cut out squares of light blue and white with crafting scissors. Tile these squares in alternating rows on your scrapbook's paper. With a frog stamp, push into green ink and press on to the white tiles. Measure the the length of your photos. Tear a rectangular strip of tan construction paper that measures an inch longer than the length of the largest photo to go on the page. Tear another rectangular strip of green construction paper with a length of half an inch above your largest photo. Paste the tan construction paper horizontally across the middle of your page. Paste the green construction piece in the center on top of the tan rectangle. Paste your largest photo portrait style in the center of the construction paper. Paste other portrait photos to the left and right.

Froggy Tracks

Choose three to four photos in a series that describes an adventure or discovery. Measure the length and width of these photos. Cut out pieces of card stock that measure half an inch longer and wider than the photos. Paste the photos on to the card stock. Arrange the photos so that one is in the top left corner, one is off-center to the right in the middle of the page and another is in the bottom left corner. The first picture needs to be 3 inches from the top. Place a frog sticker to sit on top of the card stock's edge of the first photo in the series. With a green marker, create bounce tracks with curved dashed marks to the right of the first picture, leading to the next picture. Place the frog stickers on top of each photo as you paste to the page. Stick on a final sticker in the bottom right corner or create bouncy tracks that lead off the page and onto the next.

Lily Pads

Cut out three lily pads and one forward-facing frog shape from .30 gauge acid-free chip board. The lily pads range in size from 1 to 2 inches tall. Cover a chip board piece in paper glaze. Tap out green glitter from a tube on to the chip board. Lift the chip board out of the glitter and set aside to dry. Repeat for the other lily pads that you cut. Use a different color of glitter for the frog. Once dry, apply a thin coat of paper glaze on top of the glitter coat to set and prevent flaking. Set aside to dry overnight. Cut a large lily pad from light green card stock or construction paper and paste in the center of your page. Paste your photo on to the card stock. Paste your chip board pieces around the photo in the corners or off to the side.

Princess and the Frog

For a child who loves the Disney movie "Princess and the Frog," cut out circular pieces of bright pink card stock for one or two photos in a series. Paste the photos to the center of the card stock. With reed or flower stamps, embellish the edges of the scrapbook. Punch a hole in the bottom of the photo's card stock and tie a piece of blue ribbon. Arrange and glue the card stock photos on to the page. Decorate further by adding "Princess and the Frog" stickers in the corners.

Scrapbooking Layouts - Background Designs For Your Scrapbook

Having a hard time choosing from the millions of scrapbooking layouts? Would you like to have a unique layout that no other person could have made exactly alike? Well, recreating background designs are easy - especially when you have the right materials. Pondering over background designs will only take you one look at your tools and you should be having a brainstorm coming up.

Anyway, if you're having a hard time thinking up some crazy cool scrapbooking layouts, take a read on these ideas.

Background Designs For Your Scrapbook

Playing with Shapes

Shapes are crazy cool, especially if you know how to work with it. Use colored paper or better yet, patterned paper for a much creative outcome. Cut out different big shapes in all sizes using different patterns. When you're done, lay out the shapes onto your background in random order like a collage. Have shapes overlap others, overturned, half peeping, upside down, whatever position you can create to give the layout an eccentric look. Then in the middle, cut out a shape from felt paper and place in the middle. This will serve as your photo mat.

Punching Holes

Another idea you may want to consider for your scrapbooking layouts is the use of the puncher. Yes, the puncher is actually very useful. Punch holes through your background, a patterned paper or any kind of paper and use this as your background. Acetate paper can be used as a window and for those who don't want to throw away those holes you've punched, use it as embellishments.

Black & White Scrapbooking Ideas

A scrapbook is a book of mementos and pictures that create a snapshot of a moment or time in someone's life. A scrapbook is very personal, including things that other people may not find interesting or special, but that have special meaning to you alone. Scrapbooks often contain paper, programs, photos, cards and drawings, with embellishment or decoration per the maker's taste. A fancy and dressed up scrapbook idea is a black and white scrapbook, containing the two colors.

Fancy Black & White Scrapbooking Ideas

Use Both Colors of Paper for The Background

The pages of a scrapbook are often decorated with a patterned background or colored paper. This creates a mood for the pages and connects the pages with a consistent element and provides cover for the otherwise blank page. Apply a full sheet of black paper to each page. Cut shapes out of white paper and apply either the shapes or the piece of paper with cutouts to the black paper behind it. Create a pattern, squigglies or a snowflake shape to match the theme of your scrapbook.

Embellish the Pages With Flowers

A black and white theme always feels very elegant and fancy scrapbook layout. Dress the pages, corners of the pages or front of the scrapbook with dried, paper or fabric flowers. This adds a sense of whimsy and decoration to the book that will stand out. Dried flowers could be any type from peonies to roses, all in white or a combination of several types. For a special touch, use deep purple roses that appear almost black. Fabric flowers are available in any fabric from satin to cotton lawn. White paper flowers can be your decoration on your black background.

Print Photos in Sepia

The obvious choice would be to print your photos in black and white. Black and white is always a solid option and is certainly vintage in nature, but sepia seems fresh and new. Sepia is a brownish red-based color, and printing your photos in sepia will only display these colors. It is quite like black in white in nature, but adds a warm feeling to an otherwise stark scrapbook. Additionally, it will allow your photos to stand out from the pages.

Use Lace to Decorate

Lace adds a dressy, delicate feeling to clothing and accessories and can do the same for your scrapbook. Keep all other components black like the background, and add white lace to the tops of the pages, the tops of photos or covering photos completely like a curtain. Use lace in thick battenburg, delicate alencon or cotton cluny.

Scrapbooking Layout Ideas

For some people, scrapbook page ideas are hard to think up. Then there are others who create awesome scrapbook page layouts just by looking at the scrapbooking paper laying in front of them. If you are one of those who are in search of scrapbooking ideas, here are a few listed below.

Scrapbooking Layout Ideas

School Days Layout

Here a few little embellishments, print scrapbook paper and cardstock, a little bit of scrapbook paint and foam stamps, along with a few die cuts made this scrapbooking layout come together very well.

Halloween Layout

Utilizing pre-made items made this layout almost too simple. Probably the hardest part of it was painting the block letters in the title.

We Believe

A little bit of ribbon, a paper covered plastic frame, and a couple of metal oval frames makes this layout a snap. Rub-on lettering was used for the title.

Birthday Card and Envelope

Sizzix die cuts make this card simple to put together, along with a printed ribbon.

War Times

This scrapbook page was created utilizing a computer for the journaling, a scanner to scan letters and envelope, foam stamps and scrapbook paint (for title), round tags, metal embellishments, and patterned paper and cardstock. It won a prize at the local scrapbook store.

Digital wedding layout

This layout was created with an online scrapbooking kit. I downloaded the kit and laid it out in Photoshop Elements. It was so easy to create and a lot less mess. There are a variety of digital scrapbooking software available if you are inclined to utilize this format.

Teen Scene

This layout was created with die cut letters, brads, and ribbon embellishment. Again using patterned paper with cardstock. I hand printed the journaling.

Fun, Friends, & Freedom

This layout was created with a scrapbooking technique called color-blocking. There are page templates sold that help you to layout your page in squares and fill the blocks with paper, embellishments, or a picture. Again very easy and quick.