How to Scrapbook for Holidays

Here are todays top tips for getting your Holiday Scrapbooking started.

1. Write a list of all your favorite holiday events (or things)
2. Write down (journal) what you like most about them (Get our newsletter for free journaling tips)
   
3. Then, make sure your camera is fully loaded with film, memory and batteries
4. Start shooting photo's! (Check this article out for Photo Scrapbooking Tips). Even if they are not perfect, you can adjust and crop them later!
   
5. And finally...print your photo's and go back to your list and your journaling - and review what you said. Are there any significant statements that you made that could apply to your page? Did you create titles that you didn't know about? Did you create the perfect journaling that you didn't know about? Did you write about the holiday colors you didn't realize? (Could those colors be your background colors)?

Chances are pretty high that you already did most of the work for your self in the first three steps. If that's so, now you can start scrapbooking!

Even if you are doing beginner scrapbooking, or advanced scrapbooking - reverse engineering the process is going to be one of the easiest ways to get the project started!

Have fun with it.

Great Tips for Forgotten Scrapbook Journaling.

Planning your journaling text into your layout is the wisest way to go. However, there are many times where we just can not seem to find the right way to fit it in - or we do the page and forget about the journaling all together.

In this case...we are left to our SuperPowered Creative Vices to get it in somewhere.

So here are some great tips for adding journaling later:

1. Write / wrap your words around the edge of each photo, mat or main focal point. *Be sure to plan it out in pencil first - you don't want to run out of space or bunch anything up.
   
2. Print your journaling text onto vellum (works great on dark colored backgrounds) and lay it over something other than the main photo.
   
3. Or add Pockets or Envelopes (you can get transparent ones) and place the velum into it. This can go on the page or on the page protector.
   
4. Write or print onto transparency and insert that into a pocket on top of your page protector or as a complete overlay over a page element or the entire page (under the page protector).
5. Creating a ribbon style add on (where the hight is no higher than 1 - 1.5 centimeters - and the length spans the page) - made entirely of paper (with some sort of matting behind it) with your words spanning across. *Yes this leaves room for no more than 2 lines of text and can be quite limited but with most pages an extra ribbon works just fine - therefore your ribbon journaling will too. *You could even do this with a label maker.
6. Bind a Fold Over onto the page. (Ie: From the left or the right, overlap and adhere an appropriate width of paper to your page. Then journal and scrap that to match the original page. Now it is a fold over - but does not take away from your page. PLUS you can use the bottom for more journaling, more photo's or even a title that you may have forgotten.
7. Create a half circle (or oval) or any other appropriate shape - that comes to only 1/2 - 1 " high - and mount it over a less important space on your main photo. Then journal that. *HINT: If your photo is black and white or very bright - use a dark color with white pen - the effect is much better.

Now...if you are doing a digital layout...

1. Why not revise the background slightly and place your journaling onto it (as part of the background). Remembering that white on dark is best.
2. Why not place the words into one of your already existing page elements (ie: Do you have a large flower on the page? Could the words going into the petals? What about a photo frame or border - can you place your words in there?)
3. What about adding small blocks of journal text throughout the blank spaces on the page? Lay them out in rectangles, left to right and top to bottom of the page (making sure that each block can stand alone as text). If someone looks at the page long enough they will be able to piece that all together.

And have fun with it all.

The great thing about Scrapbooking is that no-one will ever know that you left something out or added something in. They will only ever see the final piece. And will be thrilled anyhow!

Happy Scrapping!