by Karen Chamchuk

Created on: April 05, 2008   Last Updated: August 24, 2011

Top Five tips for scrapbooking:

Scrapbooking is one of the fastest growing hobbies in North America and is an excellent way to preserve memories for you and your loved ones to enjoy for years to come. Follow these 5 tips for scrapbooking success and you are sure to be satisfied with your finished pages:

1. Always save souvenirs from outings and special events to use in your scrapbooking pages. These can include tickets stubs, newspaper concert reviews(you will want to photocopy the review because newspaper is highly acidic), theater programs, fair or exhibition calendars of events(or event listings), wedding invitations, programs, etc, etc. These small additions will add interest and variety to your page. They can also help transport you back in time to the actual event and will help you define the feel of your page.

2. Choose an overall look or feel for the page. If the pictures you have chosen are outdoors at the park or the beach, you may want to use bright yellow paper for your borders or the entire background. This will help to create a warm, sunny look and feel to your whole page. On the other hand, if your are If you are planning to do pages that celebrate your newborn baby, a very pale pink, blue or green will probably do just fine. Remember you want your borders and/or backdrop papers to compliment the elements in your pictures, not detract(distract) attention or take away from them.

3. Choose one picture or in some cases two pictures that you would like to be the focal point of the entire page. These are the pictures that you will highlight with special, sometimes multiple borders, and will be placed in the mid-line or slightly above the mid-line of your page. You will want to choose a photo that stands out from the rest in some way such as the unique perspective of the photo. An example of this would be a wedding photo of the bride and groom waving out the back window of their wedding car including the "Just Married" sign and the tin cans, tied to the fender. Other focal point pictures that are very successful are those of family or friends showing their fantastic, winning smiles or even goofy expressions. After you choose your focal point picture or pictures you may then choose the placement for all the pictures you are using on your page.

4. Crop your pictures down to the important elements of the pictures. If half of the picture is sky, you can get rid of most of that without harming your picture's basic elements. Or, if your picture is a very

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