How to Scrapbook With Memory Makers

Scrapbook albums can be centered around one theme or a variety of themes.

These days, photo albums are not the only place people put photographs. Instead, individuals are picking up a glue stick, colorful paper and embellishments to create scrapbook pages. Whether a novice scrapbooker or a seasoned veteran, everyone needs ideas to make even more unique and creative scrapbook pages. Memory Makers not only publishes books on subjects such as page design, embellishments, techniques and journaling, but it also has magazines and a website with even more ideas to make a scrapbook special.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Memory Makers books or Memory Makers website
• Photographs
• Scrapbook album
• Scrapbook materials
• Scrapbooking scissors

Instructions

Choosing photos

1. Decide what event will be the focus of the scrapbook. Select photos that center around that theme such as a vacation, camp-out or wedding. Set that group of photos aside.

2. 

   Scrapbook scissors come in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles. It is good to have several to choose from for any project.

   Narrow the photos by selecting the ones that will work well together on the page. Use scrapbooking scissors to trim all four edges of the photo. There are dozens of different scissor designs, so select the design that best works with the photo.

3. Choose the final photos for the page. To do this, decide the focus of the page. The number of photos depends on personal preference. Do not worry about eliminated photos because these can always be used later on in the scrapbook.

Designing the layout

1. Visit the Memory Makers website. Select the "Idea Gallery" tab at the top of the homepage. The idea gallery includes an almost unlimited supply of ideas for a scrapbook page layout (See References 1).

2. Select the theme for the page from the pull-down menu. Then select what materials will be used, such as "patterned paper," "black and white photos" or "stickers." Select the "Search" button. Under the search results, different layout designs and inspirations for pages will appear. If no ideas are found, use the pull-down menus again to search for more suggestions and ideas. Use different search times, however, to find a different set of layout ideas.

3. 

   Beads are a common embellishment used in designing scrapbook pages.

   Select a layout design. The supplies needed will be listed under the layout description. Follow instructions to lay out the page.

Inspiration and technique ideas

1. Visit the Memory Makers website. Select the "Articles" tab at the top of the page. Dozens of different articles will appear, each with ideas and tips to use to create a scrapbook page.

2. Select the "Helpful Hints, Tips and Techniques" button that is located on the left side of the Web page. Under this tab, more articles are available including projects that can be downloaded to a computer. Select a project to download. Once the page opens, select the "download free project or technique" link in the middle of the page.

3. 

   Journaling is a common scrapbook technique. Memory Makers offers a free journaling project as one of its project ideas.

   Scroll down to see the different article options. Use the search box on the top right side of the page to search for more article ideas.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the template as inspiration rather than a step-by-step plan for the scrapbook page. Change up the colors or use different materials to personalize the page. Feel free to be creative and try different things. The page can always be reworked.

• The Memory Makers books can be used in the same way as the website. In addition, Memory Makers publishes more than 50 different magazines, all with project ideas for scrapbooking (See References 2).

• Not all templates come with step-by-step instructions. This means that sometimes to create the page as shown in the picture, individuals will have to study the picture to determine what to do.

References

• Memory Makers: Idea Gallery
• Memory Makers: About Us