| Sharing Your Photos | | | | on each page. |
| You went to a special event or party and took a lot of | | | | - Put words to the pictures. After all the pictures are |
| pictures but what are you going to do with them now? | | | | mounted onto the card stock scrapbook pages, I bring |
| If you are like most people, you'll view the pictures on | | | | them to my computer and simply go through each |
| your computer or from the envelope that they came in | | | | page and type into a blank Word document the |
| and that will be the end of it. They will be filed away | | | | captions for each picture. When I began making these |
| never to be seen again. | | | | books, I purchased a disk of really cool fonts called |
| That is a shame. I know, because I have boxes and | | | | "The Best of Creative Lettering" from my favorite |
| boxes of pictures that are rarely seen because it's too | | | | scrapbook magazine, "Creating Keepsakes Magazine." |
| difficult to get at them. Conversely, I also have several | | | | If you want a great scrapbooking resource, this |
| scrapbooks that are just a joy to look at. To me, they | | | | magazine is it! After the captions are in the Word |
| are heirlooms that I can't even put a price on. | | | | document, I print them, and mount each one by the |
| The idea of putting my photos into a handmade | | | | appropriate picture using glue sticks. |
| scrapbook came to me after I attended a certain | | | | - Embellish the pages. Now that the pictures and |
| event and several people asked me for copies of my | | | | captions are mounted, I dress up the pages with |
| pictures. Rather than make a bunch of copies of | | | | memorabilia, such as, golf score cards and ticket stubs, |
| random pictures and pass them out, I decided that this | | | | and I add stickers to limit the amount of white space. |
| certain event deserved more than that. It was special | | | | Don't use metallic stickers as they do not copy well. |
| and so I wanted to showcase the pictures in a special | | | | - Copy, Laminate and Coil. The cheapest way to |
| way. I wanted to tell the story in pictures and words. | | | | make copies of your original pages is to go to a copy |
| Although handmade scrapbooks take a lot of time to | | | | place, like Kinkos or Reprographics, and make the color |
| make, they can not be beaten for quality and | | | | copies yourself (bring your own cardstock). It's more |
| uniqueness. I started with that first special event and | | | | expensive, but they will do it for you if you prefer. This |
| have made several books since then. Follow the steps | | | | is the best part of making this kind of scrapbook. You |
| below to make your own: | | | | can make as many copies as you like of the original |
| To Make a Handmade Scrapbook | | | | and everybody gets a copy of their own to take |
| - Mount prints on 8-1/2 x 11 white card stock. In addition | | | | home. You can't do that with scrapbooks made in |
| to the prints and card stock, I recommend getting a | | | | those big, fancy albums. To make the scrapbooks |
| paper cutter and a corner rounder. The paper cutter | | | | more durable, I laminate the front and back covers. It |
| allows you to precisely cut your photos and card | | | | really adds to the quality of the book. Lastly, the books |
| stock to size, and the corner rounder is really nice for | | | | need to be bound. I like to use the black coil type |
| shaping the corners of your photographs. I usually put | | | | because they hold up well and look really nice. |
| my prints in chronological order first, crop them to size, | | | | I spend a lot of time and energy creating these |
| round the corners (personal preference) and then | | | | handmade scrapbooks to commemorate special |
| mount them with glue sticks. In addition to the photo | | | | events or to honor special people. When I give |
| pages, adding a one page family tree or an itinerary | | | | someone one of these extraordinary gifts and see |
| page can really help tell the story. My scrapbooks | | | | their expression, it truly warms my heart and makes it |
| usually end up being 20-40 pages with 3 to 5 pictures | | | | all worthwhile. |