Scrapbooking Paper

As we work on sharing our family traditions and memories through scrapbooking — it’s fun to include a few layouts of the things we’re thankful for. Not only is it a good reminder about how many blessings we have, it’s also a good way to include positive emotions into our scrapbooks.

Some good Layout titles for Gratitude Pages:

10 Things I Love About You!
10 Things I’m Thankful For
10 Things Which Make Me Happy
My Favorite Things
My Happy Thoughts

“I have come to feel that one of the most important ingredients for a happy life—a life of joy, contentment, hope, and peace—is gratitude. Surely gratitude—being thankful, being aware, and expressing appreciation—is one of the most important of all heavenly virtues.” (Mary Ellen Edmunds, You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don’t Need, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005], p. 138.)

The holiday season is here and creates great opportunities for scrapbooking memories. Take your camera to all family events and make sure to get photos from various angles. If you can capture fun or bonding experiences on film, it’s easy to put them into scrapbooks and remember the events. It’s also a good idea to take notes of the event either in your planner or a scrapbooking notebook — who attended, what grandpa said that was so funny, if there were any big family announcements etc.

Photographs can truly share a story. Don’t forget your camera!

What type of themes are you interested in using for your scrapbooking? Have you searched for scrapbooking theme papers and not been able to find them? Let me know what you’re looking for.

Baby papers?
Wedding?
Star Wars?
Nature?
Girl Scout?
Boy Scout?
Travel?

If you cannot find a specific type of paper, or want more variety of a certain kind, let me know. Thanks.

I’ve been thinking about the reasons why people scrapbook. Where did the industry begin? When I was growing up my mom made me a “Book of Remembrance”. It had our family tree, things I did when I was young, stories about my childhood, and photos. It is one of my most prized possessions. Photo albums have been popular for many years, but scrapbooking has turned into one of the largest hobby industries in history. Why?

I believe much of it has to do with the love we have for our families, and wanting to preserve treasured memories. That’s the first step. But then scrapbooking has blossomed into a creative art, a social club, a way to express individuality and an outlet for mothers.

There are so many reasons someone could be interested in scrapbooking.

Why do you scrapbook?

Here is a great directory of blogs and web sites run by BYU students and alumni. It’s a great resource and one where we can support each other. If you know of any blogs which should be included, go to the site and add them.

BYU Student Blogs and Sites

Do any of you have great digital scrapbooking software? I use Photoshop, and have seen Photoshop Elements used, but I’m trying to put together a review of various digital scrapbooking software packages and want to know what other people have used. Thanks for any feedback.

Brads are great decorative elements for scrapbooking. There are so many choices now besides the regular gold or silver brads you may see in an office. Scrapbooking stores offer brads in every color, alphabet brads, stripes or polka dot brads, flowers, hearts, squares, jewels, photo corners, tags, and even frames which are brads.

Even adding 4 simple brads at the corners of your photos on a page ties the whole page together. Just experiment a little bit and see what you can create with decorative brads for scrapbooking.

If you can’t afford a nice storage container specifically for scrapbooking, one of the best ways to get organized is to use small tupperware containers for your scrapbooking embellishments. They are usually fairly cheap and various sizes can be used for ribbons, buttons, paper clips, tags, etc. Once you have the small embellishments, you can start on the other items. I like the vertical paper storage boxes myself because if you have a huge pile of paper, usually you end up needing the paper on the bottom and it’s a pain to have to pull it out, paper gets wrinkled, and misaligned, etc. The vertical storage boxes resolve those issues nicely.

If you are organized it will take less time when you want to actually scrapbook, because you’ll know where everything is and won’t have to waste time searching and organizing each time.

One of the best ways to learn how to have harmony with your mind, body, and spirit is to take up a hobby that you are passionate about. A creative hobby is best, since you are using your mind, your body, and your spirit during creation. Some good examples are painting, gardening, scrapbooking, photography, flower arranging, and much more. Pick a hobby that brings you joy and make sure you spend some time each week doing it.

NOTE: Make sure you are balanced and that your hobby doesn’t take too much of your time or energy, otherwise you will not get the harmony you are seeking.

I just found clear stamps for scrapbooking on Scrapbook.com. You can get various alphabets, flowers, cleaning kits and much more. I personally like the
Farmhouse alphabet set.