I've been keen on card making for a year now, and recently turned my attention to scrapbooking. Years ago scrapbooking meant sticking receipts, cuttings and photos into scrapbooks bought from WH Smith - and because nothing was known then about the dangerous properties of acids in paper and ink, if you dig out those scrapbooks now you'll find them in a poor condition. Nowadays, scrapbooking refers to mainly using photographs and creating big bold displays, centrepiecing outstanding photos, on acid and lignin free papers and featuring themed flowers, vellum phrases, stickers, brads, buttons and so on.
There's a whole industry devoted to scrapbooking, numerous public exhibitions and local "crops" where scrapbookers meet up and scrap for the day.
When I started scrapbooking I didn't really have the right idea. I was using some of my cardmaking supplies, but they didn't really scale to the 12 x 12 scrapbook format. There was no perspective; the pages didn't look complete or pleasing.
I've been studying Scrapbook Magazine and various websites for inspiration, and have started buying the right accessories, and my latest spreads are much better. I have two scrapbooks which I bought from Lakeland: one which records current activities, and the other which is for "vintage" memories. In the latter, I've just prepared two pages on my old cat Teddy, who died in 2005.
The key thing for scrapbooking, apart from having great photographs, is to identify the subject for your next project and then buy the necessary accessories, co-ordinating them with your paper and cardstock. I'm going to prepare three pages on my dad, so I'm busily gathering photographs of him in uniform from my mum; the Royal Marines insignia on the web, and the right coloured papers, brads, tags and so on, mainly from http://happyscrapper.co.uk and http://lakelandlimited.co.uk
I've also just done a spread on....me, showing the passport booth photos that I used to have taken annually, to document the ageing process!
It's a very absorbing and fulfilling hobby, but very expensive!
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