How to Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is a fabulous way of storing your memories for future generations, showcasing your photographs and expressing yourself creatively. It is a wonderfully accessible craft and more and more exciting materials are available to help you create layouts with maximum impact. Joy Aitman explains all the basic techniques and shows you how to create beautiful layouts using holiday photographs, a school photograph and a wedding picture. Cropping is one of the basics of scrapbooking and Sarah McKenna shows how to use dozens of techniques such as slicing, silhouetting, montage and mosaics to enhance your pages. Sarah then shows how eyelets can be used to attach vellu, acetate and fabric to your pages, to add embellishments and accents and to provide emphasis and detail. Clear step-by-step demonstrations are accompanied by over a hundred wonderful layouts to inspire you. Uses material from: Start Scrapbooking Eyelets for Scrapbooks Cropping for Scrapbooks

About the Author :
Joy Aitman developed a passion for scrapbooking several years ago, when she attended a class showing how to create beautiful albums. Fascinated by the techniques, she started to develop her own skills and she has never looked back. From being a teacher of art-based textiles she has moved on now and is part owner of a thriving scrapbooking company - Cotswold Keepsakes. She runs regular workshops, teaching her skills to many enthusiastic scrapbookers. Sarah McKenna used to be a lawyer, but is now a photographer and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. She discovered scrapbooking on a trip to the US in 1997 and saw it as a means of preserving and enhancing her photographs. Now, in addition to creating her own scrapbooks, she runs workshops on many aspects of scrapbooking, including creative cropping, mosaics, collage and kaleidoscopes. Sarah writes articles on photography and scrapbooking for a range of publications and has had her work published in the UK and US.

Review :
May 06 It looks like one big book but here are actually three - a compendium volume containing Start Scrapbooking, Cropping For Scrapbooks and Eyelets For Scrapbooks. In true Search Press tradition you get to grips with the nature of the beast first - why modern scrapbooking is better than more traditional approaches, all about the materials and how to use them - and then it is on with the primer and projects. This happens three times in three different ways (do read it in order though) so you can not only learn the basics but also cut your photos creatively and add eyelets too. This is another real hands-on book that has me reaching for the materials and wanting to get cracking right away. Maybe it is the glorious color and attractive layouts, or could it be the easy-to-follow instructions and materials all laid out as if on the instructor's table? Whatever it is it seems to work and I thought I was an old hand but still learned plenty of new tips. There are no drawings here to illustrate what needs to be done, just lots of large photos which I think is better for this sort of work. With scrapbooking though as with a lot of crafts there is a temptation when compliing a book like this to use every craft item in the shop and if you wanted to kit yourself out with this little lot a second mortgage might be advised. Maybe somebody will come along one day and write a book called Scrapbooking on a Budget, but until then it is best to read it through first and then visit the store after a long think. You really DON'T need it all, but this does at least show you what it can do so you can pick the methods you like best and which suit your photographs. I could think of more ways to crop my photos or use eyelets, but the layouts in here got me thinking in ways that sparked my imagination to think of more. Useful for all levels of scrapbooker. Jun 06 This book is actually three books in one...The result is a beginner's bible for budding scrappers out there! You'll find helpful advice on mastering the basics, creating focal points on your layouts and ideas to try once you're ready to experiment with more detailed and decorative techniques. The clear layout and colourful images make this a great starting point for anyone who has always fancied having a go at scrapbooking, but hasn't been sure where to start! Jun 06 It looks like one big book, but here are actually three - a compendium volume containing Start Scrapbooking, Cropping For Scrapbooks and Eyelets For Scrapbooks. In true Search Press tradition, you get to grips with the nature of the beast first (why modern scrapbooking is better than more traditional approaches, all about the materials and how to use them) and then it is on with the primer and projects. This happens three times in three different ways (do read it in order, though) so you can not only learn the basics but also cut your photos creatively and add eyelets, too. This is another real hands-on book that has me reaching for the materials and wanting to get cracking right away. Maybe it is the glorious color and attractive layouts, or could it be the easy-to-follow instructions and materials all laid out as if on the instructor's table? Whatever it is it seems to work and I thought I was an old hand but still learned plenty of new tips. There are no drawings here to illustrate what needs to be done, just lots of large photos which I think is better for this sort of work. With scrapbooking though, as with a lot of crafts, there is a temptation when compiliing a book like this to use every craft item in the shop and if you wanted to kit yourself out with this little lot a second mortgage might be advised. Maybe somebody will come along one day and write a book called Scrapbooking on a Budget, but until then it is best to read it through first and then visit the store after a long think. You really don't need it all, but this does at least show you what it can do so you can pick the methods you like best and which suit your photographs. I could think of more ways to crop my photos or use eyelets, but the layouts in here got me thinking in ways that sparked my imagination to think of more. Useful for all levels of scrapbooker. Dec 06 This book is really good. It has three main chapters, which are Start Scrapbooking, Cropping For Scrapbooks and Eyelets For Scrapbooks. Each has loads of full-colour photographs, step-by-step instructions and clear text making it easy to follow. Start Scrapbooking includes useful information on the equipment you will need and what albums are the best and why. Cropping For Scrapbooks has a detailed double page of equipment needed. It also includes techniques, which are easy to use but produce great results. I liked Eyelets For Scrapbooks because it gives a good description of the terms used, what types of eyelets are available to buy, how to set them and how they can be used. It shows how effective they can be when used on stamped images.