Scrapbook Photos -- Getting Adventurous With Your Layouts

When you have selected the photos for your scrapbook, you'll need to decide how best to lay them out on the pages. Don't feel obliged to follow any principles that don't suit your own design. There are no specific rules stating that all photographs or mementos must be placed in chronological order. It is completely up you to decide in what order you wish to place your items and embellishments.

Choosing Your Layout

You can place your photos in a formal chronological order if you want. You can also group them into formal or informal categories according to similar colors, events, activities, individuals or families. Photographs can also be placed into random or abstract arrangements, or collages.

Each style has its own place in scrapbooking. For instance, a chronological order might be useful for an anniversary scrapbook. Pictures and mementos of the couple's years together could be placed from the first day they met through the wedding day to the present day with each time period on a different page.

On the other hand, a scrapbook for a parent might just have a collage of photos and drawings to create a sense of the character of their family and their lives together.

Getting Creative With Borders And Frames

Next time you want to find materials to make scrapbook photo frames, have a look in your sewing box or craft cupboard. You'll almost certainly find bits of ribbon, lace or embroidery cotton that can be re-used to make fascinating and unusual borders for pictures, photos, text or even entire pages.

These items can be used in many different ways by the scrapbooker and help create a sense of theme or mood, as well as contributing color and texture to your pages.

Ribbons and Lace

Ribbon and lace are by far the most common and most beautiful border embellishments. The flowing nature of both materials encourages a touch of softness and elegance. Ribbon and lace are especially popular in gift and memory scrapbooks. Ribbon is easy to glue and attach. Lace requires a bit more patience.

For an interesting change from ribbon and lace, try using jute or raffia.

Embroidery Cotton

Embroidery cotton can be used in a number of interesting scrapbooking ways. Individual fibers can be used to add a focus to special items or used to give dimension to artwork or drawings.

Embroidery fibers can also be twisted or braided for use in artwork or as imaginative borders. Embroidery cotton can even be used to tie down other items in a beautiful and creative way.

Hemp

Hemp can be used for a number of purposes in scrapbooking. Single, twisted, or braided fibers can be used to add focus as picture frames, or along the edges of the scrapbook page as a border. Hemp looks especially good in scrapbooks with a western theme. In general, hemp can also be used to make a scrapbook appear more masculine.

Hemp glues quite easily and hides glue messes well. To increase the likelihood that a piece of hemp will stay in place while the glue is drying, place a piece of scotch tape over the rope until the piece dries fully.

Always trust your own instincts and have the confidence to organize and decorate your scrapbook according to how you see the people and events it represents. That way your work will form a unique record and have even greater personal value.

Nigel Patterson is a writer on arts and crafts and the publisher of Create Your Own Scrapbooks.

Visit his website for new and imaginative scrapbooking tips and ideas -- so you can maintain your most treasured mementos and present them artistically for you, your family and your friends to enjoy.