Scrapbooking for Begin ners (NAPSA)—Scrapbooking has quickly becomea creative yet safe way to preserve treasured photos and keepsakes. Scrapbooking can increase the longevity of photos while at the same time beautifully displaying life’s greatest moments to share with future generations of family and friends. Following are some simple steps and helpful hints for beginners to maketheirfirst scrapbook- a ing venture a success. * Collect Photos. Put all your photos into one place. Be sure to check junk drawers, files, closets and old and new albums. * Organize. Organize all of your photos in the order in which you'd like them displayed in your scrapbook. The most common way to organize is chronological, but you can also organize by events such as holidays and vacations. Store them in archival quality photo boxes. Acid-Free and LigninFree. Any decorative papers, stickers, pens or scrapbooks used in scrapbooking must beacid-free and lignin-free to keep your photos safe and from turning brown with age. Any adhesives used to adhere your photos to scrapbook pages mustbe acid-free to prevent them from damaging and aging your photos. One to try: Duck brand Easy Stick™. It is an acidfree double-sided adhesive that rolls on faster, easier and cleaner than glue. Shop. It is very easy to go overboard when purchasing scrapbooking supplies for the first time. Buythe basics before anythingelse: a scrapbook and page protectors, colored cardstock, patterned paper, a few colored pens, decorative scissors and adhesive. You can add stickers, diecuts or other embellish- ments, but beautiful layouts are possible without them if your budget is tight. Layout. The first page of your scrapbook should be reserved as a title page. The next two-page spread is where to begin. Each spread should have a theme. Decide what pictures you'd like to display and lay them out. * Crop. If the background of a photo is not important, you may crop (cut) the photo in a shape so the focus is on the subject. When cropping, use plain scissors as opposed to decorative ones, which tend to take your eye away from the photo. Mat. After you decide on a layout, adhere all the photos, paper and stickers to the scrapbook page using yourroll-on adhesive. Think of a catchy title and apply it to the page. Journal. Journaling is one of the most important parts of scrapbooking. Write about what is happening in the photos. Include namesand dates and explain what funny things happened. With experience, you will find scrapbooking to be a fun and relaxing hobby. Not only will your great, great grandchildren see what their relatives’ lives were like, but they will also see the creativity that runsin the family.
