Introduction - Do you remember those days as a kid pasting newspaper clippings onto paper and bundling dozens of papers together with some fancy ribbon or a string? Do you also remember all of your hard work falling apart two months later?

Now there's a grown up way to save and preserve your treasures: Scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking Tip 1-10 - The theme of your scrapbook can be simple or complex. Your theme could be a special event such as a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding, Christmas, or Halloween. Themes can also be personalized to the scrapbook recipient's special interests. Special interests themes include favorite colors, sports, favorite television programs, music, the outdoors, or cultural influences.

Scrapbooking Tip 10-20 - Spacing is a difficult matter. There is a fine line between having a balanced scrapbook page and a gaudy mess. If items are too closely spaced your reader will feel overwhelmed. If your items are spaced to far apart your viewer will feel short changed.

Look at your page.
Close your eyes.
Open them again.
Does your page look cluttered?
Does your page have more photographs than background?

Scrapbooking Tip 21-30 - An attractive technique for placing photographs into scrapbooks is the photograph mosaic. Mosaics stretch photographs into an artistic rendition of the original photograph. Maps can also be stretched in this way. This method might be employed to create a funky look for a friend scrapbook or as a background for someone who likes computers, GIS, or geography.

Scrapbooking Tip 31-40 - A leather look can add elegance to your scrapbooking page.

To create a unique leather look, simply distress cardstock. To do this, grip the cardstock in your hands. Then, with a gentle circular motion, rub the cardstock together as if you were pre-treating a laundry stain. Gradually, work your way around the cardstock until you get the desired effect.

Scrapbooking Tip 41-50 - Ribbon and lace are by far the most common, and most beautiful, border embellishment. The flowing nature of both materials encourages a touch of softness and elegance. Ribbon and lace are especially popular in gift and memory scrapbooks.

Moreover, ribbon is easy to glue and attach. Lace requires a bit more patience.

Scrapbooking Tip 51-60 - Fake fur can be used to add details to drawings and embellishments on your scrapbook page. Fake fur is fun on children's artwork, to create animal embellishments, or to create wild designs.

To attach fur, simply cut out the desired shape. Then, paste the fake fur onto your scrapbooking page or onto an object.

To reduce static electricity, place a drying sheet over the fake fur before you glue it into place.

Scrapbooking Tip 61-70 - Hinges are used to make pop up windows. However, by using hinges, you can make more permanent and stronger pop up windows made of wood. Generally the hinges are anchored to eyelets for increased support.

Hinges are available at any local hardware store.

Moldable foam allows you to create anything your imagination and talent allow.

Scrapbooking Tip 71-80 - Use your scrap bits to create great funky backgrounds.  These items add texture and color to your work. Some interesting scrap material suitable for backgrounds include furniture casters, bits of linoleum, and carpet swatches.

Be aware, however, that some of these media alternates are extremely difficult to work with, break easily, and may not preserve well.

Scrapbooking Tip 81-90 - If you enjoy sewing and embroidery, you can use these skills to create amazing embellishments.  These designs create great focus pieces for elegant gift scrapbooks.

Patterns can be either sewn directly into the scrapbook page or onto a piece of fabric. This fabric can then either be used as a background or pasted on the page.

Scrapbooking Tip 91-101 - Wax paper ink dye has an effect resembling tie-dye. This creates a great children's art background or a funky scrapbook for a close friend.

To do the wax paper technique cut a piece of wax paper slightly larger that the area you are working with. Next, crumple the wax paper up and then unfold. Then, lay the wax paper onto the glossy paper and cover the wax paper with a sheet of paper.

In Conclusion - Over the years, scrapbooking has matured into an art. No longer is scrapbooking about pasting newspaper clippings into messy bundles of paper. Today, scrapbooks have evolved into long lasting, beautiful mementos containing everything from news clippings to three-dimensional objects.

Furthermore, scrapbooks are no longer just for special occasions. Today's scrapbooks make great baby announcements, grandparent books, gift cards, artwork for kid's rooms, recipe books, and educational tools.

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