Scrapbooking Templates and Themes

Shane Higginbottom asked:




The template 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 and templates can 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. What is the overall purpose for your scrapbook?

Who is the scrapbook for?

Who is the scrapbook about?

Scrapbooking themes and templates vary from project to project. You won’t use the same template or theme for a new born member to the family as you would for a wedding scrapbook. The purpose for the scrapbook determines the factors in selecting an appropriate scrapbook theme. Your nephew will probably appreciate a scrapbook with photographs, poems, journals, and more masculine embellishments. Perhaps, the theme of the scrapbook could be Skateboarding as is the case with our 7 year old boy. You could create elements that include skate boards and ramps and the cool skateboard designs that are so popular with kids today.

Mom, on the other hand, would love a multitude of baby pictures fancifully embellished with flowers, ribbon, and baby fingerprints. The theme of this book will probably be your baby. Photographs could include baby and grandma with the baby. A nice journal about your baby’s day could also add a nice touch

Scrapbooking Titles

Don’t forget to create a title for your scrapbook page. You should hunt around for some free scrapbooking fonts on the net. A title defines the whole theme of your scrapbook. The title instantly tells the viewer what your page is all about. In one word or in one short phrase.

Titles can include quotes, sayings, fillers, or simple phrases. Look for title inspiration in greeting cards, advertisements, and commercials.

Color

Color coordination and contrast will highlight and accent your scrapbook. A well thought out color scheme can help define the theme of a page, attract attention to specific items, or detract away from mistakes. Poorly chosen color schemes, on the other hand, can cause your scrapbook page to look gaudy or mismatched.

Background colors can either be matched, coordinated, or contrasted with the colors in your photographs, mementos, or embellishments. Matching colors add to the continuity of the color scheme. Coordinated colors add depth to scrapbook pages. Contrasted colors focus the eye. In this way, color can be used to create the effect you desire.

A great way to see how colors look together is to collect and compare color wheels from your local paint or hardware store. Paint wheels are usually available free for the taking in nearly any paint department.

Photographs

Most scrapbooks will contain photographs. Even the most disinterested reader of your scrapbook will glance at the photographs. Pictures really are worth a thousand words. Therefore, it is important to choose photographs that are of good quality and clearly illustrate your scrapbook theme.

Any photograph can be used in a scrapbook. Even instant photographs can be used in scrapbooking. Just be careful that the chemicals within the photograph do not spill out on the rest of your scrapbook. Digital pictures can easily be printed right onto lignin-free and acid -free paper.

Always keep in mind that scrapbooking is permanent. Therefore, it is probably preferable to use copies of your only picture of Great Grandma rather than risk ruining the photograph forever. Simply scan the picture on your computer scanner and print the image on lignin free and acid free paper.

Cutting and cropping

Unless you’re a pro. Photographs aren’t quite the right shape and size or the photo not centered. Having oversized or off centered photographs looks a bit un-professional. Carefully cropped and sized photographs, on the other hand, enhances the overall look and feel of your scrapbook.

These problems are easy to solve. You can manually crop and shape the photograph using scissors or an exacto knife. When manually cropping and cutting pictures, make sure that you mark the outline you want with chalk (or eye shadow if you don’t have chalk) I knew my girlfriends make up would come in handy, before you cut. Remember the old saying, measure twice and cut once.

To manually change a distracting or cluttered background simply cut out the background and replace it with a with a new paper background. This allows the eye to focus on the people instead of the clutter behind them.

The high tech solution to your photograph woes is to use modern computer programs such as Adobe photoshop, or gimp (which is free). Using these programs, photographs can be magically darkened, brightened, sharpened, enlarged, and cropped without ruining your original photograph. Some programs even allow you to change the background of the photograph.

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