Here's 3 Stress Free Scrapbooking
Tips For Ravishing Pages!

I still can recall the first time I attended a weekend scrapbooking get-away trip with several of my scrapbooking friends and feeling overwhelmed by their scrapbooking tips and secrets.

I would easily spend an hour or two creating just one layout while most of my friends could easily create three or four layouts during the same time frame. Though I must say that scrapbooking can be done in considerably LESS time if you follow our scrapbook organization tips!

My layouts looked super busy and sometimes like my eight-year-old did them, while my friends were creating beautiful layouts. However, by the end of the weekend, I did pick up some really great tips and my scrapbooking has much improved. Now I'm passing those tips onto you so that you too can design ravishing pages!

If you were to take a look at the first few scrapbooks that I put together, you would quickly discover that every background was different. I would go from a polka dotted background, to one that looked like grass, followed by a striped background. My son used to guess what the background would be before flipping to a new page. Although there's nothing wrong in using a variety of backgrounds, one of the best scrapbooking tips that I learned was to minimize the use of scrapbook paper for my background.

♥ Use a neutral background. Beige and off-white are actually two of the most popular colors for backgrounds. By using a neutral background, it allows you to choose a color theme for each page, but as an accent. For example, I recently created a layout of my daffodils that were just beginning to bloom. I framed each photo in yellow to match the flowers and used an orange background for my journaling space. I was pleasantly surprised at how much the yellowed popped against the beige background. The backgrounds don't have to be solid. I tend to look for scrapbook sheets that give the appearance of some type of texture. You can also purchase scrapbook albums that actually have scrapbook pages with a finished off-white background. There is no need to adhere a background to the pages.

♥ Alternate between two colors. For many scrapbooks, it works well to alternate between two colors for the backgrounds. While putting together a baby scrapbook album for my niece, I alternated between yellow and green. When I started the scrapbook we weren't sure if she was having a boy or girl, but I was excited to get started on the scrapbook. Another fun idea is to use school colors if you're putting together a graduation scrapbook album. Recently a friend created a family tree scrapbook album and she use dark green and mauve for her backgrounds. It was truly a stunning album.

♥ Use either pastel or bold colors. I also discovered that if I'm going to use several colors, to stick with pastels or bold colors. Some of the backgrounds are solid, while others will have a design in them. Pastel colors work nicely for baby albums, little girls, or wedding celebrations. Bold colors work great for little boys, teens or sports albums.

While learning all sorts of scrapbooking tips and tricks, I learned to vary my layouts. I used to think that a layout wasn't complete unless it was filled with scrapbook embellishments, photos, journaling, and die-cuts. I've learned that if I have a photo that just takes my breath away, to use just that photo for a layout.

I would enlarge the photo to a 5×7 and add a special frame to it. Instead of journaling, I used an appropriate scrapbook sticker message and added a diagonal border to two of the corners.

There are certain layouts that have become my favorite. I might use the same basic layout three or four times in a scrapbook album, but I make sure to include other layouts in between my favorite ones. By doing this, each page looks unique and fresh.

Want to learn more scrapbooking layout tips and tricks? Click here and discover more amazing ways to fancy up your scrapbook page!

or people just starting out with scrapbooking, one of the top scrapbooking tips is to use grids for your layouts. You can easily create your own grid template or go online and download templates for free. Two common grid templates include:

♥ 4 Block Template. With the four block template, a scrapbook page is divided into four equal squares. As you design your layout, you think in terms of the squares. You might use a large photo in the upper left square and two smaller photos in the lower right square. Another square would be used for the title along with a few embellishments and the last square would be used for journaling and maybe a die-cut. As you use the template for another page, you follow the same concept, but change the location of your photos.

♥ Tic-tac-toe Template. Using a 3×3 template, again you want to think in terms of the squares. If you want to add a large photo to your layout, it should fit within two or four of the squares. If your design includes a row of photos, make sure they fit in three squares. The great thing about using a tic-tac-toe template is you can create several different looking layouts, just be arranging your photos in different areas each time.

If you're going to use grids for the entire scrapbook, then you should use the same template for each page of the side-by-side layouts. Otherwise, your layouts will look busy which will take away from enjoying the layouts.

Do these scrapbooking tips sound easy enough? Try them out for yourself the next time you scrapbook and discover that what once felt stressful has become pure fun.

Topic: Scrapbooking Tips