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A new and emerging trend in scrapbooking is the use of albums that aren’t the standard dimensions of 12″ x 12″, 8.5″ x 11″ or even 6″ x 6″. Many scrapbookers want to expand to larger pages so they can use larger photos and more photos in their layouts. The major problem has been finding albums in these non;standard dimensions to preserve these layouts.

Giant scrapbooks, by definition, are just really big scrapbooks! They aren’t easy to find either, but there are a few companies that have them. One company I found carries 2 giant scrapbook album sizes: 12″ x 18″ and 18″ x 24″. These giant art scrapbooks were originally designed to hold the artwork that children bring home from school, but they work wonderfully for oversized layouts!

Here are some of the things you can do with these oversized albums:

What is digital scrapbooking? Well, it is basically taking the art of scrapbooking onto your computer! There are many things you can’t do in traditional scrapbooks that are available to you as a digital scrapbooker.

One of the things you can do is create your own scrapbook paper. Take any image and turn it into your own patterned paper. You can make your papers any colors you want to match the photos for your specific layouts!

You can also do some amazing things with your photos when you scrap digitally. I had a friend create her background paper out of a photo and layer another photo on top of it. It was amazing! You can add words and phrases onto your photos, color tint black and white photos, enlarge photos or turn your photos into cartoon drawings, depending on the software.

My personal preference for photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop Elements. You can make pages any size you want, use fun text effects and add lots of texture styles. Did you know you can take a rectangular block of color, add dots, layer on texture and it can look like polka dot grosgrain ribbon?? Photoshop Elements does have a definite learning curve and isn’t intuitive like Microsoft Word, but once you play with it for a few times, it will get easier.

Now, playing with page effects on Photoshop Elements is fun for do;it;yourselfers, digital scrapbooking stores take all the hard work out of digital pages. Plus, the people who design the products are much more capable of making something that looks exactly the way it should. There is something to be said for the amount of time it saves by just buying a product. And you don’t even have to wait for the item to ship. You just pay and download for almost instant access!

At many online stores, you can download any number of products and print them for your own pages. They have everything from fonts to cut outs and everything in between! You should see the amazing digital metal tags! They look so realistic!

One thing to consider is whether or not you plan to print your pages to put in a traditional scrapbook. If you want to print them out and like the 12″ x 12″ size, you will need to find a printer that will support that size paper. Most home printers won’t accommodate papers that big. You also have the added expense of the ink required to print out these pages, so you’ll have to weigh all these factors to see if it is a cost effective way for you to scrapbook. Now, there are some online photo developers that can actually print your pages as photos in this size, so that’s another option!

Digital scrapbooking is a fun and new twist on scrapbooking. It takes some learning, but based on its growing popularity, it’s here to stay!

Great for the days before built-in kitchens (and ideal for the micro-home movement) comes this beauty from an old Women’s Magazine (forgive me for not having the reference).

Designed for the tiny kitchen of a bride, this trousseau kitchnette will be welcomed by every housewife forced to cook in a limited space. Closed it measures only 34″ high X 22″ wide X 21″ deep. It is completely fitted, containing altogether 67 pieces, $60

I’m not sure, but I bet, if one shopped well, you could put something like this together for the same or less than it cost nearly 100 years ago!

Very Clever Indeed

In the “why didn’t I think of that” catagory of child care comes this interesting tip from the February 1907 issue of the Ladies Home Journal–

An easy way to amuse a child when the mother is doing housework, alone, is to let him cut out pictures from papers, dip them in clear water, and apply them to the painted wall of the kitchen. This will afford a child infinite satisfaction, and keep him employed while his mother is busy. No harm will be done the wall, for by the time he is tired of his play the pictures will have begun to curl up and drop off.

Tips on Princess Scrapbooking

Are you the type who enjoys reading stories about princesses and their adventures? Perhaps you are the type who can relate to the image of the princess in the tower, waiting for a prince to rescue her? Maybe, you can relate yourself to warrior princesses and imagine yourself as the heroine of an epic.

Well then, that would explain your inclination for princess scrapbooking. Perhaps you are a parent, wanting to create a princess scrapbook for your daughter. We all know how much little girls love to identify themselves with princesses.

You may have grown into adulthood and you may have forgotten about being a princess because of the complexities of life, but hey, isn’t the dream of being a princess still within you? You know that hidden within the scars created by reality, the heart that beats within you remains that of a princess.

Princess scrapbooking is one way of showing the world that part of you that deserves to be treated like a princess. But what inspiration should you use for princess scrapbooking?

Here are some tips for you:

1) In princess scrapbooking, you should try to choose a princess that fits your personality. You can’t just pick an inspiration because of the color of their dress. You should choose someone that fits your ideals.

This way, you actually incorporate someone who you can relate to. When basing your scrapbooking on Princesses, you should be able to relate to other people about the reason why you chose a particular princess.

2) The first tip leads to this next tip. When princess scrapbooking, you should do some research about the particular character you intend to use. You see, many people tend to create scrapbooks based on popular figures only to find out that the figure contradicted a crucial part of their personality.

How do you research on fictional characters? You see, fictional princesses often have some background information which not many people know about. Yes, fictional characters have something more to them than what the general public can see. One tip is looking up the “canonical” traits of a character. This means looking up the “official” portrayals of the character. Whenever a writer comes up with a new character, he or she creates a whole life for that character. This is so when that character is re;used, nothing the character does will contradict what the original writer planned.

3) Balance is very important. Overdoing your use of a princess on scrapbooking can actually take the focus away from the contents of the scrapbook itself. You do not want to distract the reader from the contents of the scrapbook in order to promote the princess. Remember that large companies already make billions of dollars because of fictional characters. You don’t really want to be giving them the attention you deserve for creating the scrapbook.

4) Princess scrapbooking also needs creativity. Although you already have the general theme taken care of, it is still up to you to make it work. Remember that on a scrapbook, all the little details matter. Adding other elements to your scrapbook is a must and will help you balance out if the scrapbook turns out to be “too princess;y.”

5) Princess scrapbooking also involves interpretations. Remember that vague symbols can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, depending on the beholder. You need to make sure that your message comes across and not any others. If it helps, you should make sure that you do not use any themes or characters that could be very offensive to other people.

6) Symbols are just that: symbols. If you happen to choose a princess that offends someone, remind yourself that the scrapbook you made means something to you. You should not let any interpretations by “experts” confuse you into thinking you did something wrong. It is, after all, your experiences that are being chronicled in princess scrapbooking. This means that the focus should be in your life and not on the symbolic interpretations of your scrapbook.

There you go: those are just some of the tips you can use on princess scrapbooking. In order to get more information, you should try to do a little research on the internet. In princess scrapbooking, you only need to remember one thing: Have fun!