Supplies to Get You Started

You have the photos and the budding desire to be a scrapbooker, there are so many products available in the scrapbooking industry that it is easy to feel lost or overwhelmed. Here is a list of supplies to get you started.

1) An Album - Select the size album you want to work in and find a colour or pattern that works for the theme of your album.
Refills are not standard sizes, so it is best to make sure that you can easily get refill pages for your album when purchasing it.

 
3) A nice sharp pair of scissors. My favourite are Fiskars Soft Touch, which are comfortable to hold in my hand. Everyone has a style of scissors that will suit you.
You will want a pair of scissors that have a fine point & are dedicated exclusively to your scrapbooking & papercraft. This way they are always with your supplies and always nice and sharp.

4) Adhesive. There are many, different styles of adhesive. To get started you want an acid-free adhesive that will work well on both cardstock and photos. A few examples are: Photo Mounting Squares, Tombow Adhesive with Applicator, Tape Runners and Acid Free Glue Sticks. You will find what type of adhesive you find easy to use.

5) Cardstock and Printed Papers. Select paper to go with the colours you wish to accent in your photos. You may like to purchase individual sheets for each page, or purchase packs of paper if you prefer to have a variety.
Remember to use acid free & lignin free paper in your album.

6) Journal Pen. Look for acid-free, permanent, pens with fine tips for hand writing your journaling. If you wish to hand write titles for your pages you may wish to purchase pens that have a fine tip on one end and a wider tip on the opposite end.

Those are the essentials, but as with any craft, there is always more that you may want to add to your supplies. Here are the ones that I would add next.

Very High on the "Want" List:

1) A 12" Paper Trimmer.
2) Embellishments that coordinate with your pages, such as stickers, 3-D Stickers, buttons, and more.
3) An Idea Book. My personal favourites are from Becky Higgins & I love my scrapbooking magazines.

Additional Items to Consider When Budget Allows:

2) Full Set of Journaling Pens.
3) Circle/Oval Cutter.
4) More & more. Once you get started it's hard to stop. You will find yourself wanting more paper, more embellishments, and eventually more albums!

 
Choosing An Album

Documenting your family history in charts and forms is important, but putting it into an album will allow you to creatively display your treasured family memories. The first step is to select an album, and you have two choices to make: size and type.

Album sizes fall into basic choices: 8½ x 11 or 12 x 12. Anything smaller is such as 7 x 7” can be used for a small keepsake album, this size is too small to keep a family album in, but is ideal for children to start on. The 12 x 12” is often the most popular for family albums. The 12 x 12 size has much more room, making creative page layouts possible.
There majority of pattern paper & cardstock comes in the 12 x 12 size.

Your next choice is the type of album, which is basically (but not exclusively) 3-ring, post-bound or strap-Hinge.

Three ring albums: are easy to use and allow you to rearrange pages readily. (We recommend that you put album pages inside archival page protectors for lasting protection. Most albums you buy – regardless of type - will come this way and refill paper and protectors are readily available.) The 3-ring album is limited in the number of pages they can hold, based on the size of the ring, but usually have a large capacity ring.

Post-bound albums: allow adjacent pages to lie relatively flat when opened, with no separation between them. They use the same page protectors as the ring albums, which allows you to have both types of albums and buy refills that will work in either. Additional posts can be added for expansion making the capacity variable to suit your needs. Rearranging pages is not as quick and easy as 3-ring albums, but is not difficult.

Strap-Hinge albums have an expandable strap hinge. They have a solid page with reinforced edges. Most of these albums have pages that are acid free, lignin free & buffered. The album must be taken apart to move pages. These albums, when opened, allow adjacent pages to lie flat without the hinge being seen. If you use this style album, then you’ll need to get special page protectors. Some albums have the page protectors bound to the strap and pages can be slipped in and out through the top of the protector.

  Whatever type or size you choose, make sure the album you get is archival. This means that it’s made with acid free materials and any included paper is also lignin free. The plastic used in protectors should also be acid free.  Scrapbooking albums on the market today meet these requirements.
A word of caution here, stay away from ‘magnetic’ albums. They are most likely not archival and can ruin your pictures and documents in a few years. Photos stick to the album pages covering the back of the photos with a sticky substance.

Once you have chosen your album & stocked up on your basic supplies, you are ready to start this rewarding & fun hobby that preserves your photos & memories for years to come.

Have fun & Happy Memory Keeping!

Susan 
PAPER HAVEN