Scrapbooking - Organize a Special Room

Scrapbooking can be addictive. Creative individuals, browsing a scrapbooking supply store, often find themselves purchasing items for which they have no present use or future plan. A particular pack of paper is too pretty to resist. A certain embellishment is new and exciting. A kit would be just right if a friend has a baby sometime. Eventually, the scrapbooking supplies begin to overflow a box. Then they overflow two boxes. Papers become dog-eared or torn. It's time to organize.

Such people eventually reach a point where they begin to despair, and question how to organize a scrapbook room. They don't want to give up the craft, but it takes so much space.

Perhaps you find yourself in the same predicament. Maybe you are wondering how to organize your scrapbook room.

How to Organize a Scrapbook Room

Wondering how to organize a scrapbook room, you may have started sorting supplies into separate boxes. That kept them organized, but not readily accessible. Also, the scrapbooking tools weren't in boxes.

Perhaps these suggestions will help.

Divide a scrapbook room into two areas. The first area will be for working on scrapbooks. The second will be for storage.

1. Work Area: This area will need a scrapbooking table or desk. The scrapbooking work area should be large enough to hold a large album, papers, photos, other elements, and tools. If you enjoy working with other family members or friends, select a scrapbooking table that provides space for 3 or 4 workers. Provide comfortable chairs for your scrapbook room so that your back is supported while working. Good lighting is also essential in a scrapbooking work area. Add a big wastebasket!

2. Storage Area: Adequate, organized storage in a scrapbook room will make your work easier and keep your supplies fresh and clean. There are many ways to store scrapbooking supplies. You can purchase furniture made especially for scrapbook rooms. Scrapbooking desks offer drawers of various sizes to fit the most common supplies. Scrapbooking paper storage units are often similar to those used in large offices. Clear plastic bins that stack are very useful. You will need different kinds of storage for different products so they will stay organized.

Once you have divided your scrapbook room and acquired the necessary furnishings, it is time to organize things.

Scrapbooking albums are probably your largest items. Keep them on a bookshelf where you can easily select the one on which you want to work. If you have more than one size, arrange them by height to give your scrapbook room an organized look to go with your organizational efforts. If you have idea books or instructional books on scrapbooking, put them on the bookshelf. Magazines can be stored there, too. Magazine holders from am office supply store will keep them tidy.

Scrapbooking papers and cardstock are the next largest items. These can be organized in a Paper Station such as scrapbooking stores use. Or store them in clear stacking plastic bins. Sort all of your papers and get them safely out of the way before moving to another scrapbooking element.

Sort your paper and cardstock in a way that fits your creativity. Some people sort by color, placing all blues in one location, yellows in another, etc. Others prefer to sort according to occasion. Papers related to nostalgic themes go together. Papers that fit a sports theme go in another storage bin. Baby scrapbooking paper goes in a third.

Once papers are sorted and put in storage bins or drawers, label the bins so that you will know at a glance what is in each.

Kits should be stored separately from your paper and cardstock. Your scrapbook room might have a dedicated box or drawer just for kits. Keep them in their wrappers if you want to be sure you have all the pieces when you are ready to use them. Label your kit box or drawer.

Ribbons can tangle and fray if not stored properly. Invest in a ribbon holder for your scrapbook room - more than one if you have a lot of ribbons. Make sure each roll is tidy, and store them on the ribbon holders. You may want to organize these by color also. If you are putting them in a box or drawer, attach a label.

Your scrapbook room is probably looking better by now. The small things are left, though, and they can cause clutter. Take time to sort through all of the stickers, embellishments, eyelets, brads, and other items. Once they are sorted, place each in an appropriate drawer or box, and label them. A scrapbooking desk is especially convenient for these small items. Its many drawers and nooks will soon have the scrapbook room well organized.

One essential in a scrapbook room is a place for tools. If they are on your table or desk, you may not have space to work. Put them away.

Helpful Tip

Still wonder how to organize a scrapbook room? Remember the old maxim: A place for everything and everything in its place. Put things away when you're done and it will stay organized.

©2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about scrapbooking at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com. Anna is posting new articles regularly on that site. You won?t want to miss her recent article on scrapbooking with a designer's eye.

Top 10 Reasons to Digitize Your Scrapbook

Digital scrapbook pages have become all the rage in scrapbooking. Even diehard traditional scrappers have begun to integrate some digital scrapbook pages into their layouts and albums. More and more, they're realizing it's an exciting, yet simple way to expand and enhance creativity while helping to preserve their memories for generations to come.

To create your first digital scrapbook pages, you don't need to be a computer guru, nor do you have to learn complicated software.

Moreover, unlike traditional scrapbooking, digital scrapbook layouts enable you to easily try out different types of backgrounds, designs and embellishments before you commit. Anything you do to your page can be redone many times over without wasting time, effort and money. And that's only the beginning of the advantages that going digital has to offer the modern-day scrapper.

Top 10 Reasons to Go Digital

1. Timesaver

Implementing digital scrapbook pages will save you time. It's no longer necessary to print your pictures before you put them into your scrapbook pages. Just download your digital pictures to your computer or scan your hard copy photos. You can buy premade scrapbook layouts with spaces for your photos and then simply drag and drop your digital pictures onto the scrapbook pages. No need to redo handmade scrapbook pages; no need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper.

2. Tidier

Traditional scrappers have required a permanent space in their homes for their volumes of paper, ribbon, lace and other embellishments, along with unfinished projects vulnerable to accidents. Digital scrapping means no mess on your dining room table, no need for extra physical storage space, no cutting your photos. Save all your layouts and supplies directly to your computer or external storage device.

3. Greener

Digital scrapbook pages allow you to literally reuse any digital scrapbook element as many times as you like, so say goodbye to buying extra paper to avoid running out of a certain pattern or color. Goodbye to the glue and piles of leftover paper scraps and unrecyclable materials. Good riddance, reject scrapbook pages- you can quickly fix them before printing!

4. Cheaper

If you already own a computer, all you need to buy is the scrapbook layout software and digital scrapbook kits, which are fairly inexpensive and include paper and embellishments. The equivalent in physical materials is far more expensive, and once you use them, they're gone. Digital kits can be used indefinitely. And because there's no need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper, you'll save money in gas too!

5. Goof Proof

Photos are often the most precious items in your scrapbooks, so why risk butchering them with scissors? With digital scrapbooking, there's no chance of destroying the only photo you have of your mom's mom's mom. Scan the photo and make as many copies as you like. Digital scrapbook pages allow you to experiment with infinite combinations until they look just the way you want. And if you misspell a word in your journaling, you're free to correct it without damaging your scrapbook layouts.

6. Photo Doctor

Basic photo editing programs allow you to restore old photos to make them look just like new. Conversely, you can take current photos and make them looked aged. Vanish wrinkles, blemishes and moles, and fix that pervasive red eye. Resize, crop, sharpen, and correct lighting. Nearly every photo you take can be improved with a little doctoring.

7. Professional

Cropped photos always have perfect edges, computer text is always straight, and computer font is always legible! Digital scrapbook pages look professional and boost the pride we feel in our creations.

8. Versatile

Take any design you like and turn it into just about anything you want. Adjust the colors, sizes, patterns, arrangements ... your options are limitless.

9. Easy to Share

One of the biggest advantages of digital scrapbook pages is that they can be easily shared in so many ways. Print multiple copies to share with family, upload pages to a family Web site or blog, or e-mail pages to relatives wherever they live.

10. Endless Supplies

You'll always have what you need in the right size, color and style, and you'll never need to worry about running out of glue. With digital scrapbook layouts, you'll always have the supplies you need.

With both traditional and digital scrapbook layouts, you're limited by only one thing: your imagination. If you're a scrapper, you owe it to your craft to try digital scrapbooking! An infinite assortment of exciting new scrapbook layouts awaits, and it's only a few clicks away.

Digital scrapbooking diva Sasha Byers explores the world of documenting memories digitally, providing insight and ideas on how to create digital photo collages and scrapbooks. She offers tips on scrapbooking important events, travels and major life periods such as childhood, school athletics and a child's transition out of the nest. She also debunks common myths about digital scrapbooking and addresses frequent questions on this popular new hobby. Sasha's blogs provide answers, tips and digital scrapbooking ideas to help you create sharper, more attractive scrapbooks in half the time. Learn more about our photo collage maker at the Artopia Photo Collage Maker Community. Connect with others and share your scrapbook layouts at the Artopia Photo Collage Maker Community.

Scrapbooking Techniques For Your Scrapbook Albums

Lets begin by asking ourselves, "What are Scrapbooking Techniques?". Let's distinguish this two-word phrase. Scrapbooking is a way of preserving,keeping and saving your precious memories in the form of scrapbook layouts or scrapbook pages. This layouts ranges from different sizes but the 12x12 and 8.5x11 layouts are the common choices of scrapbookers. I personally like 8x8 scrapbook layouts.

Techniques,in any case, are steps/ways implemented to perform or materialize a definite objective.

In short, Scrabooking Techniques are formula and application needed to put your scrapbooking into fulfillment/attainment.

Observe that I put emphasis on fulfillment/attainment. This explains that these techniques fulfill your need to scrap those memories in your scrapbook pages.

And because you are the one who determine on what to capture from your moments in daily lives, scrapbooking techniques that can be applied in your scrapbook layouts are infinite. The only limit is the sky! You make unique scrapbook layouts, hence unique techniques.

Scrapbooking Techniques dismay many scrapbookers specifically tyro scrappers. You must take into consideration the following points to assure to yourself that these are for everybody.

1. Scrapbooking Techniques are explained as techniques used to make scrapbook layouts.

If you used embossing in your scrapbook page, then you just helped yourself and dove in the world of scrapbooking.Where I am pointing at? You are the only person who can determine what techniques are perfect for your scrapbook pages. Therefore, rooms for improvements are inspired.

2. Remember that YOU are the artist of your scrapbook page.

It is common to artist to have own definition and techniques on how a scrapbook layout should be finished. Hence, your techniques are always accepted and heartened.

3. Don't compromise to try techniques that is not your cup of tea.

Even though a specific technique is the current trend,who cares? You are constructing your "life memories scrapbooks" and your variety should not be reliant on what others are making but with how you visualize your scrapbook layouts. Scrapbooking will not be as advance as it is now if all scrapbookers would work on same techniques.

4. Refine old scrapbooking techniques.

People are incomparable with each other. Thus, scrapbookers have specialized groove and inclination. Harness your own choice, preferences, priority and scrapbook page ideas on your scrapbook layouts. Don't ambition to perfect these techniques. Instead refine scrapbooking techniques to match your inclination and creative talents.

5. Be persistent with scrapbooking.

Be understanding to yourself while you study and research more about scrapbooking. Don't frustrate yourself by expecting to learn everything in one night.

6. Provoke yourself by making your own Scrapbooking Techniques.

Increase your awareness by letting yourself in creating your own techniques. Moreover, time is an important factor. Don't be discouraged if you couldn't make outstanding and excellent techniques.

7. Rejuvenate the scrapbooking techniques in you.

Scrapbook page ideas that uses scrapbook techniques set your mind and body to produce and execute more of these techniques. Therefore, focus on reinforcing your talents and work on your impotent aspects. I will discuss more on establishing these skills in my next article.

My name is Ramintessah Aihara. I mainly blog about scrapbooking techniques for scrapbook layouts and my other crafty ideas at Scrapbooking Techniques For Scrapbook Layouts.

Making Use of Scrapbooking Supplies

Scrapbooking tools are essential to creating a successful scrapbook. The supplies for scrapbooking are what make your scrapbook come to life. What most people don't know is that there are many ways that you can use ordinary scrapbook supplies and do something extraordinary with them. I'm going to walk you through a few tips and tricks of scrapbooking, and teach you techniques to come up with your own scrapbooking ideas!

Take a rubber stamp, a scrapbooking material that every scrapbooker should have. You can use this scrapbooking tool to stamp images beside your photographs, or you can take it a step further by stamping a collage on solid-colored scrapbook paper to create a custom scrapbook page layout background. Also, you can color in your stamped images to bring them to life and make them pop out more on your scrapbook page.

Another scrapbooking tip to make use of your supplies for scrapbook is using scrapbook templates creatively. It's easy to become stumped while using this scrapbooking material. You can decorate around a photo, or even the border of a page. These scrapbook supplies can be used to draw an area the put your scrapbook journaling in, also. One other useful technique for scrapbook templates is for making a page header. There are many attractive letter templates that make for beautiful scrapbook page headers, or even write words around the border of a page with the letter template.

You can do creative things with a pair of scissors, also. Although decorative scissors with different patterns on the edge are nice, they are not a necessity of scrapbooking supplies. Cut mats for photos with creative borders, or use them with templates to cut out letters and other things to give a 3D effect on your scrapbook page.

Those are just a few of the many ways you can use scrapbook supplies. Be creative with your scrapbooking tools. To come up with original ways to use your supplies for scrapbooking, simply look at what others have done. Take ideas that you like, and alter them to fit your scrapbook. Use scrapbook tools in any way that you like. There are no rules.

Test your ideas out on scrap paper before you actually put it into your scrapbook. This way, you can see if you really like the idea or not, and tweak the design a bit to your liking. If you come up with something that you like, but don't know when you will use it, write it down for later reference.

Remember that there are no rules to using your scrapbooking materials and scrapbook supplies. Be creative!

There are all sorts of scrapbooking materials online [http://www.start-scrapbooking.com/suppliesreview.html]. T. Ashley has been scrapbooking for many years, along with teaching other to scrapbook, and is also the founder of and maintains [http://www.start-scrapbooking.com]

5 Reasons You Should Be Scrapbooking

Do you need a new creative outlet? Do you have pictures of your children and your family just sitting around in various boxes, and plain old photo albums? Do you not have a lot of money to spend on hobbies? Perhaps scrapbooking is the right hobby for you. Five reasons that you should try scrapbooking are outlined here.

Do you wish you had a unique way to document your family's memories? Do you have beautiful pictures of your children that look plain sitting in a traditional picture frame? If you do, you should create a scrapbook. In fact, five reasons why you should at least give scrapbooking a try are outlined below.

1 Scrapbooking Is Easy

You've probably been to a craft show, and you've seen several crafts there, that just look too difficult for you to attempt. Scrapbooking is a craft, but it is not a difficult one. Creating a scrapbook is very easy to do. You may find that the hardest part is choosing which of your photos to use. You may very well choose to use them all, and create several scrapbooks.

To make a scrapbook, you purchase an album that is very much like a regular photo album. You'll mount your photos and other memorabilia on the blank pages inside. You can then use markers, stickers, colord paper, or other embellishments to turn those blank pages into something unique. It's that easy.

2 Scrapbooking Makes A Great Hobby

Many people find that scrapbooking is an addicting hobby. You may very well be the same way. You'll start creating a scrapbook, and you will not want to stop. As you get better and better at scrapbooking, you may well find yourself enjoying it more and more.

Scrapbooking is also a good hobby for children. Even young children, with some help, can make a scrapbook. If you enjoy making scrapbooks, you may want to involve your children as well. You can have them help you create your scrapbook, or let them start their own scrapbooks. Scrapbooking is a fun, safe, and creative activity for your children.

3 Scrapbooking Supplies Are Not Expensive

Most hobbies and crafts have some expense associated with them, some more than others. With woodworking for example, you can spend a lot of money on tools and lumber to build even a small piece of furniture. Scrapbooking, on the other hand, is extremely inexpensive. You can purchase scrapbooking supplies very cheaply from craft stores, from dollar stores, and from many online sources.

You don't have to start with a big scrapbooking kit. You can start small, and expand your scrapbooking kit after you've gotten some practice. You can find scrapbook albums at your local craft store for $5-$10. Some acid free glue and some markers will only set you back a few more dollars. You can then pick up some printed scrapbook sheets for less than a dollar, or you can make your own with construction paper.

4 Scrapbooking Options

The options available in scrapbooking are another good reason to get into this hobby. You may think that scrapbooking involves a lot of cutting and gluing. If you want to put together a traditional scrapbook, yes, this is true. You will need to do some cutting and gluing. In these modern times, however, you also have the option of creating a digital scrapbook.

You'll find several options for digital scrapbooking software, some are free, while others will need to be purchased. Hundreds of background pages are available, and with a lot of digital scrapbooking software, you can add in your own pictures. Digital scrapbooks are easy to create, and easy to share with others.

5 Uses For Scrapbooks

You can certainly create a scrapbook for your own personal use, to save pictures and memories that are important to you. You have many other options, however. If you're a new parent, you can use a scrapbook to document the life of your child, from birth through graduation and beyond. You can make scrapbooks to celebrate an wedding, graduation, anniversary, or many other occasions. A scrapbook would make a great gift to a couple for a landmark anniversary, such as the 25th or 50th.

Photos may look nice when they are framed, or placed into a photo album, but there is just so much more that you can do with them. Placing those photos into a scrapbook provides a unique way to treasure your memories, and to pass them on to others.

Be sure to visit Scrapbook Resources & Supplies for more scrapbooking ideas and resources.

Evolution of the Scrapbook

What are the roots of today's digital scrapbook? A scrapbook is a visual method of storytelling to preserve a legacy of history in the form of photographs, printed media and memorabilia presented artistically in decorated albums. The digital scrapbook can be traced back to ancient Greece, where a special notebook known as a "hypomnemata" was used to record events people had heard, seen or read that they wanted to preserve and remember.

In early America, some of the most well-known scrapbookers included Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain. An avid scrapbooker, Mark Twain devoted entire Sundays to the hobby and then sold his books through Montgomery Ward.

In the 15th century, books called commonplace books, often used by students, were used to record prayers, poems and information such as weights and medical formulas. Eventually, commonplace books also held illustrations, newspaper clippings and recipes, and proved to be a valuable way to share information.

With the advent of photography, scrapbooks began to feature mounted photos with handwritten captions. A scrapbook layout might include letters, newspaper articles and other mementos. Young women in the Victorian period created memory books, friendship albums or visitor's albums containing signatures, cards, locks of hair, poetry and pictures of their family and friends to give as gifts or preserve memories.

The Traditional Scrapbook

In the United States, Utah's Marielen Christensen is often credited with reviving interest in scrapbooking. She began designing creative pages and three-ring binders for her family's photo memories and displayed them at the World Conference on Records. She and her husband published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened a scrapbook store in 1981 that remains open today.

The traditional art of scrapbooking has often brought women together socially to make scrapbooks and share their work and memories. These hobbyists, known as scrapbookers or scrappers, still gather at each other's homes, local scrapbook stores, scrapbooking conventions and retreat centers. The term "crop," a reference to cropping or trimming printed photos, was coined to describe these events.

In the late 1990s, many U.S. scrappers opened stores to turn their hobby into a business. Between 2001 and 2004, the scrapbooking industry doubled in size to $2.5 billion, with more than 1,600 companies creating scrapbooking products by 2003. In America, the hobby has surpassed golf in popularity: One in four households has a golf enthusiast; one in three has a scrapbooking enthusiast!

Scrapping Goes Digital

Naturally, scrapbooking has modernized with the computer age. Creating a digital scrapbook is the process of using a scrapbook layout to create pages using photo- or image-editing software. Digital scrappers import electronic photos and scrapbooking graphics into their image-editing programs and arrange them to create digital scrapbook pages.

Digital scrapping was inspired by the methods, style and culture of traditional scrapbooking. Today's scrapbook layout and computer programs are designed to capture the look and feel of traditional scrapbooking and provide creative control over all the elements--even ones on premade templates.

And the social element remains intact in the digital scrapping world. Many digital scrappers get together to share their digital resources and knowledge about editing programs. They read blogs, attend scrapbook conventions and meet others in online digital scrapbooking chat rooms and forums. It's easier than ever to share a digital scrapbook with anyone, anywhere!

Time and money savings are among other benefits digital scrapbookers realize over glue-and-paper scrapping. In addition, while a traditional scrapbook layout and photos can fade or yellow over time, a computer-generated scrapbook layout is archived in a digital format where it's kept safe from the effects of time, heat, oxidation and other factors. A digital scrapbook layout never loses its detail or color.

Another feature people love about the digital scrapbook is that they can add small notes or embellishments to each photo in the scrapbook layout to convey the story more vividly. This allows them to add their own creativity to the scrapbook layout.

With digital photography rising quickly, many scrapbookers edit all their photos on the computer before they ever put them in an album. They remove red eyes, crop distracting backgrounds and enhance the color of images, sharpening the overall effect of their digital scrapbook and giving it a professional look.

Traditional scrappers are realizing they don't have to learn programming to create a digital scrapbook or photo collage. This part of the digital scrapbook has been catered to by professionals and is served to the scrapper on a platter in the form of a premade template and scrapbook layout, often featuring themes carrying mass appeal.

Scrapbooking has come a long way since ancient Greece, but its purpose and effects remain the same, and the digital scrapbook will only boost the popularity of this ancient art, helping preserve special memories for centuries to come!

Digital scrapbooking diva Sasha Byers explores the world of documenting memories digitally, providing insight and ideas on how to create digital photo collages and scrapbooks. She offers tips on scrapbooking important events, travels and major life periods such as childhood, school athletics and a child's transition out of the nest. She also debunks common myths about digital scrapbooking and addresses frequent questions on this popular new hobby. Sasha's blogs provide answers, tips and digital scrapbooking ideas to help you create sharper, more attractive scrapbooks in half the time

Learn more about our photo collage maker at the Artopia Photo Collage Maker Community

Connect with others and share your scrapbook layouts at the Artopia Photo Collage Maker Community

Free Digital Scrapbooking Themes

If you are a digital scrapbooking beginner, you probably have many questions. You like the idea of digital scrapbooking, but you don't want to sink a lot of money into it until you know whether it will be rewarding.

Definition of Digital Scrapbooking

Digital scrapbooking is the act of creating images, photos, journaling, and extra "touches" to preserve your memories in digital instead of physical form. Scrapbooking software is available free on the Internet, or you can use a standard Microsoft Word program.

Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Scrapbooking looks most professional when the entire publication has a theme. A digital scrapbooking theme helps you focus on one style, rather than have each page different. Once you have a central theme, you can set themes for individual pages. These should follow the main theme, but in smaller pieces. For example, an main vacation theme might have page themes of transportation, hotel, beach, restaurants, and activities. You can get free digital scrapbooking themes for both overall and individual pages.

Free Digital Scrapbooking Theme Kits

Free digital scrapbooking themes are available in kits at several Internet websites. You might combine similar themes, or use the elements for your own theme. For example, downloading two or three free digital scrapbooking theme kits that are focused on sports would give you elements to complete several coordinated, but different pages in a sports-themed work.

DIY Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Your status as a digital scrapbooking beginner does not mean you cannot approach digital scrapbooking themes as do-it-yourself projects. If you are willing to invest a little creativity, you will find an abundance of free digital scrapbooking themes on the Internet. One website gives the digital scrapbooking beginner many hints in their descriptions of themes for sale. Consider three of them.

1. Memories of school days will be placed on backgrounds specifically designed for school. Stop and think. What kind of background fits the description? Imagine back-to-school advertising. Pencils, books, backpacks, apples, desks, and alphabets spring to mind. With very little work, you can create your own backgrounds for free digital scrapbooking themes on school days.

Picture a page with a faded school building background. A large school bus sits in front of the building. A child's kindergarten photo fills one window. Friends' photos fill two more windows. A note about the first day of school is "tacked" to the page with a small, bright backpack graphic. Another page theme might begin with a background of alphabet letters or "spelling words" written in script and arranged at angles. Great for showing off a perfect spelling test, or photos of the spelling bee. The same letters, or bright trophies, could be added as embellishments. In a matter of moments, you have two free digital scrapbooking themes for school memories. Each is do-it-yourself. Each fits the mood you are trying to create.

2. A 50th wedding anniversary scrapbook might have a nostalgic, antique theme. Close your eyes and picture antique things. Imagine an antique store or a trunk of old clothing and faded letters. Lavender, satin ribbons, old lace, and antiqued paper come to mind. With imagination, you can create your own backgrounds for free digital scrapbooking themes on old memories.

A large photograph of a county fair, faded and antiqued, would make a great background page for photos of the dating couple and a ticket stub or two. Cotton candy or carousel horse embellishments could spice up the page. If it's a 2-page spread, a piece of an old love letter can be the journaling. Colorful photo mats in candy-striping will carry out the couple's happy feelings. A second page theme might be antique cars, a faded background of vehicle graphics setting the stage for photos of the couple's first car, or every car they ever owned. On a third page, clipart or photos of ornate mirrors could be repeated on a faded background. A single, enlarged mirror frame could frame the main wedding photo. Smaller mirrors, lace and ribbon elements could complete the theme. With a few minutes of thought, you have three free digital scrapbooking themes for your 50th wedding anniversary scrapbook.

3. If you want a digital scrapbook cowboy hat theme, begin by thinking of symbols you connect with that idea. Your background might be rodeo scenes, a desert, or the colors of the outdoors. You might make a page that looks like the inside of a stable. Hang rope on a board in the stable, and set a pair of cowboy boots on the floor. Scatter straw at the bottom. Then add your photos, tacked in place with small cowboy hat graphics. Be sure one photo shows the subject in a cowboy hat. Add rope letters to spell out a caption such as "Ride 'em, Cowboy!" A "scrap" of torn paper with the date, name, and a comment would be appropriate journaling so that future generations can fully appreciate the occasion. You have just given yourself another free digital scrapbooking theme.

Gleaning Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Another source of free digital scrapbooking themes is the website postings of those who are eager to share their own work. These are easily found by doing an online search. If you have a basic theme in mind, you can often glean themes for individual pages from the examples offered.

Scrapbook stores and magazines offer many themes, some digital. If you are creative, you can adapt non-digital themes with a little practice.

Final Tips on Digital Scrapbooking Themes

Wherever you get your digital scrapbooking themes, keep in mind that backgrounds should always complement the colors in the photographs that will go on each page. Journaling adds great interest. If you don't know what to write, think: who, what, where, when, why, and how. "Elements" are extra decorative objects added to the page. Scrapbook Bytes offers many free, downloadable elements.

© 2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about paper and digital scrapbooking themes at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site. You won?t want to miss her recent article on free digital scrapbooking frames.