Scrapbooking: Tips for Do-It-Yourselfers
7 January 2008With all of the opportunities for taking photos in the life of a typical American family, most people are left with stacks of vacation, birthday, ball game, ballet recital, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas photos, just to name a few. Most of the time they are tucked away from sight to be dealt with later. With the popularity of scrapbooks, many have taken up the hobby as a way to organize, preserve and display their memories so they may be enjoyed rather than collect dust.
While a few order custom, ready-made designs on-line, most take the do-it-yourself approach to add a personal touch and feed a desire to be artistic. Thousands of sites offer ready-made materials to create beautiful albums, but the DIYers prefer creating their own unique and personal designs. Not limiting themselves to paper, adhesive, and markers, they utilize everything from natural materials such as leaves, dried and pressed flowers, and rocks to wire and beads.
While a scrapbooker is limited only by her creativity in coming up with designs, there are some requirements for the safe preservation of the photographs.
First of all, use only acid-free, PVC-free, photo-safe paper. Otherwise, the paper will fade fast and can lead to the yellowing and deterioration of photos.
Secondly, use decorative materials which are not photo-safe sparingly and apply an Archival spray. It is relatively inexpensive and works like a spray laminate. It is useful for those wanting to includes items such as brochures, menus, and ticket stubs in their albums.
Lastly, be careful that when printing graphic designes, you use a laser printer as often as possible. Non-laser printers use ink that is water-soluble and may bleed into the paper. Using printed material sparingly will minimize the deterioration of album pages.
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