Scrapbooking Materials

When I began scrapbooking I started with the basics: a book, some paper, stickers and a few pens. I had no idea how many scrapbooking materials were available and how my collection of supplies would grow over the years. I went from having everything stored in a large box to having an entire closet devoted to all my scrapbooking materials.

If you just recently entered the world of beginner scrapbooking, let me be the first to warn you that scrapbooking materials are addictive. If you have been scrapbooking for awhile than you can fully identify with that statement. Nobody ever warned me about going into a warehouse sized scrapbook store without a plan in mind. You walk in the door and you are instantly bombarded with all kinds of interesting scrapbooking gadgets, stickers, paper and other supplies that you suddenly "need".

What I have learned over the years is that having a lot of scrapbooking materials can be nice and helpful when doing page layouts, but there are some basic necessities that you should always keep on hand. Sometimes a page loaded with stickers, die cuts, paper punches and words is a must but sometimes it is good to just let the pictures do the talking.

So, what are some good basic scrapbooking materials to keep on hand and where do you find them? For the sake of this article and to stay off my "love of scrapbooking" soapbox", I have broken the materials into 5 categories: paper, embellishements, pens, pages and glue or tape. I will try to keep them brief.

For many scrapbookers, paper is one of the scrapbooking materials that they use the most. They use it as a backdrop for the whole page, to back photos and other items on the page or they use it to create their own borders or die cuts. It is a good idea to keep a pack of 12 x 12 and 8 ½ x 11 sheets of solid colored paper. When all else fails and you don't have the perfect printed sheet of paper you can use solid colors for just about anything. I have learned that all colors are important, but it is a good idea to keep black and white on hand. Also, if you know you are planning to work on a certain theme in the near future, be sure to pick up theme related sheets the next time you are near a scrapbooking store to keep them on hand.

Stickers are ne f the most important embellishments. There are some good basic stickers to keep on hand. I always have alphabet letters in various colors and sizes. They are great to use to title the pages or add dates to the pages. When you don't have a sticker that matches the theme of the page you can use coordinating colored letters to spell something out and add to the page. Basic shapes are good to keep on hand as well such as fall colored leaves, snow stickers or flowers that can be used for a variety of pages. Again, if you know you are planning to work on a certain theme in the near future, be sure to pick up theme related stickers the next time you are near a scrapbooking store to keep them on hand.

Other good scrapbooking materials to keep on hand for embellishing are generic die cuts, paper punches and borders that can be used if you don't have anything that goes exactly with the theme. Flower die cuts, geometric shape die cuts and neutral borders will do when you are in the mood to scrapbook but don't have the perfectly themed embellishment.

Three things that you don't want to run out of when scrapbooking are pens, pages and glue or tape. It is quite frustrating to sit down to scrapbook only to find that you are lacking one of these three scrapbooking materials. Without pens, you can't write or journal, without extra pages you can't create new pages, and without tape or glue you can't fix anything to your pages. If I ever notice I am running low on these supplies or my pens are running out of ink, I always buy things in bulk to avoid running out in the future.

As you scrapbook you will undoubtedly come up with other scrapbooking materials that you can't live without. If you find yourself using the same basic things every time you scrapbook, take note of it so that the next time you go to a scrapbooking store you can stock up. You never know when the scrapbooking bug is going to bite so you better be prepared to scrap by stocking up on necessary supplies.

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