Card Scrapbook

    I started saving greeting cards when I was in about middle school, though I did not consistently collect them until I was a bit older.  I stored them away in my art corner, imagining that someday I would find some way to display them.  My cards remained in the art corner for years, until I moved, at which point they migrated to an art bookshelf where they were somewhat more visible.  I walked past these cards time and time again.  I had been considering putting them into some sort of book, but I wasn’t sure of how to go about making this book.  I am an avid scrapbooker (something I hope to cover in a later post), and one day I realized that I could make a scrapbook for my cards. 

     Because of the subjective nature of scrapbooking, I cannot give you an absolute list of materials or step by step instructions on how to make a card scrapbook.  I can offer some ideas of materials and a few tips, but feel free to ask me if you have any questions.

Suggested materials:

*White and/or patterned paper

*Adhesive such as mounting squares, glue stick, or glue

*Stickers

*Gel pens, markers, colored pencils, and/or other colorful writing utensils

*Scissors

*Stamp pad and ink

*Some way to bind book (e.g. report cover, binder, loose binder rings, ribbon)

My favorite pages and what inspired me:

The appearance of this birthday card inspired me to design the page as I did.  This card has soft colors and features some flowers and a butterfly, so when I came across these soft floral and butterfly images in my scrapbooking supplies, I knew they were right for this page.

For both of these Christmas cards, I decided to focus in on the seasonal aspect.  I chose Christmas and winter related images to relay this theme.  For the first page, I had some Christmas themed paper scraps that I thought would be fun to use, so I started with those scraps, then filled in the gaps with stickers and other paper.  For the second page, I knew that I wanted to use paper snowflakes, so I cut out some paper snowflakes and colored them to form the four corners of snowflakes and outlines, then looked for images that went along well with the card and the snowflakes to fill up some of the white space.

This last card is one my dad gave me on Christmas to let me know that the camera he had planned on giving me hadn’t arrived yet.  Because the card itself is white, I wanted to use a lot of color in this page, and I chose to surround the card with presents because the card describes a belated Christmas present.  I made the presents by cutting out squares of scrap paper and adhering them to the page, then drawing in the ribbon using markers. 

Tips:

*To ensure longevity of your book, make sure to use acid free and lignin free materials, as products including acid and/or lignin could hasten your book’s deterioration.

*If you are already a scrapbooker, as I am, this card scrapbook can give you a good opportunity to try something different.  I love patterned paper and use it all the time in my scrapbook, so I decided to start with plain white sheets of paper for this scrapbook (I chose already used paper that had one unmarked side so that I was also recycling while doing this project).  Try something outside your usual scrapbooking comfort zone. 

*As an avid scrapbooker, I had already amassed the materials I needed to make this book.  However, if you haven’t already built up a collection of scrapbooking supplies, there are several different places where you can get supplies from.  Start in your home.  Many of us already have the basics, like paper, scissors, and adhesives.  If you do other crafts, you may be able to find material from other projects that you can use for this one, such as yarn or fabric.  There are so many different types of materials that could work.  I would also recommend checking out your local thrift shops and yard sales, as you can sometimes find amazing deals on craft supplies.  Another good place to check out would be your local scrapbooking store.  Though more expensive than your local thrift shop, scrapbooking stores will have a larger selection of scrapbooking related materials, and the people working there can often give good insights into what materials work best, can give you tips about how to get started, etc.