DIY Scrapbooking

What is the big deal about scrapbooking? It seems to be the latest fad – at least this is one of the most talked about hobby subject on the internet..

Last time I remember creating a scrapbook was in kindergarten. I collected my things and glued them into a big notebook – which we called a scrapbook. I even remember enjoying it. Actually, if I strain my memory, I think I also made a few scrapbooks in primary & high school too… Then in college I collected images and things and made collages with them in sketchbooks – but we called this a visual diary. Was this scrapbooking, I wonder?

Later on I’ve created many wedding, holiday photo albums – but in an individual, customised sort of way. Is this considered scrapbooking??? I’ve been doing this for years because there is nothing more boring than going through thick photo albums and seeing dozens of pictures of the same thing (from slightly different angles!) You know what I mean – you must have suffered from having to view piles of boring wedding/baby/holiday albums. I just don’t get it – why can’t people choose the best photo of a particular thing or person – and put just that on a page. On a single page! Less is sooo more. And so much more effective. If you put a single image on a background – the viewers’ eyes will not get over stimulated. So it’s more likely, that people get (or remain!) more interested in your pictures. Also, it’s much better to glue images slightly off-balance. Don’t put them in the middle of the page – that’s just boring. The eyes expect to see things in the middle – so if you want to create visual curiosity glue your images a bit to the left or right, or to the top or bottom on a page – but have some sort of consistency. Even if you do a collage! A successful collage is an ordered chaos. More importantly, it’s layering. Layers of your moods, memories, ideas represented in a visual way. The secret of a good collage is balance – don’t think too much about it, let your subliminal mind make the decisions, but don’t be totally spontaneous either and put everything you find on top of each other.

Craft shops sell hundreds of different albums, notebooks, scrapbooks and sketch books. The nice ones are very expensive. So I like to make my own or customise something I’ve found cheaply. For example, the other day I got a couple of cheap & cheerful black & silver wedding albums in a sale. I needed a sketchbook to create a scrapbook of a mood I want for a design project. The whitish translucent papers in front of the thick cards are ideal to print abstract images on. They come off easily if not needed. Alternatively I just get some cardboard or nice heavy hand-made paper – punch them ( 2-4 holes) and put a binding ring through the holes. These can be unclipped and new pages can be added. This solution allows me to file together different kind of materials. I like printing sketches, images and ideas on tracing-paper and film, and put these above a water-colour image or a magazine cut-out. The result is sometimes abstract – sometimes sensual (or arty-farty) but most of the time seductive enough to please my clients…

Sometimes when I finish a mood-diary for a space, I take my pages to a book binder and get them to make a booklet ( I always use silver metallic binds – slightly bigger than necessary to give a chunky feel to it). For the covers I normally use heavy plastic sheets or cardboard or some unusual material I find in a model-making shop or get sent as samples from suppliers or various leftovers from projects… You can use many different materials for scrapbook covers – leather, metal, Perspex, wallpaper, wood veneers, felt (even roofing felt!) … or just create a funky collage on cardboard.

Anyway, I hope the above is scrapbooking, if anybody has any ideas please comment here or go to our DIY NETWORK Scrapbooking Forum to discuss methods, tips and ideas.