Scrapbooking: Greeting card with this technique

In this tutorial I would like to show you how I have made a card using the Scrapbooking technique and tell you a little about what it is about.

I will also talk about in what things we can apply this technique, what materials are the most recommended and where we can get them.

What is Scrapbooking?

The scrapbook or scrapbook is the technique of personalizing photo albums. Scrapbooking is being done by saving memories or clippings in a journal or scraps of wrapping paper.

El scrapbook or scrapbooking It is ultimately the process by which we decorate each sheet of a scrapbook or photographs or the process by which we embellish an object either by simply decorating it to our liking or to give it an alternative use to the original. If it is true that in its origins Scrapbooking was used only to embellish albums or decorate photographs, today the technique has been extended to anything you want to decorate using it.

Every day more people practice Scrapbooking and even in schools from the lowest levels, techniques related to Scrapbook are taught. Only in the United States it is estimated that there are more than 25 million fans, in fact, it is in this country where it is having more acceptance and practice. Recently it is also becoming fashionable in Europe. Although the technique is much older, the boom in popularity began about 15 years ago.

What techniques are used to do Scrapbooking?

Practicing Scrapbooking is practicing at the same time a multitude of other crafts as diverse as stamping and die-cutting, and all the difficulties that range from the simplest such as simple cutout of figures to the most complicated as embossing. However, the use of both will depend to a large extent on the final result that is sought (simple or sophisticated) and the materials available.

To start with, you just have to take into account a logical organization and design so that it does not turn out to be an overloaded or difficult to understand composition. Ideas as simple as following a chronological order will always give good results, but other options such as thematic, friends, family, parties ... are good alternatives.

The use of color and decorative elements are essential in the final result, but we must never forget that what is really important are the photographs, therefore, they must be the protagonists of the album and the story that you want to tell. A good method for this is to include tags or small paragraphs that briefly describe the content of the accompanying photograph.

Below I will list some of the most used techniques in Scrapbooking and a brief description of each one.

Trimming and gluing: Here we have little to explain since since childhood this is one of the first techniques we learn. It is simply to cut the paper that we are going to use with scissors, whether they are smooth cuts or irregular cuts with scissors, cuts with pre-established shapes or indefinite cuts. And after cutting, paste those cutouts in the right place to shape our works. Below I will tell you about the tools that we can use for each technique.
The ripped: This technique is very simple, it is simply about cutting the paper with our own hands. Has it ever happened to you that you wanted to take a page out of a notebook and doing it so quickly the page broke? Or when turning the page of a book or magazine, have you caught yourself breaking in half? Well that is tearing, tearing or cutting the papers with your fingers. It is also a technique that they teach us from a very young age in school, and depending on which way we tear the paper we will obtain different results. Give it a try, it's fun and stressful !!
Die cutting: Punching is a technique used to pierce different materials and create shapes or drawings or simply pierce several pieces in the same way. This technique is used on a large scale, industrially and with specialized machinery to perforate plates, cardboard, papers, for example to make the holes in the notebooks through which the worm then passes. In Scrapbooking we use manual dies or we apply the technique manually, that is, with a simple needle, awl or manual hole punch we can achieve the effect we want on our paper, cardboard or material. Currently we can get templates with pre-established drawings to die-cut our works, and also perforators with different shapes.
Stamping: In Scrapbooking we use this technique with stamps, which can be carved by ourselves or bought. It is the simple fact of taking a stamp, inking it and decorating our works with it. Stamp carving is another technique that is gaining more and more followers.
Texturing or embossing and embossing: About these techniques I will tell you that in Scrapbooking they are used to highlight our projects in different ways. Yes, I know that it is a very general definition but to expand it is precise and better that I make a post about these techniques since it cannot be explained briefly because it consists of many details. So I promise you shortly a post with all the information you will need to know about embossing, texturing and embossing to apply to our Scrapbooking jobs.
Attaching rivets and grommets: Well, as the same statement says, it is simply that, placing rivets or eyelets in our work using the necessary tools. The eyelets are normally used to be able to pass the rings through the pages of our album and join them. And the rivets to further decorate the details of the album or Scrapbooking work that we are doing.
Sewing: Normally we use sewing to join two fabrics together using a needle to pierce them and pass a thread through the holes intertwining the two fabrics. At Scrapbooking we use sewing for that and much more. We also use sewing to sew appliques to paper, to draw figures with colored threads in our work, to attach fabric flowers to pages, etc.
Label making: This technique consists of creating our own labels. Although nowadays we can find already cut labels of different sizes and shapes in stationery stores or in specialized stores in Scrapbooking articles to decorate them, the fun of Scrapbooking is doing everything ourselves. And this technique is about that, of making our own labels while applying other techniques already mentioned, such as cutting, drilling, etc.
Stencil: Stenciling is the technique used to capture a drawing on a sheet, on a cardboard or on a wall, through a template. We can make the templates ourselves or buy them ready-made.

What materials are used for Scrapbooking?

When you get into the world of Scrapbooking you immediately realize that there are countless materials that you can use.
In general, we can divide the Scrapbooking material into two large groups: the expendable materials and tools.

Amongst the materials that are spent we can find:

Decorated papers: Although right now we can find "special papers for Scrapbooking" in stores, the truth is that any paper that we like to work with is valid for our Scrabooking jobs. Decorated papers are so called because they are patterned papers with drawings that combine shapes and colors and look "beautiful and coordinated", they give our works a better finish, but we can also do this using our sense of taste and combining the papers as we like it more.
Pictures: Photographs are the essence of the Scrapbooking technique, but we don't always have to use them. If what we want to decorate is a box or a notebook we do not have to put a photograph in it, but when it comes to applying Scrapbooking techniques to a photo album, these are obviously an essential complement.
ÁScrapbooks: Currently we can find these scrapbooks in craft product stores or stores specialized in Scrapbooking. What are they? Well, it would be the «casing» of our album to decorate, that is, a presentation of covers, usually in treated or thicker cardboard that makes up an album so that we can decorate it doing Scrapbooking and put in it the photographs that we are going to use. We can find these pre-made scrapbooks, cut into different shapes and different sizes.
Glue: The adhesive material must be acid-free to avoid damaging our projects and can be in different formats (double-sided tape, glue stick, liquid glue, etc.).
Decorative elements: Such as flowers, brads, eyelets or buttonholes, acetates, ribbons, fabrics, buttons, mini envelopes, folders, clips, staples, figures made of cork, cardboard or wood, stickers or stickers, labels, bows, ribbons, glitter, charms, washi tapes , etc…
Letters: There are different materials and colors, usually stickers, that can help us decorate our Scrapbooking project, especially to put titles.
Stamp printing ink: There are different types of ink depending on the use we want to give it or the technique we are going to apply. We can sometimes replace the specific ink for stamps with paint, depending on the stamp that we are going to use.
Embossing powders: They are used to apply the relief technique and give a very nice finish to our works.

Amongst the materials that are not used we find the following:

Rules.
Cutting machines: We find some sophisticated ones like the Big Shot or La Cricut, but the most common are: guillotines, cutters and scissors (these can be normal or with different shapes).
Seals: There are different types and materials, they can be used to stamp a background or a decorative object. We can also buy material to carve our stamps ourselves or even use biodegradable materials, such as vegetables, and make the stamps that we need for the Scrapbooking job we are working on at the time and then discard them.
Holes like the punches or the crop-a-tell: They are used to make holes, and the latter will also be used to put the eyelets.
Punches or dies: You can also find them as Punch, there are different sizes and shapes, and we can cut decorative elements with them and apply them to our work.
Templates or stencil: They are templates that have a drawing or landscape stamped inside and they help us to capture those drawings in our work with paintings.
Cutting bases: They are bases made of resistant materials, such as acrylic or plastic, to put on the surface that we work on and not damage it. There are them marked with measures and shapes, to take advantage of them in more uses.
Binder: It will serve us to bind our albums or books.
Embossing gun: It is a necessary tool to apply the embossing technique.
Folders: They help us to fold the papers, sheets, cardboard, etc.

Although we find a wide range of materials and tools that we can use for this Scrapbooking technique, it is not necessary to spend a fortune to be able to start applying it to our creations. It is simply to use our imagination and adapt to the tools and materials that we have at home or that they are within our reach to buy.

To buy the materials that will help us to apply the Scrapbooking technique to our crafts we have endless stores wherever we look, either on the Internet or physical stores. Just search scrapbooking materials In our favorite search engine and we will get countless stores, is to do a little research until we find the one that best suits our budgets.

As for the physical storesWe can find scrapbooking materials in common stationery stores, specialized craft stores and even Chinese bazaars, although the latter are not of the best quality. It is simply touring our town or city and how In Internet keep the one we like the most or the one with the best materials.

Scrapbooking Styles

Within Scrapbooking we can find different styles. Each of them focuses their creativity on different things, harmonizing each complement in relation to that. I leave you a list and a brief description of each style of Scrapobooking.

American style: The most prominent are the images of these types of works, and the decorative elements are usually coordinated in colors and shapes.
Shabby chic: This style is ideal for lovers of pink and pastel colors since it is characterized by the use of these colors in soft tones and rather rococo ornaments, such as flowers, bows, lace, pearls, etc. It is a more style well feminine and romantic.
Clean & Simple (clean and simple): In this style, the main protagonist is photography again, only this time the decorations are almost minimal, only very basic decorations are used to frame the photo or small labels to put a title or a caption.
Modern (modern style): It is very similar to the C&S, only here if more decorative elements and different materials are used.
Retro: This style is based on the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Striking colors and color combinations such as brown-blue, brown-pink, black-pink are used, etc ... Geometric patterns on papers are common, they are used decorative elements such as large flowers and vibrantly colored polka dots. Polaroid photos, magazine clippings, household brochures, or stickers are also common decorative items in this style.
Ephemera (ephemeral): In this style, a lot of material is used and very varied, photographs are equally important as decorative elements, these are usually placed at an angle and flaps and pockets are also common. It is usually a very loaded but coherently coordinated style that is arranged in the form of a collage.
Free Style: Its own name says it, in this case they are the works where all the techniques we want have been applied and any type of materials have been used.
Vintage: This style evokes the old, so the range of colors used will be brown. In this style the decorative elements are quite abundant and will also be things that remind us of the old, such as cameos, lace or old documents. Papers with large flowers are used in very soft colors, with handwritten letters, worn papers, sheet music or newsprint. The most used techniques are those of aging such as inking, tearing, scratching, etc.
Heritage: Keys, medals, royal old letters, old stamps, coins, clippings, fabrics and old photographs are the decorative elements used in this style. The range of colors is usually very sober, appearing some color from the range of browns and grays, sepia, black and white. It is an ideal style to preserve the memories of our ancestors in a beautiful and elegant way.
Steampunk: This technique refers to the Victorian era and the technology of that time, therefore the decorative elements will be gears, nuts, images of inventions or inventors, and the most used colors are the range of browns and reds, imitating the rust of The pieces.
Nature: This style is characterized by the use of natural elements, such as dry leaves, natural flowers, twigs, feathers, etc.
cute style: This style is normally used to make works that have photographs of children, since the colors used are usually rather soft, although striking, and the decorative elements are usually lively and fun, such as animal stickers or animations.
Digital: This style is what we do completely on the computer through image editing programs such as Photoshop, Gimp, etc ...

What I can do?

And if you have come this far, it may be that all this "world" of Scrapbooking sounds too strange or too complicated, but the truth is that that is very far from reality. You do not need to be professional draftsmen or excellent painters, or have a master's degree in combination of colors and patterns to do Scrapbooking work, it is simply to have the desire and get some things to start.

Scrapbooking was originally oriented towards photographs, but lately it has spread to different things, such as cards, postcards, notebooks, boxes, etc.

You can try something simple, such as decorating a single sheet with a photo, imitating a photo frame, or making a couple of labels or a greeting card. As you progress in your projects, ideas will emerge and work by work it will be easier for you to apply the techniques and use the tools.

Here is a technical list of some things we can do using Scrapbooking.

LO or Layouts: The Layouts are 12 × 12 inch folios where we usually include a photograph with a title and a brief description of it, as well as some decorative element to our liking.
Albums and mini-albums: It is simply a more or less small album, or a compilation of our LOs that we already have made.
Altered or altering: This refers to altering the appearance of products or changing their function, that is, all those recycling jobs to which we have applied the Scrapbooking technique come in here.
paper crafting: It consists of making different crafts, usually 3D objects with craft paper, also using other Scrapbooking techniques.
Project life: Here what we do is, with an album of plastic covers, we store our LOs and decorate the covers with cards, notes or decorations that we like. It is usually updated weekly.
mixed media: These works are characterized by not including photographs and by the freedom to mix techniques and styles.
ArtJournal: These works are also related to those of Mixed Media, since it is about filling a diary with our thoughts, ideas, reflections, or experiences in a very creative and free way.
Cards or Cardmaking: All the cards that we make using Scrapbooking techniques come in here.

These are just some things or ideas that you can follow to start using this Scrapbooking technique, but you can apply the technique to everything that comes to mind. In the photo gallery you can see some Scrapbooking works and a greeting card that I did for the christening of a baby. What do you think?

I hope you liked and served this tutorial and that the information is useful to apply the Scrapbooking technique to your creations.

I await your comments !!