A few days ago I wanted to start a spontaneous scrapbooking session. But when I was about to start, I suddenly thought about the process and it gave me the creeps.

It sounds strange but every time I start to scrapbook something goes wrong. It’s somehow inevitable. For example, at least one of my tools was always missing. Sometimes I ruin a cut just because I can’t properly lift the piece of the cutting map.

Have you had similar experiences with scrapbooking? Then my 3 golden rules will make your scrapbooking session much more fun. They helped me big time to get over my frustration and have a lot more fun.

Golden Rule 1: Organize Your Workplace

The workplace was one of my main problems back then – I just never organized it in the right way. It was just a place where I used to store some of my tools, but there was no real intention involved.

That’s why I couldn’t find a lot of stuff and often the place was still messy from my last session.

I recommend you to design your workplace like an office. Every tool and material should have its own place. Have a place where you want to store your tools. Clean up every time you leave your workplace.

Golden Rule 2: Good Tools Make Great Projects

Nothing is worse than ruining a great cut because your scissors is not sharp enough. You can not scrapbook if you haven’t got a complete set of high quality tools. Probably the best of all Cricut tools is the Cricut cutting machine.

Golden Rule 3: Write Down Your Thoughts

At the end of the day you will want your ideas and thoughts well organized and written down. Why? Because we forget most of our best scrapbooking ideas when we don’t write them down immediately.

Have a plan, maybe even a process to organize your ideas and thoughts so you never forget them and you will have a great time scrapbooking!

A couple weeks ago I’d get the creeps whenever I entered my scrapbooking space. I knew from experience that something would surely go wrong. Most of the time I couldn’t find a tool or I ruined a cut as I tried to lift it off the cutting mat.

I know, these all are but little annoyances but they add up quickly and snowball into one big frustration. And when you’re frustrated your creativity goes down the drain and you have no chance of getting into the Zone.

Then I decided to sit down and really think about how this stuff comes to happen anyway. I got to work on my process before I did the actual work – and now I look forward to my scrapbooking every time!

Here are my three very best tips for a productive scrapbooking session:

Tip #1 – Design Your Workplace With Intention

Sit down and make two lists. On the first list, put down everything you need and how often you need it. On the second list write down the different techniques and methods you use and which tools you need for them.

Then consciously design your space kind of like an office. Now put everything into the right place and you’ll enjoy much better scrapbooking sessions!

Tip #2 – Use Good Tools

Words cannot describe how much help a good set of tools is.

I recommend the Cricut essentials tool kit even if you don’t own a pricey Cricut cutting machine.

Tip #3 – Have A Finishing Routine

Write down a little routine you might use for wrapping up a session. As you put your stuff away, write down any materials that you have to buy. If you don’t do it now, you will surely forget!

If you use just these three tips from now on, your projects will be much more enjoyable. Especially the first one has done it for me.

Scrapping is a very common hobby throughout the world, especially in North America. You can have lots of fun preserving your memories while scrapbooking. The main focus of scrapbooking your memories is to bring the events back to life for you and family when you look back. The best thing about scrapbooking is that there are a lot of supplies available in the market but you just need a few basic things for a good start.

Album: for most scrapbooks the first thing you need is an album. You can get albums in multiple size such as 12″ x 12″, 8″ x 8″, 6″ x 6″ and also 8.5″ x 11″. There are also many choices concerning design, i.e. leather, plastic, linen etc. The decision for choosing an album can be easily made depending upon the type of things you are pasting in the album. Make sure the pages of an album are acid-free and lignin-free so as to avoid acceleration of the photo-fading that occurs.

Scrapbook Paper: After carefully choosing the album, the next thing to do is choose the sort of paper you are going to use in the album. For best support for your pages use card stock for your photographs. Vellum and soft-mulberry’s paper can also be used to add some texture to the scrapbook.

Cutting Supplies: Since scrapbooking involves a lot of cutting it is best to make sure you have the right tools. The best thing to use is a 12″ rotary paper cutter because it can be used with 8×11 or 12×12 sized paper too. Ultra fine scissors should also be in your toolkit. They help us cut small portions of paper with utter delicacy so that the other parts of the picture don’t get ruined.

Adhesives: There are many different types of adhesives available in the market. You can start of your collection with only the simple adhesives. For sticking clippings onto pages try double-sided tap. For sticking transparent substances use wellum tape and use photo corner tape for sticking down pictures. A good general liquid adhesive is also great to keep on hand.

Pens: In scrap booking, a lot of different kinds of pens and markers are used. You will need some acid-free pens (for journaling) so that the scrapbook paper doesn’t get ruined. Pens are also great for adding doodles and other descriptive writing on your pages.

This is the basic set of things that you need for a head-start in scrap booking. I hope scrap booking gives you the same amount of pleasure as it gives me.

Planning on scrapping get your scrapbooking products from dinglefoot.com. You can learn more about scrapbooking and acrylic stamps.