Glue, Paste, Reminisce
Blogs, cloud storage and social networking sites have conquered the world and hypnotised us into trusting them with all our precious pictures. Besides, why worry when Facebook is always going to be there. However, digital storages are not immortal. The touch of a tiny magnet, one misplaced USB disk, or the sudden request from your PC to reformat an SD card which you know had all your best selfies can turn out to be your worst nightmare. But how do we avert such catastrophes? I've got two words for you: Scrap-booking!
Scrapbooking is basically getting your very own, very tangible photo album, except it's much more. Let's say you do take this poor soul's advice into consideration and decide to start putting your memories down on paper immediately but no gift shop is able to cater to what you had in mind. If so, why not manifest your ideas to reality and create something with a more personal touch?
The book comes first, followed by the scrap.
Basically get a big blank notebook. In most cases you can find scrapbooks of about 12 x 12 inches readily stocked in most stationery shops. They mostly come with colourful pages inside. If that's not the kind of scrapbook you want, you can always make a customised one. You could use chart papers and set the number of pages you want, in the variety of colours you want and in the size you want. In the end, just take it to any stationery shop which does book binding and ask them to spiral-bind it. And there you'll have it, the book part of the scrapbook.
Gather the supplies (mostly from your drawer)
The next step is much, much easier and it merely requires some scavenging. Firstly, you must explore the dark depths of your desk drawer and obtain the following objects: scissors, clear Scotch tape, paper glue and a 12-inch clear plastic ruler. If these objects cannot be found in your drawer or elsewhere in the house, do purchase them immediately.
The next mission would be to start foraging scrapbooking papers from all around the house. While a lot of online sources might recommend the purchase of scrapbooking papers, you will be amazed with what you can find at your home (voice of experience speaking here). Wrapping papers left from birthday parties, the distressed torn pages of old books, any intricate embossed designs from wedding cards or simply the shiny envelopes they come in can be great materials for scrapbooking.
Since you're en route to becoming a pro at scrapbooking you must remain on the lookout for beautifully designed alphabets and quotes in magazines, activate your stealth mode and carefully cut them out before your mother realises you're rampaging through her magazines.
As for the photographs, go ahead and get yourself one of those adorable new Polaroid cameras for instant prints. I personally prefer the film cameras. This way you can store the negatives and thus print multiple copies in case the original is damaged.
Get creative with techniques
Scrapbooking is all about one very basic technique: layering. First, create a layout using tracing paper cut-outs representing the objects you want to place on the page. Move those cut-outs about till you're happy with the whole juxtaposition. Then, cut the shapes out from the intended material using the tracing paper cut-outs as a template and stick everything in place. To take things up a notch, you can always attach mementos related to the photo as well, for instance the ticket to an event, a leaf from the park where the photo was taken, etc. You could also use different objects to create a stamping effect on the background. As you go on filling the pages, someday when you're flipping through them, you'll be amazed at the magic you've created within a book.
For more information visit:
http://www.paperwishes.com/scrapbooking101/articles/advice-from-a-beginner.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FCLoGgZUYE (Scrapbooking process: Reflections)