Technology has changed our way of life. In the past couple of decades, computers and the Internet have changed the world. They’ve changed the way we do business, the way we find and use information, and the way we interact with each other. And the Internet has been a revolution in the area of entertainment. Perhaps someone out there may disagree, but the Internet is perhaps the most revolutionary thing to come along for centuries. It has opened so many doors for people.
And technology evolves to make new and better tools. Reckon of the mobile phone, as it was once called. A few years ago, mobile phones were large bulky devices that people used more like walkie-talkies. They just weren’t practical for everyday use by all of us. But today, cellular phones are small and capable of providing many services beyond simple calls. You can use a cell phone to check your e-mail, shop, watch videos, listen to music, and transmit and receive text messages.
Technology has certainly revolutionized scrapbooking. Many years ago, scrapbooks were simple collections of photos and newspaper articles with no particular design or artistic flare. Then they evolved to colorful collections of mementos with lots of extras like stickers, ribbons, and unique embellishments.
In order to make a scrapbook, you needed a excellent unifying theme and plenty of paper, scissors, pens, lots of glue, and your photos and memorabilia. Making a scrapbook took lots of time and work, and creative talent was a certain plus.
The Internet has changed all that. Today, you can find downloadable albums for free scrapbooking at any number of innovative scrapbooking websites. You can make a virtual scrapbook, loading your photos and images to the Internet where they are protected from loss and available to many people. The technology has both advantages and disadvantages you’ll want to consider.
Advantages:
1. Saving Time and Effort. It’s much quicker to download albums for free scrapbooking than to make or buy them. They give you the base of an overall theme and color scheme. You don’t have to waste your time on the basics. You can focus on making your scrapbook unique and creative.
Making your own scrapbook from scratch requires commitment and dedication. You have to place a lot of thought and effort into each page. In addition to deciding how to use your photos and memorabilia, you have to reckon through and choose on your theme, layout, color scheme, and materials. But in today’s busy world, most people don’t have the time to invest in every scrapbooking detail. With free downloadable albums, free photo scrapbooking lets you focus on the most vital scrapbook element – your memories.
2. Sharing your Scrapbook. Free photo scrapbooking on the Internet gives you access to downloadable albums that you can share with all of your friends and family. You simply upload your photos and images to make a virtual scrapbook. You can have a special password that allows only those people you choose to see your scrapbook, or you can leave it open for everyone. It’s an simple way to let people delight in your scrapbook without running the risk of losing it.
A virtual scrapbook may not be the solution for everybody. It doesn’t compare to the traditional scrapbook full of photos, favorite mementos, fascinating textures, ribbons, and like. But a virtual scrapbook is fantastic for people who want instant connectivity and ease of access.
Disadvantages:
1. Losing your Uniqueness. Downloadable albums for free photo scrapbooking allows you to choose from a variety of designs, but the designs are not simple to change. There may be many other people using the design you selected for their own virtual scrapbooks. Your virtual scrapbook won’t have the same unique quality that your handmade scrapbooks had. It won’t reflect your unique personality and creativity.
2. Using only Images. When you make a virtual scrapbook, you’re limited to documents you can upload to the Internet. Photos are the most likely documents, though you might also upload scanned images of memorabilia, articles, or things like invitations and announcements. You can’t add those fascinating political campaign buttons, locks of hair, or pieces of fabric from the prom gown or wedding dress. Your virtual scrapbook won’t capture your life experience, just images of it.
So there you have it. The beauty of using downloadable albums for free photo scrapbooking is applying technology to save and share your memories in a prepared format, saving you time and effort. The downside is limits on your creativity and the things you can include in your scrapbook.
A virtual scrapbook is the perfect way to document an event and share the photos from it with your family and friends. It allows you to get these things up quickly so that people can refresh their memories and continue to delight in the event for a long time. It helps bring people together, and it is a quick simple way to make a simple free scrapbook.
But if you want to make a family heirloom that can be loved for years to come, you may want to make a traditional scrapbook that expresses your personality with lots of different media and materials. You’ll want to invest time and effort in this treasure, and you’ll have a gorgeous permanent record of whole lives and whole phases of life. You are the only right judge for what you want and need.
The best solution is a combination of both! Use a virtual scrapbook using a free downloadable album to collect images recalling a single event for a quick and simple solution. But make a handmade traditional scrapbook to have a collection of memories and memorabilia to document a lifetime.
Abhishek is a Scrapbooking expert and he has got some fantastic Scrapbooking Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 73 Pages Ebook, “Scrapbooking Made Simple!” from his website http://www.Fun-Galore.com/821/index.htm . Only limited Free Copies available.

Alphabet Scrapbook Pages

Remembering the alphabet and using your baby’s photos can be fun and educational for the entire family. Try making an alphabet or ABC baby scrapbook. Attach a colorful letter to each page in baby’s scrapbook album, die cut words and photos to remember all of your baby’s special moments.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

A

Animals (photo from trip to zoo), aunts, apple

B

baby, bottle, bubbles, brothers, birthday, blanket, bibs, booties, books, blue

C

cake, candles, cousins, crawling, cradle, cereal, Christmas, cookie, car seat

D

doll, dog, daddy, diapers, December, duckie, Dora the Explorer

E

eating, ears, Easter, elbow, Elmo

F

First…, fingers, first foods, formula, feeding time, February, fourth of July, father, friend, amusing, amusing faces

G

Grandma, grandpa, gifts, guests, girls, gurgling, going (to…)

H

Hair cut, hands, home, hospital, pleased birthday, Halloween (1st)

I

Icing, ice cream, immunizations, in (the bathtub)

J

Juice, jello, January, jumping, June, July, jar food, jammies

K

Kids, kisses, Kodak moments, kitchen

L

Leaving (waving bye-bye), like, small (fingers and toes), lullabies

M

Mommy, me, my gifts, my …, “ma-ma”, mine!, march, may, music, milk

N

Nose, nursery (rhymes), nursing, nana, November, numbers, naps, newborn

O

One, onesies, osh kosh, October, “oh-oh”, orange

P

Presents, parents, party, peek-a-boo, photos, pictures, pink, patty cake, pj’s, pots and pans

Q

Silent, quilts, quality (time)

R

Rattle, rolling over, rocking horse, reading, rocking chair, red

S

Sisters, tales, song, sitting up, solid foods, sippy cup, swing, silly, smiles, September, St. Patrick’s Day, standing, snow, spring, summer, Sponge Bob

T

Top, teeth, toys, Teletubbies, tears, toes, t-shirt, teddy bear, tummy, thanksgiving, tickles, twins, triplets

U

Uncles, miserable, underwear, under

V

Video, visits, Valentine’s Day, veggies, violet

W

Wash, weight, wagon, walk, wave, winter, white, water

X

Xylophone, x-ray

Y

Yummy food, yams, yogurt, yawn, yeah, yard, year, young, yellow

Z

Zoo, zzz, zippersI Can Count 1, 2, 3

Cherish all the first, second and third moments of your baby’s life with baby scrapbook pages. From the first smile to the first haircut, you will want to treasure these photos with their own baby page. Make a counting baby scrapbook by including pictures of similar photos. Try using one baby, two babies, three girls or boys, four smiles and so forth. Embellish pages with baby stickers, die cutouts and bright, colorful numbers. Add pages and pictures throughout baby’s first year. Baby scrapbook theme albums can be used not only to preserve special moments, but also to learn numbers and counting.Animals, Animals Everywhere

Does your family have a pet? How many stuffed animals are in your baby’s room or toy room? How many times has your family visited the zoo? Savor all these animal memories by making an animal and baby scrapbook album. Use traditional film or a digital camera, take photos of your baby with his favorite teddy bear, playing with your cat, dog or other pet, sleeping in his crib with stuffed animals and photos from your trips to the zoo. Decorate with animal stickers, appliqués and animal theme pages to make a special animal and baby scrapbook theme.All About…Me!

If you have the exquisite blessing of having twins or triplets, you will realize that each child is unique. Each baby should have its own baby scrapbook album. Make pages that set each baby apart from his sibling. Make two or three pages with similar themes for each baby scrapbook, which highlight each baby’s “firsts”, holidays, smiles, giggles, and baby’s favorite toy. When your baby becomes a toddler then a teen, he will appreciate his own baby scrapbook.
Michele Cardello, director of marketing and creative for Life Imprints, a scrapbooking albums and accessories company in Cleveland, Ohio, has worked in the photo packaging industry for 10 years. Cardello helps customers find creative ways to preserve and appreciate a lifetime of memories through scrapbooking. mcardello@albumsinc.com

There is a huge variety of sizes and types of scrapbook albums and you will want to choose the right one for your needs.

12″ x 12″ is the most well loved size for scrapbooks.” Having said that if you travel to visit family a lot you may prefer to have 8″ x 8″ albums for ease of use in traveling. It is vital to give consideration to your own purposes and you may have several scrapbooks over a period of time so each could be a different size if that is what suits you.

Acid-free and lignin-free and vital qualities for any album you choose to use. This is the scrapbook industry’s current archival standard.

You will want a slipcase with the album to protect the album from light, heat and moisture which can all cause serious hurt.

Look for quality workmanship by carefully examining the album for any fraying or less than top quality fabric. You want it to last for years so be sure you are pleased with the standard.

You want an album that when open lies flat as much as possible. You will want the album to lie flat when opened so test it for flatness to start with and be sure you are pleased with that.

Let your own taste dictate the color that you are most pleased with. Everyone differs and if you are buying as a gift or a present to someone after you have done the scrapbooking be sure it reflects their favourite color.

When storing the albums always keep them upright on shelves where they’re as protected as possible from light, dust and sunlight.

Your scrapbook will have a lot of hands turning pages over the years and to protect your album you will need to have page protectors. Page protectors are plastic sleeves for the pages.

There are 3 brilliant options for page protectors:

1. The best page protectors and also the most expensive are made of polyester or Mylar. If you make this choice count on using them throughout to maintain consistency.

2. Polypropylene are used by many experienced scrapbookers. They are excellent quality and are also well-priced.

3. Page protectors made of polythene are sage and do a excellent job. They are the least expensive. They are a excellent choice for storing materials temporarily and there is nothing incorrect with using them for the finished product either.

Under no circumstances do you want magnetic album page protectors even if labeled “acid-free” because they will ruin your photos. Also you do not want page protectors made of vinyl or acetate components because they can stick to your photos causing them to fade and change color. This will ruin your scrapbook.

Envelopes and shaker boxes are another fascinating use of page protectors. They can be made into embellishments for your pages quite easily. You can place things like seeds on to your page and attach them with a piece of double-sided tape so they look like a package.
Karen O’Donnell enjoys papercrafting and has done it for a living for 4 years. To find out more than 25 different ways of starting a business with papercrafting:

Seasoned scrapbookers know that scrapbooking is an expensive leisure activity. In addition to costly tools, embellishments, and paper, there are expensive albums into which you insert your family’s memories for safekeeping. Sometimes, we want to make event scrapbooks to share as gifts with family, friends, and coworkers, but the cost of these albums can be prohibitive. Fortunately, there is an alternative to traditional scrapbook albums that you buy in the craft store. You can make your own album with your choice of acid free paper using spiral coil binding.

You can buy spiral coil in a variety of lengths and colors. No matter what the theme of your scrapbook, you can certainly find a coordinating color of coil since it is manufactured in over sixty colors. Some of the newer colors include spiral blue, dark purple, copper, tangerine, lilac, light teal, and charcoal.

In addition to spiral coil’s color options, you can also customize your scrapbook’s size through coil size selection. No longer must you choose standard sizes selected for you by the craft industry. You can choose to make books ranging in widths from a quarter of an inch up to two inches. Instead of settling for standard six, eight, eleven, or twelve inch lengths, you can go all the way up to three feet with spiral coil. Taking control of your binding allows you to experiment with different sizes and configurations so that you can make unique scrapbooks that are just perfect for the memories contained inside them.

You may reckon this type of binding equipment is expensive and is not a viable option for scrapbookers on a budget. That simply is not right. For crafters who make 8.5” x 11” scrapbooks, the GBC ProClick P50 is available for about $60. Compared to the price for one album, this equipment is a viable option—especially when it can be used to make album upon album. It will pay for itself in just a few projects.

If you are not an 8.5” x 11” scrapbooker, you will need to look for a machine that can bind scrapbooks of different lengths. The PC200 machine is more expensive (about $250), but it is much more customizable. This machine allows you to shift into creative overdrive since you can bind memory books ranging in length from one inch up to 21 inches long. In addition to its versatility, it uses plastic coils that are slightly less expensive than those used for the GBC ProClick machine.

Not only can spiral coil binding help you make scrapbooks and craft projects for you and your family to delight in, it can also help you to make money. Reckon about putting together your own unique scrapbook kits to sell online or in local craft stores. Compared to what you can make—especially by offering products no one else has—the costs associated with binding equipment are minimal. There really is no limit to what sorts of projects you can place together using your imagination and the right equipment.
Jeff McRitchie is the director of marketing for MyBinding.com. He writes extensively on topics related to Binding Machines, Binding Covers,Binding Supplies, Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Pouches and more.

Scrapbooking albums come in many sizes from 6×6, 8×8, 8 1/2×11 and the well loved 12×12 format. Over the years as this leisure activity has become more and more well loved, some album sizes have come and gone. The 8×10 album is much more hard to find and so is the 12×14. Yet, the 12×12 has become the most common scrapbooking album available. Why Are 12×12 Albums So Well loved? When the scrapbooking craze took off in the 1990s, Pioneer and Creative Memories, the predominant acid-free album manufacturers at the time, both offered 12×12 albums. This size gives you a square foot of space and seems perfect to give enough room for photos, journaling and a few embellishments. The most common size for snapshots is 4×6, and 12×12 accommodates that photo size very well. Yet, it can still handle portrait sizes like 5×7 and 8×10. Since this format is square, it works well with balancing page elements and making 2-page layouts. The Challenge of 12×12 Storage For many years, 12×12 storage was nearly impossible. Containers seem to be cursed to hold only standard letter-size or legal-size paper. Before scrapbooking manufacturers responded to the needs of scrapbookers stocking massive quantities of paper and supplies, it was common to see crops and workshops filled with large Rubbermaid tubs filled with their supplies. Now, we have so many more choices, including totes on wheels and storage bins in the 12×12 size. You can even go to your local Target and pick up a rolling cart with 12×12 bins. The Scrapbooking Industry Makes 12×12 A Standard You certainly still can find a variety of scrapbooking album sizes, but the 12×12 album has dominated the scrapbook paper industry in recent years. In the beginning we had albums with paper pages in black or white. We added our photos and embellishments directly to these pages. Now, top-load pages are the most common. Using a 12×12 sheet of paper, a page slides into an acid-free plastic page protector that is then inserted into the album. You can find many sizes of open paper stock, but 12×12 is certainly the most widely available format for individual paper buys. Most page kits also come in this size, and the majority of monthly scrapbooking clubs have stayed with this standard format. 12×12 and the Digital Age Even digital scrapbooking, the newcomer to the craft, has taken to the 12×12 album. Scanners are available with flatbeds in this size. These scanners are still quite expensive in comparison to their letter-size counterparts. Printing the 12×12 size scrapbooking page is a challenge since most desktop printers use letter-sized paper. But, online photo processing services are now offering 12×12 prints in response to digital scrapbookers who prefer to use the that format. The future of 12×12 Albums The 12 x 12 album is here to stay. It not only won over the traditional scrapbookers, but it has been embraced by the digital scrapbooking fans as well. Trends are moving towards album kits with coordinated papers and embellishments, and these are leaning towards smaller sizes like the 8×8. Yet, for everyday scrapbooking, 12×12 is still going strong.
Christine Perry is an avid scrapbooker and has over 10 years of scrapbooking experience. Her favorite scrapbooking subjects are her reluctant teenagers. She invites you to her website, http://www.intoscrapbooking.com for more on scrapbooking tips and scrapbooking annual sales.