After reading these chalking tips, you may wonder how you ever scrapbooked without them. When using chalks, you can create faux finishes, leather like backgrounds, add an antiqued look, or decorate clip art images and bring everything together in you layout. You don’t have to limit your designs to backgrounds, blocks or accents. You can even use them to add flair directly to you photos. Once you master the basics, you will enjoy adding some new twists and techniques to the old classics.

Chalk mocking: Rusty shapes are not always a great accent on your pages. You can create the illusion of a rusty shape by shading your accents with chalk them mounting them with a pop dot.

Perspective building: use cutting and shading to give cardstock blocks a three dimensional appearance. Apply chalk shadows to two sides of the block.

Marbling: Chalk and water are all you need to create a beautiful background. Fill in a shallow pan with ½” water and scrape 2-3 colors onto the surface. Stir it once and drop a piece of cardstock onto the water. Remove it immediately and lay flat to dry.

Reverse Chalking: Apply chalk to you background. Using an eraser, remove some of the color. This is a perfect way to create a plaid design for your backgrounds.

Lettering: Color the insides of your lettering templates to create a soft shaded title.

Don’t limit yourself to simple cardstocks. Use chalks on dry embossed papers by rubbing chalk on the raised image. Apply chalk to crumbled vellum, color on heat embossed images on dark colored papers. Be creative and try different things with chalks. Add a little color to your favorite black and white photos. Mixing and matching these techniques will add dimension and character to all your pages.

Scrapbooking by Close To My Heart Consultant Marcy Larsen. Scrapbook Layouts, stamping techniques and more at marcylarsen.com.

Scrapbooking is all about family history. Family history comes to life in a fun way when you connect today’s generation with the older generations. When you connect historical tidbits and family trivia to current events, you create a legacy what helps family see where their history began and bonds the generations.

When you are doing your journaling, try making some fun connections from past and present. Do a little digging into their interests, hobbies, passions, and special times in their lives. Find things they have in common with other family members. Make a page or album showcasing these links between family members.

Include light hearted stories, names, places and dates for photos. If you can’t make a connection today, future generations will have the information they will be able to use to make a connection later. Whether it is the town you grew up in or the same make of car, it will be fun to document how much things have changed over the years. Describe in words the traditions your family shares before your forget them.

Use family heirlooms and explain how and why it is important to the family. Try taking photos of them with your children. Include your ancestors on the same page and explain the ties between the generations. Remember that scrapbooking today is equivalent to our ancestors journaling of the past. We have an advatage though, we can add picture to our stories to complete them. Adding pages like these to your scrapbook collection will make a special connection for your families to cherish for generations to come.

Scrapbooking by Close To My Heart Consultant Marcy Larsen. Scrapbook Layouts, stamping techniques and more at marcylarsen.com.

Western scrapbooking pages, free of charge, can be found on the Internet and in scrapbooking magazines. Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies in which people enjoy sharing pages they have created. Whether novice or professional, they want to help others have similar happy experiences.

Sources of Western Scrapbooking Pages

Western scrapbooking pages, free for copying, appear in many places on the Internet. You might want to try these options.

1. Galleries: Scrapbooking galleries are probably one of the best places to find western scrapbooking pages free. These galleries feature photos of successful scrapbooking pages, free for you to borrow from their creators. Scrapbook has nearly 350,000 images in their gallery, including both layouts and digital layouts of scrapbooking pages. A search there on the word “western” produced 214 western scrapbooking pages at the time this article was written. A mouse click at this gallery enlarges any photo so you can easily see the elements.

2. Forums and Chat Rooms: You may also find western scrapbooking pages free in forums and chat rooms. Sometimes, if you are cooperative, a forum member may even volunteer to create a western scrapbooking page free to meet your specific needs. Forum members are often scrapbooking “addicts” who love to share their talents.

3. Scrapbooking Kits: Online retailers who sell scrapbooking kits often feature 2 or 3 kits, showing large pictures of scrapbooking pages within the kits. The pages are copyrighted, but the ideas can be adapted. Digital scrapbooking kits are sometimes free for the taking as an introduction to a site’s digital elements. You may find just the western scrapbooking pages you want on a kit site.

4. Scrapbooking Stamp Retailers: Online retailers of stamps often show scrapbooking pages to illustrate what their stamps will add to a layout. We found lovely western scrapbooking pages free at one of these sites.

5. Scrapbooking Supplies Retailers: Internet retailers who sell an array of scrapbooking supplies follow the same practice: placing photos of samples to spark ideas, or giving 2 or 3 scrapbooking pages free as an introductory offer. Browse these retailers’ sites and you will come away with many ideas for western scrapbooking pages.

Do-It-Yourself Digital Western Scrapbooking Pages

Digital western scrapbooking pages can be created at your computer if you are handy with a computer graphics program. We use Adobe PhotoShop.

Begin by creating scrapbooking paper. Make your paper 12″ x 12″ for now. It can be reduced later if necessary. Create digital scrapbooking paper in several themes for your scrapbooking pages. These three ideas will get you started.

1. Western Riding Scrapbooking Pages

Make the paper background medium to light brown with a sandy texture.

Place a clear layer in front of the brown, and add words to it such as “Western” or “cowboy” to carry the theme. You won’t need many words. Vary the font for interest. This layer is optional on your scrapbooking page.

Find 1 or 2 clipart or photo images of cowboy hats. Then find a cowboy boot, saddle, and spurs. Add a rope if you wish. Once you have the graphics, create a pattern on your brown paper, repeating it at pleasing intervals.

2. Horseshoe Scrapbooking Pages

Make the paper background light brown, and then render clouds with light brown and ivory.

Find a clipart image of a steel gray horseshoe. Create a pattern over the clouds, repeating the horseshoe at intervals until the paper is covered.

3. Man and Beast Shoes Scrapbooking Pages

Begin by creating horseshoe scrapbooking paper. Add small clipart images of cowboy boots at wide intervals over top of the horseshoes. It’s good to have 3 different pairs of cowboy boots for interest.

Completing Western Scrapbooking Pages

Once your scrapbooking paper is ready, you can make digital western scrapbooking pages on it. Place cropped, scanned photos on each page. Overlap photos, with a piece of journaling placed to one side. Add a page title in bold, western font. Half a dozen wild mustangs in ivory or off-white might be placed at a page bottom, as though dashing in from one side. Add digital stickers to your scrapbooking pages and move to the next.

Tip: Western scrapbooking pages look best when “busy” cowboy paper is used intermittently with plain, more colorful backgrounds.

©2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about scrapbooking pages at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site. If you like free scrapbooking pages, you won’t want to miss her article on free digital scrapbooking frames.

Most people pay little attention to the frame that surrounds a picture, dismissing it as simply a convenient way to hang the piece from a wall. However, frames have been around almost as long as art and, over the years, have become appreciated as something more than the “finishing touch” that adds dramatic flair to the pictures they enclose.

There is a wide variety of decorative picture frames available, whether you choose to shop for them at the local mall or have a custom frame designed specifically for a particular piece of art. Brightly-colored, ready-made frames can proclaim “It’s a boy!” while providing a spot to show off the newest addition to the family. Others are designed to look like everything from the family car to a favorite pet with slots for the pictures you want to display.

If your budget will allow you to spend a little more on the frame for a particular piece, there are styles that reflect the elegance of bygone eras while others add dramatic flair to the art you want to showcase in your home. It pays to shop around and look at different types of decorative picture frames before you decide which ones are right for you. There are Internet sites where you can download a copy of the art you want to frame, and then see how it looks in a range of styles. This free feature can be especially valuable if you’re just starting to decorate or are considering renovations to your home.

Sometimes, homeowners prefer a unified look, adding the same type of frame to the art that decorates every room, while others choose different styles that reflect the taste of individual family members. While it may not seem at first as important as where you’re going to place that new sofa, decorative picture frames can add or subtract much from the overall style of a room.
When hanging pictures, remember that some pieces are best shown individually, while others are more effectively displayed as a group. When grouping pieces of art together, it isn’t always necessary to select the same frame for every picture. While the decorative picture frames don’t necessarily have to match each other, however, they should relate to at least some of the furnishings in a room. If your tastes run toward country or more traditional furnishings, it is often advisable to look at wood frames first. If you enjoy modern or eclectic décor, then the clean lines of metal will probably work best.

Some people enjoy using just frames to decorate their living space. A variety of gilt-edged, ornate frames, interspersed with different colors or textures of contemporary styles, can sometimes create an interesting accent in a room. It can also be an inexpensive decorating choice because unique finds often turn up at flea markets and garage sales.

The history of decorative picture frames can be traced back centuries to the early years of the Christian church. While a type of border or frame appeared around art about 3,000 years ago, the church first used the type of frame we are more familiar with to define religious art. The heavy, jeweled-encrusted frames sometimes were as elaborate as the colorful images they enclosed.

With the advent of the Renaissance in the 15th century, wealthy aristocrats and merchants decided that their portraits deserved an equally fine setting, so they commissioned craftsmen to create elegantly carved frames that reflected their social status. The value of hand-crafted frames increased as the importance of art grew in the western world.

Over the years, decorative picture frames have changed to reflect contemporary tastes. But classic styles, such as Baroque and Rococo, are still favored by many homeowners for traditional art. So, even though you can’t sit on them to test their comfort, or you can’t taste them to see if they’re the right flavor, decorative picture frames are an integral part of creating a home that is uniquely yours. Choose the ones that are right for you.

Michele Cardello, director of marketing and creative for Life Imprints, a creative scrapbooking supplies company also offering contemporary picture frames, 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.

If you’re thinking about adding some new artwork to your walls or looking for a way to preserve some treasured family photos, consider investing in custom picture frames. It’s not as expensive as you might think, especially when you consider the overall benefits of working with a professional to add just the right finishing touch to your decor.

Art helps to create a more personalized environment in the home. It reflects individual tastes and interests and can bring years of pleasure whether it’s an original oil painting for over the living room fireplace or a great flea market find that you want to add to your bedroom wall. The same is true for those family photographs that have been handed down through the generations or the pictures you snapped last month on your Caribbean vacation.

By investing in custom picture frames, you provide your art or photographs with an appropriate showcase; one that reflects your taste and style just as much, if not more so, than the pieces on display. After all, you wouldn’t expect to see the original Mona Lisa thumb-tacked to a wall in the Louvre, would you? So, why would you provide anything less than the appropriate showcase in your home for something that is just as important to you?

Where you decide to have your artwork framed is a matter of individual choice. Sometimes, it’s easy to find a custom framing store no further away than the local mall. Or, the yellow pages may offer you a choice of trades people in your town who create custom picture frames. In addition, there are numerous Web sites on the Internet that welcome questions ranging from what type of frame to buy to how custom picture frames are actually constructed. Doing a little homework ahead of time, whether on the Internet or at the local library, will allow you to ask more knowledgeable questions when you get ready to proceed, whether you want a metal frame in a matte finish to something more elaborate in natural wood.

Whoever you choose to consult and ultimately create your frames, remember to take your time and select the most appropriate styles because, chances are, they will be a part of your décor for many years. If your budget is limited, there are simple, inexpensive frames that can still complement your décor. Costs can range from under $100 into the thousands, depending on the type you select and the size of the picture.

An experienced framer can advise you on the different styles of custom picture frames that range from the traditional to the contemporary in colors that vary from brushed gold to vibrant shades of red, or include all types of wood finishes. Some styles are virtually invisible but still provide needed support and protection for your investment.

You want to pick a color that coordinates with the rest of the furniture in a particular room. But, even more important, you should select a style of frame that will complement the art, not overwhelm or clash with it. So, if you were thinking about adding an ornate gilt-edge frame to that abstract contemporary piece you want to display in your dining room, you might want to spend some time talking first to a professional, who can assist you accordingly. An additional touch to consider when having a piece custom framed is a matte insert, a colored sheet of heavy cardboard, which creates an even more distinctive look for the picture when combined with the right type of frame. But, it is key to remember that the matte comes second to the art, so it’s often best to stick with a neutral tone.

Having custom picture frames constructed for your art might seem a little extravagant to some but it is an ideal way to preserve something that you enjoy. In the end, it all comes down to individual taste. Whether you enjoy formal surroundings or a more eclectic environment, there is no right or wrong style–just whatever works best for you.

Michele Cardello, director of marketing and creative for Life Imprints, a creative scrapbooking supplies company also offering contemporary picture frames, 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.

Let’s face it, you can’t always have a camera on you at all times, but you still want to preserve those special memories. That’s why there is scrapbooking without photos! Remember, creating beautiful and fun ways of preserving memories is the key to scrapbooking, not the photos themselves. Scrapbooks without pictures can look just as nice as photo scrapbooks! Here I’ll go over a few fun and easy ways to make photo-less scrapbook layouts.

One good pictureless scrapbook layout technique that I personally use is to dedicate a page to a special object. Photo-less scrapbook layouts are just as simple when choosing a color scheme or design, but a little bit different. When you scrapbooking without photos, you have nothing to actually show the emotions that people were feeling at the time, so everything you put on that scrapbook page layout will have to be based around that. For example, certain colors, shapes, and embellishments will portray different emotions. Make sure you include your special object in the layout design when scrapbooking without photos!

Scrapbook journaling is another good way to preserve those memories on a pictureless scrapbook layout. You should elaborate more on a scrapbook without pictures while journaling than you otherwise would. You can write song lyrics, or poems that you like or that are special to you. Coming up with original poems is another creative and unique idea for scrapbooking without photos.

There are many ways to scrapbook without photos and make photo-less layouts. Be creative on your pictureless layout, because it will most likely take the extra effort to keep it interesting and fun to look at. But always remember to keep it fun, too!

There are all kinds of scrapbooking materials online. T. Ashley has been scrapbooking for many years, along with teaching other to scrapbook, and is also the founder of and maintains http://www.start-scrapbooking.com

I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m a Scrapbooking junkie. There are so many things that can be done with a scrapbook that it gives me an outlet to the creativity that has no other way to escape. Like many hard core Scrapbookers I find that I am happiest when I am sitting with all of my scrapbook tools laid out in front of me and the page layouts practically jump out of my heart and land right on the empty pages that I am scrapping. But what can you do if your creative juices run dry and you need a small shove in the right direction?

Many people that are serious about Scrapbooking are part of a larger group of area scrappers. They meet together for scrapbook parties and special events in the store in their area and do things like midnight Scrapbooking. It’s great fun to be a part of this kind of group, especially when they are all passionate about what they are doing. They feed on each others creative juices and when one of them comes up with an idea that is unique then they are all inspired. There are times, though, when you are not able to be with the group when you are scrapping at home in the evenings or late at night. It is during these times when I turn to some of the Scrapbooking books that I have collected. Contained on the pages of those books are ideas and creative nudges that will usually get me going in the right direction.

Savanah is a scrapbooking enthusiast and craft author.

Be a member of the scrapbook club at http://www.learn2scrapbook.info/

What is your family’s favorite recipe? Where did you get it? Was it something Grandmother learned when she was a young bride? Was it a sushi recipe that won a prize for Uncle Lyle at the state fair?

A recipe scrapbook album would be a wonderful gift for family members. Imagine giving each one a collection of family recipes, each with its own bit of history, in a recipe scrapbook album.

You can make those recipe scrapbook albums following these steps.

Recipe Scrapbook Album Materials

Prepare to make your recipe scrapbook album by assembling the following minimal materials. You may want other things as well, but these 7 are recommended for a complete recipe scrapbook album.

* Family recipes, as many as possible – neatly written or typed

* Photographs of how the recipe looks when ready to serve

* Photographs of the person credited with creation of the recipe

* Notes of things people always say or remember about the recipe

* Scrapbooking paper (acid-free) reminiscent of cooking

* Food preparation stickers and charms

* Recipe “instruction” tags

Themes for Recipe Scrapbook Albums

Your overall theme is for a recipe scrapbook album will, of course, be recipes. In keeping with that theme, each page or section will have a specific theme in the category of recipes.

Browsing through your recipes and photos, look for natural groupings. If there are several recipes from Grandmother, theme a section of your recipe scrapbook album for those. If Uncle Lyle has more recipes than his singular prize-winning sushi, set aside a section for him in your recipe scrapbook album.

Perhaps you will find it easier to divide your recipe scrapbook album into themes such as appetizers, main courses, side dishes, desserts, and beverages. Each of those could be a page or section theme.

Recipe Scrapbook Album Page Layouts

Once you have your themes, you are ready to lay out the pages of your recipe scrapbook albums. There are many approaches to page layout, and you may have one you have used often. Here is one way of doing it.

1. Select the photo(s) to be used on a 2-page spread or single page. If they are colored photos, select scrapbooking paper to complement them. Be sure you use acid-free paper to protect your memories.

2. Lay out your scrapbooking paper to fit the page. Be creative with your paper. Nostalgic kitchen wallpaper is a good choice for old recipes. Italian recipes might find a home on red and white checkered paper reminiscent of a tablecloth. If your recipe scrapbook album includes a recipe for Fish and Chips, you might want scrapbooking paper on that page to look like an old newspaper.

3. Once you have placed your scrapbooking paper, begin to arrange the recipe and accompanying photos. Typed recipe cards are fine, but if your recipes are hand-written by the person who created them, it will give your recipe scrapbook albums a more personal touch.

4. Frame your photos and recipes after they are placed. You can find a wonderful array of frames in scrapbooking supplies stores. Or use your own creativity. If Grandmother always wore an apron when preparing that delicious chocolate cake, create an apron “pocket” of cloth or cardstock. Tuck into it one or more recipes. Another idea is to make fold-open frames for the recipes in your recipe scrapbook album. Simply cut an appropriate size piece of cardstock and fold it in thirds. Adhere the center third to your scrapbook, top it with the recipe, and fold the other two sides shut over it. You might even make the folded card look like cupboard doors.

5. Once your photos and recipes are framed on the page, add a few lines of journaling that capture the family memories associated with the recipe. In my own files, I have a recipe for cookies served by the host the evening my husband and I first knew we would become more than friends. Personal notes about such memories add immensely to recipe scrapbook albums. My mother’s fresh, home-baked bread is remembered as Dad’s favorite base for yellow mustard!

6. When each page layout is completed, each element glued firmly in place, you are ready to add stickers and charms – embellishments. You may use commercially made embellishments for your recipe scrapbook albums, and you may add more intimate touches as well. If Grandmother loved lace, and even crocheted her own, adding a touch of lace to her page will help family members remember that. Since Uncle Lyle always used that bright green “sushi grass” (baran) to separate his sushi, be sure you include a piece of it on the sushi recipe page.

Finally, you may want to leave a few blank pages at the end of your recipe scrapbook albums so that future recipes can be added later.

Recipe scrapbook albums can be made during a prolonged family reunion, giving everyone something to do with their hands while catching up on family news.

©2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about scrapbooking at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site. You won’t want to miss her recent article on how to make exciting scrapbooking page layouts.

Scrapbooking has never been as easy as it is now!

Creating scrapbook pages is one of America’s favorite hobbies. What’s not to love about documenting the lives of the ones we love and capturing their very special memories? Even those who are not scrapbookers themselves love to look at finished scrapbooks - oohing and awing over the photo’s, cute embellishments and the neat papers used to create these one of a kind keepsakes.

And now there’s a new way to scrapbook that arrived on the scene a few years ago and it’s really taking off! Digital scrapbooking, or as it’s sometimes called… computer scrapbooking, is catching on fast. And traditional paper scrappers as well as those who have never scrapbooked before are loving it.

It still incorporates all the favorites of scrapbooking while eliminating a lot of the not so favorite aspects of the craft. When you use your computer to create your scrapbook pages, you no longer have all of the mess and clutter that traditionally was a part of scrapbooking with paper.

Here’s just a few of the benefits of computer scrapbooking that I could think of:

I’m sure you’re getting the idea by now. Another really nice benefit is being able to take your digital photo’s right off your digital camera and into your scrapbook pages. No fuss, no printing first. You can resize your photos to fit your scrapbook pages right inside your scrapbooking software.

And speaking of your digital pictures; imagine being able to erase that big pimple off your teenagers face or magically losing a few pounds by using your image editing software. Priceless!

And if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t consider yourself very creative, there’s even help for you! Pre-made digital scrapbooking layouts can be found online. All you need to do is add your photos and a little personalized journaling if you want, and it’s done. Your family and friends will think that you are a scrapbooking genius.

If you can’t bear letting go of all your paper scrapbooking supplies, there is good news. Many people are combining both paper and digital scrapbooking to create one of a kind layouts. The term for this is hybrid scrapbooking.

So what are you waiting for? Go get started! Digital scrapbooking is so much fun. Just be careful, because this is one hobby that can become quite addicting very fast!

Lisa is a digital scrapbook product designer and owner of several digital scrapbooking websites. Please visit www.digiscrapclub.com for digital scrapbooking papers, embellishments, pre-made layouts and coordinated kits. And for some great free digital scrapbooking stuff go to www.digitalscrapbooking-free.com. Lessons and tutorials are also available.

Scrapbooking has become one of the most popular hobbies in the United States and around the world. It’s hard not to go into a small town anywhere that you don’t see a scrapbook store. Even the larger stores like Wal-Mart and Target have their own Scrapbooking sections that will help you to get started with your hobby, or to grow your inventory of Scrapbooking supplies. One of the most common problems that I have seen when visiting the scrapbook stores and talking to the scrapbook enthusiast is that sometimes you just need some help in getting your creative juices flowing. That is where services such as the Scrapbook Club Online come in to help you.

The Scrapbook Club Online is a book club for the Scrapbooking enthusiast that loves to have great new ideas, both to show them things that they can do in their Scrapbooking classes and at home and to get their creative juices flowing. They have a great offer that gives you a free book when you join and then you get to choose from hundreds of other books throughout the year. It’s a great way to learn and hone your craft.

So the next time you find that your creative juices are lacking when you are trying to create that perfect scrapbook page, just remember that help is right around the corner. And if you are like me and enjoy Scrapbooking at home as a way to relax then having the helping hand of looking at other people’s pages will surely help you to create that perfect page that is uniquely you.

Savanah is a scrapbooking enthusiast and craft author.

Be a member of the scrapbook club at http://www.learn2scrapbook.info/