A Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking Terms and Supplies – And Everything Else!

Wanting to start out with the fun and creative hobby of scrapbooking is a great endeavor.  Scrapbooking is a pursuit that can not only preserve and honor your memories and photos, but it’s a pastime that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.  The youngest of children can help with scrapbooks, and there’s no better way to spend a rainy Saturday.  So if you’re looking for a basic beginner’s guide to scrapbooking, especially when it comes to the terms, the supplies, the page designs, and everything else, you’ve come to the right place.  While this article is of course not an exhaustive or all-inclusive beginner’s guide to scrapbooking, we can definitely get you started and help you with your first page design.  After that, you’ll be designing your own albums in no time!  So if you’re ready, let’s begin.

The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking Terms

No beginner’s guide to scrapbooking would be complete without reviewing some of the basic terms used by those who pursue this hobby.  Like any sport or field of business, scrapbooking has some terms and words they use just among themselves.  The most common that you should be familiar with are scrapper, crop, template, embellishment, and focal point.  These are not very difficult terms to understand and remember, and this little beginner’s guide to scrapbooking can explain them quickly.  A scrapper is someone who does scrapbooking as a hobby.  You may hear someone be referred to as an experienced scrapper.  A crop is like a quilting bee, where many scrappers gather to share their designs, work on new scrapbooks, and swap tips and hints.  These can be arranged online or in person, such as when a host or hostess reserves a block of rooms at a hotel for a weekend and scrappers get together like a business conference or retreat.

Most beginner’s guides to scrapbooking will also include samples of templates, embellishments, and focal points.  These refer to the actual page elements of your scrapbooks.  A template would be a pre-made page available at your supply store or online.  It may have a photo frame and some wording already applied to the page.  Templates are good to work with for those just starting out who may be a bit unfamiliar with how to pull all the elements together.  As any good beginner’s guide to scrapbooking will tell you, embellishments are those “extras” on the page that are used for decoration.  They may be something store bought, or may be things you think of yourself, such as buttons, yarn, and so on.  Your focal point is just that – the most important part of the page.  Usually it’s a picture, but it doesn’t always need to be.  For example, you may have ticket stubs and a program for a night at the opera or a play.  You may have sheet music for your child’s recital, and so on.  When reviewing any beginner’s guide to scrapbooking you’ll notice they use the term focal point quite a bit, and it’s important to remember that it may or may not be an actual photograph, so don’t get confused.

The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking Supplies

One of the best parts of the hobby of scrapbooking is that you are not bound by just what you see in a supply store or online.  If you have things around the house that you want to add to your pages, you can certainly do that, and many experienced scrappers have great results when adding buttons, yarn, scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon, dried flowers, and so on.

But for a basic beginner’s guide to scrapbooking supplies, let’s cover some of the standard supplies you’ll find in your store so you know what they are and how they’re used.  Your page is obviously the most basic, and supply stores carry an endless abundance of scrapbooking pages.  Usually the problem is not finding something you like, but making a decision on just which sheet to choose!  Most scrapbook pages have wording added to them, and any beginner’s guide to scrapbooking can give you tips and hints on how to add these words, whether it’s just one single word (such as “beautiful” or “love” or “sunshine!” or something else) or a paragraph or two.  Supplies for wording can include stickers of letters or the words themselves, stencils for words, special pencils and markers for scrapbooking paper, and so on.  Any wording that you want to add, you’re sure to find some supplies for it.

Papers and wording are the basic supplies.  So, what else is there?

A Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking Embellishments

Embellishments are those extra touches that are meant to be used as decoration for your pages.  They can be metal eyelets, stickers of virtually anything, stencils in different shapes, rubber stamps, borders for your focal point, dried flowers, cutouts, and so on.

There are some beginner’s guides to scrapbooking that will tell you to stick with the embellishments that come in a kit with your paper so that everything coordinates and complements, and of course this can be good advice.  However, don’t limit yourself to just these pre-made kits.  Again, if there is something you have from the home or from that special occasion you’re trying to remember, include it.  A picture of your grandmother knitting embellished by some yarn, or of your grandfather all dressed up embellished by material from his favorite tie, these things can make your scrapbooks really personal and unique, and very special.  So while a beginner’s guide to scrapbooking may be used and referred to as a guide, don’t think that there are any hard and fast rules or right and wrong answers for your own albums.

So hopefully this article has helped you somewhat with wanting to begin the exciting hobby of scrapbooking.  Remember, the beauty of this hobby is that your creations are truly and uniquely your own, so let your imagination run free and you’re sure to have some amazing pages that will be treasured forever.  That’s really the best advice you’ll get from any beginner’s guide to scrapbooking.