How to start

So, you are ready to enter in the exciting world of scrapbooking! Here is my take about how to start:

1. Watch tutorial video on you tube. These are my favorite channels

• TwoPeasInABucket: they have a web site with lots of resource, They also sell online. What has been particularly useful to me was to watch their videos on YouTube, especially “Adventures of a glitter girl” (there are about 25 at this point, one new every week). The lady, Shimelle Laine makes layout form start to finish giving a lot of good tips. She also posts “4x6 Photo Love”: a series of 12 videos one for each month of the year. The idea is to make a layout with as many pictures as the month number. If watched from January to December is like a class for free. Definitely worth it. From her, you may also want to watch “Sketch to Scrapbook Page”.
• For stamping I suggest to watch videos posted form (Heroarts” and “StampTV”).  They explain a lot of techniques.

Watch as many layouts as possible on line and decide which one is you style: which size of layouts, a whole album (marriage, a new baby, graduation from high school) or just scrapbooking about everyday adventures, casual or elegant, simple or very ornate with ton of embellishments, paper-based or digital, traditional or multimedia, etc.
Make a list of the minimal supply you need and a list of extra that you would like to try later or just for fun, when you are sure this is something you will keep doing on a regular basis.
Start looking around for sales, coupons and special offers.
I love to buy online and I have an Amazon Prime subscription so that items are shipped for free unless sold by a third party. I also like the fact that on Amazon I can read the review from people who already bought and used the same supplies. However buying online often implies high shipping fees. I believe that  some sellers keep the price intentionally very low to attract clients and they make up by inflating the shipping costs.

My journey into scrapbooking

It all started with my application for a green card.
After being for a couple years in US on an exchange program, I got married with a wonderful man. As part of the immigration procedure, we had to show that our marriage was genuine and we were suggested, among other things. to take lots and lots of pictures during social situations. These pictures were going to be used as evidence of bona fide once we were going to be interviewed.
At the end of the process, I ended up with a ton of shots that the Department of Homeland Security did not keep and I start wondering what to do with them. In December 2011 I decided to scrapbook them and make an album about our love story, to give my husband as a gift for our fourth anniversary in 2013.
I got kind of addicted to it and I keep finding new projects to work on. What about start workign on albums for my children graduation from High School? What if I scrapbook all those wonderful pictures from when they were infants and toddlers? And all my baby pictures, too...
I then thought that, since I had all these supplies, nice paper and stamps, punches and inks, I coudl make cards out of them... and once I realized mixed media was my thing I start thinking about keeping an art journal...
There is no end! LOL
The most important thing is that  I found scrapbooking very relaxing, almost therapeutic.
I decided to share all that I have learned in these 6 months and, since I am very cheap, I will focus on how to save money!
Please, remember that English is not my first language. I keep this blog also as a way to practice and improve. Correction are welcome as far as they are conveyed in a kind way.
Thanks for reading!