PEI B&B in Anne's Land, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Tools needed to scrapbooking your memory albums

Scrapbooking is a fun hobby that can turn into gifts, treasures and even a small business.
However it makes the job easier when you have some of the right tools for album making.

Scissors

A good pair of straight scissors is a necessity. Also have a small pair for fine work. You can also purchase a collection of patterned scissors.

Stickers

You will need a small collection of stickers to enhance your pages. Craft shops and some dollar stores are great places to pick up inexpensive stickers, but are they photo safe? Read the label and make sure they are acid free.

Scrapbooks

Choosing the right scrapbook album to store your photos may take some time, but you have plenty of albums to choose from. I use a 12 x 12-inch album for family photos and for day to day scrapbooking. I use a smaller album for vacations or special holidays. I use an 8x8 album for my B&B guests to show what is in our area of PEI. The smaller scrapbook albums are great for gift giving at baby showers or weddings, and make a great smaller memory album for vacations.

Cutting Tools

You can purchase a variety of tools to cut circles, ovals or other shapes. The use of these tools adds variety to your pages. These tools can make your page making easier, however they are not needed right away.

• A 12" paper trimmer is useful for cutting large sheets of paper and can be used to trim your photos, I would make sure to have this item.

Adhesive

There is a lot of adhesive to choose from and not always one adhesive will do every job. Always use acid-free adhesives. I mount photos with two sided tape. I use a glue stick on large jobs like covering an album. I use clear tape with vellum. I use acid-free glue when I need a strong job such as adding charms to a page.

Paper products

Paper, like shoes, comes in colours, shapes and sizes; make sure it is acid-free and lignin-free. Keep a good variety of coloured paper around for trouble free page making. Remember to store your paper away from direct sunlight to prevent it from fading.

Journaling Tools

Journaling is fun and easy, with a good selection of coloured ink marking pens. Today you can purchase permanent ink, fade resistant, and water resistant pens. I started with one black scrapbook pen. It is useful to have a smaller one for journaling about your photos and a larger tip pen for titling.

Embellishments

Embellishments can be all sorts of items. I like to use fibers, ribbon, can pull tabs, shells, and many other things I have from my this and that box. The Island Made Gift Shop has a large selection of vacation embellishments, page borders, and journaling boxes to help with your scrapbooking.

Photo Safe Products - Prevent Yellowing

This old photo album has an acid and lignin problem. Read on to learn more about the subject and how to keep your photos safe from yellowing.

Acid Free

Acid is used in paper manufacturing to break apart the wood fibers and the lignin which holds them together. If acid remains in the materials used for photo albums, the acid can react chemically with photographs and accelerate their deterioration. Acid-free products have a pH factor of 7.0 or above. It's imperative that all materials (glue, pens, paper, etc.) used in memory albums or scrapbooks be acid-free.

Buffered Paper

During manufacture a buffering agent such as calcium carbonate or magnesium bicarbonate can be added to paper to neutralize acid contaminants. Such papers have a pH of 8.5.

Lignin

Is the bonding material which holds wood fibers together as a tree grows. If lignin remains in the paper product (as with newsprint) it will become yellow and brittle over time. Most paper other than newsprint is lignin-free.

Photo-safe

Is a term similar to archival quality but more specific to materials used with photographs. Acid-free is the determining factor for a product to be labeled photo-safe.

Sheet protectors

These are made of plastic to slip over a finished album page. They can be side-loading or top-loading to fit your pages. Use those specifically labeled photo-safe or archival quality.

I keep just one of my static pages from an old yellow scrapbook to demonstrate this colourful effect. Only purchase and look for acid-free and lignin-free products and keep your photos safe!

Top of page