In over my head

Hi, I'm new to this forum and new to scrapbooking.

I decided to start scrapbooking because I was stressed out and thought having a creative outlet would be therapeutic. However, having just created my first page, I'm feeling like I'm in way over my head. Perhaps I'm not creative or competent enough for this.

First of all, there were certain things I just seemed unable to do competently, like position my photos correctly on the mats (sp?) I made for them. I was then unable to unstick them without bending and creasing them, so I had to print out new photos and start over. I ended up giving up and just sticking the photos to the page without mats. I feel pretty silly for not being able to do this!

Now my finished page looks really amateurish, not only because the photos have no mats, but because my journaling text looks stupid. I don't have any stamps or stencils or anything (I didn't want to make too big a financial outlay at first); I thought I could just print the text out from my computer, trim the paper around the text, and stick it on my page, but it looks silly.

Does anyone have any tips? And is there a way to make sure everything's centered and positioned correctly, because it seems like I can't tell if it is until after it's already stuck on and I take a step back and look at it. (New glasses, maybe? lol) And is there a trick to unsticking things once they're stuck without ruining them? (I'm using Zots adhesive dots.)

Is there any hope for me, or am I a scrapbooking idiot?

Gosh - there's hope for everyone! Some of what you're describing will come with just a little more time. You'll find that your 'hand' will learn just where to lay a photo on the mat and where to put other things. As far as creativity goes, I've learned to be just as thrilled with the many lo's I've done off of other's ideas and innovation as I have been with the 2 things I've come up with on my own - I'm just happy if I was able to competently copy a feature or an overall look! So just keep on scrapping and don't forget to have fun!

First of all welcome! Now, take your time and enjoy what you are doing! Try laying everything on the paper first to see how you like it. Move things around until you get the look you want. I prefer to use double stick photo tape to put my photos on. It tends to be a little more forgiving if I goof. Printing text from your computer is fine, try adding some clipart or embellies to it to spice it up. Attatch it with brads or clips. Just have fun!

First of all, buy the product I have linked below. It is incredible and has saved me a ton of times. It is photo-safe and I can't say enough good things about it.

Secondly, don't compare your pages to other pages you see in the gallery or magazines or anything. They all started somewhere.

About the computer...I type up my journaling sometimes too. It looks nice matted on another paper, just as you would a photo. For lining things up, I just kind of eyeball it most of the time, but you can certainly use a ruler to measure things out too.

As for creativity, I'm about the most uncreative person I know (I'm a math instructor if that tells you anything about my personality! ), but I do really like a lot of my pages. When I feel stuck on a page, I use sketches (kind of a 'blueprint' of a design of a page) or I scraplift (copy someone else's page design/placement/colors/t echnique/whatever). It gets me thinking about new ideas and helps me be more creative.

Oh yeah, and welcome! This is the friendliest scrapbook forum around...feel free to jump in and ask questions. Feel free to post some of your work in the gallery too...even if you just want to ask for help/suggestions on a half-done page.

Ooh, Sarah! Will that Un-Do stuff remove photos from lo's I did a long time ago? When I've redone an older lo, I just cut around the photo and left the original paper intact to rescrap to not damage the photo. But this could come in very handy indeed!

Thank you all for the help. That adhesive remover stuff sure would come in handy. Thanks, I'll look for it!

Welcome !

First, I agree with the others here. Try to enjoy your new hobby. It is supposed to be fun. Try not to compare your work with others. Each person has her/his own style. And yes, we all started somewhere and can hopefully say that as we've developed our styles, we've improved - or learned and used different techniques at least.

Secondly, another type of product that you might consider purchasing would be a centering ruler. It is just what it says it is. There is a zero in the middle of it and then it goes out on either side to the progressively bigger measurements. If you want to precisely place your photos in the middle of your mats, this could help you do that much easier. Plus, it is relatively cheap. I have the 12 x 12" Deja Views one and use it a lot... That particular one also helps draw and place journaling lines - if you decided that you wanted to do handwritten journaling someday to create a look.

Again, welcome and enjoy your new hobby!

Awesome! Yes, a centering ruler is exactly what I need. I didn't know such things existed!

• flightobl Said:

I would imagine so. Undu removes photos from those old sticky "magnetic" albums.

Thanks so much!
Now would the correct way to use this product be
to use perhaps a q-tip to dab it around the photo or whatever until it looses?

Okay, first of all, welcome to your beautiful new hobby! It is fun and pretty much everyone will agree that they felt so blah/amateurish/clueless/ silly because they glued their LO to their hair with a late night scrapping session...

Anyway, my point is that you are where everyone else has been and you have described some wonderful starts to faking it before you make it; as it were.

*What you may not know is that a lot of scrappers intentionally misaligned the mat and/or frame with the photo for an artistic touch. They were doing something different and it came out cute.

*A lot of scrappers intentionally place a single photo off center to make room for the rest of the overall design.

*A lot of scrappers bounce between busy LO's and something more quiet and clean; what you may consider amateurish. It keeps the focus on the photo and memory.

*A lot of scrappers print their titles and journaling off of the computer. Play with fonts, colors... Did you know you can run cardstock through your printer? Print on that.

*I'm willing to bet you have one piece of paper that you don't love with all your paper-lusting heart. Cut out the part(s) you do like and add them as embellishments.

PLAY with it all!

If you scrap it; it will come.

welcome, you've already got plenty of great advice. Have fun and find some friends to scrap with.

Just want to say welcome. Take your time and relax.

yup, the un-du and a centering ruler sound like good things to have. also, it takes practice and patience. I've been scrapping 10 1/2 years and still get my photos slightly off-center on the mats!! but if anyone tries looking at my albums while holding a ruler and a t-square to measure everything, I'll smack them. a method that makes it easier to get the photos more or less even on the mats is to attach the photo to the matting paper first, and then use a paper trimmer to trim the mat to the right size around the photo. I just got the trimmer shown below and really like it - makes it easy to see how wide the edge of the mat will be around the photo. Not to the last millimeter, but close enough Just relax and have fun, embrace imperfection and realize that with all other skills, it just takes time and practice.

ETA: And a good way to make your journaling look better on the page is to pencil in some lines, pencil in your journaling on the lines, trace over the journaling and lines with a pen (leaving the lines makes it look like you used a journaling stamp) and when the ink is dry (very important, I've smeared more journaling than I want to think about) erase the pencil marks that show.

ETA again!! A really cool look is if you print out your journaling on the computer then cut it into strips maybe 2 - 4 inches long, depending on the space available, then glue the strips down with some of the background showing between them.

and just to make you feel better, here's my very first layout!
Aaron is 2 By Animemama

• flightobl Said:

The scoop looking thing on the top of the bottle slides off. Put a couple drops of undu on the scoop, then slide the scoop under an edge of your photo/paper/whatever. It'll look like a big greasy stain on your paper, but don't worry! It dries clear (and quickly--blow on it and it'll dry pretty much right away). Well, actually I've heard on either very light paper or very dark (I can't remember) you can see a slight shadow of where it was sometimes, but I've never experienced that myself. On really stuck stuff (like pics in those magnetic albums), sometimes putting the undu on and sliding some dental floss between the pics and the album page will work well too.

Thanks for the clear instructions Sarah! Already put this item on my wishlist.

Oh wow, excellent advice here. Thank you all so much!

• animemama Said:

This makes so much sense. I can't believe I didn't think of this.

I'm so glad I found this forum. I feel like I can do this now.

stick with the ladies at sb.com girls and you'll be a pro in no time.

another story to help you feel better. My 14 year old son dug all his scrapbooks out the other night looking for a picture. He was laughing at both his baby pictures and how much my scrappin' style has changed. Yes, even a 14 year old can see the drastic difference and laugh about it. I had to threaten to smack him upside the head if he didn't quit laughing

Okay, I played around with it some more and I like it better now. There are still no mats for the photos, but I like the journaling bit better now, because I reprinted it on the same colour paper as the background and trimmed it in ribbon.

So here it is, my first LO ever. Hope this works.

Welcome to Ontario By Home Is My Haven

that looks great! i left you a comment

• animemama Said:

Thank you! I feel really good, like I accomplished something big. I think I will get hooked on scrapbooking after all. I'm very thankful for all the help and info I've found here.

You are not in over your head. I love my first LO to death.. It's sparse and simple and was the most fun evah!

I'm sure you'll look back at your first LO and love it the most no matter how many pages you do.

Enjoy!!

• MommaSaid Said:

All great advice. I just want to add that I know too many ladies that won't even try to scrapbook because they want only "perfect pages."

I have to remind myself my goals.

1) to have fun. Scrapbooking should never be another source of stress for me. NEVER

2) to tell a story with my photos in a fun way. Hopefully, I'm at least a level above a photo album. If that's the case, I'm doing what I what I want.

3) for my family to enjoy looking at the albums over and over again.

Once in a while, I'll push myself by entering a challenge that will make me do things out of my comfort zone. Otherwise, I like my simple, fun pages.

Welcome to this craze and to this site.

Your LO is great.

I am very inspired by Ali Edwards, google her - she has a great blog, because she uses very little in the way of embellishments. She sticks to the basics and it is very refreshing to see great LOs without using every single new FAD product on the shelf.

• ~ShawnaH~ Said:

Thanks! Yeah, I think simple is the way to go for me, since that's certainly my taste in other areas, such as fashion and home decor.

don't be hard on yourself..me, I'm basically new to scrapbooking too and as the saying goes, "Rome was not built in a day"...that's why I love this website because the members are so cool, happy and very generous in giving advices and tips. I like reading blogs and forums, looking at the community gallery to sprinkle my "love dust" on layouts. Recently I've started joining challenges (one thing I thought I can never have the guts to do) and had so much fun. Bottom line is, you get to document your life's history by scrapping your photos and having a ball doing it! Welcome to sb.com !!