Starting off Thursday, October 05, 2006

It is sooooo common for new scrapbookers to get completely and totally overwhelmed. So, a common question is: "What are the best products to start out with?". Good question...

1. Get a paper trimmer. One that can be used for 12" paper. Most craft stores carry them. I've found great prices on them at Walmart. You shouldn't have to spend more than $20 on it.
   
2. Some sort of adhesive. The fancy ones are nice, but glue stick works just fine. Don't be fooled by the "acid free" glue sticks that are pricey. ALL glue sticks by nature are acid free. By cheap ones at Dollar Stores, or at Costco. Also, two sided tape is really helpful - especially for pictures (I wouldn't use glue stick on a photo... though perhaps there are people that would?). Tombow is a great one (available through CTMH).
   
3. Paper. Choose a color palette that you like, and get some coordinating pieces. I love that CTMH products come in groups of colors, so you already know what looks great together. Also CTMH cardstock has white core - this is essential to getting good use out of your cardstock. You can do fabulous layouts by distressing cardstock if it's white core. I'll show examples of this in future entries. Some coordinating B&T papers (background and texture) are great too. You will always use paper! If you aren't sure where to start, a paper packet (containing both cardstock and B&T papers) is a fabulous starter set. The My Reflections paper packets give you everything you would need for a great layout - cardstock, coordinating colors, coordinating B&T papers. They also have coordinating embellishment packets too!
   
4. Some sort of embellishments. The best way to get the most for your money is to get embellishments that either go a long way (a pack of white eyelets or brads... brads are best if you don't have an eyelet setter, or white ribbon is a great embellishment) OR that can be reused. Stamps make amazing embellishments if you stamp and cut out the images, or build up the image by stamping on various colors of paper and piecing them together. I'll show examples of these soon too. They are a great way to embellish and save money! My advice would always be to start with brads, ribbon and a favorite stamp set & ink that is versatile. As mentioned before, you can also get coordinating embellishment packets to go with the My Reflections paper packets.
   

Down the road, I would also suggest a set of letter stamps. Because CTMH MyAcrylix stamps are set on separate blocks, you can write any word you want on a block and have a unique stamp every time. This is GREAT for titles and giving themes to your layouts. The acrylix alphabet sets are considerably cheaper than the rubber stamp sets!

A couple other cheap things that are great to have on hand are a good pair of scissors (small with a good point), some sandpaper, a piercing tool and an acid-free/pH-neutral pen.

Of course, you also need a scrapbook album and lots of pictures! Key features of a good album are that it opens flat, is built with page protectors so that you can easily change the order of layouts, has room for more pages and possible extender posts.

You can accomplish a LOT with these basic starter sets. Over the next several posts, I'll show you what I mean!