Photography 101

Lesson 3: Lesson 3: Planning Your Album

Section 3: Purchasing Tools

There is such a myriad of scrapbooking tools you can buy you can become overwhelmed as you consider them all. Most of these tools are delightful to own, but not necessary for a beginner. There are a few you will need to get started, however.

You must have a trimmer and a good pair of small scissors. Trimmers come in all manner of styles--rotary and arm cutters—as well as sizes. I recommend you purchase a tabletop 12 “ trimmer. Many scrappers have both a 12” as well as a smaller cutter and if your budget allows, that is a good investment.

Titling and journaling are key elements in scrapbooking. At the very least, you will want a black pen, but many scrappers have a multitude of shades and colors in their pen collections. You must have adhesives to scrapbook and the choices are numerous. There are all manner tab adhesives, which come out of the box in small squares, as well as tab adhesive dispensers, handy to dole out the squares for you. Glue pens are nice for small pieces of paper and letters, but generally inappropriate for photos.

Page protectors are a must to protect completed pages in strap-hinge and spiral albums.

Idea books or magazines are necessary when starting out since most beginners feel a bit insecure about where pieces should fit onto their pages. Magazines showcasing layouts will give you a guideline and help stimulate your creativity--and confidence!

These are the absolute necessities, but there are many other tools, which while not necessary, the beginner will find useful and easy to use.

Corner rounders are used to round off the corners of photos and matting to produce a pleasing effect. Decorative scissors create effects on paper and pictures and come in a variety of patterns. Circle cutters are a godsend to create pages beyond square and rectangle photos. Be sure to get instruction on using this tool, as it can take some practice to master.

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