What is Scrapbooking?

Do you remember those days as a kid pasting newspaper clippings onto paper and bundling dozens of papers together with some fancy ribbon or a string? Do you also remember all of your hard work falling apart two months later? Now there's a grown up way to save and preserve your treasures: Scrapbooking. The concept behind scrapbooking hasn't changed since grade school. You can still place photographs, newspaper clippings, poems, and tickets into your scrapbook to display and preserve your memories. However, scrapbooking techniques and tools have matured substantially since you were a kid. Scrapbooking albums have replaced the messy bundles of paper. These albums are generally bound or placed in a three-ring binder. In this way, your hard work won't fall apart. Furthermore, new specialized covers allow protection from the outside elements. Paste is also a thing of the past. Specialized glue dots and two-sided tape makes mounting your treasures simple and mess free. Many of these products are so strong that you can now decorate your scrapbook pages with ribbons, feathers, flowers, or even metal charms. Due to these new techniques and tools, the uses of scrapbooking have expanded drastically. Scrapbooking is still used to hold personal keepsakes and for gift giving. However, now scrapbooking techniques can be used to make baby announcements, grandparent books, gift cards, artwork for a child's room, recipe books, and even educational tools.