Today's Lifestyle
Woman builds scrapbook business one page at a time
Scrapbooking tips from an expert
By Denise Sautters
Copley News Service

So many photos, so little space. What's a person to do? Scrapbook!

Scrapbooking is all the rage, with specialty items such as pH-balanced pens that can detect acid in the papers used, to embellishments that can make the dullest photo pop with excitement. "I have done scrapbooking since I was young," said Mindy McMaster, owner of Mindy's Scrapbook Shop in North Canton, Ohio. "I liked it. I did little books for every trip we went on, but I was using construction paper. My mom always got me an album and glue, but I didn't know anything about paper or anything." When one of McMaster's girlfriends hooked up with a scrapbook consultant from Creative Memories her life changed. "She was showing me all these papers and scissors, this whole new world, and I was shocked," she said. "This was about seven years ago. Well, I went to a scrapbook store out West and bought all this stuff and started making a scrapbook."

Her neighbor suggested she start a business and she did, at her home.

"I did it from my kitchen table, then I opened a store at the Baker's Dozen Mall in North Canton. I was open for three hours on Thursday and a couple of hours on Saturdays. We were the only store from Cleveland to Columbus."

When the mall closed, she moved to a new location, then a bigger store at that location until April, when she moved into her current site.

"Scrapbooking is a way to preserve precious memories," McMaster said. "It is a fun hobby and people do it for lots of different reasons."

In her beginners' classes, McMaster stresses certain things that are important to scrapbooking. Here are some of her suggestions.

BASIC TOOLS

Adhesives - There are all sorts of adhesives. You want one that is acid-free. Now that scrapbooking is so big, a lot of companies are making archival quality.

Cutting tools - Start with a good pair of scissors and a trimmer. There are tools to cut circles, alphabets and a number of other patterns or shapes.

Acid-free paper - Basically, this means the paper has no lignin in it. "Lignin is a product that is created naturally in wood," McMaster said. "Paper is usually made out of trees, so by nature it has lignin in it. There is a process paper is put through to remove it. But, we've learned the paper also has to be buffered. This is another chemical process. We've found that after time, the lignin, or acid, can return to paper that has not been buffered."

ARCHIVAL PENS AND PENCILS

- pH-balanced pens can be used to test paper to make sure it is acid-free. There are also products that can be used to remove the acid from paper such as newsprint to preserve clippings used in scrapbooks. You also need archival quality pens and pencils for journalizing in a scrapbook. Grease pencils are used to mark the front of photos into designs and can be wiped off.

- Punches, templates, rulers and embellishments can be added as desired. Many of these items can be used at scrapbook shops rather than purchasing them in the beginning.
"If you only have so much money to spend, invest in a good album, good paper, good cutter and a good adhesive."

McMaster estimated that start-up costs range from $25 to $50.

GETTING STARTED

Start with a good album to store and protect photos. There are a number of different kinds and styles. If you are doing just general scrapbooking, most people use a 12-by-12 album or an 8-by-11 inch album. There are also different styles - post, three-ring binders and hinged styles. The post style seems to be the most popular right now because you can just add more pages as needed. The new, upcoming sizes are the 8-by-8, the 6-by-6, and 5-by-7.

"If you are going to buy an album, spend the extra money because cheaper ones will not hold up over time," McMaster said.

As important is the purchase of acid-free page protectors. "Read the label and make sure they do not have any vinyl or PVC."

She recommends storing scrapbooks straight up and down rather than laying down in a dark enclosed environment.

CREATING THE PAGE

* Cropping photos? Do not crop Polaroids or historical value in photos. Do crop out dead space or competing details. Find the focus of your photo and crop around it.
* Use photos that tell the story.
* Try to keep the page(s) balanced so one side or the other isn't too heavy with embellishments while the other is sparse.

ORGANIZING THE WORKSPACE

Keep tools, embellishments, paper and photos together, but in separate containers or bins so everything is together but not unmanageable. Allow yourself enough table space to work.

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