Scrapbook Ideas

Celebrate International Scrapbooking Day

Posted on 11 October 2009

You love to add variety to your scrapbooking pages, but where can you find these fresh, new ideas? Once you’ve visited all of the common scrapbooking sites online, where do you go for new ideas?

Foreign Scrapbooking Sites

Brainstorming foreign websites can be exciting and rewarding. It can also be a fun way to celebrate International Scrapbooking Day.

A simple Google trick will help you find ideas from the specific countries in which you are interested.

In Google, click “Advanced Search”.

“Scrapbooking ideas” should be entered in the first box.

Find “Region” on the left side of the Google page, with “Search pages located in:” following it. “Any region” appears in the box to the right. Click the arrow, and select the country you want.

Ideas from Australia, for example, will be listed when you click on “Australia” in the drop-down list.

Ideas from Japan will be listed when you click “Japan”. Don’t worry about whether you can speak Japanese. Even without translation, many great ideas can be gleaned by looking at photos.

Foreign Craft Sites

Scrapbooking ideas are not limited to those developed by other scrapbookers, of course. Truly creative people can get brainstorms from crafts – and on International Scrapbooking Day, foreign crafts can spark exciting ideas for you scrapbooking pages.

We used the same Google trick discussed above to find beautiful inspirations from other nation’s crafts. A French craft website had unusual crochet patterns that sparked delicate designs. A New Zealand site showed how Japanese origami can provide amusing “pop-up” designs.

Movie or Television Sites

Scrapbooking ideas themed around a movie can be exciting, too. An example that lends itself to a celebration of International Scrapbooking Day is “The Sound of Music” set in Salzburg, Austria. Scrapbooking pages can feature a background of scenes from the movie as well as from Austria. Creative embellishments can be found on websites such as the Salzburg Austria information site.

Foreign Food Sites

Everyone eats, of course, and incorporating pictures of food into your scrapbook can be a great change of pace. You may even want to use recipes from foreign countries when scrapbooking pages for a cook.

Scrapbooking an Irish person’s delights, for example, might include Irish recipes. A photo of the completed dish, or of a collection of ingredients for the dish, might also be used. Use spiced beef, potato fari, or Irish stew for scrapbooking that shouts an Irish origin.

Scrapbooking to commemorate your own visit to a foreign country can be spiced up by recipes and photos of food. What did you eat when you visited that country? Did you eat octopus in Japan? Incorporate that into your scrapbooking pages.

Foreign Clothing Sites

Scrapbooking ideas with an international flavor can also be found by looking at the clothing or fabrics of different regions and nations.

Background pages, especially, are quickly designed from fabrics of different nations. African fabrics are not the same as those from Japan; Japanese fabrics are not the same as those from Mexico; and so on.

These ideas are quickly and easily found by doing a Google search on “African clothing”, “Japanese clothing”, etc. Or use the method described at the beginning of this article to search a region for “clothing” or “fabric” that is typical to that nation.

We did a quick search on the word “fabric” in the region of “Morocco” and discovered exciting possibilities for scrapbook background papers. We wanted to see pictures rather than read words, so clicked Google’s “Images” on the menu at the top of the page. A photo of a Berber carpet gave us a quick idea for scrapbooking paper. A wool and silk kilim provided inspiration for another scrapbooking paper.

Helpful Tip

Scrapbooking ideas are plentiful around the globe, waiting for you to find them. Pick a region or nation that interests you or the person for whom you’re preparing the scrapbook, and go looking for pictures and embellishments that echo that interest.

2008, Anna Hart.

Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about scrapbooking pages at http://www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com. If far-away places interest you, you won’t want to miss her article on scrapbooking page ideas for passports.