Anniversaries, birthdays, graduations…. There are some many gift giving events in a year. These types of events tend to call for more sentimental gifts, if they involve our loved ones. However, it is also very hard to decide what to give sometimes. Scrapbooks are great solutions to this issue. They aren’t too expensive, but provide a gift that will last forever. You don’t have to buy fancy thermal transfer ribbons to make a good scrapbook. Thermal transfer labels and all that fancy stuff was just created by people who have too much money on their hands to spend on crafts. You can make wonderful scrapbook for fewer than fifty dollars.

You don’t need to be an artist to make a good scrapbook either. The great thing about scrapbooks is that they can be different for each person you’re making them for. Some people like really tacky, quirky things while others like things very neat and serious. Craft stores realize this and have scrapbooking supplies for all of the different types of people. Card stock is scrap booker’s best friend. You can make a dull page look fantabulous with the right background paper.

If you don’t like the idea of a normal old boring scrap book; you can do something a little different. Altered books are amazing gifts. They are much more creative and exciting
than just a normal scrapbook. Your loved one will be floored when you give them this gift; it will look like you invented the wheel. Go to a thrift store or used book store and purchase a fairly thick hard cover book. The bigger the book length and width wise, depends on what types of things you plan to put in it. If it is too large, you will run into the issue of not being able to fill space, which is a lot worse than not having enough space. However, if it is too small you may be disappointed with the around you can fit in it. Doing an altered book is always an adventure.

The first thing do with your altered book is to rip out a few chunks of pages. You do this because it loosens the binding, which make it easier to be able to paint and manipulate the pages. You have to glue chunks of pages together then. This is something you want to do a few at a time, but not the entire book, just in case you need more or less pages than you anticipated. Altered books are more time consuming than scrapbooks often, but they yield a much more exciting result. Once you glue the pages together it is time to start the fun stuff. Paint or collage backgrounds or collage an entire page. You can do all the fun stuff of a scrapbook but more with an altered book. It is one of the best gifts to give people. You will feel like you gave them something unique and they will feel like they got the best present in the world.