Scrapbooking Paper: Varieties and Tips for Choosing

In the modern world, even an ordinary person has access to a huge variety of different products, but all of them are relatively similar. In mass production, even the presence of two dozen varieties of the product does not mean the originality of the owner. In such conditions, the demand for things made by oneself is growing rapidly - consumables for creativity, as a rule, are also limited in assortment, but each one collects a combination of them at his own discretion and puts his own soul into the product, which makes the final product unique. In recent years, such a hobby as scrapbooking has gained immense popularity, and if earlier scrapbooks were made from literally everything that came to hand, today's industry allows the production of special paper.

Despite the fact that scrapbooking is called a new-fashioned "hipster" hobby, in fact, it arose a very long time ago. In Western Europe, the tradition of creating your own albums with various memorabilia, favorite quotes and poems, partially duplicating the functions of the diary, arose at least four centuries ago. Even a century and a half later, it became fashionable for girls to collect friends' hair, fix it in an album, decorate with flowers and braid strands into pigtails. 200 years ago, with the rapid development of print periodicals, such albums began to move more and more from texts to images cut from newspapers and magazines, then photographs also supplemented them.

Previously, of course, absolutely any albums were used for such purposes, but today scrap paper is created specifically for scrapbooking. The main difference between this material and classical paper is the absence of lignin and acid in the first. Lignin is present in wood, which is the main raw material for the paper industry, but in the end it turns out to be a “weak link” - over time, its structure is destroyed, and the acid gives approximately the same effect.

For cheap paper sheets that do not pretend to be used forever, the presence of lignin is normal - no one specifically removes it from wood. One can understand what this is fraught with by the example of what any old newspaper looks like, especially if it is a priori cheap - most likely its sheets are yellowed and look rotten.

Scrapbook is usually intended to store memories in all details, a person makes it for himself, therefore the moments captured in the album are very important, and most importantly, unique. The photographs present here and especially the drawings could be preserved in a single copy, therefore special scrap paper (which includes all its types, where lignin is less than 1%) is needed for the longest possible preservation of an attractive appearance. The manufacturer usually especially draws the attention of the consumer to the fact that there is no lignin in his products, since this makes sheets more expensive and attractive to the buyer. People who have a good understanding of scrapbooking prefer to use only such material.

At the same time, scrap paper today is used not only for making albums, but also for the release of some other products with an eye on durability - for example, from it make cards, notebooks for sketches and the like things. If you think that some notes and drawings should never lose their original appearance, it is best to use lignin-free scrap paper for their storage.

The classification of scrap paper sheets is very extensive - there are a huge number of varieties of this product, as well as many criteria by which you can choose a product.

First of all, this material, like any other paper, varies in thickness and density, which are most often proportional. Most varieties of this material have a density in the range of 150-260 g / m2, which is much higher than ordinary writing paper used in everyday life. Many reviews say that thickness and density do not affect the longevity of the sheet, but this is only true in terms of what is drawn or written.

As a rule, the density is indicated on the packaging or, for many domestic manufacturers, on the sheet itself. However, some manufacturers prefer not to get off with specific numbers, but with general terms like “thin” or “dense”.

In addition, scrap paper is single-sided and double-sided. The fact is that for the sake of use for decorative purposes, the material is often already decorated with color drawings of a certain theme, which is very similar to wallpaper. As well as decorative material for walls, scrap paper can be decorated not only with images, but also with a certain texture, which can also be added to visual memories with tactile ones. Accordingly, single-sided sheets have a “face” with printed patterns and textures and a modest wrong side, while a double-sided sheet has both sides as a “face”.

In addition to the texture, scrap paper can also have gloss or remain dull. Everything is clear here - the matte version does not shine even in bright sunshine, while the glossy one, on the contrary, shimmers with bright highlights.

Separately, it is worth highlighting the acetate sheet, which is not paper, but plastic, but often belongs to the category of scrap paper. By itself, it is usually transparent, but on top of it you can apply both monochrome and color images. In scrapbooks, it is usually used as a separator of "chapters", periods of life included in the album.

Classify scrap paper and sheet size. Naturally, the standard length and width of the latter could completely kill the original plan, which consisted in the fact that each album should be as unique as the memories. Focusing on the satisfaction of creative impulses of potential customers, modern manufacturers offer a choice of sheets of any size.

As in the case of many other products, the average consumer rarely wants to go into technical details and figure out which numerical indicators will satisfy him - he just needs a good product for reasonable money. This is especially true for beginners in any business, including scrapbooking, which is easier to remember what a particular manufacturer or set is called than to delve into the details to understand what could be a worthy alternative.

We will not deliberately consider the most expensive and high-quality scrapbook paper samples on our list, since such a product is more interesting to professionals, but they are probably themselves oriented in the assortment, and they are also used to relying on the numerical characteristics of the product in their choice. Since our selection of sets is aimed at beginners and not the most experienced scrapbookers, a lot of purely childish solutions will be presented in it. Those who are looking for something really special should pay attention to products under the brands of Lena Vinogradova, Melissa Frances, K & Company, Kaiser Craft, Teresa Collins, Graphic 45 and some others.

As for the promised sets that were in demand and popular in our country, the following examples were included in our list.

• "Snow White Rainbow Colors" - A relatively expensive set of one-sided scrap paper for a girl, which is good for the uneven design of individual sheets. Although the design options are not identical, they can be traced to a general concept that allows you to combine them in one way or another.

• "Alto" is a set of colored corrugated cardboard sheets. Consumers note that the material is quite tough and not so easy to process, but for starting at a not very young age, it is good both at the price, and the choice of colors, and the large A4 format.

• Fleur design, as the name of the brand itself (by the way, the eminent), it produces scrap paper decorated with flowers. At the same time, the main field remains monophonic, allowing you to use most of the space for creative experiments, but the floral ornament around the edges will create the appropriate mood.

• Stamperia issues two-sided sheets, which it’s even a pity to take some kind of personal photographs or creativity, since they themselves resemble a real work of art. The assortment of the brand includes sheets with decor on any subject, from vintage and retro to modern technology, from fairy tales to plausible reality. Such scrap paper is often used for decoration, its relatively low strength can be called its only drawback - it even tears too easily.

• Mr. Painter No. 2 - a product of a popular Russian manufacturer of scrap paper, which stands out for its attention not only to color, but also to black and white solutions, such as this. A feature of the set is that the sheets here have an attractive curly edging.

• “Applique Our Baby”, as the name implies, designed in the style of a small child, and most of all it will be interesting to preschoolers and primary school students. The set is suitable as a starter for a child who is just getting acquainted with scrapbooking, each of the sheet options is presented in a set in two copies to give inept children's hands a second chance to create the perfect craft.

• Heyda - A German manufacturer of goods for scrapbooking and needlework, which is known in our country largely because of its very dense and bright cardboard, suitable for a variety of purposes, and most importantly - amazingly durable.

• Aluvision - rather rigid cardboard, characterized by high density, and, therefore, the inability to bend. When creating scrapbooks, such material is often used to create binding.

• "Handicraft Patterns and Polka Dots" exploits the theme of various ornaments - such material is hardly suitable for creating full-fledged pages, but is perfect for pasting edging and free fields. The set is sold in A4 format. Such tracing paper has a certain transparency, therefore, when gluing it, you need to use a special adhesive, because the stains of simple PVA are visible through the ornament.

• Scrapberry's - One of the most recognizable brands of scrapbooking products worldwide, it is usually double-sided paper, which has the widest assortment in terms of design. Despite the attractiveness of the company’s sets, its designers usually don’t really care about some kind of general compatibility, because sheets from different sets often don’t look in the same scrapbook.

• ScrapLike Vintage is one of the best solutions for scrapbooking, if the end result should seem much more ancient than it really is. There are not so many design options, but it should be recognized that the designers tried and really could convey the spirit of antiquity.

• "Vine Dreamland" - A good option for tracing paper in a translucent design, decorated with patterns in the form of curls. Material bleaching occurs without the use of chlorine.

With a diligent approach to choosing beautiful scrapbooking paper, you may find that the number of options available on the market is even too large - sometimes eyes just run wide from it. Beginners in this situation will try to pick up the scrap paper whose design most accurately conveys their original idea, and it will be a mistake - it is impossible to focus on the appearance of the product, regardless of what we choose.

The first thing to decide is the goal for which you are going to buy something. Beginners in scrapbooking often like the attractive appearance of the paper and they are in a hurry to get their favorite album or set of sheets, and then they don’t know what to do with it so that it does not look worse. Even if scrapbooking is clearly your business, you still should not buy your favorite paper simply because it caught your eye, because sometimes the decor shown is so original that you simply won’t find how to use the purchase.

Another thing is if you have a rough vision of the final product and you go for the material just for it. For example, if you need to make a single home-made postcard, there is no need to buy an album or a whole set - many manufacturers produce scrap paper in single-piece sheets. In a situation where the ultimate goal is a self-assembled album with wedding photographs, it is important not only to purchase a sufficient amount of material, but also to think about a binding method. Again, for a wedding album, one sheet design is needed, for children's photographs, a completely different one, and for a collection of favorite recipes, a third.

One of the most important criteria for choosing scrap paper is its size, since no attractive design can help you out if a clipping or photograph simply does not fit into the binder.

Density is also crucial. Despite the fact that even thin scrap-paper has considerable thickness and density (up to 190 g / m2), it is never used as independent pages - although it will not fade, it will quickly tear and fray. For this reason, thin sheets or fragments thereof only paste over thick (from 190 g / m2) scrap paper to give it a specific look. But the latter also does not always look mediocre - it can also be decorated with bright colors or at least simple black and white drawings, but if not, it is still used as the main background and cover material.

The choice between single-sided and double-sided paper is in many cases obvious. For obvious reasons, the two-sided version is more expensive, it also looks more attractive, but at the same time at least one side of it will be sealed with third-party materials - it turns out that such a cost may be unjustified.

In each case, it is necessary to determine the presence or absence of texture and gloss individually, based on the goals and objectives of a particular scrapbook. For example, for winter subjects, gloss is usually needed, since glare is characteristic of snow and ice. If the task is to artificially age the pages of the album, then you need not just a matte, but also a characteristic rough surface.

When choosing scrap paper, you also need to remember that it is sold both in sets and in pieces. The advantages of the album are obvious - you buy a significant amount of goods at a wholesale price, while the individual sheets often have a different, but thematically general design and blend well with each other. Such a solution is optimal if you plan to work a lot with the topics that the designers beat in a particular set. Separate sheets usually cost a little more, but you can weed out the "appendage" in the form of unnecessary volumes of paper of a certain design or additional sheets that clearly lose to the one you like.

Finally, it is worth saying that many consumers pay too much attention to the scrap paper manufacturer, which is not always justified. Even among the famous brands, the majority of production facilities are located in China today, so if you, in principle, do not really trust goods from the Middle Kingdom, you still have no particular choice - you will have to come to terms. Nevertheless, it is still worth focusing more on the density and design of the product, and these two indicators can also be worthy of Chinese products.

The secrets of scrapbooking for a beginner - see the next video.