The Ultimate Scrapbooking Book 
By Various

       If you want to take up scrap booking, but are not sure where to start this helpful primer might be just what you need. Divided into several sections, it takes you through what to buy, through basic techniques and a few techniques that are more advanced, gives you a few copiable pages to start you off and then plunges in with a gallery of ideas from four contributors to this book. Over four hundred large pages make this an impressive coffee table book for any paper crafter’s house that is sure to keep being picked up and looked at for ideas.

      I particularly liked the way the basics of scrap booking were explained; why the materials have to be acid free, a helpful list of essential items and even how to store them is just what a beginner needs. Next comes a chapter explaining fundamental techniques in a staged manner, starting with the simple ones such as matting and framing and continuing through tinting black and white photos and using clipart. Each question about how to do a particular thing is illustrated with a project and there is a large, handsome photograph of the finished work. Then comes the part with the copiable pages and some more adventurous projects – my own favorite part of the book that shows what can be done with not all that much, and helps explode some of the myths about this craft. Here too are some non-album projects for recipe books, shadow box frames and other “memory” items, showing how memorabilia and photographs can also be displayed. Next comes a family section showing various landmark and fun events in a typical family and how they can be made into album pages, several galleries of work and a section of bright copiable templates that look rather like Sizzix dies. In short, a lot to be going on with and I honestly cannot think of anything much that this exhaustive book has left out. I have seen various other books on the same subject, but this one is probably the best one to date. This is probably mainly due to its awesome size (none of the other books were very thick) but also because it is handsomely illustrated and easy to follow. If you want to take up this craft, or learn more about an existing hobby it comes highly recommended.

      If you cannot find materials locally, try http://www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.