If you’re an experienced scrapper or someone just starting out with this great hobby, you may be searching for some tips and tricks on making scrapbooking borders work for your own individual pages.  How do those beautiful pages that you’ve seen online and in other galleries come out so well?  How is it that their focal points and wording seem to pop off the page?  What’s the secret?

Actually, there really are no secrets to making scrapbooking borders work for your pages and your album, but there are some quick pointers and reminders we’ll cover here; if you tailor these to your own particular album, you’re sure to create some beautiful and lasting memory pages.

Start With Your Focal Point

Believe it or not, the key to making scrapbooking borders that are attractive and eye-catching really does not start with the border itself, but with the focal point.  If it’s a picture or a program, or ticket stubs, or anything else, this is where the work begins.

When considering the best way of making scrapbooking borders work for this particular pieces, ask yourself if you need to crop it at all.  If it’s a large picture, will it be better if you cut off a small part all the way around, or on just one side?  What is the focus on in the picture – can you see the subject clearly, or is there something in the background that distracts you?

Making scrapbooking borders for pictures that are too busy or out of focus will do no good either.  You don’t want to highlight something that look bad, and you can only do so much to make it look better.  When choosing your focal point, make sure it’s something that’s workable.

You also need to consider the overall look, theme, color, or feel of your focal point as well before you go any further with making scrapbooking borders.  For example, if it’s a picture of two people taking a stroll through autumn leaves, then obviously your colors would be autumn-related, such as rusty red, gold, yellow, and brown.  If your focal point is a sheet of music from your child’s recent recital, your colors may be black and white, to match the color of the sheet.  Remember, you’re making scrapbooking borders to enhance the focal point, not to clash with it.

Getting Creative

Sometimes those who are first starting out with scrapbooks make the mistake of keeping everything square, even, and centered.  Especially when you are making scrapbooking borders do you want to throw out this thinking!  Scrapbooks are meant to be creative, more like works of art than boring street maps.  So, let your imagination and your creative side run wild.  What shapes might be good with the page and the focal point?  You can try hearts for pictures of those in love or for babies, big circles and squares for young children, and so on.

Additionally, don’t think that your border works exactly like a picture frame.  When making scrapbooking borders, experiment with overlapping shapes, or put them off-center from the focal point.  You can even use them in a ladder effect, where you have your focal points and borders going diagonally across the center of the page, or stagger them along one side of the page. 

You can also use special scrapbooking scissors to give your border a jagged or shaped edge, or shred your paper for another fun effect.  Mix up the shapes you’re using rather than trying all circles or all squares.

When trying these creative ideas for making scrapbooking borders, remember to first lay out everything on your page and move them around or try different things before you actually start gluing; this way you’re sure to get the end product just right.

Making Scrapbooking Borders for Wording

Your borders do not need to just be for the focal point or for a picture.  If you’re adding wording, whether it’s a paragraph or just a phrase or two, try making scrapbooking borders for these as well.  You can really have your words “pop” from the page when they have their own border, or a border that complements the one you use for the focal point.

However, you want to be sure that your border does not overwhelm or overpower your wording.  It’s easy for these words to get lost somewhat in a strong, busy border.  When experimenting, start out with something sparse and then add elements.

Using Different Materials When Making Scrapbooking Borders

Scrapbooking pages usually come in coordinating sets, so you shouldn’t hesitate to start cutting up some of these coordinating pages when making scrapbooking borders – that’s usually what they’re there for.  You can also use other materials as well, such as tissue paper, wrapping paper, candy bar wrappers, yarn, thread, and so on.  Other embellishments can also be used when making scrapbooking borders – trying your metal eyelets, stamps, stickers, a line of stencils, or something else fun.  Again, these borders are not supposed to function the way a picture frame would, but are there to add some personality and style to your page, and to make your focal point really stand out.

The Most Important Point

Remember that like everything else with scrapbooking, there is no such thing as right or wrong answers or hard and fast rules.  The most important point to remember for any part of scrapping, including making scrapbooking borders, is to do what seems right to you, and what really expresses your own personality.  Getting inspired by others’ work is fine, but you need to personalize your own creations so that your scrapbook is unique to you.  Don’t copy what you see in those other galleries exactly, and don’t be afraid to experiment.  Try a few different things, especially when you’re first starting out.  If you remember that what you’re trying to do is express your own individuality and creativity, then you’ll understand the real key to making scrapbooking borders, which is to enhance, preserve, and protect those precious memories in your own scrapbook.