If you're interested in designing scrapbooking paper on your own, you've obviously learned that being creative is the best part of scrapbooking.  You can go ahead and buy pages and paper that's already set up with picture frames and borders and embellishments already laid out for you, but where's the fun in that?  But when you turn your attention to designing scrapbooking paper on your own then you learn the real joy of scrapbooking and of making your projects come to life.

It's not that difficult when designing scrapbooking paper on your own, and it's important to remember this.  Some people allow themselves to get overwhelmed with wanting to do things the "right" way, and yet scrapbooks have no right way or wrong when it comes to their design.  If a particular design is good for you then you should use that, and if you see a design from someone else's scrapbook that you don't like, simply try to realize what you don't like about it and avoid that.  For example, when designing scrapbooking paper for children some people use lots of pastels but maybe you think pastel colors seem washed out and faded.  When designing scrapbooking paper for your own child's scrapbook, you can use the stronger, bolder primary colors.  If you're not thrilled about silly hearts and bunnies, you can use trains, animals, and whatever else you want when designing scrapbooking paper for yourself.  Again, don't get overwhelmed or assume that things should happen or be designed a particular way.

One thing you also want to keep in mind when designing scrapbooking paper is that you can always layer your papers and mix or match them.  Usually paper supply kits come with many papers that coordinate with one another.  There might be striped pages along with polka dot ones, or squares with circles, and so on.  Most, when designing scrapbooking paper for themselves, will use one sheet as their main page and the coordinating sheet can be cut into different shapes or used as picture frames, borders, and other embellishments.  You can also cut strips and tie them in the middle with yarn or glue a metal piece in the middle of them for a nice touch.  Look at how other people use coordinate papers when designing scrapbooking paper and you can use that for your inspiration.  They may use stencils to cut out letters or shapes and use those, or use the paper in some other creative way.

While you can shop online or in your favorite scrapbook store when designing scrapbooking paper, remember to get creative with items you have around the house.  For example, cotton can be grouped together to form clouds around a photo of a rainy day.  Pry off the post of old earrings and use those as metal embellishments.  Thick yarn can work as photo frames or page borders.  Paint toothpicks white and make a picket fence for a photo of your new home.  Getting creative with these types of things is half the fun of designing scrapbooking paper and pages.  Take a look around at what you can use for fun embellishments on your own.  Do you have old jewelry you're not wearing any more, or sewing supplies that might work?  Washers from the workbench can be used as wheels on cars or the center of flowers.  Old greeting cards may have beautiful envelopes you can cut out with stencils or you can use the front of them if they have a nice picture or design.  Just about anything creative can be used for designing scrapbooking paper on your own.

One new favorite item to use by many experienced scrappers who are designing scrapbooking paper for themselves are metal embellishments.  You can purchase these new or use scrap items.  Not only are washers from the workbench a fun item, but colored paperclips can be bent into all sorts of shapes, old jewelry can be taken apart and the stones used in a variety of ways, or you can use old tags from your pet's collar and just about anything else you can think of.  When using metal embellishments for designing scrapbooking paper there is no limit to the items that can be used.

If you do need some help with creativity when it comes to designing scrapbooking paper there is just about no end to the themes that are available now for scrapbooking paper.  If you have pictures from your trip to Vegas there are papers with a Vegas theme.  If you went camping there are lots of camping papers.  Whatever your theme or tone of your scrapbook album, you're sure to find papers and themed embellishments for designing scrapbooking paper and pages. 

If you're serious about designing scrapbooking paper you might want to host your own crop or scrapbooking retreat.  You don't need to have an entire weekend getaway for you and your friends; you can set aside an afternoon and invite your fellow scrappers over for a fun day of exchanging ideas and techniques.  Your friends might have more experience when it comes to designing scrapbooking paper and pages or may have come up with some great ideas on how to use household items and scraps for those pages.  Often when a group of friends are together and designing scrapbooking paper and pages as a group they not only come up with more creative ideas, they are having much more fun as well!

Making up scrapbooks and designing scrapbooking paper on your own is a fun and affordable hobby; it might seem a bit overwhelming at first since you have a blank slate and are trying to turn that into a fun and interesting page, but it's also a hobby where there are no right or wrong ways of creating that masterpiece.  You're completely on your own and can work up your pages in any way that's fun and interesting for you, so don't hesitate to try your hand at designing scrapbooking paper for yourself.