what scrapbooking supplies to buy?
here's a list of basic scrapbooking materials
every creative memory maker needs

Here is a list that will help you decide on how to spend your money wisely on your first scrapbooking shopping spree.

Basic Consumable Scrapbooking Supplies

These are scrapbooking materials you will use once and need to replenish again and again.

Paper

To begin scrapbooking, you'll need scrapbook paper. You might have seem some of these lovely scrapbooking paper before, either from scrapbooking magazines, your friend's scrapbook pages, or on your previous visits to a scrapbooking store.

One criteria for a scrapbook paper is its acid free quality. You are creating memories - keepsake memories - for generations to come. Therefore, it is important that your paper are archive quality paper which during long term storage will have a high degree of permanence. All paper you see in a scrapbooking store are usually acid and lignin free.

Purchase a pack of solid color papers. And add on some individual sheets of patterned papers for your first project.

Read more about Scrapbook Paper.

Protective Sleeves

Protective sleeves or page protectors should be PVC-free. PVC releases fumes which will in long term destroy your photographs and paper. Choose page protector made of polypropylene or polyester plastic.

Scrapbook Albums

Sizes
Scrapbook albums come in different sizes. Look for a size that is appropriate for the project you have in mind. For example, a wedding scrapbook album with bigger photos and wedding invitation cards, best wishes cards and other memorabilia will need a bigger scrapbook album to showcase the pages. Usually, you will be creating on 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper so a 12" x 15" scrapbook album would be the right size to buy for this wedding scrapbooking project.

Styles
Followings are the different styles of albums available:

Spiral Bound Albums - These are spiral-bound and have pages in them. You can decorate the covers and pages to personalise them. Many of these are shape albums and are great to create for giving away as birthday or farewell gifts.

Post Bound Albums - These have post screws that allow you to add more pages when the need arise. For this kind of albums, you can take out each page and work on it flat on your craft table. You can also re-arrange the pages. If you make any mistake, you can just discard that particular page unlike the spiral bound albums.

Ring Binder Albums - These are just like our office files and like the post bound albums will allow us to add and rearrange pages.

Strap Albums - These strap style albums have plastic straps woven through stapled pages. The album pages will lie flat and close together when opened. This is great for making widespread pages using two pages per spread.

Embellishments

You will want to add some embellishments to your shopping list.

Items to add are:

• Stickers
• Fabric Flowers
• Die Cuts
• Eyelets
• Brads
• Ribbons
• Tags
• Rub Ons
• Shape Chipboards
• Hat Pins (Stick Pins/Decorative Straight Pins)

Non-Consumable Scrapbooking Supplies : Equipments and Tools

These are non-consumerable scrapbooking supplies that you will only change when they wear out in time to come. So plan properly before purchasing any of these scrapbooking tools. Find out from more experienced scrapbookers about a particular brand. Some scrapbook store only carries certain manufacturer's products so it's best to make comparisons of the different brands before making an investment. These scrapbook tools are usually quite expensive and you'll want to ensure that they are right for your needs and will last you a long time.

The followings are some of the basic tools you'll need:

• a good trimmer
• craft knife, spare blades and scissors
• tweezers
• straight-edge steel ruler
• a set of alphabet rubber stamps
• some clear rubber stamps
• decorative punches
• decorative border rulers
• corner rounder
• archival ink pens like the Sakura's Pigma Micron pens
• photo-safe and acid-free adhesives
• permanent pigment inks.
• simple shape cutters or templates
• a set of eyelet setter
• a box of color pencils, markers, crayons or water colors.

By and by, you will be adding to this list of scrapbooking supplies.

Be wise and do not buy whatever you see. Every scrapbooking store is like a candy store. You'll likely be tempted to buy stuff that you do not need.

So plan ahead. Make a list of what you need and bring it along when you go shopping for scrapbooking materials.