Scrapbooking has been with us in one form or another for centuries – as soon as people had access to paper, in fact. Many people wanted to keep a record of their lives and writing it all down on paper was the only way to do this. Of course, not all people could write, but they could draw and they could save up things that were special to them – like pieces of ribbon – and keep them in their scrapbook.

In the 16^th century the artist, Giorgio Vasari recommended keeping prints and pictures in special books, and this idea was really the forerunner of libraries. In the 17^th century it was the fashion for German girls to braid or plait strands of their friend?s hair and keep it in a special journal along with poetry, quotes they found inspiring and comments about their friends.

William Granger is credited with the idea of adding blank pages to published books so that the purchaser could write down their own private thoughts and pictures. This was called ?grangerising? a book and is considered to be an important forerunner of today?s scrapbook.

Famous people like Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain were both avid scrapbook makers and Mark Twain spent most of his Sundays in pursuit of this hobby. He actually designed and patented a series of scrapbooks that netted him a good profit. Jefferson?s scrapbooking efforts were mainly to do with events during the time of his presidency. He wanted to save all the news for future generations.

Once photography became popular, this kind of scrapbooking declined in favor of the photograph album, but diaries and journals were still popular. The starting point for the modern day scrapbook is generally considered to be in Utah, with the public showing of the Christensen family?s set of 50 family scrapbooks at the World Conference of Records in 1980. They are Mormons, who are required by their church to keep records of their family history. After such an interest was shown in their books, the family went on to write and publish Keeping Memories Alive; a how-to book considered to be the first of the modern-day books on scrapbooking. In 1981 they also opened the first retail store – called The Annex – for scrapbooking supplies.

Their records were so well liked that their book and store enjoyed well-deserved popularity and today there are still many scrapbook stores in Utah, due to the large Mormon population. But the tradition has spread almost worldwide now, with scrapbooking stores in most towns as well as supplies available on the Internet. You can visit their sites for important tips and materials on how to create your very own scrapbook. Scrapbooking with Vanessa, for example, is very convenient and helpful to the scrapbook enthusiast.

Ever been stuck for inspiration or you want to try something a bit different? Sketches are great to get those creative juices flowing.

A sketch is either a rough hand or computer enhanced drawing of a page layout for ideas.

A sketch gives you the proposed photo and embellishment placement for on the layout. Most sketches are 12×12″ layouts but they can be scaled down for 8″x8″ pages and even 8.5″x11″ pages by reducing the size of your photos and not using as many embellishments. You can take as much as you’d like from a sketch, it could be the whole sketch or just placement of journaling or title. Sketches are mostly used as a guide and/or starting point for you to create your own individual page layout.

You may find that your photos don’t suit the sketch design and/or you don’t like to journal or you like to journal alot. You don’t need to do the sketch exactly how it’s shown, the photos on the sketch maybe portrait and your photos might be landscape. This doesn’t mean you can’t use the sketch idea, it just means that you need put your own swing onto the sketch by improvising a little. It’s what you make of the sketch and what suits your photos and supplies.

Sketches are an idea with many different looks. You will see in the gallery from sketches done in the past that not everyone does exactly what’s on the sketch. Some may add a little more to the sketch idea, some will have their photos positioned a little differently. It’s how you perceive the sketch, to suit your photos and supplies. This is fantastic as all the little variations you make, makes your page layout unique. How much you want to change the original idea is completely up to you.

Maybe you have never tried a sketch challenge…give it a go they are heaps of fun but still allow your style to shine through. Here at Scrap with V we have great sketch challenges every month posted in the forum. Why not give it a go, join in with our design team, members and regular visitors. Upload your version of the sketch challenge into the Gallery and show us your version of the sketch and also have the chance to win a $20 voucher to spend in the online store. The winners each month are decided by voting in the gallery by our members.