Favorites in February - Scrapbook Essentials

I've been scrapbooking for about six years now. I've found that sometimes I get into a real scrapping groove, constantly taking great photos, using lots of cool products, and making great projects. There are some really great items out there that make scrapping easy for me and are real essentials.

1. A great scrapbooking website

I love twopeasinabucket.com . I've been visiting the site since April 2004 and love that I can post my layouts there, learn what products are worth buying, and learn the latest and greatest about the industry. The gallery at 2peas is filled with amazing cards and layouts and I use it often for inspiration.

2. A fabulous cutter

If you can work at home and have endless space, I recommend the Tonic Guillotine trimmer

It cuts through several sheets of cardstock and acrylic and is super sharp.

For crops and simple scrapping, I use my Fiskars Euro Trimmer (this isn't exactly what I have, but it seems to be a newer version, hence the NEW circle).

It is precise and cuts very well. You do need to buy replacement blades, so slight bummer.

3. Strong, acid-free adhesive

I think you need both dry and wet adhesive depending on the project.

I like Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Adhesive

and I am looooooving my ATG gun.

Yes, it's large,but the refills are so inexpensive and last forever and are so super sticky.

4. Glue dots

These little wonders make ribbon, metal art, wood, stick to anything.

5. Fabulous Cardstock

I use Bazzil or Prism mostly. Great texture and very easy to work with. I have learned I do not need every color of the rainbow, I now just buy those go-to colors I use most:

white, black, dark brown, kraft brown, greens, teal/icy blue, and pomegranate red.

6. A fabulous Local Scrapbook Store

I've been shopping at Scrapper's Playground since the week it opened. What helps is that this store stocks all the latest and greatest and is open to any suggestions on what to stock. They have amazing papers, a "wall of color" with every ink, paint, copic marker, chalk you can imagine, a knowledgeable staff to tell you how to use the product, and awesome classes with their talented staff members and "celeb" scrappers too (it's where I went to Donna Downey's classes last year when my hair was way longer).

Most of all, just enjoy the process. Once it becomes a burden, I have learned to take a little break, pack up my stuff and ignore it. Then the bug hits and I am back in the groove.

So go get scrappy :)