Purchase Guide: Scrapbooking

Buying Scrapbooking Supplies Online

Scrapbooks are a great way to preserve and showcase our favorite stories and memories. By combining several creative disciplines, such as bookbinding, photography, writing, lettering, pasting, and cutting, scrapbooking offers artists a creative way to chronicle everyday experiences. By allowing us to share those experiences with others, scrapbooks can become powerful communication tools, uniting an artist with family members, friends, or even strangers.

There are no rules when it comes to scrapbooking. Your scrapbook's color, form, and function are all left up to your creative vision. With such unlimited possibilities, name-brand art supply manufacturers have spent a great deal of time and resources coming up with an almost overwhelming multitude of scrapbooking supplies to fit your needs. The selection can even be intimidating. By choosing to shop with MisterArt.com, you've made a good first choice-- we guarantee to offer the web's best deals on art and crafts supplies! This purchase guide is designed to help you familiarize with the amazing discounted scrapbooking supplies we offer artists every day!

There are many different categories of scrapbooking supplies at MisterArt.com:

• Adhesives
• Albums and Refills
• Cards and Invitations
• Embellishments
• Embossing and Stamps
• Lighting
• Paints and Finishes
• Paper and Cardstock
• Pens and Markers
• Stickers and Rub Ons
• Storage
• Tools

Adhesives

Adhesives are sticky substances made from a compound that adheres or bonds two items together. Adhesives come from either natural or synthetic sources. Some modern adhesives are extremely strong, and have become popular and successful tools in the creation of art. Whether adhesives are being used to mount a photograph, mask portions of a painting, build a scale model, or even repair a broken sculpture, artists rely every day on sticky supplies to realize their creative visions.

Unfortunately, there's no single perfect adhesive for every project. Knowing what materials you're working with, which kind of bond you'd like to form, and how quickly you need the adhesive to dry will help you select the right adhesive or fastener for any work of art. MisterArt.com has a large selection of adhesives online and we'll ship them anywhere in the U.S.!

Remember, though, that some adhesives are toxic and require some care while they're in use. Always read any instructions and warning labels related to your chosen adhesives and use them in well-ventilated areas!

For more information about our deals on scrapbooking adhesives, check out our Adhesives Purchase Guide.

Albums and Refills

Albums are perfect options for toting photographs, media clippings, and other scraps and reproductions and displaying them handsomely.

Albums and photo books come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some are flexible, others are rigid. Many are binders that utilize clear plastic pages that can be filled with artwork, reproductions, photographs, business plans, charts, contact information, memories, and more. These clear, often-replaceable pages keep artwork and documents safe from dust, fingerprints, rain, and other elements and debris that could damage precious mementos or important work. Many binders and display books hold their pages together with rings that can be opened and closed, allowing artists to add new pages or swap pages out depending on the kind of work they'll be displaying next. The best feature of these books, of course, is their portability—take your best stuff to school, on the plane, anywhere!

When your latest scrapbook is full, fear not! MisterArt.com has many different kinds of refill pages to fit all of your favorite scrapbooks and albums! Don't forget, MisterArt.com's VIP Savings Club members receive the lowest prices on albums, refill pages, and other art and craft supplies!

Cards and Invitations

Communication is key to creating functional art, and what better way for two or more artists to communicate than with beautifully-made cards, invitations, and other custom stationery? Good cardstock is rugged, colorful paper that can be cut, glued, folded, and printed to create outstanding cards, letterhead, envelopes, and invitations.

MisterArt.com offers everyday discounts on supplies for scrappers to transfer photographs on to greeting cards and other stationery. That photo of you with Santa may be trite, but it still makes a fine Christmas card for your relatives back on the farm! Besides, what wedding invitation today is complete without a photo of that engagement ring?

If you prefer your cutting and pasting to be done on a flat-panel monitor, we guarantee to offer the best prices you'll find online for our name-brand digital scrapbooking tools. Put your design skills to good use printing out your own custom greetings, business cards, bookmarks, postcards, and more!

Embellishments

Scrapbooks don't look like normal books. That's because each scrapbook is a custom-made creative journey, a piece of visual art! In this case, it's altogether proper for a book to be judged largely by it's cover! Dust jackets and paperbacks are best left to the clearance rack at the used book store.

The right embellishments can make your latest scrapbook an irresistible read! Remember, it doesn't matter how creative the inside of your scrapbook is if nobody has the urge to pick it up. Luckily, MisterArt.com has a dizzying array of embellishments online that we're ready to ship anywhere in the country within days! From sturdy metal cover plates than can be engraved to whimsical opener knobs to well-crafted hinges, we've got everything you need to give your tome some weight.

As for the pages within, check out our collection of stamps, inks, pens, brushes, doilies, origami paper, stickers, finishers, and glitter to get a few ideas on how to add some levity to your book's leaves! Mesh, charms, lace, ribbon... if you can dream it up, we've got the supplies to help you create it for less!

Embossing and Stamps

Put your seal of approval on your work. Or maybe even a few! Stamping is a craft in which an ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved, or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber, plastic, or other substance. The rubber is often mounted onto wood or an acrylic to produce a more solid tool. The ink-coated stamp is then pressed on to any type of medium, transferring the image or text. Embossing, rather than using ink, actually impresses the image into the medium. Typically, the preferred medium for stamping and embossing is fabric or paper. Other media used include wood, metal, glass, and plastic.

The large variety of inks and powders available for stamps and embossing make it possible for artists to create extremely colorful and detailed artwork. Many use stamp pads to transfer ink on to their stamps. For beginners, sets are available that bundle together everything needed to begin stamping: ink, stamps, stamp pads, and patterns.

Skilled, experienced stampers often use tools to create their own stamps and patterns. You can find everyday discounts on stamps and embossing supplies and accessories at MisterArt.com.

Lighting

As any experienced scrapper will tell you, the beauty of scrapbooks lies in the details. Because so much detail work goes into creating a scrapbook, it's important to have a powerful, clear light source to illuminate your tools and materials while you work.

Light boxes use several light bulbs beneath a pane of frosted glass to create a work surface used to view translucent films, such as slides. Originally used to sort photographic plates with ease, many artists now use light boxes as an aid in inking and tracing.

Other lamps are designed to simulate sunlight from above your work, eliminating confusing shadows and making precision cutting, tracing, and lettering easier. You'll find the best deals on these lights and many more scrapbooking supplies every day at MisterArt.com!

Paints and Finishes

Paints and finishes can give any scrapbook a whole new look and texture. Through various painting and finishing techniques, a skilled scrapbooker can make his or her latest work look like a scrapbook sent from the future, from the Dark Ages, or even something from out of a cartoon!

Decorative painting supplies include versatile paints, enamels, and tools that work well on a variety of surfaces. This versatility has made decorative paints and supplies favorites amongst scrappers and other artists whose painting isn't limited to paper or canvas.

Craft acrylics are paints designed for thick, opaque coverage on large, smooth surfaces. They're particularly vivid when used for decorative painting, home decor, and general craft painting projects.

Fabric paints are paints and dyes specially formulated to bond durably with textiles, including clothing, curtains, banners, and more.

Faux finishing supplies give crafts and artwork artificially reproduced looks, such as antique, metallic, glow-in-the-dark, distressed, and textured finishes.

Glazes and mediums are applied to the surface of arts and crafts to add glossy, protective finishes. While some glazes and mediums are prized merely for their visual qualities, many also act as sealants, protecting artwork from moisture and other contaminants.

Decorative painting tools are unique brushes and applicators designed to distribute paint, stains, and finishes on to crafts and media with a wide variety of surfaces. MisterArt.com also stocks a great selection of conventional paint brushes for decorative painting!

Sealers and finishers are sprays that give artwork a glossy or stained finish as well as seal them against moisture and other damage.

Spray paints come in aerosol cans that distribute paint quickly and evenly over all kinds of surfaces.

Paper and Cardstock

When most people hear the word paper, they probably first think of the standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheets of smooth, white printing paper, made from wood pulp, so commonly found in schools and offices throughout the world. Scrapbookers, of course, are well aware that there are millions of different kinds of paper in the world, a type of paper available for any wild idea or creative impulse an artist might muster!

While the vast selection may seem daunting at first, most papers are described by a few general characteristics. An understanding of these characteristics will help you to choose the correct paper no matter what the project. Luckily, MisterArt.com is here to help! Not only do we have the best paper prices online, but we have fast shipping all over the U.S.! This guide should help artists of all stripes find the precise paper that they're looking for. When buying paper online, there are a few considerations to take into account:

Grade—The quality of a sheet of paper is referred to as its "grade." Grade is based on the material from which the paper is made. Lower grade papers- like newsprint- are inexpensive and suitable for students and preliminary sketch work. Higher grade papers, such as those made of 100% cotton, are generally excellent for permanent artwork.

Weight—The "weight" of a sheet of paper is actually a measurement of the weight of a ream, or 500 sheets. Sheet size, for this measurement, is standardized according to paper type. Light weight is 70 lbs. or less, medium weight 90-100 lbs., and heavy weight 140 lbs. and over. It's now common to see the weight as a measurement of grams per square meter. This is often a more accurate and useful measurement, as it is not based on sheet size.

Paper with a lighter weight is most often used for sketching and preliminary work because it can bend or wrinkle more easily than thicker papers. However, this tendency can also make it useful for projects or artworks that require folding and shaping.

Heavy weight paper is more sturdy and durable than light weight, but also more expensive. The heaviest papers can even be used for mounting purposes.

Texture—Paper texture can vary tremendously, from ultra smooth to extremely rough. The rougher the paper, the more "tooth" it has. Hand-made papers are usually highly textured with rough, toothy surfaces. Machine-made papers can be rough, hot pressed, or cold pressed.

• Rough paper is highly textured, with many grooves, hills, valleys, and indentations.
• Hot Pressed means the paper has been pressed with hot rollers during its manufacture. Hot pressed paper has a smooth surface with little to no tooth. It's well suited for precise detail and illustration. And because it is fine-grained, it's also good for even applications of color.
• Cold Pressed paper is made with cold rollers. It has a slightly textured surface that's perfect for mediums such as watercolor and charcoal that require some tooth.

Pens and Markers

Pens and markers are perhaps the scrapbooker's fondest and handiest tool for customizing photos, clippings, and more. Pens are drawing and illustration instruments that apply ink to paper. Originally, pens were reeds and quills dipped in ink, but modern pens typically contain their own internal ink cartridges. Pens come in a wide variety of colors and serve various artistic functions. Although some pens and ink are erasable, most work done in pen is permanent. Like pencils, pens can create lines and drawings that are soft and subtle or bold and impressive, but work in pen cannot be smudged or blended.

Markers are pens that contain their own ink source and have a tip made from porous materials such as felt. Markers are very versatile drawing and illustration tools and have been customized to suit a wide variety of artistic uses—they are used both for drawing lines as well as for coloring. Markers with fine points are sometimes also referred to as felt-tipped pens.

Stickers and Rub-ons

Stickers and rub-ons are adhesive art supplies that allow scrappers and crafters to transfer complex or colorful designs permanently on to almost any surface. Some collectors fashion intricate books full of nothing but stickers; others prefer to use stickers to highlight other aspects of their albums. Whatever purpose you have in mind, though, MisterArt.com has the stickers you're looking for!

Stickers are unique from rub-ons in that they are typically paper designs that include a self-adhesive backing tough enough to bond on to most surfaces. MisterArt.com has pages of sticker designs, from stick-on letters to lips to sports themes to constellations of stars. Use our self-adhesive word stickers to create poetry in your scrapbooks! Use word-balloon stickers to caption your favorite photos!

Rub-ons are self-adhesive like stickers but must be rubbed by the artist for the adhesive to activate. They allow artists to transfer designs, especially lettering and fonts, on to paper. Rub-on calligraphy looks perfect every time!

If you're ready to devote an entire book to your collection of stickers and rub-ons, MisterArt.com has a great selection of sticker books and albums for scrapbookers of all stripes to store their favorite self-adhesive supplies.

Storage

Scrappers face unique challenges in storing their art materials—specifically, the volume! Scrappers must organize and keep track of cutting tools, books, papers, markers, stickers, adhesives, glitter, and more in order to document their memories efficiently.

With so many different kinds of art supplies used to create scrapbooks, it's no wonder that there are so many storage solutions available to scrapbookers:

• Studio organizers, with their shelves and drawers, are great for storing tools and papers. Organizers come in many different sizes and designs, from massive shelving units to compact chests on wheels. Keep all of your scrapbook supplies organized and easy to find!
• Tote bags are a handy way to throw a lot of supplies together before hitting the road. These versatile carriers can be used to store a variety of cutting tools, adhesives, scissors, envelopes, and paper, keeping everything safe and clean as you travel.
• Storage boxes contain many different compartments in which to stow away scrapbooking supplies of all sizes and shapes. From tiny bottles of glitter to giant pairs of scissors, these rigid carrying cases keep your art supplies separate and secure.
• Storage folders keep paper, completed pages, magazines, photos, and other flat scrapbook supplies smooth, safe, and wrinkle-free. Label each folder to make sorting through their contents a snap.

MisterArt.com guarantees the lowest prices on scrapbook storage supplies on the web! If we don't already offer the lowest price, we'll gladly match it.*

Tools

Every good piece of art begins with a vision: a statement or feeling takes root in an artist's head and becomes an idea that demands to be expressed. Some visions are more easily achieved than others—art can sometimes be just as much an industrial experience as a creative experience. But no matter how far-reaching your dreams, almost any artistic vision can be realized when you have the right tools for the job!

Paper trimmers are tools designed to resize and reshape paper for art projects, often many sheets at once. Paper trimmers typically use measurements to easily and accurately cut paper very swiftly, so that a large volume of paper can be altered in a short amount of time. Paper trimmers are also very useful for cutting tougher, more resilient paper, such as cardboard, which is more difficult to trim using scissors or utility knives.

Possibly the most common paper trimmers utilize adjustable paper guides that hold paper steady for a swinging, bladed arm. There are many paper trimmers designed to cut specific shapes, such as circles or greeting cards. Paper trimmers come in many different sizes in order to accommodate many different kinds of paper. You can find the best deals on all sorts of paper trimmers at MisterArt.com!

Punches are great craft tools used to poke holes in art materials such as paper, leather, and even metal. Some punches are designed to create holes for fasteners such as brads or rings; other punches create a decorative hole, such as a heart shape. Because of the many uses and materials that punches are utilized with, a wide variety of punches have been developed to best accomplish these tasks.

Some punches are designed only to be used on the corner or along the edge of a sheet of paper or other craft supply. For artists who want to poke holes closer to the middle of their artwork, adjustable punches are available that can be placed anywhere you need on your paper project. No matter what kind of punch your art project requires, you'll find discounted prices every day at MisterArt.com!

An essential tool for crafters! Scissors are the perfect way to cut, shape, and customize any paper project safely and easily. Scissors are great art tools because they're safe enough for kids to use, but sturdy enough to cut even rugged art materials time and time again without sharpening.

Because scissors have overlapping blades, they are not symmetrical. This asymmetry is true regardless of the orientation and the shape of the handles: the blade that is on top always forms the same diagonal regardless of orientation. Most scissors are designed to be used in the right hand; left handed scissors have handles which are comfortable to hold in the left hand. MisterArt.com offers everyday discounts on both right- and left-handed scissors.

We've also got great deals on embellishment tools!

Inks and powders are used to coat stamps, which are then pressed on to paper or another support to create and print image.

Patterns are embossing stencils that allow artists to recreate popular designs quickly and easily on a variety of paper sheets and rolls.

Stamping and embossing sets included everything a budding artist needs to begin adding reproducible designs to scrapbooks immediately.

Stamp pads are spongy, absorbent pads that have been impregnated with ink. Pressing a stamp down onto a stamp pad coats the stamp quickly and evenly, allowing for rapid, consistent prints.

Many tools are available to make producing your own linoleum stamps, embossed designs, and custom prints a snap.