About Scrapbooking
SCRAPBOOKING TERMS EXPLAINED
Acid
and Lignin
Anything that touches your photos should be acid-free and
lignin-free, including paper, glue, markers and stickers.
Why? Otherwise your photos will discolour and disintegrate
more quickly than they would naturally. Products that are
photo-safe will be labelled as such. It is important to remember
that you can add as many exciting, interesting embellishments,
as you like to your page. As long as anything that is not
photo safe is not touching your photos.
What
Is Acid-Free-and Why Does It Matter?
Acid causes paper and photos to disintegrate. This aging process
is slowed significantly when acid is removed from paper during
the manufacturing process. Not all scrapbooking materials
are photo-safe, so be sure your paper, glue and markers are
labelled acid-free or archival-quality before you purchase
them.
What's
Lignin?
Lignin is the natural bonding element, which holds wood fibres
together. Newsprint contains lignin-you'll notice how brittle
and yellowed a newspaper becomes after just a few days. Like
acid, lignin can be removed during processing to make scrapbooking
paper safe.
If you want to include newspaper articles or announcements in your memory album, photocopy them onto acid-free, lignin-free paper. Try copying them onto an off-white paper that resembles newsprint for an authentic look.
Archival
quality
This is a term used to indicate materials, which have undergone
laboratory analysis to determine their acidic and buffered
content is within safe levels.
Photo
safe
This is a term similar to archival quality but more specific
to materials used with photographs. Acid-free is the determining
factor for a product to be labelled photo-safe.
Sheet
protectors
These are made of plastic to slip over a finished album page,
They can be side loading or top loading and fit 5"x7",
81/2"x11" or 12"x12" pages. It is important
that they be acid-free and PVC free. those that are will be
labelled as such on the box they come in or the album they
come with.
Cropping
To “crop” a photo simply means to cut the photo.
You will usually do this to trim out excess background like
sky and grass to better focus on the main subject of the picture.
An important piece of advice though: Don’t get carried
away with cropping—you might accidentally cut out something
that will have personal, historical or sentimental significance
in the future. It is so easy these days to have copies of
your photos reprinted, either at home or at a photo lab, so
consider which photos you are going to cut up and if they
are important, have a couple of copies done first. You can
add a special effect by doing this as well by perhaps having
black and white photos reprinted in colour or colour photos
reprinted in black and white.