Using Your Scanner in Scrapbooking

Many of us who enjoy scrapbooking in an online community think of our scanner merely as a tool to share our work. However, the scanner can be much more than that. Here are some ideas to use your scanner to expand your scrapbooking capabilities.

Scan in badges and patches to use as embellishments - Almost anything flat can be scanned. Print it out on textured, non-textured, or photo paper for different effects. In this layout, I scanned in the patch that my son received at the end of soccer season.

Scan in tickets, brochures, maps, and other souvenirs - Scanning in paper souvenirs allows you to preserve them to use on your pages. Once they are scanned in they can be resized and printed out on acid-free paper. Print them small to use as embellishments or print full-sized to use as background paper. Consider combining several souvenirs collage-style for an interesting background.

Scan in Newspaper articles - Newspaper articles are not generally acid-free and are usually too large for scrapbook pages. If you have an article about your layout topic, it can often enhance your journaling or illustrate the relevance of your subject. If the whole article is too large or not completely relevant, consider scanning in just the title.

Scan in old photos - Old photos without negatives should be scanned in with a high quality scanner to preserve them. You then have the option to use the originals or print new versions of the photos for your layouts.

Scan in anything hand-written - Scan in early examples of a child's handwriting and use them in layouts. This is a great way to preserve the progress as they learn to write. Hand-written letters are not as common as they used to be, but should be preserved. Years ago, I received several wonderful letters from my grandmother in her beautiful, flowing handwriting. I didn't have a scanner then and these letters are long gone. If I had scanned them in, I could now print them out and use them in a layout about this fascinating woman (who is also long gone).

Scan in templates - Whether these are the template provided in magazines or ones you create on your own, try scanning in the templates, resizing them, and printing them on the back of your patterned paper. They can then be easily cut out.

These are just few examples of the many ways your scanner can be used in scrapbooking. Try some of these and I'm sure you will come up with many more. When you're done, don't forget to scan in the finished project and share it here on Scrapjazz.

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