Dude! Chop Chop!

Dude! God didn't shape the whole world with right angles. Why would you?

Don't let the camera determine the shape of all your pix. Be a man! Shape them to your liking!

This hike was full of boulders randomly piled along the trail to the river rapids. Right angle cornered pictures looked out of place. Problem solved with a pair of scissors.



Of course, you could try to solve it a more girly way. I'd tell you how that would be if I knew but I can't because I'm a man.

Dude! Chop Chop!

Dude! Don't Mess with my Car!

Dude! Road Trip!

You're going to end up in some roadside trap and they'll want you to put a bumper sticker on your pride and joy.

Dude! Take the sticker for your scrapbook!



There's nothing like a bumper sticker to show the spirit and tackiness of the American open road. Leverage that spirit by plastering it across the page. Just keep it away from your photos as the chemicals in each don't mix well with photos and can damage things in long term.

Besides, there's no way the girls would use such a thing in their scrapbook, unless it said, " I (heart) my cat."

Dude! Roll On!

Dude! Make it a Holiday!

Dude! You can add an invisible element to your scrapbook that only you will know. Tie when you make your page to something in it!

I know how things can stack up and how you can get way behind in keeping up with the scraps. A holiday or an event can help you get things done and give you another story to tell when your showing off your stuff.

There's nothing all too special about the page below.



Except that I made it while watching President Obama's inauguration. Could you make your Lincoln Memorial page on Presidents Day? Or dude! you could do the opposite like making your beach pages during a blizzard.

It never hurts to add an extra layer of memories to your book.

Dude! It's like compounding interest in your memory bank!

Dude! Mix your Backgrounds!

Dude! Just because you all your other page backgrounds match doesn't mean that they all have to.

If you have a double page design, be bold and mix it up. Use two different colors, or two different textures. One page can even be built on a brochure or map.



Just make sure your other design elements cross over from one background to the next so that it will be solidly a single page.

Dude! Be your own Man!

Dude! Check your Balance!

Dude! It's not just on your surf board or in climbing mountains that you need to check your balance. Check it in you scrapbook, dude!

When you arrange your pix and your scraps, make sure they look like you meant to put them there. Sometimes that means to just balance them evenly on the page.



A neat and efficient formation is much more manly than all those lacy frills the girls use. And when it's about someplace that's dizzyingly high, a solidly balanced place lets the pix look even more treacherous.

Dude! Stand strong!

Dude! I so can't Remember!

Dude! You go a lot of awesome manly places doing lots of awesome manly things. It's so much it's hard to remember!

Good thing they put lots of facts and stats in the brochures, trail guides, and park newspapers. Dude! Duh! Put that stuff in your scrapbook!



Their info + your pix = more complete memories.

Dude! I so remember now!

Dude! Fill'er Up!

Dude! This gets intense!

Go someplace like Gettysburg and you'll have lots for your scrapbook. War heroes, battle plans, and monuments go side by side with time with family and tour groups. These things don't easily blend well.

Sometimes you just have to pick out a couple of pix, clip out some highlights of the site's history, and fill up a page in a way that seems to have some visual appeal.



Dude! Going to to places like this doesn't just fill scrapbook pages -- it give you a fuller life.