Dude! Honor the Flag!

Dude! You can do more to honor the flag than just take off your had at the start of a ballgame!

Especially when you scrapbook about someplace patriotic, use the colors and keep it simple.

Some red, white, and blue and some flag stickers sometimes tell more about the place that you've been than the pix ever will.



I mean, dude, this page is from the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC. There's not a place that's more red white and blue than this. Since your pix might not make that clear make sure the page does.

Dude! Salute!

Dude! What's the Cover?

Dude! You can't judge a book by its cover. But, Dude!, make sure your album has a cover page!

All those sterile albums that you got at the Hobby Lobby work great but they look almost exactly the same on the outside. Have your first page be a cover to know what you've scrapbooked inside.



I mean, it's easy to tell them apart now. But, the whole thing about scrapbooks in the first place is to preserve your memories before your mind totally goes. Don't be that old dude fumbling through books endlessly trying to find somethings that might not even be there. Make cover pages and extend your manliness into well into your senility.

Dude! Do it now before you forget!

Dude! Rough It!

Dude! Just because you're suave and smooth doesn't mean your scrapbook paper needs to be. Dude, it's time to rough it!



Throwing in a bumpy background once in a while lets you go 3D without all those frilly girly things that all the ladies at the craft store insist are needed to make a "nice" scrapbook page.

And just like tent camping is different from staying at the Hilton, be warned that working with a textured surface has challenges you won't experience with all the smooth papers. But roughing it once in a while is good, both for your scrapbook and your manhood.

Dude! Rough it up!

Dude! Go Long!

Dude! Who said that you have to hold your the scrapbook in your lap like an old lady? Go Long!

If you're scrapbooking a manly place with really tall things like rockets or skyscrapers or giant sequoia trees, turn the book sideways and go long.



The girls will probably complain that you doing things all wrong by making a page "sideways."  Congratulations! Take that badge of honor and stick it on the cover of the book!

Now, dude, I need to warn you that you can overdue this one. Save it for something important.

Dude! Celebrate that you're still vertical!

Dude! Cut it Out!

Dude! When you're at the barber shop you might just need a trim. When you arrive at boot camp the cut is a little more thorough.

Welcome to the Ft. Leonard Wood of scrapbooking, soldier!

Sometimes you need to crop a pic. Sometimes you need to cut off everything except the essential element. Get out those scissors and start cutting!



Some pix are filled with clutter and distractions. Dude! Cut them out and throw them away. Glue down only what you want to see and remember. Plus, if the sky was gray all day, why waste valuable space with all that bland?

Dude! It's time to separate the men from the boys!

Dude! It's in the Bag!

Dude! The perfect scraps are often just sitting in the gift shop for free. Dude! Look at the bag!

I know that you don't even want to get a bag when you shop. You just want to get those new power tools home from the hardware store without all the fuss and bother. But when you're out someplace you're going to scrapbook, lay claim to that bag. The treasures aren't just in it, they're on it.



All but one of the scraps on the above page were simply clipped from the design on the bag from the gift shop. Perfect elements are all around you.

Dude! Open your eyes!

Dude! Get in Shape!

Dude! Your scrapbook needs to get in shape!

Sometimes a shape other than a rectangle can tell a lot about where you were. If it does, use it!

For example, the President is naturally associated with the stars and stripes. In this page, I used a star punch to shape the elements in invoke that association.



I used the star on the pix I took and the items from the brochures that I wanted to include. Keeping the family pic in a rectangle separated what was presidential and what was family.

Getting things to work in a particular shape can be quite a challenge. But it's nothing a real man can't conquer!

Dude! Shape up!