Sources of Western Scrapbooking Pages
Western scrapbooking pages, free for copying, appear in many places on the Internet. You might want to try these options.
1. Galleries: Scrapbooking galleries are probably one of the best places to find western scrapbooking pages free. These galleries feature photos of successful scrapbooking pages, free for you to borrow from their creators. Scrapbook has nearly 350,000 images in their gallery, including both layouts and digital layouts of scrapbooking pages. A search there on the word "western" produced 214 western scrapbooking pages at the time this article was written. A mouse click at this gallery enlarges any photo so you can easily see the elements.
2. Forums and Chat Rooms: You may also find western scrapbooking pages free in forums and chat rooms. Sometimes, if you are cooperative, a forum member may even volunteer to create a western scrapbooking page free to meet your specific needs. Forum members are often scrapbooking "addicts" who love to share their talents.
3. Scrapbooking Kits: Online retailers who sell scrapbooking kits often feature 2 or 3 kits, showing large pictures of scrapbooking pages within the kits. The pages are copyrighted, but the ideas can be adapted. Digital scrapbooking kits are sometimes free for the taking as an introduction to a site's digital elements. You may find just the western scrapbooking pages you want on a kit site.
4. Scrapbooking Stamp Retailers: Online retailers of stamps often show scrapbooking pages to illustrate what their stamps will add to a layout. We found lovely western scrapbooking pages free at one of these sites.
5. Scrapbooking Supplies Retailers: Internet retailers who sell an array of scrapbooking supplies follow the same practice: placing photos of samples to spark ideas, or giving 2 or 3 scrapbooking pages free as an introductory offer. Browse these retailers' sites and you will come away with many ideas for western scrapbooking pages.
Do-It-Yourself Digital Western Scrapbooking Pages
Digital western scrapbooking pages can be created at your computer if you are handy with a computer graphics program. We use Adobe PhotoShop.
Begin by creating scrapbooking paper. Make your paper 12" x 12" for now. It can be reduced later if necessary. Create digital scrapbooking paper in several themes for your scrapbooking pages. These three ideas will get you started.
1. Western Riding Scrapbooking Pages
Make the paper background medium to light brown with a sandy texture.
Place a clear layer in front of the brown, and add words to it such as "Western" or "cowboy" to carry the theme. You won't need many words. Vary the font for interest. This layer is optional on your scrapbooking page.
Find 1 or 2 clipart or photo images of cowboy hats. Then find a cowboy boot, saddle, and spurs. Add a rope if you wish. Once you have the graphics, create a pattern on your brown paper, repeating it at pleasing intervals.
2. Horseshoe Scrapbooking Pages
Make the paper background light brown, and then render clouds with light brown and ivory.
Find a clipart image of a steel gray horseshoe. Create a pattern over the clouds, repeating the horseshoe at intervals until the paper is covered.
3. Man and Beast Shoes Scrapbooking Pages
Begin by creating horseshoe scrapbooking paper. Add small clipart images of cowboy boots at wide intervals over top of the horseshoes. It's good to have 3 different pairs of cowboy boots for interest.
Completing Western Scrapbooking Pages
Once your scrapbooking paper is ready, you can make digital western scrapbooking pages on it. Place cropped, scanned photos on each page. Overlap photos, with a piece of journaling placed to one side. Add a page title in bold, western font. Half a dozen wild mustangs in ivory or off-white might be placed at a page bottom, as though dashing in from one side. Add digital stickers to your scrapbooking pages and move to the next.
Tip: Western scrapbooking pages look best when "busy" cowboy paper is used intermittently with plain, more colorful backgrounds.
