by: Debbie Luker

Have you ever sat down to scrapbook and drawn a complete blank? You just sit there and just can't think of anything creative? There are some helpful books and magazines available to help those creative juices start to flow. Here are some books and magazines that help me when I am in a mental block.

Becky Higgins Creative Sketches is a must have for every scrapbooker. It is full of layout sketches and ideas to go along with those sketches. It is organized by number of photos you have so it is really easy to navigate through. I use this so often that the pages are starting to crumble! You can use the sketches and layouts as inspiration or you can copy them exactly for absolutely no thinking whatsoever.

Creating Keepsakes Magazine is a great magazine for the intermediate to advanced scrapper. It focuses on several different techniques and has many articles to help inspire you. It also features many layouts from other scrappers around the globe. It focuses on extravagant layouts with many embellishments.

Simple Scrapbooks Magazine is a magazine for the beginner and more simple layout kind of person. It has the same structure as Creating Keepsakes for they are sister magazines. It has layouts and articles in it. It also focuses on mini albums.

There are many helpful ideas in the media. Each one offers different things. To get a book you would really use a lot, you have to look at your own scrapbooking techniques and what your focus is on.