"Let’s go to the LSS to the all-day Crop, I can’t wait to see the new KMA stuff!" Crop? LSS? KMA? What does that mean??? Read this series of articles for more information on common scrapbook words and abbreviations!

Acid free- Acid will ruin your pictures. You have seen pictures that look like they are eaten away, or falling apart? That is caused by acid. If your paper is not acid free, or if anything acidic touches your pictures it will corrode them and they will be destroyed. See also-Lignin free.

Adhesive- this is basically your glue. There are many different types of adhesive used in scrapbooking. Glue sticks are the most common things for a beginner to start with. There is so much variety to choose from, one should not limit oneself to glue sticks, though! Check out different things, such as Spray adhesive, Hermafix (my all-time favorite) Glue Pens, and Mono adhesive tape. Any of these can be found at craft stores like Michael’s or a local scrapbooking store, of from a scrapbook company consultant.

Album- An album is a book with blank pages for making a collection of memorabilia, pictures, etc. Several types of scrapbooking albums include book-style, post bound/top-loading, spiral, ring binder, and strap-hinge.

Album Extenders- these are posts, similar to screws in looks, for post-bound (see above) albums that extend the binding, which enables you to add more pages to the book.

Card stock- paper that is thick, similar to construction paper. It is often used in the making of greeting cards. Be sure all your scrapbooking supplies are acid/lignin free.

Color Wheel- a wheel that shows complementing colors, commonly used by painters. This can be a very useful tool for the scrapbooker to color coordinate their pages.

Consultant- a consultant is someone who sells products for a direct sales company. There are several direct sales scrapbooking companies. Sometimes consultants are referred to as Instructors or Representatives, also. An example: I am a Leaving Prints Independent Instructor, if you like Leaving Prints products, you can buy them from me!

Conventions or Retreats- Scrapbookers get together to scrapbook or sample products at conventions and retreats. A convention is more of the products sampling at booths, etc. Retreats are mini-vacations where women get-together and scrapbook for a weekend or so. Scrappers have also been known to go on Scrapbook cruises and dream vacations.

Crop- this is a very commonly used word that means to cut your pictures in order to put them on your scrapbook page. It also means a gathering of scrapbookers to fulfill that purpose...to crop their pictures.

Cutting System- These are tools used by scrapbookers to cut or crop their pictures or paper. An example is the Coluzzle, which is a cutting tool consisting of nested templates, a swivel knife, and a foam mat for ease of shape making. Their templates include alphabets, circles, squares, hearts, puzzles, and the ever-popular oval. This is a very easy cutting system, perfect for the more "mechanically challenged" people, like me! Other brands you may have heard about include Fiskar’s, Creative Memories, and Blade Runner.

Dimensional/mixed media- these terms are used for anything on your pages that give dimension, such as eyelets, ribbon, pop-dots, embossing, or various other techniques.

Eyelets- these are the same things that you have in your tennis shoes! They are the little metal circles that you lace your shoestrings through. Eyelets are available for scrapbooking in countless styles and colors! They add a nice dimensional touch to your pages. I will include this in the article on Dimensional items, but it is so popular, I decided to include it here as well.

Journaling- is any writing or story telling that you include on your pages. It is something that makes scrapbooking a historical work of art. Good journaling includes answers to the questions "Who, What, When, Where, and How?" It is the story to the pictures, and is a very important part of the scrapbook.

Layout- this is the page or pages that you work on involving one theme with a title, pictures, journaling, and embellishments all relating to one theme. In other words if you have several pictures of someone opening up birthday presents, you may do a layout with your pictures under a title of "Opening Gifts," and some journaling about the event, along with some birthday stickers across two pages. This is also sometimes referred to as a two page spread. Most layouts are one or two pages, but sometimes people insert smaller pages in between or page extenders to the edges to broaden the layout.

Page Protector- is the plastic covering that protects your pages from damaging effects. These are a must if you want your scrapbooks to remain intact!

Swaps- are something scrapper's do to get variety in their scrapbooks, and also to have fun! Common swaps include border swaps, but they are as varied as creativity calls for.

Swaps are for a certain number of people. In a border swap for ten people, the ten people make ten borders and send them to the hostess. The hostess "swaps" the other ten, so that each person gets one of each. When each person gets their package back, they have ten new ideas and borders to use in their own scrapbooks for the effort of their one!

This is the abridged edition of our scrapper's dictionary, because I have many more terms I want to list. See a list of common abbreviations and acronyms used on Scrap-boards (message boards for scrappers to talk about their favorite hobby!)! Abbreviations Reference.