Now you see the photos

Now you don’t

Hidden journalling is a way to spice up your scrapbook layout.

Here’s how Caz did this:

Caz decided to hide her journaling behind a film strip of photos on this busy action packed layout. She created the film strip by cutting a length of black cardstock and then punching small square holes up each side using a hand punch. From a coordinating piece of patterned paper she cut a rectangle twice the size of the film strip, folded it in half sideways and then mounted the film strip on the top. She then printed out a strip of journaling and attached it under the photos.

The black writing in the title was added to the photo before it was printed. The white chipboard is by Heidi Swapp with two mixed fonts. The ‘Go Big’ Heidi Swapp Credit Card exclamation slide has a yellow circle added to it to reflect the colour of the inflatable sea biscuit.

Great, isn’t it?

Image Credit: Aussie Scraps

Post from: Blisstree

Thursday Inspiration: Hidden Journalling

I was going through my blog roll when I found myself drawn to Donna Downey’s inspiration journals. I like these kinds of things. As much as I enjoy bookmarking sites that I like on the web, there is something magical about having a physical place to keep things that inspire me whether they are newspaper clippings, sayings or quotes I read amidst the chaos of my daily activities.

What about you? Have you got a journal that holds things that inspire you?

Image credit: Donna Downey

Post from: Blisstree

Thursday Inspiration: Inspiration Journals by Donna Downey

• Quotations Page
• Quote Land
• Cool Quotes
• Quote Garden

Srapbooking quotes for your pages are a wonderful way to add some “elegance” to your page layouts. Famous quotes for your era are fun to have in your books. You can also include quotes from family members about the people in the pictures.

You can also use your baby’s first words or phrases as part of your journalling quotes.

Post from: Blisstree

Scrapbook Tip of the Day: Including Quotes in your Scrapbook Layouts

Now, ScrapScene has put together a compilation of advices on how to get published. Hope this helps you achieve your dreams!

Nikala O’brien – “…always check your scrap magazines as to what they are looking for in future issues by reading the magazine or getting online. You may… have already created the perfect layout or you can scrap one to the theme they require. The more work you send them the more they’ll get to know your work and name. Another way of having your talent seen is to enter as many scrap comps as you can – who knows, maybe you could even win some goodies. Good luck and happy scrapping.”

Becky Heisler – “… submit to specific calls, your chances are much higher if you do that , than just submitting to a general call.

Also, I always keep track of when, where and what I submit so I never send repeats and I know which layouts are submitted where.

And, lastly… Do not give up ! Submit submit submit!”

Jen Martakis – “Be patient. You never know what the editors are looking for in a page. If yours is not chosen it may not be because it is “unpublishable”. It may simply be that they were looking for a certain color scheme.

Pay attention to the ’season’ you are submitting. Magazines aren’t usually looking for summer layouts to put in their October issue.

Submit crisp, clear, high quality photos/scans. Your project will speak for itself if it looks good. Make sure that you resize your photos so that they are viewable without having to ’scroll.’ I resize mine at 72 dpi and 500 pixels on the “longest” side.

Include journaling if it’s hard to read.

A detailed supply list is something they are always looking for.”

Allyson Bright Meyer – “I really think that there are 2 key things to keep in mind when trying to get published.

Post from: Blisstree

How to Get Published in a Scrapbooking Publication

You can cut foam sheets into strips and then fun through a sticker maker and voila, your very own foam adhesives!

Post from: Blisstree

Scrapbook Thrifty Tip on Adhesives

I’ve read through the list and I agree with them. Hope you find them useful. A couple of the tips include:

1. Use Online Resources

There are so many great resources to help you become organized the online ones are the fastest, cheapest and easiest to find.

Just type “scrapbook organization” into Google and you will find a huge list of references. One of my favorites is Organized Scrapbooks (www.organizedscrapbooks.com). They have been around for awhile and have tons of ideas, free printable forms, and photos of organized spaces.

Another favorite is the Yahoo group called Scrappers Challenge (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScrappersChallenge/). If you sign up for the e-mail list, the moderator routinely sends out reminders and little challenges to help you achieve or maintain scrapbook space organization. Members of the list (there are over 8,700!) submit specific questions and members help each other with suggestions or success stories. They also have a photo gallery you can peek into for ideas.

Another favorite place of mine is the Gallery at 2 Peas (http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/). Many “Peas” have posted their organized scrapbook spaces and they usually include several photos, with detailed descriptions of how or why they organized as they did.

So when looking for ways to organize your scrap area, the internet is a wonderful place to start.

2. Divide and Conquer

Once you’ve checked your resources and have some great ideas in mind, I think the next step is to divide and conquer.

By that I mean to spend some time separating your stuff into categories, so you can get a fair idea of how much you have of each item, and how much space it takes up. For instance, gather all of your 12×12 paper and cardstock and, at least as a starting point, get it into stacks, pizza boxes, vertical holders, or some kind of grouping.

Put all your ribbon into one pile or shoebox (okay, 3 shoeboxes!). Gather your photos from all over your house and place them into one large Rubbermaid bin. The point of all this is to get a visual of what you have and how much of each type of item.

If you sort your scrapbook items by type (or whatever categories you choose), it will be so much easier to find things when it’s time to scrap.

Read the rest of the tips HERE.

Post from: Blisstree

7 Top Scrapbook Organization Tips

I’ve got Christmas cards we received last year that are still stored in a shoe box. The Husband has been bugging me on what to do with them. Being the sentimental person that I am, I don’t have the heart to throw them out.

Good thing Andrea Steed at Scrap Jazz has got ideas on archiving our Christmas Cards!

The entire project was created using only a manila envelope, a square punch, a black pen and a glue stick. Here’s how I did it:

1. Label – First, I divided the cards from the letters and photos and jotted down last names and the date on any of them that didn’t already include that information. Years from now, I’m sure I’ll be thankful I did.

2. List – On the backside of the manila envelope, I listed all of the people who we received cards from. I divided them into sub-lists based on our relationship to them (family, school friends, friends from living in Minnesota, Alabama friends, etc).

3. Crop – Next, for any cards we received, I cropped a representative square from them using a square punch.

4. Collage – Adhering with a glue stick, I designed a simple collage to decorate the front of the envelope using the punched squares.

5. Seal – Finally, I put the remaining photographs and letters into the envelope closed it up. Then I stored it with my holiday decorations (and several additional manila envelopes for future years.)

Post from: Blisstree

Archiving your Christmas Cards

Colors by Jennifer McGuire.
Supplies Glitter: Doodlebug; Liquid glue: Diamond Glaze, Judikins; Heart punch: Hobby Lobby; Foam letter sticker: American Crafts; Other: Thread.

If you’re a fan of glitters then here’s a trick that Jenny McGuire has written up that you can use for your scrapbook layouts or projects!

I remember making crafts with my mom when I was a kid. We always used glitter! Glitter always seemed to be the perfect finishing tough, didn’t it? Well it seems things are still the same in the scrapbooking world. There are so many wonderful glitter and glittered products available!

In the current issue of Creating Keepsakes, I shared several fun things to do with glitter. Here, I will share some how-to’s along with new ideas. Time to get out your glitter!

When I use glitter on my scrapbook pages, I am always sure to put a finishing coat over the glitter to prevent it from coming off and making a mess in my books. It is really easy! Here I will show you how to cover a punched shape with glitter and give it a finishing coat, as in my layout shown here.

Read Jennifer’s step-by-step instructions HERE and HERE.

Post from: Blisstree

Fun Tricks with Glitter

MULTIPLE KIDS RESPONSES From Skipper:

I just wanted to share what works for me with scrapbooking multiple kids.

I have 6 children. 5 boys and one girl.

From the beginning, I have done a “family scrapbook”. Now within this book are many individual child pages including birthdays, special achievements, and just plain precious photos. But also in this book are special family moments, including holidays, every day life, etc. So I have, in almost chronological order, about 4 complete scrapbooks (fat ones) that the children LOVE to pour over and show off (to each other and everyone who visits). My theory in this is, no matter what, my children’s lives are full of each other. They will have thousands of special memories together. And I truly don’t want to waste a moment making 6 separate books with the same memories or thoughts or pictures. And I am also paying special attention to focus on individual children as appropriate and take advantage of every unique moment and personality we have in this home!

My plan is to be able to present to my children individual books as their “growing up” present….when they graduate college, get married, or whatever they decide. In those books will be copies of all the individual layouts for that child, PLUS special family memories, “brothers” layouts, “sister and brother” layouts, etc and the fact that they are copies means I will be able to have MANY flat pages rather than a few fat pages in one book!

Meanwhile I will have my books until I grow old.

I do want to note that I do have 3 SMALL (6×6) albums that are for special things like my daughter’s heart surgery, my 2 sons’ trip to disney world with my mom, and my oldest son’s very first theatre production in which he was the main character.

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From Melanie:

I have four children, 15, 13, 4 and nearly 2. I made them each a scrapbook/album from birth to 1 yr of their own, and from then on, all my layouts go in family albums. So Birthdays, grocery shopping, walks in the forest -whatever, all go in date order in our family album. That way I make {family} albums we all enjoy, of our life as it happens.

Hope that helps bigger families that scrapbook:)

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From Julie:

Just got your newsletter (love) and have been reading your book every spare moment (also love). I caught the question about how you handle scrapping the same event for multiple children. I do scrap the same events for both of my kids, but the layouts look completely different. In addition to random “for the art of it” pages I do, I keep three running albums, one for each child that they will take with them and one for the “family” that will stay with me. So, each event is technically done at least three times. For my daughter’s book, I will focus on photos of her and tell her “story” as it related to each event (a trip to the apple orchard, Christmas, etc.). I will do the same for my son from the point of view of what was important to him that day. And, for my album, I will give an overview as a whole. I don’t use the same products for each album, and I don’t even necessarily do them at the same time. It might be weeks or months between when I actually scrap each album. This way, it does not seem repetitive and it actually feels like three separate events.

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From Jill:

I have two kids and the thought of making 2 of every holiday & vacation LO sounds so much more like work than fun. I don’t want scrapbooking to become to difficult or I would lose my motivation. I have a family album every year and separate albums for each of the kids. In the family album I make LOs for every family activity such as holidays, vacations or everyday events that include both kids. If a LO pertains to just one child, it goes in their personal album (birthdays, friends, sports, lost tooth, etc). So no, their own albums don’t contain much about family events but they can fight over the family albums some day! I also find that I have started making some single page LOs with one particular child during a holiday or vacation (from their perspective), if I feel inspired, but it is not a duplicate of the family album. Who wants to become an assembly line?

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From Chrissy:

I have two kiddos, so I thought I would respond. In the beginning, when Felix was just a little guy, it seemed like every picture I took of him had his big brother, Simon, in it. If the story pertained to both, I would create a seperate LO for each and tell the story from their point of view. I usually stuck with the same design, even the same picture if it applied. As Felix has gotten older and started to develop more of his own personality, I’ve noticed that I’m not making many duplicate LO’s. Hope that helps. I’m including some examples. The first set is an example of my using the same LO, just different pictures. The second set is an example of using the same set of pictures to tell two different stories. ===

From Christen:

I have 4 kids. The way I decided to handle this was to have a family album that I scrapbook everything that is important to me. I also have an individual book for each of my kids…it has first day of school, birthdays, halloween costumes and awards, and more individual type of things that they are into. It has maybe 3-5 pages per year plus drawings and school stuff that I know they’d want to keep. I only kept it up through elementary school for my daughters, at that point they wanted to start to doing their own albums and books. My youngest is a boy and is in 6th grade, I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it going for him, as he doesn’t seem as interested in taking pictures and working on it himself. ===

From Catherine:

I’m the mom of six kids….yes,I know, it boggles the mind. But here’s how I solve the multiple kids issue. I have almost always scrapped 8.5 x 11 for family “events”. I started out separating the stacks of pictues by who was in them and scrapped multiples of each event. I quickly discovered that this would eventually drive me out of my mind…not to mention how amazingly time-consuming it was. Enter the color copy. I scrap an event only once with a good cross-section of photos and then get color copies made which go into my kid’s binders. I keep the originals. That way everyone gets the event documented.

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Read the rest HERE.

Post from: Blisstree

Scrapbooking Multiple Kids

Sculpting foam can be used for many purposes. You can stamp on it, use it to fill in an image or decorate items with it.

Here are some suggestions about how to use sculpting foam for your scrapbook pages.

Roll out foam then stamp an image on it with or without ink.

Cut out an image using scissors, cookie cutters or leave it rugged by tearing or ripping.

Add re-inker to the foam while working it to change the color of the foam.

Be creative and have fun. The sky is the limit.

Hints about working with sculpting foam:

Before using your sculpting foam, it is helpful to let the foam dry out a bit. Keep the lid off for a few hours. You will also want to “work” your foam before you use it. Do this by taking the desired amount out of the jar and squishing it over and over in your hands until it starts to thicken up. When you pull it apart and tears instead of strings out, then you know it is ready.

Post from: Blisstree

Scrapbook Tip: Sculpting Foam