What’s the secret to becoming a better scrapbooker?  The latest new scrapbook tool?  Trendy papers and embellishments?  A dedicated craft room in your home?

The secret is scrapbooking more!  The more layouts you create, the better scrapbooker you will become.  Creating more pages brings creativity, organization and speed to your scrapbooking skills.

Challenge yourself to scrapbook more often and let go perfection.  Spend some time aiming for quantity not masterpieces.  Every page does not need to be a 2-hour work of art.  The goal is to document your memories and tell the stories of your life.

Take the challenge to create a Layout A Day in February.  Layout a Day (LOAD) 212 is an online class taught by Lain Ehmann.  This class provides 29 daily prompts and videos to inspire you to create a layout a day for 29 days.  LOAD 212′s theme is Past Perfect : Looking Back to Look Forward.  There will also be a private online message board and gallery.

To find out more about LOAD 212: Looking Back to Look Forward, listen to Lain’s LOAD 212 introduction video.

Here’s to getting more pages done!

Photoshop Elements is the software program I use to edit my photos before printing, organize my digital photos, and create digital scrapbooking layouts.  Elements is a lot easier to use than the full Photoshop program (and much less expensive), but it can still take some time to learn how to get the most from it.  For a few years, I’ve been taking classes at JessicaSprague.com and ReneePearson.com to learn photo editing and digital scrapbooking.  I highly recommend both sites.  I only recently learned about Kim Klassen’s online classes.

Kim Klassen teaches a free Photoshop Elements course called, the Photoshop Skinny-Mini ECourse.  This online class begins on January 9th, so if you’re interested, sign up today.  It’s a 10-part, self-paced mini course that will teach you some of the basics of Photoshop Elements.  Remember, if you don’t have PSE yet, you can download a 30-day trial from the Adobe site (Kim provides the link.)

Even if you aren’t interested in this ecourse, please do take a few minutes to visit Kim’s blog.  You won’t want to miss her photography.  Her photos are amazing and so inspiring!  I signed up for her Beyond Layers class just because I fell in love with her blog and think reading inspiring emails from her will be a wonderful way to start my mornings in 2012.

Image via Wikipedia

Simple Scrapper is offering a free ecourse to help you find more time for scrapbooking in 2012.  5 Truths of Time Management is a 2-day ecourse on January 5th and 6th.   This course will teach you how to:

• Rid yourself of scrapbooking stress and guilt
• Find balance when you’re overextended
• Scrapbook in smaller amounts of time
• Banish procrastination and overwhelm forever
• Know exactly where to start when you scrap

Sign up is free at Simple Scrapper!

Today we packed away our Christmas decorations.  Every year I save many of the Christmas cards we receive, especially those with family portraits or holiday letters.  I’ve scrapbooked many of the photos and a few of the letters, but I’m never sure what to do with the Christmas cards.  I just store them in a photo archive box.

Eighteen25 posted this simple, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that idea for Christmas cards.  All it takes is a hole punch, a couple of binder rings and either a printer or some cardstock to make these Christmas card mini books.  They even provide a couple of printable covers!  Love these!  I sorted a few of mine by year, and then some years I combined into one book.  I also included our Christmas card as the first card in each book.  I used the printable covers and printed several more for years to come.

I have a small red box I bought at Target this year that I put current Christmas catalogs in during the holiday season.  I’m planning to buy a second one to hold and display my Christmas card mini books each year.

This year I’m using a digital template from Sue Cummings at OScraps to document my 2011 year in review.  This is a no cost download introducing their 2012 52 Projects (part of the 2012 52 Inspirations subscription).  The simplicity of this layout only required choosing my photos.

I also really love the 2011 Year in Review layout idea from A Real-Life Housewife.   She includes in her review page:

• Books
• Purchases
• Events
• Places
• Moments
• Movies
• Accomplishments

Great ideas!

Today’s Mama has a free printable, End of the Year Time Capsule Questions, that could be included in a 2011 Year in Review scrapbook page.

How are you planning to document your 2011 Year in Review?

Image via Wikipedia

Looking to finish up your Christmas preparation?  Look to your scrapbooking supplies!  Here are some ideas on how to use your scrapbooking supply stash for the holidays.

Wrapping

Cut gift tags from scrapbook paper, and embellishments can add something special to your packages.  Out of Christmas bows?  Look to your scrapbooking ribbons.

Christmas Cards

Did you forget a few people on your card list?  Use your scrapbooking supplies to make a few quick Christmas cards.

Home Decor

Create a holiday-themed page.  Then frame and display it.  Your cardstock and embellishments can also make a Christmas garland or a table centerpiece.

Ornaments 

There’s still time to create a few ornaments for your tree or for gift giving.

Holiday Gifts

Fold and decorate gift card holders or make a simple holiday album to give as a gift.  Check out this example that could be made from simple photo albums at the dollar store.

Happy Holidays from Into Scrapbooking!

I love Heidi Swapp.  Her energy and creativity for hybrid scrapbooking is contagious.  Besides, watching her scrapbook is just plain fun!  She has two easy scrapbook album projects on video this month.  I’m creating both of them!

The first is a Christmas hybrid mini album that she featured on her webinar.  The album is a fully printable 8×8 mini book.  Just print the pages at home on presentation paper or take them to your local office supply store and ask them to color laser print them on 110 lb white cardstock (Tip: Sometimes this cardstock is not available. I purchased a package from Sam’s Club, and they print it directly onto the paper for me. Cheaper too!)

First watch the Hybrid Holidays video.  Please be patient with the audio from UStream.  They had some technical difficulties that night.  You can find the printable Hybrid Christmas Album kit at JessicaSprague.com.  You don’t have to be a digital scrapbooker to do this project.  It’s a printable kit with no Photoshop skills necessary.

The second album project was featured on Heidi’s Create to Remember show on My Craft Channel.  You will not believe how easy this project is! Seriously, it’s one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” albums.  A quick trip to my craft store for 2 items along with some supplies from my scrapbooking stash, and I put this together in minutes.  Really, minutes!  Watch Heidi make this super easy, incredibly versatile album on the Create to Remember episode, Stand Up Album.

How are you planning to scrapbook 2012?

I’m taking the Ella Publishing Challenge : Take Twelve.

For each month on the 12th of the month, I’m planning to take 12 photos and create a layout.  By the end of 2012, I’ll have 12 layouts in an album documenting 2012.

This is an easy project that anyone can do on their own, but Ella Publishing is offering a Take Twelve Inspiration Kit to guide and inspire you throughout 2012.

This kit includes five complete products in one!

You’ll get:
12 monthly photo checklists
12 bonus project ideas
12-month mini-album idea
12 layout sketches by Donna Jannuzzi
54 printable journaling lists + .png files
24 printable titles + .png files
24 printable calendar accents + .png files

You can also purchase Take Twelve Digital Templates if you want to make this a super easy project and create your layouts digitally.

If you’re interested in the Take Twelve Inspiration Kit or the Take Twelve Templates, purchase them before December 24th for only $12.12 each (after 12/24 the kit is $20.12).

So how will you scrapbook 2012?

Image by Professor Bop via Flickr

A few Halloween quotes for your scrapbooking layouts:

“When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
’tis near Halloween.” Unknown

“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” William Shakespeare

“Trick or Treat
Smell my feet
Give me something
good to eat” unknown

“Trick or Treat,
be real sweet,
give us tasty treats to eat.” unknown

“Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo.” Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother

“From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!” Traditional Scottish prayer

And a Few Halloween Scrapbooking Titles

It’s a Monster Mash
Chills and Thrills
Which Witch is Which?
Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun!
Spooktacular!
Bewitched

More quotes for your scrapbooking layouts

This summer I bought a Zutter Bind-It-All at a fantastic price at Scrapbook.com.  I love this little machine!  I not only created my own travel journal and summer mini book with this tool, I’m making gifts for friends and family.  Next on my list is designing a December Daily/Journal Your Christmas mini book before the holidays even get started.  Zutter Bind-It-All makes it so easy.

Basically, the Bind-It-All tool aligns and punches holes in everything from cardstock to chipboard.  The special binding wires come in different widths to accommodate a variety of projects.  You can bind completed pages or blank pages.  One of my favorite projects with this tool is to make my own blank notebooks.  I design a cover and stamp a few of the papers to create a unique notebook to take with me to meetings or just for taking notes at home.

Why am I telling you all about Zutter’s Bind-It-All today?  Scrapbook.com is running another special!  Today only you can get the Bind-It-All for over $18 less than retail and even $9 less than Amazon’s price.  That’s not all!  You also get the Idea Book (a $19.99 value) when you purchase the Bind-It-All tool.  Just add the Idea Book to your cart when you purchase the tool, and the Idea Book price will be deducted from your total. Remember this offer is only valid for today! So if you’ve been thinking about adding this tool to your scrapbooking supplies, today is the day!

Buy the Zutter Bind-It-All Today and Get The Idea Book as a Bonus!

Related articles

• Today’s a Great Day to Buy A Zutter Bind It All! (intoscrapbooking.com)