Archive for the ‘Scrapbooking Tips’ Category

Spring is finally here! When you live in a harsh winter climate like I do, spring is big news! If cleaning out your scrapbooking supplies is part of your spring cleaning, here are some simple tips to get you started.

Take Inventory
Go through all of your supplies. Look through all the bins, jars, drawers and cabinets holding your scrapbook materials.  As you look through them decide what you should keep, sell, donate or toss.

Organize Your Stash
For those items you want to keep, evaluate whether your current organization method is working.  Can you easily find what you are looking for?  If not, invest in a few new storage organizers.

Selling Supplies
You loved that page kit with the cute kittens on it at one time, but 3 years later you know it’s never going to make it onto one of your layouts.  Still, someone may love that kit.  For items that are still in the packaging and in new condition, try selling them on ebay, craigs list, a garage sale, or in a scrapbooking forum.  Scrapbooking supplies often sell well in lots.

Donate Items
For items that may not quite be in new condition, consider donating them.  Girls scouts, seniors centers, schools and daycare centers would love to have those supplies for their papercrafting projects.

Letting Go
Now for those items that you should toss.  It’s hard to throw things away, but seriously, those stickers you’ve been collecting since the beginning of your scrapbooking days are faded and no longer have any stick to them.  Throw them away.  Scraps of cardstocks that are now crumpled and faded should also go in the trash.  Yes, maybe you could come up with some creative way of using them, but will you?

Cleaning out your supplies will give you some much needed space in your scrapbooking area.  What will you do with that empty space?  Sounds like a good reason to go shopping to me!

Right now Ella Publishing is offering a Super Sampler ebook of some of their most popular books.  There’s no cost or additional purchase required for the Sampler ebook.  Just add it to your cart and checkout.

Ella Publishing offers ebooks on scrapbooking and photography topics written by some of the biggest names in the industry.  These are high-quality ebooks filled with gorgeous photos and beautiful layouts.

Every ebook is packed with scrapbooking tips and ideas.  I can’t recommend these books highly enough.  You’ll recognize many of the authors from the former Simple Scrapbooking magazine, as well as many from popular scrapbooking publications.  A few of the featured authors are Stacey Julian, Angie Lucas, and Renee Pearson.

A few of my favorite ebooks from Ella Publishing are:

• Quick and Creative Quizzes _ 125 journaling questions to ask and answer
• Stretch Your Sketches – Easy ways to recycle your best designs
• A Year in the Life – Scrapbook your year in 24 simple layouts

And not to be missed!

• UR2 Cr8ive – 68 playful ways to unleash your creativity

Oh, and you can easily print and bind your ebooks to have them as reference as you scrapbook.  I’m not sure how long this Super Sampler ebook will be available so don’t delay in downloading your copy.

Cathy Zielske recently posted a hybrid scrapbooking tuturial on her blog.  What is hybrid scrapbooking?  Basically, it’s using both digital and traditional elements on a scrapbooking page.  Some people start with a traditional layout and add digital elements.  Others begin with a digital page layout and after printing they add traditional elements to it.

Cathy’s approach to hybrid scrapbooking begins with her computer.  In the video she uses Photoshop Elements to show you how she approaches a hybrid scrapbooking layout. She uses a digital layout as the base for her page. She adds in traditional patterned paper to her layout, but one of the great tips in the video is using the digital layout to create a template to cut the paper to size.

Check out Hybrid Digital Scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking St. Patick’s Day can take so many forms.  You don’t even need to be Irish to let St. Patrick’s Day inspire your scrapbooking page layouts.  Here are a just a few ideas to consider for a fun page inspired by scrapbooking St. Patrick’s Day!

1. Scrapbook a page about your St. Patrick’s Day traditions.  Do you wear green?  Do you eat corned beef and cabbage?

2.  It’s all about green!  Scrapbook a layout with your favorite shades of green.

3.  How does your town celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?  Do you attend your local St. Patrick’s Day parade?  In Chicago they dye the Chicago River green!  Design a page that highlights how your area celebrates this holiday.

4.  Don’t forget St. Patrick’s Day parties.  Whether you go to a local Irish pub or celebrate at home with friends, be sure to take a few photos for your scrapbook album.

5. Snap photos of your lucky charm!  My son has a lucky hockey t-shirt, and my daughter has a little tiger eye stone that she thinks is lucky.  Create a page layout of your lucky charms.

6. Get lucky!  This one is my favorite and can be done by anyone at anytime in the year.  Why are you lucky?  Celebrate your good luck on a scrapbook page or create a mini album with “Lucky” as the theme.

I hope these inspired you to get a few pages done this week.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!