Archive for the ‘Scrapbooking’ Category

This weekend only, Ella Publishing is offering a Buy 2, Get 1 free sale on all their ebooks.  It’s a great deal!  For $10.98 you get 3 of their high quality scrapbooking ebooks.

To take advantage of this National Scrapbooking Day sale, buy 2 ebooks (totaling a minimum of $10.98), and get a 3rd ebook (up to $5.99 value) for free! Add all 3 of your selected ebooks to your cart, and then use the code MAYFIRST at checkout to redeem. Offer expires May 2, 2010 at midnight PST, so hurry!  Shop Ella Publishing.

I’m disappointed that I’m not doing a Week in the Life with Ali Edwards this week.  Since my husband is one of the travelers stuck in Europe right now, it’s not a normal week for us.  I want him to be part of the album so I’m hoping to do it next week.

Everyone is talking “A Week in the Life” on their blogs.  Why is a Week in the Life with Ali Edwards so popular?  I have a few ideas.

1. Ali Edwards – it isn’t just the project. It’s her creativity.  Her approach to scrapbooking is so creative and inspiring.  The chance to follow along with her on a project is a unique learning opportunity.

2. Everyday Life – this project is about documenting your daily life, not just the special events or milestones. It’s about finding the special moments in the ordinary parts of your life.

3. Simplicity – Your A Week in the Life album can be a simple as you want it to be.  It doesn’t have any set rules for the end product.  You can keep it simple or embellish it all you want.

4. A Snapshot of Today – Ali Edwards mentions wishing she had one of these albums from her grandparents.  How cool will it be to see the things that made up your everyday life when you look at your album a couple of decades from now.

5. One Week – A project for a week is so much easier to manage than a 365 album or even a monthly scrapbook album.  Anyone can manage this project for 7 days.

A Week in the Life is an album theme that is easy to make your own.  If you haven’t considered it, take time to look at Ali’s blog for her suggestions.  The best part is that you can do this any week of the year, so I’m not really missing out.  I’m just going to be 7 days late thanks to some volcanic ash.

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.

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!

I admit it.  I’m a blog addict.  I have a ridiculous number of blogs in my Google Reader.  There is no possible way I could keep up with the number of posts that come through on a daily basis.  I read blogs on a variety of topics including scrapbooking, of course.  There are some scrapbooking blogs that are on my daily “must read” list.  Here are my top 5:

Ali Edwards – I can’t even count the number of times I have read one of Ali’s posts and thought “Why didn’t I think of that?”  She is amazingly creative.  It isn’t just her layouts that are creative, it’s her entire approach to scrapbooking.  I love her simple style and her unique ideas like the “December Daily” album and her “One Word” concept.

Cathy Zielske – Cathy is the author of Clean and Simple Scrapbooking (Volumes 1 & 2) and is well known from her Simple Scrapbooks magazine days.  I’m currently taking her “Design Your Life” class at Big Picture Scrapbooking (yes, one of my Christmas wish list items came true).  She is not only extremely knowledgeable about design, but she teaches it with fun and personality.

Simple Scrapper -  This blog is full of great tips and ideas for scrapbooking.  She writes about everything from journaling to getting the most from your scrapbooking supplies.  She just recently did a fantastic articles series called “Capturing the Season.”

Creative Inspiration Blog – This is one you have to see to know why it’s on my “Must Read” list.  I just love the layouts she posts!

Katie the Scrapbook Lady – Katie is a digital scrapbooker, and her articles include a lot of tips for digital scrapbooking along with photography.  I like how consistent she is with her blogging, and her articles are a great resource to come back to again and again.

So what’s on your “Must Read” daily blog list?

In the final days of 2009, many scrapbookers are considering a “year in review” album.  The traditional way to design this type of scrapbook is to include pictures of your 2009 events like holidays, vacations and birthdays.  You might arrange them with a page for each month of the year.  Have you considered a year-end scrapbook that captures a snapshot of your everyday life in 2009?

How Will You Remember 2009?

1. What’s on your ipod playlist? Scrap a page with a top 10 list of your favorite songs from this year.

2. Did you get caught up in the Twilight craze?  Design a page with the most memorable movies of 2009.

3.  What books did you love this year?  Include them on a layout.

4.  Do you Twitter or Facebook?  This year both of these sites saw record growth.  Capture a screenshot of your account page and scrap it.

5.  How did you cope with the recession?  The recession affected us all this year.  You could create a page with your favorite frugal recipe or budget family activity.

6.  Create a page that records a day in the life for this year.  You could include your daily schedule.

7.  Don’t forget 2009 fashion trends.  Scrap a photo of you in your favorite outfit to document your clothing and hair style.

There are so many ways to reflect on our everyday life.  When you look back at 2009, what do you want to remember?  Can you think of other ways to scrapbook 2009?

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

I’ve had a few things on my scrapbooking Christmas wish list for a while.  It’s time to narrow it down now (or so my husband says).  Here’s what I’m hoping to add to my scrapbooking room this Christmas:

A new scanner like this one from Canon:

Canon Canoscan 8800

D-Ring Scrapbooking Albums:

American Crafts

And finally, I would really love to take this online scrapbooking class, Design Your Life with Cathy Zielske at:

Big Picture Scrapbooking

So what about you? What’s on your scrapbooking Christmas wish list?

What’s your scrapbooking personality?  Is it the same as your scrapbooking friends?  I love this resource by Scrapbook.com that allows you to shop for gifts by scrapbooking personality.

Shop by Scrapbooking Personality

Just pick your scrapbooking personality type (or your friend’s), and it will give you gift suggestions for that type of scrapbooker.  Another great feature is the ability to email that page to your family and friends so they can shop for you!

So what is your scrapbooking personality?  Here are the personality types listed:

• Pink Princess
• Die Cutter
• Altered Artist
• The Fashionista
• The Frugal Shopper
• Diamond Diva
• Beginner
• Book Worm
• Cardmaker Extraordinaire
• Digi Geek
• Eco Scrapper
• Storyteller
• Tool Junkie
• Gift Giver
• Home Decorator
• Mobile Scrapper
• Professional Organizer
• Overlap Scrapper
• Shutterbug
• Stamp Addict

See yourself there anywhere?  Scrapbook.com gives you a description of each personality to help you choose.  I’d have to say that right now I’m a Shutterbug, leaning towards Digi Geek with some Fashionista thrown in as well.

So check out Shop by Scrapbooking Personality at Scrapbook.com and get some holiday shopping done today.  And don’t forget to email your Christmas wish list based on your scrapbooking personality to your family and friends.

I’ve posted before about Jessica Sprague’s digital scrapbooking classes.  I think they are the best way to learn digital scrapbooking with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.  Here are a couple of my reviews of classes I’ve taken:

Learn Digital Scrapbooking with Jessica Sprague

Learn Digital Photo Editing with Jessica Sprague

Jessica has just announced a new free holiday scrapbooking class.  It’s called Holidays in Hand.  Registration begins November 2, and the class runs November 16-23.  This is a fabulous opportunity to try out one of Jessica’s class and see if her style of teaching works for you.  You really don’t want to miss this.  I’ll be there, and you’ll find me in the forum under the name “intoscrapbooking.”  I hope to see you there!

Find out more about Holidays in Hand.

It’s almost here. The night of witches, ghosts and goblins, or perhaps princesses, cowboys and wizards.  We will soon be answering our doors to the sounds of “trick or treat.”  As a scrapbooker, I want to be sure to capture the memories of my children in their costumes.  Have you ever looked back at the Halloween costumes from years passed?  It’s so fun to see what was popular at the time.  Of course, there are the standard characters, but remember all the Buzz Lightyears, Harry Potters, Barneys, and Strawberry Shortcakes?  Those are memories you don’t want to forget.

Once you’ve got your photos ready, scrapbooking Halloween layouts can be as simple or as complex as you like.  All you really need is some paper in orange, black and white.  I also like to use color combinations like black with lime green or gray and black.  Anything that reminds you of Halloween will work.  As for embellishments, there is no end to the Halloween stickers, die cuts, brads and ribbons available.

You can be creative and save money too by using what you have to make your Halloween layouts.  Again, stick to the Halloween colors, an orange flower, a black journaling block, a gray ribbon.  Don’t forget to include mementos like invitations to Halloween parties and your child’s Halloween art work from school.  How about some candy wrappers, especially your children’s favorite flavors?

Here’s wishing you a safe and happy Halloween!