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.

1. Your Email – If you are on your favorite scrapbooking stores and websites email lists, you should already be seeing some previews of National Scrapbook Day sales.  In fact, many online stores have already begun their sales today through Sunday.

2. Scrapbooking Websites – Many big scrapbooking websites have announcements for National Scrapbooking Day events posted right on their website home pages.

3. Scrapbooking Forums – Scrapbooking message forums are buzzing with scrapbook supply sales, NSD crops and events.  Most of the scrapbooking forums have special threads following the National Scrapbooking Day events.

4. Your Local Scrapbooking Store – Local scrapbooking stores have special crops, make-and-take projects, and sales planned for NSD.  Archivers is one scrapbooking store that has many stores nationwide.  They are planning a full weekend of scrapbooking fun.

5. Scrapbooking Blogs – Just like scrapbooking forums, scrapbooking blogs are letting their readers know about the best scrapbook deals and events for NSD.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

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.

This week I’ve read some great spring scrapbooking ideas on scrapbook blogs and websites.  Here are a few of my favorites.  I hope they inspire you to create some spring scrapbooking layouts this week.

12 Springtime Moments to Scrap from Simple Scrapper.  This is one of my daily must-read blogs.  She always has great ideas for scrapbooking.  This post is just like the title says – 12 ideas for springtime moments to scrap.  I love number 12 – spending the tax refund check!

Dear Lizzy Fabric Flower Video at American Crafts Studio.  This video will show you how to  make flowers for your layouts with the new Dear Lizzy Fabric Paper.  So pretty!

Spring Quotations and Printable Word Art for Scrapbook Pages from Get It Scrapped.  Here you’ll find a nice list of beautiful spring quotes for your spring scrapbooking layouts.  You’ll also find downloads for spring word art in 3 different formats that you can use for traditional or digital scrapbooking layouts.

Spring Scrapbook Layout Ideas from Scrapbooks Etc.  Find inspiration in over 30 spring scrapbook layout ideas.

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!

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.

It’s no secret that I love online scrapbooking classes.  I’ve reviewed a few of them on this site.  Over on the Daily Digi, Katie has listed and reviewed several of the best places to find online scrapbooking classes.  It’s a comprehensive list that includes her reviews of classes she’s taken, the basic information like the URL and instructors, an overview of the site, current or upcoming classes, and classes she has taken or would recommend.  Also check the comments section of this post for more reviews from readers.

Here’s a brief review of some of my favorite online scrapbooking classes.

Jessica Sprague – I’ve already reviewed her learn digital photo editing course and the beginning digital scrapbooking class, but I’ve taken many classes at Jessica’s site.  I have to say that her classes are the best to learn digital scrapbooking.  Her classes have become more expensive, but she also offers free ones as well.  These free classes are shorter than the others, but no less informative.  I recently took her Pen Tablet Basic for Scrapbookers course. I highly recommend that if you own a pen tablet.  If you’d like to broaden your journaling skills, Type + Writer 1&2 are excellent classes.

Big Picture Scrapbooking – I’ve only taken one class at this site. It was the 12-week Design Your Life course with Cathy Zielske.  It’s an awesome class, and Cathy is fantastic!  Unfortunately, this class is no longer offered.  If you ever have an opportunity to take a class by Cathy, don’t even hesitate.  She’s an amazing teacher.

Renee Pearson – I’ve taken 3 classes at this site.  Album Magic by Anna Aspnes is currently available for registration.  I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about planning and creating albums.  She provides a ton of information.  I’ve taken 2 classes by Tiffany Tillman, The Photoshop Brushshop and 25 Days of Templates.  Tiffany is also an excellent teacher.  My favorite part of her classes were her template training videos.  I learned so much about how to get the most from digital scrapbooking templates.

Creative Techs – I’ve only listened to some the live webcasts of the Photography classes and the Photoshop classes.  Both instructors were very good.  These don’t have the same interactions that the sites above have.  However, one feature I do like is that if you purchase the classes you can watch them on your Ipod.

Shemille – I’ve taken 2 classes with Shimelle, Blogging for Scrapbookers and Learn Something New.  I love how affordable her classes are.  She doesn’t teach in video as the other sites do, but her pdf handouts are very easy to follow, and there’s lots of interaction in the forum.

Be sure to check out the list of free courses that each site offers.  You’ll find these listed on the Daily Digi post.

You definitely don’t want to miss the giveaway!  There’s a list of courses that The Daily Digi will be giving away in a random drawing.  You just need to leave a comment on the post telling them something you would like to learn about scrapbooking.

Have you taken any online scrapbooking classes that you really liked?

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!

I’m always looking for opinions and advice on the best place to print digital scrapbooking pages.  For anything 8 1/2″ x 11″ or less, I print at home on my Epson Artisan 810.  I actually try to avoid printing digital layouts at 12×12 because it’s just so hard to find a good source for printing.  I hate spending the money to have pages printed and then getting back results that are less than satisfactory.  My most common compliant is colors that are too dark.  I thought for a while that maybe my monitor was to blame, but even compared to my in-camera monitor (on a Canon Xsi), my 4×6 prints come back too dark at many color printing companies.

At the Daily Digi, there is an excellent review of digital layout printing.  Steph sent the same layout to several difference printers and compared the intimidation factor (site navigation), ease of upload, photo colors, and paper and embellishment colors. I was really surprised to hear her results from Scrapbook Pictures, because I’ve heard so many digital scrapbookers rave about that service.  It seems she liked Persnickety the best overall.  That’s a company I haven’t heard of until now.  This is definitely a post you should check out if you plan on printing digital scrapbooking pages.  This review actually confirmed the decision I made to invest in a good printer.  I’d rather pay the cost of ink at home and have good results than waste time and money trying to find a good outside printing source.

The Daily Digi: Layout Printing Reviews