Hello everyone–Jeni here! As I was thinking about what to write about for today’s post I came across a little section of great advice in one of my paper scrapping magazines (July 2008 issue of Scrapbooks, Etc., by Better Homes and Gardens) that came straight from their readers – fellow scrapbookers. I thought all of these bits of advice were applicable to any scrapbook page and any scrapper, no matter what your style or experience level. These are all great ideas so I just had to share them.

“The best advice I ever received was from a friend shortly after I started scrapbooking. I was continually asking about the ‘right’ way to do something. She told me, ‘There is no right or wrong way to scrapbook. Use your imagination and go for it. If you like it, you did it right.’” – Judy Crosby, St. Paul, Minnesota

“Don’t worry about catching up. You’ll never be caught up because the whole point is to continually chronicle your life experiences! Just enjoy all the steps you take to get to the wonderful finished product.” – Laura Wilson, Canton, Michigan

“Remember, it’s better done than perfect. I absolutely love some of my pages, while others are just so-so. But my family is looking for the memories, not perfection.” - Dana Lowry, Hickory, North Carolina

“My husband loves graphic design, so I often ask his advice. He always tells me the same thing: ‘Keep it simple!’ Yes, elaborate layouts are beautiful, but when you want to focus on that picture you love so much, there’s nothing like a simple layout!” - Marta Egea, Barcelona, Spain

” Don’t forget the journaling – it’s the most important part when you’re looking back at your scrapbooks. With all the wonderful embellishments available, we sometimes get so carried away we forget to tell the story – or we don’t put as much effort into the telling. But it’s the journaling and the picture that we’ll really want to focus on in the future.” - Anne Nugent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Such great advice, right? There were lots more listed in the magazine. I still LOVE my paper scrapping magazines even though I hardly ever touch my paper supplies anymore! : ) They have tons of ideas that can easily translate to digi, and now most of them even have a whole section written just for digiscrapping. Definitely worth checking out! (I guess that’s my little piece of advice!) Although we’ve probably all heard these things a million times, I know it always helps me to hear them again. I often forget about these little things sometimes – and those little things can make a BIG difference.

So now it’s your turn. Got any great pieces of advice for us? Please leave us a comment – we’d love to hear it!

Hello everyone!  I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday, where ever you may be in the world!  It’s me, Tami, with another AMAZING Team Member to spotlight!  Today I chose Katie (ktkadoo), cause WOW!  She’s got some GREAT LO’s!!!  And I just have to say she was soooo sweet to agree to let me spotlight her!  I just contacted her yesterday and she got back to me in record time!  I’ve been gone for almost two weeks so I was under the gun to get some info on her and she was so great to comply, even last minute!! :)  Anyhoo, let’s get to know her better, shall we?!

What brought you to ScrapMatters?   I’m pretty sure it was a CT call. But I can’t really remember… 

What is your main job/career?   I’m a SAHM. Recently I’ve tried to get people to pay me to scrapbook. I also teach viola lessons to one little girl in my town. And I received a degree in Family History from BYU, that I now use for nothing, but I have been extracting Greman Church Records for genealogical purposes with a professor there. 

Are you married/kids/pets?  I’ve been married for, well it’ll be 9 years in December. We have 4 gorgeous kids, 2 dogs and 1 cat. 

Where do you call home?   Right now we live in a (technical) ghost town in Utah, but my husband and I both grew up near York, PA and PA is still home in our hearts. 

What are your three favorite foods?  Ikea’s Swedish Meatballs, Fettucine Alfredo, pierogies 

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  mint chocolate chip 

Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?  usually sweet 

What is your favorite beverage?   hmmm…I’m not much of a drinks person…I really like hot chocolate, and I’ve been known to drink it even in the middle of summer. I suppose my favorite are smoothies…ooh, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sonics Strawberry Cream Slush 

What is your least favorite food?   hmm…I don’t even know because I don’t make what I don’t eat…I guess I don’t like fish products, seafood etc. It’s not something I EVER ate growing up, and now I have no desire to even give it a try. I also don’t really care for boxed macaroni and cheese, but the kids adore it… 

PC or Mac? PC 

How long have you been digi-scrapping/How did you get into it?  I‘ve been scrapping for about a year and a half now. There was a post on Babycenter about digi-scrapping, so I looked at it and decided I could do it. I never did like the expense and mess of paper scrapping, so it’s not something I ever regularly did. Digi-scrapping is perfect for me. 

What program do you use to digi-scrap with?  Microsoft Picture It 

What are your hobbies besides digi-scrapping?  I love doing family history stuff, I play the viola, reviewing our finances …I’m terribly boring… 

What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you?  the layout…sometimes I just can’t figure out where to put everything… 

What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking ? I don’t know…I’d like to know how to sew better, and I’ve never learned how to knit or crochet… 

What are your favorite books/authors?  I don’t read much, but I do really like the Chronicles of Narnia 

What are your favorite movies?  I love the Phantom of the Opera movie 

What is your favorite quote?  I like so many I don’t think I can pick one. I just love every quote about families and kids that are inspirational. 

Where do you find inspiration for your layouts?  Other layouts in the galleries I frequent. 

How much time are you able to spend scrapping each week?  Way too much…I’m embarassed to admit it… 

Of all of your layouts, which is your favorite and why?  This is soooo hard…I really like this one. I love the simplicity of the layout, I loved the kit used, it’s just the most appealing one to me. 

Thanks, Katie!!  That is one of my favorites, too!  Here are more of her LO’s that are just completely adorable:

I love those pink flowers!  Too cute!

And this last one that she created for yesterday’s challenge that she’s hosting on the blog!  Check that out here…  And all the images are “clickable” so you can go leave her some love and check out her other cutie petooty LO’s!  

Have a super day, everyone!!

Hello!! Katie (ktkadoo) here. I’m so excited to be hosting another challenge, and I hope many of you will participate…

Another perspective…

How many stories are there in one picture? I think there are always more than one story, but when we journal in our scrapbook pages, we most often record our thoughts and feelings and the story that we saw unfolding. What did the other people see? What did they think and feel? Your challenge for this week is to scrap a page from another perspective.

Entries must be placed in the gallery and linked to this thread. They are due July 4th at Midnight. There will be two prizes; the first is a $5 GC for the shop which will be awarded to the layout that I feel really grabbed the idea of this challenge the best.
The 2nd award will be awarded to everyone as a participation prize.

Here is the preview of this beautiful paper pack created by Jeni Hopewell:

Missing by Me using Sprite by Britt-ish Designs and Erica Zane

Eeyore by Brittney using Little Lovebirds, What’s Hanging Tag Alpha and Journals and Tags, and Let’s Polka all by Andilynn Designs

No More by Mandy Rae

Play Learn by Zakirah using Sprite by Britt-ish Designs and Erica Zane, Happiest Dots on Earth by Britt-ish Designs and Tabby Dates by Britt-ish Designs

this Wedding Page by Ellie using What’s Hanging Journals and Tags by Andilynn Designs and White Wedding by Ellie Lash

So Easy by Jeni Hopewell using All American Kids and Clearly Seen Elements, both by Jeni Hopewell Designs

Swings by Shutch using Sprite by Britt-ish Designs and Erica Zane

Soldier by Mikelinz

I hope that’s enough inspiration for you! Now get scrapping…

Hi everyone, Heather (hedderlee) here to bring you today’s Theory Thursday, another little hybrid project. This particular creation was a gift for a church family that sold most of their possessions to move to India as missionaries, so I knew this gift had to be small, yet carry a lot of sentiment. A 4″x4″ address book was the perfect solution!

1) Since Costco prints 12″x12″ pages, I decided to create a grid of 9 4″x4″ squares and set it aside.

Then I created another blank 4″x4″ document to make each layout. I used the gorgeous Sprite kit, a collaboration between Britt-ish Designs and Erica Zanes (sold here at ScrapMatters!). I ended up making 18 pages:

2) Once I brought the two 12″x12″ pages home from Costco, I cut them down to 18 indvidual pages and set them aside. I took the cardboard insert included in my prints envelope and cut them down to 18 4″x4″ squares, and painted the edges with white acrylic paint to give them a finished look.

3) I then adhered the photos to cardboard pieces with double-sided tape to make each page hefty enough to be handled without creasing. If you are concerned about acidity, you can use the Make It Acid Free Spray on the cardboard to do just that.

4) Using my trusty Bind-it-all, I added the coil and bound all the pages together. Voila!

The finished result:

Since I am still a newbie when it comes to hybrid projects, I searched for something easy and economical. I hope my experience that I’ve chronicled here helps nudge some of you to try hybrid if you haven’t yet.

Hey all! Ellie here with this week’s Words for Wednesday!

I had a heck of a time coming up with something to write about. I am not the most eloquent person in the world and I suppose that signing up to write Words for Wednesday was as much a challenge to myself as anything. One thing that I struggle with a LOT in my layouts is journaling. Even if I am feeling inspired and can throw a layout together, I always get stuck on the words.

So what do I do? If you look at my gallery you will notice that I have a lot of quotes! lol Quotes are my way of saying what I want said, only better than I could ever say it. hehe I have a few of my favorite sites bookmarked, but usually I Google whatever subject I am scrapping about and find something appropriate. My mom also has this great scrapbook quotes book that I used to browse through… I need to get me one of those!

So if you are feeling stuck in a rut and don’t quite know what you want to write, try looking up some quotes (or lyrics to songs and poems!) and see if something doesn’t catch your eye. And in honor of scrapping with quotes, I have a little freebie for you. It comes with and without the sun!  It’s perfect for Summer photos!

DOWNLOAD HERE

And here’s a little layout I did with it!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy scrapping!

Hi – Brittney here – busting into Dacia’s post to announce last week’s winners!! Our random drawing winner is kass_23 with this adorable LO (images are clickable to see credits and leave love).

And it was REALLY tough to choose but my pick went to kv2av (Kathleen).

CONGRATS GIRLS!! Watch your PM inboxes for your GC. Ok Dacia – take it away!!!

____________________________________

Hey everyone! It’s Dacia here with your Tuesday Template Challenge for this week. It’s gonna be a good one not as tricky as my last speed scrap)!

Last week, I got to host the speed scrap in the SM forum and it was so fun! So stressful, but so fun. I found myself very glad that I did my LO before-hand so that I could answer everyone’s questions and post the instructions on time. Anyways. I am one that likes to use a lot of photos on my LOs. Printing isn’t cheap and I just usually have more than one photo that helps me remember an occasion. So for the speed scrap I told people they had to use 4 or 5 photos…. You should’ve seen the reactions I got out of the participants!! I was so surprised how much grumbling I got for making them use that many photos! They said they hadn’t used that many in ages….so I’m gonna do it again – give you a template that makes you get out of your comfort zone a bit and scrap a BUNCH of pics on a page. I know, I’m mean.

Your challenge is to use that many pics (I know that in and of itself will stretch a lot of you and to use both black and white and color pics. I don’t care how many of each, or if it’s “true” bw, but I want to see a little of both on there.

I was lacking creativity and went perusing the gallery again for ideas a while back and, naturally, came across one of Britt’s LOs (I tend to get a lot of good ideas from her and her creativity). Loved what she did with it, so thought I’d lift it. Thanks Britt! Then she said I could make a template out of it.

Here is the template and some of the LOs of our awesome CT!

Here is mine:

Here is Henriette’s:

Here is Leah’s:

Here is J_hopewell’s:

Here is ldrag’s:

Here is Shari’s:

Here is Rhonda’s:

Hope that gets your creative juices flowing!

Here is your LINK.

My favorite entry, along with a lucky randomly drawn entry will win a $5.00 Gift Certificate to the ScrapMatters shop!

Only those LO’s posted in the forum thread will be considered for the challenge prize, so be sure to post your LO there so I know you are playing along.

Chia!!

Congratulations girl!  Everyone who entered gave me the correct answers, so it was completely random as to who won.  Check your PM box for your gift certificate Chia.. and thanks so much to everyone who played along!  It was lots of fun!

Stacy H here with What Matters Monday.  So what is your style?  I ask myself this often.  There are certain LOs in the gallery that I can look at and know before looking at the name who created them – some people are really good at knowing their style and have created works of art with it.  I am not sure that I have found my style yet – or maybe it is just eclectic and I like everything.  

Well, I have this book.  Now a funny thing is that it is about decorating your home, and I am not really sure why I brought it with me to Australia because we only rent here and I can’t decorate how I would like, but it is coming in handy today.   This book is entitled “Home Rules”by Nate Berkus.  Yep, that cutie and master designer from Oprah.   I actually really love the book and it has a section about finding your style. 

To find your style ask yourself 10 questions (I have changed them a bit to fit for scrap booking):

1. What kind of surroundings make you happy?
2. Do you respond to neat and organized or chock-full of embellishments and extras?
3. Which is your favorite LO?  Which is your least favorite?
4. Where do you feel most at home?  Are you city sleek or country casual?
5. How much time and energy are you willing to spend on your LOs?
6. If you could change one thing what would it be?
7. Do you have a favorite piece of art or furniture that would be a great inspiration?
8. Where would you take your dream vacation?  Can you translate that place and feeling into your LO?
9. How do your pictures inspire you?
10. Does your style translate into the real you?

So ask yourself these questions and see if you have found your style.  Whether your style is modern, eclectic, traditional, formal, casual, rustic, or shabby express yourself in your own style.   Don’t compare your style to others you see in the gallery, be true to yourself.  You after all are the one who created the LO and it is for your posterity not mine or anyone elses that will cherish it.  If you love it then that is all that really matters!

I have a mini challenge for this week.  You won’t get anything out of it – just the satisfaction of completing another LO!  You can do one of two things:  1.)  Create a LO using your newly discovered style – or the style you already know you have.  2.)  Or step outside the box a bit and go into the gallery and look for other styles that you don’t usually incorporate into your LOs.  Once you have found a style you think will be a challenge create a LO and let us see it. 

Here’s mine.  I hardly ever do whimsy in my LOs so I decided to use Misschifis’s 3 little birds kit which has been the daily download for this month here at ScrapMatters – it was perfect and so cute!  I also usually line everything up and have such order to my LOs.  I tried to have things unplanned and found this so hard to do.   

I will start a thread in the forum so we can link up our LOs there.  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Hello Ladies! Wendy here again, this time with the Saturday Special Challenge! I’ve been wanting to do a layout of how my astrological sign describes me for a while now, and figured that this would be the perfect time! Now, I don’t know about you all, but when I read up on what a Gemini is…it usually describes me to a “T”! Do I follow my horoscope? No. But it’s fun to see all the Gemini traits, the good and bad.

There is a wikipedia page –> here, that lists all the astrological signs, if you scroll down, you can find your sign and click on that to learn more about it.

Now the rules of the challenge:

*You must include a picture of yourself.

*I’d also like to see a couple of descriptions about your sign and what you think about how your sign describes you.

Here is *my* LO!

I am including the 12 Zodiac signs as “rub-on” freebies.

The freebie can be downloaded –> HERE!

Here are a few LO’s the wonderful CT made:

There will be two $5.00 gift certificates given away, one to my favorite LO and one will be a random drawing.

I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with! You have until midnight MST Thursday, June 26th, to complete your LO. Please post your LO in the gallery and link it to the forum!