Scrapbook Layout – One Photo

One Photo Layout – Paper Scrapbooking

This was my absolute FIRST scrapbook page done with paper.  I had to do it.  This was one of my favorite photos of all time.  It reminded me of a television commercial that would leave a warm and fuzzy feeling in your heart.  Don’t know why.  Anyhow…reflecting back I would have spent a little more time making sure that everything was properly placed (not crooked) on the page.  I probably would have scanned the photo and made it much larger as well.

On this page, I tore handmade fibre paper (the red and gold on top and bottom) and I bent wire to spell out the word cousins.  I also printed the journaling onto a manilla folder.  This page took a LONG time as I wasn’t very happy with a LOT of it as I was building it out.  I had ZERO direction on it – other than the fact that I loved the photo.

What I do love most however is the fantastic colors I chose.  The green, red and gold with hinds of orange are just FANTASTIC!  Hopefully this one inspires you in some way.

Grandaughter Scrapbook Page

One photo scrapbook layout – paper – grandmother and granddaughter.

Something I find very humorous about this page is that when I created it I was so incredibly pleased with the outcome that I went on paper scrapbooking hiatus for quite a while.  I was very afraid to break the mold. LOL.

As you might be able to tell I am fanatical about bring colors in my scrapbook pages.  And I think that’s what makes this page so powerful – especially when paired with a black and white photo.

Anyhow…for this page I used rubber stamps from StampinUp! This includes the stamped CHERISH text on the top left which I watercolered and glossy accented.  This also includes the pretty flowers on the right of the photo – which I also watercolored and added clear glitter to.

Beneath the photo are 3 white mini-brads which I love!  I think they add that special something.

Finally, I topped the page off with a few additional elements (stickers, silk flowers, clips and ribbon) and viola – a simple but very elegant masterpiece was created.

Die Cut Machines – A Public Review

There is no doubt that die-cutting is really cool. Especially considering it can now be done at home with a desktop machine that costs anywhere from $50.00 – $500.00+.

Before die cutting was ONLY exclusive to print shops. And it was expensive! I know because I used to work at one. The dies alone would cost anywhere from $100 – $2000 to make as they needed to be hand crafted more often than not. AND they were almost always exclusive to the buyer of that die. Therefore that buyer needed to know that it was worth his / her companies interest to take that route before even doing so.

Granted some dies were available to everyone – but more or less this is an expensive trade. Not any longer.

At least not for scrapbookers. So today instead of Scrapbooking Directions putting its opinion out there on Die Cutters, we want to ask the public for theirs.

We want YOUR feedback if you have a die machine. Esp. if you have many die cut machines.

We want to know why you chose the machine you did. Your opion (comments) will help others make the decision for themselves.  It’s not a low cost invesment so it’s one that many scrapbookers would REALLY appreciate honest feedback on.

So please leave your comments.

Tell us which die cutting machine you have and why you chose it? Was it price, was it the library of dies, was it the ability to work with OTHER dies (being a universal die cutter), does it emboss also? Is it one of the only die cutters that can work with heavy duty double sided adhesives without wearing down the machine? [These are all of the reasons we chose the cuttlebug diecutter].

But what’s your story.

Please share.

Scrapbook Wedding Album Gifts

Is a family member or close friend getting married soon?  Are you hoping to give them a scrapbook wedding album as their gift? Are you in the same boat that so many others have been in as well… i.e. having difficulty finding the perfect album to gift to them?

We know how you feel.  It’s tough finding that perfect album.  Weddings are so incredibly “personalized” to the couple. And your typical scrapbook albums found in stores – aren’t always a good match.  Sure – there are solid color albums that might do the trick – but even those are few and far between!  Then, they may be made of materials that are hard to embellish as well.  Therefore your front cover is plain and boring.  Who want’s that.

These are tough considerations.  This wedding scrapbook album has to be perfect.

PLUS since you are not the bride nor the groom – your wedding scrapbook album might be best if it were a mini album of sorts.   It’s tough to come up with wedding scrapbook albums to fill a 50 page 12×12 album right.  Especially since you may only have a 10 great photo’s in your collection of the couple (before or after the wedding day).   You could get an album started for them…leaving pages blank near the back – but if they are not scrapbookers themselves – the likelihood that they will know how to create their own wedding scrapbook pages to complete the album and get it finished is slim.

You also want this to be a timeless keepsake for them.  They wouldn’t know what materials to use if they added to it themselves.  They wouldn’t understand the necessity to use acid free or archival safe supplies. Only you do.

So now what are your options?

Here’s what ScrapbookingDirections would suggest you do.

1. Get a board book album from Laura Miranti (they are absolutely perfect mini-albums for customizing with any color theme and any embellishments you want PLUS they are solid and hard – making them very difficult to damage over the years – these board book albums are the perfect keepsake for your special bride and groom – and will most likely be passed down for years as a family heirloom).
2. Plan ahead. If you want to present the album on their wedding day – you might want to gather a history of the couple to include in the album – which tells their story BEFORE the wedding day.  This is a fantastic alternative to designing a wedding photo album – without the photo’s in advance.  To pull this off,  you may need to tell both the bride and groom (independently) that you are making a special gift for their spouses and that you need their stories.  You can start from birth/toddler years for them OR you can start from the day they met and follow their stories from there.  Either way – you will want to collect details that you can journal about and historical photo’s to include.  While it’s no small task – it’s going to be a rewarding one.  (Don’t forget to connect with their family members or friends on this history also – they may have some great supplies for you to use).
3. Then pre-make your pages. With or without photo’s you should be able to put 10-20 pages together in preparation.  All of the background papers, embellishments and even the journaling should be able to fall in place before the photos anyhow.  AND… This is especially true if you will be using a board book album as all of the picture windows are in the same place on every page.  There is no “guess work” necessary.  The only thing to note is that this pre-making can only happen if you have your story is mapped out in advance.  You know what goes on every page chronologically and all you have to do to finish the page off – is add the photo.  If the photo’s are digital or digital reprints – it’s going to be a lot easier to size them down accordingly.
4. Finally, you can present the album.  If you do this without the photo’s – you will need to capture the photo’s according to the story you tell on the day of and provide them later.  OR you can present the album with photo’s already in place – but not specific to the wedding day itself.

It’s entirely up to you how you plan this out – but I am certain your scrapbook wedding album will be an amazing gift of love and heart!  Your bride and groom will be incredibly pleased!

(Be sure to take photo’s and share them with us here once you are done)!  We’d love to see your finished masterpiece.

Happy Scrapping!

To order your board book wedding album today, please visit Laura’s website at www.boardbookalbums.com or call direct at 1-800-506-9683.  NOTE: Wholesale pricing is available and/or they can accommodate large orders.

Scrapbooking More Than One Child

How To Scrapbook For More Than One Child
By: Anna Hart

Scrapbooking can be a delightful way to corral those family photos and memories into an exciting book. Scrapbooking can be relaxing for you as you do it, and a pleasure as you share it.

Books and articles on scrapbooking for 1 child abound, but suppose you have more than 1 child. Suppose you have 7 children. Then you need a book or article on how to scrapbook for more than 1 child.

You Have Scrapbooking Options

Those who want to scrapbook for more than 1 child have several exciting options.

1. Make a full-blown scrapbook for each. If you have many photos and memories to preserve, this allows the most space for each child. Your scrapbooking will require more time and money, but will be a labor of love.

The book’s theme will focus on that one child. Place his or her photo and name on the front, and theme every scrapbooking page to that child’s life.

You will use family photos, of course, to show the place the child held in family activities. But you will want pages that focus solely on that child: baby “firsts”; first year of school; favorite hobbies; favorite toys; dreams; birthdays; awards; graduation; etc. If a photo shows two of the children together, focus your journaling on that one child’s part in the photo. How did the world look from his eyes or her eyes? Our memories are always, I have found, as seen through our eyes. Do mention the second child, but spotlight the first.

As each child becomes able, he or she can help add new pages to his or her scrapbook. Scrapbooking can be a time of bonding and love that will long be remembered.

When they leave home as young adults, they can take their individual scrapbooks with them. As they mature, they will come to realize what it meant in time, effort, and cost for you to provide these treasured scrapbooking memories.

2. Make a mini scrapbook for each. If you have fewer photos, want to be more selective, or simply have very little time for scrapbooking, a mini scrapbook will still provide individual, tangible memories that can be carried into adult life.

Select just one theme for each double-page spread, with one or two photos on each. Tie the photos together with your theme, mounting them on the same color of torn paper or using identical frames.

Mini scrapbooking will not allow for as many family or sibling photos, but remember that this is a book about one child. When you make a mini scrapbook for each child, you can rest assured that each will get full attention. There will be no “left-out” feelings.

A mini scrapbook can be no larger than 6” x 6”. Or it can be half the size of a standard letter: 5.5” x 8.5”. You can read details about how to make your own mini scrapbooks in my article entitled, “How to do Mini Scrapbooks”.

Digital mini scrapbooks would be interesting for children, since they live in a computerized world. Digital mini scrapbooks can be less expensive to make, and people who are comfortable with one of the computer graphics programs, such as “Adobe PhotoShop”, will be able to apply interesting effects that are not possible with conventional scrapbooking.

3. Make a family scrapbook for each. A third way to scrapbook for more than one child is to make a family scrapbook for each. Less attention will be paid to individual children, in such a book, and focus placed on the entire family unit.

Your scrapbooking theme is your entire family, including every family member. Place the family name on the cover, and a nice family photo, if you wish. On the title page, write a note about the family as a whole.

Scrapbooking a single volume of memories will call for both family memories and individual memories. Theme your pages to focus on high lights of family life. Begin with Dad and Mom – the wedding, especially. You will still have a scrapbooking page for each child’s birth, but there will probably be insufficient space for every “first” of every child. Try to include true highlights of each child’s life. Include amusing times as well as those that were less pleasant. Include school events; sports; musical interests; birthdays; awards, graduations, and family pets.

You may still want to include your children’s scrapbooking efforts as they become old enough to take part in the process. Scrapbooking family memories will give opportunity to discuss those memories, and solidify them in each one’s mind.

When each child leaves home, for college attendance, to marry, etc., make a copy of the book as it is at that time, and present it as a going-away gift. Office supply stores or copy centers can copy each page in color on heavy paper or cardstock, and bind them with s durable spiral binding. Covers can be copied in color or black and white on cover stock.

Your scrapbooking gifts will vary for each child, according to when they leave home, but personal family memories of their time at home will be preserved.

4. Make a Perpetual Digital Scrapbook. If you want to scrapbook for more than 1 child with the least time involvement, you may want to consider a perpetual digital scrapbook.

Digital scrapbooking may contain hundreds, or even thousands, of pages, and yet take up no more space than a small computer CD. Digital scrapbooks allow you to add pages, even when the family is grown and dispersed.

Digital scrapbooks need never be printed. You can include individual pages of every child’s “firsts” as well as all of your family photos. Throughout life, you can continue to make pages. As each is completed, simply attach it to e-mail and send it to every family member. They can add each page to their scrapbooking CD, and continue the family album.

TIP: A digital scrapbook on a CD in a bank safe deposit box is the safest way to store your family memories. Your digital scrapbook will be safe from fire, floods, and other disasters.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

© 2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about scrapbooking at www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com. Anna is posting new articles every week on that site, each one dealing with a scrapbooking topic. If you decide to solve the problem of how to scrapbook for more than 1 child by doing a www.scrapbooking-for-fun.com/digital-scrapbooking/how-to-make-your-own-digital-mini-scrapbook-16/”>digital mini scrapbook as suggested above, you won’t want to miss her article on the subject.

Big Clearance Sale on Scrapbooking Items!

This just in….Scrapbook.com is clearing out over 1000 scrapbooking items at insanely low discounted prices and if you want them – you better snag them before they are all gone.

They’ve got everything from: Clearance Albums, Clearance Books, Clearance Cardstock, Clearance Die Cutting Templates, Clearance Embellishments to Clearance Kits, Clearance Paper, Clearance Stamping Products, Clearance Stickers, Clearance Storage and Organization, Clearance Tools, and Clearance Totes.

You have to check it out – - especially if you are looking for RARE scrapbooking items!  There is nothing better than a big sale for scrapbookers!

Not quite ready for scrapbooking products or supplies?  Still trying to learn how to scrapbook?  Why not consider our scrapbooking tutorial.

With this best selling scrapbooking ebook you will learn everything about beginner scrapbooking and more!

We even teach you how to make hand made cards as a special bonus!

Looking for other great Scrapbooking Products?  Perhaps Scrapbooking Layouts, Templates, Page Map books? Try our exclusive Amazon e-Store for more…

Christmas Scrapbook / Card Making Mix

Are you getting ready for the Holiday Season yet? Are you looking for a really unique and creative way to share a few treasured photo’s or stories with your loved ones (when they visit; or by way of a gift to them)?

ScrapbookingDirections.com is getting ready. We’ve combined the amazing joy we have for Card Making with the admiration and pride we take in Scrapbooking.

Together – these two skills create the perfect Christmas Cover Story.

The Christmas Cover Story is a Scrapbook Page – using a HandMade Card as a cover to the “story”.  (In other words; when the card is opened; there is a Christmas Photo (usually of the kids and Santa) and there is a warm Christmas story by way of a journaling piece on the opposite side of the card as well.

This is a great way to profile the artistic side of scrapbooking and card making – - and turn the page into an interactive experience for viewers.

As alternatives to keeping this page to yourself and locking it away in your scrapbook album (behind the covers and under a protector) – you may wish to present it as a gift to someone else.

If so…you could attach 2-3 pouches of Hot Chocolate inside the card with a warm and cozey sentiment for the holidays.   OR you can turn the card into and envelope of sorts for wallet sized photo’s of the kids (as a Christmas Gift).

**If you DO exercise the alternatives – you will most probably need to adhere the page to a canvas (purchased at a local craft store) – and package it with care so that nothing falls out of it or gets ruined in transit.

The details and step by step instructions behind this cover story will be shared in a Christmas eBook by FaveCrafts.com this year and we are very excited about the opportunity.

We will be doing a lot of external giving and sharing this year in fact.

Stay tuned for more!

CuttleBug Embossing Machine To Die For!

Okay so…I will openly admit that although I LOVE card making and scrapbooking to no end…I am NOT the expert I hope to be yet.  I believe this is because once you learn one great scrapbooking technique – or scrapbooking tool – out comes another and another and another.

That’s why I spend an AWEFUL lot of time reviewing what other people do in scrapbooking.  I collect books, supplies and tools like there is NO TOMORROW.  I can’t get enough scrapbooking and paper craft ideas that’s for sure.

This is a multi-billion dollar industry that appeals to many creative people.

If you aren’t creating scrapbook layouts – maybe you are making cards with

scrapbooking supplies.  If you aren’t doing either, perhaps you are designing scrapbook papers or embellishments or creating new machines like the  AccuCut or CuttleBug.

Or maybe you are taking it all to this whole other level!  Perhaps you are making paper mushrooms or paper houses – because they are super cool to look at!

But if you happen to be one of those people who just like to see it all and get inspired by it all…then there is absolute MUST see site for you!!!  Be prepared to have your MIND BLOWN however…this stuff is absolutely FANTASTIC!

Check it out CuttleBug Embossing Die Cutting Everything fans … I had to share this link!  I was blown away from first SIGHT!

This site is a great review of cuttlebug’s capabilities but also a fantastic sourceo of ideas for all of you diecutting, embossing maching fans.  You will love it.

Kudo’s to you Maggie Lamarre: Owner of http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ , you are offering great value with your blog! 

FYI: If you click to visit this blog, you may find yourself clicking on an off of the site to view some of the projects – but it’s definitely a site worth bookmarking as it will lead you to all of the great cuttlebug samples tips and ideas you could ever need!