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.

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!

Halloween Card Ideas

If you frequent this website enough you must know by now that I (Cijaye DePradine; owner of this site and the primary author) am a huge fan of all things Halloween.  I just love how UNIQUE it is.  I also love how it lends itself to creative minds across the globe.  So for this article…I wanted to feature some of those creative minds.  I am sharing some of my all time favorite Halloween Cards and Halloween Card Ideas – done by others.

That’s right – I do honor others and their fine work – wherever I can!

So here is my first – all time favorite.  It’s a Halloween Card in the Shape and Dimensions of a Coffin.

If you spend the time scrolling down on the Simple Flourishes site – you will find the details of this card.

I think Jennifer did a fantastic job with the entire project.  From the concept of course through to the  fine selection of the paper to the incredibly cool insides once it’s opened.

Way to go Jennifer; you got my attention with this Halloween Card!  Fantastic Idea!

Next in line is…this Halloween Card from Shanna at My Next 30 Years!

This card came about according to Shanna because of a Hero Arts Stamp Collection that she won!  You go girl!

But what got my attention was the insanely creative use of patterned papers here.

I love the hand made texturizing Shanna did on some but not all of the papers.  I love the 3 Dimensional effects with the tree – oh and of course breathing life into the tree with the spooky eyes!  FANTASTIC.

This halloween card is full of ideas.  In fact its awe inspiring.

I absolutely love it Shanna!  And I have that ribbon too!  I might just have to scraplift a little from you and add that ribbon to my halloween card!

You are a phenomenal designer Shanna.  Thank you for showing your work to the world!

Closely following the preceeding masterpieces is from Kim Moreno at Living the Circus Life.

What can I say – there is a common theme among these cards…they are not SIMPLE.  They are creative.  They make ME wonder “How did they come up with the idea for that”?  They make me wonder how creative I can get.

One thing to note when looking for Halloween Card Ideas of your own – and reviewing those done by others – is that many of these designers that do such a fantastic job – are designers by trade.  They know color, they know spacing, they now measurement, they know textures etc.

Some are simply born with these skills – others go through years and years of schooling for it.  These designers can provide you with plenty of Halloween Card Ideas – even if they aren’t halloween cards.

I highly recommend looking at what they do and how they do it.

Analyze every spare space on the project as well as all elements.  It appears that Kim not only cleverly selected the perfect patterned papers for this project but she also brought out the sanding block to sand the edges (perhaps) and she selected the perfect place to set her white eyelets and thread the ribbon and tied that all of with a skull charm!  Nice work Kim.  I love it!

Kim has a LOT more Halloween cards on her site – as well as some fantastic other event cards.  You have to visit!

And finally for today – we have this collection of cards from Love is In the Details

These cards are pieced together from their Midnight Fog Kit. The single card on the left was pieced together by Mel Blackburn and those 3 on the right were pieced together by Lisa Tottle!  Nice work ladies.  You have all inspired me today.

This was one of the best hours ever spent in my life (reviewing Halloween Card Ideas online and choosing my personal favorites).  I am truly beside myself in admiration of your abilities.

Love it!

Happy Halloween All.

Halloween Scrapbook Challenges

Hallow Scrapbookers….

We are finally down to the last few days before Halloween and our Scrapbooking Minds are starting to spook even us out.  We are dreaming up new layout ideas, new scrapbook page designs, new everything and anything Halloween.  But then we are hit with the “I can’t get started” bug. So what do we do?

We stop – and do a Halloween Scrapbook Challenge.

All you have to do for our Halloween Scrapbook Challenges is complete the challenge of your choice – post a summary of it here (in the comments section) and provide a link to the Image in a public gallery (you may use ours or another) and that’s it.  We will select our favorite….THEN…

Our winner will receive a free Christmas Scrapbook Digi-Kit and will be featured in our newsletter,

PLUS our top 25 winners of all challenges – will be featured in our Scrapbooking Directions Favorite challenges book – and they will ALL get that book for FREE!

Halloween Scrapbook Challenge #1 (WebSite Challenge):

Take inspiration only – from this image from Better Homes and Gardens and make it your own.  Share your finished scrapbook page with us (by leaving a comment with details here) and check back for our chosen winner.  Note: To win – you have to come up with the most creative evolution of this page as possible. That’s it, that’s all. Enjoy.

Halloween Scrapbook Challenge #2 (Image Idea Challenge):

Now this one is going to be a little trickier.  I am assuming this will be an Advanced Scrapbooking Challenge for most of you – but I encourage everyone to try!

The goal…to incorporate this backlit filigree idea (from Martha Stewart.com) into one of your scrapbook pages.

Perhaps you want to do it in a Scrapbook Title  – in a mat behind one of your primary photo’s or perhaps within a photo itself?  Hmmmm….what will you come up with?

We can not wait to see!

Again – please come back to this page and leave a comment detailing what you have done – and a link to a photo display of the final project.

We are very excited to see what you come up with!

Are you up to the Challenge?

Happy Halloween Scrapbooking!

Halloween Scrapbook Planning

The countdown is officially on for Halloween friends and for many of you it’s going to provide some of the best photos to Scrapbook let alone stories to share!

But do have a plan in place to maximize all that you get out of this halloween scrapbook?

For instance….Have you figured out what kind of album it will be? What kind of layouts you will create? What photos would be perfect? What patterned papers, stickers, rub on’s, accents, embellishments etc you will use?

Are you good at making lists? Maybe you can try for this project and see if it helps.

My list would probably start with what photo’s I would use. Here are some that come to mind right now….

Decorations in the house
Decorations outside of the house (our neighbors go all out each year)
The kids getting ready
Us getting ready
The final halloween costumes
The houses around the neighborhood
Our kids Opening their bags for candy
Our kids eating candy
Hubby and I sneaking candy to eat (lol)
The kids taking off the face paint
OR the kids sleeping with facepaint if we are all too lazy
And every great moment in between and after

You get the point right. The goal is get what you want from the event and make the absurd best out if in the scrapbook.

So what is your plan for this years halloween scrapbook? We’d love to hear about it- please comment.

Halloween Scrapbooking Ideas

Halloween is FAST approaching and before you know it – it will be here. So what are you going to be doing for Halloween? Do you plan a big halloween party? Do you create your own posters or hand made halloween invitations? Perhaps you create or decorate halloween treat bags? Or even MAKE halloween treats as well?
Whatever you do it must be wildly creative and fun for you; otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it right…

So we decided to show you OUR Halloween Fun side too. Here are our top 3 Halloween Decorating Ideas to get the fun started today….(there will be more to come as the days go by).

=========================================================================== Hanging JackOLanterns Anyone?

Find as many of these regolit lampshades from Ikea ($4.00 USD) as you can fellow crafters and get the orange, yellow and black paint out so that you can turn your lampshades into REALLY cool pumpkins for display in or even outside the home on halloween eve. They are just soooo cool! They scream Halloween don’t they? EXTRA COOL TIPS: Try hanging these shades from a string of other lights (such as white christmas lights or halloween bulbs bought at specialty stores) and get the light flowing too. Also – if you want to get the kids REALLY going – add some Glow In The Dark paint for the eyes and mouth! ===========================================================================

NightMare Before Christmas Tree Of Your Own?

Now what about this. Start looking at that pot holding the ultra chic branches for design in the house a little differently for this Halloween… Why not turn them into your own personal “Nightmare Before Christmas” tree – and get the decorated sachets or remodelled (painted in halloween colors) christmas balls up! TIP: You may also want to make your own ghosts with stuffed cheese cloth or linen and wraphia nooses around the neck….and hang those too. ===========================================================================

Try This Mini Scrapbook Album with a BIG Spookiness About It.

Your halloween mini scrapbook album could be really creepy like this one … or it could be full of fun colors and cooky critter accents. Its entirely up to you what you do with your mini album for Halloween. If you get started your Halloween Mini Album today – and you have a solid plan for that Halloween Scrapbook Album – when you get the kids ready on Halloween you will know exactly what photo’s to take, why and in what sort of modes (tones , colors, angles, fstops etc)…and all you have to do is print, crop and place them later! TIP: We have the perfect Halloween Scrapbooking Papers for your album too! ===========================================================================

Halloween Scrapbook Titles In Need?

Try these Halloween Scrapbooking Titles in that Mini-Album too! With a little cracked glass, glossy accent or 3D foam – you can take these digital images to a whole new dimension on your Halloween Scrapbook Pages! ===========================================================================

What about READY made Halloween FUN STUFF for the Kids?

On another note; if making the time to be a creative designer or decorator this halloween is NOT on your side but you still want to have fun this year – in a creative way …you may wish to consider our Ultimate Halloween Party Collection for some cool treats! Included in this Halloween Party Kit are 96 pages of Halloween Games for Kids. Over 200 pages of Halloween Recipes and Crafts for ALL AGES, Halloween Safety Tips and 3 Free Printable Halloween Cards /Invitations. All for the incredibly low price of $14.99 (before discounts are applied)!!! ===========================================================================

Happy Hallo-Scrapping Crafty Peoples… :O)

Be A Guest Blogger Get Free Marketing!

If you have a great Scrapbooking or Card Making Project that you have done and you want to share it with the world, we are more than excited to help you do just that.

As of Nov 2011, Scrapbooking Directions is offering FREE promotion on our site to Scrapbookers, Card Makers, Photographers and Paper Crafters.  If you have a business OR you are trying to promote a portfolio of your work, we want to help you.

When you become a guest blogger here on Scrapbooking Directions, you can have your scrapbooking articles, scrapbooking video’s, scrapbooking instructions, scrapbooking tips and cool paper craft techniques posted here and you can even LINK that content out to your live site or gallery.

This is FREE Marketing for Scrapbookers and similar artists!

All you have to do is  contact Cijaye DePradine (site owner) – via email at cijaye @ scrapbookingdirections.com and she will guide you through the process.

 

NOTE: All users and their content will be held in moderation until approved. ScrapbookingDirections.com reserves the right to refuse/ remove any and all content from our website.  We will not accept submissions from irrelevant sources. **Please do not submit if your content is not in some way beneficial to paper crafters or digital artists.

 

 

A Year In Review Scrapbooking

To all of you who frequent my site(s) or blog and to those of you have stumbled upon it for the very first time, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year!

I am sure you, like myself had found 2008 a very crazy year. Mine was full of really large UPS and really big DOWNS. Every year has been really. I went through a ton of emotions with a high paced – worldwide career, a very active family and all that comes with the two great children.

I have been way less active than I would have ever liked to be on this site (let alone my other hobby sites) – (especially the more FUN aspects of the business (like this blog)).

I have done much less scrapbooking and card making than I ever expected to as well. (I think one of the last big projects I did was  a lot of Paper Bag Scrapbooks…and Mini-Cards).

I wanted to create a picaboo album for the family this year and had much of it started – then I lost it all somehow (once again) and got completely discouraged.

And so the story goes….

But here are some of the most amazing parts of 2008 that have lit the FIRE under me -  I would like to share in my Year in Review Scrapbooking post here….2008 marked….

1. A rekindled relationship with my husband (that I can’t wait to journal into a romantic scrapbook for the two of us)…we decided to work MORE on us in 2008 – since parenting, leisure & work took over in 07.
2. A new found love for my children. *They have both finally reached that age where we can hang out like friends and have fun together for much longer periods of time – without exercising discipline or life lesson training.
3. A new appreciation for being HOME ….(I recently counted 23 stamps on my passport that was issued in 2007! Which means for a min. of 1 week – 2 weeks at a time – I was NOT at home at least 23 times between 2007 and 2009). Need I say more?
4. A new appreciation for SELF…I learned MORE about myself in 2008 than I had in my entire 33 years of life! I now know what I want and don’t want from life, love and all that surrounds me…but more important I know what I want FROM myself and I am all the more grateful for that now.
5. An intense love for vacationing! WOW! I never knew how therapeutic a real vacation could be! I have taken many trips to see family and to work across the globe…but having taken 3 vacations in one year (in 2008) alone to places like Hawaii, Mexico and Disneyland…I can’t wait to take more. In fact I have committed to taking at least one VACATION to a dream destination each year. I can’t wait to start planning 2009 already!
6. A new love for my friends. After being with my husband for 12 years and having 10 years of parenting on my belt now…I finally learned how critical it is to have your friends around and keep them close…no MATTER what path your life takes. They bring you peace when you no longer feel that you get any, they bring you conversation that you can’t always have at home or around the kids (or even with the hubby…right Girls!!!), they also keep the FUN FACTOR going – even when you feel incredibly burnt out or even “stuck in the same ol’ same ol’ routines of life” – - they help you break the chains of the life you created – and remind you that you CAN and should always maintain a life of your own. Thank you friends! Thank you!.
7. A new love for dogs. I grew up with dogs…and then cats…and for many years had NO PETS…I was happy with that so naturally along the way I lost sight of how cool dogs could be. Our new family addition (Hershey)…is one of the most loyal friends I know. He loves us in a way that no human ever would. He follows me everywhere I go. He cries when I leave him and he kisses me when I cry (to movies of course). He’s 8 in human years…but plays like a puppy! He’s also incredibly intelligent and has so many dimensions to his personality it amazes me every day!
8. A new appreciation for work. I know that sounds insane on many levels…but I do love the work that I do…and I appreciate having that work in times of economic crisis. It gives me and my family a sense of security that I could never find in all of my years as a solo-prenuer.
9. A new appreciation for TIME. Time is one of those things we can never get enough of – but I now fully appreciate the time that I do have. And now – finally….I don’t have regrets with how I make use of the time. If all I want to do is sit and do nothing…then I am overjoyed to allow that to happen now. I no longer look back at that time and think of the many OTHER things that I could have done with that time. I am now at peace with how I spend it. (Why, because I have finally decided to THINK about how BEST to use the time I do have since it is so limited…and I am much better for it).
10. A new appreciation for Organization. I know that one sounds silly too…but I have more clothes and items in the home than I do space (because all I do is shop on these trips away from home). In 2008, I finally encountered that feeling of having every inch of my walls and storage taken up by something (and a lot of it JUNK!)…so one of my 2009 resolutions is to RE-ORGANIZE. From my closets and dressers to the scrapbook room, my walls and even my outdoors. I figure that an organized environment = more time, more productivity, more freedom! So…Cheers to that!
11. & A new love for fitness. So here’s the deal with this one….I am one of those people who pays for gym memberships for YEARS and never goes. I keep the membership because I know I should go and like the idea of “being able to whenever I want to”. But I make ton’s of excuses why I can’t go. (ie: Too busy, too tired, feel sick, not motivated, gyms are boring…blah, blah, blah)…but then I found the Nintendo Wii & Wii Fit! Its pretty phenomenal actually. After only 644 hula spins on the Wii Fit (Super Hula)…my abs are killing all over and I am excited to go again. I am also excited to do all of the other fitness activities that my kids have unlocked (as soon as my Mii can unlock them!). I can’t see any reason why I would make excuses for this one – as the interactivity of a Wii Fit workout – is exactly what I need to get me over the most common of issues I normally have with workouts! Wii Hoooooo! Gotta love that right!).

And that’s it friends. That’s my core list of things I appreciate after my Year in Review for 2008. I look forward to appreciating all of these much more in 2009 too.

So…what’s on your appreciation list? If you are willing to share it…please do so in the comments area…if not…it might at

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.

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.

Next Page »