Scrapbooking: Using the Crop-A-Dile
Beginner Scrapbookers: Five Simple Ways to Get Started Scrapbooking
Beginner Scrapbookers: Five Simple Ways to Get Started Scrapbooking
By Lain Ehmann
Got the scrapbooking itch? Coolio! You will find that scrapbooking can add immeasurably to your enjoyment of life. It sounds crazy, but it’s true: Scrapbooking has changed my life, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to get started. Here are five easy ways to take the plunge:
1. Forget about “shoulds.” Don’t worry what your neighbor, your sister, or Martha Stewart tells you that your scrapbook must have or be. The biggest enjoyment I get from this hobby is when I take an idea that is purely mine and run with it! I’ve seen scrapbooks on the side of a refrigerator, sewn into a memory quilt, or created on a blog. Scrapbooks can be any size, shape, or medium — it’s up to you.
2. Start with a memory. For me, the “best” pages I create aren’t necessarily A-plus designs, or with all the latest and greatest products. Instead, my favorite layouts are those that accurately capture an emotion or memory. To make sure I’m off to a good start, I begin my pages with a memory I want to document. Sometimes that’s perfectly matched with a photo; other times, I have to take a photo or use a photo from a different time. That’s okay! It’s the memory that’s important, not when the picture was taken.
3. Give yourself permission to explore and experiment. You may have in mind that you want to create a certain type of page or design before you start, but allow yourself to spread your wings along the way. You may change your mind, or want to try a different combination of papers or colors. Go for it! Remember, you can always toss the whole thing and start again!
4. Don’t buy the whole store. The “toys” we scrapbookers get to play with are so tempting that we can want to grab one of everything in sight! But trust me, all these products will overwhelm, rather than inspire, you. Start small, make good use of the things you do purchase, and then add something new. Just as a new cook doesn’t need every spice on the supermarket shelf, you don’t need every color of brad, glitter, and colored marker.
5. Enjoy the process. This is probably my most important “rule.” If you enjoy the process, nothing else really matters all that much. And if you don’t enjoy the process, it doesn’t really matter that you’ve created lovely pages if you did so grudgingly or full of stress. If you start to feel anxious or worry about making a “mistake,” take a deep breath and remind yourself: This is supposed to be fun!
For more creative simple scrapbooking ideas and inspiration, visit Lain Ehmann’s scrapbook blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Scrapbooking Journaling: Write Without Being a Writer
Scrapbooking Journaling: Write Without Being a Writer
By Lain Ehmann
Many scrapbookers believe they can’t journal on their scrapbook pages because they’re not “writers.” Well, here’s the good news: You don’t have to be a writer to add your stories to your scrapbook pages! In fact, in this short article, I’m going to share some of my hard-won secrets for capturing journaling for your pages without even trying. Sound good? Okay, let’s get going!
If I’ve learned one thing in my ten years as a professional journalist, it’s this: The surest way to put a ton of stress on yourself and making your mind go as blank as the page in front of you is to tell yourself you need to write something important. If you put that kind of pressure on yourself, you’ll never write a word! Instead, you need to kind of sneak up on yourself. Here are some ways that you can glean journaling for your scrapbook pages without even knowing you’re journaling:
1. Listen to your conversations. Sometimes, the exchanges we have with our family and friends can be a perfect encapsulation of an event or relationship. Start paying attention to what you say in your daily conversations, and what your family members (especially kids!) say to each other. Write it down in a small notebook you carry with you. Then when it’s time to create your scrapbook layout, all you have to do is transcribe your notes.
2. Read your emails — ingoing and outgoing. I once took a challenge to find the journaling for my scrapbook page in my email in-box. What a light bulb moment! I realized that the messages I was receiving and sending were small pieces of my everyday life. I found enough material for several pages — and inspiration for several more layouts I wanted to create in the future.
3. Gather notes and pictures from your children. Kids — especially small children — are a wealth of material. Don’t worry about journaling; let their pictures and notes do the work for you! If you don’t want to use the actual drawing or note, scan it into your computer and print it out. This is a terrific way to do something special with all those school papers, too.
4. Use song lyrics. Many song lyrics seem to be written just for us — for a special relationship or situation in our lives. If someone else has already written the soundtrack to your life, don’t try to recreate the wheel; just use the song lyrics and call it good!
5. Quote unquote. No, it’s not cheating to use someone else’s words on your scrapbook pages. There are dozens of wonderful quote directories online that allow you to search by topic and keyword because many, many people find inspiration in others’ words. Just make sure to give credit where credit is due.
For more creative scrapbooking journaling tips, visit Lain Ehmann’s blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Lain Ehmann
Creative Scrapbooking Ideas: Advent Calendars With Your Scrapbook Supplies
Creative Scrapbooking Ideas: Advent Calendars With Your Scrapbook Supplies
By Lain Ehmann
With December just a few weeks off, the time is now to create a special advent calendar to help you and your family count down the days to Christmas. If you’re a scrapbooker, you’ve got it easy: Pull out your scrapbooking supplies and use one of these cute ideas to create a calendar your family will look forward to using for years to come.
Use one of the basic “recipes” below, and then embellish as much as you want with ribbon, bells, fabric, buttons, or anything your little heart desires. This is a great activity to undertake with your children. They’ll love helping create their own calendar!
1. String of Mittens. Cut 48 mitten shapes from Christmas-themed patterned paper. Match two together to create a pocket, and glue, staple, or hand- or machine-sew them together. Use stamps or alphabet stickers to add the days from 1 to 24. Attach the mittens to a clothesline with miniature clothespins, and tuck a note with a special surprise or treat in each one.
2. Stockings Were Hung… Use the same approach as the String of Mittens. Cut or punch 48 stocking shapes from cardstock or patterned paper, add numbers, and hang them by your fireplace with care. St. Nicholas will be glad to help you out by adding a little treat to each.
3. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Instead of a calendar of 24 days, create one with just twelve, based on the traditional Christmas carol. Use stamps or stickers to add the appropriate icon (swans, pipers, turtle doves, etc.) to envelopes or library-style pockets that you’ve fashioned from patterned paper or cardstock.
4. Wrapped with a Bow. Make little gift boxes using a pattern you download from the Internet (do a search on “gift box pattern) or with a die cut machine. Label each one with a tag numbered from 1 to 24; include a mini-ornament, a small treat, or a note with a special holiday tradition inside. Hang them on your Christmas tree or line them up on your mantel.
5. Christmas Chain. Cut twenty-four pieces of patterned paper or cardstock, about one inch wide by six inches long. Write a holiday tradition or special excursion on the back of each one. Link them together, paper-chain style. Each day your family gets to remove one “link” and do whatever is written on the reverse side.
6. Tag, You’re It. Create 24 tags using a punch or die-cut machine. Decorate them with stamps, glitter, button, and ribbons. Write a holiday tradition or a holiday sentiment (“Peace,” “Love,” “Charity,” Gratitude,” etc.) on the reverse, then tie them onto a miniature Christmas tree. Remove one each day.
For more creative holiday scrapbooking ideas and inspiration, visit Lain Ehmann’s scrapbook blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Creative Scrapbooking Ideas: Easy Thanksgiving Projects With Patterned Paper
Creative Scrapbooking Ideas: Easy Thanksgiving Projects With Patterned Paper
By Lain Ehmann
Don’t leave your patterned paper and cardstock in your scrap room this Thanksgiving. Instead, try one of these quick craft ideas with your scrapbooking supplies:
1. Place Cards. Whether you do a cute, kid-friendly turkey or a fancy, embossed place card, you can create some lovely place markers. Cut patterned paper or cardstock to the proper size, and add letter stickers, stamps, ribbon, and other embellishments. Create a few samples so people who don’t think they’re “creative” will have something to copy. This is a great before-dinner activity to keep visitors busy.
2. Thank-You Cards. Thanksgiving is about gratitude, so why not send some handmade greetings of your own? After Thanksgiving dinner, set out some selected supplies and show your guests how to fold cards to the right size. Then encourage everyone to write a thank-you note to someone who has made a different in their life. Provide envelopes and stamps, too, so people can address their cards immediately.
3. Name Tags. If you have a large, diverse group, you may want to give everyone an idea of who’s who. Create name tags from patterned paper and add cute stickers or stamped letters, or let people create their own as they arrive. You could even ask them to add a little factoid, like their favorite flavor of pie, or their favorite Christmas movie, to their tag, as an ice breaker.
4. Gratitude Journal. Make a place where your family can list all the things they’re grateful for. Cover an inexpensive notebook with patterned paper and leave out in a well-trafficked spot. Attach a pen with a length of ribbon. I like to put ours out early in the month so we can capture thoughts from the whole month. We keep ours from year to year as a special keepsake of Thanksgivings past.
5. Recipe Cards. Create a set of fancy recipe cards with cardstock mounted on coordinating patterned paper. Copy all your favorite Thanksgiving recipes, adhere them to the cards, embellish with buttons, and stickers, and tie them up with a beautiful ribbon. Hand a set to each visiting family as a Thanksgiving gift.
6. Leftovers Bags. Decorate standard brown bags with patterned paper tags and ribbon, and send home your leftover turkey and stuffing in style! Use festive stamps and stickers to personalize a bag for each guest. No one could dare refuse a helping of leftover Thanksgiving cheer when it’s already got their name on it!
For more creative scrapbooking ideas and inspiration, visit Lain Ehmann’s scrapbook blog at Layout A Day. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
Scrapbooking Ideas for Thanksgiving
Creative Mini-Album Scrapbooking Ideas for Thanksgiving
By Lain Ehmann
With all the family members and fluster surrounding Thanksgiving, scrapbooking might be the last thing on your mind. But even if you don’t have time to scrapbook, make time to take photos and jot a few notes. And then after everything has returned to normal (some time in 2011!), you can create some fun mini-albums based on the work you did now. Here are some fun mini-album ideas to get you energized:
1. I Am Thankful for… Have all your family members and guests at Thanksgiving dinner tell you what they’re thankful for — or better yet, have them write it on a small square of cardstock and add it directly to the album pages. Adding their own handwriting to the pages will enhance the personality of each page.
2. Thanksgiving Recipes. Have each person who contributes a dish to your Thanksgiving dinner write up the recipe. Take a picture of them with their special menu item, and add their photo to the page with their recipe. This is a great record to add to over the years, and to pass around the family for each new Thanksgiving host.
3. Last Year’s Highlights. At Thanksgiving dinner, go around the table and ask for the family’s highlights. Appoint one person to be the recorder and write down the responses. Make sure to get a photo of each person in attendance, and you’ve got a ready-made album!
4. I Wish For… The holiday season is a time of miracles. Share your hopes and wishes, big and small, and record them to scrapbook later. Then next year when everyone is together again, review your entries and see what wishes have come true, what’s changed, and what your new hopes are for the coming year.
5. Every Year We… Traditions can be so ingrained that we forget to even write them down. We think they’ll never change, or at least we’ll never forget. Time and people change, though, so it’s best to write down all your favorite traditions now, while they’re fresh. This is another album that’s fun to add to over the years.
Once you’ve got the photos and journaling, you’re more than halfway done! Pull out coordinating harvest-colored cardstock, patterned paper, and embellishments, and go to town. Make it easy on yourself and come up with a single design, and replicate it on each page, changing up the photo, journaling, and patterned paper. This creates unity throughout the album and saves you time — a win-win, indeed!
For more creative scrapbooking ideas and inspiration, visit Lain Ehmann’s scrapbook blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Fast Scrapbooking: 10 Things You Can Do in 15 Minutes Or Less
Fast Scrapbooking: 10 Things You Can Do in 15 Minutes Or Less
By Lain Ehmann
Is your scrapbooking going to have to take a back seat to all the holiday festivities soon to be raining down on your home like a giant vat of candy corn? No way! Even if you only have 15 minutes here and there, you can still get your scrapping “fix” through the upcoming months. Through years of experience, I’ve honed my fast scrapbooking skills to the point where I have a list of tasks I can accomplish, even if I only have a break between the turkey and the pie. Here are 10 things you can do to keep on scrapbooking, even during the harried holidays:
Photos: You can’t scrapbook if you don’t have photos, so here are five to take this season:
1. Take photos of your ornaments. Later you can create a mini-album with the story behind each precious decoration.
2. Take photos of your favorite dishes. Use these when the house has calmed down to create a cookbook scrapbook of all your family’s best recipes, with a photo of each.
3. Take photos of holiday outfits. Do your little ones have special duds they’ll be wearing on the big day? Does Uncle Ed always wear that horrid reindeer sweater? Grab your camera and capture it.
4. Take photos of your wrapping process. Are you an organized type with everything in one place, and all the boxes wrapped by November 1? Or do you pull an all-nighter on Christmas Eve? Document your process.
5. Take photos of your Christmas or holiday cards. If you send all your cards and letters to others, how are you going to remember what YOUR annual card looked like? I have a mini-album just for each year’s Christmas card, letter, and photo.
Preparation: Preparation is the better part of scrapbooking. Or something like that. Get ready so when you have a few minutes, you can scrapbook, fast!
1. Make page kits. Pull complementary patterned paper, cardstock, and embellishments together into a large-size plastic bag. Then add photos, and you’re ready to scrap.
2. Make a list. Go through your supplies and write down what you’re running low on. You don’t want to finally sit down to scrapbook, only to discover that you’re out of adhesive and kraft cardstock!
3. Purge your supplies. Take a few minutes and weed out old supplies that you don’t think you’ll be using again. Everything you get rid of makes it easier (and quicker) to find the stuff you will use in the future.
4. Clean. No one likes to spend their precious scrapping time cleaning, so grab a few minutes now to straighten your scrapbook space so you’re ready to go when the family all falls asleep watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
5. Sort. Only have 60 seconds on the way to the bathroom? Grab the next three photos you want to scrapbook, and set them out on your scrapbook table. Start mulling over products, titles, journaling, etc., so when you can scrapbook, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running!
For more creative fast scrapbooking tips, including a copy of Lain’s Super-Secret Guide to Fast Scrapping, visit Lain Ehmann’s blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Halloween Crafting Ideas – Creative Projects With Your Scrapbooking Supplies
Halloween Crafting Ideas – Creative Projects With Your Scrapbooking Supplies
By Lain Ehmann
Do you have stacks and stacks of Halloween-themed paper, ribbon, and other embellishments just lying around your supply stash, waiting to be put to use? I for one cannot resist the lure of cute bats, pumpkins, and skeletons, so I end up with way more Halloween-themed scrapbooking supplies than I could ever use. After all, I only create a few Halloween layouts each year, so that means the supplies mount faster than I can use them up! But I’ve found with a little creative thinking, you can come up with some other fun uses for that black and orange stash you have on hand.
1. Halloween cards. If you’re a scrapbooker, you can easily translate your skills to the card-making arena. Standard (A4) cards are sized at 5-1/2 inches by 4-1/4 inches, which is exactly half of an 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheet of cardstock or patterned paper, folded. So take some of your favorite leftovers and create greeting cards. Send them to far-flung family and friends. They’ll be happy to hear from you any time of year.
2. Individual treat bags. Hosting a Halloween party or just like to prepare a little something special for the ghouls and goblins who come trick-or-treating? Create tiny treat bags, decorated with jack-o’-lanterns and black cats. You can find templates online by searching for “treat bag template.” You will find a variety of sizes and styles to download and create.
3. Home decor. I’ve seen some adorable Halloween wreaths, door hangers, and other home decor items made from (you guessed it!) scrapbooking materials. You can easily decorate a lamp shade or picture frame, or place stickers or rub-ons on a clear votive holder, with spectacular effects.
4. Trick-or-treat bags. Buy an inexpensive black, white, or kraft-colored gift bag from the craft store and let your little Frankenstein go to town with stamps, stickers, and ribbon. They’ll come up with a cute customized bag for their treats, and you’ll work down your stash of supplies. (Hint: This is a great activity for classroom parties).
5. Halloween costumes. Can you turn your scrapbook supplies into creative costumes? You bet! Rhinestones, stickers, punches, and other scrapbook supplies may be just the ticket when you are turning your son into a robot, or your daughter into Strawberry Shortcake. Stamps make great fake tattoos, and every princess needs her own crown, made for just for her by Mom.
For more ideas about creative ways to use your scrapbooking supplies, visit Lain Ehmann’s blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, projects and inspiration, Lain helps her readers make their scrapbooking fun, fast and fabulous!
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Halloween Scrapbook Ideas – Fun Suggestions for Your Family’s Memories
Halloween Scrapbook Ideas – Fun Suggestions for Your Family’s Memories
By Lain Ehmann
Are you having trouble coming up with creative ideas for scrapbooking your Halloween festivities? Don’t let those little ghosties and goblins memories disappear faster than the trick-or-treat candy. Stress no further! Here are some fun ways to document your family’s October events.
1. Before and after. Create a scrapbook layout that documents the transformation from normal child to Superman, Harry Potter, wicked witch, or princess. Take photos of each stage of the costuming process, and show them off on a scrapbook page or in a mini-album. (Note: This type of book can make the whole Halloween thing less scary for little kids in years to come, as they see their big brothers or sisters, or themselves, changed into their Halloween alter-ego).
2. Your traditions. From decorating to Halloween parties to carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds, make sure to take photos of all your yearly rituals. Creating a mini-album of traditions for each holiday is a fun “checklist” for years to come to make sure you cover all the bases.
4. The route. How cute would it be to show on a street map where your little one went trick-or-treating? You can download a map from Google, or scan and enlarge a city map, and trace the route with orange yarn or a highlighter pen. Do this every year to see how the amount of territory covered grows. Extra credit: Add a gold star on houses with extra-special treats!
5. Neighborhood decorations. Shoot a layout’s worth of photos of your neighborhood’s ghoulish decorating efforts. You could even go on a scavenger hunt for scariest, funniest, and most creative decorations, and most elaborate pumpkins. Create your own personal family awards for your scrapbook. (You might even want to give the winners a handmade ribbon or certificate so they know they’ve been honored!)
6. The loot! Spread out all the candy and goodies and photograph it. You can come up with some creative ways to show how much candy your little one brought home; have him or her lie in the middle of the pile, hold it in his or her hands, or show it being weighed on a scale. (Don’t forget to share in the journaling your family’s rules for the consumption of the candy!).
7. The aftermath. The “morning after” photographs could include candy wrappers, a sleeping child with makeup still on his or her face, a burned-out Jack o’ Lantern, or a bunched-up costume on the floor.
Halloween is becoming a bigger and bigger holiday in the United States, so why not make it a bigger and bigger holiday in your scrapbooking, too? For more tips on holiday scrapbooking, visit lain Ehmann’s blog at http://www.layoutaday.com. Through scrapbooking videos, tutorials, and project ideas, Lain will help you make your scrapbooking fun, fast, and fabulous!
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