Scrapbook My Life

I hope has enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are a few journaling questions to help you start scrapbooking those Thanksgiving day photos:

•  What is your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal? Are you a traditional turkey and stuffing kind of girl or do you prefer something more unique?
• What non-food rituals do you associate with Thanksgiving? Do you enjoy watching football? Planning Black Friday shopping trips? Playing board games with your nieces and nephews?
• What are you most grateful for this year? Friends? Family? Work accomplishments?

If your Thanksgiving day photos didn’t turn out quite as nicely as you had hoped, remember that creative cropping can work wonders. It’s hard to get group shots where everyone looks perfect, but it’s fairly simple to crop the person who is blinking or squinting out of the photo. If your photos look overexposed or underexposed, try adjusting the contrast and converting them to a sepia tone for a traditional-looking Thanksgiving layout.

What I like the most about scrapbooking is the diversity among those who are passionate about this great hobby. Some people scrapbook to create a lasting legacy for their children, others enjoy socializing at crops or workshops, and some are simply looking for a great way to showcase their amazing photography skills. But for me, crafting has always been a form of therapy. When I’m sad, lonely, or upset, making something helps me feel better. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a scrapbook page, a handmade card, a new bracelet, or a knitted scarf.  Keeping my hands busy and during a pile of raw materials into a finished project is immensely satisfying – even when I make a mistake or the item doesn’t turn out quite like I had hoped.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on updating the gallery pages at LoveToKnow Scrapbooking. It’s a project I really should be more diligent about completing, but the process of photographing, scanning, and uploading layouts is quite time consuming. Anyway, you can check out  Baby and Children Scrapbooking Projects and  Holiday Scrapbooking Projects to see some of my favorite pages.

For me, looking at my pages in an online gallery is an interesting experience. With pages from different years mixed together, I keep noticing small ways my scrapbooking style continues to evolve. Of course, there is also the fun of seeing how my son has grown so much! (He’ll be four on Thanksgiving!)

With the state of the economy the way it is, I’m trying to force myself to hold off on new craft-related purchases. On one hand, I really do have too much “stuff” in my supply stash. But, one of the things that always seems to inspire me is the purchase of cool new products. So, it’s quite the dilemma.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this recession will probably have a significant impact on the scrapbooking industry as a whole. It’s hard for people to give up scrapbooking entirely, but I definitely think everyone will be more frugal. Just from my own experiences and those of my friends who scrapbook, overpriced embellishments are out and understated pages with accents you make yourself are in. Cardstock layouts with brads and eyelets are fairly cheap to make, as are pages that incorporate digital scrapbooking freebies. Until the economy picks up, I predict you’ll be seeing a lot more of the “clean and simple” scrapbooking style.

Do you think it’s possible to “burn out” from a hobby? I’ve been scrapbooking since 2002, but lately I just haven’t felt particularly inspired. Plus, between my freelance writing business, the purchase of our first home, and chasing around one super active toddler, I’m just exhausted at the end of the day. Getting my creative energy back has proven to be quite a challenge.

I think another issue that’s contributing to the problem is that I have so much stuff! When you’ve been accumulating supplies for six years, you end up with lots of cardstock, patterned paper, and embellishments. Deciding what to use and when to use it is a job in itself.

I am trying to make handmade Christmas cards, however. Hopefully, this tiny project will be enough to get me back into the scrapbooking spirit!

My husband and I recently purchased our first home, so I’ve been thinking of ways to scrapbook this occasion. Here are some of the home themed page ideas I’ve seen in various places:

• How did you choose the color schemes/themes for the rooms in your house?
• Do you have any special collections displayed in your home?
• How would you describe your interior decorating style?
• What do you like the most about your home? What do you like the least?

I also like the idea of charting the progress of various remodeling projects. I’ve been busy saving paint chips, tear sheets from interior decorating magazines, fabric swatches, and other little bits of memorabilia to incorporate into my “Welcome to Our Home” project.

If you’re looking for some great home quotes to embellish your scrapbook layouts, here are a few of my favorites:

• “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.” –Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
• “When you’re safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home” –Thorton Wilder
• “Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes”  –Anonymous
• “A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.” –Anonymous

Since today is my birthday, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite ideas for scrapbooking birthday party pages!

• Make custom patterned paper by repeating your age across a plain cardstock background using rubber stamps or a decorative font.
• Use small bits of ribbon and teardrop shaped rhinestones to make your own candle embellishments.
• Add eyelets to a die cut of a cupcake or birthday cake to make your own “sprinkles”
• Tie string to hand-cut ovals to make a balloon bouquet embellishment.
• Create pocket in your layout to hold the birthday cards you’ve received.
• Scan the day’s newspaper headlines to include a reference to current events in your layout.
• For creative journaling, include a list of things you’ve accomplished during the last year or your goals for yourself during the upcoming year.

Matting photos is one of the first techniques scrapbookers learn. Mats help enhance your color scheme and draw attention to your pictures. However, you don’t need to mat every photo on a layout. Matting is a time consuming process that will quickly use up your supply of cardstock. Try matting only the focal point photo on your page or creating the illusion of photo mats by placing multiple photos close to one another.

If you get your photos printed at Wal-Mart or through an online developer, ask if they can print them with a white border around the edge. This will give you the look of matted photos without the extra work or expense. If you can’t live without the look of a double mat, however, place the white bordered 4×6 photo onto paper from one of the Die Cuts with a View mat stacks. You’ll have a perfect double mat with no cutting or measuring required!

I love free scrapbooking stuff! There’s nothing like new scrapbooking goodies to make you feel creative, but shopping everyday isn’t exactly practical when you’re on a tight budget. So, I like to spend some time surfing for free digital scrapbooking downloads to enjoy. Sometimes I use them for all-digital pages, but they’re also great to print out and add to regular layouts as well.

My newest favorite is Spontaneous Delight , the latest free kit from Shabby Princess. The flower embellishments are very feminine, but the green and blue color scheme is rich enough to work for masculine pages as well. The swirls and dots give the whole thing a hip, contemporary look. I have some summer parade photos I can’t wait to try using!

While thumbing through the September issue of CK, I found the “Snapshot of Me” album by Becky Higgins. It’s beautiful work, and you can download a PDF version of the embellishments she used on the Creating Keepsakes Web site. There are quotes, page titles, and journaling blocks to create pages of top 10 lists, sample schedules, and your favorite things. I can’t wait to get started on my book, especially since Becky’s designs are great for the frugal scrapbooker. Since she switched the color scheme to a more gender neutral design than what’s pictured in the magazine, I may even try to get my husband and son in on the fun.