Search Results for: blog scrapbooking when less is more

Scrapbooking Your Summer Adventures

What’s been the highlight of your summer so far? For my daughter, it’s been boogie boarding; for my friend’s son, it’s been attending band camp; and for my neighbor, the highlight has been her annual trip to Mexico. All three events are scrapbook worthy, as is just about any adventure you may experience this summer. The trick to crafting an eye-popping series of layouts that showcase your summer memories to the fullest is to plan ahead. For starters, you’ll want to snap a ton of photos of your seasonal escapades. Next, you’ll want to collect as many mementos as possible … Continue reading →

Scrapbooking Made Easy

My mother is the first to admit that she is a dinosaur when it comes to technology. To say that she doesn’t embrace computers or anything digital would be a severe understatement. Ironically, for as much as my mom abhors high-tech gadgets, she absolutely loves the idea of digital scrapbooks. In fact, she is borderline obsessed with digital photo books, which are essentially affordable scrapbooks that you make online. You’ve likely seen the albums advertised on various photography and scrapbooking websites. They feature a variety of prefabricated templates that make scrapping an entire book a breeze. To design the pages … Continue reading →

Get Kids Involved in All Aspects of Scrapbooking

My 7-year-old has been scrapbooking since she was a preschooler. She started by helping me place stickers on layouts. Eventually, she learned how to stamp, and then mastered the art of adhering mementos to the page. These days she designs her own memory albums using a variety of embellishments; however, she is still working on including her own photos on the layouts. I am a huge advocate of getting kids involved in all aspects of scrapbooking, especially picture-taking. The boom in digital photography has made it much easier for children to snap scrapbook worthy shots without a ton of training. … Continue reading →

Less Can Be More

I can often be found drooling over the elaborate layouts displayed by the owner of my local scrapbook shop. Her page designs are beyond phenomenal. They are crammed with unique embellishments, creative photo arrangements and memorabilia that I’d never consider placing on a scrapbook page. The purpose of the shop owner making these grand masterpieces is two-fold. First, she features as much of the shop’s new merchandise in her monthly page designs to show customers how they too can incorporate the items in a variety of ways in their own memory albums. This not only gets one’s creative juices flowing, … Continue reading →

Does Budgeting Actually Cost You More Money?

Do you have a budget? Everyone says it is the best way to take control of your spending. Once you have spent your allotted amount for food, or gas, you’re done. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work like that. I read a study recently that said that people who have a budget can spend as much as 50% more than they were planning. This is said to be because budgeting starts in your mind. You are thinking constantly about what you can and cannot spend and that is what causes you to spend more. Many people who say they have a … Continue reading →

Learning From Scrapbooking Mistakes

Live and learn. When it comes to scrapbooking, trial and error can often yield incredible results. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, right? When I attempted to make my first scrapbook, I was clueless. The process was akin to driving backwards down the wrong side of the highway. I was ill-prepared and it showed. The biggest mistake I made was not planning ahead. I waited until after the fact before deciding to piece together an entire book of memories. For me it was a vacation scrapbook, but I’ve seen others do the same with wedding memory albums. … Continue reading →

No More Sticky Situations

Do you steer clear of using vellum in your scrapbook layouts because you have problems getting it to adhere to cardstock without looking messy? The transparent specialty paper has a bad reputation with some scrappers because most adhesives show through vellum. I mentioned some ways you can solve this issue in a previous post, but I neglected to suggest one of the easiest solutions: use thicker types of vellum. The thicker the paper, the less you can see through it. However, the downside of using thick vellum is that it can be hard to cut properly. If you’re having trouble … Continue reading →

More Picture-Perfect Layouts

As I mentioned in my previous posts, you really can’t create a decent scrapbook layout if your shots stink. Learning how to take pretty photos will go a long way to making your page designs pop. Fortunately, it’s not too hard to hone your picture-taking skills. What’s more, even if you don’t master channeling your inner Ansel Adams, there are ways you can add spice to your scrapbook images. For example, when in doubt, consider switching to black-and-white. Colorless prints are great options for wedding, anniversary, or prom layouts. For starters, black-and-white photos are quite flattering. Not only do they … Continue reading →

Simple Scrapbooking

Do you page through scrapbooks and think, “I could never do that,” then try to find someone else to do it for you? That used to be me. For years I would flip through display scrapbooks at craft fairs or watch as my aunt painstakingly placed photos in handcrafted frames embellished with sequins and flocking powder, and beg her to make me a book. No way did I have the time, energy or creativity to replicate what I saw in those amazing memory books, so I didn’t. Then, I had a child and I had less time, energy and creativity, … Continue reading →

More Ideas for Easter Layouts

My all-time favorite Easter-themed scrapbook layout features a timeline of my young daughter’s encounters with the Easter Bunny. Typically, these meet and greets take place at the mall, though I have a few photos of her in recent years trying to hit up the Bunny for chocolate at outdoor Easter egg hunts sponsored by the city or our local zoo. This year I will keep the tradition going by snapping her in the park with Peter Cottontail and adding the photos to the layout. There are a variety of ways you can make a page design like this work, though … Continue reading →