Digital Scrapping

Hello, Laura here! I'm not the normal scrapbooker around here, I'm the web designer. So what on earth am I doing posting here?

Weeeelll, working with this crew tends to get you interested in making your own scrapbook-y stuff, right? And I'm getting married in June and needed to send out Save-the-Date cards. Obviously, I went running to Lindsey begging for ideas and she helped me come up with a great one!

Since I'm more of a web geek and have my Photoshop skills, I just designed a 4x6 image based on Victorian postcards and had them printed as photos at Walgreens Photo. I got the postcard imagery from this AMAZING site with free, publicly-licensed images of high-resolution scanned Victorian paper cards and such on it that you can use to your heart's content.

Then on the back, we picked out a corner punch and I cut out 4x6 pieces of a pretty yellow paper. I ran them through the printer for the wording (realized after 2 cards I wasn't about to write 86 copies of this!) and borrowed Lindsey's Tim Holtz Postcard stamp for the vintage look.

For the divider, we used a Cuttlebug and made the embossing and VOILA! Beautiful, expensive-looking save the date postcards!

Both techy and crafty. I'm so proud! Thank you Lindsey!

Scrapbooking Resolution: Take More Photos

I remember as a child everyone getting annoyed at my uncle who always had a camera or video camera in our faces at EVERY family event.  Now that I'm an adult, I'm glad that he did as we have a record of memories from the past.

I don't think you can ever take too many photos.  In fact, I always have my camera handy at home in case there's an oppurtunity to snap a picture.  I almost always try to take it to any family event so I can record it.  Whether it's gathering together to watch Ohio State football games or celebrating a birthday, the camera is there.

I take pictures of my nephews and nieces silly faces, funny poses, and goofy dances.  Some of them are getting to the age where they HATE getting their pictures taken and I get an occasional roll of the eyes.

Now, you may ask what do I do with all these pictures?  Most are stored on my hard drive and thumb drive.  I don't print every single picture.  Just the ones I plan on scrapping or framing are the only ones that get printed.  And when I do print them, I do it online and have them shipped to my house.  It's definitely a lot easier and most of the online photo websites have photo editors that allow you to crop and correct pictures.  I've even printed pictures as cheap as a penny a print on sites!  Most sites allow you to upload your photos and store them in 'albums' for later use.  Some of my favorite photo processing websites are:

Winkflash
Snapfish
Kodak Gallery

And what if you want to scrap all your photos, but don't want 150 layouts of one person's birthday?  A few companies have started making 12x12 photo sleeves for your albums.  We R Memory Keepers and American Crafts are two companies that have sleeves for albums that hold 4x6 photos (or other sizes), enabling you to have photos and layouts in your scrapbooks.  These companies also make sleeves that hold larger and smaller photos in addition to 4x6 photos.  In addition to photos, you can put journaling blocks or other embellishments in the blocks!  The possibilities are endless!  We have these sleeves available here at the Scrapbook Outlet and can order additional sizes if you need something special.



Don't be afraid to stage photographs either.  If you see a paper you adore, stage a picture that would be perfect.  Case in point, my 3 year old nephew got a drum set brought to him by Santa for Christmas.  I had the perfect paper and title: 'Little Drummer Boy'.  I made him pose with the drumsticks and took lots of pictures with him playing the drums (very LOUDLY, I might add...) 

So...this year resolve to capture more memories on your camera.  Don't be afraid to take pictures and if you're like me, endure complaints from the subjects.    Take pictures of a child playing with a toy, a dog playing in the snow, or a haircut.  Take pictures of your flower garden, your house, or your car covered in the first snow of the season.  In ten years, you won't regret having records of these memories.

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Scrapbooking Resolution: Clean and Organize

Happy 2011 everyone!  Every New Year's, resolutions are made.  It may be to save money, lose weight, donate to charity, or spend more time with your family.  In addition to my yearly resolutions of saving money and getting healthier, I make a scrapbooking resolution (or two).

Walking in my scrappin' room ('The Scrap Cave' as I like to call it), I saw all the remnants of 2010's Christmas projects.  Paper on the floor, trash can overflowing, and scrappy supplies strewn about, let's just say that I am SO happy that company doesn't see that room.  It definitely looks like a bomb blew up in there! 



I resolved right then and there to be more organized and clean  in my scrapbooking. I plan on putting all supplies and materials away when I am finished.  When I get new paper or embellishments, I'll put them away instead of just laying them on the table for another time.  

There are TONS of great organizing products out there on the market.  One of my faves is the Clip-It-Up.  This thing is AWESOME!!!  Clip all your stickers, embellishments, and ribbon up and away from your workspace.  I've even got a few card-size papers hanging on mine.  The best thing is that the Clip It Up spins like a carousel, giving you easy access to anything stored on it!  This thing even comes with some great organizing dividers so you can divide by topic, color, or type.

Another one of my fave organizing tools is the Creative Options Project Box.  These boxes come in a few different sizes and colors.  These boxes are my go-to storage for weekend crops or finished album pages.  I'm notorious for scrapbooking various subjects at once and not putting my completed projects in album.  So, my solution is to keep all my finished layouts in these boxes until I get the time to organize them into albums.  The boxes are also VERY sturdy and take a beating, as mine travel frequently to weekend crops and to friends houses.

We'll have some more resolutions throughout the month of January here on the blog and in the newsletter, too.  What are you resolutions?  We'd love to hear them so leave us a comment!!

Happy Scrappin'!