Finding
Time to Scrapbook....
By Laura Bernhard
How
many times have you heard, “How do you find the
time to
scrapbook?” Sometimes, people say they are way too busy to even begin to
scrapbook. I tell people that I
make
time to do what I love.
I’m worth it and so are my kids. However, unless
we are snowed in,
realistically I can only scrapbook on weekends. Between work, soccer, Cub
Scouts and all the other Mom stuff I do, my weekdays are occupied with other
things. When the weekends come however, it is time to scrapbook!
Here
are a few of my time-finding tips:
Establish a place of your
own. If
you can swing it, set up a designated scrap area in your home. This can be
small or large - a desk in the corner of your family room or bedroom, a walk-in
closet converted to a scrap area or a fancy craft room with custom cabinetry. I
happen to have a desk and some cubes in the corner of our family room. It is so
much easier to scrapbook
when you aren’t constantly
getting things out and putting them away. For ideas on scrap areas, you can
check out the
Tomorrow’s Memories Idea
Gallery.
Shop online.
Make a list as you run out of essentials or as you see something new you want to
try. If you order on Sunday night, you’ll usually have what you need by the
following weekend. Check out the Saved Baskets or Wishlist features and let
Tomorrow’s Memories keep track of your list for you.
Plan ahead.
I keep a binder, actually a small album, called my page idea planner. When I
get my prints back I decide which ones I will scrapbook and put them together in
a sleeve in the album. If I am inspired, I will also add notes or ideas for
journaling. When I do scrapbook, I pull my planner out and get to work.
You
can see a similar notebook ideas in the May/June issue of
Simple
Scrapbooks.
Read during the week.
I read magazines and idea books and cruise the web during the week - mostly at
bedtime - and think about what I plan to work on when the weekend comes.
If I
think of an idea I want to incorporate, I’ll add a note to my page idea
planner..
Scrapbook with friends.
Its always fun to have pals who share your interests. If none of your friends
scrapbook, make new ones by attending crops in your local area or by visiting
one of the many scrapbooking message boards on the Internet, including the
boards at Tomorrow’s Memories.
Do what you love.
In our house,
naptime is scrap time. Football weekends are scrapbooking weekends. I try to
get my errands out of the way during the week to make sure I can spend some time
on the weekends doing what I love.
How
do you find time to scrapbook? Visit the message boards to share
your tips.
Message Boards
Idea Gallery
Newsletter Spotlights.....
These were SOOOO easy to use,
slide mounts are great to bring focus to a small piece of a larger picture. I
have been trying to decide what to do with these hang gliding pictures forever
- there was LOTS of sky but very little subject, slide mounts were perfect.
There are a few things to remember when using these if you are going to open
the mount all the way up be sure to have some liquid glue on hand to close
them back up - regular zig glue or photo splits will not work! Make sure you
measure the opening to the picture and leave a little space when you cut so
that the picture can be adhered to the mount. Slide mounts would also be great
for small shaker boxes, frames for letters in a title, or even a frame to
"showcase" a serendipity type square. The uses are almost limitless!
(clicking on image will show a larger version.)
These stickers are the best, I
loved using them to create this layout of my daughter at about 3 weeks old,
the quote that I picked was quite long and I was surprised that between two
packs of stickers there were enough letters for the whole thing plus a bunch
extra. These were very easy to use just peel and stick! To give the
highlighted words a little more dimension I placed the stickers on white
cardstock and then cut them out, mounted them to pop dots and then adhered
that to a black piece of cardstock and cut around it. it made these few words
jump off the page and gave it a little bit of the 3-d look without the bulk of
the regular tiles. These would be great for a crossword type page as well!
Making
Memories Details III
By Mary Hogue
Making
Memories has definitely done it again! I’ve
been in love with all the metal work I see on layouts in the magazines, but too
afraid to try it myself. Making
Memories to the rescue. The Details
III line includes the new charmed plaques.
They come in many different themes from baby to travel to the
multi-purpose swirl. I’ve had a
photo of my husband and our brand new baby waiting to be scrapped since she was
born 2 ½ years ago, but hadn’t found anything special enough to use with it
yet. The Hands and Feet Charmed
Plaques were just what I’d been waiting on and I couldn’t wait to use them.
I mounted the photo and the
Charmed Plaques on
Petalsoft cardstock from
the
Bazzill Monochromatics line. I
used my mounted Plaques on a couple of tags made with Paper Fever paper and
added my title to the tags and the layout with vellum and eyelets.
After hanging the tags with fibers from the Making Memories
Small Circle
Clips, their Eyelet Alphabet completed the page.
I got my special layout in just a few steps! (click
on layout for a larger view)
Design Team Layouts.....
Our Design Team have been busy
again this month creating some
wonderful layoutsfor our Spotlight for May which was Birthdays. Below are some
of the layouts they have created for this months theme. Please visit our
Idea Gallery to see many more Design Team Layouts as well as layouts our members
have submitted to the Gallery.
*clicking on image will show you a larger view*
By Lynn B. |
By Michele
L.
|
By Beth E.
|
By Beth J. |
By Theresa N.
By Jackie S. |
By Becky D.
|
Spring Cleaning:
Organizing your “Flood” of Paper
by: Laura Bernhard
“Paper,
paper everywhere and not a sheet to scrap... “
Are
you swimming in paper? Do you have so many sheets of colors you never use that
you can’t find the ones you need? Can you see your scrap table or is it buried
under a sea of cardstock? Have you sworn off buying any more paper until you use
what you have? Here are some ideas to get you organized so you can use what you
have and more importantly, add to that stash without guilt.
Discount stores provide a treasure trove of bins, cubes and totes that can be
used to control the paper flood. Wire cubes available at Target and other
discount stores can be configured into “shelves” for paper. The cubes come with
enough “grids” to make six large cubes. Make two or three cubes and use the
extra grids as “shelves” for the paper. You will need to use wire, twist-ties
or plastic cable ties to hold the shelves in place. (You can usually find the
cable ties with the wire and electrical supplies at Target or a hardware
store.). Some especially crafty scrapbookers sew covers for their cubes to keep
dust, and kids, out.
Head
to the Rubbermaid aisle for additional storage ideas. A plastic tote works well
for 8 ½ x11 cardstock and scraps, and easily fits on the full sized cubes. It
also has a handle for those times you want to take it with you.
Large plastic bins store plenty of 12x12 paper and supplies. Wire
filing carts available at office supply stores or wholesale clubs work well for
both 12x12 or 8 ½ x 11 paper. See great ideas in the idea gallery from:
luv2shop828
&
theresa
Of
course, you can also find great organizing products designed specifically for
scrapbooking. Crop in Style’s Paper Taker is great for organizing at home or on
the go. The Cropper Hopper Workstation is a covered hanging filing system great
for 12x12 paper. If money is no object you may want to take a look at custom
cabinetry by Collectors Cabinets or For Keeps Sake.
Once
you have found a suitable container or containers, what system should you use?
I find it easiest for me to keep my cardstock and patterned paper separate.
Since my scrap area is near a window and I can’t keep my paper exposed to the
sunlight, I store my patterned paper in my Paper Taker and my cardstock in the
Cropper Hopper Workstation. I keep my paper in rainbow or Roy G.Biv order with
separate folders for whites and browns/neutrals. You might consider organizing
by theme or occasion, or by manufacturer. The key is to choose a system and go
for it. Once you get your paper flood under control you will be able to spend
less time hunting and more time cropping!
If
you have other ideas or tips to share, please post a message on the message
board. We look forward to hearing from you
Other Site News.....
|
On Sale! Our
sale/clearance category has changed a little bit. All products are
still 40% off but you are now able to see your discount for each item before
checking out. Previously it was a "lump sum" discount at
checkout, now each item has a "regular price" and your sale
price. *You must be logged in to view the sale prices. Or, you
can add items to your cart and once you log in to check out, the cart will
adjust the prices to the sale prices.
Newest site features:
We recently upgraded our
shopping cart to a newer and faster version. Unfortunately, we did
experience some problems with the old features not working with the new
cart, but it has since been fixed and all is working well. There are a
few new features I have to install as soon as I am able, so keep an eye out
for them. I am trying to make things as easy as possible for all of
you and more user friendly.
One new
feature that has already been installed is the "log in lookup". If
you have forgotten your log in, you can now type in your email address and
the cart will show you the matching log ins for that address.
Order Status:
If you are unsure about what you have ordered, want to check orders
you have placed or need to check the status, at any time you can log in to
your account and click on the "Order Status" link which will show
you all orders placed, if they have shipped or not, and tracking numbers.
Printable
Catalog: I have received many requests for a Printed Version of our catalog.
Since the site changes daily, I do not have an "actual catalog" but now we
will have the option on the site for you to print out a catalog of your own.
It will not print a full catalog at once, which is thousands of products,
but you will be able to print out a catalog of each category, or only
categories that you choose to. I have this ready, but have not yet
installed the function. It will be installed shortly though.
|
Layout Contest News.....
Our theme for May was "Birthday"
Layouts. Thank you to all of you who contributed to our contest this month! (The winners each month are chosen by our design team.)
*clicking on image will bring you to a larger view*
Congratulations to our May Contest Winners!!
|
1st-By Becky
|
2nd-By Jendula |
3rd-By
scrapqueen21
|
Our Layout Contest for
June is Outdoor Fun. Join our contest by visiting our Idea Gallery,
registering, and adding your Layouts to the June contest category.
Contest
Drawing Winner.....
The winner for
our random drawing this month is: Dena Bogen!
Congratulations! (Your gift certificate was sent in a private email.)
Our May
Anniversary Zig Pen winners were: Dana Hall, Peggy Sauvie, Cindy Pray,
& Alexi Moore
Congratulations!!
