October Newsletter now Published!

Well I am pleased to say that the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com October Newsletter has been published and I have just this minute sent out the email to all subscribers... phew!

I have been very busy this month... there are no less than 4... yes 'four' Videos this issue AND, there is a Freebie download.

As the September Newsletter is now a "past issue" the links to the various articles and Sketches etc are available for non-subscribers, so here are a couple of links!

September's Sketch and Challenge if you would like to have a go at either>> The scrapbooking layout above is and 8x8 example of the Sept Sketch.

7 ways to find Free or Discount Scrapbooking Supplies - this is a good one, from buying from non-scrapbooking shops, to rummaging in charity shops, it will save you money!

New Videos and freebie downloads from SimplyScrapbookingNow.com

I just wanted to let you know that I have now introduced Videos to some of the Newsletter articles AND am creating Downloadable Freebies! Printable freebies they are too!

Wherever the video icon appears you will know that there is an associated video available. And wherever the download button appears, you'll know there is a freebie available for you. Whenever I create anything I always design items that can be printed out and used on traditional pages... maybe you can call me a "Hybrid" designer.

The October issue includes a free postage stamp template... so you can add your own photograph and create your own stamp embellishments.

So if you're not already receiving the Newsletter, then sign up (top left of this screen) for access to each Newsletter as it comes out! The next one will be published on 1st October.

Card - for a Trip around the world

This is a card I made really quickly yesterday morning! I seem to be making cards lately rather than scrapbooking layouts!

Anyway, the reason for the card was to say Bon Voyage to Jess, the girl who does my hair at a local hairdressers! (having my hair done is something I don't do very often I will just point out! LOL)

She is leaving the salon, and indeed the country, to go off backpacking for a year with her boyfriend.

I suddenly remembered that I wouldn't be going to the salon again till after she will have already left, so with one eye on the clock, I quickly made a card. I stamped the background card and mounted panel in various colours to match the patterned paper mat. (Basic Grey "Boxer collection")

The stamps are "Travel Time Stamps" from Inkadinkadoo, and I thought perfect for this job!

Freebie Scrapbooking Kit - digital

I have just downloaded a lovely kit from "A Work in Progress - Designs by Vicki".

It's called "Wild Child" and the kit starts with the papers which are a few posts back, but as a whole it consists of papers, embellishments and an alpha (which is today's post).

These are definitely not my usual colours, and as I have mentioned in my comment on Vicki's blog, they are 'way' out of my comfort zone! But I am strangely looking forward to making something up with this kit.

But how generous is it that we can download such things for free?!

There really is no excuse for not giving digital scrapbooking a try with all the freebies available... not to mention the fact that you can print all this stuff out! and it's all great for quick cards!

Just fantastic... thanks Vicki!

Look what I found in my lounge last night!!!

I was just getting up from the dining table after a later than normal supper with my hubby (Honey was already in bed... I fed her before we took Toffee back to the vet's, tell you about that in a mo) when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye!

It was tucked right up against the woodwork at the bottom of our sliding patio doors. And how I noticed it I don't know as he was the same colour as the woodwork and the lighting in that area is quite dim.

Anyway... this little chap (or chapettee - I have no idea how one tells such thins!) was (I believe) a Salamander!

He (it) had a lovely red belly and at first I thought it was a newt, but as it had no webbed feet, we settled on a Salamander.

I ushered him carefully into a plastic tumbler and thought that Honey would never believe us when we told her we found a lizardy looking thing in our lounge the previous night, so I dashed upstairs to get the camera while hubby held onto the lizard holding tumbler.

As soon as I got upstairs, of course, I remembered the camera was downstairs! tut!

So actually I took these pictures for Honey's sake, but thought I would share them with you now!

As for Toffee... she was due for a "post-op" check up today but I booked her in yesterday evening as she was still very subdued and we figured in quite a bit of pain still, so we took her to the vet for some painkillers. (Apparently it is standard practise to not supply post-op tablets - they reckon the ones given at the time last 24hrs and is all that's needed).

But as poor old Toffee is 10 years old, I figured she needed some respite. Anyway, pleased to say she is feeling much better today after some medicine!

ScrapBuddies Sketch number 5

Here's the latest ScrapBuddies Sketch.

It's based on an 8x8 layout which was made as part of a beginners workshop I held this year.

This Sketch provides for 3 photographs which is great because I like to cater for those of us who like multi photo scrapbooking pages.

I have used a lot of torn edges in my layout, and you don't have to of course, but I was actually demonstrating how easy it is to create interesting matting for photographs for a scrapbooking layout.

Just get tearing!

Stamped, coloured and inked child's birthday card

This is a birthday card I made yesterday for one of Honey's class mates who will be 5. Honey is attending her friend's birthday party on Sunday.

I could have bought a card as Honey didn't want to make one herself this time, but I suddenly had the inspiration to make a little one myself.

So I used the See D's Birthday set and stamped the balloons using StayzOn ink and then coloured the image using aqua pencils and waterbrush.

The paper is by Junkitz and because it wasn't long enough to cover both sides of the card (front and back) I trimmed the front back to fit the paper and stamped images down the side of the inside of the card showing through (see 2nd picture).

The stamp used there of mini flowers was actually from one of my daughter's tiny little stamping kits. They are made of what looks like a similar rubber to the real thing and give really good quality detail, so they have made their way into my stash rather than languishing at the bottom of a "play drawer"!

And I even edged the "toppers" with yellow and I'm not the world's biggest fan of yellow... but it worked here!

I hope she likes it... I just hope I haven't set myself a precident.!

Random Mini Scrapbooking Album

This weekend there is another ScrapBuddies Crop at Ditchingham in Suffolk (England).


My demonstration/workshop is all about making what I call a Random Mini Album.


It's only called "mini" because it's not 12x12 basically, but it can still be sizeable! Mine is 8x6.


The Random refers to all the pages within, random subject, random theme, random sizes, basically "anything goes", as they say!


The picture here is actually a shot from a video I am making which explains it all and goes through various ideas for your own Scrapbooking Random Mini Album.


The Video will be out with the October SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter which is available to subscribers on October 1st!

UPDATE: Nov 29th 08 - these videos are now available directly from the site - follow this link to the article>>

Poor old Toffee!

Poor old Toffee was spayed today (Friday 19th Sept - looks like Blogger is having trouble with the dates at the moment if you look at their date of this post)!

This is her back at home about an hour ago... tired, quiet and doleful.

Bless her, she went in feeling ok, and came out feeling like...!

I feel very guilty, but it had to be done! She's currently sleeping next to Harley, but I keep checking on her in case she's "fiddling" with her stitches. She was given back to me with one of those funnel hoods on!, but I don't want her to wear it too much.

On a lighter note, I watched Honey at her first Thanksgiving festival today! ... joined the school children and a few other parents. What can I say... I'm not a great fan of churches or indeed religion, but it wasn't too "biblical" so lighthearted for the little ones! The Rev even got a puppet crow out for a few moments!!

And yes, of course, I took my camera! But it begs the question every time as to whether people worry about me taking photos of their children?

And I wonder about putting their pictures on here! I have some lovely photos of Honey with her friends, but alas, I feel I cannot put them on here. Although I have in the past asked a parent if I could "publish a layout" with her child in it, which was ok.

Will I have to do that with all the photos/LOs do you think?

I feel it's a shame to mask out faces of a scrapbooking layout, is that the way we are headed though?

Scrapbooking Video - "Tips for using double sided tape"

Here is another video I made... just a quick one!

It's a tip about "not using scissors with your double sided tape" - which is a tip that I give to a lot of people, especially at my beginners workshops, and especially if the newbies are borrowing my scissors!! LOL

SimplyScrapbookingNow.com September Freebie Frenzy WINNERS

Thank you all for joining in with the Freebie Frenzy and leaving your comments on the blog. I can now announce the winners of the TWO kits from the September Newsletter at www.SimplyScrapbookingNow.com.

They are...

Theresa Dalzell-Wells
and
Carol

So well done to both of you, if you would like to email me your postal addresses I can get these kits off in the post to you!

Also a little RAK (Random Act of Kindness) is going off to Terrie in Texas for being REALLY quick off the mark and posting a comment first!

It's FREEBIE FRENZY Time!!!

If you are a subscriber to the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter, then you will know all about the FREEBIE FRENZY!

If you're not already a subscriber, then be quick, else you'll have to wait till next month's Freebie Frenzy! Click here for more information and to sign up.

NOTE: if you have been over to EasyRibbonHolder.com and given your name and email... you are already a subscriber!!!

So for those who have already received their Freebie Frenzy Email Alerts... you know what to do... post a comment on this post and your names will be "put into a hat" and the first TWO to be taken out will win full scrapbooking kits, which will be posted to them as soon as I have their addresses (and that could be anywhere in the world, I'll pay the postage!).

They are 8x8 kits and include
10 pieces of Dovecraft 8x8 paper (from the Retro Floral collection)
2 pieces of white card
a pre-printed page of quotes and titles and a tag template
6 ribbons approx 12" each
a pre-printed tag on cardstock
a selection of colour co-ordinated (splat type) flowers
and colour co-ordinated square and round brads in pastel colours.

So say hello here if you're already a newsletter subscriber and if not, sign up (you can also sign up in the top left corner of this blog or see above).

I will send the Freebie Frenzy Email Alert to anyone signed in by midnight (GMT) tomorrow (Monday 15th September), so you can join in the chance to win too!

But you do need to sign up because there is a "code" in the email, which you will need if you're a winner!

So Good Luck! MY EMAIL

Card - Using up scraps

Here is an A5 greetings card I made using the scraps from the Circle Journal entry (posted last Thursday). I'm trying to get into the habit of making a card from the leftover bits of my scrapbooking endavours before I tidy up!

You will see it's made in a VERY similar style to the pages in the CJ!

The close up picture shows the machine stitching of the ribbon.

I have to say that I did this fairly randomly, in that I held the pieces of paper together and ran them through the sewing machine and then ran them through again scrunching up the ribbon as I went.

It wasn't until that was all finished that I adhered the whole thing to the page and added the buttons.


So I suppose... technically... I made a page accent first, which I then stuck to a card?!!

Either way, this technique is great for scrapbooking too. I enjoy using the sewing machine for things like this.

New ideas, exciting scrapbooking future!

I'm really excited about all the things I have lined up for this blog and the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com website.

I plan to do lots more "HowTo" videos, and some digital freebies (for digital, hybrid and traditional scrapbooking layout use) for downloading too.

There is also a plan to include a "Subscriber's Only" area of the SSNow.com website. This is where I shall post snippets of information (maybe some more exclusive freebies) specifically for Newsletter readers!

And of course I have my new ebooks in the pipeline... so lots of exciting new stuff to look forward to!

Circle Journal - "Random Advice" finished pages

Well here are my pages for a Circle Journal with a title of "A little book of Random Advice".

The advice... the serious advice... is under the flap on the second page where it says "Be Grateful". There is a close up in the second photograph here.

There is a little bit of a silly/funny quote at the bottom of the left page too, just to add a bit of humour!

The papers are from Basic Grey's "Two Scoops" range, I like this collection, soft colours.

I wanted this circle journal entry to be clean and simple and soft in colour to set the mood for the subject of the advice.

I did get out my trusty sewing machine for this, and enjoyed randmonly stitching the patterned paper.

Amazingly the chipboard brackets matched the colours of the paper perfectly and I didn't need to fiddle with them at all for these page layouts.

This CJ was actually size was actually nearly 8x8, instead of the 6x6 of the rest of the set!

Scrapbooking Videos - "A Welcome" and "Blooms"

Well I have been busy tonight! Round of applause please! LOL

"Why?" I hear you say. Well because I have managed not only to make a welcome video and a little scrapbooking video, but I have managed to edit them and upload them and include them here on this blog... and work it out all by myself!

Well I'm pleased anyway!

So without further ado... if you look to your left there is now a "Welcome" video from yours truly and just under here is the first of the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com videos!

This is a blog exclusive!



I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Stretching your paper to fit a Scrapbook page

Yesterday I mentioned I would show you the back of the layout I had just posted.

A little reminder of the page here>>>>

And that's only basically because the back of the scrapbooking page layout is interesting... but not very aesthetically pleasing! LOL

Anyway, I made mention that I had "stretched" 6x6 paper to make an 8x8 layout.


Well as you can see from the back, I cut a small corner of the pink paper and placed it at the opposite corner underneath the paint swatch cards, to make it look like a full 8x8.

Also the Blue patterned paper was placed on top of the bottom half of the pink paper (layered) so as to make up the 8x8 in that area.

So you can easily see that you don't have to have the correct size (or bigger) paper to create a background.

I will probably place this layout onto a backing paper... just to tidy up and make the whole scrapbooking page feel a little more rigid!

Budget Scrapbooking looks just as good

This is an 8x8 page I finished today.

It's made from 6x6 paper and a couple of colour swatches from a local DIY store.

You know the thing, those strips of paper with paint colours on that you take home to decide what colour you're going to paint your walls! And the best part is that they are FREE... can't get more "budget" than that!

Well I love those displays of rainbow coloured bits of card... I just want to take them all home!

So occasionally I do... and not always because I want to paint some walls... shhh, don't tell anyone!

Anyway, they are very useful if you want a splash of colour on a scrapbooking page, and I love graduated colours, so these cards are perfect for me.

They are also great for adding bold colours to layouts about children too! And even the more subtle colours... the type we actually end up painting on our walls LOL... are good for soft tonal effects.

But you'd best not all rush down to the local DIY store together, lest they catch on... one at a time please... and it helps to look like you have a wall to paint! LOL

Tomorrow... I'll show you the back of this scrapbooking layout... how you can "stretch" a 6x6 piece of paper to make an 8x8!

My new Gadget - for Scrapbooking Videos

Well here it is... my new Flip Video!

This means that I can now take a video of something and then plug this gadget into my Laptop, and upload the video to YouTube within minutes!

Cool eh?!

The reason I bought this camera is because I plan to include scrapbooking videos on this blog and on the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com website.

They will be short little videos just showing you how to make things such as embellishments for free of mini books, and the like.

So as of next week I shall be doin' some filmin'!

The quality of the films will be typical YouTube quality in the first instance, but I understand there is a way to upload and view slightly higher quality ones, so I will look into that.

But I personally like to watch people making stuff rather than static photos and words and spaces, so do "watch this space" as they say..., some scrapbooking (and even card making) videos coming your way!

Scrapbooking Videos

It is the new era of internet and nowadays that means much more audio and visual stuff available.

Words and spaces with the odd photo just aren't enough any more.

Gone are the days of faceless websites, to keep up with new trends, demands, whatever you want to call it, video as standard is the way things are headed.

Obviously YouTube has broadened that horizon and I have been looking into what's around in the way of videos because I recently purchased a "Flip Video"... I will post a photo of the nifty little gadet tomorrow.

But I bought with a view of personalising my websites - which includes this blog. So in the not too distant future I shall be talking to you as well as writing... ok, ok, don't all start running for the hills!

But in the meantime, I shall give you a taster of videos already available!

Cakes? no Cake Wrecks!

I realise this has nothing whatsoever to do with scrapbooking, but i just clicked a link from blogger (like you do) and found a quirky website that had me crying with laughter and wiping my eyes!

It's all about cakes (decoration) that has gone horribly wrong, or is just horrible, but funny.

But, it's the writing that got me... here is the link to a particularly funny post... well I thought so anyway!

I hope you find it as funny as I did!

Now where's my tissue! LOL

Update.. I carried on reading some of the other posts too, (Fans Favourites links on the right hand side)... My sides were hurting!

Kit Kat wrappers - or Candy Wrappers!

Common place in the US, I didn't quite understand the fascination with candy wrappers, until recently.

I wanted to give the carers/teachers something on my daughter's last day at nursery and for some reason I thought it would be nice to "personalise" these chunky KitKats!

So for any of you reading who are on a diet, my apologies!!

My hubby had eaten one of the packet of nine before I got a chance to tell him that they were gifts and not for eating!

Anyway, I digress...

I simply made a few measurements of the chocolate bar and put up a piece of paper in Photoshop Elements. I added some digital scrapbooking embellishments and some text, leaving a gap for Honey to sign her name, and it was done.

What you can see in the bottom picture is the print out of 4 to an A4 sheet of paper, but that was out of "Word".

That's because I saved the Photoshop file as a jpeg (picture file) and just inserted the picture into the Word page 4 times (copy and paste).

When I have time I will upload a version for you to printout and use, maybe just saying "Thank You"... what do you reckon?