Sunday's Weekly Scrapbooking Round-Up 31 May 09

Hello, I hope you have had a good week. I have had a very "Scrapbooky" week I am pleased to say! I had some scrapbooking time with my Mum on a recent visit to her house (once we managed to get my daughter in bed for the evening!) and I made a couple of pages, bought some stash (actually quite a bit...sshhhh!) and then spent yesterday at an all day (10.30-4) local crop where I managed the best part of 2 pages, but have to finish them off here.

Right now (after writing this post) I have to continue setting up a new website for my husband! Phew!

So... on to scrappy links for you this week.

I posted an article about two ways to get scrapping if you have frozen yourself into inaction because you believe that you have a mountain of photos that you SHOULD scrapbook. One of them includes making pages without photos (as in the picture above)! It also includes a snazzy photo viewer which I have just installed on the SundayLDesigns.com blog too. Click here to read more>>

I can't post the other finished layout as it has been submitted to a magazine, which reminds me that now that my last layout was published and the issue is on sale now, I must ask the Editor if I can share my page on my blog now!

Below is just one of many beautiful layouts by Chelsea Cook, I do like her style. I am very much "into" the edge curling and "softly shabby" look and seem to be creating similar style pages myself at the moment. And actually, looking at Chelsea's layouts has reminded me of an idea I had a while ago, which was to regularly scraplift a page from a blog and show you my version along with the original (with links of course). So I think I will start with one of Chelsea's scrapbooking pages seeing as they are so beautiful... let's see if I can do justice... the only problem is... which one to pick!

Visit Chelsea's blog to see more (one word of caution is that there is music that plays automatically, but no way of turning it off that I can see, so beware if your speakers are up loud, autoplay music can cause me a problem sometimes as I often blog-hop late at night, within feet of a sleeping hubby and daughter!) An alternative is to visit Chelsea's Gallery on createmykeepsake.com.

A while ago I wrote some articles about Why we should Scrapbook Ourselves. This was in response to conversations I had had with ladies about creating self-portrait pages. I think it is a lot more "normal" now to make pages about yourself including photos of yourself, but many still believe it is a bit self-indulgent. Frankly, the hobby itself (as with any hobby - it being something you do for your own amusement) is self-indulgent so let's brush that aside and get scrapping ourselves. We can learn a lot about ourselves by doing so, not to mention learning about (and connecting with) others who shares their thoughts and pictures.

Anyway, as I am writing an ebook about to "How to Photograph Yourself the Easy Way with Great Results", I thought I would post the article on the new blog. Here is the link to "Why we should Scrapbook Ourselves>>

Why we Should Scrapbook Ourselves

Scrapbooking Layouts – A Very Personal Journey

When I started scrapbooking, it was because I could enjoy myself doing paper crafting and it was a beautiful way of displaying all those pictures I had taken over time of family, friends, etc, rather than them all being stuck in their packets (or in folders on my pc).

However, since I started, I have realised that scrapbooking is so much more than a nice way to display your family photos.

Read More>>

Sunday's Weekly Scrapbooking Round-Up 24 May 09

It's been another rushing around week! I expect it's the same for you all, right?

One thing I am chuffed about is that I have had a Scrapbooking Page Layout of mine published in the June issue of Scrapbook Inspirations Magazine. It's on Page 66 (the "Fathers" layouts section) Yes it will be Fathers' Day soon! (I subscribe to the mag so get it early and cheaper, but I believe it will be on newsagent shelves on Friday 29th May)

I have actually managed a couple of scrapbooking pages this week, well, finished off one (now that I have re-installed my Craft Robo!) and made one by SPEED-Scrapping an 8x8 layout using the FREEBIE downloadable background paper I have released to my Newsletter Subscribers. Here it is...


The background paper is the freebie and the Title element and the Journaling block are both from the Blue Damask Scrapbooking/Card Kit.


I added a sprinkling of eyelets (which follow the swirls on the paper slightly) and TIP put white or light coloured paper behind the eyelets to enhance their colour, otherwise the middles will look black and the colour gets lost in the hole if you see what I mean!)


I also added a gathering of buttons and flowers to match the colours in the photograph.

If you sign up for the newsletter now, you will have missed the email with the link to the FREEBIE, so when you receive your Welcome email, just hit reply and ask me for the link and I will send it to you as soon as I next check my emails!

So here is the weekly round-up of crafty (and not so crafty!) things for you...

On the not so crafty front, I posted a video of "my boys" on the SundayLDesigns.com blog - that is the Koi in my pond (Although I reckon Tango is a girl... from it's Girth!!!!!! Childbearing hips as they say! LOL)

On the crafting front...

Here's a little story of how Hybrid Crafting can actually SAVE THE DAY!

A great Mini book to be seen in this post... click here...

Ok, till next week then... you can always pop over to SundayLDesigns.com in the meantime

Sunday's Weekly Scrapbooking Round-Up 17 May 09

Well I made sure I posted the articles here and then forgot to do the quick round-up! Silly me, Well better late than never as they say!

Ok, well here's this weeks offering...

Men Can Scrapbook Too! - An article from a man (I think!)

Origami box with wrap lid - sends you to a lovely tutorial on how to make a useful box

Patchwork Card - stitched scrapbook style - and this is a recent stitched card I made.

Also I have recently installed (ie just now!) a little gadet onto this blog, which offers picture links to other posts at the bottom of each post... go check it out!

Oh and SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter Subscribers... the May Freebie will be winging it's way through the ether to you shortly! Sign up if you're not a subscriber yet, as the only link to the freebie is in an email I send out, so if you sign up after I have sent the email... you'll miss out till next month!

Bye for now.

Patchwork Card - stitched scrapbook style

Here is a picture of a card I made for the crop last week to help demonstrate a Patchwork style - which was the theme for May's session.



I have deliberately not put a greeting on the card, as then I have the flexibility to use it for any occasion, by personalising it when I need to.

To make the card, I have adhered the paper onto the card to just hold in place, being careful not to put sticky dots where the sewing needle would be going (otherwise it gets glued up and ends up in a right old mess!). I then used the sewing machine around the edges of the paper. Closeup below.

I stitched the patterned papers to a piece of cardstock which I then adhered to the font of the blank card. In that way I have hidden the back of the stitching and covered the back of the brad used to hold the ribbon in place.

Just a simple bit of stitching makes a card seem that much more professional. Oh and the patterned paper second form the left (large pink flower) is a photocopy of a napkin!!

Origami box with wrap lid

THIS is a very clear and colourful instructional post on how to make an origami box with a wrap lid... such a lovely idea. You may well have seen them before, as have I, but this tutorial on the Inspirational Techniques and Tutorials Blog is particularly clear!



Right, is an example of a box... check out the blog to see the inside.

I will be making one of these soon for a mini album to go inside - a nice gift!

Men Can Scrapbook Too!

Below is an article by a contributor to Scrapbooking-Directory.com called Frederick Haring, but as there are no more details or a web link I can't confirm the "status" of the person who wrote this - ie, whether it was actually a man?! ;-)

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and thought it may give you some idea that your Man might actually like scrapbooking... if you only asked! OK, you can stop laughing now!

The picture here... of course... is..... Yes, Mr Tim Holtz... a man definitely "IN" the scrapbooking industry.


Who said scrapbooking is just for girls?

Males are becoming significant contributors to this ever growing hobby. More and more men have taken an interest in scrapbooking for several reasons.

One of the reasons men have taken an interest in scrapbooking is because it gives them a chance to tell a man’s side of the story. They can use their experiences in camping, hunting, fishing or any other sport or activity to tell their story in this unique fashion. It allows them to get creative with their past and present memories, all the while remaining in their “comfort zone”.

Another reason men are taking a greater interest in scrapbooking is because it allows them to spend more time with their significant other, doing something they both enjoy, and bringing them closer together.

One engaged man said he hopes to bring a male perspective to the scrapbooks he creates with his future wife sharing both views of their relationship.

One more reason men are jumping on the scrapbooking bandwagon is because they can see that it is big business. Men aren’t fools. They are getting involved in scrapbooking because there is a profit to be made. Men are starting to catch the nature of the business and some have even hired male instructors to teach a portion of the scrapbooking classes. They feel that with a male instructor, other men will feel more comfortable getting involved.

A majority of men are also getting involved because it is trendy and the classes are a good way to meet girls to date who have similar interests. Perhaps the majority of men involved in scrapbooking are still behind the scenes as business owners, investors and designers.

It is predicted that as family history and genealogy are combined with scrapbooking we may see men participating more. Maybe men won’t desire to layout scrapbook pages, but certainly in the digital scrapbooking arena they will feel more comfortable. As digital scrapbooking becomes more customizable, there will be more and more masculine pages to select from. This technology will also give men the ability to create “moving scrapbooks” using their digital pictures.

More and more companies are creating supplies keeping men in mind and sharing techniques and ideas that incorporate men’s hobbies and interests into family or personal scrapbooks.

There are many innovative ideas, layout examples and creative ways to get men involved first hand in the pages that represent them.

Sunday's Weekly Scrapbooking Round-Up 10 May 09

Hello, it's Sunday again in both ways... LOL (cos it's the day and it's my name for those of you who didn't know!)

Firstly, the May issue of the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter is online, so if you are not a subscriber, go and join and you'll get immediate access to that and all the previous ones.

We had a great Crop at ScrapBuddies yesterday - the theme for my demonstration was about achieving the "patchwork" effect on Scrapbooking Pages and Cards. I will post a picture of my finished Patchwork Card here next time and the full article with lots of examples will be in the June issue of the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter.


We had two new members join us, which was lovely, we love to welcome new people, the more the merrier. Click here for more details about the ScrapBuddies crop every month in Ditchingham, on the Norfolk/Suffolk (UK) border.

I also had a lovely few hours teaching a newbie to scrapbooking on Friday morning. I love one-to-one teaching, you can really get your teeth stuck in to a project with them, and I like to learn about them and their likes and dislikes to see if I can spot their "style", in scrapbooking terms theat is, lol.


I mentioned more about this on the SundayLDesigns.com blog.


Anyway, I have a couple of items for you this week, and a link to a natty little gadget over on my SundayLDesigns.com blog.


A link to FREE Printable Calling Cards - which you could, in theory use on a layout if you wished!


Video - How to easily Store your stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, diecuts in one place


And this is the Natty Gadget... go take a look and feed them......!

Video - How to easily Store your stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, diecuts in one place

I wrote this article (and made the video) for a past issue of the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter. I reproduce it here for you as I was reminded of the subject again recently when someone asked me... "How do you store all your sheets of stickers, etc?"...



I am often asked about how I store all my packets of stash such as stickers and diecuts and rub-ons, etc. Many scrapbookers have all sorts of packets in all sorts of places and find it difficult to keep them all organised.

Well I keep all mine in Lever Arch folders!



These folders are for keeping all my sheets of stickers, etc, the more bulky items such as very thick chipboard still remain in their packaging boxes, but this system is ideal for all those flat, but differently shaped and sized sheets.

The items are filed in different sections within each folder, ie, (1) Alphas and (2) Words and Phrases are in the Pink folder shown above and (3) Graphics are in the multi-coloured folder.

Within each folder I have placed ordinary clear sleeves with standard punched hole margins, and within each of the sleeves I have placed a white piece of paper.


The reason for adding the paper is two-fold, firstly it makes the sleeves a little more rigid and secondly, I can put twice as much in my folder because I can place separate items either side of the paper within the same sleeve because it is no longer completely transparent.

Another advantage is that often your stickers or rub-ons are attached to a transparent sheet and with the paper already in the sleeve you can 'ditch' the piece of card and cellophane wrapper to save on weight, as the white paper does the same job or showing up the contents.

It is very easy to flip through the pages looking for what you need for your scrapbooking project.

The folders are highly portable, unlike the hanging trees and poles for your craft room, so you can take your sheets of stickers, etc to crops with you, kept all in one album/folder.

The reason I use Lever Arch files as opposed to ordinary ring binders is because they are nice and wide and therefore take a lot more, they stand up easily by themselves on my crafting shelves, but the best part is that with the clip retainer on lever arch folders you can clip down the sleeves tightly so that they don't fall about all over the place!

So that's how I store my bits and pieces!

Free Printable Calling Cards - for Scrapbooking Pages?

Free calling cards, how very old fashioned! Read the article on the Cottage-industrialist.com site on some ideas why you might actually like to have some now-a-days.


There is a free download of the printable cards available on the Cottage-industrialist.com site (it's a pdf file, so you will need Adobe Reader).

Quoted from the site...

"Back in the day, when stopping by a friend's house was "coming to call,"
ladies and gentlemen carried calling cards to announce to their would-be hosts
just who had arrived--or who they had missed if indisposed. (If well-to-do folk
could have bothered themselves to answer their own doors, maybe this little
nicety might never have come to be.)..."

Read more>>

I thought that was amusing! Anyway I downloaded the files and you only need to change the details on the first card and the rest change automatically. Do read right down to the bottom of the article for the option to download a "multi line" version - as you see in the picture.

Read more and download the free printables>>

Sunday's Weekly Scrapbooking Round-Up 3 May 09

I thought I would organise myself a bit and create a post that lists the other posts for this week.

The reason for that decision is that I want to talk about different things and it's a lot easier to link back to posts which cover one thing at a time, rather than writing one loooong post on a Sunday and including anything and everything!

So, this is the "Round-Up" or "Contents list" for the posts created this week...

A finished Scrapbooking Page Layout - "It's Time" (Single photo)

A video Tip for printing your photographs for Scrapbooking (NOTE: I will post the video tomorrow)

Over exposed self portrait taken with a REALLY cheap digital camera - IT WORKS!

You Too can Take Self Portrait Photos

I am currently writing another book! I am tailoring a version of it specifically for scrapbookers!

The book is about how you can take a self portrait photograph in the comfort and, most importantly, privacy of your own home, with little equipment.

The reason I am tailoring for scrapbookers is because I believe it is important for scrapbookers to have and, if possible, be proud of (or at least pleased with) a photograph of themselves.

This is important because these people can feel much more comfortable making pages about themselves.

And why is That important... well a lot of scrappers have children which would enjoy seeing photogrpaphs of their mum, they won't care what the photo looks like, but mum does, so always shys away from cameras... am I right? And the same goes for anyone with relatives frankly, we all want to have nice pictures of our friends and relatives.

Well with my up coming book, showing step by step instructions, you will be able to.

Take this photograph as an example. I took it today with my daughter's camera. (We spent all of £29 on a little digital camera for her - a proper one, but for £29 it's no Fuji or Canon I can tell you - but it was better than the toy ones for resulting pictures!)

Anyway... quite often this camera has real trouble with over exposure and the end result can be useless. However, this self portrait is very over exposed, but it works! It can take quite a bit of fiddling in a photo editing programme to get the same effect - an effect often used in magazines!

I have not edited this photograph at all, I have merely cropped in tight to discard the background (which happened to be my very messy craft room as I was in the middle of a scrapbooking page this afternoon!)

Now in case you are thinking that the "bleached out" look isn't to your taste, let me just tell you that I had no make-up on at the time, apart from some lipstick! And although I would love to say my complexion is glowing at all times, sadly it is not. The bleached out (overexposed) effect of the photograph is flattering in that it has belached out all imperfections of my skin! A real bonus if you are unhappy with your complexion for whatever temporary, or permanent reason.

So even with a Really cheap digital camera, half way decent photos can be achieved almost "by mistake"!

Watch this space for more news on the Self Portrait Photography book.

Video Tip for printing your photographs for scrapbooking by Sunday L

Here is a short (2 minutes) video explaining a quick tip about printing your photographs so that you can get some scrapbooking done! Stop Worrying so much about quality and just get scrapbooking!

Scrapbooking Layout - Single Photo - "It's Time"

This 12x12 scrapbooking layout is a pretty simple one, it's a single picture and pretty monochromatic design! The photograph is the one I posted a few posts back, about my "micky take" on the Vogue models looking so serious and gloomy all (well most) of the time. The magazine could do with a few more smiley faces - and frankly so could the catwalks!




Anyway, that's the reason for the expression!

But I used this picture to do some experimenting in Photoshop Elements and thought I would actually use the resulting image.

I drained some of the colour and used a couple of filters, the most noticeable being one which makes the photograph look like it has been sketched with pencil, (not that you can really see it, so here is an enlargement... the sketchiness is most noticeable on the bag). I also made the whites of my eyes more white - maybe a bit creepy?! LOL



It's quite a cheap page really, I used ordinary paper for the photograph (as opposed to photographic paper - see this video TIP about this), one piece of grey 12x12 cardstock and the flowers were from a bloom which I took apart so a few pence each, and the other bits and pieces were fairly inexpensive too.

In case you are wondering... as my husband was when he came over to inspect... the title - "It's Time" refers to a number of things, and so I haven't elaborated on the scrapbooking page.

It's Time refers to...

• time for me to start contributing more to the family's coffers,


• time for me to start believing in myself and my abilities,


• time for change with regards to the things (possessions) in my life, ie, buying a coloured (multi-coloured no less!) handbag, that isn't the utilitarian black or brown thing that goes everywhere,


• time for a new house,


• time for me to cease curbing my own creativity for fear of critism or rejection...

need I go on... I told you there were a number of things! It's a bit of a "catch all" scrapbooking layout... and will go into my BOM (Book of Me) Album. I think there may well be more as I continue my search for life answers!


Talking of which here is a link to a website to do with scrapbooking your emotions, I reckon everyone should should be scrapbooking their emotions - it's a very cathartic experience!


Although I have just looked up the dictionary definition for "cathartic"... and I never knew that!!!!!!