As Close to my Heart starts clearing out the old stamp sets, check often in clearance at www.CreativelyCarol.ctmh.com. Hundreds of items have been reduced. Maybe it is a good time to grab some extra embellishments, If you see something on sale, grab it as you can’t guarantee how long it will be available. We are talking stamp sets, kits, embellishments, and more.
Ok, back to working on my newsletter, to go out tomorrow… make sure you are signed up for my mailing list to stay in the know about all things Close to my Heart and Stampin’ Up.
Today’s question comes from Illinois, and I am just as guilty! “I have been putting off scrapbooking all my pictures for the last three years. I have so many pictures I don’t know where to begin. Any Ideas?
I am embarrassed to say I am in the same situation. I have probably scrapped less than a dozen layouts of my own in the last several years. Recently, I started to organize my photos, I knew I had many duplicates, had already scrapped the pictures, or they were generic number names. When I began this project, I found some pictures I knew I wanted to scrap, but never got around to getting them done. I created a folder in the downloads folder (so I could find it fast) and put any pictures I came across that I really wanted to scrap. I then go back and print the pictures, match them up with papers and embellishments so when I have 15 minute block to put it all together, everything is ready to go.
Do you have a suggestion for how you would tackle the above problem? Leave a comment below and share your ideas with us!
Using information compiled from surveys of both married and single American women ages 35-65, here’s how women are spending their free time (from most to least popular)
Horseback riding
Shopping for Clothes
Home Decorating
Crafts
Watching videos
Sewing and Needlework
Owning cats or dogs
Attending cultural eve
enjoying gourmet food/wine
Reading
Gardening
Bicycling
Camping/Hiking
Surfing the Net
Do you see yourself in these activities? What would be your favorite? Leave a comment below and tell me your “play” choice.
Do you ever have those days when you are fed up with the way things are “suppose” to be when writing to you. All the “experts” tell me I need to include this or that in my articles, but I have really had it with people telling me I need to have in my articles, so I am going back to doing things my way. I am going to share with you articles I think you will find helpful, interesting or just plain strange.
I hope that by changing the way I am writing, or thinking about writing, I will get you more information here that you can use. I am returning to sketches on Mondays, Technique Tuesdays, Throwback Thursdays, and drawings on Sunday nights.
I hope you will comment below and let me know the things you hope to learn. I look forward to working with you again.
What is it? I have been scrapbooking for 25 years and selling Close to my Heart for almost 20 years, yet so many of my own photos go left not in albums or even on scrapbook pages.
I have a large stack of finished layouts that I have done with the company over the years, but my picture-taking life started 50 years ago, and my mother’s started 75 years ago. They didn’t print in 4×6″ or 4×4″ prints back then. As a result, I have a bunch of 2×3″ 3½ x 4″ photos and well, you get the idea. I also don’t have a lot that matches the titles on these pages. “Pals” for instance, isn’t something my parents spend precious money taking pictures of. Sure, I had them, but no one was taking those pictures like they do today.
I have decided I will evaluate each finished layout without photos and see if it can be reworked to fit my pictures, and if so, I will show you the before and after of my progress. If not, I will list them on my Etsy page. Perhaps they will work for someone else.
When my mind goes, I want to be able to look back on these scrapbooks and remember the good times. What are you scrapbooking for? What are you struggling with? Please share with me where you are in your scrapbook journey (if you are a cardmaker, tell me that too so I can offer tutorials and sketches that apply to you as well)
Try in these days of digital, no wasted shot photos to get yourself in some of them. Even if you don’t like looking at yourself, your grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren might wonder at some point. After all, you are the matriarch of your family.
I was reading an old scrapbook magazine when I came across a great idea for organizing scrapbook ideas. I think it would really work for any magazine you are reading or even a website. Whenever I sit down to read a magazine or a web article, I have a stack of 4″ x 6″ index cards. I write one theme ( like babies or color suggestions) on each card. As I read through the magazine and come across a layout or article with an idea I like that I would like to use, I write down the reference on the appropriate card.
Whenever I experience “scrapbooker’s block and can’t think of a creative idea for a page, I simply pull out my index card file. I look up the appropriate theme and have a selection of ideas to choose from. This will work great if you save all the issues of the magazine. But, what if you are like me and can’t handle years of magazines? I make a few more notes on the card. If I feel I need the particular page the idea is on, I scan that page and title it the same way the card is titled, along with the issue and date of the magazine. This may seem like extra work, but not having 5 years of back magazines gives me space for something else and the computer file is easy to find.
If you have a great organizing tip, leave it below along with your comments. If I can offer you any assistance, please reach out at Carol@CreativelyCarol.com
One of the biggest trends in contemporary scrapbooking is the use of mixed media. This involves combining different materials and techniques, such as paint, stamps, stencils, and washi tape, to create dynamic and visually interesting layouts. The result is a scrapbook page that is both artistic and personal. There are lots of ways to achieve the mixed media effect in your scrapbooking and I hope to showcase many of these techniques on the new Technique Tuesdays feature here on the blog.
Texture is a big part of scrapbooking today. Whether you use texture in your background, in a border or even an embellishment you bring a layer of dimension into your scrapbook pages. In the layout to the left, we will ignore the fact that I mounted the masked section upside down, on the wrong side!) you can see a section that was painted with a thick coat of black craft paint over a mask of bats. This was done on a separate piece of cardstock so the paint wouldn’t affect the photograph. An added benefit of this being done on a separate piece of cardstock is that it creates a pocket for hidden journaling if wanted.
There is also added dimension by using painted chipboard letters for my title. At the time I created this layout, lots of blank space was NOT the trend. The class was also on the cutting edge of painting and masking techniques. This is one of those layouts that, when I look back at it, I definitely feel the pull to re-do the layout, correcting the mat, straightening the letters in candy and moving the journaling so it wasn’t hidden, however, if you read my previous blog post, you understand why I don’t do it. I can see the progression in my own scrapbooking and I still have a mountain of photos to scrap… I will never get done in my lifetime, and that is if I live to be 100 and take no more pictures!
Please come back on Tuesday for my new Technique Tuesday feature and give the new and old techniques a try. I am excited to share more with you about current scrapbook trends, and maybe bring back a few…maybe
I have heard and read many times you should scrapbook your everyday life as well as all those events, vacations and gatherings. When I hear this I think “how boring, I don’t do anything special”. When you think about it, you have about 16 hours in a day, IF you are lucky enough to get 8 hours of sleep a night. One way to do this would be to do a 3 x 3 box across the top, and bottom of a 2 page layout. That would give you 16 blocks in which to put photos, using the center for more detail. You might have to get some help with the picture taking (great time to show your oved one what you do all day) or use the timer setting on your phone.
Do you do specific things on specific days? Depending on your age, you remember the dishtowels our grandmother’s had that had every day of the week. You could put 7 boxes across the middle of the page and title each box for the day of the week and put a picture of what it is you do. Here are some ideas for days of the week photos:
Sunday – church, football, or whatever consumes your Sundays
Monday – laundry… you can take a picture of the dirty mountain of laundry or the basket of folded clothes. You could even add a bit extra by mounting the photo on a 6″ x 3″ piece of cardstock folded in half. Inside you might put if kids do their own laundry or if you have a special sock sorter 🙂
Tuesday – do I dare say ironing these days? Not this girl, so what do you do on Tuesday, perhaps you vaccume the house after a busy weekend.
Wedensday – grocery shopping, take a picture of your favorite grocery isle.
Thursday – Do people still dust regularly? maybe this is something you have one of the kids do… take their picture doing it.
Friday – If you are lucky, Friday is date night. Take a picture on your next date. What else do you do on Friday so you have your weekend free?
Saturday – hopefully you are not stuck doing housework, but the kids have Saturday morning chores. If you have several children, get a picture of all of them working and put together as a book for this block.
Now that I have shared this idea with you, I am going to have to do a page like this myself. Since my husband and I live with my daughter and her family, I may have to get a bit creative…. check back often to see what I may have come up with!
What are your daily/weekly things you do? Leave a comment below and share with us!
Old man scratches his head that something forgotten
My husband has been having headaches and major pain in his head for quite some time. We keep going for tests, but only after a PET scan did I learn that my husband has Frontotemporal dementia. Why am I sharing this with you, you are wondering. One very concerning part of this dementia is that he is loosing his memory. While we wish it would affect his long-term memory (all the stuff that has happened in your life you WANT to forget) it has a more pronounced affect on his short term memory. Suddenly, memory keeping sounds much more important that just a hobby of scrapbooking.
Here is a quote I read recently, (author unknown) “Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose”. I thought it was rather profound considering at 65, I catch little blips on my memory scale.
The truth is, we never know what life is going to deal us. Scrapbooking the memories we are making today is important. I know what you are thinking, as so many people do, “the photos are in my phone.” You think they are safe, you would never delete them, at least now on purpose. Let me share with you a sad story my sister-in-law experienced. We had a big family reunion in Moab, Utah. There was a day that 5 families with their jeeps took to the trails. This included my brother and his wife, my son-in-law and his boys, and my two sons with their kids. Never before had all of them done something together like this and lots of pictures and videos were taken. They had a ball. That night, my son was telling Josie how she could share them on google photos, (Josie has an Iphone, while the rest of us are android users. So Josie uploaded all the photos in her phone to the google cloud. Then, because she didn’t realize she could just share the photos she wanted to share, she started deleting photos that were not of the trip… 8 years worth the photos were now deleted from both her Icloud AND Google Cloud. She was devastated, cried for days. Pictures going back to my nephew playing high school baseball, then for UNR, my niece’s graduation and so many family get togethers and personal vacations.
Take the time to print your photos, even if you don’t feel you have the time to scrapbook them. I will show you ways to keep those photos using instant pages that just require you slip the photo in, and a card with the details. I will also give you easy layouts you can do in less than an hour if you want something a bit more details. Just don’t let what happened to Josie happen to you. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can back up automatically an unlimited number of photos.
I would rather sort through multiples of the same photo (which I often do) rather than try to collect from others what I have lost.
Do you have a story to tell about your photos? Leave a comment below and share your story.
You would think Intense and Archival black ink were the same thing when you look at the packages. they both say permanant, solvent based ink and acid free. Both are waterproof, but the main difference is the Intense Black is fast drying which essentially means you can start coloring just after you stamp it. If you were to use the Archival Black, you would want to wait until it dries.
Close to my Heart states their recommendations as:
Intense Black:Recommended for use with watercolors or alcohol markers.
Archival Black: Recommended for scrapbook pages and stamping on vellum.
The Black Close to my Heart Ink is waterbased, and only recommended when you are NOT using anything with it.
If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comment section.
Do you keep leftover buttons and beads you find because you know they will come in handy at some point in the future? I wanted to share with you a few ways to use these found treasures in your scrapbook pages.
Using a strong adhesive, you can add buttons and beads to your scrapbook titles,
In this layout I used microbeads to make spirals as an embellishment. First you cut the shape on cardstock, or use a Thin Cut or Cutting machine. Attach a strong adhesive like Liquid Glass, and press the beads into the adhesive. You can do the same things with seed beads and add buttons over the top with a pop-dot.
You can also do bead letters, where the shape doesn’t have to be precise, you can glue directly onto the page, but I prefer to add to cardstock and cut around after they are dry so I am not putting liquid on the page that could cause buckling.
I recommend doing one letter or element at a time. This will give you enough time to get your beads on before the adheasive dries. When the adhesive is dry, tip your embellishment to release all the unglued beads to use another day.
I love using buttons as flowers, and they work well on both cards and scrapbook pages. There are so many fun shapes. Here is a layout using buttons as flowers:
As Close to my Heart starts clearing out the old stamp sets, check often in clearance at www.CreativelyCarol.ctmh.com. Hundreds of items have been reduced. Maybe it is a good time to grab some extra embellishments, If you see something on sale, grab it as you can’t guarantee how long it will be available. We are talking stamp sets, kits, embellishments, and more.
I have heard and read many times you should scrapbook your everyday life as well as all those events, vacations and gatherings. When I hear this I think “how boring, I don’t do anything special”. When you think about it, you have about 16 hours in a day, IF you are lucky enough to get 8 hours of sleep a night. One way to do this would be to do a 3 x 3 box across the top, and bottom of a 2 page layout. That would give you 16 blocks in which to put photos, using the center for more detail. You might have to get some help with the picture taking (great time to show your oved one what you do all day) or use the timer setting on your phone.
