Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

Book Report Scrapbooking: Reading + Scrapbooking at Masterful Scrapbook Design in August

Tami Taylor has an article over at Get It Scrapped titled Finding Inspiration for Scrapbooking from Books  and Masterful Scrapbook Design  is going to focus on this very subject in August.  

I'll betcha that most scrapbookers also love reading - although I'll also betcha that many busy scrapbooking moms (like me) have cut their reading time to fit in all the other stuff we try to get done.  If you have curtailed your reading time because of a busy life, I'd encourage you to try to squeeze it in somehow, even if you keep a book in the bathroom!  I've been reading more over the past year and it enriches life so much and its a nice mental break from the regular whirlwind that I call life.

Here's an older layout about my son who just about taught himself to read at 2 or 3 years old; he's reading Miss Nelson is Missing - a book I love and just ordered again.

I love using books as inspiration for scrapbooking and I've done it several times, here are three examples that quickly come to mind on  using books as inspiration for scrapbook layouts:

1. The Last Lecture: I made a scrapbook page book report after reading this amazing story on a plane ride home from Maine back in the summer of 2008:  http://kissandtellscrapbooking.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/the-last-lect-1.html

2. The Hunger Games: I read the Hunger Games Trilogy in a week and found so many similarities between the main character and myself that I made a "Katniss & Me" comparison scrapbook page:  http://kissandtellscrapbooking.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/02/the-hunger-games-scrapbooking-challenge-1-main-characters.html

3. Little Pea:  This is one of our favorite bedtime stories and I used the illustrations and I think the actual book cover jacket for this page: 
http://kissandtellscrapbooking.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/11/little-pea-familys-favorite-book.html

Can't wait to read & hear more about books as inspiration for scrapbooking at Masterful Scrapbook Design in August!

Do you scrapbook about the books you read?  Please leave a comment or a link.

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Videos

Here are links to the You Tube Videos for The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I'd put them all in one place.  I haven't watched them myself but I might take a look while I do some scrapbooking later tonight.  Or maybe I'll just make some more without looking.  More videos are coming soon.

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series (Day 16): Peeta Mellark

Hey Scrapbookers, we're still on The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series, but we're switching from the Districts and locations to the characters for scrapbooking inspiration.

First up is the love interest Peeta Mellark:  "The District 12 male tribute as well as the baker's son,  he is loyal and brave, and will do whatever he needs to for Katniss to survive, for he has been in love with Katniss since they were five years old. Katniss, however, has to act like she's in love with him in order to keep both of them alive. Peeta is described as being medium height, strongly built and has ashy blonde hair." (source The Hunger Games Wiki)

Scrapbookers - if you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.  If you haven't read it, you can still play along.  The movie is going to be big and it is coming out in 9 days, so unless you have no access to tv or movies, chances are you have heard of it or at least seen the movie trailers.  The point of using The Hunger Games in a scrapbooking kind of way is just to get a fun and diffenent starting point for a theme for a page or project, it is not to make scrapbooking pages about The Hunger Games (although I have done a few of those).  Using The Hunger Games as a prompt is to switch up your creative process in a fun way.

Scrapbook Layouts based on the Peeta theme could include:

1. Bread / Baking / Daily Bread / Eating

On Eating Cookies:

On Baking Cookies:

 This is a stretch, but this layout features photos taken at the restaurant named Panera Bread:

2. Starcrossed Lovers / Crushes / First Love / Love Notes

My daughter's first love is her Daddy, here's a layout about how she writes love notes to him all the time:

My son normally favors me a bit so I was so surprised one Valentines Day when the only love note he brought home was for Daddy - seems  like Daddy gets most of the love notes around here!

So going with the theme of love notes to Daddy/my husband Charlie, here's a love note scrapbook layout I made for him:

3. Partnership / Teammate / Working Together

This layout is an ode to the paperwork I do at the office:

These two layouts about work and play are side by side in my December Daily mini book:

And here's a Picasa collage of the scrapbook layouts I've made about work over the years:

4. Bravery / Loyalty / Survival

Here's a layout about how brave my girl is about picking up jellyfish and all sorts of things:

This next layout is about our loyal labrador retriever Dandy:

And a layout about our late black lab Duke:

Those four themes should give you some ideas for scrapbooking pages.  If you do make a page, please post a comment with a link.  Or just comment if you are following along and didn't make a page.  Have you read the book?  Are you looking forward to the movie?  What do you think about the cast?  I would love to hear from you.

If you wish to support this blog and get your Team Peeta on, please click on these affiliate links:

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series

So far I've posted over a dozen scrapbooking challenges in The Hunger Games series, here are the links to the blog posts:

1. How This Scrapbooking Blog Got Hijacked by The Hunger Games

2. The Hunger Games Spoiler Alert! Katniss Everdeen Ends Up a Scrapbooker!

3.  The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: Main Characters

4.  The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 12 Coal & the Improvisation Comedy Concept of "Taking It The Wrong Way" as Applied to Scrapbooking

5. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 11 Agriculture and 4 Themes: Plants, Siblings, Rest & Relaxation, & Music

6. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 11 & Two Peas Memory Keeping Monday Scrapbooking Layout about Agriculture

7. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 10 Livestock & 10 Holy Cow Funny Stories

8. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 9 Grain & Hexagons

9. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 8 Textiles & The Quilt Patterns in Scrapbooking Trend

10. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 7 Lumberjack complete with a video of me singing the Monty Python Lumberjack Song. Good Times.

11. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 6 Transportation

12. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 5 Power & a Powerful Amount of Scrapbooking Embellishments or Is It Embellishment Sneeze?

13. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 4 Fishing & 24 Scrapbook Layouts about Fishing Plus a Disney Vacation Mini-Book!

14. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 3 Technology & 10 Ways to Use Technology in Your Traditional Scrapbooking

15. The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge: District 2 Masonry and How to Build a Simple Scrapbook Page & Now I Know What John Denver Meant

Next up is District 1 Luxury.  I'll be working on the scrapbook project for that tonight, watch for the post tomorrow.  After that we'll visit the Capitol and District 13, then we'll explore other themes from The Hunger Games.  I'm applying a concept from improvisational comedy to scrapbooking here - its called "piling it on" -where you keep with one topic or category until you think you can't think of anything else and then you keep on going.  The Improv Games associated with this concept is called "The Minister's Cat" {Click Here to Watch Scrooge Play The Minister's Cat - it is quite ridiculous}.  So like Scrooge's peeps and their party games, I'm going to stick with the theme of The Hunger Games until the movie's release.  Thankfully, the movie is releasing at the end of this month, I'll be hosting a ustream close to the movie premier, time and date for that to come sometime soon.

In the meantime, if you wish to support this blog and get yourself all decked out in luxurious accessories from  The Hunger Games for the big movie premier, check out these affiliate links:

 

So get your Katniss on and put a dish of milk out for Buttercup because we're staying on The Hunger Games for a while.

 

Old School & Modern Wedding Scrapbooking

This Scrapbooking Video is about my old school magnetic scrapbook wedding scrapbook and my modern scrapbook albums and photo books.  It is in response to Noell Hymann's Paperclipping Roundtable #103 "Too Precious to Scrapbook" and the connection between what kind of scrapbooker you are in relation to how you planned your wedding. 

 

Click here for a link to the Ella Publishing ezine article I wrote about scrapbooking your marriage and relationship based on Stacy Julian & Lain Ehmann's ebook Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers and my adaptation of David Niven's book about Happy Relationships.

Click here for a link to Noel Hyman & Nancy Nally's podcast Paperclipping Roundtable PRT #103: Too Precious to Scrapbook relating wedding planning and scrapbooking.

If you wish to support this blog, check out these affiliate links which are related to products I mentioned in the video:

This Scrapbooking Blog has been Temporarily Hijacked by Dystopia Novels and Pretty Flowers

 

Holey Moley.  I did not want to like dystopia novels.  I first heard the word "dystopia" from scrapbooker Wendy Smedley, from Simple Scrapbooks, Ella Publishing and Big Picture Scrapbooking, say that she was reading dystopia novels along with her teenaged boys and that the novels were about post apocalytic worlds.  I remember thinking I was glad my kids weren't old enough to like something so seemingly horrible.   I am not a fan of horror movies or stories since they tend to stay with me and I end up dreaming about them and I just prefer funny to creepy.

Then, a few weeks ago, we took the whole family to see the inspirational and happy movie Big Miracle with Drew Barrymore. Apparently there was a re-release of Star Wars which is why we saw all those storm troopers at the movies.  Before the big show we sat through the previews.   The trailer for The Hunger Games crawled up inside my head and didn't leave.  It looked horrible.  I had no interest in seeing it.  I even commented to Charlie how I wished they wouldn't show such awful things before family movies about whales.  But.  I couldn't stop thinking about it!  I even went to You Tube to watch the trailer a few more times just to figure  out what was hooking me in.

That's a page from my Project Life Album, of course I'll have to put the thumbnails of The Hunger Games in for this week!

And then, one day another lawyer at my office had a copy of The Hunger Games or Catching Fire in the lunch room and as soon as I saw it I said "Oh! Its that movie!  That horrible movie!"  Kelly is also a fan of happy and funny tending on the side of dorky - for example, we are both big fans of Sue Heck from The Middle; but Kelly quickly knew exactly what I was talking about and said "I didn't want to like it either! But is so good!"  She convinced me that I needed to read it and brought in The Hunger Games the next day; I think that was this past Tuesday and I read it in one sitting from 4 pm - 10 pm.  She then brought in the next two and I finished Catching Fire in about 6 hours too and I'm half way through the last one now, Mockingjay.  I haven't made a scrapbook page all week because I've been in full dystopia mode all week. 

If you'd like to support this blog (which is normally about scrapbooking) and check out the page turning dystopia novels, click on one of the links below:

Probably to counterbalance all the death and destruction of dystopia and District 12 and The Hunger Games, my daughter and I planted a flower garden and planted a bunch of vegetable seeds yesterday so here are some pictures of our garden:

The dystopia novels aren't all that horrible as I originally thought; they are a bit hopeful and do make you think and somehow I couldn't not read them.  I'll be in the line for the movie when it comes out next month.

Celebrate the People You Love & 10 Ideas for Mini-Books!

10 Reasons Why I Love You Mini Book:

I'm taking Stacy Julian's Twelve Class at Big Picture Classes and this week focuses on People You Love, the audio message from Stacy this week focuses on a Simple Scrapbooks mini-book called 10 Reasons I Love You.  Several years ago, I actually won a few of these mini-books at the National Scrapbooking Day crop my local scrapbooking store, Scrapbooking in Paradise.  I love making mini books but haven't made one in a while, maybe I'll make a few before Valentine's Day.  Here are 10 links to Mini Books I have Made.

1. 10 Reasons I Love My Husband Mini Book (This is the Simple Scrapbooks product that Stacy Julian was talking about in this week's Audio for the Twelve Class).

2. Home Made Thankful Mini Book

3. Turning Old Hard Cover Books Into Scrapbooks

4. A Day In The Life Mini Book

5. Autobiography in Mini Book (One Page Per Year)

6. My Life In Three Words Mini Book

7. My Daughter's Mini Book Incorporated Onto A Scrapbook Layout

8. December Daily Mini-Book

9. Board Book Mini Albums

10. Metal Mini Book

It looks like its been about 5 years since I did this type of album for my husband, maybe I'll make another one.

Want more mini books?  Check out these links:

Top Ten Links to Winter CHA 2012 Updates

 

I'll call this a "CHA Break"  - I'm tuning in from the office, don't tell the boss {wink}.  Are you a scrapbooker sitting at home watching CHA from the sidelines like me?  Do you want to follow along and see the latest and greatest?  Here are some links to the places I go online to see all the latest CHA action:

1. Twitter:  Type #CHA or #CHAShow into Twitter  and you can see posts from people there, they are posting instagram photos and lots of other great links.

2. Pinterest:  Search for Winter CHA 2012 and instead of searching for pins, put this in as a search for boards and there are several boards on Pinterest.  Here is link to mine:  Katie's Winter CHA 2012 Pinterest Board Link.

3. Play along and enter CHA themed scrapbooking contests at the Two Peas in a Bucket CHA Winter Online Social.

4. Check out the CHA Sneak Peeks at Scrapbook.com.

5. Catch all the latest update from Nancy Nally's Scrapbook Update's CHA Page and Interactive Sneak Peek Table, the table is really awesome if you are looking for something by a particular manufacturer or release date.

6. The Official Craft and Hobby Association CHA Site.

7. Videos from the CHA show floor from Noell Hyman with Paperclipping.

8. You Tube has lots of videos from the show - try typing in CHA Winter 2012 into the search and then modify your search to get the most recently posted.

9. Shimelle Laine is there and has been posting lots of pretty pictures.

10. Paper Crafter's Corner has ongoing CHA updates.

Hope you have fun watching from the sidelines like I do, if you know of any other great CHA links, please post them in the comments.

Christmas & December Daily - In Progress Over the Years - Mini Books

This Basket contains Christmas scrapbooking mini books that are in progress - some of which I started in 1998! 

 

Still in my December Daily Frenzy:  I made a ustream video about the several Christmas Mini Books and December Daily type minibooks that I have started but not finished - and how I keep track of these in progress albums over the years and how one of my books is a 20 year project that I started in 1998.  If you don't finish mini books - do not fret!  It is ok to pick up where you left off last year - really - it is ok!  I like to scrapbook Christmas during Christmas and most of the time when I put the Christmas decorations away I am also ready to stop scrapbooking Christmas so I put away the pictures and supplies too; I show how my system allows me to go into full effect with the Christmas scrapbooking when I am in the mood to do it - Tis the Season; but when it's over, its over and it is nice to have a system of being able to put unfinished projects away without feeling at all guilty about not finishing because there is always next year.

These are my punches - which are probably about 10 years old - and which I still use almost every time I scrap - the smaller circle is a bit tweaky - but I still recommend these basic and very useful and versatile tools - I used these punches to cut the circle numbers, cut the notches and round the corners of these Christmas Mini Books.

If you don't have circle punches or corner rounders that you love, check these out - I have the Fiskars one in a scallop circle - so the regular circle is on my Christmas list.  I'm also linking some Chrismtas Paper Pads that are so useful in making the types of mini-books I love to make - I would love to buy more Christmas paper packs but I seriously have too many already, but if I needed some these are the ones I would get.  I also happen to think you can never have enough 8x8 albums so I'm linking a few of those in Christmas styles and the very same CHRISTMAS MEMORIES BOOK that I started in 1998 and it will go through 2018!  It is seriously awesome.

 

I couldn't find the exact 8x8 Chistmas Album that I have but if I were buying now, I might pick one of these (above); and that first red Christmas Memories Book by Lynn Anderson is the one I have, but the others look like they do the same type of thing and the Christmas Journal actually goes for 25 years!  That is so cool!

Repurpose Old Retro Books into Smash Book Scrapbooks

Repurpose your old books into scrapbooks that will actually fit on regular bookshelves.

 
Benefits of this idea:

1. Use old stuff to make new stuff.

2. Free to very affordable.

3. Use up some of your scrapbook supply stash.

4. Have scrapbooks that will actually fit on your regular bookshelves without having to make a trip to Ikea!

5. They are quick and easy to make and are adorable (obviously).

 
Credit for this idea absolutely goes here to the Nerd Nest:  Click Here for the Nerd Nest Awesomeness!

Here's another video showing how I turned a retro home decorating book into a smash book scrapbook:

 

Here's the link to the ustream video in case that box above doesn't work:  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17267387.

Are you making these groovy albums?  Share your pictures and/or links in the comments.

Home Made Mini Scrapbooks / Smash Books

I listened to the Paperclipping Roundtable about minibooks {Link:  Making Unique Mini Books - Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast } today and am in LOVE with the books done by Megan of the Nerdy Nest Blog {Link: Megan's Awesome Mini Books from Hardbound Books - Completely Awesome! }.  So I made one of Megan's awesome mini books from a hardbound book - I had the perfect book that I've been waiting to use for just such a project - {I'm so in love with these!} and did a ustream video while making it:

 

Here's the link if that doesn't work (and yes its flash so you probalby can't watch it on the iphone):  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17257842.

Then I did another ustream video sort of a show and tell of several of my home-made minibooks, take a look:

 

And here's that link in case the above doesn't work:  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17258760.

While most of the time I make 12x12 or 8.5x11 scrapbook layouts, I do enjoy the mini book and find that I most enjoy them when I'm not concerned about finishing them - when they are more of an ongoing work in progress over many seasons.

Do you make home made mini books or have some links to other awesome mini book ideas?  I'd love to see them - please share in the comments.

Back that Thing Up {Digital Photography & Scrapbooking} & Free Flickr Slideshow: A Place to Store Your Scrapbook Layouts / Online Backup

In the world of digital photography, video and scrapbooking - Can you ever back that thing up enough? 

Probably no.  Computers, hard drives and other back up systems break or become outdated.   Many years ago, our computer guy at work warned me: "Don't get too attached to computer hardware" - in other words, he and my husband/inhouse tech-man, Charlie, were going to switch out my computer whenever and frequently -  so if I had something I wanted to save, I'd better do it on the network at work rather than on my workstation.  They weren't giving me any guarantees about stuff I saved on my C drive.  Even with that knowledge, over the years and having my computers switched out who knows how many times, I know that I have lost photos on computers.  Gone.  Just gone.  I'm sort of ok with that because back in the olden days of film and the beginning of digital photography, I printed just about everything my camera shot.  Fast forward to today:  I take 20 times more photos than I print.  Even with a system of printing my photos on  a fairly regular basis, there are literally tens of thousands of photos I do not print.  Will I ever need them?  Probably not, but still, its nice to know that they are "there" on my external hard drives if I ever needed them.

Here's my digital dilemma:  I'm working on a different computer this morning so I don't have access to my normal stuff - my external hard drives for most of my photos and scrapbook layouts are in the scrapbooking room connected to my scrapbooking computer.  Problem is:  The monitor of the computer in my scrapbooking room just died (probably).  Charlie is going to work on it today to either fix it or replace it.   This all got me to thinking - actually this is not a new thought - that backing up on CDs, negatives, external hard drives, or whatever is probably never good enough.  But is backing up in the clouds good enough?  I'm not for certain but I do back up my photos and scrapbook layouts, which are traditional paper layouts that I then photograph, in the clouds using www.shutterfly.com, www.flickr.com, and here on www.typepad.com.   I even made a Shutterfly hard bound book of my scrapbooking layouts (or at least some of them).  Here is a link to the slideshow of my Scrapbook Layouts Shutterfly book:

Click here to view this photo book larger

 And here is the link if you can't see the stuff in the above box: http://katiescottscrapbooking.shutterfly.com/pictures/810

What I love about the photo book of my traditional scrapbook pages is that I don't HAVE to go digital with my scrapbooking if I don't want to.  (I sort of want to add digital scrapbooking to my skills set, but that's another story).  So even if I'm a"traditional paper scrapbooker"I can still enjoy the benefit of the compact size of the photobook and the implied safety of the online backup of my layouts.

Is backing up online enough?  Who knows, but it is somewhat comforting to know that if the State of Florida blew away in a hurricane or something, that many of my photos and scrapbook layouts would not be lost because they are on the internet.  Will this change in the future?  Probably.  But for now, I back my photos up online in addition to using several external hard drives.  How do you back up your digital photos and scrapbook pages?  Please leave a comment, I would love to know.

Side Note:  I married Charlie back in 1999 mainly because I thought he was cute; if I could rewind time, I would marry him again, but the reasons would be different - this time one of the major ones would be "he can fix stuff" - my advice if you are not married yet?  Marry someone who knows how to fix stuff - especially if you are the type of person who doesn't know how to fix stuff - and by stuff I'm talking technology & computers but also toilets and cars.  Just this minute, Charlie is working on his "honey-do" list which is as follows this weekend: 1. fix my iphone, 2. fix my computer, 3. figure out how to make a members only site in ustream - I want to make private training videos for work - actually, I've made a bunch but have apparently made them so private that the people at work are having trouble getting in.  So its nice to be married to a tech-y guy.  Side Note to that:  We watched Dinner for Schmucks last night - so funny & well done - I love that kind of movie & Steve Carrell played an adorable nerd.  Yay for nerds. 

Ok, back to the story of  online backing up digital photos and scrapbook pages:  Another place I "back it up" online is flickr.  I actually have 2 flickr accounts - I think maybe I couldn't remember my password and created a new account one of the times that I did Lain Ehmann's LOAD Challenge.  (See I really am technology challenged.)  I was playing with my flickr account this morning and discovered I could create a photoslide show and share it.  So here's my attempt at the Flickr Slideshow Share:

 

I see that its flash so it probably won't show up on my iphone, so here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37095341@N08/show/. 

Now lets see if I can find my other flickr account....

Please share your photo and scrapbooking back up tips - leave a comment - I'd love to learn more about backing up digital photos and scrapbook pages - digital or paper. 

 

Craft Store Bargain

Picked up this Pioneer 12x12 extra large 2.5 inch 3 ring binder at Joanns for $11 bucks (40% off sale).

Sent from my iPhone

Project 365 Life & Neverland

Becky Higgin's Project Life / 365 concept?  Yep I'm on board this year, but nope I didn't buy the kit - I'm trying to use what I have - and I have lots of scrapbooking supplies - plus the kit was sold out on Amazon, at least I'm pretty sure it was.  This is my year, I've attempted it before and fallen off the wagon, but this time I'm going to stick to it.  I'd like to keep it up for the next ten years (ambitious I know) - because a lot of life in our family is going to occur over the next 10 years - and its the start of a decade - and in 10 years, my kids will be 17 and 18 years old.  That kind of blows my mind, so wouldn't it be cool if I documented everyday for the next ten years so when my kids are going off to college or whatever their adventures might include (college I hope), then I'll be able to answer the question - where did all th e time go?  Over the last year I've been reading a lot of Katrina Kennison and her Mitten Strings for God and the Gift of the Ordinary Day.  And I intend to savor everyday I have with my offspring.  My son just came in and I told him to stop growing - pretty soon he's going to be taller than me.  I really do want him to grow, I just want to enjoy the boy he is now and the girl I have now everyday.  The older I get the quicker time seems to fly and the worst my memory gets, so an everyday scrapbook seems like the perfect solution for freezing time - or at least caputuring it in my life.  I've been more or less keeping up with Project 365 / Life.  Tonight I had the chance to fill in some of the gaps and make a title page for the album - here it is:
 

So my 8 year old (almost 9 year old) is asking me to put him to bed for the 2nd or 3rd time tonight and I'm remembering the line from the Peter Pan / Neverland movie - something about "never put a boy to bed because he will always wake up a day older" - sunrise / sunset - quickly fly the years and before I know it I'll have a adult boy - ten quick years and he'll be almost 19 and I'll try my best to remember this night and how adorable he is.  Scrapbooking reminds me to make little notes and take pictures so I really will always remember because time marches on - time and tide, baby.

 

Little Pea - Family's Favorite Book

 

"The Story:  Little did we know that "Little Pea" woul turn out to be one of your favorite books when I dressed you in this silly pea costume.  Like Pea, you are a happy little one, but unlike Pea, you love candy and aren't in love with vegetables.  We've read this book a zillion times - maybe you'll love veggies someday.  Love Mom."  (Photo 2004 / Journaling & Page 2010).

Supplies:  American Crafts "The Goods" & "Gumball"; American Crafts Pagemakers "Birthday"; Book Jacket Cover Art - Chronicle Books "Little Pea" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & illustrated by Jen Corace; Little Yellow Bicycle Boardwalk Journal Tablet; Art Accentz adhesive (for the buttons) by Provocraft; Sharpie Ultra Fine Point.