I just got my first order from Two Peas in a Bucket - it took 7 days to get - which seems resonable & almost everything I bought was on sale.
Check out my thickers hoard unboxing video - yep, I do the scrapbook haul videos from time to time:
And now that I have more Thickers that I'll ever probably use - its almost time to purge in the scrapbook room - yes, that's right, time to get rid of some older and unloved stuff.
There was a message thread at How Much Paper Scrapbookers Have, and I had to guess that I probably had about 10 square feet of scrapbooking paper if I lined it all up together. It actually probably takes up much more than 10 square feet of space in my home and office - and yes, I admit, I have way too much. But I just kind of love it, all of it. I know I'll never use it all - that's not really my goal. It just makes me happy and I love all the colors and patterns, it is the supply that I admittedly hoard. I do buy most of my scrapbooking paper at a scrapbooking yardsale that my local store Whim So Doodle puts on about twice a year; so at $.10 a sheet I can be ok with my kids using it at will. I do keep a special reserve of the latest and greatest - but they are welcome to just about everything else in my scrapbooking room. I just thought all this hoarding of scrapbooking patterned paper deserved its own page in my scrapbook!
My Top Ten favorite Online Scrapbooking Classes and Tutorials are:
1. Debbie Hodge's Get It Scrapped: This is a free scrapbooking idea blog that is highly organized so you can find exactly what you you want to learn. I'm lucky enough to be on the creative team there right now!
2. Debbie Hodge's Masterful Scrapbook Design: Amazing ebooks, video tutorials, podcasts and interactions with the teachers on scrapbooking topics that both digital and paper scrapbookers will love. Plus lots of your favorite scrapbookers are teachers there: Celeste Smith, Lisa Dickinson, Paula Gilarde, Emily Pitts, Noell Hyman, Pattie Knox, Debbie Hodge, Tami Taylor, Amy Kingsford, Kim Watson, Leah Farquharson, Corrie Jones, Anna Aspnes, Amanda Jones, Dina Wakely, Lynnette Panacho, Summer Fullerton, Tiffany Tillman, Jana Morton, Audrey Neal, Kelly Purkey, Erin Bassett, Peppermint Granberg, Doris Sander, Michelle Clement, Wilna Furstenberg, Aly Dosdall, Vivian Masket, ... and there are actually dozens more!
3. Stacy Julian's Big Picture Classes: The original online scrapbook schoolhouse with so many of my favorite people from the old Simple Scrapbooks including Stacy Julian, Cathy Zielske, Ali Edwards, Angie Lucas, Wendy Smedley, ... and actually there are dozens more here too!
4. Noell Hyman's Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast: I love this podcast! I listen while I'm on the stepper, while I'm driving, and/or when I'm scrapbooking; when I'm scrapbooking it gives me the feeling of being at a crop without having to leave the house or share my scrap table space! Plus all of your favorite scrapbookers are talking about scrapbooking there - and its free! ... and there are dozens and dozens of guests so chances are your favorite scrapbookers are there.
5. Noell Hyman's Paperclipping Tutorials Membership: This is a paid for membership that runs 6 months at a time so it is a perfect way to jump start or re-start your scrapbooking mojo; the videos are professionally produced by Noell's "cameraman" who doubles as her husband. I love the videos because I can watch them on my iphone and Noell has a different and unique perspective so you can learn new ways to look at the same old things.
6. The Digi Show Podcast: This was a spin off of the Paperclipping Roundtable and while I'm not a digi-scrapbooker, I listen and look forward to it every week anyway. They often talk about general scrapbooking concepts and ideas; and when they talk very techie digi, I just listen and hope that someday it will sink in and I'll "get" how to or want to digi scrap.
7. Two Peas in a Bucket Classes and Events: This is a store but they offer so much in the way of free scrapbooking eductation that it should be on your radar. You can watch videos and take old and new classes, many of which are free. This year they have daily scrapbooking how-to videos that I am just loving - especially: The Adventures of Glitter Girl and Seeing Double (with Lisa Dickinson in particular).
8. Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog: This is more of a challenge blog than an online scrapbooking class site but they have so much in the way of learning links and every month they encourage readers to create their own scrapbook kit with stuff from their scrapbook stash. It is a fun place to find new ideas and participate.
9. You Tube: You can find lots of scrapbooking tutorials for free on You Tube; word to the wise: You get what you pay for, but there are some amazing videos there too - especially those done by Shimelle Laine who also offers free and paid-for high quality and jam packed with content scrapbooking classes at her blog.
10. My Craft Channel offers free "shows" from scrapbookers like Heidi Swapp, Stacy Julian, Teresa Collins, and Amy Coon. They videos are about 10 minutes each and they are delightful.
Those are just some of my favorites, there are probably hundreds of places to get online scrapbooking classes - yessiree, we have an active and vibrant subculture and we're proud! Here are 10 more links to sites that I recommend but don't currently use:
1. Jessica Sprague: Online classes and products for digital scrapbookers
2. Renee Pearson: Another source for online classes for digital scrapbooking and photography. And Renee is delightful in her "in person" classes, I took one in 2007 and loved it.
3. Lain Ehmann: True Scrap & Layout A Day "Load Challenge": If you've never tried scrapbooking everyday for one month, do it! It will speed up the way you scrap!
4. Donna Downey: She started at Simple Scrapbooks and has gone very artsy - lots of fun painting and art journal type classes here - I think they are on line and in North Carolina.
5. Creative Passion Classes: Online classes to fuel your passion for creativity.
6. Lynda.com: Learn how to use software programs and things on the internet and photography tips and a lot of tech information.
7. Ustream: You can find a wealth of free scrapbooking videos on ustream - the downside is that it gives you commercials before each video - but if you find some favorite teachers and follow them, it is a great resource.
8. Ranger U: All sorts of scrapbook technique videos.
9. Creating Keepsakes: There is a ton of information about scrapbooking here, but I find it a little difficult to nagivate - but it is worth the effort, the content is good - the web aspect of it could use a little streamlining.
10. Ali Edwards: December Daily, A Week In the Life, One Little World, and many more scrapbooking concepts and ideas with a mix of free and paid for classes.
Have fun scrapbooking using inspiration from online scrapbooking classes and tutorials!
Here's a link to the inspiration for this page: CHA 2013 Webster's Pages.
What I took from this layout:
1. The basic layout design.
2. The mint + yellow + grey with other colors combination.
3. The one word title placement.
Here's what I changed:
1. I added the die cut hearts in same patterned paper for a tone on tone effect, I used pop dots to make some of the hearts stand up and stand out.
2. I added journaling on the mat of the photo in the form of a short note to my son.
3. I added machine stitching around the layout - mostly to hold down all those paper strips in the sunburst design - I could have used lots more adhesive but the stitching seemed like an easier and better fix.
The Story of this Page:
Its almost time for my son's birthday which is a week before Valentines Day. As he is growing up, telling him I love him is probably less frequent than the bazillion times a day we said "I Love You's" when he was small, and is certainly everyday especially at bedtime; but somehow, it seems like heart to heart conversations and declarations of love seem especially important at this age.
So while I've been on a "scrapbook as many photos as possible on one page" kick, this page seemed like it just needed just one photo.
***
Want to support this blog and check out some heart dies and punches right in time for Valentine's Day? Check out these affiliate links:
One of my favorite things to do around the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Shows (otherwise known as CHA) is to scraplift the CHA layouts to see how I can accomplish the trendy new looks with my old scrapbooking supplies. It is a fun creative exercise, I encourage you to give it a try - not because you're never going to get the new items - but because I get all the excitement of the new stuff combined with using what I already have - I love feeling frugal - even if the amount of scrapbooking supplies I have would clearly state that my habit - um I mean hobby - is nothing but frugal!
My Page: Gamer / The Story: My son would play video games 24/7 if we let him and he got the WiiU for Christmas - so it was a bit hard to get his attention after he opened that present.
The inspiration? Maggie Holmes for Studio Calico for CHA W 2013.
What I lifted?
1. 3 columns of trendy stamped background on white cardstock.
2. A hodge podge of random embellishments.
3. Placement of photo and title and journaling.
What I changed?
1. I think hers was a one photo layout on a 12x12 page (probably to show off the products); I made an 8.5 x 11 page with two photos.
2. She had lots of different types of embellishments from papers and staples and brad and buttons - lots of dimentional items which look great; but I used just the patterned papers for a flatter scrapbook page (more for the way it will fit in an album than for visual interest).
3. Photography: Her layout looks like a professional photographer (which I think she is) took the photo while mine is a self shot with the point and shoot and a blurry detail shot. Sure, her layout is much more visually stunning, but my layout tells my real life story with a few shots that I took during Christmas Morning - not at all posed, just an "oh I should capture this" moment.
Come see what I got for $17 bucks at the Whim So Doodle Scrapbook Yardsale and hear how I got out of my scrapbooking hiatus and got my creative mojo back.
Video streaming by Ustream P.S. Ustream is going to be deleting many of my older and more boring videos, so if you want to see them, go see them now before they are gone!
Hello Scrapbookers!
I've been blogging about my application process to scrapbooking manufacturer design teams. There are four that I'm applying to, three of which I have already submitted an application: Bella Blvd., Jillibean Soup, and Jenni Bowlin, and one of which I am planning to send in an application before Friday: Lily Bee.
(scraplift of a Bella Blvd. layout)
The announcement for Bella Blvd. was supposed to be yesterday, but was set back one day until today. I haven't looked yet. I don't expect to make it, not because I am not optimistic, I am; but because I haven't heard from them. Usually, when I have been picked to be on a design team, I get a head's up before the announcement, this was the case with Scrapbooking in Paradise, Ella Publishing, and Get It Scrapped; however, Whim So Doodle posted the announcement online and that's how I did find out I was on that team. I tend to think that the scrapbooking manufacturers give the heads up and get papers signed and bios and photos etc. before making the announcement. A scrapbooking friend messaged me yesterday to say she didn't get the acceptance email for Bella Blvd.; she is more "in" the scrapbooking industry than I am so I figure she knows that they do send out the acceptance emails and then make the announcement.
(another scraplift of a Bella Blvd. layout)
Another friend left a comment here on the blog saying that she submits applications to design teams but finds it frustrating that she never gets any feedback when she doesn't make it. While I understand her frustration, I can also see it from the perspective of the people choosing - it is almost like when a guy asks you on a date and you know you have no interest so you say no but you don't really want to give him a reason - or when we hire employees at work, its hard to say "oh we never even considered you" or "you almost had it except that you chewed gum during the whole interview" - maybe the feedback would be nice for the applicant but as the interviewer it feels super awkward.
(another scraplift of a Bella Blvd. Layout)
Another reason I don't think I "made" the Bella Blvd. Design Team is that my application didn't follow the rules, I didn't hide that part either, I actually highlighted it. I think that they are probably looking for someone who can follow the rules on a team, and being a "rule breaker" on the application wasn't probably my best idea - but, on the other hand, I had sort of an unusual idea and if they bit then that would have been fun too.
(another scraplift of a Bella Blvd. layout!)
Ok, I'm off to go see who they did pick! I'll report back with how I felt and what I thought after seeing the announcement.
:) Katie.
P.S. I didn't make it - I found Diane Payne's announcement that she made it on my Typepad Dashboard before I made it over to the Bella Blvd. Blog. One thing I do like to do when I don't make it is to look at the work of those who did; so I'll be surfing the new Bella Blvd. Team on Pinterest so you can go over and look at my soon-to-be recent posts there if you want to follow along.
P.S. My "Rule Breaking" was that I didn't use any of their products in the application and I instead scrap-lifted their current design team and used product from my own vast scrapbooking stash - probably not the most recommended way of doing things - just in case you are thinking of applying for design teams!
P.S. Ben Folds has a new album! Plus I think there is a video on You Tube for the new Ben Folds' song "Do It Anyway" that includes the Fraggles (I heard about it on The Nerdist). Check out the affiliate link:
This is my first "season" of applying to scrapbooking design teams for scrapbooking product makers. Here's an update: I put in applications to Bella Blvd. (deadline was 9/5/12); Jillibean Soup (deadline was 9/15/12); and Jenni Bowlin (deadline is today 9/16/12). I am working on my Lily Bee application (deadline is 9/21/12). So I'm playing with their products now.
Here's a page I just made about how my daughter used to hold "school" for her stuffed animals; I kind of miss those days.
The design team announcements are schedule for:
9/17/12 (tomorrow) Bella Blvd.
9/21/12 Jillibean Soup
9/26/12 Jenni Bowlin *** The submission deadline has been extended and there is a live facebook chat with Doris Sander today at 5 pm Eastern Time - Here's a link for the information about the extra time from Jenni Bowlin!
9/30/13 Lily Bee
I'll keep you posted. Do you / Did you apply for any of the scrapbooking design team calls? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this process.
Play it Again Sam - yep, I did another page with the square punch DIY Hexagons - it is just so much fun to make and I love the quilted effect and this Jenni Bowlin paper was perfect for this technique. The page is all about the 1940 Census and my great-grandparents, Charles and Ellen Flavin of Attleboro, Massachusetts. You can see the whole page in downtown St. Pete at Whim So Doodle which is run by the most lovely Jill Orobello.
The challenge up today at the Big Picture Festival is from Karen Gruenberg and her challenge is to scrapbook a happy memory from the past week or two. I've been sort of addicted to Instagram for the past couple of weeks and, last night, we had the first Design Team Meeting at Whim So Doodle. I mashed up those two happy memories to make this photo which I think I'm just going to print out 8.5x11 and put in my Project Life Album.
Several Scrapbook Paper Makers are having DESIGN TEAM CALLS right now!
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 5, 2012: Bella Blvd. Design Team Call
(This is a Bella Blvd. Lift based on their CHA Winter 2012 samples).
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2012: Jillibean Soup Design Team Call
(I am currently working on a summer wrap up mini book with Jillibean Soup.)
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 16, 2012: Jenni Bowlin Studio Design Team Call
(Look carefully - there is a lot of Jenni Bowlin Product on my baker's rack storage thingee.)
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 21, 2012: Lily Bee Design Team Call
(I picked up some Lily Bee papers and stickers at Whim So Doodle recently and had fun making this Goodbye to the Hamsters page - which I think appeared on a Get It Scrapped post).
***
There are also several challenge blogs and online stores having Design Team Calls:
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2012: Scor Pal Design Team Call
DEADLINE: OCTOBER 11, 2012: CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration Design Team Call
I am thinking of applying to the first four since I love their products and think it would be fairly awesome to get free product and I like having an assignment or a challenge as a starting point for making layouts - and the deadlines are also a good thing, suprisingly enough; how about you? Do you apply to Design Teams?
Want to catch up on my self-imposed challenge "24 Scrapbook Layouts from One DCWV Stack?" Her are some links:
DCWV Stack Challenge: Layouts #1-10
DCWV Layouts #18 + #19 (assignments for Elizabeth Dillow's Twelve Challenges Class at BPC)
Get It Scrapped has a post up about Composing the 3 Photo Scrapbook Page. I think lining up 3 photos horizontally or vertically on the page is one of the easiest ways to create a page with 3 photos. Here I used 3 photos of my daughter from different times in her life, I chose photos that showed off her beautiful blue eyes.
The first photo in this series was taken when Allison was just shy of 6 month (I make big babies). I have brown/green eyes but always wanted blue eyes so when my daughter was born with blue eyes like my husband's I was so thrilled and hoped that they'd stick (because there's something about babies eyes changing initially right?) and they did. Allison isn't always cooperative in the picture taking department, so when she does allow me to take a close up of her eyes, I always take a picture or two.
Journaling: "If your baby had blue eyes like these, you'd take a million pictures too."
Supplies: DCWV "The Snapshot Stack"; Copic Marker; American Crafts cardstock, machine stitching,
P.S. My mother's 3rd husband worked at Polaroid in Massachusetts for his whole career so its kind of fun that Polaroids are back and so trendy now.
If you'd like to get yourself a DCWV stack and challenge yourself to make 24 layouts AND support this blog at the same time (how exciting right?), please click through to one of the following affiliate links! Thanks!
I just checked over at The Whim So Doodle Blog and they have their Design Team announcement up and I scrolled down a little so I could see the first 5 or so names and then stopped, told myself not to get my hopes up, that I probably didn't make it, took a deep breath and then scrolled down a little more and SAW MY NAME! next to the last one. I'll take it! (I would be terrible on the Bachelor if Chris Harrison came out and said "there's only one rose left" - they'd cut to me and I'd be sweating it out.) Anyway, I am completely delighted to be on the Whim So Doodle Design Team!
P.S. If you aren't familiar with Whim So Doodle, it is the most amazingly beautiful scrapbooking store in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. They host lots of classes from scrapbooking teachers from all over like Kelley Purkey, Margie Romney-Aslett, Dina Wakely, Tim Holtz, Donna Downey and lots of other fabulous teachers. The store itself is beautiful and whenever I go I have to make 3-4 rounds of the store before leaving - it is always at least an hour - total eye candy.
I love this video on Get It Scrapped Showing how Debbie Hodge scraplifted a layout by Doris Sander; Debbie's page is digital and I'm not sure but I think Doris's page is paper. I loved seeing another person go through their scraplifting process. Of course I had to make a page! Here it is:
I used brighter colors than the original two pages; but the basic set up is the same. I used the supplies from my August Counterfeit Kit Club tote - I love being able to pull this out and commit to using it. It makes the scrapbooking process go so much faster because much of the time choosing stuff is taken out of the equation so the page goes together very quickly.
Journaling: "I showed Allson how to braid only once and she got it instantly. She put together this multi-braid look and outfit all by herself (of course) and she was styling on our family date. Go Allison Go! Summer 2012."
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