Monthly Archives: January 2015

Jan30

It’s Alive!

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Heather

Won’t you please welcome to the world The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking!

This is a strictly for beginner’s book! Really!

It breaks down the page creation process into simple steps, with three common starting points: your photos, your story, or your beloved scrapbooking supplies.

If you’ve made a page before, you’ll recognize all the steps. If you’ve tried but failed, it’s usually because you get hung up on design or journaling. If those are your problems, this has some quick and simple tips to help you work around them.

If you haven’t scrapbooked because you think you need to have all your photos printed and organized, and your supplies stored away in pretty baskets, that’s just not true. In order to preserve your memories, you just need paper, pens, maybe some photos, and some adhesive. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Please, share this with all your non-scrapbooking friends! Memory keeping doesn’t have to be difficult, time consuming or intimidating. It just needs to be fun!

Jan26

If I’d Known Then (An Ode to LOAD)

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Heather

If I’d Known Then (An Ode to LOAD)

Since I’m so excited to be doing another Layout A Day Challenge next month, I jumped at the chance to join a little blog hop to share what I wish I’d known before attempting a LOAD.

Of course, I’ve done lots of posts in previous years about all my tips and tricks for participating in LOAD. You can find all those posts here: LOAD in review

Today’s post is more about the heart of LOAD. (At least for me.)

If I’d known then
What I know now
I would have started sooner.
I’d spread more love
And comment more
And never worry about adhesive.

If I’d known then
What I know now
I’d have bought fewer doo-dads.
Fewer embellishments
And more white pens,
And lots of lined paper for journaling.

If I’d known then
What I know now
I would never have worried about
Whether or not I could do it.
The challenge isn’t in the completion rate,
But the attitude adjustment.

There’s no reason you can’t scrapbook every day.
There’s no reason you can’t find time to be creative
And to find yourself
In amongst all the paper and glue and sparkly bits.

There’s every reason to join in
And support each other
And ourselves
As we turn pretty paper
And beloved photos
Into stories that we can cherish
And memories that we can save
And love that knows no measure.

Deep breath! Ah!

Okay, I’m back from weird poetry land.

LOAD, for me, is really about the people I’ve met, and will meet, and the pages we all create. It’s full of creative, scrappy goodness, and wonderful scrapbookers who aren’t judgmental, or mean, or competitive. We’re all there to lift each other up. It’s the most wonderful part of LOAD.

How about some links to the other lovely ladies on the blog hop? You should go visit them, they’re all so wonderfully inspiring!

Jan20

Exciting things on the way!

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Heather

Exciting things on the way!

There are so many fun things heading our way.

First up, on January 31st is the next True Scrap production, Truth Scrap! This one day online, live event will focus on the hows and whys of scrapbooking your faith. I’ve seen a couple previews of class samples, and they look amazing! If you are into art journaling or faith-booking, this is the event for you.

This will be the first True Scrap production I won’t be able to attend. Which I am rather bummed about. But I’ll keep my ear to the ground and let you know which ones my scrappy friends really love!

Also coming up real fast is the next Layout a Day challenge, which starts February 1st. The theme of this year’s LOAD is “Once Upon a Time… Celebrating the Stories and Books of Our Youth.” As an avowed book nerd from a very early age, I’m excited to see where February’s month of prompts will take us. Lain usually comes up with some great, thought provoking ideas. I’ll be posting my daily layouts here, as well as on Flickr, so you’ll get to see how creating a page a day works. I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly you start to scrapbook once you’ve gotten into the groove of creating a page daily.

My book is almost done. I’m doing one final edit to check for errors and unclear sentences. I want beginning scrapbookers to understand what I’m trying to tell them! This book is intended specifically for the beginning scrapbooker; it lays out the process for creating a page from start to finish based on three common starting points. It’s very definitely process based, rather than project based.

By the end of February, I should have a class based on the book ready for sale. That will include three process videos, worksheets and printable PDFs, and possibly layered photoshop templates for the digitally inclined. If I do include the layered templates, I’ll probably include another video on how to use them. Maybe. I’m still finalizing details on the class. Also, there will be a bit of instructor interaction, with review of up to three layouts that the student produces.

That’s a lot of excitement for one day, don’t you think? I think I’m going to go calm down by doing my December Project Life pages. Yep. I do find scrapbooking therapeutic, don’t you?

Jan14

Feeling the Urge to Create

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Heather

Feeling the Urge to Create

Some days, it feels like it’s been MONTHS since I’ve made anything. (It’s only been a few days! I made pages on Saturday!) Some days, I don’t know where I want to start. Some days, I feel the need to expand my inspirational horizons. Those are the days that Pinterest is made for.

Last night, looking for color inspiration, I came across these pins. I was looking for something warm to counteract all the cold around here, but these are the images that caught my eye.

First this fun fox captured my fancy:

Illustration by Chris Garbutt from Journey to the Centre of My Brain by James Carter

The expression on this fox’s face is filled with excitement and whimsy. And the white brush marks on the tail really make me think of snow and cold.

And then I saw this:

Card by essillustration available on etsy

More foxes! And you know they are warm foxes since they are curled up all tight together.

Apparently I now have a thing for foxes.

Finally, these two items finished the inspiration injection:

photo by Doc. Ing. of Lake Sauris in Italy from Flickr

Illustration for magazine Revue XXI no. 23 by Cruschiform (Fukushima)

The scenic photo is so lovely and relaxing. You can tell it’s just about a perfect day. Or you can imagine that it is. And the structure of the bottom illustration is calling for a scrapbook interpretation of it.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with all of these ideas. But the thing about inspiration is that you can let it brew in the back of your mind while you’re working on other things, and then, when you can concentrate on it, you will have figured out what you want to do with it. At least that’s the plan for now. We’ll see how it turns out next week!

What do you all think of these inspiration pieces? What would you do with them?

I wonder what I’ll come up with…

Jan9

No Stress Project Life

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Heather

No Stress Project Life

I have not been doing Project Life on a daily basis. Nor on a weekly basis, or even on a monthly basis.

The thing is, I’m not scrapping all the time. (Shocking, I know!) Sometimes I’m sewing, sometimes I’m making cards, sometimes I’m crocheting. I scrapbook in batches. I find I like how I scrapbook if I do a bunch at a time. Also, I appreciate it more every time I get back to it from some other project. I really do love scrapbooking.

I was trying to write every day when I first started this year’s version of Project Life, but that quickly got away from me. It’s hard to remember to write things down, when it feels like everyday is the same. Wake up, get kids to school, work/write/chores till the kids get home, then nag about homework, make dinner, and chase everyone off to bed.

It sometimes feels like a boring daily slog. But, I am using Project Life to try to remember all the little things that WILL change as the kids grow up.

And that really is what Project Life is to me. A chance to capture details that are going to change, no matter how repetitive they seem now.

During December I found time to catch up on the past two and a half months. Family visits. Birthdays. Exciting announcements.

I had chances to get crafty with both kids for Halloween. Even though my oldest didn’t go trick or treating because he didn’t get armor for his birthday. (Seriously. He wanted chain mail!)