Since the death of my laptop a few months ago, I have not scrapbooked ONE.SINGLE.PAGE. {Gasp}

Now that might now seem like a big deal to some of you, but documenting my family’s stories is a big priority to me, and so falling several months behind has been stressful. So I made myself a goal this year to keep up with my 2012 photos and stories, but as good old Dave Ramsey says–if you don’t have a written plan, your goal will just be a dream. Knowing I wanted to be successful in accomplishing this goal, I was thinking about HOW I would go about keeping up with my 2012 photos when I remembered my sister-in-law, Shaela’s method of keeping up. It’s genius (especially her NOT GUILTY part that you’ll read more about in a minute!). Since this method works well for her, (and I’m thinking it will work for me) I asked her to come share because it might also work for YOU. 

Hi everyone! My name is Shaela and I live in Las Vegas, NV. Pam asked me to do a guest post on my scrapbook method, so here I am!

I started scrapbooking traditionally about 10 years ago, and while I tried my best to keep up with pictures and layouts, as time went on (and marriage, kids, and life happened) I seemed to get more and more behind. But then I hit on a method that really worked for me, and I have successfully completed 2 years worth of scrapbooks: one from 2010 (traditional) and one from 2011 (digital).

Since I am both a traditional and a digital scrapbooker and have used this method successfully both ways, I hope that it will help many of you to accomplish every scrapbooker’s goal: to stay caught up with your layouts! So I’m going to explain the method I have found that works best for me.

I decided early in 2010 that something needed to change. I wrote notes and took pictures and sometimes had them printed and put together in layouts, but most of the time my pictures just sat on my desk or in my computer and nothing was done with them. So the very first thing I did was take my 3 big boxes of photos (think Xerox paper boxes) from the last 8 years and label them “NOT GUILTY”. Seriously… I wrote that on the sides of them with a sharpie and stuck them in the back of my closet. I will get to them someday (hopefully), but even if I don’t, I’m NOT allowing myself to feel guilty. You cannot move forward if you are constantly looking back, and moving forward is what I wanted to do.

After I set my guilt aside, I downloaded and sorted the photos from my digital camera so I could start with a clean memory card. Then I set up a folder on my computer desktop labeled “2010 photos”. Inside that folder I set up a separate folder for each month of the year, like this:

Then at the end of each month, I took ALL of the photos on my camera and transferred them to that month’s folder. Most of the time I had random photos, but sometimes I had many photos from a specific event: birthdays, vacations, etc. I grouped those photos into folders within the month, like so:

The first week of the new month was my photo editing week. I went through my photos and fixed any flaws, deleted duplicates or bad shots and basically did general cleaning up. Once the photos were done, I burned a DVD disc with the photos from that month and slipped it into a cd case. I made 2 copies each month: a backup and a backup-backup (you can also backup your photos online if you like).

Since I was still scrapbooking traditionally in 2010, the next thing I did was plan out my layouts. I looked at the photos for the month and decided which stories I wanted to tell. For the special events I typically planned only one layout (either a single or 2-page spread) but the random photos were a bit more difficult to plan: sometimes one photo had a whole story to tell, and other times the photos were just snapshots of daily life. Once I had my layouts planned and sketched out, I cropped my photos and sent them to Costco for printing.

I would pick them up and place them with my sketchbook and work on the layouts throughout the month. This way I was scrapbooking July’s photos in August, August’s photos in September, etc. Since I gave myself a whole month to get them done, I found that it was very manageable, and the stories were still fairly fresh in my mind. If I ended up with a lot of random photos, I often scrapbooked an “ordinary days” layout where I put them all together and called it good.

Occasionally I had SO many photos from a day or event that I simply couldn’t scrapbook them all, but I still wanted to be able to see them. So I bought some 12×12 divided inserts and slipped the extra photos in after the initial layout of the event. 
 Using this method I was able to fully complete my 2010 scrapbook by January 2011 – a feat I had NEVER accomplished! With my 2010 scrapbook completed, I was ready to follow the same method in 2011 but with a twist. While I love the physical craft of scrapbooking and getting my “hands dirty”, it was taking so much time (and money) that I found myself falling behind at times… having to scramble at the end of October or early November to finish up September’s layouts, for example. So in 2011 I decided to take the plunge into digital scrapbooking. I set up my folders on the computer the same way, but with a few additions. Within each month’s folder, I made 3 folders labeled “JPEG layout files, photos, and PSD layout files”, like this:

Within the photos folder I treated my photos the same as before: creating subfolders for special events and leaving the rest of the photos “loose.” Since my decision to switch to digital was based on saving on time and money, I also decided to use layered templates and Photoshop Elements to create my layouts, since this would save me a lot of time and planning in the long run. I also used quickpages occasionally.

I then basically followed the same routine: at the end of the month I put all my photos from my camera into the appropriate folder, cleaned and edited them, and then scrapbooked the prior month’s photos in the ensuing weeks. It went much smoother and faster doing it digitally because I didn’t have to crop, print, and physically cut each photo – I just dragged them into Photoshop when I was working on a layout. I saved all of my layouts as editable .psd files, and when I had a layout completed to my satisfaction I also saved it as a full-resolution .jpg in the JPEGs folder. When I finished a folder of photos, either within the month or for the whole month, I renamed the folder to add “- DONE” at the end of it so I knew what was finished and what still needed doing. At the end of the year, all my folders looked like this:

Many places offer scrapbook-size prints if you prefer to print your layouts and slip them into your own scrapbooks, but I chose to have mine bound into a photobook at the end of the year. The first week in January 2012 I uploaded all of my .jpg layouts from 2011 and had them bound into an 8×8 photobook from Shutterfly.

For the first time in 10 years I am “caught up” with scrapbooking. I don’t feel pressure and guilt anymore about the hundreds of photos that I still have in boxes from years ago. I know that even if I never get to those, my children and grandchildren will be able to look at what I have accomplished and what I’m doing now. It’s a method that has worked for me for 2 years now and a method I plan to continue in the years to come. I hope that it works for some of you as well!

(Pam again) Awesome, right? I’m going to do that NOT GUILTY thing immediately. lol

For lots more scrapbooking and crafty fun, visit Shaela on her blog!

Then I had this inner-gasp moment when I looked at pictures of my baby girl, and realized she’s not such a baby anymore. Does this happen to you? I swear she was just born, that I was just sitting in the NICU stroking her hand and praying for her to come home soon. And now, soon, we’re going to have another little one! It’s so crazy how fast time goes.

You’ll always be my baby.

One of the beginning digital scrapbooking questions I’m often asked (and one I also heavily pondered pre-digi days) is, What about printing?

My preferred method (so far) has been to print my completed layouts in easy-to-handle 8×8 hardbound books. I keep these books easily accessible on the coffee table or bookshelf so anyone can read them whenever they want.

And they do!

I don’t have ONE favorite printing place –yet. I’ve tried several, been happy with most. Since I let my kids look at their scrapbooks I don’t want to spend a fortune on printing (maybe later when I print books JUST for me) and so I typically just wait to find great deals and then print.

One of those “great deals” is going on right now with Groupon and Shutterfly. If you’re new to Groupon, it’s a daily deal site that gathers deals in your area and offers a huge discount—usually 50-90% off—for a limited time (usually one day). It’s a good deal for customers (hello, 50-90% off!), and it’s a good deal for businesses because they get new customers to try them out. Sometimes the deals are nationwide (I’ve purchased Groupons for Redbox and Barnes and Noble), and sometimes the deals are for places local to you (I’ve purchased Groupons for a local restaurant and local museum at deep discounts).

Anyway, so back to printing digital. The Groupon deal today is for 67% off a Shutterfly Photo Book. The first photobook I made as a brand-new-didn’t-know-what-I-was-doing-digi-scrapbooker was from Shutterfly, and I was really happy with how easy it was to use. Shutterfly has the option to create your own pages (this is where you would upload your digital layouts), or you can use the premade templates to drag and drop your digital photos (no scrapbooking required).

On another digi note, TODAY is the last day Little Dreamer will be open. My designs are currently 50% off until “doors” close (discount shows up when you click on each design). At this point I do not have plans to move to another digital store–maybe in the future, maybe for a guest spot or two, but for now I’m planning to take a designing break to work on a few projects, cook, blog, and open an Etsy store.

More details to come!

Ha! How’s that for decisive?

Send me your e-mail (pamelaodd@gmail.com) for links and then go scrap those stories!! Oh, and thanks for the good laughs!!

. . . which inspired his mama to contact her favorite digital designer to create a really fun haircutting kit!

And COME. ON. You need this kit. It’s just too cute to pass up. Perfect for documenting haircuts of course, new dos, accident cuts, etc.

Run over to Jacque’s store, where it’s 20% off this weekend!!

I’m giving this kit away to THREE people! Tell me your BEST haircutting blunder in the comments or on Facebook, and it could be you!!

Bye.

I’m feeling a bit sick myself–but not the puke kind, the uneasy, pit in the stomach, nervous-about-getting-on-an-airplane-kind.

Yesterday came news that Little Dreamer Designs will be closing. It was shocking, bittersweet news. Little Dreamer is a special store to me and I don’t think I would have become a designer if it weren’t for this store and Michelle’s inspiration. I know I’ve told this story before, but I first became interested in learning more about designing when I saw an ad for the Little Dreamer designing apprenticeship contest in 2008. I was a new digital scrapbooker, had severe post-partum depression, and was desperate for a creative outlet. When I saw that apprenticeship ad it occurred to me that real people were creating all these amazing digital designs I was scrapbooking with. LOL I knew barely anything about Photoshop but thought it would be so cool to apply and so while my husband worked late nights during his master’s program, I put the kids to bed and devoured Photoshop tutorials. After a few weeks I had worked up several {terrible} design samples, finally settled on one for the application and sent it in. I even put an image of myself as the winner of the Little Dreamer Apprentice Program on my vision board.

S0 I was CRUSHED when I didn’t even make the first round of cuts. 

But after some initial sulking I decided to try designing again, and had the opportunity to sell at Elemental Scraps (now closed), Funky Playground Designs, and The DigiChick. Two-and-a-half years after that first contest I was invited to join the Little Dreamer team and it was certainly a “dream” come true. 

Over the past couple of months the air has been different in the store and I’ve sensed change coming, so I was not completely surprised to hear we would be closing. But I am sad to say good-bye to my digi home. There is comfort for me though, that the store is not closing because it wasn’t doing well. Judging by the number of e-mails and facebook messages I’ve received, I’m sure that will be a comfort to many of you as well. We’re closing because our amazingly talented Michelle Coleman has received another opportunity that is just too good to pass up in this unstable economy. She is also planning a wedding and expecting a new baby, so while Little Dreamer will be missed, and I know it was a difficult decision for her, I’m sure we can all understand the need to consider what’s best for our families and our health. 

Many of you have asked what I am going to be doing now. The truthful answer is, I really don’t know yet, hence the pit in my stomach this morning. But I am incredibly grateful to have options. Overwhelmingly grateful. And I really appreciate your supportive e-mails and kind words and prayers. It means so much to me. Sometimes doors close for a reason and I have a lot to consider.

In the meantime, the store closing does mean there is a major benefit to YOU–and that is a 50% off sale until our virtual doors close on March 15th. If there is something you’ve been eyeing, it’s definitely a good time to stock up!! I’ve noticed things are running a bit slow–maybe because it’s getting a lot of traffic, so if you get an error message, give it a rest and try again. I’ll give you plenty of notice before all my designs are pulled.

Templates. How do I use thee? Let me count the ways. . .

Once you’ve got the basics of using a template down, you’ll find they can be oh soooo versatile.

Let’s explore.

Here’s the template we started with and the original page we made:

And here are some more pages made with the SAME template which has been flipped, twisted, and tweeked:

10 Things by Jacque Larsen, Zero to Hero by Jacque Larsen and Lauren Grier, photo by Aja Shoup

Alphagraphics by Jacque Larsen, Once Upon a Rhyme by Jacque Larsen and Kaye Winiecki

Kitschy Christmas by Jacque Larsen, Rachel Young and Lilje Designs

Jack of all Toys by Jacque Larsen and PixelWorks, Newsies by Jacque Larsen

Juicy by me, Once Upon a Rhyme by Jacque Larsen and Kaye Winiecki

The key for me in creating these pages was to use my template as my guide, but to adapt it to fit my stories. That’s the beauty of templates. Let them work for you and you’ll find there are so many, many possibilities!

If you used the {free} “dream” template, I’d love to see your final product! Send me an e-mail, leave a comment on the blog, or link up on our facebook page.

Speaking of templates, I have a new set in the store. Build an Album {Vol. 3} is perfect for creating a themed album or for just upping  your collection. Build an Album {Vol. 3} is 20% off this week.

Hi Friends! Welcome to our chat about digital scrapbooking! So far we’ve covered:

• Getting Started: What Do I Need?
• Downloading and Unzipping Digital Files

Today we’re creating a page!! It’s a common myth that Photoshop is too complicated but today’s tutorial will {hopefully} smash a part of that. We’re going to be working with Daydream Believer to create a digital layout using a layered template.

Think of a layered template as a digital scrapbooker’s version of a page sketch. Templates are an amazing tool to use if you are feeling mojo-less, as a quick way to pump out some pages, or as a creative guide for your pages. Templates are also one of the easiest ways to get your feet wet in Photoshop. I’m going to be explaining some Photoshop basics as we create this page:

I’m using this template, which is a free download for you {yay!}, and for this tutorial I’ll be working in Photoshop Elements. {You can download a free 30 day trial on adobe.com.}

To walk you through the process I’ve created a video tutorial. I suggest watching it on Vimeo or downloading it to your computer for easier viewing. It’s about 20 minutes long.

Enjoy

Creating a Digital Layout Using a Template from Pam Odd on Vimeo.

(I’d love to hear any feedback and see your completed pages…was the tutorial helpful, do I really sound like a 12-year old!, etc.)

When you’re ready to start supplying your digital stash you’ll want to purchase supplies or search for freebies to download. In most cases you will have immediate access to the files. Save the download to your desired location by clicking on “Save.”

The saved digital scrapbooking files will come in a compressed or “zipped” folder that will need to be extracted or “unzipped” before use. If you use Windows XP or Vista your computer should already have an unzipping program built in. You can test this by left clicking on the zipped file and selecting “Extract all.” Now your file should be unzipped and you will see the are individual files inside the folder.

If your computer doesn’t have a built in unzipping program you can download a free unzipping software. I asked around and the most recommended were Unzip Them All or Extract Now if you have a lot of files to unzip, or WinRar if you just have a single file to unzip. 

Here is a video tutorial that will walk you through the downloading, saving, and unzipping process.

Downloading, Saving, and Unzipping from Pam Odd on Vimeo.

Of course you’ll need a “freebie” to practice with!!  Download Daydream Believer

Up next, creating a digital layout using a template. . .

It’s no secret I love digital scrapbooking as a way to create photo albums and tell stories. I’ve been receiving quite a few e-mails lately so I thought I’d spend a few posts going over the basics and answering some of your questions. (And if you have more, please feel free to ask: pamelaodd@gmail.com)

First off, what do you need to get started in digital scrapbooking?

1. Computer
2. Image Editing Program 
3.  External Hard Drive (optional, but suggested)
4. Digital Scrapbooking Supplies

I’m guessing if you’re reading this you can go ahead and check computer off your list!

Besides a computer, the most important “supply” you’ll need for digital scrapbooking is an image editing program that works in layers and can open/work with .jpeg, .png, .psd, and .abr files. The most common program among digital scrapbookers is Photoshop Elements (PSE) and Photoshop Creative Suite (PSCS).

I started with Photoshop Elements and personally recommend it because most digital scrapbooking tutorials are written for this program and in most cases will do everything you’ll need/want to do. Elements is also quite affordable (around $80) compared to it’s big brother, Photoshop Creative Suite (around $600). You can download 30-day trials of Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop on adobe.com.

Two things I suggest before you purchase any program:

• Download the free 30-day trial version and play around. Follow a tutorial, create a page or two, and get a feel for the program to see if it’s something you’ll enjoy. Just sayin’ cause I hate buyer’s remorse!
• Check to see if you qualify for an academic discount. My husband was in graduate school when I purchased Photoshop Creative Suite and so I was able to buy it at the school bookstore on an “academic discount” for less than half the retail price. There are also student editions available on Amazon. Worth looking into for sure.

If you’re interested in programs other than Photoshop Elements or Photoshop Creative Suite, The Daily Digi has some suggestions.

An external hard drive is optional to start out, but I recommend having one if you decide you love digital scrapbooking. You’ll be working with photos and other large, high-quality images and they will quickly fill up and slow down your computer’s internal hard drive. It’s also smart to keep a back-up in case of a computer crash (more on this later). When I first went digital I used a small jump drive, then upgraded to a much larger external hard drive once I’d decided digi was for me.

Once you have your program loaded onto your computer and you have plenty of hard drive space, you’re ready to start acquiring digital supplies! Yay! The fun is about to begin!

There are two ways to stock your digi stash:

• Download free samples. Many digital designers offer ”freebies” (usually on their blogs or newsletters) so you can test them and get a closer look at their style and quality before purchasing. When I started digital scrapbooking I pretty much only downloaded and scrapped with freebies, but I quickly learned that not all freebies are created equally, so make sure to look for quality when downloading free digital supplies (here’s a good place to start!). Katie gives some good freebie 411. 
• Purchase digital supplies. By far, one of the funnest parts of digital scrapbooking is going shopping! There are many different stores for every scrapbooking style, so shop around and discover what you love. May I suggest this one? ;) The Digi Files are one of my favorite ways to inexpensively try out different designers and get a feel for styles.

Up next, downloading, saving, and unzipping digital supplies (and maybe even a freebie!). . . .

One of the things Jared and I have committed to do in order to “prosper” our relationships with our kids is to take them on a monthly one-on-one date. This is the story of the date I took Ryan on this weekend.

Tonight was my turn to take Ryan on a date. He chose the activity–going to a restaurant to get a kid’s meal (something we rarely do). He’s been really excited for his time out with me and when it was time to get ready he exclaimed, “I’ve been waiting for this moment ALL DAY!”

It was almost time to go when I heard him in my bathroom and started to smell the strong scent of Jared’s cologne. I peeked in on him. “What are you doing, buddy?” I asked.

“Making my hands smell good for you,” he replied, his hands doused in cologne.

I wanted to squeeze him and cry at the same time because I was so happy that he would think about me and what I might like. And that he was so excited to go on a “date” with me he would get “dressed up” (in his favorite Superman baseball cap) and “smell good,” knowing it would make the date special.

The date was special. We had lots of laughs, told silly jokes over chicken strips and fries, and I learned some secrets only five-year-olds tell. Being a mom is dang hard, but these are the moments that make it all worth it.

Just a page with a bit of journaling about one of the goals we have this year: Less TV, More Books.

{linked for credits}

Journaling:A few days ago Ryan asked what my favorite TV show was when I was little. He was surprised when I told him we didn’t have TV. That’s not completely true though, we did have a TV–a really old one with rabbit ear antennas. But we didn’t watch it often, and when we did it was usually just an occassional VCR movie we borrowed from the library. My parents were very picky about what I watched and encouraged books as better entertainment. As a result I learned to love reading. This year Jared and I have made it a goal to follow my parents’ example and encourage more books and less TV. I don‘t think anything extreme will change from our current lifestyle as we already have lots of children’s literature and are selective about what the kids watch. It’s just that we want to be more conscious of the influence TV can have, while nurturing strong readers.

The Anybook Reader is an interactive reading enhancement tool that comes with sound recording stickers you place on the page of a book and then activate by touching with the Anybook Reader. Once activated you record yourself reading the words of the book and then give it to your child so they can follow along in the book.

Since books and reading are big around our house I immediately loved the product and was excited to introduce it to my kids at reading time. Ryan’s currently into The Magic Treehouse series but they are still just a bit challenging for him to read on his own (I mean, sheesh, he’s only five!). So I’ve been reading the books to him, recording my voice with the Anybook Reader as we go. (Sometimes he takes a turn recording his own voice as well.) Then, when he’s on his own he likes to re-read the chapters, following along with the Anybook Reader. 

I chose the Anybook Reader as my pick on the Papeclipping Digi Show because I thought it could be a great tool for scrapbookers to share the stories of their pages. My kids love to look at their scrapbooks and I think the Anybook Reader would be an awesome addition to the albums, because they can hear my voice telling the stories of the pages I’ve created.

The Anybook Reader would also be a great scrapbooking tool for preserving voice. A couple of years ago I sat down with my grandpa and asked him to tell me his story. I went through the photo albums and asked him questions and then created a scrapbook. Now that he has passed I look back and think how amazing that would have been to have his voice telling the story of his photos in addition to my journaling.

One of my favorite features of the Anybook Reader is that the stickers are re-usuable and re-recordable. I’ll probably just keep them in my scrapbooks all the time, but I like that I can reuse the ones I place in the kids’ storybooks.  The Anybook Reader comes in a 15-hour version and a 60-hour version.

GUESS WHAT? I have an Anybook Reader to giveaway to one of my blog readers!! Waaa-hooooo!

To enter, just leave a comment. . . if you listened to the Paperclipping Digi Show, let me know what you thought, share with me how you think you might use the Anybook Reader, or tell me what you’re having for dinner. I’m not picky! LOL

Giveaway closes on Monday, January 17th, 2011.

Prosper:

• to cause to succeed;
• to succeed in an enterprise or activity;
• to achieve economic success;
• to become strong and flourishing;
• to cause to succeed or thrive

At first thought, “prosper” is primarily a financial word. While increasing our income and reducing our debt is one of our primary goals, we are looking to “prosper” in our family relationships, church responsibilities, faith, health, and educational goals as well.

Although it’s scary to put it in writing, chosing a theme for the year and making specific goals  makes us more accountable so we sat down and wrote out some specific goals or activities for each category to help us achieve a year of prosperity.

Just a few things on our list:

• Pay off van
• Pay off medical bills
• Purchase 2nd car with cash
• More silly mommy, daily one-on-one play with each child
• More reading and less TV
• Ryan start piano lessons
• Emery learn to read
• Pam teach online digital scrapbooking classes
• Jared publish a book or article

I’m taking Ali’s One Little Word class. Excited to put more thought into this word of ours. Planning to make a vision board soon.

Correspondence by Leora Sanford and Paislee Press; One Little Word class material overlays by Ali Edwards

Soooo fun. I’ve been a fan of Paperclipping Digi Show since the beginning, so it was totally an honor to be invited to the show to begin with, but then to be invited to be a panelist along with Ali Edwards–PINCH ME, PLEASE!

Wanna go listen? Of course you do!

My 2010 Girls’ Getaway album is finished and ordered!! Always feels so good to get an album completed. (See the final product)

I chose to print my project as a 6×6 album at Artscow because they have a current deal on 6×6 books: $3.99 with FREE shipping using coupon code: 6X6BOOKS. Hard to beat that. I’ve never printed 6×6 before so we’ll see how I like it.

Tomorrow I have a BIG surprise! (Of course you may already know if you’re a Facebook fan!)

Sometimes I dread documenting my “event” photos (birthday, Christmas, vacation, etc.) because I get bored of the same event over and over. However, I’ve found a solution that’s currently working for me and I’ve been organizing these photos into a themed mini album, and then printing in a 20-ish page hardbound book.  

Since starting a themed album can be a bit overwhelming, I thought I’d share a few tips on streamlining the process.

1. Organize your event photos into mini themes. In my Seattle Girls’ Getaway album, for example, I have a two page spread for each activity we did. . .

The Space Needle:

Pike Place Fish Market:

But breaking photos into mini  themes isn’t always easy. When I’ve worked on reunion albums I’ve sorted through hundreds of photos taken from several different perspectives. Since many of the photos are just random snapshots during the reunion and not particular events, it’s been easiest for me to group several photos around a theme and then create a layout around that idea.

“Good Eats” features random photos centered around preparing or eating food. On the opposite page I documented our family reunion menu.

“Rest and Relaxation” is a collection of photos of people sleeping, cuddling babies, watching TV, etc.

I grouped all the kiddie pool photos in this “Pool Party” spread.

2. Scrap with a kit. I’m not always a kit scrapbooker but when creating a themed album I like my pages to coordinate and it’s easiest to start with a kit. Sometimes I choose a kit that coordinates with the theme of my album, other times I just choose a kit that I love with lots of non-themed papers and elements.

In my recent Girls’ Getaway album I chose a kit and additional elements to carry the theme of the vintage shops we visited.

3. Place multiple photos on a page. When creating themed layouts I prefer multi-photo layouts to help tell the whole story. A bonus to a multi-photo layout is that you can get away with imperfect photography because no one photo stands out. Templates are a huge time saver when creating these multi-photo layouts. Some of my favorite “go-to” multi-photo templates are by Yin Designs. Her blog is full of awesome {FREE} templates and multi-photo layout inspiration.

4. Use a neutral background and keep the accent papers and elements simple. Since it’s a themed album there will likely be lots of photos with lots of different colors. The album will be more cohesive if you let the focus stay on the photos and story rather than the pretty embellishments.

5. Alternate with non-people photos or bits of patterned paper. When I look at scrapbook pages I’m usually drawn to the faces of people, but a multi-photo layout can feel busy and overwhelming so I prefer to include a few stand-out face photos, and then intertwine non-photos or scraps of patterned paper. It helps tell the story of the event, breaks up page a bit, and helps bring the focus to the people. Didn’t take any non-people photos? Look at the photos you do have and consider cropping in on portions of the photo. (See example above of the flower garden spread.)

6. Don’t forget the journaling. Pictures may tell a thousand words, but there are lots of details you’ll forget later on. In my themed albums I’ve done journaling in different ways.

Sometimes I add bits of journaling on each page:

Other times I dedicate an album page to telling the story:

When I’ve created themed albums for others, I like to include a couple of blank pages in the back for them to add their own notes.

One page at a time. My last tip is about as good as that old joke, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Creating an album with hundreds of photos can definitely be an overwhelming project, but with a bit of organization and persistance, your your album will come together. Sometimes I push myself to finish an album when I find a great printing deal, other times I give myself a goal to complete two pages a day, or even challenge myself to see how many pages I can accomplish during the weekly digi show podcast.  But in the end, my albums come together, one page at a time, and having the printed book as a keepsake is worth all the work.

Our evenings have been lazy with movies, too many holiday goodies, and for me, some scrapbooking.

The main project I’ve been working on is an annual “girls’ getaway” themed album. Three years ago my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and I left the kiddos with our husbands spent a couple of days exploring Seattle. We had so much fun we decided to make an annual “getaway” tradition. 

It’s become my unofficial job to create the getaway scrapbook.

This year we decided to keep our girl’s getaway local and less expensive by taking a “staycation.” Rather than staying overnight we took just one day and spent it exploring new-to-us sites and shops in my mother-in-law’s hometown. We spent our time shopping vintage and consignment stores, eating out, and getting our nails done.

To carry on the old downtown theme I processed the photos so they’d have a faded feel, and then used funky papers, vintage-y elements and Altered Game Cards by PixelWorks.

I’m feeling so accomplished! Can’t wait to get this album finished. Coming tomorrow, tips on creating a themed album.

********

For more information on creating digital scrapbook pages, check out the links in the sidebar.

This is part of the series “Reasons to Digital Scrapbook.” 

When Ryan was a few months old I took a very part-time job two evenings a week at a local scrapbook store–just so I could support my scrapbooking hobby. I was fascinated with all the pretty papers and embellishments and wanted all the newest gadgets. I stayed up on the trends as I poured through magazines and product catalogs. But then our income drastically changed, we had a second baby, and Jared entered graduate school, and my memory-keeping, art-creating hobby wasn’t practical anymore.

Then I discovered digital scrapbooking.

Because of our financial situation, the cost of digi was a significant reason I made the transition and today has remained one of the reasons I never looked back. I love that I can buy a full digital kit or a couple of digital element or paper packs for the same price as several sheets of traditional scrapbooking patterned papers. There are also a lot of free digital samples available (I have several links in the right-hand column). And let’s not forget The Digi Files, one of my favorite {inexpensive} ways to stock up on supplies.

THEN, digital is way more cost effective because you can use the same paper/element/alphabet over and over again and never run out! I had way too many frustrating moments of working on a layout title and running out of the sticker E’s or A’s and then having to come up with another creative way to finish my title (that or buy another pack of stickers). And I have a sad confession. . . when I paper scrapped I would often find a paper or element I loved and then never want to use it because I didn’t want to use it up! But I never have to worry about using up my favorite digital supplies. And I can even hoard all I want because the digital supplies require minimal space!

One more reason digi is cost effective is that you can easily recolor items to match your photos. There were plenty of times I’d go to the scrapbook store and find a patterned paper or ribbon I LOVED but it didn’t match the photos in the layout I was working on. Now I can just recolor my digi supplies a bit and waah-laaa! No waste. Oh. And then I can go use that same paper/element on a different layout! Same thing the opposite way. Maybe my photo doesn’t match the paper I love. Just change the color in the photo–problem solved.

So, three cost effective reasons I love digital scrapbooking:

1. Digital Supplies Cost Less than Traditional Supplies
2. Can Reuse Digital Supplies and Never Run Out
3. Ability to Adjust Papers/Elements to Perfectly Match Photos

You may also want to read these reasons I love digital scrapbooking:

• Less Mess
• Requires Minimal Space
• Ode to the Undo Button
• Easily Duplicate Your Scrapbook

This is part of the series “Reasons to Digital Scrapbook.” 

My kids LOVE looking at their scrapbooks.

My preferred method (so far) has been to print my completed layouts in easy-to-handle 8×8 hardbound books. I keep these books easily accessible on the coffee table or bookshelf so anyone can read them whenever they want.

And they do!

(I even find their books tucked in bed with them sometimes!)

I want my kids to be able to easily access the photos and stories about their childhood. It’s so fun to watch Emmy look at her baby pictures and “remember” when she “was little.” And Ryan loves to read the stories.

Even Seri loves looking at the pictures and recognizing faces.

Digital scrapbooking makes sharing these memories so easy. I don’t have to plan a special time to get out the scrapbooks and them sit with them worry about the page protectors getting bent or the expensive embellishments falling off the page. And I certainly don’t worry about how much my favorite patterned paper cost and how it’s getting smudged with sticky fingers. So what if the corners of the pages begin to get a bit tattered? It means the books have been loved. And that’s more important to me.

When the kids are older or when I’m ready for a nice copy of the books to keep for myself, as long as I’ve saved my pages in a safe place, I can just reprint.

Digital scrapbooking is also easy to share online with my family and friends. I do it all the time here on the blog. I frequently post pages to Facebook, online scrapbook galleries, e-mail as well. Since the layouts are already on the computer I don’t have to worry about scanning them or taking photos of the layouts. I can just upload and we’re good to go!

The ability to easily share my scrapbooked stories with my kids and online friends is just one more reason I love digital. 

In the morning while I was struggling to get my nauseous, achy body out of bed Ryan tried to help by making breakfast.  He’s helped in the kitchen enough to know to get a clean bowl out of the dishwasher, open an instant oatmeal packet, and put the cereal in the microwave for 60 seconds. But bless his five-year-old heart, he forgot to put water in the bowl with the dry oats. The kitchen filled with smoke but luckily there were no serious problems and opening the window to let in a little fresh, chilly air cleared the kitchen. (The burned smell lingered in the microwave for a few days though!)

He was very disappointed with the burnt oatmeal, but Jared and I were so proud of our sweet boy as he tried hard to be responsible.

This year as we were preparing to build both kids wanted to be on “team daddy” but after a bit of convincing Ryan decided to join me. Whew. Good thing both houses turned out cute! The kids were so proud of their completed projects.

Noel by Leora Sanford, {FREE} template (adapted) by Scrapping with Liz

In case you don’t already have a favorite gingerbread/graham cracker house frosting recipe, I’ll share the one I use. It’s really simple and dries quickly. When it’s ready I spoon frosting into a Ziploc bag and then cut a corner off the bag to make a “pastry bag” for each of the kids. They have fun squeezing their frosting and it cuts down on a lot of mess.

Gingerbread House Frosting

• 1 lb. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 3 egg whites

Combine and beat with an electric mixer 5-10 minutes until stiff.

This is part of the series “Reasons to Digital Scrapbook.” 

Admittedly, there have been days I’ve coveted this:

It reminds me of a store! Just stroll in, turn on some music, pull out the stash of chocolate, and CREATE. Ahhhhh. . .

But the dream scrapbook room isn’t a reality in my current life. Really, I’m okay with that though! Enter one of the reasons I {love} digital scrapbooking:

Going digital requires minimal space!

I have hundreds thousands of digital supplies ready for me to pick from when I sit down to create. And where do I keep all those supplies? Glad you asked.

This baby is like my fourth child and it holds ALL my digital scrapbooking supplies, designing tools, and photos.

When I first started digital scrapbooking, I stored all my supplies on a thumb drive. It worked okay for a few months, but as I started downloading more supplies and creating more pages it filled up pretty quickly. (Digi files are fairly large because they are high-quality images.)

Luckily my husband surprised me with a 250 GB portable hard drive a couple Christmases ago. May seem nerdy to you, but it was the PERFECT most thoughtful gift to me because it showed he supported my growing hobby.

I’ve had this baby for a couple of years now and use it every day. I’m close to full though, so luckily Christmas is coming  I need to go in and purge, and then see if I need to upgrade.

And while we are on the digi-doesn’t require-a-lot-of-space subject, because all I need to store my supplies is a hard drive, I can easily “pack up” and scrapbook with my laptop wherever I want! I used to love going to scrapbooking crops, but it was so much work to pack everything up and I would get so frustrated about hauling my load to the event, only to find I left the paperbuttonglueribbonstickerpentool I needed at home. Since I now scrapbook digitally, I can enjoy crops AND have all my supplies right there with me. And I don’t require my own table (just a corner will do) to spread out all my STUFF. Which also means less mess. Kinda makes my non-digi scrapbooking friends jealous.

Just one more checkmark on my “why I love digi” list.

On the flip side, my husband, Jared grew up drawing the name and purchasing a gift (usually in the $10-20 range) for one of his three siblings. So our first Christmas together he was pretty nervous about the expense when I started talking about giving gifts to all my siblings. I must have failed to communicate that the cost didn’t matter because we ended up “compromising” and purchased a board game the whole family could enjoy.

My family’s tradition continued however, and each of my seven siblings carefully and thoughtfully picked out something for their new brother. When we went to visit for the holiday, Jared was shocked to see the pile of presents with his name. Imagine his further surprise when he opened a small box of rocks my (then) eight year old brother had carefully painted with glow-in-the-dark paint!

That’s when he realized that in my family, it was more about the thought and those rocks sat on his dresser for a long time as a reminder!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the “thoughtful” gift Jared gave me last year. . . .

Hey now. Don’t worry. This is a family blog.

My parents were big on giving practical gifts for Christmas–new toothbrushes in our stockings, socks and pajamas, books, educational toys or games. One year when I was nine or ten I remember opening a box filled with cake and brownie mixes. We typically cooked and baked from scratch to save money, so the mixes were a treat and I was able to produce goodies with little assistance. I was so proud, and learned some practical skills too! That was the year I got to play in the REAL kitchen while my friends used their Easy Bake Ovens.

Last week Kroger had cookie mix on sale for $0.99. What perfect timing since there was a $1/1 coupon!! I got up a little earlier and Jared made the kids breakfast so I could have a little date with myself to the grocery store to pick up 20 boxes of FREE cookie mix (with 20 cents overage)!! Cheap thrills.  I’m a pretty good cook, and usually do cook/bake from scratch, but when the price of a mix is LESS than making it from scratch, I’ll choose the convenience.

After buying the mixes I thought of my mom and that baking-lesson Christmas and decided it would be fun to use the cookie mixes for a similar gift for her this year. So I wrapped several boxes of mix, topped the gift with a new spatula and tucked in some cute recipe cards. Giving free cookie mixes to your mom may not be ideal, but I promise, my mom will be proud of my frugal skills and will love the practicality!

Inexpensive boxed mixes could make a fun gift for a neighbor, friend, teacher, college student or newlywed as well. Just spending a few minutes on the presentation takes it to a new level.

(Brown paper bag, a strip of patterned paper, ribbon, and a bow of raffia to fancy up this free cookie mix!)

Because I think you are the best friends ever and blogging makes me happy, I made you some {FREE} printable tags!!

The tags are in PDF format so no special program is required. Just download, print on photo paper, cardstock, or sticky label paper, trim, punch a hole, and tie with some cute ribbon. I have two versions for you:

The holiday version reads: Hope your holiday is sweet {download here}

The non-holiday version reads: Have a sweet day! {download here}

Merry Christmas and Happy Baking!

You may also enjoy these inexpensive gift ideas:

• If You Give a Mom a Muffin
• The Question Jar
• Seed Packet Covers

When I first started digital scrapbooking I downloaded LOTS of “freebies” from designers’ blogs. It was a great way to gather lots of supplies quickly (and obviously frugally!) while I was learning Photoshop.

As time went on I began to find a style I liked and began to purchase from a few favorite designers. But over the past few years the digital community has grown a lot and finding favorite {quality} designers can be overwhelming. It’s one of the reasons {I LOVE} The Daily Digi.

Each month at The Daily Digi, seven reputable digital designers contribute a sample of their work (usually a kit or set of templates). Then the collection or Digi Files is sold like a grab bag. You know who contributed to that month’s digi files, but you don’t know what’s inside–yet. Every few days a designer is featured and her (or his!) digital contribution is then revealed. It’s very fun to see what’s inside the Digi Files and even more fun to learn more about the designers, their interests, their designing process, and their art. It’s pretty much awesome.

In between the designer features there are lots of fun reads, inspiration, product reviews, and digi tutorials. And every Friday they release a new podcast all about DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING! I like to listen while I clean the house!

Basically you can tell, I love The Daily Digi. It’s definitely one of my favorite daily web stops. {Please excuse me, I’m a bit isolated here since none of my “real life” friends are into digi, so I’ll jump at the chance to read a blog or interact with friends who “get” my obsession!}

Sooooo, as if learning about new designers, having access to tutorials, and getting to listen to an hour of digital scrapbooking talk wasn’t cool enough, another AMAZING thing about The Daily Digi is that each month’s Digi File is only $5!

Yeah. It’s kind of hard to believe, actually, since the Digi Files are so stuffed with product and would EASILY be worth 10 times that. But designers (like me!) appreciate the opportunity for more exposure to new potential customers, and scrapbookers appreciate a great deal since it’s a {practically risk free} way to test out new designers.

(Wanna see my feature?)

A new feature, the Playbook was added this summer and I {LOVE} it too. A Playbook is an interactive ebook of {at least} 25 pages of digi tutorials, tips, and tricks. Think of it as an extremely helpful {digi} magazine. Download a {FREE} Playbook. 

Now, how in the world do you get all these AMAZING Daily Digi deals? Glad you asked!

There are three ways to subscribe:

DIGI GAME-ANNUAL ($82.50 per year)
If you subscribe to the DIGI GAME – ANNUAL option, $82.50 per year (that’s 12 months for the price of 11) will be automatically deducted from your Paypal account and you will receive:

• ONE month FREE (12 months for the price of 11)
• access to the new issue of THE DIGI FILES each month (see past Digi Files here)
• access to the new PLAYBOOK each month. See past Playbooks here.
• Every 4 months you are subscribed , you will receive access to exclusive collab kits by previous contributors to The Digi Files. These collabs cannot be purchased anywhere!  The first collab will be received upon starting this subscription and is “Story of Everyday Life.”

DIGI GAME – MONTHLY ($7.50 per month)
If you subscribe to the DIGI GAME – monthly option, $7.50 per month will be automatically deducted from your PayPal account and you will receive: 

• access to the new issue of THE DIGI FILES each month (see past Digi Files here)
• access to the new PLAYBOOK each month See past Playbooks here.
• Every 4 months you are subscribed , you will receive access to exclusive collab kits by previous contributors to The Digi Files (see the first kit you will receive, “Story of Everyday Life” above) 

THE DIGI FILES – Monthly ($5.00 per month)
If you subscribe to the THE DIGI FILES ONLY option, $5.00 per month will be automatically deducted from your Paypal account and you will receive access to new versions of The Digi Files every month. NOTE: You will NOT receive any Playbooks, exclusive kits, or products with this option.

If you think digital scrapbooking might be your new thing, or if you are an old pro, I highly recommend The Daily Digi. And I also highly recommend you ask Santa to bring you a monthly subscription to the Digi Files.

Sometimes, if I’m not in a hurry, I like to have the kids help with dinner prep. It seems to curtail that awful toys-are-no-longer-fun-and-even-though-I-had-a-snack-I’m-starving-and-want-to-hang-on-your-legs-mommy hour before dinner hour.

These pictures aren’t amazing, but they document daily life for us, so I wanted to use them. Crazy how much the kids have grown since last year. . .

Credits: First Thanksgiving (coming soon!) and Apple Pie Tree by Jacque Larsen; Thankful by me

Kinda makes you want the grab bag, doesn’t it?

This is part of the Reasons to Digital Scrapbook series.

Ugh, I know I’m a day later than I said. I was having such a hard time deciding on my “10th reason” (thank you for the thought out comments!) that I put it off all day yesterday and then (sorry) forgot to come back and post. (Winners are announced at the end of this post!)

I loved all the reasons you love digi and I definitely agreed with them, but I FINALLY narrowed it down and chose my favorite of all the answers.

My top ten reason to digital scrapbook is: 

I love that digital scrapbooking gives us the option of manipulating our photos (as many of you said!).

1. Crop

2. Enhance color

3. Turn to black and white

4. Or sepia

5. Resize (bigger or smaller)

6. Blend photo into the background

(layout by CT member Michelle)

The possibilities are endless with digital scrapbooking.

Ok, sure you DO have these options with paper scrapbooking as well.

BUT, digital makes it much easier.

MichelleM-WA said:

“In addition to the 9 love-ly items you list, I love all the creative things that I can do to my photos (crop, slice, dice, zoom, shape, make it B&W, sepia or other-colored) w/o really changing my photo!”

I do all of these too, but ALWAYS keep my original image as well.

And I LOVE what blurooferika said:

“I think the reason I stick with digi beyond all of the other good reasons above, is that the thought of having to predetermine the size my photos and then go get them printed out before I can even get started just stops me dead in my tracks. Way too much effort for a small part of something that can take an hour or two to whip out digitally.”

YES, I am SOOOOO there. I often include more than one photo on my pages but it used to STRESS me out in my paper scrapping days. Creating a layout with multiple photos took a lot of prep work as used to I resize my images, put them on an 8×10 canvas, and then print on photo paper (usually at a lab because it saved expensive ink).   

Now that I digital scrapbook I can include as many photos as I want on a page with very little prep work.

(a page from last year’s family reunion album. . . I tried to get as many of the HUNDREDS of pics on a page as I could!)

As for the “without damaging the actual photo” part, I think grannymike explains it perfectly:

“. . . I especially love the fact that “no photographs were damaged in the making of this scrap page” applies. I can crop, alter, change photos to my heart’s desire and yet my original is intact. That would be my number 10. I think that my be my very favorite aspect of digi scrapping. The thought of actually cutting my printed photos was one of the big things that kept me from ever paper scrapping. . . .”

I started paper scrapbooking when I was a teenager and I can only imagine my mom cringing when she saw me cutting baby photos into hearts and diamonds with scalloped-edged scissors!

*Sigh* Scrapbooking has come a long way. Of course now cutting and pasting your original photo is a big no-no and digital photography has certainly solved a lot of that problem.

Now to the winner of the $10 gift card to my store! Actually, winners.

There were a few similar comments that summed up my 10th top reason, so you all get to go shopping!

• StarWarsFans
• Christina
• Sheri
• blurooferika
• grannymike
• MichelleM-WA

Congrats, ladies! Be on the lookout for an e-mail with your coupon code! :) And thanks for helping me come up with the 10th reason!!

The other day I told you WHAT digital scrapbooking is, and described one reason I scrapbook digitally. Here are my top nine reasons to digital scrapbook.

1. Less Mess, 2. Requires minimal space, 3. Costs less than paper scrapbooking, 4. Oh how I LOVE The Undo Button, 5. Can reuse supplies (and never run out!), 6. Easy to print duplicate scrapbooks, 7. Others can browse my layouts and I’m not stressed about them getting ruined, 8. Faster and easier (for me) than paper scrapbooking, 9. Ability to adjust papers and elements to perfectly match my photos

If you’re already a digital scrapbooker, what about you? Why do YOU love digital scrapbooking?

Let’s add a 10th reason to our list! I’ll be back Monday (10-25) to choose my favorite answer and a winner for a $10 gift card to my store!

Please note, this in no way meant to be a them (paper) vs. us (digital) discussion. It’s just meant to inform you of nine reasons I LOVE digital scrapbooking.

 {linked to Party Time} {linked to Top Ten Tuesday}

It was the third time going back to look this house and they are ready to talk about making an offer. It’s what I’d consider a dream home–nestled on a wooded five acres with a stone fireplace; rich, dark wood molding; tile floors; huge kitchen; gorgeous landscaping, a gazebo; and a pool out back.  After exploring and chatting for an hour we came away from the excursion with the idea this house was not an “if” but a “when” for our friends. 

As we got back in our van and Jared immediately turned to me and said, “Are you jealous?” I sucked in my breath and paused for a few seconds–thinking. “No, I’m really not. I’m thrilled for them. I think it’s an amazing house.” Jared looked surprised and then grinned. “Hmmm. Well I am!” he said, half joking.

I’ve been reflecting a bit because honestly, I was a bit surprised that I wasn’t jealous! I think the difference is I’ve been *trying* to be content where I am right now. I know someday there will be a dream home for us. And someday we will be inviting our friends along to meet our realtor. And someday we’ll look back and be glad we “lived like no one else, so later we can live like no one else.” (Dave Ramsey)

Today we need patience. And today we have a house that’s good enough for us. For now. It’s something we can afford while we look into our future and work down our debts. It’s okay that our house isn’t magazine worthy.

Today we’ll just keep trucking through those debts, be happy for our friends, and make our current house the best home for us.

{click for credits}

I’ve always felt a need for a creative outlet, which is why I suppose I was first drawn to scrapbooking when pregnant with Ryan. I loved the idea of documenting my new baby’s life, all while layering brilliant patterned papers and ribbons, arranging flowers, buttons, and felt elements, and then painting, glueing, doodling, inking, embossing, sewing, stapling, or stamping.

If  I wasn’t scrapbooking, I was usually devouring layout magazines, taking pictures, or journaling in preparation for my anticipated creative play.

Looking back on my life as a new mom I think I must have had post-partum depression. While I adored my baby who had come to us after a difficult four-year struggle with infertility and miscarriage and greatly appreciated my opportunity to be a mother, I was sad and lonely. A lot. 

Scrapbooking during naptimes became a therapy for me as I adjusted from well-respected careerwoman to underappreciated stay-at-home mommy.  It gave me the energy I needed to get through the next round of breastfeeding and poopy diapers by helping me notice the moments I knew I’d want to remember.  It helped me see the good in my new stay-at-home life and gave me the creative outlet I needed to express these feelings. As I experimented with different styles and techniques, my confidence and knowledge of myself grew.

Now that we have three kids I have a lot less time to scrapbook but it’s still a passion and even if I can’t get to the creating part, I still try to jot down notes or sketch out an idea for a future page before the memory is lost.

Oh, hey! There’s a new Hodge Podge Challenge up! This week is all about the letter S. Scrap something that starts with letter S, upload it to the Hodge Podge Art Gallery, and then get a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Rachel Young‘s shop AND a $10 gift certificate to One Litte Bird‘s shop!! Woohoo!

Speaking of letter S, who won the Spooktacular collab?

Thanks to random.org, our winners are:

Francesca said:

Thanks for the FREE printables! I recently moved and am now super excited to start fun traditions with my mom friends!

Theresa said:

Every year I say I’m going to BOO someone and always run out of time. Maybe I should start now!
Thanks for the chance.

Congrats, ladies! I’ve e-mailed you!!

{Linked to WFMW}

When I was pregnant with my son I became a self-described obsessive paper scrapbooker. I could spend hours in the aisles of scrapbook and craft stores–touching the textures of each paper, filling my cart with spools of ribbon, and studying the layouts in magazines. Before Ryan was born I’d already created a stack of layouts–all they needed was the perfect photo, which I would add later. After he was born, as you probably know, newborns sleep a lot, and when he did rather than napping myself, I spent my time creating more layouts. Then when he was a few months old I took a very part-time job two evenings a week at a local scrapbook store–just so I could support my hobby.

Scrapbooking and setting up home photoshoots of my new baby became my life and it was very rare for a day to go by when I didn’t create at least one page.

Fast forward a couple years later…our second baby was born.

Overnight I became extremely overwhelmed with the seemingly unmanageable amount of photos I was beginning to collect now that we had two kids. I wasn’t sure how to manage it all and I also had WAY less time to scrapbook. When I did find a minute to pull all my supplies out to the dining room table naptime would end and instead of having a completed layout or two, I just had a mess–and a curious two-year old who wanted to get into it all!

When I became frustrated a friend suggested I try digital scrapbooking. I looked into it but the digital resources and printing companies were limited so I dismissed the idea, packed up most of my paper scrapbooking supplies, and filled my time with other things.

Then one day both of the kids were napping and I was (dare I say) bored so I started to play with a photo-editing program I had received (and never touched) months back. And then I decided to download some digital freebies. And then I made a [very simple] page. And then another page. . . . and pretty soon I was hooked. And scrapbooking was suddenly manageable in my mind again.

After that one afternoon over three years ago I never looked back at my paper scrapping supplies, and in fact ended up selling most of them so I could purchase Photoshop. Now there are thousands of amazing digital designs ready to adorn your pages, and several companies have catered to the digital scrapbooker’s needs. And now those who’ve known me for more than five minutes know I have a not-so-secret digi obsession!

But WHAT IS digital scrapbooking? It always seems like it’s hard to describe, but really, it’s basically the same thing as paper scrapbooking, except you create your layouts on your computer. Just as traditional paper scrapbookers go to the scrapbooking store to purchase supplies, digital scrappers go to online stores to purchase digital supplies—papers, and a variety of embellishments such as ribbons, tags, brads, stickers, etc.  Digi scrappers then use software to create a layout by arranging pictures, papers and elements.

Stay tuned to find out WHY I think digital scrapbooking is the bees knees. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded some of my recent scrapbooking pages in sidebar.

{Linked to Made By You Monday, WFMW}

Attempted a couple of layouts to express a few of the feelings I’ve had recently.

CREDITS: Template (adapted) by Amy Martin, The Beginning by Rachel Young, By Definintion by Valorie Wibbins, Rosebuds and Lace by me

JOURNALING:  I’m close to my grandma so it’s been important to me that my kids spend time and get to know her too. We were able to stay at her house for a few days this summer. It was the first time visiting since my grandpa passed. It was different and hard, but still sweet. We didn’t do much, just sat and chatted and watched the kids play and spent time together. Time together that is now so precious since I don’t know how much longer it will last.

CREDITS: Boy Oh Boy by Lili and Leora Sanford, Paint Me Happy Paper by Rachel Young, Give Me Space font by Darcy Baldwin

JOURNALING: Ryan’s 5th birthday has been the hardest for me so far. I think because I’m realizing he is no longer a baby or toddler. I told him he wasn’t allowed to grow anymore and he said, “But mommy, I’ll still be your little boy until I’m like…30!”

CREDITS: Hip To Be Square by Jacque Larsen, Tickets Please! (patterned papers) by me, Cleaning Day by me, Make Chores Fun by Jacque Larsen and Kate Hadfield (retired), Wet Paint Alpha and Tiny Type alphas by CD Muckosky

JOURNALING: Most days I struggle to find a balance between things that must be done and things that can wait and things I should do but don’t want to do and things I want to do but feel guilty doing, and then I have these moments when I panic. And I realize that my kids are growing so fast, and their childhood-time is so limited. Nothing is as important as soaking up every moment I can with them.

Taking “time” this weekend to watch this with my family. Looking forward to some inspiration.

{Credits here}

I’m super excited to be invited to join the Hodge Podge Art team. It’s been one of my favorite blogs for a while now–a good place to go if you need a little scrapbooking mojo.

This week’s challenge is to scrap something that starts with the letter ‘R.’ We love books around here, and “read” was the first ‘R’ word that came to my mind. (See above)

Go ahead and enter! It’s easy, and the winner will win a $10 gift certificate from Gina Miller AND a $10 gift certificate from Jacque Larsen! 

REALLY? RAD! RIGHT ON! RAH, RAH, RAH!

(Sorry if that was a bit RIDICULOUS.)

Anyway, I GASPED when I was browsing blogs and discovered this CUUUUTE (and super simple) project Leigh made using my felt gumball machine! How fun is this! (Plus, I always get a little giddy when I see my designs in action!)

And THEN I realized my gumball mini from the LDD Apprentice isn’t available at the moment! SO, I reloaded it in my blog’s new sampler section so we can all enjoy it a bit more.

And THEN since I had gumballs on my brain, I started searching “gumball machines” on Swag Bucks and, well…

…some yummy inspiration:

(photos are linked to original sources)

Hope you have a “sweet” weekend!

Here’s a peek:

What a cool idea…to take such and ordinary event and turn it into a fab layout. Someday it will be fun to look back and re-read the layout and remember what her daily life was like and what they ate. Or maybe I’m just slightly obsessed with that at the moment because of our recent history studies. Go give Kelleanne some love! And if you want to create a similar layout, the Hodge Podge blog has a shopping list challenge going on right now. So fun.

It all inspired me to create this little memo pad…

…which I had printed FOR FREE (!!) at Artscow. 

(Want a notepad like mine? Download image for FREE here. Then go here to Artscow, click the CREATE button, and choose the “create your own option.” Upload the JPEG file, then lower the opacity–right side–to 35-45ish. Save, add to cart, add the coupon code and it should be completely FREE! No shipping costs even! Offer is one per household and is available to residents of the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe.)

I can’t wait to get it back to make lists for my future shopping trips in which I buy things (and save a ton of money!) like this…

Since I only spent $10.41 last week, I needed quite a few things this week. But notice, I was still well under my $50/week budget. I didn’t find any meat deals I was excited about so I’ll be digging into the freezer stash, but I got some other great scores.

FREE: Ronzoni pasta, Right Guard deodorant, Danimals yogurt tubes (we love freezing these!), Annie’s organic salad dressing, Ball Park hot dogs, Old El Paso taco seasoning, (plus watermelon and tomatoes from our friend’s garden)

CHEAP: marked-down and loss-leader produce (always makes me happy!), Quaker oatmeal ($0.98/box), Tylenol Cold Medicine ($1.19)

Ugh, I can’t tell you how depressing it was to pay FULL PRICE for ketchup. Generic, but still. I’m worried that I missed all the stock-up sales this summer. Maybe Labor Day will give me one more chance?

What’s on your shopping list?

And here’s a layout I created with the elements. The “story” is what inspired me to create the gumball machine. (Click for full credits.)

Journaling reads:

Recently Ryan has become interested in money so we have looked for a few opportunities for him to earn some. One day when I was headed to the grocery store Ryan asked to come and bring his quarter to spend on a gumball. Jared and I explained we felt a gumball wasn’t the best way to spend his money, but that it was his decision since he had earned it. He chose the gumball, dropped the coin in the slot and turned the knob–but nothing came out. I even tried turning the knob and wiggling the machine myself, but still nothing came and we were left with a very disappointed and moneyless four-year-old. Later on after lots of hugs and some reassurance, a lesson–I’m sure one of many in his life–was learned, and I hope Ryan will be a bit more thoughtful with how he spends his money.

Views and comments are welcome and encouraged as that is taken into consideration in the judging .

And while you’re visiting, stop in and leave my girl Jude some love!! Aren’t these cardboard flowers CUTE?!

Next week is doodles. Any requests?

Bookworm kit by Kaye Winiecki

My kids LOVE the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (by Laura Joffe Numeroff)

And have you seen the similar books, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Take a Mouse to School, If You Give a Pig a Party, and If You Take A Mouse to the Movies? So cute and favorites of my students when I was teaching first grade.

So the the other day I was cruising blogs while nursing the babe and found this CUTE poem:

If You Give A Mom A Muffin
by Kathy Fictorie

If you give a mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She’ll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook (“101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger”).
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year old’s diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are…
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

I thought it was so funny, and described me perfectly (except that I’m not a coffee drinker). Some days I feel like all I do is run around doing little things here and there but that I never actually accomplish anything.  I’m sure many of you can relate. And last night at dinner when my husband asked, “so what did you do today?” It took me a second to realize he was just trying to find out about my day and not accusing me of doing nothing!

Anyway, this poem got me thinking about a fun gift idea  so I created a quick card in Photoshop. Then I grabbed one of the packages of muffins I recently bought (yay coupons!), tied a bow to it, and now I have a quick gift for one of my mommy friends. Actually, I think I’ll make up several of these!

If you’d like to make some of these quick gifts too, here is the flattened (JPEG) file. I created it as a 4×6 card, so it’s easy to send to the photo lab or print at home.

Amongst the craziness of life, I still manage to get a few pages done. Scrapping relaxes me and helps me feel like I am taking a few minutes for myself, usually late at night when everyone is in bed. Plus, I wanted to use some goodies I bought for Digi Scrapbooking Day.

Click the layouts for full credits.