Paper Paper Everywhere ...

Paper Paper Everywhere and Still alot to spare. I'm always talking about how paper is the best resource for saving money....
To illustrate my point and to prove that the quality of your layouts doesn't need to suffer for being a miser I've uploaded a couple of layouts and the left over resources to prove my point.

Here I have completed two full layouts and I have enough left over for two more. I started with one sheet of orange paper, one sheet of pink, one sheet of patterned pink and orange, one sheet of pink vellum and one sheet of orange vellum. On the "I Adore You" layout I have used chipboard for the word 'adore' but it came off the back of an old notebook so was free. The little bit of ribbon on the "love your Happy Smiling Faces" layout was $1.50 for the entire roll and the flower on this layout came in a kit I purchased with a friend so only cost me 10c. I probably need to point out that the vellum (12 x 12) came in a pack of 12 sheets for $9.99 (so pretty good value).

On the 2nd layout (I adore You) you'll also notice a saying. I actually printed this on an ordinary office label used for labelling files. When I worked in an office I would use the left over stationary items whenever possible. I can't stand waste. Which is why on the final picture, showing the left over resources you can see some shapes.... The frame was created by cutting a small border around the cutout that created the envelope holding the tag. This would be nice with a vellum quote in it or even a photo. I've also punched out a couple of circles from the patterned paper remnants to use on a future layout.... Just need another photo to go with it.

Scrapbooking Photos With Bad Lighting...

BAD LIGHTING? In my last blog I spoke a little about bad lighting and recommended printing the photo in black and white to counter this problem. Here you can see what a difference the colour photo and black and white print make.
We took this photo on my husband's phone inside our local shopping centre and as you can see the harsh fluorescent lights drain the kids faces of colour and make my sons' shirt a very garish blue instead of the gorgeous light blue it is.... But in the black and white shot all of these problems are allieviated. Leaving me with the perfect shot to journal about the way they share so nicely and even better I can do the page in any colour scheme I like.

So I recommend if you have some papers you love but just can't use because you haven't had a picture that would compliment them... consider reprinting in black and white. I find this is a great way to use up the papers I get in my bulk buy packs.

What To Do With Blurry Photo's ...

BLURRY PHOTO'S What to do? I love this photo of my daughter and will scrapbook it despite the blurry quality because it is the perfect photo of her smile... It's actually pretty hard to get a photo of this one smillig. My son smiles for photo's without a problem. That's cause he likes scrapbooking with his mummy, so he sees the correlation between a nice photo and his creations. But my daughter is a different matter all together.

I have two tips here for fellow scrapbookers. The first is what to do with the blurry photo.... Why not place clear vellum over it... make it look like you intended it that way. Or use a transparency with a quote to match. For instance here I might say "Like trying to catch quicksilver in a bucket you're smile is just as precious and hard to catch on film".

The second tip I have is one I got off a professional photographer the other night. I was talking to this photographer at a party and mentioned this shot. Her advice was to pre-focus and pre-flash to where you think they're going to be and push the button a second earlier than you would normally.

Also if using the auto setting on your camera the motion setting will allow for movement and should counter any of these problems.

She also said if you have a rapid fire motion on your camera to set that to 3 shots or more so you can capture three quick shots in a row. One of the problems alot of digital photographers say they have is by the time they take the shot the child has left the frame. (This is a big problem of mine as my daughter won't stand still). So this rapid fire setting should allieviate that problem.

Lighting is the most important aspect to consider when taking a photo. You don't want it too bright or too dark. In this shot you can see how the lighting is a bit orange. That actually works really well for me as I was planning this photo to go with some beautiful frangipani papers and vellums I have that are pink and orange. But if you didn't want that effect the best thing you could do with the photo is print it black and white.

I'd love to get some information from other scrappers on how they might scrapbook this blurry photo? And also any other tips on how to get that perfect shot?

Am I Lucky Or What?

I am the luckiest scrapbooking woman alive. Wondering why? Well this is a picture of an earing my husband found on the ground. And when he saw it his first thought was that i might like it for my scrapbooking. My husband is a rare breed. A scrap widower who is interested in his wife's obsession. In fact he does the camera and sound work for my video's. It's nice to have someone that supportive.

But what I'm trying to emphasise by uploading this picutre is how if you think of everything that comes into your life as a possible layout embellishment or scrapbooking storage device and then discard the ones that really don't work, you'll actually get alot of stuff for free... Pictures and letters on Junk Mail or in Magazines can all be put to good use as can wrapping paper, cards and gift ribbons ribbons.

Scrapbooking Video...

Here's another video about getting new ideas and inspiration from the simplest of places.

Enjoy!

Shoe Racks and Sewing Tables

Shoe Racks and Sewing Tables: I love to have my space organised so that when I'm planning a layout I can easily paw through my goodies and choose the appropriate pieces. I have discovered that those clear plastic shoe holders are perfect for housing all those packets of embellishments,brads etc. This is especially great cause it hangs easily on the back of the door to my scrap area... Which is actually a corner of my bedroom.

I have recently aquired my mother's old sewing machine table. I can't wait to install it in the corner of my bedroom. I love the compartments contained in it for storing all my goodines and have decided that I will attempt to install a light in the area usually reserved for the sewing machine and by placing a piece of perspex over the top hope to convert this into a lightbox table.... If it works I'll post a photo.

What A Great Idea...

This picture was submitted by Anne of Virginia, USA.
I've received some great emails in response to my last blog. One of which mentioned using toilet paper in a layout. This is a great idea! I've used patterned toilet paper and I've also created papers from paper towel where I dye them with paint and a dropper... This creates some really bright effects.

Paper Paper Paper...

Paper Paper Paper: I think the cheapest and most versatile product available to us is... you guessed it paper.. Nothing new there right? Well the other day I was in a scrapbook shop outside of my local area. It was huge! It was beautiful! It was expensive! So I mostly browsed to get ideas. There are constantly new products coming to the market and if you don't keep up with it all you'll be left behind. So while I was there I noticed several older ladies come in with photos which they took to the lady who owned the shop for her to find them the perfect paper and embellishments. One of the ladies even commented about how she was making a scrapbook for her daughter and it was costing a fortune.

This was largely due to the fact that every photo was getting purchased for individually. There was no bulk buying of paper which I do all the time. This is a huge saving as most papers in the shops are around $1.10 ea whereas I buy a pack of 180 papers for $11.95 so my papers are less than .10c ea. My other favourite money saving tip is to shop with a friend ... its fun and you save money.

I also believe in making alot of embellishments yourself from paper. If you're doing a water themed page punch out a square or circle or stamp shape then mount on 3D mounting tape water droplets or bubles or umbrellas etc etc.... by sticking these to the original shape with a 3D effect the simple becomes more interesting. Ink the edges for added interest. Add extra layers for a paper tolle effect.... There are so many ways to use paper to make your own embellishments. The ones I've shown here were done very quickly but you get the idea.

I'd love to receive some pictures of paper embellishments made by everyone? I'll even feature them on the site. Please send them to me at: kyrapatterson@hotmail.com

Coming Soon: Video Of Me Scrapbooking Our Book....

Coming Soon: Video of me scrapbooking our Book....
My sister-in-law and I have created a book which we're selling to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. Anyway we're buying one for a family member and I'll be videoing the scrapping of the book to show the possibilities for anyone interested in buying one and personalising it themselves. If you want to view the information on the book go to: http://www.mothersbestadvice.com

Sorry for the delay in posting y'all...

Sorry for the delay in posting y'all... I've actually been in hospital. Nothing serious just back pain but what I did discover about myself is I don't like doing nothing. All that time just lying around was killing me. If they'd wheeled in my scrapbooking trolley I'd of been really happy to stay!

The other think I discovered is.... there is absolutely nothing I encountered that I could use in my scrapbooking... which is mighty unusual for me. I see possibilities everywhere. I have however previously used the wrist name tags of myself and my babies and the name tag off their hospital cot but this time I encountered nothing I considered even remotely useful. Maybe it was the morphine clouding my usually frugal judgment?

For instance the bag my oranges come in? Yep you guessed it. I scrap book it. It can be used as is (which is an orange plastic netting) or it is also useful to weave all those wonderful yarns I've been collecting into. I simply weave them through the mesh and create an interesting fabric of my own. You can also get these in white plastic. (My kids just got a bucket spade and ball packaged in one). So there you have it another free resource.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has found a scrapbooking use for something they received whilst in hospital?

Scrapbooking Video

Scrapbooking

Add to My Profile More Videos

Here's a video I made to help you with creating ideas for your Scrapbooking.

Enjoy!

WHY DID YOU START SCRAPBOOKING?

WHY DID YOU START SCRAPBOOKING? Why do we start scrapbooking? This is one of those questions I’m often fascinated by. I guess its because I myself began scrapbooking under unusual circumstances. I have a girlfriend who is a ‘Creative Memories Consultant’ and for ages she tried to convince me to give it a go. She kept saying “You’ll love it”. I on the other hand resisted it as much as I could. Why you ask? Well mainly because of price. I already had several hobbies and I didn’t really want to spend money on another hobby. Little did I know that all of those other hobbies could be incorporated into my scrapbooking and that when I eventually gave in I wouldn’t really care about those other hobbies at all anymore.

So what made we finally take the plunge? Well having children got me half way there… only I didn’t know it yet. The seeds of scrapbooking were being sewn in my obsessive photo taking habit. My poor baby son was lucky if a day went by without several flash bulbs going off. So firstly I started taking photos. A pretty good place to start..

But the catalyst was the death of my mother. As soon as she died my father started giving me her things. A lot of those things turned out to be photo’s of her life. So there I was with a bag full of photos and four days before the funeral. Now having a two and a half year old boy, a five week old girl, a business to run and a husband mourning the death of his own mother 4 weeks earlier just wasn’t enough to deal with. I decided to set myself the monumental task of scrapbooking my mothers life before the funeral to have on presentation at the funeral.

I think it was this scrapbooking experience that got me through that time. I was extremely lucky that my scrapbooking friends were there to help me. There was myself and another novice scrapper and two seasoned scrappers and between the four of us we got the album completed in the time frame allotted….. I don’t know how but we did it and the best part for me was the chance it gave me to talk to so many of my mums friends who were featured in those pages. Scrapbooking is a funny hobby. From the outside it looks like a solitary art form but actually it’s a wonderful bonding experience with other women. You can scrapbook alone or with friends or join a group and before you know it you’ll be very close friends with all of them.