Scrapbooking Made Simple

This is a layout I did whilst away on retreat. It is a very special layout to me as it shows my mum giving me away on my wedding day. I used some chipboard letters I bought at KMart and the patterned paper is a piece of flocked paper I got from the $2 shop. I typed my journalling on acetate and added this to the page as well as journalling inside a stamped image which I cut out of co-ordinating plain paper. I did this same technique for the butterfly. I also stamped directly onto the background. The edge of the background paper was scalloped using a fiskars border punch.

  Another multiple photo layout.  This is a double page layout and again very simple. I am unsure of the manufacturer of the paper I used, it is a colourful paper with lots of different colour hibiscus flowers all over it.  The title is made up of a variety of stickers and chipboard letters that I got from the discount store for $2. The embellishments are just flowers cut from the patterned paper and stuck back in place using pop dots.  This is one of those layouts that i love because of the story it tells. DD2 had her first day at the beach and loved it. She looked so cute in her bikini. I especially love all the lovely pinchable bits of her. SO CUTE!  Then DD2 decided to try sand in her diet. Well the big kids cracked up.  So she kept on eating it!  A great day all round. 

This is a favourite layout of mine. I'm not sure if it really shows up well in this photo but the photo on the left I have hand cut elements of it and created a 3D effect. I painted, stamped, inked and glittered the Z/s to get different effects. The background paper is just a plain piece of paper that I have stamped and inked the edge of the page using white ink. The Winnie the Pooh chipboard elements are by Sandylion and were purchased from a Discount  shop and only cost me $2. Sandylion Winnie The Pooh Chipboard Medley, 22 Per Package

Hey everyone, I'm back! I have officially finished all my extra curricular activities and am now back to devote my spare time to you.  I have lots of layouts to share with you and will do so over the next few weeks. This layout is a very simple and very cheap one.  As you all should know by now, I love to scrapbook, but I also don't want to spend a fortune on any one page! So being as economical as possible whilst not sacrificing the artistic merit of my work is a very high priority for me. This layout uses papers from the   Grace Taylor, Family Time range. I have also used some left over stickers (recoloured) and a a rosette and a heart shaped button. The chipboard letters are all left overs from packages I have purchased before and covered in paper from the Grace Taylor paper pad. The title for this page comes from the shirt worn by DD2 which says: "What's not to Love".  I didn't do much to this page at all just put my photos on photo mats and add...

This is the second layout I completed at the crop night. Again very simple backgrounds. I used the patterned papers only on the chipboard letters. The stickers were a find at a cheap shop and they have a velvety feel. The ruby hearts were in a bulk pack of bling as were the red flowers. I love these photos (though they're very old now). Sometimes its best to wait to scrap certain photos until the perfect idea comes along. The focus for this page is on the photos and the content. DD was trying desperately to wake DS who was napping on the couch one day. The journalling under each photo follows the progression of events from wake up.... wake up and kiss me..... Wake Up and pay me attention to WAKE UP and LOOK AT ME! Simpler layouts can defiitely save you money as there isn't as much stuff on each page. While I was at the crop I was interested to notice the cost of items people were placing on their pages and one of the girls admited she shops for every page she does...... Wow th...

Here's a layout I did of my kids having a tea party. They love doing this! If they're having a tea party kind of day I'll often go to the kitchen and prepare their lunch in suitable sizes for the tea set so they can have a real tea party. I painted each of these chipboard letters a co-ordinating colour from my background and then covered them in a couple of layers of glitter paint to get that really glittery effect. The tea cup and saucer embellishment is a gold outline sticker applied to acetate and then coloured in with my daughters paints. I then added it to the page using 3D tape for dimension. The teapot button was a find at a scrapbook fair. My favourite part though is the hidden journalling. I simply glued a chipboard piece to my ruled journalling paper and then cut out the open bits. I sometimes like using hidden journalling as it gives the page a more interactive feel and the kids love looking for where the story about these photos is. My background paper was ...

This layout was really quick! I've been hoarding green and pink things for a while now as my son's school uniform is green and my daughter loves wearing pink. In this case though I had a series of photos showing my daughter playing hide and seek with her friend and I loved how she hid right under his nose. I used a vellum that I had bought in a bulk pack some time ago as my background. Some chipboard letters I bought for $2 (decorated!) and a napkin I loved to fill in the blanks and create a sort of hide and seek effect of the photos.

Getting your stash organised can seem impossible! I recently had to re-organise my re-organisation....... you see when I moved my scrap space to the laundry I organised all of my stash into a well organised easy to find shelving unit..... Now after scrapbooking in this space I discovered that although I could find my stuff easily it was a pain in the butt putting it all away again. You see when I start a project I pull out several paper and cardstock options and then chose the one I like best. So then I have to put everything away again.... Consequently I discovered that filing all my papers by colour doesn't really work for me. So sometimes even the best system won't work for you! It's all about finding a filing system for all you stuff that works best for you. For instance I was watching Scrapbook Lifestyle and they were looking at a desiners scrapspace. (Not sure which one) Anyway this designer put all of their chipboard letters away by letter. So each draw held letter...