Scrapbooking Made Simple

I'm still playing with this new program and only using the trial version till I'm sure if its the right one for me. I am finding though that it is VERY quick to complete a page. Also if you take into account what you usually pay to develop your photos into the cost of your layout I guess it's not that bad. Here's another layout I just completed in around 20 minutes and with only the VERY basic tools and supplies you get with the trial version. Not too bad huh?

Well here it is my very first attempt at Digital Scrapbooking . I used the Scrapbook Max program for this one. It was VERY easy to use! I don't know how to do torn edges, inked edges and other interesting things like that but I was pretty happy with this as it was my very first attempt. After investigating the costs to print pages though I've come to the conclusion that this is only more economical if you're just keeping them in digital format. For example a 12 x 12 layout was $3.99. And once you factor in the cost of your program, cost of supplies and other incidentals it's getting to be over $5.00 per page......... MMMmmm I'll have to keep looking into this! Maybe it's not so cheap after all.... Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I LOVE the new range from "Love Elsie". I think she's outdone herself this time. My favourite is the embossed papers. I love texture in my work. I also love that embossed paper is back in vogue as it means I can emboss my own papers and for a truly original take on it I can chalk the raised section. I think I'll do a video on this technique as it's got me so excited. Of course the only down side is you're limited by what stencils you have but I have a few so I'm sure I can make some interesting designs. Also the kids rooms are a great source of supplies. I not only raid their play doh tool supplies for my paper clay embellishments but I also raid their stencils and craft supplies. That's where I found a bag of feathers for the latest layout I'm doing. (Picture coming soon... I just have to finish it!).. Anyway here's a picture of those fantastic papers I was talking aboutthe as well as some chipboard from the same range.... I see lots of baking...

Today I have a treat for you. My sister-in-law has moved back here from the States and below you'll see a post I asked her to author for me. Anne had a great idea and I thought it best if she explained it so I'd like to introduce you to Anne: Make Your Own Stickers Saving money on STICKERS!! Although using this method doesn’t save you a mountain of money, it does get you the look that you want at the right price without ending up with that enormous box of bits and pieces of alphabet stickers that you now don’t know what to do with as all the vowels are missing. I KNOW you all have one of these. What I did was buy a packet of Avery clear labels from Office Depot , you can get them for laser or ink jet printers (make sure you get the right one or it could get very messy). Then just Google whatever you want to have a sticker of, whether it be a picture or object. I just use Google Images and type in whatever I am looking for. (Make sure you don't infringe copyright h...

Well as many of you know I've been trying to digiscrap for a little while now. I have Adobe Photoshop on my laptop and have tried to do digital scrapbooking in this...... Not very successfuly I might say.... I definitely need tutorials on how to do this.. So last night I trolled across the internet and found a trial software for digital scrapbooking that I'm checking out. I was REALLY impressed with how easy it looks. So I'm going to play with this for a week or so and see if it's right for me. As many of you know I like to get good value for my money. Having a limited budget to spend on my hobby means I always want to stretch that dollar as far as I can. I firmly believe that digiscraping gives you this. With traditional paper scrapbooking when you buy a paper you get to use it once and then you have to go buy another. But a piece of digital scrapbooking paper can be used over and over and over again..... That's my kind of value! With my paper scrapbooking I f...

Today's Challenge from Two Peas ~ Let's talk Groove. How would you best describe your style? (Taken from the Find your groove book) Clean lines Graphic Eclectic Classic Shabby or Old World Hip and Trendy Anything Goes I love these sorts of questions as they really make you sit back and examine your work. I have a very Eclectic style I have decided. Each layout is different and incorporates elements from different design styles. I actually try very hard to do each layout as a different style as I think it helps with my overall creativity. I will do a layout in a particular style if I think it suits the photos and mood then change styles for the next layout. I am however noticing a trend towards a very feminine bling style for my little girl pages and a more structured graphic look for my litte boy pages. I LOVE flowers and bling and gold and silver elements. So based on the above list I'm an " Anything Goes " kinda scrapper. I love " shabby chic "...

I was having a look at Craft TV Weekly and saw in the archives this excellent episode that I had missed. I love this idea because all it takes is cardstock to create this really unusual idea. It's all in the folds! There really isn't any way to adequately describe this project... you'll really need to see it for yourself.... Basically the Waterfall Fold is a cardstock project that folds all the elements into a neat flip fold. Then as you pull the bottom strip it folds down to reveal each page in turn.... if that makes sense? Just follow the link and check it out for yourself: http://www.crafttvweekly.com/player.html?wid=102 I liked it so much I actually downloaded the design guide ... though I don't know when I'll get around to doing it.. but that's o.k. it'll happen eventually. If you haven't seen the Scrapbook Lounge before I can highly recommend it. These webisodes are very instructional in nature and they are filmed to show off the techniques ...

I was thrilled to receive this double page layout from a regular reader. She's taken " Miser " to new heights here with these pages. As she has just moved across the world she is without her scrapbooking supplies which are all in a container on their way here. (I know alot of you just supressed a shudder then... don't worry me too! Imagine NO SUPPLIES for six weeks or more!) So this enterprising reader has turned her hand to creating these pages from mostly " found items" . At a total cost of 12cents . QUOTE: "Here is what you get for 12c. I got frustrated as I hadn't been able to scrapbook for so long, so I gathered together things that I had around the house. The little house was on the front of the card that my mum sent (which is the note on the page), the pink background and star background was the celophane around the flowers that my nana gave me as a house warming pressie. The patterned paper and the lettering came with a magazine I bough...

As many of you know I'm a fan of Scrapbooks etc . They have recently revamped their site and now have a fabulous video tutorial area for anyone wanting to learn how to do different techniques. There are videos on stamp embossing, using a die cut machine, setting an eyelet etc.. Go to : http://www.bhgscrapbooksetc.com/video/learnhowto.html to check these out. These videos are a wonderful way to learn the different techniques of scrapbooking for FREE! (my favourite!) Plus even if you know the technique you'll probably find at least one new way to apply a technique. The production values of these videos are of the highest quality and the tutorials are performed by some great teachers. ENJOY!

This is a question that was emailed to me at: cheapscrapbookingideas@yahoo.com by one of my readers: "How do you scrap another person’s photo’s? This is something that some of us occasionally choose to do and it seems to be a bit challenging for me at the moment. I want to do it but am not as inspired as when it is my own kids." It's a great question because we often as scrappers do presents for other people and we want the finished product to be the best we can possibly do. So to achieve this I suggest if you can talk to the people about their photos this will help alot! Also during this process take some notes. Try to get a feel for not only the journalling element such as: "This was John's 1st Birthday" but how they felt. You may not use the emotions in the journalling but they can really help you to evoke that mood using colours and embellishments. For instance an event that was filled with excitement and wonder would benefit from splashes of vibrant ...

For all those readers of my blog who are located in the Brisbane region of Australia tune in to Brisbane Extra ( Channel 9) this afternoon at 5:30pm to see a story my DH, DD, DS and I filmed for them a few days ago. If you're not in the area and therefore unable to get the program you can view it online after the show at http://www.extraonline.com.au/ . It usually takes a day to get the story online under the " latest story " category. The story is about the Lions Auties and Uncles Program . This is a fabulous program run by the Lions clubs. The program is designed to help families. They match needy children up with an Aunty or Uncle figure who they can see regularly and learn from and generally absorb into their family unit. All of the Aunties and Uncles volunteer for the program and are not paid. Though they are checked out carefully! We have applied because as many of you know we don't have any grandma's for my kids. We do have two grandpas'. One of t...

This is the "part 2" layout to match the " Family " layout. I did this layout (LOVE) to match the Family layout as this photo was taken in the same photo shoot and should sit in the album opposit that other page. This is a pretty cheap layout as it cost around $4.50 . I used only one new sheet of paper and all the other papers are left overs from the previous " Family" layout . I only added two flowers, a brad and some stickers . The chipboard title was free as the sheet of chipboard came in the mail to protect some photos I had developed. I loved that this photo shoot also focused on my DH and I so we had a record of what we looked like at our 10th year of marriage . Because this photo shoot worked so well we're having another one in a week or two. I love to get one professional photo every year so we have a lovely family portrait to put on the wall plus I get some gorgeous photos' to scrap. But I also love those candid act...

Well this school holidays has been rather good for my scrapbooking.... Playdates are the answer! I did this layout really quickly during another playdate this week. As far as layouts go this one isn't very cheap , ($5) but the rub-ons were! I usually don't buy rub ons because they're usually so expensive. They take up my entire weekly scrapbudget in one purchase. I did find these at a shop very cheap though. The whole sheet was $2.50. The only way to find a bargain is to constantly be looking and to aways know the prices of things! I was browsing in a scrapbooking shop and when I saw these rub ons I had to have them. The price was definitely right and the sayings immediately brought to mind these photos. I do alot of browsing! Whether its online or in person. To enable me to take advantage of any " specials " I find whilst browsing, I have put aside $20 that I use for these shopping sprees. If I'm browsing in a shop and do find a great buy and...

During the school holidays it is sometimes nearly impossible to find time to scrapbook. But luckily for me my best scrapbuddy and I carved out some personal time this week. We set up the jumping castle (from my daughter's birthday), set out food and drink and let the kids go wild. Between the swings, jumping castle, trampoline, poly pocket and xbox the kids were happily engrossed for 4 hours of quality scrapbooking time! My scrapbuddy got an amazing three pages done but I only completed this one! This was a professional photo we had taken at my daughters childcare centre last year and seeing as how it is nearly time for another photo I thought I'd better hurry up and get this one scrapped! I'm going through a bit of an artistic phase with my layouts at the moment. I'm trying harder to produce layouts I love . And it's working if you asked me right now for my favourite layout I couldn't possibly narrow it down! I'd have to give you my favourite four l...

I'd like to thank those of you who have taken the time to respond to my question. Most of the responses I've had have been via email direct to me and so far they agree with Nicola. The " MY" part of the title looks o.k. It's nice to get comments and feedback sometimes... just so I know someone is reading me and I'm not just ranting to myself..lol While I'm on the subject I'd like to commend all my commentors. From day one you've all been a very positive supportive bunch. I've read a few comments on other boards lately that are frankly rather mean.. . so thank you all for being so nice to me. Now I'm looking for some feedback as to what topics you'd like to see covered on my blog and any suggestions of new video topics you'd like me to do. So anyone with any suggestions ? If you'd like to email your thoughts feel free to do so at: cheapscrapbookingideas@yahoo.com

Hey everyone, here's my latest layout of my daughter. I went with a pink and navy layout even though the colour photo showing the colours of this outfit was so small. I had these fabulous american crafts elements ribbons to use and as I've wanted to use them very badly for sometime now... this was the perfect opportunity. (They were a gift from my last place of work when I was leaving). This layout is a pretty expensive one for me as the embellishment "Girl" cost $2 so all up the layout cost around $4.50. The flowers and butterfly I made out of vellum as an afterthought as I felt this corner needed something. Of course as you can see I've used my autum leaves stamp again! I do wonder though what you think of the "my"? I had these metal letters left over from another layout but as they were more of a brass colour and the 'girl' is so silver I didn't think they'd go together well so I painted the letters blue and then added the white dots t...