Scrapbooking Made Simple

 Hi Everyone, Here are a couple of cards I made for my nephews. It's their 7th and 5th birthday parties today. I don't usually make alot of cards as most people just throw them away..... but as my sister-in-law is also a scrapbooker I'm sure the work that went into these will be appreciated.  I used my cricuit to make the paper piecings (crocodile and bird) but you can follow this link to some free paper piecing patterns: (http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/techniques/paper-piecing/).  Because I was giving gift cards with these cards I have made little pockets inside the cards to hold the gift cards. When giving a gift card I do like to make a nice card as it shows you still thought about that person and put some love into it. I had some pockets that I got in a little packet I bought and used these as templates for these but you can make a pocket in any shape you like just leave a "seam allowance" the width of your double sided tape and fold it under neath and at...

Here it is: My first class for Arnolds Scrapbooking. This is a shabby vintage styled canvas. I have created the layout (canvas) to be able to fit several different kinds of photos. The "Mother" can be replaced with "Friends" or "Daughters" so you can use a more appropriate photo. My usual scrapmiserly ways were challenged I can tell you. I had to create the canvas and always keep in mind the unit cost of every item on the canvas so the whole project was still cheap enough for people to do as a class. I think a black and white photo looks great on this layout but a light pink themed photo would also look great. I have now got three themes that are recurring in my work. The hand stitching which I love. My sister in law does this alot on her layouts and I always think it makes a layout look really well loved. You have put in alot of work on that layout if you have hand stitched on it! I am also really feeling my chipboard elements lately and finally t...

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

Mr Sandman... bring me a dream..... This is a very cheap layout at $1.20 I used four different papers to complete this layout. Three of those were left overs from previous layouts. I inked the edges and stamped the background. The word "Dream" was created using a free supply from a magazine and the rest of the words "bring me a " were punched out of paper as was the "4". So the breakdown cost of the layout is: Patterned Background Paper $0.50, Plain Black Paper $0.20 Plain yellow paper $0.20 and Patterned Red paper $0.30 Has anyone got a cheaper layout we can feature? Email me at: cheapscrapbookingideas@yahoo.com

This is the layout I completed last night. I love these photos taken on our holiday to the sunshine coast in september 2006. My son picked an ice-cream flavour called strawberry shortcake... but then as sometimes happens.... he didn't like it... so his solution was simple... share with his sister. Luckily she didn't mind! I thought I'd try a technique for hidden journalling that allows you to open the journalling box despite the rest of the layout being inside your page protector. Here I've used the smallest photo as the 'book cover' for my journalling. This section is raised off the layout via magnets that allow this photo to be on the outside of the page protector. This is a really cheap layout with the magnet costing $2 for a set of 6 (pairs), my chipboard letters (share) and arrow are off the back of old notebooks and the "bling" comes in a packet of 50 pieces for $2 and the larger blue bling flower is off my daughters/ hairclip... so all tha...

I'm feeling very lucky. I'm scrapbooking tonight. I have a plan for a friend to come over next Friday and scrapbook (she's a newbie so it's fun sharing techniques and info) then the following weekend I'm having a scrapbooking day with my best scrapbuddy..... aaah bliss can it get any better than this? I'm working on a layout at the moment of my kids sharing an ice-cream. It's one of those moments I'll want to share with them when they're teenagers and hate each other ... lol... anyway I'm pushing my usual design style a bit. Since doing the challenges for the design team I'm finding I'm stepping out of my comfort zone more and more. In this case I'm using three pattern papers. They're co-ordinating papers so I didn't have to "match" them myself but I would usually only use one pattern and two plains or if using more patterns I would use them in small sections or blocks... this one is a layered effect with lots of ink...