Cruise Into Scrapbooking

One of my daughter’s second grade classmates spent spring break on a Disney cruise. She returned with a tan and a scrapbook of her high seas adventures, but this was no ordinary memory book. Leave it to the imagineers at Disney to come up with a way to create a 3D scrapbook in the shape of a cruise ship. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I assume you can only get one if you set sail on the floating House of Mouse. However, just because you can’t get your hands on a pop-up cruise ship scrapbook, doesn’t mean … Continue reading

Spotlighting Family

Family reunion season is right around the corner. I’m reminded of this on a near daily basis, as my clan is responsible for helping host the upcoming summer shindig. Due to distance issues, I have been relegated to designing a scrapbook of the event. Basically, I will be the official photographer for the three-day extravaganza, and then my aunt and I will go through the images and figure out a way to craft organized layouts. In addition to documenting the actual party and subsequent activities, my mom wants the reunion scrapbook to also include family tree-type features. Her vision is … Continue reading

Scrapbooking Tools Doing Double Duty

Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day quite like a Cricut machine. Hint. Hint. My neighbor’s living room windows are freshly decorated with large hearts made from exquisite patterned scrapbook paper. Eye candy indeed. When my 7-year-old queried her on where we could buy “some of those pretty hearts” to embellish our windows, my neighbor sweetly replied: “Honey, I used my Cricut to make them.” She then promptly invited my kid over to craft some for her bedroom window. “Rub it in, why don’t you?” I’m pretty sure that was my exact retort. So, yes, a Cricut is truly an investment that … Continue reading

Ways to Save on Holiday Scrapbooking

Don’t blow your budget buying every seasonal scrapbooking embellishment you lay your eyes on. While the fantastically festive items are tempting to purchase, you can find slews of holiday-themed scrapbooking supplies for practically nothing if you simply take the time to surf the World Wide Web. For example, several websites offer free Christmas fonts for use on holiday layouts. Check out Fonts and Things, The Holiday Spot, Font River, Font Space and 1001 Free Fonts, and then use them to design your own customized Christmas scrapbook paper. You can either repeat a saying or quote in the font of your … Continue reading

Getting Your Holiday Layouts to Pop

Don’t overlook the fine details when constructing a holiday layout. Often, it’s the little touches, such as proper photo placement, fonts and adhesive selections that can make the difference between an ordinary page design and an extraordinary one. When it comes to page titles or journaling blocks, you can enhance a holiday theme by using fonts that are decorated with seasonal details. Fortunately, many websites offer free fonts for scrapbookers that are embellished with festive designs, such as letters covered with snow or topped with Santa hats. Other choices include letters printed on Christmas ornaments or made to look as … Continue reading

Scrapbooking Seasonal Smiles

Mom, can I have a dog for Christmas? No, you’ll be getting turkey like everyone else. What did Adam say on the day before Christmas? It’s Christmas, Eve. What do you get if Santa goes down the chimney when a fire is lit? A Crisp Cringle What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Snowflakes Thank you. Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Nothing sets off a hearty round of ho, ho, hos than a silly seasonal riddle or two. During the height of the holidays, Christmas-themed jokes are not reserved solely for the kiddos to swap in the backseat of … Continue reading

Scrapbooking Precious Holiday Memories

A number of my friends gave birth this year, which means I’ll be gifting a lot of “Baby’s First Christmas” paraphernalia this holiday season. I remember my daughter’s first Christmas like it was yesterday. Probably because it was just yesterday that my kid pulled out the scrapbook I made to commemorate the occasion. She loves to page through the memory book and forces me to expound on the journaling blocks and photo captions I added nearly six years ago. A child’s first Christmas is a rare gem of an event that comes around once in a lifetime. Consequently, it is … Continue reading

Spice Up Your Halloween Layouts

Despite the miles in between Happy, happy Halloween! Not exactly Shakespeare, but it ties in well with my “Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun” page title. I’m rushing to put together a double page Halloween layout for my great aunt’s 90th birthday scrapbook. I’m in charge of creating half of the holiday-themed pages, while my sister-in-law has to come up with designs for the remaining holidays and major occasions, such my birthdays and family reunions. Right now I am working on Halloween. The layout has to include all of the youngest members of the family, as well as photos from … Continue reading

Give Your Layouts a Lift

You don’t have to spend a ton of time or money adding pizzazz to your scrapbook layouts. In fact, some of the most eye-popping accents can be created by incorporating simple techniques such as decoupaging. Recently, my mom’s passion for decoupaging had spread to scrapbooking. She loves to decoupage chipboard using patterned paper scraps. Small bits of leftover scrapbook paper come in handy when you want to add a new dimension to chipboard. All you need to do is place some Mod Podge on the paper, let the adhesive dry thoroughly, and then trim the excess with a craft knife. … Continue reading

Funny Family Scrapping

“Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.” That quote was front and center on a hilarious scrapbook layout, which was displayed at a crop I attended a few weeks ago. Not every clan is like the Waltons. In fact, I would venture to guess that more families have their roots in reality TV shows, or at the very least, have closer ties to the Simpsons or the Brady Bunch than the Cleavers and Nelsons. Whether your family life is more like a sitcom than a sappy greeting card, there’s no reason not to document it in … Continue reading