Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
I have a new video available on my YouTube Channel. I just love today's layout -- very whimsical and with great dimension! It's the first picture I took when we arrived in Florida & it's of a little lizard we saw outside my father-in-law's condo. I loved his bright green color and the fact that he was something we never would have seen in Virginia. I wanted to journal about this being the first of many new experiences we were going to be having. So here it is!
In this layout I used a portrait of myself that was not from this actual event. I have a folder in my pictures for these kinds of portraits and I use them for layouts where I was present and want to show myself but don't actually have a picture of myself from the event. If you stick with me long enough, you'll probably see this picture again! Thanks for watching & I hope you enjoy it!
In other news, I saw a scrapping goodies giveaway online and thought I would share it with all of you in case you want to enter to win some great stuff!
Leesa from A Chocolate Kind of Life is giving away all this great stuff in honor of National Scrapbooking Day {May 2nd}:
You have until Saturday night to enter, so click the link above, check out her blog, and drop your name in the hat!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I wanted to share one of the recent blog comments with you today, because I think it hits on something so important to how I view this wonderful, amazing, addicting hobby of ours. Jill W. left this comment on my Q&A post:
I am feeling alot different about my love of scrapbooking after reading your blog. You hit it dead on, guilt! The idea of scrapping one side of the family at an event and not the other, or one child more than the other, or one sibling & family more than the other; oh well, you get the idea. I have never "shared" photos on a public forum like shutterfly or whatever, but it would make my hobby about things I want to say instead of what I feel I need to say.
I have thousands of ideas "running" thru my head of what I want to do with different photos, not to mention hundreds of "scrap" things, i.e. tickets, foreign money, menus, kids stuff that I am going to "put away" and take some of the pressure off of myself to do a layout.
I am going to journal about the process of enjoying what I want to do and not necessarily what is "the right" thing to do. I love the craft and I am loving learning the things that I am through medias like your videos and blog, time to go back to what I enjoy and lose the guilt. Thank you, you have made a difference in my journey today, and hopefully for a lifetime.
First, I just wanted to let you all know that I am so moved to have received a comment like this. When I started making my videos and when I started this blog, I never dreamed that I would ever touch or change someone. I just wanted to share my love for this hobby with other people through the internet since after I moved I didn't have any local scrapping friends. I am just really feeling very touched right now, and I am so grateful to all of you for your kind words and your support and your lovely comments.
Second, I completely understand how the author is feeling & I am so glad that she is freeing herself from scrapping guilt! It makes me very happy to hear that I have helped in some small way with that process.
And last, as for why I think this is important, I believe that too many scrappers burden themselves with a guilt related to this hobby and a desire for an unattainable perfection. I see posts all the time on message boards on not being caught up, or not having finished Child #3's baby album as quickly as the others, or how exhausing it is making a separate album for each family member. Why do we put these rules and requirements on ourselves? Why do we make the hobby not fun anymore? Where does this guilt come from?
I have been scrapbooking since the Fall of 2006, and I got into the hobby 100% because of guilt {more details coming on my May 2nd post}. My first full year of scrapbooking -- 2007 -- I drove myself nuts scrapping every. single. photo. Of every. single. event. I kept this long list of projects that "needed" to get done that only got longer and never got shorter. If I made a mini book of an event, I also made a 12"x12" layout so there would be something to go in the album. I spent the first three months of 2008 panicking that I was falling behind and would never catch up. I filled three entire albums for 2007 alone!
Then I had my lightbulb moment: this is crazy! I love scrapbooking, but it is stressing me out. This is my hobby -- not a job, not something that has to be turned in for a grade -- it should be relaxing and not stressful. How much I scrap, or who, or how often is totally up to me because this is a record of my life through my eyes. There are no rules, no mandatory layouts, nothing but what I put onto myself. So I gave myself permission to scrap what I wanted, when I wanted, and to eliminate the "musts" and "shoulds" and "have tos" from my scrapping vocabulary.
Phew! What a freeing moment! It changed everything, from what I chose to scrap, to who, when, why, where and how. Even my style evolved. {No pictures? Fine. No journaling? Also fine! Mini book instead of 12"x12"? All right!} There is no right and there is no wrong in scrapbooking -- only what makes me happy! No scrapbooking police are going to come into my house and go through my albums to make sure each family member and each event is represented equally and in perfect chronological order with no gaps or omissions.
The bottom line: my family and friends know I love them -- these books are for me, not for them {unless I make one specifically to give to them, of course!}. If they enjoy looking at them, too, that's great! I love to look through my albums with the people who are in them -- it's so much fun. If they want the albums when I'm gone, also fabulous. But in the meantime, I'm here to have fun creating beautiful pages to record the moments in my life that are special and important to me.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I have a few questions from the comments on my blog that I wanted to answer.
What is your email address? My email address is thescrapbeach@gmail.com. Feel free to use it any time you like!
You asked if there was anything in particular we are interested in seeing? I am curious how to maximize the amount of pictures per page without it appearing "junked up". I like to use photo collages when I have many photos on one layout. Photoshop Elements helps me to resize my pictures so they all fit on a smaller canvas that is easier to work with than several 4"x6" photos. If you don't have any photo editing software on your computer, you can download Picasa for free, which I hear is an excellent program.
Another solution is to not worry about getting all the photos on one layout. For example, on the left side of a double-page spread you could have a 12"x12" layout with your favorites from an event. On the right side you could simply adhere several photographs to a sheet of cardstock. You can get six 4"x6" photographs on a 12"x12" piece of cardstock as long as they are all either vertical or horizontal. If you wanted some of the cardstock to show between and around the photos so they're not jammed up against each other, you could trim the photos slightly smaller than 4"x6".
I have tons of decorative scissors but cannot cut a straight line to save my life. Do you have any suggestions on how to cut around a sheet of paper? When I am using decorative edged scissors, I use my ruler to draw a pencil line on the reverse of the paper where I want the edge to be. Then I cut along that line as a guide and my edge comes out perfectly straight.
Where do you get your chipboard? I get my chipboard from Create for Less. The brand is Paper Accents and I buy the extra thick sheets in packs of 12"x12". I cut my chipboard down to make smaller albums.
Regarding Page Kits: How do you decide what to put into each one, I mean how do you choose the papers, embellishments to place in it? I am going to do a video tutorial on making page kits {promise!}, so I won't get into it too much here. My first piece of advice is start with something that is inspiring you -- either a new supply, or a tool you've wanted to try -- and build out from there. Say, for example, that I had some new Disney patterned paper. I would look for coordinating patterned paper -- maybe something with polka dots or something with stars -- and then add matching/coordinating cardstock. Then I would find some buttons, ribbons, chipboard, bling, etc., that worked with that theme and voila! Disney page kit!
I have issues with doing a page or double layout when alot (10+) photos are used. It seems I always need more room for journaling to explain what is going on, more pics don't always clear things up. You could think about combining a scrapbook album and a photo album together in one. For more about what I mean, check out this video:
While the album & Page protectors I show in the video are no longer available, other companies are making similar products. For example, American Crafts now offers 4"x6" photo sleeve page protectors for their 12"x12" albums {shown below}. Some other companies offering these types of photos sleeves are Fancy Pants, Pioneer and We R Memory Keepers.
If you don't want to go that route, you could also try utilizing hidden journaling or accordian mats. A good video to look at for ideas on how to get more photos and journaling in a smaller space is my Christmas Mini Album. I utilized several different devices for adding extra photos and journaling, and all of them would translate easily onto a larger page. When I include an interactive element on a layout, I just make a slit in the page protector so it still functions in the album.
Where do you keep all of your completed layouts? Right now I keep them all in albums in a small cabinet that also doubles as my printer stand. You can see it below:
12"x12" albums are on the top shelf, extra page protectors and albums bits and pieces are on the middle shelf, and unused/unfinished albums + mini books are all kind of jammed onto the bottom shelf. I need to think of a better way to display my mini books.
If you a concerned about space -- as in, where the heck am I going to put all these pictures, layouts & albums!? -- then a big piece of advice (and one I follow myself) is to be more selective about what you scrap. I may take as many as 300 photos at a single event, but only a tiny percentage of those will ever make it into an album. The rest are on flickr for friends and family to see and enjoy. I try to think of scrapbooking as a slice of my life, or a glimpse into what is going on -- things that are special, that I want to remember, things I would rather forget, and just plain ol' everyday things. I don't try to make it a detailed record of my life, however, and that saves me time, money and space, as well as eliminating all stress and guilt from the hobby.
I hope that answers some of your questions. If you had a question that I didn't get to, or if you have one you'd like to ask, please feel free to leave a comment here, or over on YouTube, or email me!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
I have to confess that I don't read too many blogs. Being more of a video person, I spend more time on YouTube than I do on the blogosphere. It's actually through YouTube that I came across one of my very favorite blogs: wwww.kwernerdesign.com. Kristina Werner's videos on YouTube have excellent projects, with great instruction, and are altogether just a real treat to watch.
Each week she hosts a challenge on her blog -- a Color Inspiration Challenge -- and she posts exciting color combinations for use in your own personal projects. I have not participated before since I am not much of challenge person (not a blog person, not a challenge person, what kind of a person am I!?) but since this is a huge anniversary -- NUMBER 50!!! CONGRATS!!! -- I thought I would stop lurking and actually do a project.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
I just uploaded a new video over on my YouTube channel. This is a fun 12"x12" layout with lots of embossing. I also included a tutorial on how to conserve paper while scrapping in my very layered style, so if conserving paper is important to you, this is a great video to check out!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
This is the sixth and final part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. There is no actual scrapping in this book -- just a closer look at the finished album. I hope you enjoy it!
The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
It seems that Northridge Media will now be offering all their magazines online through a monthly subscription. I love Scrapbook Trends -- it's one of my favorite scrapbooking magazines. One reason I am so excited about this is that I have wanted to subscribe to Card Trends for a while as well but just couldn't justify the expense.
For the same price as a subscription to just Scrapbook Trends, I can have access to all their magazines and all their idea books (which are awesome, by the way). You can even print the magazines if you want to have something to hold in your hand -- or just print the most inspirational pages for your idea file. I am seriously considering this deal.
If you'd like to see how the online format looks, they are offering a free sample online now. They have the Mini Albums Idea book online now, which is one of my absolute favorites. If you love mini albums (and I assume you do if you're reading this, since that is mostly what I make) you should go check it out for free!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
I uploaded Part Five {of Six} of the Engagement Mini Album to YouTube today. Now, Part Five is actually the last video where I will b doig scrapping n ths album -- I actually finished the album n this video. However, that took 9 minutes and 59 seconds of my 10 minute limit, so I wasn't able to go through the stills and show you everything one last time, so that's what Part Six will be.
This is the fifth part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
I have some more layout videos coming after this & then I have some request videos to film: a how to on page kits, a home themed album, a paper bag album, and some others. As always, please let me know if you do have a request -- I can't always get to all requests immediately, but I will try my best!
I've decided to spend my state tax retun on some new scrapping goodies (yay!) since it's not too large to make me feel like I should do something "sensible" with it. So far, this is what I have in my shopping bucket over on Two Peas in a Bucket:
First up is the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. I am SO excited about this tool! I don't have any way to round the corners on my chipboard and acrylic right now and this is the perfect solution. It does both large and small corners, too, so I only need the one tool.
Next is the Snorkel Paper Crafting Kit from Cosmo Cricket. Snorkel is SO CUTE that I can hardly stand it. Plus the colors and images are perfect since it's pretty much always summer here and I have some great pictures from Jungle Island and the Miami Seaquarium.
I love the Snorkel Ready Set Chip chipboard pack, too. That octopus is so adorable and the colors are fab! These will be great for beach layouts.
I'm really enjoying the beach & summer phrases and images in the Snorkel Rub Ons. Once again, perfect for Miami!
The Snorkel Ribbon is also really cute. I especially love the ones with the fish and the bubbles, and as you know I am always a fan of anything scalloped so the scalloped velvet ribbon has my name all over it.
Also catching my eye right now is the Fancy Pants Summer Soiree line. The sunburst paper will be perfect for capturing the heat here, and I also love that splash paper. Very cute & great, bright colors!
These are the Summer Soiree 10x10 Circle Stamps and I am loving that wave stamps, as well as the "sun" stamps and some of the breezy florishes. Very nice.
The Summer Soiree 5X8 Journal Book is also really great. I love anything diecut and these papers are nice and large -- they'll be perfect for two page layouts.
Also in my cart are these Family In A Word Stamps from Technique Tuesday. I love Technique Tuesday stamps -- they're really nice quality -- and I've also been feeling the urge to do more childhood, family and heritage related layouts, so these stamps will be perfect for that. Plus, the detail is just exquisite!
Also by Technique Tuesday are these Vacation In A Word stamps. My husband and I travel quite a bit between his work and our own vacations, so these are perfect for those pages.
This 5X5 Inch Chipboard Binder with Envelopes from 7 Gypsies is really great. The envelopes are genius and I love that you can add more pages because it's a binder & not spiral bound or something like that. It will be super fun to do a mini with this guy.
I have been eyeing this Trees Mini Chipboard Set from Maya Road for a while now. They are just too adorable and it looks like there are a ton of them in there. It'll be great for all kinds of things -- layouts, cards, etc.
I'm also adding this Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint by Tim Holtz. I've been trying to think of different things to do to my raw chipboard since I have so much of it & thought I would experiment with crackle paint.
So what do you think? Cute stuff, right? What are your favorite scrap supplies right now? Is there anything cool you think I should add to my bucket before I place this order? You guys should have a pretty good idea of what I like from my videos, so let me know! I proably won't be shopping again for a while, so I don't want to miss out on something really adorable.
In other news, do you remember this video?
Well, CarMax contacted me recently to ask permission to put it on their Facebook page! You can see it here in an April 15th post: Carmax Facebook Page Pretty cool, right?
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
This is just a quick post to let you ladies know that I am going to be participating in an online crop at Two Peas In A Bucket tonight and tomorrow. There are going to be ten challenges (one every two hours) throughout the crop, and I thought it would be a great way to stretch my creativity and hopefully get a lot done.
The crop starts at 6:00 PM Eastern, but the hostess aid they were going to try to get a thread up for it around 5:30 PM Eastern. I will be in and out, but am looking forward to participating in the challenges. If you want to see what I and the other ladies are up to & just have some fun, check out the Two Peas General Scrapping Forum tonight! My user id on Two Peas is the same as on YouTube: desdichaedo.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I hope you all enjoyed the 100 Subscribers Celebration this week! The last two videos in this series will be posted next week.
Today's video is Part Four of the Engagement Mini Album series. I finally conquered Adobe Premiere Elements {I have a feeling it let me win} and got this video uploaded over on YouTube. Yay! It's still processing, but it is available for viewing now if you like!
This is the fourth part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I was hoping to have another video in the Engagement Album Series posted by now but Adobe Premiere Elements was throwing a tantrum this morning and I am still struggling with it. I'll get the video uploaded to YouTube as soon as I can -- I hope it's before lunch!
In the meantime, I wanted to share a gorgeous layout with you all from Danielle:
Danielle emailed me this picture of her fabulous "Daydream" layout. Isn't it gorgeous!? I especially love the embossed scallop background and the really fabulous details on the butterflies! The layout was inspired by my "Lotus" layout from this video:
Danielle used a scallop border stamp from Hero Arts (LOVE THEM!) to make her embossed background. She told me that she also stamps it on the back of papers and cuts it out to give anything a custom scalloped edge -- that's a GREAT idea for a way to get more use out of stamps!
I hope you all loved Danielle's layout as much as I did. If I've inspired one of your creations, I'd love to see it. Please email me at anytime at thescrapbeach@gmail.com with any comments, questions or creations. I'm hoping to be posting soon with Part Four of the Engagement Album.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I hope you are all enjoying the 100 Subscribers Celebration so far!
I'm going to continue with today's video:
This is the third part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!
Just a quick post to announce the winner of the Christmas stamps & then I'll be posting today's 100 Subscriber Celebration videos in just a bit.
I used a random number generator to choose the winner for me and the winner is:
Anonymous said... Kathryn, great scrap room. I love your lazy susan thingy. Brenda
Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:14:00 PM
Brenda, the lazy susan tote is the Tote-ally Cool Tote 2 from All My Memories. I dfinitely love how cnvenient it is to have all my tools together in one easily transportable place. Please email me at thescrapbeach@gmail.com with your address so I can get the stamps off for you.
Thanks again, everyone! I loved reading your comments!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to life on the {scrap}beach! I have a new video up over on YouTube and it's a tour of my home office/scraproom. I would love to have a room all to myself but my husband objected to using the guest bathroom as his office {so selfish} so he is currently sharing with me. Maybe one day I will have my very own art room/studio/atelier/closet to call my own. Until then, enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed seeing where I play with my pretty papers. In my regular project videos I concentrate on showing you what I'm doing, so not much of my room is included. Now you know what it looks like!
I'll be tomorrow with more of our 100 Subscribers Celebration and Part Three of the Engagement Mini Album.
Kathryn Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.
P.S. Remember to leave a comment on this post before 9:00 PM Eastern tonight to be entered to win that set of snowflake stamps.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I hope you are all enjoying the 100 Subscribers Celebration so far!
I'm going to continue with today's video:
This is the second part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
Kathryn Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.
P.S. Don't foget to leave a comment on this post before 9:00 PM Eastern this Thursday to be enetered to win that set of snowflake stamps.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! I hope you are all enjoying the 100 Subscribers Celebration so far!
I'm going to continue with today's video:
This is the first part of a mini album I made for a friend's wedding gift. The wedding is in August, but I wanted something to send to her now so she could document their love story. I hope she enjoys it!
Don't forget to leave a comment on the previous post for a chance to win those stamps!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach! Today is day two of my 100 Subscribers Celebration Week and I am going to start with a giveaway!
These are one of my favorite Christmas stamps sets -- the Inkadinkado "Snowflakes A Plenty" clear stamps:
It may seem weird to be giving away Christmas stamps in April, but I don't think so! First, I'm getting ready to start scrapping my Christmas photos soon, so Christmas has been on my mind lately. Second, scrapbookers can be scrapping any holiday at any time of the year, so these won't necessarily have to wait until next winter to get some use.
To be entered to win these stamps, all you have to do is a leave a comment on this post by 9:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 16, 2009 with your favorite holiday to scrap and why. I will use a random number generator to select a winner and make the announcement in a blog post on Friday morning.
Also, I will be posting a new video later today -- just as soon as I get it uploaded to YouTube and everything.
Thank you again for making my YouTube chanel and blog what it is today!
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to life on the {scrap}beach!
This weekend I reached over 100 subscribers to my YouTube Channel. I can't tell you all how truly humbled I am by your support. When I started making these videos, I had no idea that anyone would ever want to watch them! I am overwhelmed by your comments and your kindness.
Since this is such an exciting moment for me, I've decided to celebrate with a week of videos and some small giveaways! So sit back, relax and enjoy!
I hope I can continue to produce the kind of videos and blog content that you came here to see. And, as always, if there is anything special you would like to see, please don't hesitate to contact me here or over on YouTube.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to life on the {scrap}beach!
A while back, my husband sent me this cartoon about earworms:
He and I both thought it was hilarious because I have such a huge problem with songs getting stuck in my head. In case you haven’t heard the term “earworm” before, it's the "scientific" name for a song that gets stuck in your head. Yes, scientists are actually studying the songs that get stuck in your head – they get paid for this. Must be nice, huh?
Anyway, like I said, I have a HUGE problem with earworms. Maybe it's because I don’t have the greatest memory when it comes to song lyrics and so I can usually only remember one or two lines of the refrain, that will then, of course, get stuck in my head on permanent repeat. Regardless of the reason, I decided to do a layout with the songs most likely to get stuck in my head:
There were two reasons why I created this layout (which is actually very simple in its construction -- there are no fancy techniques, just some inking and lots and lots of cutting):
First, I think it's important to include layouts about our every day life in our scrapbooks. The major events are very important to capture, too, but sometimes our best memories from growing up, high school, college and beyond are not the big things, but the little ones. I would love to know what songs got stuck in my great grandmother's head, wouldn't you?
Second, it was fun! I try very hard to make sure that scrapbooking is always a fun and creative outlet for me, so I don't stress too hard about what is going into my books. I was really tickled by the comic strip and how it seemed to perfectly sum up a frustration I feel on a regular basis. And I enjoy scrapbooking silly things, things that just make me smile and want to play with my paper and glue.
So as you're scrapping the birthday parties and life's other milestones, remember to include the little every day things that make you smile. Those glimpses into your life will be so special for those who come after you. After all, because of this layout, one of my descendant's may get a Def Leppard song stuck in their head & what better legacy could I leave? ;)
One of this month's three challenges was to make a layout using no cardstock -- just patterned paper. Now, if you've seen the video you do know that I used cardstock to make the letters for the title. It was a thrifty way of making some extra "chipboard" letters:
I don't think that breaks the rules, though, because I used the cardstock to stretch my letter supply, not as a design element on the page. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it!
I also used several of my stash of Technique Tuesday coaster tiles to make some flowers. The flower centers are either patterned paper or buttons, depending on whether or not the flowers had solid centers:
All-in-all is was a fun way to use up a bunch of stuff I had on hand. I really hope my friend likes it!
Hi, everyone! Welcome to life on the {Scrap}beach, my brand new scrapbooking blog! It's still has that new blog smell and everything! I will endeavor to actually keep this blog up and regularly post and not allow the same post to remain up for months, gathering dust and embarrassing me with my distinct lack of creativity and inability to actually think of something to write that anyone would want to read.
Unlike my other blogs, which shall remain nameless.
I want to make sure that this is a blog you want to read, so I'm asking you to help me out here. What sort of content do you look for in a scrapbook-related blog? All layouts all the time? Cards? Altered items? Do you ever want to know what is going on in the scrapbooker's life or do you just want her to stop rambling about her Starbucks addiction and get to the project already? Is there anything in particular you would like to see me do?
Let me know, because I want this to be a blog that you enjoy each morning with your coffee.
For those of you who are coming to me from my YouTube channel, I'd apprecite it if you'd tell me which videos you like best, what you liked best about them and what you'd like to see more of. I do the project for myself, but I do the videos for you, so I'd love to know what works and what doesn't!
