Scrapbooking Layout with Sketch 26: Generations

Creating a layout with scrapbooking sketch #26 was a great opportunity to show the proud new Mummy & Daddy with their first child, surrounded by their own loving parents. (Told you we’d get lots of baby layouts from Isabella for a while!)

“A mild & sunny day was a pleasant surprise in mid February so soon after the heavy snow that covered the ground at Emily’s birth,” says Isabella. “So, to take advantage of the sunshine, and making sure the baby was well snuggled in her new shawl, the camera was set up on a tripod for a few shots in the garden.”

There is no journaling on this layout other than the title, ‘generations’, the sub-title, ‘Parents, Children, Grandchildren’, and the words ‘loved’ and ‘blessed’ summing up how the families feel.

Read on for a closer look at this simple, uncluttered layout, some tips on how Isabella made her photo frame, and where to find a whole matching collection of free digital scrapbooking supplies to try for yourself.

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Scrapbooking Sketch #26

Our scrapbooking sketch for June uses 5 photographs, with a focus on one and allowing the other four to supplement the story.

As usual, there are many ways to interpret a scrapbooking sketch and it’s always exciting to see the various ideas people come up with. I often find myself saying, “Wow, I never thought of that!”

The background in this sketch leaves a lot to your imagination. Fill it or leave the ‘white space’ for two very different looks.

We have more layout variations below, including some two-page spreads for you to try this month.

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Scrapbooking Sketch #24

I find it exciting to start a new layout with a scrapbooking sketch. It always gets me off the mark more quickly than sitting with just a few photos and scrapbook supplies.

This new sketch includes 3 papers, 1 photo, ribbon and journaling block (or it could be another photo, if you prefer.) There’s a title block and one or two positions that could be a sub-title and journaling, or a quote. Try it and see how you get on.

The sketch will turn easily should you want to try a different perspective. See below for some variations, then choose the one that suits your purpose best.

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Super Fast Christmas Gift Idea

We have another super fast Christmas gift idea for you. Not only can you download the product and start making it within minutes, but it will be finished in no time, too. That’s what we said, super fast!

As Christmas gets closer we all feel the pressure so think there’s no time now to make gifts – we’ll have to buy.

That’s where digital scrapbooking products come in to their own, with a gift you can make quickly, yet looks like you’ve spent days over it

This easy calendar, the 2009 8.5×11 Calendar Easy Page Pro from Scrap Girls, is all ready for you just to drop your photographs into place and it’s done.

So the idea of such a great gift as this fun, cheery and bright calendar is very welcome. Yes?

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How do you hold the pages together?

If you’re like me you probably already have dozens of book rings and ribbons to hand. These are so simple to use.

Or maybe you’ve got a Bind-It-All tool on your Christmas list and plan to make calendars as New Years gifts for family and friends. Or take it to your local copy or printer store to bind. Many have professional wire binding systems (similar to the Bind-it-all) and will quickly bind your calendars.

It’s an 8.5×11 scrapbook page design, and there are twelve easy pages, one for each month of the year. It’s designed by Angie Briggs one of Scrap Girls professional designers. You simply slide your own photograph behind the page and position to your liking in the window.

And once made, you can print off as many copies as you require of each page to make multiple calendars in one fell swoop!

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Nothng could be simpler and yet so professional as these easy calendar pages to make super fast Christmas gifts. Sit back and wait for the compliments.

 

Simple Layout with Scrapbooking sketch #22

Sometimes it helps to have a simple layout made with a scrapbooking sketch to get you off the starting blocks. We hope this idea helps inspire you.

This sketch is similar to sketch 20 but the proportions and order of the layers are different. It’s these little differences that allow the sketches in this mini series to work together.

Try using them in an album with coordinating papers. (We’ll cover that next month after the last sketch is posted.)

Meanwhile here is a sample sketch for those who like to see what we make of the sketches we give you.

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Products Used:

• Assemble Your Own Zoom Pages: His and Hers
• His and Hers Embellishment Biggie
• Day To Day Life Collection Biggie from Scrap Girls
• ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Pressed Petals 1
• BHA RetroFamLove Special: Willow
• DMI Serene corner Special

A Scrap Girls ’special’ usually means it was a free gift in one of the newsletters.

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Let’s Take a Closer Look

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How did we make the layout?

Isabella used two strips of the same paper at either side of the layout, and a dotty paper to echo Victoria’s head band. However, as the template called for a darker color at the right side, she adjusted the color of the paper using the hue/saturation. She then added the pressed petals and blended them with the overlay option in the layers menu.

The buttons also reflect the head band, and the ribbon pulls what could be seen as three separate columns in the layout together.

We hope this simple layout using our scrapbooking sketch 22 challenges you to have a go. Do let us know how you get on.

Personalize your Calendars

I’ve been making calendars for my family for a long time now. It started when we lived overseas and the Grandmas missed the growing years of our young children, so a personalized calendar was just what they needed to keep up to date. This was long before I knew about scrapbooking, and long before digital photography, the internet and photo-sharing were around.

I would laboriously draw up calendars by hand in a book of quality watercolor paper and get the children to draw on it or for it – depending how old they were at the time. Actually I really enjoyed doing it. The hard part was engendering enthusiasm in the children because I’d left it so late to do it all and everything had to be done in about a week or it missed the last mailing date to arrive in time for Christmas.

We included photos of the birthday girl/boy in the various birthday months which helped stretch things and reduce the number of drawings needed that first year … which was just as well for enthusiasm waned very quickly. Up to that point I’d have said my children loved drawing and were always doing it, but when even a loved task is condensed into a very short period it can become a drag.

As I’ve told you often, I’m a ‘last-minute’ person and the children quickly got bored as I tried to get them to do too much in too short a time, so after that first year it quickly became seasonal photographs showing things we’d done throughout the year to fill the calendar instead of drawings. There might be the occasional drawing or a little story to fill in almost scrapbooking, but not quite!

Now if I’d been an organized person, I’d have arranged this over the year and it wouldn’t have been so hard for the children, or I could have gathered and saved the drawings they’d made throughout the year.

Of course, it is a lot easier nowadays with digital cameras. You can photograph the children’s drawings while they are still fresh and not worry about storing them until they become brittle and start to disintegrate. And if you make a scrapbook layout while everything is still fresh in your mind you have a long-term record of your genius’ creativity. Then all you have to do is re-size the image to just what you need for this year’s calendar!

But in those days it took too long to go through the processing cycle and I didn’t have time for that.

I still make calendars even although that early reason has gone. I enjoy doing it and it continued to be a way to show the Grandmas what the children have been up to – even as young adults! The styles varied but they were usually photograph based.

And now there are digital scrapbooking kits especially for making calendars!

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Scrapbooking Sketch #21

The scrapbooking sketch this month is the second in our current mini series, which was inspired by some abstract paintings I saw recently.

If you’re not familiar with using sketches you can read How do I use a Scrapbooking Template

A scrapbooking layout includes a photograph(s), some pretty scrapbooking papers, journaling – telling the story behind the photo – and a few embellishments. What they become when your inspiration is added … is magic! It’s amazing just how different two pages can be using the same sketch idea.

The sketch can be used by a paper or digi-scrapper.

 

Layout Competition

To help inspire you further, there’s a $10 gift certificate to spend at the Scrap Girls Boutique for the best layout submitted this month. Digital products can be printed, but you could use it to start your digital scrapbooking experience, or to buy a Christmas gift for a digital scrapping friend. We’re into helping you cut costs this Christmas! (The fact it’s digital means instant download so less time pressure as the holiday season swings in on us!)

If you wish to enter our layout competition this month please contact us for a few rules and the deadline. Thanks.

See our other free sketches for more ideas to give you a jump start on your pages. And we’ll be back shortly with sample layouts using this month’s scrapbooking sketch #21.

Photographing a Special Event

When we’re planning a special occasion there’s a lot to take into account. Much advance preparation is required to make a success. It’s the same when we’re photographing a special event.

From Harvest or Thanksgiving to Christmas or New Year celebrations, birthdays, weddings, graduations and baptisms, there are many special times in a year. We want a camera on hand to record them, yet so often the shots we catch are haphazard.

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Make your Money go Farther

With the cost of basic foods and energy and gas prices rising so quickly we have all had to tighten our belts. Like me you may be wondering how to make your money go farther. That goes for our scrapbooking money too – if there’s anything left at the end of the month to use for hobbies at the moment, that is!

Often, as the purse-strings tighten, the stress levels rise, so having time and a small allowance for your hobby, if you can find it, will relieve the stresses. You very often have to be the anchor for your family, helping everyone else cope. And if you find scrapbooking and card making de-stressing, then maybe the children will find it helps them too.

So, one of the first tips to make your money go farther has to be to use our existing scrapbooking stash creatively, and finding ways to stretch the budget quickly follows.

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It is Fun to Decorate the Envelope

How often do we think to decorate the envelope, too? I mean, we may have spent hours making the card and it looks great. Then we tip it into a plain, dowdy old envelope. Where’s the fun in that?

Make the most of your scrapbooking supplies and try these ideas to liven up the envelopes you send your greetings cards in:

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Birthday Cards: Idea 2

I love to give birthday cards. However it can be an expensive business buying cards for everyone I want to give one to. That’s one reason why I started making my own.

Read on for the instructions on how to make another one of our simple birthday cards ideas.

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New Christmas Scrapbooking Products

Tis the season … for a quick peak at the new Christmas scrapbooking products in stores now.

As keen scrapbookers we may make layouts all year round, but the products are not available all year round. Make an early start on your Christmas shopping here.

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How Can I Use an Imperfect Photo?

We have a great tip for you to use an imperfect photo in your next scrapbook page, plus it’s the season for scrapping those back to school layouts.

Unless you are a professional photographer or really, really knowledgeable or experienced, you will have an imperfect photo or two or six hundred in your files!

No matter how much we want it, our photos don’t always turn out as we’d hope.

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Using Sketch #18 for a ScrapGirls Challenge

Can you make a layout with just three products? We did when using sketch #18 for a ScrapGirls challenge.

ScrapGirls had a fun week recently when they invited everyone on a Staycation. “What’s that?” I hear you say. It was a vacation at home – save money, save fuel but still have a great time. They had lots of fun competitions and challenges with prizes.

This challenge was to send Moss the dog, the ScrapGirls Moss-cot (mascot!) on vacation. You’d be amazed the places he ‘visited’ and the things he ‘did’.

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Why Digital Scrapbooking?

Why digital scrapbooking rather than paper scrapbooking?

We’re having a conversation about digital scrapbooking today. You may have got the idea from a few posts that our layout designer, Isabella, is a new convert to digital scrapbooking – and like all new converts talks about little else these days! lol! So, with the promise of a little peace for a while, I decided to interview her so she could get it all off her chest for this post, lol!

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Scrapbooking Sketch #17

Here is this month’s scrapbooking sketch. As you can see it’s for one large photograph and four smaller ones, and uses two or more background papers – if that’s how you want to use it.

What would this sketch be like if you lay down on your side to view it, or stood on your head?

OK, that’s just a silly way of saying you do not have to use the sketch this way up, but you can turn it around and choose the perspective that suits your photos.

And to save you the bother of the contortions, here are the alternatives.

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Scrap Girls Scrapbooking Kits

Many of Scrap Girls scrapbooking kits start life in their monthly club. As the designers are different from month to month you get a variety of styles.

Digital scrapbooking products can be printed, so you can enjoy these excellent kits whether you are a digital or paper scrapper.

Each month you will receive …

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Great Birthday Party Tips

At your wits end and needing some great birthday party tips?

Scrapping your children’s birthday parties can’t happen without the party! (That’s ’scrapping’ as in making a scrapbook page, not ‘ditching’ the party altogether, lol.)

Seriously though, what goes through your head when you hear the words ‘birthday party’?

Love ‘em or dread ‘em, they’re a fact of life with children in the family, especially younger ones. We have some great tips to get you through it without hitting the tranquilizers! And maybe even enjoying it in the process.

First off is a video then some tips from other moms, and after the party comes the scrapbooking so we have a couple of birthday layout ideas, too.

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Scrapbooking Sketch #16

There are many places to look for a scrapbooking sketch to suit your requirements.

You can visit online resources, buy a sketch book or scrapbooking magazine, or stay here, read on and try our new sketch idea.

Along with the layouts we make and show you here, which are obviously available to scraplift, we like to include a new sketch from time to time – just in case you’ve come looking for new sketches.

We have a sample layout with this sketch, an added challenge, journaling tips and some wonderful product ideas.

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Meet Genie

Hi, I’m Genie Balfour, the author of Scrapbooking Gems.com

Do you love your name?

Mine is Eugenia. It’s quite a mouthful. It took me a long time to grow into it. As a child growing up in a small country town in Scotland, my great-grandparents lived just a few streets away. I would sometimes be sent to their house on an errand and at other times would just go visit. They had a little old neighbor whose name was the same as mine. All through my childhood my name always reminded me of that neighbor. She was a little, wizened old lady. She and my great-grandmother were friends, and I don’t know why, but she always scared me. If she was visiting when I arrived, I didn’t stay. I always associated the name with her and I was well into adulthood before I could erase the memory and begin to like my name. Hence my comment that it took a long time to grow into my name!

Shopping for cards

I’ve been making things by hand since a child. I’ve tried many crafts with varying success, but in recent years it’s been card making that’s held my attention. I used to love going into card stores and would have a good laugh to myself at some of the funny ones before buying what I needed. But the cards were becoming increasingly rude, so several years ago I stopped buying and started making my own. For a while I made them on the computer and then when I discovered so many wonderful [tag]scrapbooking papers[/tag] and [tag]embellishments[/tag] moved on to making them by hand.

Taking the Plunge

It seems there’s only a small step from card making to scrapbooking, however I was reluctant to take it. Somehow a card seemed a more manageable size. So I admired from afar for a long time. Eventually I decided to take the plunge and thought I’d keep a record of some of the things I learned about scrapbooking along the way. I hope they are a help to you.

Memory Aid!

At Scrapbooking Gems we want to encourage you, but it also acts as a memory aid! My head leaks like a sieve and I’m always forgetting things, so this is by way of a memory aid, too! We’ll include the things we’re learning as we go along, as well as showing layouts, testing tools, listing [tag]scrapbooking products[/tag] we like, the best [tag]scrapbooking websites[/tag] we visit, and places and people we’ve learned from.

We’d love to hear from you!

I hope you find the things we find fun and useful. From getting started to advanced level scrapbooking there will be something for everyone. We’ll need your patience as we build up the site. We’ve many ideas of what we want to do. And we’d love your help with the advanced level stuff especially as we haven’t got there yet! We want to make the site inclusive so look forward to hearing from you with your scrapbooking layouts, tips and suggestions. If you don’t agree with anything on the site let us know – politely, please! – and we can discuss it. And if you’ve anything to add we can see where it will fit in.  I hope we can provide a great website you’ll love to come back to again and again.

God bless you,

Genie & the Gang!

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10 Lessons Learned in Motherhood

 

In honor of Mother’s Day we have some lessons learned in motherhood, a new digital scrapbook layout for you and some great digital scrapbooking products to view, some of which Isabella used in this layout.

And now some advanced warning for any unsuspecting mom-to-be out there …

 

 

1. Once you have a child you lose half your brain

… and if you have any more than two, there is no hope for you!

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Mothers Day Gift Ideas

I had a quick look around the web to see what great ideas folks were coming up with for Mother’s Day gifts this year. Some are good for scrappers, others more general…

Here’s my pick of the Top 5: Read more

Photographing Children’s Birthday Parties

 

Photographing children’s birthday parties can be a challenge, especially when you have a list of things to do and a dozen children to keep amused at the same time.

“For kids’ birthday parties, most of the energy goes toward making sure the birthday star is having a good time, and the guests aren’t killing each other, not in taking terrific photos,” say the folks at Best Family Photography Tips

And being scrapbookers, the annual birthday party photographs are a must-not-be-missed event.

Read on for more tips and some great birthday layouts.
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Digital Scrapbooking Layout: 100 Degrees F

 

Thinking of summer coming with warmer weather, this digital scrapbooking layout remembers the hot summer of 2003 when the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK was 100 degrees F. Only for one day, mark you, and for a short time at that. LOL!

The scrapbook supplies used in this layout come from digital scrapbooking company Scrap Girls. What products were used here?

Read on to find out. Read more

Sharing your National Scrapbooking Day

National Scrapbooking Day – a day for creating scrapbook pages to commemorate, celebrate, remember …

Have you thought of sharing your NSD? … how about spending a few hours with an elderly family member, neighbor or other senior to record some of their memories – one on one?

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Organizing a Great Scrapbooking Event

Organizing a great scrapbooking event is no different to planning a dinner party, a business meeting or a children’s birthday party. The basic planning tips are the same.

So if you want to plan your own event for National Scrapbooking Day, read on … Not done it before? There is still time, and it’s not as difficult as it seems. Whether you are a newbie to scrapbooking or not these tips will help.

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Matching Patterned Papers – Video Tutorial

Matching patterned papers whether you have been scrapbooking for years or are completely new to it can be a real headache. But don’t let that put you off. There are two ways to cope with the problem …

1. Go down the route of buying scrapbooking kits, or

2. Watch this video …

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Choosing a Scrapbooking Kit

 

 

Choosing a scrapbooking kit from the many on the market could be a headache in the making! Just where do you start? How do you choose which of the many scrapbooking kits is for you?

How about our tips to choosing a scrapbooking kit right here …

 

 

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Scrapbooking Sketch: February

Our scrapbooking sketch went a bit wild this month! lol!

Firstly we were bored with the monotony of a gray scale. Then, having decided to use multiple squares the layout needed softening, so we added the curved arrows. And finally we thought to add some fun by using the arrows to make the curvy flow through the page.

Hmm … let’s see what we can make of it. Read on for ideas and a sample layout.

 

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Layout with ScrapGirls’ Freebies

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We made this layout with ScrapGirls’ freebies, thus disproving the old saying ‘You never get anything for nothing!’

We are not yet digital scrapbookers (if you are, would you answer a question for us later, please?) Yet after just a few free newsletters there were enough products to make a successful digital scrapbook layout – and we were surprised how easy it was to do with just a basic knowledge of the program we used.

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