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http://0tinam0scrapbooksgalore.com/

I'll be keeping this one up for awhile, but please, go check out my new Wordpress blog on my own domain - it's so much better :)

Attention all stampers and scrapbookers: can't we all just get along?

I never realized there was that much of a clash between scrapbookers and stampers. Granted, I'm mostly a scrapbooker, though I do some stamping for card making. Anyhow I though this article was kind of interesting - hearing from the "other" side!

Want to start an argument? Get a room full of die-hard rubber stampers together--and mention scrapbooking. The fur will fly and it will get ugly pretty quick. And typically for me, I've been right there in the thick of things, wondering how this world of ducks-with-hats and letters-with-dots-on-the-ends got to be so dang popular. So I thought I'd take a hard look at scrapbooking and see what all the fuss is about.


Round One - I started with my scrapbooking friend. I attended her late crop-party at her home that she advertised on the Internet. Similar to my experiences with stampers, scrapbookers are eager to open their homes and share their knowledge with complete strangers.

Also similar to stampers, scrapbookers arrive with stuff. It's pretty much all stuff we recognize: scissors, punches, papers (tons of papers!) and more. It seems to me that the scrapbookers are a tad more organized. Those little cropper-hoppers have a place for everything and everything is most-assuredly in its place.

Where's a stamper to put the Barbie shoes, eucalyptus tree bark, the jar of wheat paste for making paste paper and the ball of twine? Our hopper is really more of a junk trunk.

We spent the evening experimenting with different pages and talking. I found it interesting one woman wanted to duplicate the pages in one of the magazines, right down to the colors. Her friend, though, just wanted to get her pictures in an album before her kid graduated from college. She wasn't worried if her cutting was a bit lopsided or her pages lacked embellishment. It was fun seeing two totally different approaches to creating.

The Jab - The first scrapbook I ever saw was a Creative Memories wedding album--I was enthralled. The creator had done such clever things with stickers (this was pre-punch days), and it was a seamless presentation of a special event. It was elegantly simple, with the photographs being central to each page and nicely accentuated with embellishments.

I was a little disappointed to know this album was from a "kit." I thought the ideas in the wedding album came from the person in front of me--who was now giving me a sales pitch. And it was a pricey pitch, too -- $60 here, $20 there. To do a comparable album would cost over $200!

I politely gave my "thanks, but no thanks" line and moved on. Give me some paper, book board and two screw posts and I can make an album in less than half hour for around $5. Until then, the Crate & Barrel shopping bag had seemed to be holding my photos quite nicely, thank you very much.

Counterpunch - From the scrapbooking side of the story I see the appeal of it all. A journal chronicling your important life events is a great thing for future generations. I remember going through old scrapbooks of my relatives; yellowed newspaper clippings, spelling-bee ribbons, Valentine's cards and pictures of people we couldn't identify. It was a biographical treasure chest--or should I say treasure mess. Now, rather than old cellophane tape or unreliable photo corners there are bright colors, cute accessories and coordinated papers to showcase and label our memories. The opportunity to personalize your photographs has double usefulness--you are preserving part of your past and getting that very important creative outlet.

Break - One of my main issues with the scrapbook industry had been the inferior pre-packaged items that cost a fortune but could easily be done at home. The meteoric popularity of scrapbooking prompted many a company to jump on the bandwagon. Improperly cut papers, alphabet stickers with only one set of vowels (ever try to write "Happy Birthday" with only one "a"?) and punches that didn't work on card stock were presented to the consumer in mass quantities. It made me very distrustful of the market. In fact, until a scrapbook store opened up along my route home, I didn't venture into a scrapbook store for years.

When I did go in, it was exciting to see all the new papers, 3-D stickers, rub-ons and even bookmaking kits! And the quality has definitely changed for the better. They're even starting to carry some stamps and handmade papers. Don't even get me started on all of the cool little doo-dads and thingamajigs. I almost got misty-eyed right there, next to the die-cut machine.

Final Bell - The industry has evolved and is beginning to incorporate even more goodies--like vellum, eyelets and ribbon (oh my!). This is a trend that continues today with a somewhat tenuous footbridge spanning the gap between scrapping and stamping. Every once in a while, we meet in the middle to shake hands and sign a new peace treaty. ("You like origami? We like origami! Shake!")

There are things we can learn from each other. We both have a shared obsession with paper. We both use a copious variety of adhesives. Some of us prefer to keep things simple, while others simply cannot have enough detail.

Scrapbooking, like stamping, is both a social and individual activity. In a social setting with other stampers or scrapbookers, you can get new ideas and see what other people are doing. Individually, there is the freedom to explore and make mistakes. I think we stampers were a bit late in embracing our scrapbooking comrades. Had we seen our similarities rather than our differences, perhaps we would be more harmonious together.

Split Decision - I wonder why I have met very few people who scrapbook and stamp. Is it because when you combine the two you end up with an altered-book artist? I'm joking a little here, but I just visited a large scrapbook store and noticed that a lot of the upcoming classes were for handmade books, albums and journals. They all had more than the usual bit of rubber stamping involved. Can the two worlds be colliding at last? How far away are we from singing Kum-Ba-Ya around the paper-arts campfire?

Perhaps this discord, between the scrapbookers and the stampers, is the result of our taking our eyes off the focal point: our art. We should remember although our paths through life are different, we all feel the need to chronicle the journey.

That's it. I'm done. Gather up your pitchforks. I'll be waiting in the town square. I'll be the one with the "I break for scrapbook stores" bumper sticker.

Expression, Nov-Dec, 2005 by Hilari Ford

COPYRIGHT 2005 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

New stuff in my eBay store!

I've just added some new stock to my eBay store that I think is great!

These accents and title from My Mind's Eye will give your pages that sophisticated designer look!




And these accents are......Scratch & Sniff! Seriously. Give your pages the full sensory experience with these little gems.
The "All Boy" set of tags smells of grass and the "All Day Fun" sheet is cotton candy scented!

There's more in my store including a great pumpkin pie scented Thanksgiving set. I think these are just wild and I can't wait to use some on my pages!

Plug for Shutterfly Photo Sharing and Printing

Shutterfly makes it easy to be thoughtful and creative with your photo memories. Enjoy free online photo sharing and unlimited photo storage. Plus, order prints and create personalized Greeting Cards, Photo Books, Calendars, and photo gifts. Enjoy 15 free prints to get started today!

I use Shutterfly myself and I have to say I love it. Even with the higher shipping rates I pay for having the prints sent to Canada, it's well worth it just for the quality I get. Seriously, give them a try!

Shutterfly -  Get 15 FREE prints to try!

More Scrapbook Freebies

The good people at www.scrapbookscrapbook.com have got pages and pages of printable layouts and paper designs available to download - for free!

The design sets are in .pdf format so you need Acrobat Reader to view and print the files.

You can see the list of sets and their samples at the www.scrapbookscrapbook.com site

Google Gadgets - Font of the Day

Google Gadgets are very cool - there's something for every web page!

Here's one I thought would be appropriate here:

Altered Baby Book Video

I love the idea of altered books, but I've been sorta stuck on how to go about doing one. This video is very helpful and explains some techniques for making one.

Hey, buy some books!

Scrapbooking in the classroom!

Here's a good article I found on using scrapbooking as a teaching tool. The project ideas would be great for anyone to use!

Scrapbooking is a great way to get creative in Family and Consumer Sciences classes. Ask students to choose a theme for their scrapbooks. For example, they could use scrapbooks to compare generational lifestyles in photos, such as careers for women, marriage and raising children. How did their grandmothers work? What career options do women have today? How old were their grandparents when they got married? How many of their grandparents attended college? Topics like these make great discussion starters, and scrapbooks can be the trigger that gets the dialog flowing.

What follows are two simple projects you can implement with classes.

The Bookworm Scrapbooking Project

Basic Supplies:

• Tracing paper
• Transfer paper
• Straight-edged scissors
• Pencil
• Glue

Project Supplies:

• Patterned Paper Pizazz(TM): yellow gingham
• Square hole punch
• Black pen
• Red buttons
• White floss
• 1/8' red and yellow eyelets
• 1/4' red ribbon
• Decorative glue dots
• Kristin font for designing lettering (a Macintosh computer font)
• Paper book patterns (available in craft supply stores)
• Solid Paper Pizazz(TM): black & white

Instructions:

1. Mat the photo on white, with a 1/8' border, then on black, with a narrow border. Glue the matted photo to the upper right side of the yellow gingham. Cut out one 4 3/4' x 4' white piece, and one 4 1/4' x 4 1/2' white piece. Mat both on black, with a narrow border. Insert eyelets in each photo corner; yellow in top left and bottom right corners and red in top right and bottom left corners.
2. Use the pencil to trace the book patterns onto tracing paper. Place transfer paper between the tracing paper and the patterned papers. Go over the traced lines with pencil. Use the black pen to write over the book titles and add the lines. Cut out the pieces, mat on black, with a narrow border. Glue the book patterns to the center of the 4 3/4' x 4' white rectangle. Write details about the person in the photo (the person's name, grade, school name and the year) around the edges with the black pen. Glue this piece to the bottom left of the page.
3. Write photo details on the other white piece with black pen, and glue at an angle to left of the photo. Tie a bow with the red ribbon, and attach it to the top of the piece containing photo details with a decorative glue dot.
4. Cut 1 1/2' squares of three different patterned papers, mat on white, then black, with a narrow border. Arrange squares and glue under the photo. Thread floss through each button and tie a knot. Arrange squares and adhere with decorative glue dots between patterned squares.

The Heartfelt Journaling Project Supplies:

• Patterned Paper Pizazz(TM): stars on green
• Specialty Paper Pizazz'(TM): light green paper, green and white vellum paper
• Solid Paper Pizazz(TM): black, dark green, light green
• Stamp Studio(TM) eyelets: light green and dark green
• Circle hole punch for circles 2', 2 1/2', 3'
• Black pen
• Foam tape (available in craft supply stores)

Instructions:

1. Mat the photo of the chosen person on black paper with a narrow border, then on green with a 1/8' border. Mat it on black again, with a narrow border. Adhere the matted photo to the bottom right of the stars patterned paper with foam tape, 1/2' from the right edge.
2. Write a description of the person in the photo onto a 6' x 3 1/4' rectangle of light green paper. You can mat the paper on black with a narrow border. Mat on dark green with a 1/4' border, then again on black with a narrow border. Put the person's name onto a 6' x 3 1/4' rectangle of white vellum. secure the vellum to the matted text block with a dark green eyelet in each corner.
3. Use each circle hole punch to make a light green vellum circle. Repeat with the dark green vellum for three more circles. Take one word used in the text block and write it onto each circle. Attach the circles with alternating light and dark green eyelets to the page.
4. Attach the text block with the description of the person above the photo with foam tape overlapping some of the vellum circles.

Project #1 is from Making Fabulous Scrapbook Pages. Project #2 is from 203 Paper Piecing Patterns, both published by Hot Off the Press, ©2002. www.hotp.com

article from What's New
What's New is a trade publication providing articles, lesson plans and materials for family and consumer sciences, and health and guidance educators.

Tear Bears Instructions

Everybody's doing it.....c'mon.....you know you want to....

"Tear Bears" are all the rage among scrappers. These little paper-piercing creations have taken the industry by storm. There are several different patterns that can be used to create these bears. You can make your own pattern, use one off the Internet or buy a pattern book.

[note-image is from this gallery]

Here is what you will need to make your own "tear bear".

• Handmade mulberry paper (it has to be able to tear easily when wet)
• Bear or other character pattern
• Water
• Q-tip or water pen
• Chalks
• Inks
• Pens

Trace your pattern onto heavy weight paper or plastic and cut out parts of your bear separately.

Now trace the body parts (head, legs, arms, ears) onto the mulberry paper and use a Q-tip or water pen to wet the outline of your pattern. Make sure the water soak completely through the paper.

Next, carefully tear along the shapes of your pattern. The wet paper will tear easily and since mulberry paper has several layouts there will be "fiber-like" edges where you have torn the paper (this makes it look like fur on your bear).

Once you have torn out your bear parts let them dry completely and then you will be ready to assemble your bear. Use your adhesive to glue the bear together and pose him however you would like.

You can use chalks or inks to outline the bear and add some color to his body. Use die cuts or pens to dry a face. Some scrappers like to dress their bears with paper clothing make from die cuts or templates.

These bears can be used on your scrapbook pages, tags, cards, etc. You can personalize your bear any way you would like. “Tear” animals or characters have become popular too. You can offer variety with other options and patterns.

Hints:

Tear your paper slowly because you may slip and tear in a place you didn't want to tear.

Use a thin plastic to trace your pattern and hold it on the paper as you tear, this will help you to tear more evenly and get more shapely pieces.

Don't over due your body shading or faces.

from Scrapbook Life Tips

A million and two uses for shaving cream

Ok, this is definitely a unique way to enhance your paper!

Color Your Pages with Shaving Cream

Shaving cream can be used to craft a marbleized effect on your paper. This type of design is a wonderful change for a page background or exclusive photo mats.

Supply list:

• Shaving cream (not gel)
  
• Re-inkers
  
• Cardstock (heavy weight paper)
  

Directions:

1. Put the shaving cream in a shallow pan.


2. Swirl the re-inkers into the shaving cream.


3. Press the cardstock into the mixture making sure to cover the entire area then pull out the paper.


4. Wipe off all extra shaving cream with a paper towel and let dry.

You will be left with a marbleized design of your own creation. You can use a variety of colors and create a your own unique pattern to suit your scrapbook pages.

from Scrapbook Life Tips

It's all about me

and now I have the scrapbook to prove it! :)

Actually, I have to say I'm way ahead on this trend. I've been scrapbooking about me and my life all along, but then again, I'm very into the power of the personal narrative and I believe that everyone's own story has meaning and importance. yadda yadda yadda.

I made a little 5x7 album a couple of years ago, entitled "The Year of Turning 40", and included pics of the many birthday parties I had, some decent looking pictures of me, shots from the tattoo palour when I got my tat and alternated them with my thoughts about hitting the big four oh. I found kind of therapeutic actually, as it made me reflect on what being forty meant, beyond merely whining about it!

Anywho, I found this article while surfing and I thought, "yes, my vanity is validated!" So, read on, go start an album just for yourself and be trendy like me!

Make scrapbooking about you
Add an artful, introspective twist to your albums, which are playing a journal-like role in one of the hobby's hottest trends.
BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS
The Wichita Eagle

When Desiree McClellan discovered scrapbooking, her albums were "all about Gavin," she says.

"Everything was Gavin, Gavin, Gavin," McClellan says of her 5-year-old son, who was a toddler when she started chronicling his life with words and pictures.

But somewhere along the way, the Wichita mom turned inward. She began writing about her memories, hopes and dreams. A photography enthusiast, she even tried self-portraits.

The result: pages that inspire and motivate her, and also give friends and family members an intimate look at her life.

Click the "read more" link below to see the rest of the article


It's a growing trend among scrapbookers, most of them women with children, who are interrupting their endless stream of first-tooth, Christmas and birthday-party pages to tell their own stories.

"Some people may think you're self-absorbed if you do a page about yourself, or 'Who wants to read about me?' " said McClellan, 28. "But I think about how I wish I had this information about my mother, how great that would be.... And once you start, it's almost therapeutic."

McClellan, a designer for California-based scrapbook company Autumn Leaves, created several layouts for "The Me Book," which is expected to arrive in stores nationwide next month. Her pages include ones about her late father, her hometown and a rocky relationship with her sister.

She recently started an album, titled "One Day," that features things she wants to accomplish or experience during her lifetime. ("One day," she writes, "I will ride around in a VW adorned with flowers, roaming the streets of France with daisies in my hair.")

Tracy White, editor of Creating Keepsakes, a monthly scrapbook magazine, appreciates the trend toward personal pages.

"For years, we have spent so much time scrapbooking about everybody but ourselves," White said. "There's the mind-set that we've got to get all caught up and do it right now, and there's no time to really reflect.

"But my mantra has always been: You are an important person. You have a story to tell."

Nikki Vancuren is among a rare but growing category of scrapbookers who don't have children but find plenty of material to save and savor in their albums.

An instructor for Scrapbook Garden in Wichita, Vancuren teaches an "All About Us" class that encourages women to chronicle an important relationship in their lives.

"So many times you see family books where you see the kids, the holidays, the rest of the family, but there's nothing about you," said Vancuren, 32.

"I try and emphasize that if you're doing this to leave a legacy for your family, then your family needs to know about you and the relationships you have."

More women are getting the message and having fun with personal albums. Magazines and Web sites show artful pages -- and even whole books -- titled "My Favorite Things," "On Turning 40," "What Makes Me Smile," and "A Day in the Life."

Women concerned about privacy use techniques such as "hidden journaling," where stories are written on tags tucked into pockets or beneath photos. And some keep books private, like diaries under the bed.

"Even though I don't have children," said White, the magazine editor, "I want my album to be a place I can go back to and draw strength from and say, 'Wow, I've grown so much.' "

And she said she's excited to see other women focusing on themselves.

"As moms we think, 'If I document every day of your life, I'm showing you that I love you,' " she said. "But I think that one of the truest gifts you can give is a piece of yourself.

"If you show your heart, your soul, your fears, your joys, and how deep you feel, it reveals you to them. And when you're honest, when you're real, that's when you connect."

been busy

I haven't posted anything for a bit 'cos I've been too busy doing listings for my eBay store and fighting with my website and wordpress! I'm a little slow, so it took me 3 installations of wordpress and a lot of help file searching to discover that my problem was a little file called .htaccess missing from the wordpress directory. But I did figure it out all by myself! Yea me :) Eventually, the blog will move over to 0tinam0scrapbooksgalore.com/blog but not just yet...

So, the stuff I've listed on eBay, I know you're just dying to see it...








These are a set of very sweet Mary Engelbreit Note Cards - blank inside and great for any purpose!









And these Staedtler Lettering Guides are really great for scrapbooking, cardmaking, posters, etc.






And for the Creative Memories fans, I've just listed this new-in-package set of Memory Keepers Club Snippets Printed Paper Short Cuts. There's some great looking paper here, die cut into shapes and ready for your pages.
So there you are! Now go do some shopping - you know there's only 111 days 'til Christmas :)

oh just use firefox already...

Ok, I've tried and this darn blog just will not display properly in internet explorer. It looks just fine in Mozilla and Firefox, but the embedded slide show and the Youtube scripts cause lots of havoc. I've probably messed up the CSS somewhere with my endless fiddling, but I can't figure out where :(

So, right, if you're using IE and it ain't working, do the right thing and start using Firefox. You get tabbed browsing, lots of little add-ons and fewer security issues anyways.

Go to the left hand side of this page and click on the graphic for Firefox and Google to get it right now!

scrapbook image freebies

The Scrap Princess site is kinda cool, especially if you're into digital scrapbooking. She's got some detailed tutorials on getting started and some very nice page layouts for sale, which can be used for digital pages or printed out for "traditional" pages. Best of all though, she has a few freebies available which are well worth downloading. I'd show some samples here, but she's got a pretty uptight terms-of-use so I'm not risking it! Just go to the link below and take a look for yourself!

http://www.thescrapprincess.com/Freebies.html

enjoy :)

august 22 2006

'nuff said.

Watercolor Pencils for Scrapbooking

Today's Tip!

You can use watercolor pencils wet or dry. These pencils give you professional looking results with the benefits of being easy to use, providing lots of pigment, having a reasonable price, and a fine point to use for coloring small areas.

Here are some suggestions for using your watercolor pencils on your scrapbooking pages:

• Rub your pencil tip on a piece of paper (using it as a palette), building up pigment. Use a damp brush, water pen or blender pen to pick up pigment and add to your art. This is a great way to mix colors.
• For bright bold colors, take the pigment directly from your pencil tip. Dip your brush in water and press to the tip of the pencil. This will give you undiluted pigment for bold colors.
• You can achieve a thick opaque look by dipping the tip of your pencil in water and applying the color wet.
• Dry use of watercolor pencils to color stamped images on dark paper or on velour paper gives beautiful results for scrapbooking needs.

Watercolor pencils can be a great addition to your scrapbooking collection. These coloring tools can be used to enhance several elements on your scrapbook pages. Watercolor pencils can be purchased with other discount scrapbook supplies or at most craft stores.

Great deals on premade scrapbook page borders and accents

I've got a great promotion running in my eBay store right now!

For the month of August, all my premade page borders and accents are on for 25% off the regular price!

They are all made with Creative Memories paper, stickers and adhesives so they are 100% scrapbook-safe. Best of all, they're ready to go and can be in your albums in a flash!

life on ebay

Ok, this doesn't have a whole to do with scrapbooking. Actually it has nothing to do with scrapbooking, but it does have to do with eBay and lengths we sellers have to go to sometimes to make a buck!



You should also go see eBay auction 110019461061. With still almost 7 days left on the auction, it's up to $17! Talk about the power of viral marketing!

Scrapbooking Do's

DO:

• Use only archival quality writing implements on your pages
• Only use archival quality, acid and lignin free paper and stickers
• Copy newspaper articles on to acid and lignin free paper before mounting
• Store your writing implements flat, rather than upright
• Crop your photos to focus on the key element
• Try wetting Mulberry paper with a paint brush before tearing for a better effect
• Use decorative scissors to create unique mounting mats
• When your punches get dull, punch out a few using tinfoil
• Use index prints to create a collage effect
• Journal Journal Journal!
• If you don't have enough pictures for a page, create a large journaling area and fill in the blanks with words instead
• Use postcards to make up for the vacation shots you missed
• Be careful with laminated items - the materials may not be acid free
• Use a hair dryer to remove photos from a magnetic album - the heat will loosen the adhesive