It seems that time waits for no scrapper! Once you get going on a scrapbook for a particular holiday, another one is soon to follow! Time management is an important factor here. I know how long some scrapbook projects can take because you may be looking at a load of pictures before choosing the right ones to go into the binder. Then, it can take a while to think of the embellishments and journaling to add to it, let alone what kind of binder you are going to put everything in!

With Easter, you think of the religious connotation it has and it is not hard to shop for embellishments. It is fun too, because we blend in the religious significance with the American tradition of the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs, and so on! The key is to combine both so that neither "over powers" the other.

Now is the time to get out to your local crafts store, your local grocery store, and your local stationary store. Between all three of these places, you have all your embellishments covered. Be careful to shop smartly. Quite often, some products you can get are cheaper at any of the other stores mentioned here. If you saved some Easter celebration pictures from last year, I suggest you grab some of those to insert in your scrapbook. If you are waiting for some fresh Easter celebration pictures, then wait until the holiday comes and goes. Then you can sort out which of the pictures for this year you can put in the scrapbook. Now is the time to think of the journaling entries you want to include as well. This scrapbook does not have to be really thick. Remember to keep your pictures in air tight bags so air does not get to it.

With Valentine’s Day out of the way, we have to look towards March and St. Patrick’s Day. There is a wide variety of embellishments that you can buy from any craft store in your local area. Some of the embellishments that are available arel; green clover leafs, green hats, leprechaun silhouettes, lucky charms, shallelies, dancing elves, banyon trees, pot of gold, rainbows, and so much more.

You can make a short binder full of pictures, embellishments and journaling. It is just like the Valentine’s Day scrapbook where, it is obvious that there will not be many pictures inside. Now some creative scrapbookers are buying royalty free pictures from sites like istockphoto.com or Getty Photos, etc. and either printing them out or getting hard copy prints from their local camera store.

For journaling, there is a site, http://www.quotegarden.com/st-patricks-day.html that has many St. Patrick’s Day quotes that you can use. As a matter of fact, this site, quote garden is a great place to bookmark for any type of themed scrapbook.

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

As we end January, Valentines Day is just around the corner. As mentioned in a previous post, any avid scrapper should keep track of all holidays and national celebrations for ideas on making your next scrapbook.

Which comes to the point of time management. Many of our email tells us that scrappers often do not have enough time in the day or week to keep building their scrapbooks. A good way of making sure you are getting your scrapbooks done in time is to make sure you have a scratch pad on a table in a set place and a daytimer with you at all times that you keep track of "to do’s"  That way, you can make an entry in the scratch pad and the daytimer of when you need the scrapbook done by. In either case, make sure you start a system in which reminds you of the deadline in which to finish your scrapbook. This is true especially for time sensitive themes such as birthdays, anniversaries and  holidays.

For Valentines Day, now is the time to go to your hobbie or craft store because they probably now carry Valentine themed embellishments. Do be late! You need to start looking late in January or early February before all the products and embellishments are all looked over the the best of the best items are taken!

Obvious embellishments are: foil valentine shapes, red colored yarn, small valentine shaped candy, cutting heart shaped silouttes from construction paper, red buttons, lace, call out "clouds" that you can fill in "love you" messages in it, small valentine shaped sprinkles, and so on. A great idea is to cut out a medium sized heart shape out of construction paper and insert a picture of you and your loved one behind it so the heart shape becomes a "frame" around it.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, start your scrapbook now!

Here are more ideas for new scrapbooks you might consider to start planning for:

1. Upcoming wedding
2. Welcome home military
3. New Year
4. Valentines
5. Spring Break
6. Mother’s Day
7. Wedding Anniversary
8. Graduation
9. New Baby
10. Birthday
11. Family Reunion

You can see that there are many ideas you can plan for now. Time goes by so quickly so you need to get a head start on purchasing materials, sorting out through photos, choosing a binder cover, selecting embellishments, and what journalling elements you will put into it.

Whatever theme you choose for the next scrapbook, get on it!

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up (November 27, USA) what perfect idea to start a scrapbook for this memorable celebration.

For embellishment ideas, you can use; hard corn kernals, wheat stalks, turkey stickers, fall leaves, Pilgrim hats, cornucopias, blossoms, fall colors, vegetables and harvest wreaths. I suggest that you use warm colors such as gold, yellow, brown, and cream for your pages. Photos you can use could be made up of pictures of Thanksgiving holiday get togethers of you and your family. Many of the journaling can bring up the purpose of Thanksgiving…to give blessings and thankfulness of the European peoples meeting the Native American peoples on the continent of America.

It is like a comic book. Remember when you would see the "dialog bubble" near the mouth of the people talking to each other. It further depicts what is said along with the drawings of the people who are interacting with each other. Comic artists also draw a "cotton ball" bubble to represent what a person is thinking as opposed to what is said. You can paste a white piece of construction paper in the form of a dialog bubble or cotton bubble to make some comments from the people in your picture.

Either way, whether you have dialog boxes or a quote above or below your pictures, it is a great way to make your design more interesting!

Start your first scrapbook with your baby. You can start with journal entries during the pregnancy and moving up to the delivery day followed by pictures of the baby arriving at home. You can attach items like, a copy of the birth certificate, foot prints, locks of hair, baby shower invitations, baby greeting cards from family and friends, and pictures of the baby in the crib at home. Pictures of first steps, first words, and many other firsts are the most appropriate for a scrapbook.

Next, you can do a toddler scrapbook. In it, you can include the cute smiles, the way the child shows their one of a kind personality, and socializing with family and friends. During this period, quite often it is when the child is very active and getting into everything they can! You could not keep up with the child in what they are exploring. Take many photos!

The next phase is the elementary school scrapbook where the child experiences many parties, graduations, story telling, achievements and awards in school, and art projects to name a few. We would suggest your child get involved in actual making of this scrapbook since they are very creative and can often enhance it in a very unique way.

Lastly, there is a double value in making a scrapbook when your child attends high school and into college. It is a scrapbook that will serve as a great momento to share experiences and moments for both the parent and the child, and someday for the child’s offspring.

For some ideas, try to alternate contrasting paper colors for that "eye jarring" effect. Sky’s the limit in what kind of papers and colors you can combine or layer together with. I have found that making different geometric shapes of different colors and pasting them on top of each other in various patterns make very interesting displays. Try angles, circles, squares, and strips. They all work well together.

First things, first….walk away from the work table all together. You need to collect your thoughts. Grab yourself a nice cold ice tea and sip for a while. When you get your frame of mind back, return to the work table and take out a scratch pad and pen. List the theme, layout your photos, layout your materials, and make an "informal" table of contents in your scrapbook. Take the photos and lay them out in page order, then spread the materials next to each photo and lastly, compose the journaling you would add to which pages. This process is similar to "story boarding" that world famous film producers and directors would utilize. Simply put, you get a clearer "view" of everything when you lay it out and in the order you want. This also gives you time to reposition things. Take down, in your scratch pad, the order of your photos and materials in case you have to pack things up again to work on it later.

So, next time you get scrapbookers "block," step away for a moment!

Just think of the possibilities…you could use ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, jewelry, hair berettes, stickers, buttons, stamps, beads, construction paper, small toys, scanned diagrams, paper clips, ribbons, origami, etc. the list just goes on and on! You could combine many pages of journaling to describe what each item represents in an event or refer to someplace or someone. Actually, making a scrapbook is only limited to your imagination!

You will find that visiting your local art store will yield many ideas for the "non photo" scrapbook. Why don’t you try making one now…