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Find a “colors” board book to use (dig through your kids’ book shelf or go to your local thrift store). Once you’ve found your colors board book you are ready to begin on your mini album. The first thing you need to do is cut/tear your board book apart page by page. The sample book has 10 pages. The count of 10 includes the front and back covers. Different board books are obviously going to have different numbers of pages so you’ll have to do some adjusting as you go. But you can definitely take advantage of these general directions.

Cover the pages with paper. For the red page we used Graphic 45′s Happy Homemaker Paper from the Domestic Goddess Collection and Fashionista from the Fashionista Collection along with red rickrack, a paper flower created from Pink Paislee’s Captivating paper, and a pearlescent, self adhesive, red flower by Jenni Bowlin. Cover the pages so that you work in the “colors” theme from the board book, but re-create most of the background using your paper designs. The sample book uses the papers to create a page size pocket on the right hand side that holds a photo, a Guest Ticket for journaling, and a program from a night out with the girls.

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We journaled the following on the left side of the page, “Roses are Red….Violets are blue…Girls’ Night just wouldn’t be the same without YOU!” This incorporated our “red” from the board book and provided the basis for the photo and memorabilia we wanted to feature on the page. We also used some basic necessities to accent the page. We inked the edges with gold and lime green giving it a vintage feel. You can use one of many tools for this. We used out favorite Dabbers from Ranger. We also used a basic distressing stamp to add some texture to some empty space on the page. And we shot the red spots on the Fashionista paper with Glossy Accents by Ranger. It adds an amazing look and really brings the color to life.

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The yellow layout uses the Fashionista paper as well. It covers the right side of the layout fully. Back your photo with Pink Paislee Joyeux Noel. Use your Pink Paislee blue Captivating paper to make a journaling strip on the right side of the page layout. Ink all your edges again and incorporate a distress stamp to give it some interesting layering and texture. Now grab your corrugated cardboard, another staple.

Cut your corrugated cardboard into a divider/page that will fit in your album. We cut our’s to only cover half of the following page. Make sure that it fits into the book with two of the key ring holes actually functioning to hold the corrugated cardboard page in the mini album. Your divider tab will stick out of the book. It looks great! We inked our’s up with yellow paint (but you don’t have to…it can stay in the book plain). The blue Captivating paper from Pink Paislee is used to make a small “tag” for journaling next to the pic on the corrugated cardboard. We used a few trims to tie in the hole of the blue tag just for fun. The corrugated cardboard insert is a fabulous layered look that you’ll love.

Your blue pages feature the blue Captivating paper from Pink Paislee. It also features the backside of Graphic 45′s Fashionista paper. It’s blue with cream polka dots…great colors! Back your photo for the blue layout with the Joyeux Noel paper (also from Pink Paislee). The Pink Paislee Joyeux Noel paper is also used on your purple pages. Use the backside of the same paper to accent the purple pages. We made a journaling strip and huge photo corners. Glitz papers can be used to create paper flowers to accent the page. Don’t forget to ink your edges and do plenty of journaling on the layout.

For the remaining color layouts…you’ll have to visit the original instructions on the LBD blog. A Colorful Life Mini Album is featured in one of the early blog posts. But don’t miss the other layouts, altered art pieces and projects. If you like A Colorful Life Mini Album you’ll love some of the other pieces as well.

Contributed by Alyson Lansen, scrapbook addict and layout lover. She considers Little Black Dress Kit Club a hot spot of gargantuan proportions and frequents it often. She’s always looking for new ideas and project suggestions at the LBD Ideas Page.

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What’s that you say? You don’t know why I would say that? Well…here’s the trick! Use something you’ve got around the house to make your mini album. You’re going to cover it up anyway. Why does it need to be newly purchased chipboard?

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For example do you have kids? Do you have any board books laying around that they loved when they were little? Are they now far too old to reach for the board books that they used to love? Don’t let them go to waste. Use it as the basis for your next mini album. If you don’t have kids or board books head to your nearest thrift store. Board books are all over the place. You should be able to get one for less than a dollar. If you’ve got a good thrift store you should be able to get one for a dime or a quarter. It doesn’t matter if it’s damaged. You’re covering it up anyway.

So now you’ve got your board book and it’s ready to be made into your next fabulous mini album. Don’t worry about any type of damage. Even water damage can be “covered up” effectively. So…you got your free album. And if not free…then so cheap it’s hardly worth mentioning!

Now that you’ve got your board book for your mini album you can go one of two directions. You can tear the book apart, punch holes in the edge and bind it with key rings. Or you can complete the mini album without damaging the spine of the book. We like to tear the book apart. It gives us more room to get feisty and fabulous with all our scrapbooking supplies.

For examples of mini albums check out the Little Black Dress Kit Club site! The photo gallery has oodles of ideas and completed projects that we add to each month. And we love getting snap shots of Little Black Dress Kit Club subscriber projects. Send them our way and you might just find them in the photo gallery on your next visit!

Contributed by Alyson Lansen, scrapbook addict and layout lover. She considers Little Black Dress Kit Club a hot spot of gargantuan proportions and frequents it often. She’s always looking for new ideas and project suggestions at the LBD Ideas Page.

When getting your materials ready for scrapbooking, it is first important to find the best paper for you to use in your album. Most stores can give you a huge collection of designed papers for you to bind in your scrapbook. Although there are readymade blank scrapbooks that you can use in the market, others prefer to make their own. If you are the more artistic type, you can also make your personalized scrapbook by doing everything with your own two hands. The most popular material used for scrapbooking paper is still made from paper Mache or reused content.

As you go through designing the pages of your scrapbook, you will eventually find the need for embellishments to make your output more interesting. You can make use of some of your collected stamps or buy a pack of glitters to glue on the edges of the scrapbook pages. You may also practice recycling by using some of the worn out materials inside your house. Just make sure that these are good for gluing or can last for quite a long time. Other common choices would be ribbons and beads for a more colorful scrapbook. Embellishments help lighten up the motif of your scrapbook to be enjoyed by its viewers.

Scrapbooks are specifically made to relate stories to different people of some of the most memorable events in your life. In order to protect the content of your album, make sure that you also have archival page protection so as to reserve the materials in your scrapbook for a long period of time.

Adhesives are also good stuff to keep for scrapbooking supplies. These are helpful, both in designing and posting the pictures in your scrapbook. There are different types of adhesives from the usual glue to tapes. Make sure that you use the most durable material or brand when it comes to adhesives so as to protect your scrapbook for a long period of time.

If you also want to personalize the spines and corners of your scrapbook pages and cover, you must also prepare your own hole punchers and paper cutters. You can also use these materials to make intricate cutouts to use as additional charms in the pages of your album.

Do not also forget to buy your own set of pens or pencils to write tags and labels on your scrapbook. A scrapbook will not be complete without you relating the events that happened in your life through your own words. You may also use assorted pen colors to add excitement to the style of your pages.

Lastly, you may also use stencils or templates when it comes to cutting out the perfect shapes and designs for your scrapbook. These also come in different sizes and colors.

Scrapbooking is made fun and easy with cheap cricut cartridges on sale. For lots of deals and steals on cricut be sure to check out Sammy DeOrtha’s website.

This can be the reason that people applied to preserve their individual materials, pictures and fascinating items in them. It ought to be remembered that it grew to become the inevitable require for each 1 when paper was invented.

It ought to also be noted that within the beginning of 15th century, these scrapbooks utilised to be so simple but had been available in all more than the England. The greater part of men and women used to create recipes, quotes, poems, letters and numerous more.

With the passage of time, in 16th century, friendship albums grew to become most common gift, which every colleague utilized to offer other colleague. They had been additional alike today’s modern day year diaries where a friend can write the name, short signature, titles and small text for the request of scrapbook owners. Since the time moved on, colorful scenes have been being inserted in these pictures like Venetian costumes or carnival scenes.

It really is a identified fact that James Granger who published the England history, he let several blank pages in the conclusion of his book in order to let readers writer their comments and remarks. Right after this, it became the well-liked trend to blank the end of pages for personalization of its proprietor.

It had been later in 18th and 19th century that friendship albums and school scrapbooks had been launched and majority of institution and college girls commenced to make use of it for documentation of their personalized report.

It was in 1826 that modern day photography was created by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and most essential was the invention of paper pictures by George Eastman in 1880 worldwide. It supplied everyman to preserve his/her images into scrapbooks. In old scrapbooks include several styles like mounted with photo mount corners or with notations.

Scrapbooking .

Well, things have changed a lot since Grandma’s day of putting things in scrapbooks—-not so much the articles being saved—-they’re pretty much standard fare, photos, ticket stubs, flowers from a corsage; but the way they are saved is out of this world—literally. We are now in the digital universe, and digital scrap booking has become all the rage. The computer in its design, the unbelievable vastness of the Internet, and the thousands of sites on the Net devoted to scrap booking, have turned a simple art of saving snippets of life into another fabulous art form.

Digital scrap booking has become art in itself and there are so many sites out there in competition with each other, that to attract traffic and members, a lot of them are offering free downloads that you can use whenever you like and as often as you like, as long as you don’t reprint them in something and try to sell them as your own artwork, which is a violation of copyright laws. When you think of it, it’s a good promotional move on their part because a lot of the free stuff is a harbinger of bigger things on the site and they get you to come in and browse and possibly buy, whereas the free material will save you a lot of money in the craft stores.

Just think of how cool these pages look in a scrapbook that has been hybridized—a new term in use these days for a scrapbook that is partially paper and standard photos, and partially digital materials downloaded from the Internet. You have your original idea and saved materials—pictures, flowers, scraps of mementos, ticket stubs—–and then you have all these great ideas on the computer to choose and use as you like: borders for the pages, whimsical cartoon enhancements, stars, cartoon characters, great lettering ideas—on and on. Digital scrap booking is the “in” thing these days, and the results of what the average person can turn out are phenomenal.

Doesn’t matter if you don’t think you have any artistic ability—–none is really needed: the computer sites will give you all the help you need, and if you can glue and follow instructions, you have it made. You will be assisted in choosing colors, how to match them up effectively, how to arrange items on a page for the best effect, and how to choose the embellishments that will complete the whole picture. When you have finished your complete project, you will be so proud of yourself, you will want to show the whole world just how terrific it turned out. What started out as a timid venture into the world of digital scrap booking as turned out to be a milestone in your creative awakening—–never in a million years did you think you could produce something that looks so great, and yet here it is.

There are all kinds of groups and clubs out there now for folks hooked on digital scrap booking, that not only want to learn from each other, but also to share the fun and joy of creating something so much fun and so beautiful. You don’t need to join a group, you can do this all on your own, a lot of folks do—-but some things are just a lot more fun if done with other people with the same passion for the same thing and sharing it with each other.

So there you have it—-how did we ever get along without computers all these years, and all the fabulous things they can show us and provide. Digital scrap booking is rapidly gaining followers all over the world, and more and more folks are doing what they considered the impossible before they were introduced to the world of digital scrap booking and that is creating a work of art all on their own, that they are receiving raves for and is a stunning accomplishment in its own right. How terrific.

Fay Grant gathers information and writes about subjects like Scrapbooking Storage. For more information on Scrapbooking Supplies visit our site.

categories: scrapbooking,crafts,hobbies,home business

Usually, it is your friends and family who will be much interested on going your scrapbook in the first place. In this regard you can think of creating a photo album of your family including on a vacation. On the whole you may conjoin a number of trips to make a voluminous album. Give the album a trendy title like “Hitting the roads in the year 2008″. Next, you may consider have an album full of historic snaps and pictures – you know some of those great black and white takes which will bring back those sweet memories. Having kids in the house implies that there would be plenty of artwork lying around. So, don’t throw these away; but arrange them and then try making a collage and let imagination run wild. Believe it or not, you find yourself amidst a sea of ideas and the scrap book endeavor would seem like the voyage of Christopher Columbus landing on the shores of America

Your child’s art work could be used in creating colorful paintings and decorations. To enhance the human aspect, you may associate these images with your children’s snaps. Just looking at your scrapbook will cause anyone including yourself to rejuvenate. Children tend to relate themselves with one or more activities. In this context making an album filled with several of their activities is a good idea to enhance some of the greatest memories of a lifetime. You may create an album for all your children or you may create individual albums for each child. Both are diverse ideas that will create a spark of life in yours as well your. It may also occur that you’re a lover of nature and this is most colorful, especially the seasons. All aspects of seasons changing starting from the flowers, to the horizon etc. can be trapped in your album for creating several backgrounds etc. Nature will come alive again and again through this endeavor of yours.

Well, now your mind must be blossoming with a whole lot of great ideas. So, don’t restrain your mind; just goit to beyond barriers. For organizing your scrapbook better, sort and put in order the pictures that you want to insert. There are several one or more ways of going about it; but to start off, start by organizing them chronologically. There may be many photographs that you would need to sort. After a chronological sort, embark upon sorting according to events and arrange the snaps date wise such as a vacation, wedding, christening, family picnic etc.

Once your pictures are sorted insert them in your scrap book. Now with the help of the ideas mentioned above, and with more enhanced ideas flowing in your mind, make the greatest album ever.

Connor Sullivan recently bought some scrapbooking albums online for his family to record their trip to Disney World. His wife purchased some scrapbooking supplies online for the children to have on hand.

Many individuals who enjoy scrapbooking find the cost of materials to be prohibitive. Each background, design, or special cut, requires the purchase of additional supplies. When a person is on a budget they can quickly become disillusioned with the expense and give up scrapbooking. However with the new websites that are being introduced one will find that everything that is needed to make creative scrapbooks is available in one easy to use location.

With digitalized photos one can crop, cut, manipulate, and change a photo to fit the scrapbook that is being created. A person may want to add a tone to each photo in an album to create a special effect. Or, one might want to add an image in a photo to enhance the photo. A person can change the photo to look textured or hand drawn. All of these effects can be accomplished without ruining or damaging the original photo.

Special fonts are available that make writing look natural and a person can use these fonts to convey a message, title, or comment on their scrapbook pages. Many of the fonts are available through the digitalized scrapbooking website. Some individuals find that there are also fonts available on the Internet that they prefer to use. These can easily be included on the scrapbook that is being made.

Many of the digital scrapbooking websites offer a number of designs and themes that reflect special occasions or events. In addition, there are backgrounds which can be personalized to match the special needs of the person using the system. The time it takes to create a special background or find a perfect paper is reduced to the selection provided on the website. One does not have to go to various shops to find the paper or theme that they need.

When printed the scrapbooks that are made digitally have more durability and are easier to maintain than traditional scrapbooks. Photos are very delicate and often become destroyed over a short period of time when there is glue used to put the photo in a scrapbook. However, the digitalized scrapbook is a photo in itself and can be placed in a book form with paper sheets between each page which protects the quality of the photos used.

Using the photo-shop accessories, one can add many features that would not be available in other types of scrapbooking. A person can create an album that is dedicated to an individual and make each page a unique reflection of an occasion that the person will want to remember.

Digital scrapbooks make excellent and affordable gifts. An individual can create a scrapbook and print both the pages and cover easily. When the scrapbook is printed it can be put together using many creative techniques. One may wish to put the scrapbook together using ribbon or cord and make a handmade gift that will be a prized keepsake.

Parents will find that using digitalized scrapbooking is a great way to develop manipulation skills in their children. Kids can create themes and backgrounds of interest to them. They can manipulate and cut photos and add their own creativity and brand to each book. While the photos would be ruined with traditional scrapbooking, the photos used for digitalized scrapbooking are kept in a separate file and remain original. One no longer has to worry that irreplaceable photos will be lost when they are used for scrapbooking.

As more people are becoming comfy with graphic and photo software programs specifically scrapbook software, digital scrapbooking is increasing in popularity. A person is no longer required to purchase different materials to create collages that are unique and beautiful.

Thankfully, the Internet has a wealth of digital content priced very reasonably – sometimes free! Even kits by top designers can be bought at a great value on some digital scrapbooking sites. Professionals and hobbyists can be very generous with their work and even give away a lot of it for free, on the condition that you only use their digital kits in a non-commercial environment.

However, there may be a whole lot of kits out there, but you still have to figure out which ones are right for you. Simply stocking up on everything you find isn’t necessarily the best plan. You’re going to want top-notch designs and flexibility, plus you don’t want to download a whole of pile of things you’ll never look at again.

1. The first step in building a smart scrapbooking collection is to write out a list of themes that you are interested in, like Christmas, Baby, Wedding, Little Girl, etc. Make sure that you include a few “generic” kits on your lists as these will be the most versatile for the most projects. With your plan in hand, you can start evaluating the quality and content of the kits you find in your search.

2. Next, think of the different elements that make up a great scrapbook page: background paper, embellishments, paper scraps or mats, and maybe even some shapes. Look for kits that include all or most of these things. A kit that has all of these coordinating elements is the best way to stretch your dollar.

3. So that you can make the smartest choices in selecting your kits, look for a website or digital store that lists all of the items included in each kit. Ideally, the site will also include images that give you not only an excellent idea of what’s included, but also of the kit’s style. The last thing you want to do is waste time and/or money downloading a kit that isn’t what you were expecting!

4. Some kits come with coordinating theme pages, plopper/quick pages or editable templates. Editable templates are by far your best value here as you have the option to “tweak” the layout’s pre-fab design. You can also use an editable template over and over again, tweaking it each time to keep your pages looking fresh and original.

5. Don’t forget how important it is to have a really good quality scrapbooking program when building a smart collection of scrapbooking elements. There are wonderful programs out there that let you alter the color, shape, and even the “texture” of your paper scraps and elements. The pay off for you is that you can constantly transform your embellishments and papers, giving them a whole different look to suit every new project.

6. This tip is priceless: look for mega digital content packs that feature a variety of designers. Mega packs come chock full of editable template layouts, and kits with coordinating embellishments, photoshapes, background papers, and scraps. The mega pack offers everything you need to make tons of great-looking pages, plus a choice of style since every digital artist has her or his own unique creative approach to design.

7. And don’t forget to consider the digital scrapbooking program you choose as a crucial part of your digital scrapbooking collection. Look for a program that includes a large digital content pack with all the components for making complete scrapbook pages. Ideally, your software should have editable templates and coordinating kits so that matching colors and styles is a breeze.

The bottom line: take a moment to plan the scrapbook projects you want to make. Then, look for suitable kits that include all the components of a scrapbook page in a coordinating style. Stretch your dollar further by looking for editable templates, and digital scrapbooking software that lets you creatively alter your scrapbooking content.

Learn more about digital scrapbooking supplies. Stop by Gracie Madsen’s site where you can find out all about digital scrapbooking software and what it can do for you.

As you can imagine, not all digital scrapbooking software programs have the same features or even the same ease of use. While some scrapbook programs look OK in their marketing material (some even have fancy boxes!), when you get them home, they’re not quite what you were hoping for. Even worse, some digital scrapbooking programs are extremely confusing. They have cluttered interfaces and more tools than you can imagine what to do with! Programs like that aren’t you’re best choice for scrapbooking. Oftentimes those products are just rebranded image editing applications, that have been re-marketed as scrapbook software…

On the other side of the spectrum are digital scrapbooking software programs that are very easy to use, but are incredibly restrictive. You find that you are limited to using a handful of templates and have little if any creative control over how your pages look. Though probably most digital scrapbooking software programs are less expensive than what many spend on paper scrapbooking, there are even some digital scrapbooking software programs that are prohibitively expensive for many scrapbook enthusiasts.

So, the question becomes “How do you find digital scrapbooking software that’s creative, affordable and most importantly, will give you excellent results?” Here’s the checklist you’ve been waiting for! The top 5 things to look for as you evaluate your choices in digital scrapbooking software:

1. Free downloadable trial. Do you really want to put down your hard earned money, and just hope that what’s in the box is going to do what you want it to? Would you buy a sweater without being able to see the style or even know what color it was? Download the trial version of whatever digital scrapbooking software you’re interested in, and try it out!

2. Full Creative Control Over Your Pages. Your digital scrapbooking software should have options to let you begin a new scrapbook from either a blank page or from a fully-editable template. This gives you the flexibility to really express your creativity, yet when you just want to create a quick page or brag book, you’re able to still add your own creative touch to it.

3. Professional Digital Scrapbooking Kits. Some products come with a lot of “clipart”. Some even have tens of thousands of pieces of it! However, clipart isn’t a great selling feature in digital scrapbooking software. Instead, you want to find a product that has real scrapbooking content, made by top digital scrapbooking artists and designers. The product you choose should come with top quality scrapbooking content, like digital papers, embellishments, backgrounds, and template pages made specifically for scrapbooking. In this case, quantity isn’t nearly as important as quality. You should also be able to see *everything* that comes with the software on their website.

4. Online Support Forums. It’s essential that you choose a program that includes access to an online forum, so you can ask questions about the software, submit technical support questions and get answers from both the company’ and fellow users of the software. Be wary of any digital scrapbooking software program that doesn’t have a free and open forum for users to discuss the software. The best programs have large communities, with many thousands of members. That by itself shows how popular it is!

5. Scrapbooking Tutorials and Instruction. Look for free digital scrapbooking tutorials on the company’s website. You want to see visual demonstrations about how to use the software. Also look for an extensive User’s Guide and Help File available from within the program. That way you can always get answers to questions, at any time (even if you’re scrapbooking on a plane!) that may come up as you go.

So, don’t just walk into your local big box store and plop down your cash for the mystery software in the fancy box! Use the above list to narrow your selection, and you’ll end up buying a digital scrapbooking software program that you really enjoy! Once again, it should have a free trial download for you to test out, it should have fully customizable pages so you can express your creativity, it must come with real “top quality” scrapbooking elements, it should have an open and honest forum for you to interact with other scrapbookers and the company should provide tutorials for you on their website. If you look for these 5 things, you’ll find a great scrapbook program that you’ll enjoy for years to come!

Learn more about digital scrapbooking software. Visit Gracie Madsen’s site to find out all about digital scrapbooking and how much fun it is.

The Cricut Gypsy is a tool that now allows you to design scrapbooking components while you are travelling, using the same tools that you used to use at your computer. This new product is called the Cricut Gypsy, and it looks a little like an oversized Blackberry.

Make your scrapbooks, posters and other works of art come to life with your very own professional looking designs created on the Cricut Gypsy. Then simply hook it up to the Cricut machine. It couldn’t be simpler to set up, and we do recommend that you use the Cricut machine rather any another scrapbooking diecutting set, even with all the choices available.

The Cricut machine works just like the software that you use on your computer. You’re able to store your own cartridges on the Cricut Gypsy, up to 7,000 of them and there is enough storage space to save up to 10,000 of your own custom projects. You can use the librarys images or your own cartridges and you can stretch, skew or move them around the mat to create your own designs.

There is no computer required with the Cricut Gypsy, it runs on batteries that can go for up to four hours of continuous use, so it doesn’t matter how long that wait at the dentist is, plus, with its small size, (8 inches by 3 inches) you can take it anywhere you go. Also, all of the images and designs are perfectly organized searchable so that you don’t have to spend hours flipping through the manuals looking for the design you want. You’d rather spend that time making the perfect design wouldn’t you?

Just connect the cable to the Cricut machine and press the button and you’ll see your design in the reasl world. You’ll choose from a huge selection of fonts so that each picture in your scrapbook tells exactly the story that you want it to say.

So, whether you are on the subway traveling to work, or on an extended road trip with your family, take the Cricut Gypsy with you. You can even take it with you to doctors or dentists office, and create designs while you’re waiting, easily saving them to work on later.

Finally, the Cricut Gypsy easily updates the software with bug fixes, new features and allows you to easily add new cartridges to your collection with just a simple plug and play interface. You’ll love your new Cricut Gypsy and all the things that you can do with it, and we know you’ll absolutely adore the scrapbooks that you can make with it.

Jenny James is a scrapbooking addict who loves to create scrapbook pages using die cuts made with scrapbooking die cut machines. Her website at die-cutting-machines.com reviews all the latest scrapbooking gadgets, like the Cricut Gypsy.