Scrapbooking Paper & Card - Lasting Forever

Introduction

We want our [tag]scrapbooks[/tag] to last forever. However, none of us is going to live forever no matter how much we may want it; and neither will they. While it’s great to imagine our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren looking through our scrapbook and thinking how wonderful things were in our day, how handsome great-great-great-great-great Uncle Dave was, and what exciting, pioneering lives we lived (!) let’s not kid ourselves it will happen!

If you doubt my theory, just think how tastes vary and how often we throw out something we didn’t think we liked only to wish a few short years later that we hadn’t thrown it out! Unless we lock our scrapbooks in a vault somewhere - dry and airtight, of course! - and throw away the key, our descendants are unlikely to have one of them in a hundred years time, never mind ALL the scrapbooks we make!

Styles change; things get lost. We’re a fickle people. That’s life. All that said it’s …

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If I came to your town …

I live in a small town. We have two stores that sell craft supplies. One is an art store with a few crafty bits on the side. The other came about as a result of one lady who made wedding invitations. There was such a demand that she opened a shop.

But they both cater for cardmaking rather than scrapbooking.

It’s a long way to my nearest scrapbook store, so I buy most of my scrapbooking supplies on the internet.

While it’s great to have the huge range of scrapbooking supplies available online, I am a ‘touchy’ person and sense a lot through my fingers. You can’t beat being able to sift through a book of scrapbooking papers and feel their weight and quality. Or hold your photos against a selection of paper and cardstock to choose the exact color you need. Or feel the weight of a particular scrapbook embellishment.

There’s a lot more to choosing [tag]scrapbooking products[/tag] than meets the eye.

If I came to your town, which scrapbooking store would you take me to? What could we see, or do there? What makes it so special to be worth the trip?

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Of Genie’s Gems and Gleanings …

I said I’d come back to it, so here we go …

I wanted to call this department Genie’s Gems & Gleanings for I wanted space to write about interesting things I’d learned that might not be related to scrapbooking yet might interest you. (Perhaps I flatter myself!)

It proved to be too much of a mouthful so it was left as Genie’s Gems.

Anyway, the idea of gleaning is to gather, collect or pull together; collecting bits as you go along; and often refers to things you learn along the way in life. So you can see where I was coming from.

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Tempting Scrapbooking Supplies

It’s very tempting to buy all the cute scrapbooking embellishments you see in the craft store or when shopping on line at scrapbooking websites. That’s the hope of all the sales and marketing departments. It’s rarely a good idea to give into temptation - I’m sure your mother told you so!

It’s wiser by far to go looking for specific [tag]scrapbooking supplies[/tag] and products when you know which photos you want to scrap. This way you will buy the right color items. Believe me. I’ve done it the ‘wrong’ way and have loads of products in the wrong colors. You wouldn’t believe there could be so many shades of red!

And just think of all the money you’ll save.

Of Genie’s Gems & Gleanings and of Proverbs …

“… so we’ll know how to live well and right, to understand what life means and where it’s going … for learning what’s right and just and fair … to teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality … there’s something … for seasoned men and women, still a thing or two for the experienced to learn—Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate, the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.” (The Message: Proverbs)

The pace of life is not

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How do I Select Color Schemes for my Scrapbook Layouts?

One of the reasons for my reluctance to move to scrapbooking from card making was that I found it daunting wondering what colors to use together on a scrapbook page.

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Scrapbooking Sketch #1

Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start with a scrapbook layout, especially if you’re a newbie. You have your photos and your scrapbook supplies. whether paper or digital products, but where do you go from there?

For beginner or old-hand alike, drawing a sketch of a layout idea can get you off the starting block, on your way to a scrapbook challenge, or even unblock scrappers block!

But you don’t have to draw the sketch yourself as there are lots available in magazines, books and online. We’ll include some sketches here from time to time. We’d love to see what you make with them.

 

Enter our scrapbooking layout competition.

Email your page to me, Genie at Scrapbooking Gems.com using the usual email format. Don’t forget to say what products you used and give credit where due. There will be a prize for the best.

 

Start Scrapbooking at My House

Use this scrapbooking sketch to tell us something about what goes on at your house. Or how about some of the things you value that make your home your home. Remember it’s just an outline to get you going. You don’t have to stick exactly to it. Look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

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Related Posts:

How Do I Use a Scrapbooking Sketch?

More Free Sketches

 

[tags]scrapbooking layouts, sketches[/tags]

Valentine’s Day Part 5

Make the memories

If you’ve suddenly found Valentine’s Day is upon you and have done nothing about making that memory, then you can send your loved ones flowers or chocolates via the internet now - no matter where they are in the world.

And if the pay check won’t stretch that far this month

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Forgotten Valentine’s Day?

Ellie loves to make gifts for her family and friends - and Valentine’s Day is no exception. Since discovering scrapbooking, these often will be scrapbook pages with favorite photos of times they’ve had together. Instead of putting them in an album she frames them.

Sometimes these are as simple as the photo mounted on coordinating card and [tag]scrapbook paper[/tag] cut to the appropriate size for the frame. She’ll add low profile embellishments like ribbon, chipboard flowers, scrapbooking stickers or punchouts, and a tag with a little journaling. A mount board frame around the edge is usually enough to give the space needed between the scrapbook page and the glass.

At other times these scrapbook gifts are more elaborate and require a box frame.

However, Ellie confesses

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Definitions: Color Schemes

These definitions will be very useful as you plan your scrapbook layout [tag]color schemes[/tag].

 

Monochromatic:
Different tints, shades and tones of one color.

 

 

Tints (on the left) are made by adding white …

 

… while shades (on the right) are made by adding black.

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Scrapbooking Tools - The Album

It’s fun to make lots of scrapbook pages, but there quickly comes a time when you want to organize and protect them. The easiest way to do this is within an album. And while a list of basic scrapbooking tools would include an album, it does not have to be bought at the outset.

If you’re relatively new to scrapbooking you may prefer to practice on different sizes of paper before committing to buying an album. However there are many inexpensive options for you to try, to build your confidence.

The experienced scrapbooker

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Valentine’s Day Part 4

Romance - with a capital R

My friend Sarah Anne is so scatty she couldn’t remember if this was a real Valentine’s story or if she was mixing it up with another celebration. But it makes a fun story anyway!

She’s certain it wasn’t very long after their second child was born that Scot took her out for a celebration meal. Whether it was a ‘thank-you-for-our-son’ moment, a happy-birthday-anniversary or a [tag]Valentine[/tag]-moment doesn’t matter; they had a wonderful meal in a cozy corner of a little restaurant and a romantic evening together.

However, feeling quite Read more

Hot off the Press Scoops Awards at the CHA

Well, they’ve done it again!

[tag]Hot off the Press[/tag] scooped three awards at the Craft and Hobby Association winter trade show in Anaheim, CA., last week (January 2007).

The Awards for Creative Excellence (ACE) were won as follows:

 

 

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What is ScrapbookingGems.com?

We’ve added a page giving a little bit of background. See ‘Introducing …’

ScrapbookingGems.com is a place …

1. to encourage you in your scrapbooking
2. to record what we’re learning about [tag]scrapbooking[/tag]
3. to share tips and encourage each other
4. where you can display your work or discuss scrapbooking tools and products
5. to find the best scrapbooking products around

Happy scrapping!

 

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Valentine’s Day Part 3

Continuing with Valentine’s Day memories that have long outlived the event …

A card that taught an unexpected lesson

Jo remembers a card her Mum gave her Dad one year - and corny doesn’t have a look in! “To the man who makes my life complete; who warms my heart … not to mention my feet!”

Jo said, “While it scored zero on the romance scales, it did show there’s more to marriage than hearts and roses.”

What does romance do to a brain?

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RSS Feeds Explained - Customize too

What Is RSS?

(Skip this section if you already know all about RSS)

You may have seen little "RSS" buttons around the Internet. If you were wondering what they are:

"RSS" means "Really Simple Syndication".  When you subscribe to a site’s RSS feed, the information from that feed is sent directly to you. No need to go out and check for updates all the time.

How do you get started? Easy!

Log on to your favorite social bookmark page (Google Home Page, My Yahoo page, etc) or download a free RSS Reader first. Either way, this will enable you to read the RSS feeds.

Once you’re set up, here’s all you have to do:

1. Right-click (control-click for Mac users) on any RSS button on a site, blog or news source that interests you.
2. Select Copy Shortcut ("Copy Link to Clipboard" for Mac, "Copy Link Location" for Firefox browsers)
3. Paste that URL into your RSS Reader.

And that’s it! You’re subscribed.

Scrapbooking Kits

How often has that paper on the shelf been not quite the right color? Or that embellishment not quite the right size/style/color? And it’s another project left unfinished, or you toddle off down to the scrapbook store to hunt around and come back with more than you set out for! Read more

Valentine’s Day Part 2

Our world can be very cruel at times. No one can take our memories away - let’s ensure our loved ones have many positive, loving memories to carry with them into life as a bolster against the knocks they will face.

Don’t forget to have the camera on hand to record the event for posterity and the scrapbook, when appropriate.

We’re remembering Valentine’s Day Past through the eyes of some friends. You may find an idea you can have fun with too. Continuing on the theme of ‘the warmth of the memory of the occasion WILL long outlive the events of the day’ …

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