Scanner Advice, Anyone?

I've got a flatbed scanner that works fine, but it is old and I'm guessing, slow. I'd like to get one that would make it quick for me to scan in (and then throw away!) my old prints to convert them to digital photos. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Traditions Album

Do you have a Traditions Album? It can be a powerful tool to bring your family together. Simply document the things you do each holiday season. If you don't have many traditions, here are some ideas of things you might want to start this year!

Doing for Others
*Serve dinner at a soup kitchen.
*Pack holiday dinner boxes at your local food bank.
*Collect cans for your local food bank.
*Create cards or decorations to go into the holiday food boxes at the food bank.
*Bring goodies to people who have to work on the holiday.

Togetherness
*Buy one new holiday book each year for the family.
*Read holiday books by the lights of the Christmas tree one night.
*Go caroling in your neighborhood.
*Invite friends over for hot cocoa and tree decorating.
*Go look at holiday light displays.
*Enjoy a holiday concert or show together.

Food
*Make cookies for your neighbors.
*Make cookies-in-a-jar for teachers or other people.
*Prepare traditional holiday foods together as a family.

Your album will bring your family enjoyment over the years!!!!

Finding Time to Complete Scrapbooks

Do you struggle with finding time to complete your scrapbook projects? I do, too. Life just seems to be moving faster these days. Here are a few techniques that help me and may help you, too:

Make Use of Small Chunks of Time
I lay out multiple pages at once with paper, photos and embellishments. Then, I stack them up and put them in a box. When I have small bits of time later, I pull out the box, adhere it all to the page and journal. Voila! Pages done in a flash!

Journal Later
I often scrapbook with groups of people, and find it challenging to journal in that setting. So, I complete everything else and do the journaling later while I'm at home watching TV or at one of my kids' activities.

Attend Workshops
I never scrapbook alone...there is just too much else demanding my attention! I have to make a commitment and do it with a group.

Enlist Help
A great idea is to have a family scrapbook night and have everyone help. It's fun to see what other people write about in your family albums!

Go Digital
As I've mentioned before, I'm doing more projects digitally now. I love that I can do it all on my laptop. No more lugging paper, stickers, tools, album pages and more...I just need an extension cord and my laptop.

Great Holiday Photos

For great holiday scrapbook pages, you need great holiday photos! Here are some ideas:

Traditions
Whatever your family traditions, take photos and get them into your albums! If you're having trouble thinking of them, here are some ideas to jog your memory:
*cutting a Christmas tree
*decorating the Christmas tree
*hanging the stockings
*putting up lights
*decorating the house
*buying gifts
*setting up a nativity scene
*making cookies
*parties
*looking at lights around town
*going to concerts, plays, and other special events

Gifts
Take photos of people opening them, using them, etc. It's fun to include kids' wish lists, too!

Food
What does your family eat on Christmas? Turkey? Ham? Every family has its own favorite meal, and you can make a great layout by taking photos of the meal preparations and the meal itself. Include recipes for an extra-special touch!

Cards
Save the cards you get from friends and family and keep them in a special album. You can look back over the years and enjoy them for years to come. A slip-in pocket-style album makes this a very easy album to create.

Scrapbooks as Gifts

Wanting to give a unique gift this holiday season? Here are some ideas:

Calendar Album
I use a slip-in pocket page album that stands up on a desk for easy display. Each 4x6" page features a calendar grid for the month and small photo. The best part is that the album can be re-used by slipping in different items at the end of the year!

I Hope Album
Create an album with everything you hope for someone you love. I made one for my daughter with pages that included: I hope you know how much I love you, I hope you always share yourself with others, I hope you always challenge yourself, etc. I included photos of her that matched the sentiments. She loves it!

ABC Book
I'm making one now for my nephew, and including things he recognizes on each page. This will help him learn his letters.

Happy Holidays!

Digital Albums a Big Hit at Thanksgiving!

I brought two digital scrapbooks to our family Thanksgiving celebration and they caused quite a stir! Everyone was impressed with the personalized covers and professional binding. I am excited to complete my Christmas projects now...I'm doing an ABC book for my nephew and re-creating a family album that was originally done in a magnetic album. There are lots of photos to scan, but I think I can get it done in time...

Thanksgiving Photo Tips

This Thanksgiving, think about your dream scrapbook page, and take the photos you need to make it! Here are some ideas:

1. Capture photos of your family traditions. Does Aunt Sally always bring the Green Bean Casserole? Get a photo of her bringing it in.

2. Who's carving the turkey this year? Grab your camera and capture that!

3. What does your family do after the big dinner? Watch sports? Play football? Sleep? Take some photos!

4. Do you shop Friday morning? Include photos of you at stores, standing in lines in the dark, etc. Include ads for great deals you purchased.

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!!!

Holiday Gift Ideas for Scrapbookers

Do you have a scrapbooker on your holiday list? Here are some great gift ideas:

Tools
*a great trimmer for paper and photos is essential
*punches for decorative accents are fun to have-make sure they are good quality, though
*a 12 inch trimmer is helpful-choose one with a replaceable blade and marked measurements
*oval, circle and other cutting tools for photos are nice to have
*cup holder-you don't want your drink spilling onto your photos!

Adhesives
*double-sided tape in an easy-to-use dispenser
*glue pen for small items
*clear adhesive for use with vellum

Happy Shopping!

Scrapbooking Stores Closing

I've noticed that here in the Phoenix/Glendale area, our scrapbook stores are closing. I hear this is happening around the country. I think people are taking just as many photos now as they were years ago, but many people are not doing anything with them, so sales are down.

The photos people are taking now are usually digital, and that has its own issues...

I hear of people who lose all their photos because they have computer problems. It's very important to back up your photos in some way and also to print them, either as individual prints or digital pages or digital albums. Don't lose your precious memories!!!

Digital Cards

I have been playing with my software program and have created some fun digital cards. These can be printed out on regular paper or photo paper at home or uploaded for processing at any photo developer. I am amazed at how easy they are, and how much everyone loves them! This one went in my daughter's lunch box after a difficult morning. :)

Digital vs Traditional

I've been thinking a lot lately about digital scrapbooking and traditional scrapbooking. I started making traditional scrapbooks over 10 years ago, and I must made my first digital scrapbook last year. I've been asked by many people which one I prefer. The answer is complicated...here's my stab at it:

Traditional Scrapbooking

• You can create your pages in a hands-on way that is therapeutic and enjoyable.
• It's fun to get together with other people while you create your albums.
• While with others, you can tell the stores behind the photos and swap ideas.
• You can journal in your own handwriting so future generations can see it.
  

Digital Scrapbooking

• You can work on projects in small bits of time here and there.
• There are no physical supplies or tools to put away when you need to stop.
• If you have a laptop, you can work on your projects just about anywhere.
• You can share pages and/or albums with friends and family far away.
• You can print multiple copies of the same page or album with no extra effort.
• Albums are generally thinner and therefore more portable.
• If anything happens to a digital scrapbook, you can upload it again and print a new copy.
• Digital papers and embellishments can be used over and over again.

There are definite advantages to both methods...you need to choose the one that fits you and/or your project the best!

Digital Scrapbook Arrived

I completed a digital scrapbook of a recent trip to Los Cabos and uploaded it on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised to receive it in the mail yesterday! There is something magical about making something on your computer screen and then having it arrive in "real" form. I was thrilled to be able to put a photo on the front cover, and the new software I have allows me to make all kinds of changes to the templates. For example, I can now enlarge photos, move them, change the aspect ratio, change paper colors, etc. It really feels like "regular" scrapbooking, which I didn't think digital could.

Digital Scrapbooking Update

I did it! I created two 12x12" Page Layouts in my digital scrapbooking program, uploaded them to Costco and picked them up last night. They are gorgeous! I am so excited...this is much easier than my old method of pulling out all the paper, tools, tape, etc. and getting a bit done before having to clean it all up again! I brought the prints home and slipped them into my 12x12" album. How satisfying to have it done so quickly in one day!

Tonight I have a friend coming over and we're going to make calendar albums to give as gifts during the holidays. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Digital Scrapbooking

Today I'll be dabbling in digital scrapbooking. I got this great program that allows me to create entire albums or just single pages. I have an 8x8" album almost ready to upload and have printed, and I can't wait to finish it. The album is of a recent hiking trip to Havasupai we took with our kids and a friend. I'm loving that I can make one album but have it printed twice! The extra album will be a gift for the friend that joined us. Too fun!

I'm also going to play with the 12x12" page print feature. I'm going to put together a page, upload it to Costco, and pick it up later today and slip it into my new album that fits papers that size. I hear they look great, and I can't wait to try one myself!

I must admit, when I first heard about digital scrapbooking, I didn't want any part of it. I do still enjoy the hands-on aspect of traditional scrapbooking. But, now that I've tried it, I see the advantages. One is that I can re-create a book if it gets damaged. Another is that I can have multiple copies printed of the same book...what a time savings! I also love that I can share my digital book via e-mail without even purchasing a copy. I shared my last book, a Los Cabos trip, with many friends that might not get to see my hard copy because they live far away. One last plus is that they are much smaller and lighter than a traditional scrapbook. I don't know about you, but I am filling up lots of bookshelves with my traditional albums! I don't know how I'd ever get them all out if there was a fire!

Fun Evening!

I had some friends over last night to scrapbook and we had a great time! I started out sorting photos...I should have them all done by now, but sometimes you wonder if you really have everything where it should be. My current photos are organized, but the ones from years ago are a bit iffy. So, I worked on that for a few hours and then switched gears.

For the rest of the evening, I worked on gift albums for my kids for Christmas this year. I started them a LONG time ago and just never finished them. They are "50 state" albums...7x7" size, with a page for each state in the US. I put the state name on a red or blue border and added a black 4.5x6.5" mat for the photo. Then, I added a sticker of the state (I can't believe how small Rhode Island is!) and wrote the capital, nickname and state bird. They look great!

Welcome to my blog!

I've been scrapbooking in Phoenix for over 10 years now and love it! I really enjoy getting together with friends and doing it together...it's fun and everyone leaves with memories preserved for their family.

Most of my scrapbooks are family albums and I do them chronologically. It's so nice to be able to look back and see what we were doing years ago and how the kids have changed!

I have also done many gift albums. I made an album for my daughter on her 10th birthday called an "I Hope" album. It had great photos of her with my hopes for her future. I made an "Uncle's Album" for my brother with photos of my kids. Of course, the grandparents have albums, too. Theirs were made with slip-in sleeves so they could change out the photos as the kids get older. Recently, I made a digital scrapbook of a trip to Ireland that we took with my in-laws. It was amazing to make one album and order two copies!

That's all for today...welcome to my blog, and watch for future posts! I have friends coming over tonight to scrapbook and need to get the house straightened up!