In my email inbox this morning I came across a couple of money saving tidbits on scrapbooking supplies.

First, from an article by Linda Fantin of The Salt Lake Tribune:

The rapid growth of scrapbooking also has created tons of discontinued and overstocked merchandise. Big Lots! recently bought $6 million in such materials, which it has been selling for 60 to 80 percent off retail, according to TDMonthly, an online trade magazine for the toy, hobby and game industry.

I never would have thought to go to Big Lots! for scrapbooking supplies. But 60-80% off sounds like it is worth the trip.

Linda’s complete article is:
The Resolution? Get to scrapbooking now!
Popularity has made the hobby affordable and easy to learn

Next, Joann.com is having a 30% off sale on scrapbooking supplies. It is an online only offer. To get the 30% off savings code, just subscribe to their newsletter and the sale code will be emailed to you.

I’ve been on their mailing list for a few months and they send a lot of online offers out. They also send out printable coupons for store shopping.

Sign up for the Joann.com newsletter here.

OK, it is official - I am now also a digital scrapbooker!

Thanks to Roberta D’Achille (my first favorite digital designer) for posting a comment here with a link to Scrapbook-Elements. After a visit there and a peek at her blog, I now have a wish list started at Scrapbook-Elements and have created an honest to goodness digital scrapbook layout!

TA-DAH!

I used the free digital scrapbooking kit - Snow Flakes Mini Kit - that Roberta so graciously shared on her blog. I figured that starting with a freebie would be the best way to go. After all, there was a slight chance I wouldn’t care for digi scrapping. (Yeah right!)

Oh boy, life is good…! [SMILE]

Thanks to my project that gave me a small taste of digital scrapbooking and a comment from Roberta who suggested a couple more sites to visit, I am feeling myself pulled more toward digital scrapbooking…Help…I may be hooked already.

I don’t foresee ever giving up paper crafting and doing physical albums - I just love it so much - but I can totally envision doing digi scrapping too.

Do you do both? Just paper? Digital all the way?

Now that I am almost done with my Christmas frenzy of cards, shopping, wrapping and parties I am starting to think about the photos I want to be sure to take this year. Here are some of my ideas:

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Empty and Full Stockings

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The Christmas tree with all the gifts under it before it becomes buried in a mound of discarded wrapping paper.

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The food. And I want to write down the stories of the food that my husband’s 92 year old grandma will tell us.

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All the kids in their fine clothes.

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All the kids in their PJ’s.

Here’s hoping you capture all the photos you want. Have a great Christmas!

Yesterday I got my first taste of digital scrapbooking.

Two words: OH MY!

Within about 30 minutes of grabbing a freebie digital kit at Digital Scrapbook Place and opening up Microsoft Picture It! I had created this:

I have to say that digital scrapbooking was SO much fun and so easy. The only expense I had was printing it out at Kinko’s. This is not an actual scrapbooking project, so I am OK with the printing being non-archival. Clearly if I get into this much more (seems likely!) then I will need a place to print my digital scrapbook projects that are truly photo-safe.

Anybody have any ideas? Feel free to post links in your comments.

This weekend a friend of mine asked for some help getting started with scrapbooking. She wanted to do a complete album for her brother as a Christmas gift. I figured this was worth the half-hour drive up to Archivers. Although I had never been there before I have been wanting to go. She picked me up at 10 AM.

When we walked in the door I gave a little gasp out loud. My heart lept. Oh my. It was just like walking into Disneyland. Clean. Friendly. And oh the fun to be had.

The photo of the store on their website is very accurate. All the stores must be built the same because it looks just like this:

They had a great selection of albums in all sizes, colors, patterns and album type. Their stock of paper was beyond amazing. They had three huge side rooms of paper. Embellishments. Kits. Eyelets. Brads. Stamps. Tools. It was simply breathtaking.

Not just a place for scrapbooking supplies, they also have a terrific class line up. After the holidays it will be on my list to do. (I have a feeling Santa is bringing me an eyelet setter that I won’t know what to do with.)

Bottom line, if you live where there is an Archivers store (see the location map here) - GO! It is worth the drive even if it is a bit of a road trip.

Have fun and send me a “wish you were here postcard” in your head!

Remember when Christmas felt so simply wonderful? It was kick-back time. Freedom… Winter break… Ironically, the worst part of it was all the TIME. Time to wait, wish, wonder and expect. As a kid, Christmas Eve was certainly the longest day on the calendar.

These days I find myself being so busy with all that I have to get done that I miss out on all that. No freedom. No break. No kicking-back. No scrapbooking…

The other day while reading my latest issue of Memory Makers and again last night as I passed by my scrapbooking stuff I found myself feeling sad. Wistful for time to scrapbook. To do what I love.

Anybody with me?
I made a pact with myself right then. No matter how busy I am or behind I get, I am going to carve out some time to scrapbook before New Year’s. Dang it, this IS winter break. I will have freedom. I WILL SCRAPBOOK!

Photos aren’t just for scrapbooking anymore, that’s for sure. You can put photos on mugs, t-shirts, print-your-own books, cards, mouse pads, and even bumper stickers (I’m guessing on that one). The possibilities are endless. The other day I came across a really cute idea - design your own handbag with your favorite photo.

Snaptotes have seven different purse/tote/beach bag design choices. You can even select your own interior color. The Custom Photo Tote Bag would be perfect for holding your scrapbook in progress. It measures 16″ x 12″ x 4″ and has a very solid bottom panel.

What photo would you put on there?

One of my 100 Scrapbooking Things I Want to Do is to use ribbon in a layout. Up until a few days ago I thought maybe I would just buy some ribbon and run it down the side of a page. Then I found Shimelle Laine.

On her site she has a very cool PDF file called 101 Things to Do with Your Ribbon You’ll see it - her site design is very clean.

The ones I am going to try are:

10. Punch holes along one side of a photo or mat and finish with ribbons tied in loop knots.
16. stamp a name or date on a ribbon, fold around the corner of a photograph and secure with a paper clip.
19. Make a masculine tag by threading a plain washer onto a ribbon remnant, folding in half and stapling to the top of of the tag.
32. Cover a scrap of cardstock with ribbon scraps in lines, then place a cut out shape over the top so the quilted design shows through.

I’m off to The Ribbon Jar!

Sometimes it seems my scrapbooking gets in a rut. I’m doing the layouts just to get it done. Or I feel like all I’m doing is scrapping family celebrations (that’s the only time I remember to take pictures). Does that happen to you?

Well, if you want an inspiration to scrapbook with a purpose, read Angie Pedersen’s back story of her wonderful book, The Book of Me. If it doesn’t make you want to sit down and create a meaningful layout RIGHT NOW then clearly you need to rent Old Yeller to break out of your emotional block.

Thanks for sharing your story, Angie.