There’s a new kid in town. Last weekend when I was browsing around Michael’s I spotted amidst the scrapbooking magazines a new face. Scrapbook Answers has debuted. Of course I HAD to have it. I mean, really, who can resist a scrapbooking magazine? (Not me.)

It was a risky buy for a new magazine because it was wrapped in plastic. No chance to peek in to see what the articles looked like or if the layouts jumped off the pages and made me want to do them. Plus it cost $7.99. A bit steep for just one issue.

But the magazine came with a CD loaded with cool stuff. A dozen fonts. Two trial versions of scrapbooking related software. Printable kits. An idea gallery. 25 printable images. And 5 how-to videos. Geez, that’s worth $7.99 - easy.

I grabbed it up so fast my daughter did a double take - “What did you find?”

“Something really cool.”

Indeed, Scrapbook Answers is very cool. It is focused on how to create layouts, how to really accomplish the things we see in magazines and what tools to use to do it. I found the product reviews especially helpful. They don’t give everything a four-star rating. That’s great. There should be some things I am not tempted to buy.

When you see Scrapbook Answers on the shelf - splurge on it. You’ll be glad you did. Or you can subscribe like I’m going to and get 9 issues for $24.95.

Enjoy!

Looking for more scrapbook time in the coming year? Me too. There is a great article by Rachel Thomae in the January 2006 issue of Creating Keepsakes on this exact topic. She shares strategies from six scrapbookers about how to create 52 pages this year. Sounds like the perfect mini album to me. My favorite part of the article is the list of 52 questions to get your mind flowing.

My top three are:

3. If you could have a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
8. What’s your favorite color and what does it say about you?
49. If you could write your own fortune-cookie fortune, what would it say?

Not that was hard to pick a top three. If you read Rachel’s article what are your favorite three questions?

When my January issue of Creating Keepsakes arrived last week an ad caught my eye (well, lots of them did actually - it was a GREAT issue!). At Jo-Ann when you buy a 2006 Creating Keepsakes Calendar Kit you get a certificate for a 13 month subscription to Creating Keepsakes.

Thinking I could avoid the post-Thanksgiving shopping crowds I went to Joann.com to see if I could get the Calendar Kit there. No dice. It is sold out online.

So yesterday I went to my Jo-Ann store and grabbed up the Calendar Kit. Due to an eager store worker who had put out Sunday’s sale signs early - I even got mine at 40% off. That means for $17.99 I got a really cool calendar kit AND a 13 month subscription to CK! Yippee. How fun is that?!? The 40% off sale starts on November 27th!

Here’s what you’re looking for:

P.S. If there is anybody reading this who uses Word Press and knows how to make text wrap around the images I would LOVE to know. There has to be a way and I just can’t figure it out. Please comment or email me (address in the sidebar) if you know how.

So I’m in the grocery store yesterday when I see this cute under-sized magazine at the checkout lane. It is called Scrapbooks Made Easy 12 cool album ideas. Make one tonight! Of course I grab it right away. Not often I get to make a scrapbooking impulse buy at the grocery store.

This little magazine is a dynamo. Not so much for the layout ideas (although there are some cute ones) but more for the guilt reduction. You know, the stuff we scrapbookers make ourselves crazy over - cropping every picture, not doing anything unless everything is perfect, stuff like that.

A quick glance at the section headings alone offered me some relief from the self-induced stress of scrapbooker’s perfectionism.

It’s never too late.
Lose the guilt.
Leave most of your photos in the box
Celebrate your life

Here is an excerpt from the final section, Quality, not quantity:

“It’s easy to get excited about scrapbooking and start seeing everything with ’scrapbooker’s eye.’ Suddenly, everything is a layout waiting to happen. You dress your kids in shirts that match the paper you just bought and take them tot he park to take a picture for a scrapbook page. If you snap the photo and rush home to make your page, you’ve missed the point. If you take the photo, then put the camera away and have a great time playing on the swings, there is still hope for you! Scrapbooks are for saving memories and telling stories, but first you have to live them.”

These great concepts are interwoven with good ideas for album themes for baby, school, vacation, holiday, birthday and family. All in all, this was a great impulse buy. Well worth the $3.99. When you see this little mag co-produced by Simple Scrapbooks and Soap Opera Digest, go ahead and get it. If you aren’t seeking the latest, greatest, whiz-bang layouts but good concepts and ideas about scrapbooking, you’ll be glad you did.

Just got my September 2005 issue of Creating Keepsakes in the mail and one of the articles caught my eye and my mind space. Rachel Thomae writes in her article Scrapbook Your Way about the five starting off points for creating scrapbook pages.

Creating Keepsakes - $ 24.97
From: MagazinesQuick.com

Basically she says that we start a page with one of the five elements in mind and then create from there. Her thought is that no one way is “right” or “wrong” but that we each have a natural tendency. The five starting off points she mentions are:

Photographs
Supplies
Design
Art
Words

Obviously the article goes into some great detail about how you can tell which is your natural style and gives some suggestions for getting started with each one. She evens passes out Permission Slips for going outside your usual style.

It is a great article and I highly advise grabbing your CK (Sept 2005 issue, page 113) and see what Rachel has to say.

As for me, I know my natural style is not to start with Supplies since I just went to ScrapYourTrip.com to see if could get some stuff for our upcoming Alaska cruise. But when I looked at all the great stuff I just couldn’t decide. Even though I know I’m going to Alaska and will undoubtedly do an album on the trip, I don’t know yet what the “tone” of the trip will be. I don’t know what the photos will be like. So how could I buy supplies yet?

Do you have a sense of what your natural style is?
How do you start an album or a layout?

I just discovered a new scrapbooking blog CropChic. Carolyn Wheeler, the Dean of The Scrapbook School had an interesting thought about scrapbooking magazines.

She says:
Is it me or has anyone else been noticing that the layouts featured on the cover of Creating Keepsakes (CK) magazine seem to becoming simpler? [read the rest of her post here]

I honestly haven’t noticed the cover of CK getting simpler because I think that pretty much all of the CK layouts are way too complicated. I much prefer the simpler layouts that get more pages done rather than spending hours making your own embellishments.

What do you think?

I love reading my scrapbooking magazines. When they show up in my mailbox, I know I am going to have to set aside a few minutes to pour over the awesome photos and get my mind fired up to be creative. Do you do that too?

Most times it is just browsing. So many magazines have complicated layouts or pages that feature one photo and tons of hand created embellishments that take HOURS to make.

Those are not the layouts for me to do. I love looking at them, but I refuse to spend that kind of time or energy to create a single page. It is hard enough to find a block of time to scrapbook, let alone spend all of it on one page.

One scrapbook magazine that I find great ideas I CAN USE is Simple Scrapbooks. Have you seen it? You’ll love it.