Happy National Scrapbook Day!!

Today, I am SO honored to share some readers' and contributors' favorite projects! Get ready for some great inspiration!! I hope you have time to be creative today ;) First I am featuring readers' favorite projects!

Here are links to the blogs of the readers that I am featuring, so make sure you check out their blog:

Shelby's Blog
Monica's Blog
Alison's Blog
Sara's Blog
Cheryl's Blog
Tanya's Blog

First up is Shelby! She created this beautiful layout call "Swing." Didn't this page turn out super cute, I am so inspired! Here is what Shelby had to say about it: "Look for different ways to use patterned paper. Use small patterns for suns, clouds etc to add a whimsical feel to your pages. " (You can visit her fun blog here)




Next up is a really cool 2 page layout by Monica! I love how sporty and fun this layout, "Roll With It", is!! This is what Monica had to say about her page: "When choosing colors for a page don’t forget to look to a color wheel. Complementary colors, opposites on the wheel, are very striking but a little goes a long way. Try using split complementary colors. Instead of using the color directly across the color wheel use the colors on either side. This creates a pleasing combination without the stark contrast of a complementary color scheme." (Don't forget to check out Monica's blog here)



Next up is a super cute page called "Joy" by Alison! I love how well she scrapped this perfect dancing moment. Alison had this to say about how she made this page: "I had printed off 3 of the pictures of Paige dancing to use for my January Project 12 layout but they didn't work there. Then the Sketchy Thursday sketch that I've attached got posted. I knew it was the perfect sketch for my pictures but that I also needed a couple more. Luckily I had lots more on my hard drive as I'd just bought a new camera and had gone to town at her ballet class!! I wanted the layout to be girly and very pink (it's her favourite colour and her ballet outfit sort of lent itself to a pink scheme) so I dug into my ever increasing stash of pink papers (with 3 girls it's hard to buy anything BUT pink!) and found the pink and brown butterfly ones from S.E.I. The basic layout came together very quickly after that! Oddly enough the buttons took me a long time to "get right". I played with a variety of combinations of colours, sizes and arrangement before settling on what you see. Silly that something as simple as buttons should be so hard! And then I added my journaling card (which was not in the sketch) by tucking it behind one of my pictures with a little ribbon pull." (You can learn more about Alison on her blog here)



Our next fabulous page, called "Believe in Yourself," is by Sara! This is really a neat hockey page! I am loving the design with all the stars on it to go with the theme! Here is what Sara had to say about her page: "I wanted to enter this page of my husband playing hockey. I love these pictures of him and I wanted to make a great 'man' layout (you know nothing to frilly or pretty) to showcase them." (Check out Sara's blog here)




Our next project is by Cheryl! She used a super cool mosaic technique on this card. I love how it turned out!! Cheryl explains how she created the look: "Here is my latest mosaic card with the little giraffe freebie from meljens designs. The technique I used was very simple, assemble your too small scraps to make a mosaic design. Spray white card stock with Craft bond, attach assorted pieces, finish with a thin layer of matte Mod Podge. When dry use card stock as base for a card or scrapbooking page!" (Don't forget to visit her blog for more ideas here)




I am sharing a couple pages from a scrapbooker named Tanya! She sent a few pages and I knew I wanted to feature a couple of them! They are both super duper cute! This is what Tanya had to say about the first one: "A story of one day! She can make so many different funny faces." (You can see more fabulous project on her blog here)


On this next adorable page, Tanya said this about her page: "So sad and thoughtful look! In such moments I just want to kiss her to make her smile a me =)"





Now it's time to highlight some contributors' favorite pages!

Susan is up first! She chose this gorgeous page as her favorite and I can see why!! This is what Susan had to say about her page: "This layout is definitely one of my favorites. It’s a photo of my grandson during a rare quiet moment. The design for this layout was a total lift of a framed piece I saw in one of the banks where I was working. Each layer of the “frame” on my layout is on pop-dots to give it dimension. It’s a very simple layout, but to me, it places the emphasis completely on Adam…and that was what I was trying to do."




Nancy created the next beautiful page. Look at the detailing work on her page, wow! Nancy had this to say about her layout: "Don't limit yourself to just paper when you scrapbook. Sometimes bits of fabric scraps and lace can come together to build the perfect background."



Lydia created this next fun page! I love that cute photo along with the playful colors. This is so fun!! Lydia had this to say about her page: "To set the title and theme to this lo I used our last name "SIEGEL" to help me prep for this lo."



This next page is by Cathy! Look at how fun and festive her page is! The perfect Disney page and I love that bling swirlie! This is what Cathy had to say about her layout: "One of our favorite activities when we visit Disney is searching for "hidden Mickeys". So to record this, I always hide Mickeys on all of my Disney pages. This particular page has 4 hidden Mickeys. The Mickeys on the t-shirts don't count! LOL"




Delaina is up next with a fabulously stitched page! I love how well this captures the feeling of being there on the train tracks! Delaina said this about her page: "I made the trac stitching by using 2 different size plates and tracing around them...then just linked them together with stitching randomly to mimic a RR Trac."

(Out for Publication)

Here is a fabulous favorite page of Heather! She did such a neat job of combining colors and matting in on black! This really pops. That picture is super cute as well ;)



I hope you are as inspired as I am with these favorite pages!!

Cool Page Ideas and a Technique by Jillian!

One of my absolute favorite paper techniques is cutting intricate shapes out of patterened paper. When I shop for patterned paper one of the first things that I look for on the paper is fun designs that I know I'll be able to cut out and use to add lots of detail to my pages and cards. I have created a page and a sketch to showcase my love for "fussy cutting".

I used the Jillibean soup "Egg Drop Soup" collection to create this layout. I absolutely adore these papers for 3 reasons.

1.) The adorable Easter theme is just perfect for all of my son's Easter themed photos that I took this year.
2.) The whole collection includes an assortment of patterned papers that have fun shapes to cut out.
3.) I have to admit that I'm a little biased when it comes to the name of the company, Jillibean Soup, since it has my name in it! :)

I cut 5 umbrellas out of the patterned paper to use as embellishments on my layout. I used pop dots to adhere them to the page to give the umbrellas even more dimension.

Here are a few more examples of some projects that I have created recently using the fussy cutting technique:




I also created two more pages using two of Pam's Page Templates. I absolutely adore her page templates! They are all so different and original. They are so easy to use as well! I scrapped more of my son's Easter photos using Basic Grey's "Green At Heart" collection. Even though this collection isn't actually Easter themed I think the colors are just perfect for Easter and Springtime. As you can see I did a little bit of "fussy cutting" when I created these layouts as well, I cut out a bunch of the little purple butterflies to arrange on both of the layouts.

(here is the link to the template)

(here is the link to the sketch)

Thank you so much! I hope this gives everyone even more ideas on how to creatively use their patterned paper stash. I know that all of us scrapbookers hoard patterned paper like crazy, but the more patterned paper that we use up, the more NEW paper we get to buy! :)

(CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JILLIAN)

Introducing Our Featured Artist for April 30th!

Can you believe it's almost May already .. wow where has the time gone???
Today I am sharing someone I have known on scrapbook.com for a quite a while. We used to do swaps together back in the day ;) She is super talented and I think you will agree! She has such a fresh, fun style and I feel really inspired whenever she posts something new. I knew just had to ask her to be a featured artist! Who is this artist you ask? Well her name is Jillian and let's get to know her!


My name is Jillian but most people call me Jill. I'm 25 years old and reside in Oklahoma. I live with my husband, John and our 4 year old son, Alex. I love them to pieces! You'll find that they are almost always my main scrapping subjects.

I am originally from Alaska but we moved to Oklahoma about 2 years ago for my husbands job. I've found that I actually love it here! Recently I was able to quit my job and now I am a full time stay at home mom. I love being able to devote most of my time to my son, PLUS I love that I get lots more time to scrapbook. :)

I have had a love for arts and crafts for as long as I can remember. I grew up with my talented and artistic mom who owns a beading business. She has always encouraged my creativity and I owe much of my love for art to her! Scrapbooking is my number one favorite hobby but I also love shopping (that still counts as a hobby, right?) sewing, crocheting, drawing, dancing and singing as well. I have always been a huge music lover, I pull inspiration from the music that I listen to often. To me nothing is more pleasant than sitting down in my scrap room listening to some fun, inspirational music and letting my creative juices flow!

I am so excited and honored to be a featured artist for Ideas for Scrapbookers! Thank you so much!

You can check out her inspiring blog here: http://scrappyjilly.blogspot.com
And you MUST visit her beautiful gallery here: JillianD

Check back in a few for some GREAT inspiration!!

Autism Awareness RAK winner!!

Congrats to mustangkayla!!

mustangkayla said...

What a great idea! I think every parent needs to know about Autism. If it is caught early and the child gets the correct help they need it can be so incredibly beneficial to their development! Kudos to you for all that you do for your son, it is hard work!

April 26, 2010 12:46 PM

I will be contacting you soon for your $35 gc to scrapbook.com or scrapbook goodies from me!

Computer Programs To Use - NEED your feedback!

Hello everyone and happy Thursday!! I get asked a lot which computer program I use and if I like it. I am looking for your feedback about what computer program to use when editing photo, typing in text, doing digital pages and anything other features you think of. Just leave a comment and tell the pros and cons of each program you have. You can add more thought to programs I have already posting info on. Please add any information you want to contribute like price, how easy it is to you, and features you like and hate. I will make a master list and post it next week!! I will start with some of my thoughts. You can also send me an email at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com if you don't want to leave a comment.

Photoshop Pro's: (I need your input because I don't have this program)
Photoshop Cons's: "


Photoshop Elements Pro's: Easy to use for editing photos and making digital pages. Seems to be the best of Photoshop with some of it's features. Has a great list of custom tools to use. Reasonable price
Photoshop Elements Con's: Doesn't have all of the features that I need to complete a digital project. They seem to come out with a new version very often.


Paint Shop Pro Pro's: I find this program is easy to use and has neat way to do photo editing.
Paint Shop Pro Con's: My version crashes a lot and makes my computer run slow!!


Microsoft Picture It Pro's: (I need your input because I don't have this program)
Microsoft Picutre It Con's: "


The Print Shop Pro's: This program makes it so easy to print the exact size of photos and text. It shows you a 8.5" by 11" printing screen and has a ruler. Formating text is so easy.
The Print Shop Con's: You can't really do digital scrapbooking (on my version).


Are there any other programs out there you use? Remember I need your feedback badly, so please leave me a comment to help advise on what computer program is best for someone :)

Designer Showcase: Projects With Die Cuts!

There are so many different types of die cuts available now. You can buy die cut shapes, die cut machines, and die cut shaped paper. I love anything die cut so I am sharing the various types on projects by the contributors!

The first page is by Nancy! She used a just a bit of die cut paper and inked to go with the rest of her page. This is such a cool effect! Check out her page!



Cathy made this beautiful page using pre-made die cut shapes and she also cut a few using a Spellbinders die cut machine. This turned out so neat!



Delaina made this next page using die cut paper. She cut it in half and then put both pieces on the ends. What a cool idea!!


Heather used Sure Cuts A Lot to create this beautiful page. She die cut the title and flowers! It turned out just perfect!


Dolores made this next page. She cut swirlies from a die cut machine and added them to her page. It is such nice accent to add to the page!


Susan also used die cut swirlies to create her page. I love how it adds an element of water splashing! So cool!



This last page is by Cindy! She used die cut paper and it turned out so cute! I love all of the arrows and cars on this page, what a great design! ;)


I hope you are inspired to create a page with die cuts. Do you want to share your die cut page with readers? Send me an email at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com and I will feature your page!

Dry Embossing Flowers

I thought it would be fun to do a tutorial on how to turn green Prima flowers into accent leaves for other flowers on your layouts!

I used the green Prima Animal Bash flower you can see right in the front of this package.



This is how it looked after I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. I used the same plates that I would use to emboss regular paper.



I trimmed the petals off in sets of two by cutting down to the center of the flower and I tucked them under my flowers on my layout to add just a bit more interest. You'll also notice that I embossed some of my die cut flowers on the layout with the same embossing folder.



Here is a closer look at the completed flower with the embossed leaves on my layout. The blue paper flower that is the base was cut from GCD Studios Lydia paper.


I also have one more tip to share! While I was embossing the flowers for this layout, I decided to try to emboss an older plastic Queen and Co. flower, and that worked too! I thought I'd share my results in case anyone was interested in embossing plastic.

Autism Awareness Blog Hop + RAK!!!

It's a blog hop!! This hop is a bit different than most you may have followed. Today at each of the blogs in our hop we are going to share some information about Autism. All of us at Ideas For Scrapbookers are concerned with special needs of all kinds. Several of our families are directly affected by physical, medical, developmental or cognitive challenges. Both Cathy and I have children that are on the Autism Spectrum. With April being Autism Awareness Month, we thought it would be the perfect time to share some information as well as some scrapbooking and crafting with you.

We hope that you enjoy hopping to the blogs of the Artists, (some are even offering RAK's to the hop participants). So be sure to check them all out!

The hop spots are:
Cathy ~ Scraps of Life
Heather ~ Miracles Momma Designs
Dolores ~ The Joy of Scrapbooking
Sarah ~ Red Oak Lines
Susan ~ Keeping in Touch

So let's start it off by helping you understand what autism is.

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. People with ASDs handle information in their brain differently than other people. ASDs are “spectrum disorders.” That means ASDs affect each person in different ways, and can range from very mild to severe. People with ASDs share some similar symptoms, such as problems with social interaction. But there are differences in when the symptoms start, how severe they are, and the exact nature of the symptoms.

A Few Autism Facts

• Autism now affects 1 in 110 children and 1 in 70 boys

• Autism prevalence figures are growing

• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined

• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.

• There is no medical detection or cure for autism

• Autism is 4-5 times more prevalent in males than in females

• Autism is a life-long disorder

To learn more please visit Autism Speaks

Today I am sharing a page I made about my son who was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two and a half. This is a follow up to the page titled: A Year of Progress. First I am sharing the text for my page.

Sean, over the years, you have made so much progress. You were diagnosed with Autism at the age of two and a half. At that time you were barely talking or giving eye contact. The doctor seemed hopeful and encouraged us to be the same way! Over the years, you started talking so much that we knew that you would be just fine in that area. You began to read around the age of three and your speech came along with that. Your communication skills grew and grew and by the time you entered first grade, you will were able to play along side with your peers. We have had you in speech therapy since you were around three and you always did so well with that. You all are learning more and more how to use your social skills when appropriate! Daddy and I are so proud of your and know that your future is bright!



Leave a comment to win a cool RAK from me!!! I will randomly chose one person to win a $35 gift certificate to scrapbook.com OR a prize pack if you want that instead. I will chose (randomly) that winner on April 29th at 10 pm and announce it shortly after that ;)

Next stop on the blog hop is Cathy who will be sharing information about the signs of ASDs. If you get lost in the hop, you can always come back here to the full list of participants and continue on your journey.

I also wanted to thank Cathy for taking the time to put this blog hop together! Thanks Cathy!!

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about autism.

Stay Tuned Tomorrow!!

Make sure you come back to the blog ... we are doing an Autism Awareness blog hop and there will be information + some RAKS given out!!

Reader's Pages!

(We are looking for pages to feature on the blog for National Scrapbook Day, click here for more info)

Hi everyone! Happy Sunday! Today I am featuring three readers projects!

Libeeti used left over papers to make this beautiful album as a gift for a friend! What a beautiful gift to give. To create the flowers, Libeeti used the same technique taught by Cathy about using left over papers. You can see it here. You can also check out Libeeti's blog here. Here are some photo of her fabulous album!







Our next couple of inspirational pages are by Monica! She used lots of photos on her pages just like the post designer showcase: mulit-photo pages. You can see the original post here. You can also visit Monica's blog here. Here are a couple of her pages ... I think you will be inspired to create your own double page layout!




Melanie also created a multi-photo page! She did such a great job fitting so many photos on one page! I love it and the banner title rocks!! You can see her blog here.


I hope you enjoyed seeing some more reader's pages ;)

Would you like to be featured on this blog? Simply use one of the templates, techniques or other ideas on this blog. Or if there is anything else that inspires to create something from this blog, send me an email at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com and I will feature your projects!!