Corner Scraps (Scrapbooking)

A Question of Style

How often have you stared at a layout you see in a catalog, and loved it, wanting to buy everything on it to get started?  And then, did you end up with a cookie-cutter copy of their layout?  How did you feel about the final result?

I find sometimes that my favourite layouts are partly my favourite because I can see that person's style shining through - it's like an honest picture of their creativity.  When I try to copy it exactly, it always seems to be a pale shadow of what they did.  Funny enough, I always get the most compliments on my own designs, but I never see them as worth it!  

Why?  Well, because my preconceived notions of what a page should look like are constantly being defined by the articles I read in my scrapbook magazines.  And don't get me wrong, I find that the more I read, the better I get, and the more fun I have.  But what I would say is that each of us has a personal style that we have to acknowledge in our crafting - we each have to recognize it, and let it show in our work.  Half of the beauty in our scrapbooking is that personal touch that shows our personality to the outside world.

There's a place for idea books, magazines and more - both in helping to define what your style is, as well as in giving you ideas.  Just be sure that your personality shines through no matter what you are making!  This is art, and there is no 'right way' after all! :)

How about sharing your favourite scrapbook pages in this post?  Link in the comments section below to your work of art, and share what you do!  On Sept 30th, I will award a bit of blog candy to the most creative bit of work submitted! 

Me and Mine

Starting this month, I will be showcasing a scrapbook that we will be making (yep, and ENTIRE scrapbook) in my scrapbook club which begins in September.  The topic I have decided to focus on for this season is 'Me and Mine'.  Guess what it's about?!  ;) 

In all seriousness, I think one of the best 'snapshots' you can take in your life is the one of who you are and who your family is at that moment. It's a scrapbook you could recreate each year, as each year you change as well.  This year, we're going to be doing it in my monthly scrapbook club and class!

The first club meeting is the one where we will actually be making our scrapbooks - if you would like to join, there are still spaces available, and we'd love to have you!  Each month we will be doing a layout to add to our scrapbook.  I provide the supplies and layout, and you provide your personal style!  Feel free to bring 'extras' to add to your pages, and I will have lots of paper and colour options available to fit your personality and style the best!

Here's how the scrapbook club works:

Scrapbook Club (if interest)

(10 Months - Sept-June)

What you get:

• 10 months of FREE monthly club meetings with your ‘club mates’, where you create scrapbook layouts and projects (may be mini books, layouts, 3D picture projects, etc) and use my tools, punches, stampsets and die-cut Big Shot machine. Basically, the goal of this class is preserving and showcasing pictures, so we will explore different ways to do that!

• One month where YOU get to be the ‘hostess’ and receive the first level of hostess benefits ($20 free merchandise and a free stampset)

• Time to work on your own projects.  Plan a project around my tools/stampsets, and work on it during club night while chatting with your clubmates!

What you do:

• Sign up for 10 months in the club (Sep-Jun)

• Each month, contribute at least $20 in orders (which will go towards the benefits of that month’s ‘hostess’)

• Pick a month where you are ‘hostess’

• Come to the optional club night at my house in East Vancouver, where we learn techniques/create make n’ take projects. Drop-ins are welcome at a registration fee of $10.

• Optionally increase your benefits in your hostess month by hosting a workshop with me and your friends.  All orders placed at the event will be added to the club month, to increase your hostess dollars dramatically!  Or, just sit back with your automatic first level benefits if you choose.

I hope you are able to join - I'd love to make this ultra-special album with you!

                                         

The Art of Casing

Are you stuck?  You don't even know where to begin?  Time to perfect your 'casing' skills!  Casing is the term we use when we copy another crafter's design, and tweak it a bit to make it our own.  This is a totally acceptable thing to do!  That's what splitcoast is for. What?!  You don't know what splitcoast is??

Splitcoast is THE place to go for ideas!  If you have a stampin' up! stampset, and are looking for ideas, take my advice - go to splitcoast and look it up! First, go to splitcoast and once there, click on the upper right corner tab of "gallery".  Now, say you are looking up ideas for the set Carte Postale.  Scroll down until you see the C-D sets image.  Click there, and scroll down until you see Carte Postale.  Click on it and Voila!  There are 1,500+ samples of what fellow crafters have done with this set! 

Ok, so if you DO case something, etiquette says that you will note on the back the original artist, and selling that design is probably taboo, unless they say you can, depending on how closely you cased the design. :)  You know, common sense stuff.  But in the meantime, play away!

Stuck for Inspiration?

Try a quiz!  There are lots of quiz questions you can find online, and some of the best pages are made by asking folks you care about how they would answer!  If you have kids, try asking them the same questions every year or two, and see how they change - you can scrap a booklet in itself, just on their life changes every year.  If you have a parent whose memories you want to keep, try asking them about their memories, and scrapping the results - you and your future generations will thank you!

Happy scrapping!
                                                  

Getting Inspiration

It seems like the question I am asked most about my cardmaking and scrapbooking is "where do you get your inspiration/ideas?"  Let me tell you, there have been days that I couldn't create a folded over piece of paper, let alone a card! I find that my biggest recipe for success is to create before I need the card.  WHAT?! You say?  How do you do that?  How can you possibly make a card for someone if it isn't exactly when they need it?  Well, I guess I do that in a lot of ways:

At the beginning of each month, I look at all the birthdays I have coming up, and I try to sit down (usually a week before the end of the prior month), and create the cards that each of those people will want for their birthday.  I then address them and put a stamp on them, and then a mini-sticky note that says "mail me x-date" (usually about 3 days before their birthday, to be sure they get it in time).  What I like about that system is that it gives me the opportunity really make them something nice, and I won't necessarily get stressed and cut corners because time is ticking!

But, you ask, what if you don't have any inspiration that week?  Well, that I handle in a few ways:

1) On splitcoast (www.splitcoaststampers.com), I keep a "favourites" file (you can do this by clicking on a picture you like, and below the author's comments, there is a link that says "add to favorites".  When I am stuck for inspiration, I go browse my favourites, and see if any ideas spring to mind. 

2) I keep magazine and books well tagged with ideas I want to try.  I have dog eared magazines, sticky-note tagged books, and even printed off and torn out ideas in an "ideas" file that I can browse whenever I need inspiration. 

3) I keep a little booklet where I write down ideas I have - this could be as random as a sketch of an idea I have, a picture I want to use for scrapbooking, or sometimes the memory of an event.  In fact, the memories help me the most sometimes, especially when I'm travelling.  I am guilty of always believing that I can't possibly forget that very funny thing that happened to us while in x-country.  And after several years of forgetting almost everything in the trip, I finally started keeping trip journals.  That led into "idea/memory" journals, and now I have lots of ideas waiting to be captured.  Sometimes the memory, as I jot it down, spurs me to take a picture that will be more scrapbookable, as I kind of define the event as I am writing!

4) I try to organize my photos into event files, or types of pics, so I can easily grab a stack and scrap it when it hits me.  I also organize my embellishments into similar files, so I can grab the ones that pertain to that event quickly. 

I hope this helps you grab inspiration for yourself, as we come into a season filled with memory-making events!