Remembering Gratitude

As we work on sharing our family traditions and memories through scrapbooking -- it's fun to include a few layouts of the things we're thankful for. Not only is it a good reminder about how many blessings we have, it's also a good way to include positive emotions into our scrapbooks.

Some good Layout titles for Gratitude Pages:

10 Things I Love About You!
10 Things I'm Thankful For
10 Things Which Make Me Happy
My Favorite Things
My Happy Thoughts

"I have come to feel that one of the most important ingredients for a happy life—a life of joy, contentment, hope, and peace—is gratitude. Surely gratitude—being thankful, being aware, and expressing appreciation—is one of the most important of all heavenly virtues." (Mary Ellen Edmunds, You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don't Need, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005], p. 138.)

Scrapbooking Memories

The holiday season is here and creates great opportunities for scrapbooking memories. Take your camera to all family events and make sure to get photos from various angles. If you can capture fun or bonding experiences on film, it's easy to put them into scrapbooks and remember the events. It's also a good idea to take notes of the event either in your planner or a scrapbooking notebook -- who attended, what grandpa said that was so funny, if there were any big family announcements etc.

Photographs can truly share a story. Don't forget your camera!

Scrapbooking Themes

What type of themes are you interested in using for your scrapbooking? Have you searched for scrapbooking theme papers and not been able to find them? Let me know what you're looking for.

Baby papers?
Wedding?
Star Wars?
Nature?
Girl Scout?
Boy Scout?
Travel?

If you cannot find a specific type of paper, or want more variety of a certain kind, let me know. Thanks.

Why do You Scrapbook?

I've been thinking about the reasons why people scrapbook. Where did the industry begin? When I was growing up my mom made me a "Book of Remembrance". It had our family tree, things I did when I was young, stories about my childhood, and photos. It is one of my most prized possessions. Photo albums have been popular for many years, but scrapbooking has turned into one of the largest hobby industries in history. Why?

I believe much of it has to do with the love we have for our families, and wanting to preserve treasured memories. That's the first step. But then scrapbooking has blossomed into a creative art, a social club, a way to express individuality and an outlet for mothers.

There are so many reasons someone could be interested in scrapbooking.

Why do you scrapbook?

BYU Students and Alumni Blogs

Here is a great directory of blogs and web sites run by BYU students and alumni. It's a great resource and one where we can support each other. If you know of any blogs which should be included, go to the site and add them.

BYU Student Blogs and Sites

Digital Scrapbooking Software

Do any of you have great digital scrapbooking software? I use Photoshop, and have seen Photoshop Elements used, but I'm trying to put together a review of various digital scrapbooking software packages and want to know what other people have used. Thanks for any feedback.

Decorative Brads for Scrapbooking

Brads are great decorative elements for scrapbooking. There are so many choices now besides the regular gold or silver brads you may see in an office. Scrapbooking stores offer brads in every color, alphabet brads, stripes or polka dot brads, flowers, hearts, squares, jewels, photo corners, tags, and even frames which are brads.

Even adding 4 simple brads at the corners of your photos on a page ties the whole page together. Just experiment a little bit and see what you can create with decorative brads for scrapbooking.

Organizing Scrapbook Supplies

If you can't afford a nice storage container specifically for scrapbooking, one of the best ways to get organized is to use small tupperware containers for your scrapbooking embellishments. They are usually fairly cheap and various sizes can be used for ribbons, buttons, paper clips, tags, etc. Once you have the small embellishments, you can start on the other items. I like the vertical paper storage boxes myself because if you have a huge pile of paper, usually you end up needing the paper on the bottom and it's a pain to have to pull it out, paper gets wrinkled, and misaligned, etc. The vertical storage boxes resolve those issues nicely.

If you are organized it will take less time when you want to actually scrapbook, because you'll know where everything is and won't have to waste time searching and organizing each time.

Take up a Hobby

One of the best ways to learn how to have harmony with your mind, body, and spirit is to take up a hobby that you are passionate about. A creative hobby is best, since you are using your mind, your body, and your spirit during creation. Some good examples are painting, gardening, scrapbooking, photography, flower arranging, and much more. Pick a hobby that brings you joy and make sure you spend some time each week doing it.

NOTE: Make sure you are balanced and that your hobby doesn't take too much of your time or energy, otherwise you will not get the harmony you are seeking.

Clear Stamps for Scrapbooking

I just found clear stamps for scrapbooking on Scrapbook.com. You can get various alphabets, flowers, cleaning kits and much more. I personally like the
Farmhouse alphabet set.

Clear Acrylic "Rubber" Stamps

There is a new trend using clear acrylic rubber stamps in scrapbooking and card making. It's a great idea and one I'm surprised has not caught on sooner. When you use regular wood based rubber stamps it is difficult to see where your image is going on the page. You run the risk of having things overlap or not line up. Plus, if you don't get enough ink on your rubber stamp, it's virtually impossible to line things up and get things lined up.

With new clear acrylic rubber stamps you can get things lined up because you can see right through the stamp onto your page. The new stamps are also interchangeable, and removable, so you can switch up your stamping easily. You simply take the stamp you want and stick it to the clear acrylic plate (they automatically attach without any adhesive. So you only need one set of blocks for all of your stamps. It's a great space saver because you can store hundreds of stamps in one binder.

Scrapbooking news

My scrapbooking website provides the latest scrapbooking news, and information about scrapbooking online. Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any scrapbooking news to share, let me know.

Importance of Sharing Family History

"That which I do not in some way record will be lost at my death, and that which I do not pass on to my posterity, they will never have. The work of gathering and sharing eternal family keepsakes is a personal responsibility. It cannot be passed off or given to another."

-- Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander (1999, May), Bridges and eternal keepsakes, Ensign, 29(5), 83-85.

Digital Scrapbooking Tips

Here are some great digital scrapbooking tips I've been learning since I started doing digital scrapbooks.

First, there are many software packages out there which allow you to create great digital scrapbooking pages. I personally like to use Photoshop, but there is a $99 package of software called Photoshop Elements which is easy to use, inexpensive, and does everything you could want it to do.

Second, if you have great stamps, or tags you have created for scrapbooks that are not digital, you can scan those images in and use them over and over (changing colors, adding other embellishments, etc.

Third, collect textures, and items you would want to incorporate into your pages, and then either scan them, or take photos of the items, then crop them and make the background transparent -- so you can use them in your digital scrapbooking.

My favorite digital scrapbooking tips are about experimenting. Just experiment as much as you can. Change colors, convert to sepia tone or black and white, add ribbons, add texture. Do as much or as little as you want. If you don't like how it turns out, the best thing about digital scrapbooking is that it's very easy to change!

Print Photos Online -- Sale

For all of you who have digital cameras, and don't have a good photo printer, there are several great ways to print photos online. You simply upload your photos, select which ones you want printed and what size, they print them out on photo paper and mail them to you. It's quick. It's easy. And, it's cheap! (My 3 favorite things.)

Anyway, I just found out that Shutterfly.com is having a huge sale right now -- I've used their service many times and their quality is really great! (As long as your photos are taken at high resolution on your camera, you can't tell they are digital.)

Shutterfly also will print your family Calendars (a great Christmas gift idea), photos onto mugs and greeting cards and more. I really love their Photo Books too -- they are great ways to give personalized gifts.

For new members if you order $25 or more you get 5 free personalized photo greeting cards. (Expires Nov 20, 2005).

Save 20% on personalized holiday photo cards.
Use coupon code: AF11-CARD (Expires 11-30-05)

I love being able to print photos online especially at sale prices. I hope you can take advantage of these offers from Shutterfly. (Plus I think if you're a new customer you get 15 free prints just for trying out their services.)