By: Vera Raposo

I went to a baby shower once where various colors and flavors of baby food were smeared into the lining of a diaper. The guest of honor had to guess what kind of baby food it was. Yuck! But I’ll tell you what – that was one of the most memorable and fun baby showers I’ve ever attended.

For the mother-to-be, a baby shower is a glorious event because the entire day is all about her. Who doesn’t like to get presents and be pampered? For the guests, sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, a baby shower can be, well, quite frankly, a duty or an obligation. Your family and friends make an appearance to show their support.

Hopefully your baby shower will be marked by fun activities and lots of laughs. It will be a day the ladies are talking about for some time to come. The mother-to-be certainly will never forget her baby shower.

To ensure you capture the day in its true essence, make yourself a baby shower scrap book. Include your invitations, your guest list, your gift list, a sample of the decorations, what food was served, and what games were played. Journal something really funny that happened that day and then don’t forget to include you thoughts after everyone left. When the last piece of cake was eaten, and the last game played – how did you feel? Make an entry into your baby shower scrapbook.

By the time your shower is scheduled, your due date isn’t too far off. You may have finishing touches to put in the nursery; you’ll want to wash all your new outfits for baby; you’ll have breathing classes to attend; and doctor appointments every week.

Baby will be kicking your ribs, you won’t get much sleep, your back will hurt, your toes may look like little sausages and waddling will probably hurt your child-bearing hips. Life will start to get more hectic as the days roll on – and that’s only the start. Wait until baby arrives! Create your very special baby shower scrap book right after the baby shower. You will still have time, and you’ll be able to still savor the day.

If you put compiling the scrapbook until “later”, later may never come. Do it while it is still fresh in your mind. Once baby comes out kicking and screaming, you may not have the time – or energy to get out your scrap booking supplies!

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo enjoys scrapbooking and is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas, and interviewing some outstanding guests on her radio show www.ScrappersTalkRadio.com

Top 5 Organizational Tips for Scrapbooking by Vanessa Calleja

When starting a scrapbook project there are five simple things you can do to make your project run smoothly.  These things also allow you to spend your time scrapbooking instead of spending your time looking for what you need.

Organize your photos.  This is a simple task.  Sort through your photos by date, category or by family.  This depends on what type of scrapbook you are making.  Having your photos ready saves so much time.  You can just pull out what you need for that particular page and you are on your way!

Decide what colors you would like to use throughout your scrapbook.  For example, if you prefer to stay with pinks, you can choose all different pinks and even some reds.  Even if you change your mind and decide to add other colors, you have the base color ready.  This saves time because you don’t have to sort through all of your papers.

Depending on the theme of your book, sort through your stickers.  Pull out the ones that pertain to the subject you are scrapbooking.  Even if you have to go back and add stickers later, this will get you started.

Organize your workspace.  Do you have your pages?  Do you have your stickers?  These things should be in reach as you are working.  Trimmers, tape runners, etc. too.  Having these things handy allows you to concentrate on your scrapbook instead of wasting time looking for the tools you need.

Set a time limit.  If you only have an hour to scrapbook then shoot for 45 minutes.  By only having the stuff out that you need your clean up should take less than 15 minutes.

Scrapbooking should be fun.  It should be simple.  Being organized can help you stay on track and enjoy what you are doing!

Vanessa Calleja is a freelance writer specializing in scrapbooking, pets, family relationships, & health and wellness topics. Learn more secrets and tips on organizing the memories you cherish at memories to cherish.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Scrapbooking Teen Memories by Rachel Paxton

By the time your teen is in high school, you probably aren’t taking as many pictures of them as you used to. I have to keep reminding myself that I only have a couple of years left and no time to waste trying to capture fleeing teenage memories.

You might be thinking that I’m really organized to be already working on scrapbooking my daughter’s high school memories. To be honest, I have a shoe box full of pictures of my daughter waiting for me to get to someday.

But if I wait until “someday” to continue taking pictures because I already have so many pictures I haven’t done anything with, then my daughter’s teenage years will come and go while I try to catch up.

I don’t want to chronicle every detail of my daughter’s life (nor would she want me to!), but I was trying to think of some memories that she might want to laugh about and maybe even treasure someday. So how do you do that without ending up with pages and pages of memories?

I decided to do two large (12×12) pages (facing each other in the album) for each year of high school. I will challenge myself to use this space creatively to tell the story of each year. When I started thinking of all the the possibilities, it really inspired me to start getting organized and collecting some great memories. And don’t limit yourself to just photographs, your scrapbook pages can really be accentuated by other types of memories. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Photograph Ideas:

High School Dances
First Date/Boyfriend
School Building
Church Events/Retreats
Braces (the day they’re removed)
Hair Styles
Clothing Fads
Learning to Drive
First Job
First Car
Best Friends
School Plays/Concerts
Family Vacations
Favorite Family Pets
Babysitting
Sports/Band/Cheerleading
Musical Instrument Practice

Other:

CD Covers (scanned)
Favorite Song Lyrics
Drivers’ Permit
First Pay Stub
Programs from Play/Concerts
College Brochures
School Newspapers
ASB Card
Awards/Certificates
Ticket Stubs (concert, movie, sporting events)
Report Cards

You can be creative when you’re arranging your layouts. Don’t be afraid to cut pictures down or cut out portions of play programs or school newspapers. Just cut out enough to accentuate the other items on the page. You will create the overall effect from the entire page, not necessarily from an individual item.

Have fun and don’t worry if you don’t get it done all at one time. I figure if I can do one every summer for the previous school year, by the time she finishes high school (she’s a freshman this year), all of her high school memories will be recorded in the family archives.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Scrapbooking Toddler Memories by Rachel Paxton

Toddlers give us many opportunities to take great photographs for scrapbooking. I’ve listed some activities you can do with your toddler that will give you a chance to take some wonderful pictures that will last a lifetime. If you haven’t gotten out much lately, use these ideas to spark your imagination and have some fun with your little ones!

- Haircuts
- Swimming lessons
- Throwing rocks in the river
- Christmas, Easter
- 4th of July, family reunions
- Riding tricycle
- Flying a kite
- Blowing bubbles
- Playing in sandbox
- Playing at playground
- Picnics
- Playing in the sprinklers
- Fingerpainting
- Birthday parties
- Helping dad
- Camping
- Going to the zoo
- Visiting grandparents or great-grandparents
- Eating popsicles
- Playing with pets

Remember to always take more pictures than you think you’ll need and invest in a large memory card for your digital camera (they’re cheap). When trying to capture photos of my toddlers I’ve found that only half of my pictures turn out because the boys move so fast! You can always delete the ones you don’t want later. Have fun picture taking…you’ll get some of your best candid shots at this age.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Basic Color Theory Scrapbooking Ideas

author: Jay Moncliff

     Remember the color wheel? Colors arranged in a circle, similar to a rainbow, and all of the colors related? Red combines with yellow to make orange, yellow and blue combine to make green, and red and blue make purple, remember? Visit your local craft store and invest in a simple color wheel to get you going. Most of the art departments will have one, and EK Success now makes a fancy one just for scrapbooking. Any color wheel will allow you to use these simple ideas.

Let your picture be your guide in choosing a color scheme for your page. Choose one color from the photograph to be your “key” color. It may be a color from a flower in the foreground, or the color of the shirt your child is wearing. Whatever you choose, it will be the starting point for your color themed page design.

    The first color scheme is monochromatic. Say you’ve chosen the blue of your son’s eyes. Since every color comes in many values, choose two or three additional values of the blue color you want to use. You may choose one lighter value and one darker value, or two lighter or darker values, it’s up to you. Now do all of your work on the page in these three colors. The result will be restful, calming and cohesive. Your page will be pleasing to the eye and stylish, no matter how you accessorize.

The basics of color theory that we learned in grade school are worth reviewing when you’re looking for ideas to get started on your next scrapbook page. Invest in a color wheel and put those great papers to work for you!

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.scrapbookingcenter.info a website specialized on Scrapbooking, resources and articles. This site provides updated information on Scrapbooking. For more info on Scrapbooking visit: http://www.scrapbookingcenter.info

Scrapbooking Graduation Memories by Rachel Paxton

It’s hard to believe that my daughter has just graduated from high school. She has some great memories of this event for us to preserve in a graduation scrapbook.

We decided to purchase a ready-made scrapbook instead of assembling one. At a local bookstore we found a large spiral bound scrapbook/journal on clearance for $2.99!

My daughter was not able to get her senior yearbook before graduation, so she had her friends write notes to her in her scrapbook. She took the book with her to her senior class party, then we set the book out at her family graduation party for friends and family to sign.

We had many photo taking opportunities over the weekend. We have pictures from the graduation ceremony, from her senior class party, and from her family party to put in her scrapbook. I will mat one of her senior portraits on the front of the scrapbook.

There are other mementos you can preserve in a graduation scrapbook. Here are some ideas to get you started:

- Cards from family and friends
- Program from graduation ceremony
- Newspaper clippings
- Report cards
- Achievement and/or award certificates
- Senior party mementos

I will finish off the scrapbook with graduation stickers from a local craft store.

A graduation scrapbook does not have to be a work of art. The important thing is to preserve the memories of your graduate’s big day.

This would be a great project to do with your teen. If they would like to tackle the project themselves, give them all the supplies and let them unleash their creativity. My daughter loves the finished project, but is not much interested in scrapbooking, so she is more than happy to let me do it for her.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Scrapbook Brads

To apply your brads you will need a craft knife or eyelet hole punch and a self-healing mat. Place your paper onto the mat and make a slight slit or punch where you want the brad to be placed. Poke the prongs of the brad through the hole with the decorative head on the front of the paper. Turn the paper over and bend each prong flat to the back of the paper.

Some ideas for using brads:

attaching vellum

use as dots for background

attach moving parts (clock hands, legs on people or animals)

attaching transparencies

hinges

period at the end of a sentence

bullets for a journal list

center of flower

the center of a letter in the alphabet

nails in a board

stones on a ring

buttons on a snowman

dots on ladybug

stars for a night background

snowflakes for winter

blue as raindrop background

chocolate chips on a cookie

buttons on a shirt or coat

dots on Easter eggs

lights on vehicles

Christmas tree balls

eyes on paper dolls or animals

sprinkles on a sundae, cake or cupcakes

M & M’s

Snow Fun Scrapbook Layout by Rachel Paxton

Playing in the snow is a great time to take candid pictures of your family.  Where we live we might only get one or two days of snow each year, if we’re lucky, so this year we decided to drive to the snow!  We found a state park only a couple of hours away where they had great sledding hills, and took the whole family along for an afternoon of sledding and snow fun.

We took lots of great pictures that day.  It’s not often you get pictures of grandma and grandpa sledding and playing in the snow. The hard part is choosing which pictures to put in my scrapbook!

Materials Needed:

Dark blue piece of 12×12 scrapbook paper
White piece of 12×12 scrapbook paper
Paper Cutter
Glue
Two photos

I was trying to come up with a “snow” theme for my scrapbook layout.  I chose a 12×12 dark blue piece of paper for the background of my page.  I decided to accent the blue with lots of white to represent the snow.

For the first white accent I decided to create snowflakes to be the mats for my photos.  There was only enough room for two photos on the page, so I cut out two snowflake mats.

To make the snowflake mats, I cut out a piece of white cardstock to be the size my mat would normally be.  Then I folded the piece of paper in half as many times as I could and cut the corners off and cut little triangles into each side of the shape to create my snowflake.  You can have fun with this part, just think back to making snowflakes as a child! I also cut out a couple of small snowflakes for extra decoration.

To add some snow to the background of my page, I took a 12×12 piece of white card stock and tore a strip of it to glue at the bottom of the dark blue background page.  This gives the page the appearance of a snowy background (see photo).

Next I cut out a freehand snowman to glue on the side of the page.  It really doesn’t have to look perfect, it’s supposed to look homemade!

I then printed out the words “Winter Wonderland” on my computer to create the heading for the page.  I didn’t mat this piece of paper.  I just cut it out and glued it at the top of the background page.

Last but not least, I glued two photos to my “snowflake” mats and arranged them in the center of the page with the extra snowflake for an added accent. Easy, and very cute!

Photos of finished snow fun scrapbook layout:
http://www.crafty-moms.com/scrapbooking/snow-fun.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Paper Piecing

Paper piecing is the art of placing pieces of paper together to make shapes, animals, and scenes. There are many places to find patterns. You can make your own, copy from a children’s coloring book, buy a paper piecing book or the most popular…download from free online sites. Good patterns will have dark lines and definite areas of different color pieces. Beginners should look for designs with large pieces not a lot of small intricate pieces.

You will simply trace the pieces or print them directly onto the cardstock. If you are going to get patterns from the web and use them more than once, I suggest printing them on good cardstock. You will then cut out the shapes in the colors of your choice. Place them into the desired shape as directed on the pattern and adhere. One of the great things about making your own paper piecings is you can change the colors to match your pictures and layout. If you buy pre-made embellishments you are stuck with the colors offered.

Below are links to some great free paper piecing websites. I would love to see any of your finished layouts. Please try to remember where you got the pattern from so we can give appropriate credit.

Free Patterns:

Disney Castle
Great Moments
The Quilted Snail
Scrappers Haven
Kindred Creations
~ Val Selby www.littlescrapbookshop.com

KISS Pages

With all the incredible embellishments out there it’s easy to get distracted and overwhelmed. Then ad in all the big, bold layouts in EVERY magazine, including the “simple” ones, and it’s enough to make you shrivel into a corner and suck your thumb. How can we ever make each layout in our album as perfect as Becky Higgins and Lisa Bearnson? Here’s a big tip, their every page does not look like that, NO ONE has time to make every single layout an incredible visual masterpiece. So keep shooting for a few hot layouts, but mostly stick to some simple pages to get those pictures in albums quicker.

    Keep it simple sister (KISS) means the basics only. Cardstock, pictures, adhesive and journaling are all that is necessary. If you get some basic sketches from online (Scrapmaps) or one of the great books (Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking) out there you WILL get caught up on your albums. Use standard borders, mats for pictures and lots of journaling. If you feel like embellishing or the page just screams for it, use a strip of patterned paper for the border. Or add a couple of stickers or stamps.

Don’t over think your pages and forget why we scrapbook. The journaling and relaxing while you scrapbook are the true art.

~ Val Selby  www.littlescrapbookshop.com