This is the third edition of the Paperclipping Roundtable. Our special guest this week was Ali Edwards. You can hear for yourself, but she was amazing on the show.

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The Roundtable Panel

• Co-host: Noell Hyman from www.paperclipping.com
• Co-host: Nancy Nally from www.scrapbookupdate.com
• Regular Rotating Panelist: Ana Cabrera from Scrapbook Trends Magazine
• Special Guest: Ali Edwards

This Week’s Picks

• House Of 3
• Midnight Blue Stazon Ink
• Memory Dock Page Planner Work Binder (affiliate link)

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Day 1:

Journaling reads: This is the 1st video shoot of the month and between now and Jan, the camera will be battling the Christmas tree for space.

I adhered the metal tags and their ties, plus the number 1 to the outside of the plastic page.

Here is the original empty page…

Day 2-6

I posted 2, 3, and 5 in this post. Days 4 and 6 are still missing stuff so I’ll have to come back to them later.

Day 7:

Journaling reads: Blake’s birthday felt like Christmas morning. He didn’t sleep much the night before and then he woke us up at 5am wanting to start the day (we made him go back to bed another hour). Once we got up the first thing we did was give him our gift — our family tradition. It all happened with the glow of the Christmas tree while it was still dark outside. At his request I made Cocoa Spice Muffins and for dinner we went to his favorite restaurant (Olive Garden) where he stuffed himself on soup and mushroom ravioli’s and could only eat a few bites of his cake.

That circle on the red part of the card is around the number 7, for the day of the month.

Days 9, 10:

Day 8 is another incomplete page so let’s move on to day 9…





The journaling on Day 9: So Proud of My Dancer…You got to have an extra 2-hour dance rehearsal this week in preparation for your upcoming concert…and that was in addition to your dress rehearsal on Monday. And just like me, you love the extra rehearshal time, even though it meant breaking yoru regular play date (again) with your best friend, Nicole.

Here are the originals…

Once again, I’ll be back when I can to post more. Thanks for looking.

Day 2

Day 3

For this day I began with the journaling of a story on the first side and then put the accompanying photos on the next pages…







Journaling on the above photo says, “Haven’t seen one of these faces in a while. Thanks for pulling it out again, buddy.”

Ali Edwards conceived the December Daily project three years ago. The idea is to create a minibook ahead of time with a page for each day. Then everyday in December you find a way to add your picture(s), journaling, and/or memorabilia to the pre-assembled book. These pictures are my 2009 book:

You can see my entire album (before I add the events of each day) in the December Daily set on my Flickr page. This post only showcases a handful of my pages.

5 Tips For Super-Fast Assembly

Are you worried about finding the time to make your own? I flew through the assembly of mine and when I reached the last page I was sad because I wanted to do more. Here are some tips that made this one of my fastest minibook projects, even though it has the most pages of any I’ve ever made before:

1. Do it mindlessly.

Okay, how often does anybody tell you to do something mindlessly. Never, right? Well, I’m telling you now, don’t think through this one. Don’t ask what you might be doing on what day or how to make the page gorgeous. And if you do the other tips, mindlessness will be no problem.

2. Divide your Christmas supplies into five piles:

a. Whole Sheets
These usually come 12×12 and can be paper, transparencies or fabric
b. Alternative Page Foundations
These can be scraps, envelopes, pocketed page protectors, other minibook pages, and anything else unusual that you might want to use as a page foundation.
c. Numbers
d. Small Spots
These are to place numbers on. Some ideas are circles, very small frames, or tags
e. Embellishments and Ribbon

3. Crop your whole sheets all at once.

Cut your whole sheets down to the size of your album pages. Don’t worry about page placement or embellishing while you do this. Don’t worry about how many you’ll need. Just crop all the papers you want in your album and know that you’ll use the alternative page foundations (that 2nd pile) to make up the difference.

4. Mix cropped whole sheets with your alternative page foundations.

Remember, we’re still working mindlessly here. Just start interspersing them with the alternative page foundations. The only thing to think about is variety. That’s it.

5. Add numbers and trimming all at once.

Are you starting to see the pattern here? We’re doing this in assembly line fashion, which you probably learned in elementary school is the fastest way to make a stuff, right? Now that you’ve mindlessly put your pages in order, you can add the smaller details.

If your page is from a scrap that is smaller than the regular minibook, you can give it a decorative edge, or some trimming. Don’t think hard about what to do, just know that you have these options and choose the first one that comes to mind. If your ribbon is in your embellishment & ribbon pile, you can grab it quickly and add it to a page edge without thinking or searching. Then add the next number to the page.

If your page is the size of your minibook, give yourself a break and just add a number (perhaps on a circular spot) and move on to the next page.

Two keys here: MINDLESS WORK & ASSEMBLY LINE.

Oh, and don’t forget to have fun basking in all that Christmas-color goodness.

Click here to see my entire book.

Edited To Add: Someone requested links to supplies I used. I have not bought any Xmas items this year (Imaginisce items are the only brand new ones because they gave them to me). I’ll link the items I can still find available below. Note that I’ll receive a commission if you click and buy.

Poinsetta on cover * red polka dot transparency * 8×8 book covers * polar bear paper * frosted forest paper * flower-shaped transparent and chipboard page.

You can watch this special episode on Ali’s blog. Below is the layout I used to demonstrate the steps. You can see the rest when you head over…

Charm
12×12 layout

Journaling to my son reads: This is why it’s so hard to say no to you. And it’s not that I consciously struggle against a desire to say yes, but that it rarely even occurs to me to say no to you. That face and those eyes put the “yes” into me. It took Daddy to recognize that your charm leads to my constant “yes.”

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Here are some links to the things we talked about in the episode…

• CHA Craft Supershow for consumers
• Coupon Code for the book, Easier Than Ever Scrapbooking 2
• The @themediaisdying twitter account
• Becky Fleck’s PageMaps website
• Ali Edwards’s website

You can listen to the show right now using this audio player:

Or you can download the show to your computer using this link:
newsbreak001.mp3

In this free episode of Paperclipping, you’ll learn how to position, resize, and recolor digital word art in Photoshop Elements. You’ll also see why Ali Edwards’s digital products are just as perfect for heritage photos and projects as they is for modern ones. You’ll find The Story Word Art + Hand Drawn Brushes by Ali Edwards, featured in the tutorial, at Designer Digitals, and they’re 30% off right now!

You can watch the video above or download the high-quality version instead.

To learn more about this layout and the hidden tag that contains historical information watch episode 99. If you liked today’s tutorial, follow the link to see why you’ll probably enjoy a Paperclipping Membership.

Layouts From A Previous Paperclipping Live

I haven’t had a chance to share the scrapbook pages from Dedra Long’s visit to Paperclipping Live a while ago. Here they are below…

Hello Kitty

two 12×12 pages

The photo on the left is myself around 4th grade–just a little older than my daughter, Trinity, in the photo on the right. I chose pictures of us in similarly shaped outfits and poses to emphasize the theme of commonality. Journaling reads: I adored Hello Kitty as a little girl and still do at age 36. I love her oval round face and the simplicity of her design. As a kid I didn’t get enough of her to feel satisfied so I love getting to enjoy her again through Trinity, who loves her too.

Layout By Dedra Long

Journaling to her daughter reads: You and me spending time together…these are some of the times I cherish most…I always love to walk in the studio to see the newest setup you have put together…It usually look something like this…the princess laptop, crayons, paper and scissors…you usually have the princesses singing the alphabet and you join then…then it’s math…in the end you show me your latest work of art…I will never forget.

The Details

Almost all of the scrapbooking items on both layouts are from Theresa Collins. I salvaged all the Hello Kitty items from actual H.K. stuff–a backpack, a watch, party invitations, plus there are a few pictures. The spinner arrow underneath the tiny H.K. on the clock is a Tim Holtz spinner that I painted pink.

Want help layering embellishments the way you see them layered in the center circle? If you have a Paperclipping Membership, I recommend watching Paperclipping 94 where I showed the techniques and principles of layers that lead in a “crescendo” toward a climactic point.

Today’s episode is for our Members. If you’ve ever struggled to make a rectangular collage using different-sized photos, you’ll appreciate this one. I’ve come up with a very simple formula to make that often frustrating task very easy! If you’d like to watch today’s episode, as well as the other 99 waiting for you in the archives, but don’t have a Membership, please visit the Membership Information Page.

Below are the layouts I shared in the episode…

Easter 08

You see that pink egg over on the far right? That was a tag from one of the goodies I bought the kids last year. I got a kick out of the fact that last year’s Easter came so early, the product manufacturers posted the date on all the tags…I guess to make sure we were ready!

Journaling on layout reads: We’ve been adjusting our Easter tradition a bit over the last few years. We moved the early morning hunt and breakfast outdoors last year. This year we hid plastic eggs instead of our colored eggs (we still color eggs, though). Blake has played Easter Bunny with Dad and I before waking up the kids for the last few years. And this year they got more stuff and less candy. One thing remains the same, though…total fun and the enjoyment of Spring.

The circular tag and title arch are the Memory Makers Noteworthy Glitter Die Cuts. The swirly flourish is from Bazzill.

Wonderful Beautiful Amazing

The overall up-and-down placement of the 2 large photo blocks, as well as the shape and placement of the two paper journaling blocks were inspired by a layout by Ali Edwards that appeared in Creating Keepsakes Magazine a year or two ago.

Journaling reads: We’ve been taking day-trips through the canyons near Superstition Mountain and Canyon Lake a lot lately. It’s only minutes from our home–one of the reasons I am so happy with where we live. We all love the scenic drive, looking at the cacti, cliffs, and joking about how Blake convinced Aiden that the winter moss on the rock walls is called, “souvenir” because Aiden wanted to collect some to bring home during this particular trip.

Today–Jan. 4, 2009–we took advantage of the rare overcast weather for great lighting and color saturation. Israel and I each brought our cameras and tripods and caught some fun memories while you kids climbed and played. I love this.

Typed journaling on photo: Trinity was having a hard time getting through the thorny path to join you on the butte. You went down and carefully led her, just like a gentleman. Later I thanked you and you said, “That’s okay. I enjoyed it.” What a cool dude…you make your mama so proud.

The digital text that I layered onto my photos (except for the journaling) are all from Ali Edwards’s Loving Life Word Art and her 12×12 Life text frames. I will demonstrate how to do this in Photoshop Elements in a future episode.

The butterflies and folliage rub-on’s are new from My Mind’s Eye. The more subtle rub-ons that add texture to the page are older ones from Chatterbox.

Are you new to Paperclipping? We have free episodes you can watch. Find them in the column to the left or by scrolling down the blog.

You can view the layouts used as examples in today’s episode below:

Because Life Is Too Short

Journaling written to Aiden reads: Blake and Trin are trying to relax on the sofa with Gatsby, and here you are making that totally impossible.

Supplies used: Patterned paper (Creative Imaginations) * Acrylic paint * Cardstock (Stampin’ Up) * Eyelets (Making Memories) * Transparent title (Creative Imaginations) * Epoxy sticker (Creative Cafe) * Ribbon (Stampin’ Up–audience member, Mandi Kehoe) * “Hello Life” digital text frame (Ali Edwards).

Good Laughs

Please see this layout in the post for Episode 95.

This video is available to members only. Learn about a membership here.

For my example in the tutorial, I used an Ali Edwards photo overlay, which was a major part of my Week In The Life album. Here are two of the pages from my album using the overlay concept from the tutorial…

A Week In The Life

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Album-Anthologie by Scrapworks