New to Paperclipping? A few things you should know: This is a great place to learn all scrapbooking techniques (I've posted more than 100 video tutorials). Several are free downloads, and I consistently release new tutorials every month. Others are members-only, available when you become a member. Finally, I recommend you subscribe to my RSS feed, or the newsletter (the form is in the sidebar) to make sure you get new videos as they're released. Thanks for visiting!
If you don’t have a Paperclipping Membership you’ll be happy to know that today’s episode is free for anyone to watch. In this tutorial I introduce my idea visual memoirs using mini-albums where we can tell a more complete story than what typical scrapbook pages and albums allow.
If you enjoy today’s episode, you might want to consider getting a Membership so you can watch all of the tutorials we release. For example, last week’s member’s-only video gave instructions on how to create the bead-effect on the cover of this mini-album. It also shared information on the various size and types of pages I used.
Do you love mini’s? Do you wish you loved mini’s? In this episode I share a minibook idea, an organizational tip, and a technique. This episode is for Paperclipping Members, so if you’re trying to watch it but can’t, you can learn about the Paperclipping Membership by clicking here.
Below are some pictures of the minibook in the video…
You * Me
This book cover is made by Maya Road and is 9×9 inches. The chipboard pages inside are 8×8.
I found the vintage pieces (the clock face and drawer knob) at my local vintage scrapbooking store, Mystic Paper. The wire hanger is from there as well, but I’m pretty sure it’s not vintage. The spinner arrow on the clock is definitely not vintage…it’s made by Tim Holtz.
Want To See More?
You can see more pictures in the photo set I added to my Flickr page. I expect to have a lot more of this project completed next week and will add more photos then.
I know many of you are working on minibooks for your moms for Mother’s Day so I hope this episode gives you some inspiration and help. If you’re not gifting a book, consider making one about your relationship with one of your children. That’s what my book is about. I’ll share more in an upcoming episode.
* * *
Did you see that Jana Oliveira won the Paperclipping Monthly Challenge for March? You can see her winning page at The Crop Circle.
Today’s Quick Tip for the Paperclipping Members is a suggestion from viewer, Ashley Moseley. Her tip is an inexpensive alternative for acrylic albums. Watch the video to find out what it is.
The coupon for a discount on the Membership is still available on the Membership Information Page and will be there for a little while longer. Take advantage of the discount while you can!
To see more about the project I made with Ashley’s idea, see below…
Computer Log
Last year we discovered our young computer geek has forgotten that his body needs activity, too–not just his brain. We started requiring a certain amount of physical activity and limited his time on the computer.
Since he was having a hard time remembering, I made this for him…
We weren’t sure if he’d actually crack it open, but he really liked it and so far it seems to be helping.
Inside the cover I placed a picture of him doing something physical. Pointing to it is a hand that says “this.” Below is another pointing hand that says, “before this,” and a photo of him with his greatest love.
Not only does it help Blake (and us) remember that he’s supposed to do something physical because of the “PA” initial he must check before logging in his time, it will also be a fun record for him later. I expect to add a handful of the numerous pictures I’ve taken of him at a computer.
I used Technique Tuesday’s date stamp to make the log, and Autumn Leaves’s stamps to decorate the bottom of the pages.
You may not have a computer geek with a serious addiction, but you may have someone who loves the TV a little too much. Or maybe your children need to mark their progress reading books, picking up their room, or fulfilling responsibilities around the house.
Whether it’s a log or a regular minibook, I think Ashley’s money-saving tip is a fantastic idea.
This week’s episode for the Paperclipping Members released a bit late in the day, but you’ll find it worth the wait. It is an extra long tutorial that features some parts of our upcoming Special Edition Christmas project.
The Special Edition tutorial will become available next week and Paperclipping Members will get a discount! Be sure to watch for the announcement along with some pictures of the project. Until then, enjoy this week’s tutorial.
If you are ready to become a Member so that you can enjoy all the features of Paperclipping, please visit the Membership Information Page.
Today’s tutorial is a simple (meaning, easy) project and it meets two different purposes. First, it’s a tag that identifies whose Christmas stocking is whose. Plus, it’s a miniature minibook for your child to enjoy his or her own past Christmas memories.
Watch the video for all of the details and a how-to demonstration.
Below you can see the fronts of the books on the stockings. The inside pages are in the video…
I hung these today while the kids were in school and had so much fun watching each of them look through their own book when they got home. It was especially delightful when Trinity squealed after seeing the first picture of herself with her new doll from a couple years ago.
Want to collect the things that your family feels grateful for this month? Today’s Quick Tip is a project that will help you do that–and it works with the Reflections & Gratitude MiniBook I shared in last week’s episode.
Now, I know you are wishing you could watch today’s Quick Tip. =)
If you’ve been missing the Premium Subscriber Tutorials and Quick Tips, click here to see how easy it is to subscribe. And don’t forget, a subscription is a great gift to give a friend or family member. Please email me if you’d like to coordinate a gift subscription at noell@paperclipping.com.
This episode of Paperclipping is for a project based on my personal take on the holiday season–I see the holidays from Halloween to New Year’s Eve as all being related, not as a bunch of individual celebrations. As a result, today’s project is not only a Thanksgiving one, but also precursor to New Year’s Eve. So even if you’re not an American and don’t celebrate an American Thanksgiving, you might benefit from a book like this, too.
Today’s video is a Quick Tip for the Premium Subscribers and will help you assemble acrylic minibooks.
If you’ve been around Paperclipping for a long time, you’ve seen parts of this minibook in previous posts and tutorial videos. Below you can see the entire finished book–a compilation of notes and photos of what I was doing almost every hour on February 2nd this year.
If you would like to get access to the Paperclipping Quick Tips, the Premium Episodes, and the archived video tutorials, click here to see how you can.
In today’s video tutorial, I show you step-by-step how to open up an overlay in Photoshop, resize it to meet your needs, and use it like a journaling box for your text. If you have Photoshop Elements, don’t worry–you can do all the same things in Elements.
This video is available to members only. Learn about a membership here.
For my example in the tutorial, I used an Ali Edwardsphoto 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…
Today’s free Quick Tip features a journaling idea that I used on a digital product by Ali Edwards. In the next Paperclipping episode, I’ll actually show you how to use and adjust that product, so make sure you come back soon.
This video is available to members only. Learn about a membership here.
Israel had his last day at work on Friday (followed by a second going away party!) and we are so excited to start a new schedule and format with Paperclipping. Because of these changes, there will be no video tutorial at the beginning of the week. We’re not yet sure when it will air–during the week or on the following weekend–just keep your eyes open and don’t despair if there is an initial bit of quiet on the blog.
One thing you can expect is that I’ll be making most announcements in the Paperclipping forum and in the newly formatted weekly Paperclipping Insider (sign up at the upper right corner), rather than here on the blog. So if you haven’t signed up for either of those, now is the time. =)
Paperclipping Live Group Project
Would you like to participate in assembling a minibook with me? A minibook that you could give as a gift for Christmas (or not)? I have put together a collection for the Unkit club and I will be making a minibook with the products I chose. On October 28, for Paperclipping Live, we will assemble the books together.
If you’d like to participate, head over to the Unkit to see the collection of products you’ll need for your book. You only need one of everything (except the adhesive and the white pen, which Sudie added–I won’t be using those). What’s cool about the Unkit is that you don’t have to buy the entire kit. If you already have some of the products, you can skip those and just get what you don’t have. If you have paper, or brads or ribbons that are close or that you like better, you can use them instead–only get what you want or need.
Plus, I was really happy to see that Sudie is providing a coupon for 40% off of one item. Score!
If you’d like to make the album with me, make sure you order the supplies in time for them to arrive before the 28th. Click here to see the collection and order. (Just a note: I do not benefit from you ordering this collection).
The Oct. 28th Paperclipping Live Minibook Topic: Electronic Love Letters–in other words, email. Who do you love that you also email? Since all of my siblings are spread around the country, email is the only way we are able to talk as a group. And some of our emails are really funny. Each page in the minibook we’ll be assembling during Paperclipping Live will document a conversation over email.
You can decorate your album, without using my topic, but if you are going to use the topic, you might want to print up some email conversations on white cardstock ahead of time. You can also gather some photos of whoever it is you’ve been emailing. You may pick just one person, or an entire group of people–whatever works for you will work for this book.
And lastly, make sure you have some good adhesive, cutting tools, sandpaper, and perhaps some smaller letter stickers that are already sitting in your stash (in addition to the chipboard letters I’ve got in the collection). To adhere paper to the chipboard album, I recommend either photo-tape and a good glue stick, or PVA glue.
Paperclipping Live This Week
Don’t forget that Dina Wakley will be my guest on the show this Tuesday at 6:30 pm Pacific Standard Time to talk about art journals.
Are some of you still struggling with the idea of scrapbooking about yourself? If so, I have an easy topic to start you off: make an account of your day. Here are three very different versions of this concept…
1) Record Your Activities For The Day
Over-Inflated
12×12
I took my camera around with me one day and snapped just a few pictures. I also recorded all of my activities and their times.
A grid-type layout is a simple solution for this type of page, but if you’re feeling artsy, consider a free-style approach. I gave a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this background to the Premium Subscribers.
Main journaling reads: I must have an over-inflated sense of how much I can accomplish in 24 hours. My to-do list is always too long and I never come close to checking all the items off, even though I really pack it all in as tight as I can.
Journaling in the cloud-like spots: (a schedule of everything I did one day–same day as the pictures).
***A note on acidity: I am pretty sure tissue paper is highly acidic. I would never use it on a layout with old photos, or any I can’t reprint. On the other hand, I have no problem using modern photos, such as the ones on this layout. Since there are so many pictures of myself and my children that are on safer papers, and since I back up my digital photos, I won’t mind if photos like these reach an early demise.
2) Summarize A Typical Day
5am To 5pm
12×12
Whether you work full time or stay at home, some of us have a typical schedule. This was my regular Monday schedule last year. Instead of listing the schedule with words and times, I placed pictures (and a few words) onto the clock according to the time I did them.
The day starts at 5am and circles all the way around and ends at 5pm.
Note: I elevated some of the circles with foam dots and some with a double layer of foam dots. This is great for dimension.
3) Take A Photo An Hour
Semi-Transparent Acrylic Mini-book 2-28-08
Some of you may remember when I took the challenge from Illustrating Stories to take a photo every hour for one day. I decided to turn this project into a minibook. Each hour and it’s picture gets their own page. The tabs tell what time it was when I snapped the photo. I will share the entire minibook soon. This is a sneak peek.
There are so many ways to document an average or typical (or even an atypical) day: lots of words, lots of photos, on a layout or in a mini-book. If you struggle to get comfortable scrapbooking about yourself, this concept is an easy non-threatening one. What are you waiting for?
My latest Schoolwork Scrapbook–photos of the inside pages still to come.
Many of you have the Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial and have already used it to make your children a book that displays some of their work and art. Others of you are planning to make your first books at the end of this school year. But do you know what to do with all that stuff your child is bringing home now?
The Problem
Originally, I had a high-quality file folder for each of my children to keep their work in while the year is progressing. I found that not only did everything not fit into my folders, but they were too much trouble to deal with when I was in a hurry cleaning up, and instead of putting stuff in them, I ended up stacking all three of my kids’ work together in the cabinet on top of the fie folders. This was much easier for me, throughout the year. But when the school year was over there was a little confusion sometimes as to whose work was whose.
The Solution
At the end of the summer I held a live event for those who own the tutorial, and one of the geniuses in the audience shared a wonderful idea. (Terri, was that you???). She suggested using those giant zip-lock bags that many scrapbooking kits come in.
I started doing it this year and it’s working out perfectly for me. They’re easy to open, easy to label, and a great size. If you’re swimming in school and art work already, you might want to try this.
What Is The Schoolwork Scrapbook?
For those who are unfamiliar with my Schoolwork Scrapbook and the special edition tutorial that gives you step-by-step instructions, you can find out about it and see detailed pictures by following this link.
