FINAL WEIGH-IN TOTAL: 640 Lbs!
Roxane, founder of Shared Scraps, and I asked you to gather all of your less-than-loved scrapbooking supplies and donate them to your local social services for children under state custody to use for their Lifebooks. To do this, you have to actually hunt down the person in charge of this program by calling your county’s social or human services office. It’s not unbearably difficult, but it’s not super easy, either. Kudos to those of you who did it!

Roxane had a crop she was attending and two days before its scheduled date, asked the ladies to bring their extras. Look what this awesome group of women brought to their local Lifebooks contact person…

I have been hearing lots of awesome results and now is your chance to weight in! We are excited to find out the total weight of all who are participating! Please weigh in by commenting on this post with your pounds. Don’t be shy. Some of you are newer to scrapbooking and don’t have much to give. Some of us (like myself) had just recently decluttered and had to dig pretty hard to find stuff we could part from. Whether you had a desperate need to purge and have a lot to give, or just a little, please weigh in so we can announce a grand total!

Much appreciation to the generous sponsors of our event:

* Prima * My Mind’s Eye * American Crafts * Ali Edwards Designs * Big Picture Scrapbooking * Scrapbook.com * Creativity Prompt * Dedra Long *

Scroll down to the previous three blog posts to see how you can enter to win prizes from our sponsors!

THE WINNERS!

Thanks to all who participated. There are a lot of great pages in the comments for people to look through! The following five were chosen randomly. Congratulations! Please email me at noell@paperclipping.com and give me your mailing addresses.

Scrapbook.com $50 Gift Certificate:
Kim Strother – Here is my link to the embellishment clusters. Thanks

http://lovejoyscrap.blogspot.com/2010/05/submis…

Prima Product Package:
mllwyllw – This is my header grouping…

http://mllwyllw.blogspot.com/2010/05/nsd-mini-a…

American Crafts Product Package
Jana – Cover of a mini album with embellishments

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb49/Janaina…

My Mind’s Eye Tiny Dancer Package
mllwyllw – This is my anchor line embellishment

http://mllwyllw.blogspot.com/2010/05/nsd-mini-a…

My Mind’s Eye Maggie May Package
rosann – Here’s the layout I created from the embellishment gathering challenge.

http://people.paperclipping.com/photo/my-style?…

* * *

Submission to this challenge must be during or after our celebration on Saturday, May 1st, 1-3pm PST.

THE PRIZES

(must be at least 18 and a U.S. resident)


One winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the online scrapbook store where I love to shop, Scrapbook.com.

Prima Product Package

One winner will receive the following Prima products:
* 1 Donna Downey Line 8×8 Canvas Album
* 1 Donna Downey Line Stitched Word
* 1 Strawberry Kisses Essentials Tube of Flowers
* 1 Pack Say It In Pearls Centers
* 1 Pack E-Line single pearls and gems
* 2 Bunches of Small Roses
* 1 Pack Belle Arte Script Roses

American Crafts Product Package

One winner will receive a selection of products from American Craft’s popular new Dear Lizzy line.

My Mind’s Eye

One winner will receive the Tiny Dancer kit from My Mind’s Eye. Another will win the Maggie May kit. Worth over $30, both kits come with 14 sheets of double-sided, textured, 12×12 card-stock papers plus over 45 mix & match accessory pieces.

THE CHALLENGE

Create an embellishment gathering on a layout, a minibook page, or an altered book page based on one of five different types that I demonstrate during our live celebration on Saturday, May 1st, 1-3pm PST. The page must be about yourself, must be completed during or after our celebration on Saturday, and must be posted somewhere on the internet for us to view. Please do not submit a project you made before attending or watching the iNSD 2010 Paperclipping celebration. You may submit up to five times.

To participate, please leave a comment on this post with a link to a photo of your page. If you are on facebook, please come to my blog to enter.

For more information on our iNSD event and the projects we will be doing, please click here. Be sure to join us from 1-3pm PST at http://www.paperclipping.com/live

The Winners!

Thanks to all who participated. The following three entries were chosen randomly. Congratulations! Please email me at noell@paperclipping.com and give me your mailing addresses.

My Mind’s Eye Feeling Groovy Kit:
rosann – http://people.paperclipping.com/photo/embellish…
Here’s my entry. My symbol is the owl and my color scheme is purple and pale yellow.

My Mind’s Eye Freebird Kit:
mllwyllw – My papers are from a mod-retro stack I’ve been saving for something fun and THIS IS IT! They are really fun papers. My main embellishment is my initials. Inspired by Ali Edwards using her initials on her pages. I am doing a mini board book that will have one question answered on each of the 6 pages.

http://mllwyllw.blogspot.com/2010/05/national-s…

Paperclipping Altered Books DVD:
luvblklab – http://people.paperclipping.com/photo/albums/ch…

My symbols I chose Is the letter S (first letter of my name) When I was a child I would always write S’s the doodle around them and since my altered book is about my childhood I thought it would be appropriate. My other symbol is a tree for a personal reason that I have come to realize lately in my life.
I used nature colors blues, greens, oranges and blues and have many other nature symbols throughout my collection birds owls etc.

* * *

THE PRIZES

(Must be at least 18 and a U.S. resident)

My Mind’s Eye

One winner will receive the Feeling Groovy Kit by My Mind’s Eye. Another will win the Freebird kit. Both kits are worth more than $30 and come with 14 sheets of double-sided, textured, 12×12 card-stock papers plus over 45 mix & match accessory pieces.

Altered Books Tutorial DVD

One winner will receive this special edition Paperclipping DVD tutorial where Dedra Long and Noell Hyman show you how to alter unwanted old hardcover books to make them your own beautiful works of art and another avenue for telling your own stories. In this video which is more than 1 hour long, you will learn:

* Three different ways to alter the cover of your book.
* How to bind and cover the pages inside the book.
* Techniques for making your pages interactive and fun.

Find out more here.

THE CHALLENGE

Choose a color scheme and a main embellishment symbol that represents you in some way. You will use these for our project(s) on Saturday. Lay your papers and embellishment choice on your table and photograph them together (one picture). Post your picture somewhere on the internet. For an example of how I photographed mine, see the photo on this post.

To participate in the challenge, please leave a short comment on this post that explains your choice, plus a link to your picture. You have between now and Sunday at midnight to complete post your entry. If you are on facebook, please come to Paperclipping.com to enter.

For more information on our iNSD event and the projects we will be doing, please click here. Be sure to join us from 1-3pm PST at http://www.paperclipping.com/live

The Winners

Thanks to all who participated. The following three entries were chosen randomly. Congratulations! Please email me at noell@paperclipping.com so I’ll have your email address and we’ll be able to get the coupon codes for your prizes to you.

Capture Your Dream Workshop
juliamueller – My mother gave me the trait of creativity. She and her father and brothers were all artists. I have waited for years to try my hand at painting, but have found i actually do have some talent. From my father I got a quiet, loyal nature.

Ali Edwards Digital Designs Package
Karin – Why was your name chosen for you?

My father’s father was from Norway, and he had a cousin in Norway that he would talk about named Karin (car-in). My dad always thought it was a pretty name, so that’s what he wanted to name me. I’ve always really liked my name because I haven’t met many others with it and because of my Norwegian heritage being so close to me since I am third generation.

Big Picture Scrapbooking Workshop – A Baker’s Dozen
Karin – Which of your mother’s personality traits do you share? Which of your father’s?

My Mom and I both like to keep busy with making things and learning to make things. We’re both scrapbookers and like craft projects. We’re both singers. We like to give gifts to people and read magazines. We love owning our dogs and taking care of them. We love the same TV shows and a lot of the same movies. We both like to collect things and have a hard time letting go of things. We’re curious about our heritage and like to get to know all of our relatives and keep up with them. We like to travel and go to concerts. We both ask a lot of questions.

My Dad and I both like to write and blog about our daily lives and thoughts. We both like things to be orderly and cleaned and planned, yet like to be creative and try new things. We both like to garden and cook. We like to talk music, books, and movies. We’re both very emotional and deep and get upset easily. We’re really good at remembering people, their names and faces and details about their lives.

* * *

Below are the prizes and the challenge description. Good luck and have fun!

THE PRIZES

Capture Your Dream Workshop from Creativity Prompt

One winner will receive a Capture Your Dream workshop, which is a 6 weeks long, self-paced course that is designed to help you realize your dream with a unique mix of scrapbooking and self development. There is no “magic” or “secret” involved, but rather a journey of self exploration with guided journaling and inspiration prompts. Think of it as a marked trail for you to walk through towards achieving your dream.

But there’s more to it. Along your journey you will also be making a 6 by 6 mixed media mini album with step by step instructions and printable templates. The mini album is not only there for you to learn a ton of new techniques but also as a bag of motivation for your journey. The workshop is held entirely online and you will be receiving an e-mail with a pdf file every weekday for 6 weeks.

To commemorate National Scrapbooking Day Avital will be offering 50% discount throughout the month of May, dropping down the price from 49.95 USD to just 25 USD. Learn more here.

Ali Edwards Digital Designs

One winner will receive a package of some of Ali’s favorite digital products from her collection at Designer Digitals.

A Baker’s Dozen class at Big Picture Scrapbooking.com

One winner will receive…

Over the course of one month, Darci Dowdle (Stacy Julian’s little sister) will help you gather specific pictures, papers, and products from your own overflowing stash and you’ll create 13 layouts — a baker’s dozen. Daily emails will tell you how to prepare in a new “egg”-xilarating way and then daily downloads will inspire to you to think outside the “egg carton” and put it all together to get pages done. Let’s get together and whip up some vibrant and meaningful pages! See more here.

THE CHALLENGE

Choose from among the questions below to answer on a layout, a minibook, or an altered book that we will assemble during our iNSD event on Saturday. To enter to win, please share your journaling with us in a comment to this post (not on facebook). This must be new journaling content that you wrote no earlier than when I first posted these questions (meaning, you can’t pull from a layout you’ve made before or journaling you wrote before I posted these questions yesterday).

You have between now and Sunday at midnight to enter. You can enter up to five times (as separate comments). I will choose randomly.

THE JOURNAL QUESTIONS

Why was your name chosen for you?

What was happening in the world when you were born?

What is your earliest memory of home?

What was your favorite hiding place as a child? What is your favorite hiding place as an adult?

Describe your favorite outfit as a child, and as a youth. What about now?

In your opinion, what has been the most significant world event that has taken place during your lifetime and why?

Write about some places you went with your mother. With your father.

Tell about your civic or political activities.

What frightens you and why?

What is your greatest joy? Greatest sorrow?

What is your personal secret to happiness?

What lessons did you take as a child?

What personality trait do you admire and why?

What was your most embarrassing moment?

What would you like to be remembered for?

Where, when and why did you go to college?

Did you have a close relationship with any of your grandparents? Tell about it.

How do you feel about death?

Tell a story about you and each of your brothers and sisters.

What was (is) dating like for you?

Tell about a teacher or class that had a great influence on you.

Tell about teenage social life: Your friends, dances, movies, dating, activities, etc.
Were you ever in drama, speech, sports, pep or glee club?

Tell about your first “crush”. What was he or she like?

What are your favorite foods? What foods do you detest?

What color was your house, your bedroom, your living room as a child?

What did you do as a child that got you in the most trouble with your parents? With your teacher?

What games did you play in your home or neighborhood?

What places in the world do you want to visit, and why?

What is the most trying experience that ever happened to you?

What is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to you?

What is your favorite book? What do books mean to you?

What are your most precious and deeply embedded values?

Where is the most exciting place you have ever been? What made it interesting?

Which of your mother’s personality traits do you share? Which of your father’s?

Would you choose differently if you could choose your occupation again? Why and how?

Tell about your life as the children left home: New interests, what you did with the extra time, new employment, moves, hobbies, etc.

Do you have a best friend? Why do you get along well?

How do you feel about winning? Losing?

Tell about your bicycle experiences.

Do you have a favorite author? Who is it and why?

Describe your Sundays.

List all the places you have worked and tell something about each one.

What things do you enjoy doing today that you also enjoyed as a child?

Do you remember any special fears, fantasies, etc. that you had as a child? Tell about them.

What musical instrument can you play?

What does real success in life mean to you?

What is the value of pursuing a vocation, hobby or activity that you love?

For more information on our iNSD event and the projects we will be doing, please click here. Be sure to join us from 1-3pm PST at http://www.paperclipping.com/live

To go along with our “Give It Away” theme, I am challenging you to give a part of yourself to others by making a project about yourself. Here are the details you might need ahead of time to be prepared…

THE CHALLENGES

I’m not the type that enjoys telling others what to do. I am the type who loves to see a person’s individuality shine and I love to see how people choose to express themselves visually. So there will be no hand-holding at our iNSD challenge project. I will give you the backbone but you will get to decide whether you want your project to be a layout(s), a mini-book, or an altered book (It’s that flexible!).

I will share with you the basics of what you need (the overall shapes and sizes of items) but you will get to choose from your own favorite products. Here we go…

1) Gather one or more pictures of yourself.

You will have a choice of creating a layout, or starting a minibook, or an altered book (you will not have to finish the mini or altered book to qualify for prizes. You will just need to have a start on it, such as an embellished page, that you can photogragh by the time we are done). You can have as few or as many pictures as you want. Not every page in your mini or altered book needs to have a picture of you.

2) Choose some journaling questions.

I’ve provided a list of optional questions in a post here. Choose the questions that most interest you and print them onto cardstock. Make sure they will fit on your particular project. You can cut them out if you want to be extra prepared.

3) Choose a main embellishment symbol.

Examples are: a flower, a heart, a butterfly, a compass, a clock, a bird, your initials, etc. You might want to choose a symbol that you identify with yourself or your personality, or it could just be something you love or want to use right now. I will lead you through a series of embellishment gatherings (up to 5 depending on how fast we are), so I recommend having more than one. If you will be doing a mini or altered book, you might want multiples of the same embellishment symbol. If you are doing multiple layouts, your main embellishments could vary.

4) Choose a color scheme and pick some background papers.

Since this is all about you, you might want to pick your favorite colors, or colors that reflect your personality.

5) Gather other embellishment possibilities, plus basic tools.

Now that you have your colors and your main embellishments (make sure those coordinate!), choose a variety of other embellishment types that will coordinate. For example:
a. Circles and square shaped embellishments.
b. Flourish stamps or rub-on’s.
c. Ribbon
d. Buttons, brads, etc.

Have a nice stash or varying shaped items that coordinate ready to go, along with your basic cutting tools and adhesives!

6) Have your camera and a place to post photos of your results.

Some of the challenge contests (but not all) will require that you share a photo of your project (even if it’s unfinished, which I expect many to be). You can post your photos to a blog, to a public gallery of any scrapbook site, to your flickr account, or to our own Paperclipping community at The Crop Circle where you can have a free space to share your scrapbooking projects.

http://www.paperclipping.com/live

We will be having a live (internet) Paperclipping event for National Scrapbook Day this year! Among all the fun we’ll share that day, I would like to invite you to join audience member, Roxane Apple, and me in helping children under state custody to make Life Books. You can do that with extra supplies or products that you’re no longer in love with. I invited Roxane to share how this works and what it is:

“Children in the custody of Social Services create Life Books to remember their lives and the people they have lived with. Life Books are simple scrapbooks the social workers, foster families, and adoptive families put together with the children. Life Books are also used as a form of therapy, to get to know the children, and to understand their situations. They are also used to help the children feel a sense of belonging. The children take the books with them as they move through Social Services. Scrapbook supplies are used to create these books, but Social Service offices don’t have budgets for the supplies they need.

They can use anything you want to give … tools you don’t use anymore; a sticker sheet that only has one sticker left on it; pens you never use; things you want to get rid of so you can have room for something else; whole sheets of paper; good size scraps you don’t want to keep; freebies you’ve received but won’t ever use; supply storage containers you don’t want anymore … you name it!”

Between now and May 1st, I am asking you to:

1. Gather scrapbook-related items you would like to donate
2. Find out who your local contact person is within Social Services (information below)
3. Weigh your items (this is just for the Paperclipping event)
4. Arrange to deliver your items.

On National Scrapbook Day you can report to Paperclipping the weight of your donation and we will announce the grand total during our live event!

Erin Bassett provided this web page where many of you will be able to find your local contact person:

If your local information is not available there, or if you run into a dead end, Roxane explained how to find your contact person…

“Google or use a similar search engine to put in your county and state with the words Social Services or Human Services. Each agency is defined a little differently and it is dependent on the size and how many counties they serve. You may be their first call of someone offering donations of this type so you may need to do a little talking to get to the right person. From there you can arrange how you’ll deliver your donation.

I happen to live closer to the woman that works for the Denver County Social Services office then I live to the office she works out of, so I either meet her somewhere or take the donations to her house. The first time I donated to her she was a leery because no one had ever donated scrapbook supplies before, and because I gave her a lot of supplies she was also a little overwhelmed. Soon the shock on her face turned to pure gratitude!”

Once you have found your contact person, please feel free to share the info with others in your area by leaving a comment on this post.

Paperclipping National Scrapbook Day Live Event:
Saturday, May 1, 2010 1pm PST

http://www.paperclipping.com/live

Can you say F.R.E.D.? If you’ve been coveting my scrappin’ buddy, Fred, you’ll be blissful about my next announcement. The makers of FRED are a sponsor for Paperclipping’s National Scrapbook Day event.

Izzy and I will be giving away two FRED’s this weekend. One will go to a participant in our live event. The other will go to a participant in the challenges. Double your chances by joining in on both.

The more entries you upload to our new flickr group, the more likely your name will be picked in the drawing for a FRED. You may begin posting your entries any time. See the previous blog posting below for optional challenges.

We will also be giving out Paperclipping Premium Subscriptions (worth $36) and the Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial (worth $7.99).

So who’s participating? Make sure you join the Paperclipping flickr group and upload your layouts by Saturday night, (which is Sunday for all you Aussies and Pinoys, way over there). In order for your entry to count, you must post it to your own flickr account (they’re free) and then send it to the Paperclipping Group. I will announce the winner on Sunday.

Click here to see the schedule for the Paperclipping Live events. Hope you can make the party!