Congrats to this very lucky person. Many will be jealous of…
socksmom
“I loved the tutorial on using paint.”
Congrats, Socksmom! Please email me at noell@paperclipping.com with your full name and mailing address so I can send your new toy with cartridge!
We had to share this outtake of Ana’s Scrapbook Trends Magazine interview. She rocks. David Ross makes a quick appearance in this video, too. You can see her final interview here.
If you ever had extra glue showing up on your projects like I do, you’ll want to see this demo of Beacon Adhesives’s Zip Dry Glue at CHA Summer 2009.
Thank you all for your friendship. I hope you are enjoying the holidays this year!
Paperclipping Live is on break until the Tuesday after the New Year. Don’t forget…6:30pm PST! Also, Members should watch their emails after Christmas for the date of the upcoming Member’s Only Paperclipping Live Event.
Watch the video here, or you could watch the HD version instead. 
I posted the recording of last Tuesday’s Paperclipping Live show. You can view it in the Paperclipping Live Archives.
Thank you for all of the wonderful comments, emails, and blog postings in response to the big announcement! I was finally able to respond to some of your comments in the last post, so please head over there if you posted something I might have responded to.
You’re all the best!
I will have the next blog article ready soon–hopefully by the end of the day today. Talk to you then.
I am lucky to be friends with a scrapbooker I admire so much. Most of you know Dedra Long. While there are some similarities between us, our styles are quite distinct. There is much we agree on in scrapbooking, yet our personal preferences and natural way of seeing and creating makes it obvious that we are two different people. It’s easy to distinguish whose layouts are whose.
Even when we purchased the same groups of products last Monday, and then scrapbooked together on Paperclipping Live, there is no mistaking our two different styles. You can see the layouts below.
I see Dedra’s style as elegant and classy, contemporary, yet classic. I see my own style as organic and a bit earthy, but quite eclectic.
Dedra and I both are very conscious of placing visual triangles on our layouts. Note her triangle of black and cream circles with crystal buttons, and my three circles of layered paper. But while I like to make at least one point of the triangle different from the others (and especially love to make my triangles subtle altogether), she likes her pieces to all be the same–her embellishment triangles are a distinct characteristic of her layouts.
Dedra gravitates toward cooler tones while I reach for warm ones. But you’ll find us both looking for cream. We both love cream. She loves pink. I love orange. We chose colors of neutral territory for this project, but during the shopping, I found myself wanting to add more green while Dedra was needing more blue.
It was striking to realize at the end of the show on Tuesday, when we compared our layouts, that Dedra and I made so many of the same choices without knowing the each other’s plans.
1) There were 8 possible patterns between the four double-side papers we chose. We both used the same honey comb as our background (perhaps because it was the closest to cream?). We also used the black and cream patterns and the organic branches, although in different ways.
2) Another similarity is that we both added bling to the organic pattern, even though bling was not a part of the kit we purchased together. We’re both fans of bling and glitter and we’re similar in the ways we place them.
3) The same is true of foam dots and our love for raising certain elements off the page. Dedra’s photo area (what I think of as a present–another common feature of her layouts) is triple layered. She loves to raise each element a little higher than the previous. For example, she raised the white matte with foam dots, then raised the photos and patterned paper on another layer above that, and then her chipboard title area on top of a third level of foam dots.
I used them in my own way–I taped the top of the branch down directly on to paper, then raised the middle of that branch with one layer of dots. Gradually, the piece continues to raise as the ends of the branches have two layers of foam dots.
It’s fun to identify our distinct differences and similarities. If our scrapbooking projects were jewelry, Dedra wears pearls and diamonds, while I wear beads. Comparing your everyday artistic choices to another scrapbooker you admire helps you to pin-point your own natural style, and at the same time, discover new things to try.
Note: I created a new page area for the recordings of Paperclipping Live. Every week I will place them at the following page with their corresponding dates:
www.paperclipping.com/paperclipping-live-archives
If you missed our show on Tuesday and would like to see how we made our layouts, click here.
* * *
12×12 Layouts
Joint Products: Patterned paper (Collage Press, Graphic 45, Scenic Route) * Journaling cards (Collage Press) * Ribbon (American Crafts???, Bazzill) * Chipboard Letters (American Crafts).
Products I added to my layout: Cardstock as a circle layer (Bazzill) * Stickers and word strips (7 Gypsies) * Bling (Me and My Big Ideas) * Letter stickers (Creative Memories).
Dedra’s journaling to her daughters reads: The two of you crack me up….From a different room in the house I will hear: “Mom, come look at me and Shelby!” When I walk in the room I see Shelby on the floor and you up in the air….You love that sister can put you in the air like an airplane….When the ride is over you always have smiles on your faces and the laughter is contagious….Just one of the many great reasons to have a sister….Seeing you both have so much fun together makes my heart happy….Love Mom….8*2008.
My Journaling to my son reads: Your first day of 5th grade. A handsome gentleman readyt o be a leader in your school. You seemed to have found your thing last year–computer graphics design, working on the school news crew, playing the viola, and leaving the campus weekly for the gifted program. You like those responsibilities and the change of pace and environment.
I am so happy you have a teacher who understands you and believes in you. You’ve decided to repeat your activities and between that and this teacher, you’re in for an exciting year! Dad and I are so proud of you!
Amy requested that we have a Q&A session during Paperclipping Live. I can go with that idea! I’ll also have a layout ready to prepare because there is likely to be some extra time.
So, if you have a question you’ve been curious to ask (or perhaps you did ask and I accidentally skipped over it) this is your chance. I would love it if you leave your questions in a comment on this post, but I’ll take questions during the show, too.
Thanks!
The Premium Subscribers will have their tutorial later this evening. If you’ve been waiting for the next free one (I’m sorry, I know it’s been a while), we’ve already shot the video for it and it will be ready this coming weekend, hopefully Sunday evening.
We’re finishing up the Vacation Stories series this week. Look for the next steps and layouts on Wednesday and Thursday.
Well, I’m trying to finish up that Disney album. Somehow I thought I’d have about three hours to work on it today–so far it’s almost time to get the kids from school and I haven’t had a chance to touch my scrapbooking supplies.
Maybe I’ll take advantage of that little bit of time on Tuesday night. Or if you have any requests that don’t require much planning on my part (no time today or tomorrow), leave a comment and let me know what you want to see.
Either way, we’ll start at 6:30pm PST. If you want to join us tomorrow night but are unsure of the time zone difference, look for your city on this website and then compare it to my city, which is Phoenix.
Remember to register for Skype (it’s free) if you’d like to call in to the show.
Thanks to Lesley (“Hungry Heffy”), we will start having monthly challenges based on the tutorials and blog articles. The first challenge will start at the beginning of September and will link back to Aug. topics.
Tracy Burtt, owner of The Treasure Box Club, sent me two of her recent kits and asked me to review them on Paperclipping.com. If you are a regular attendee of Paperclipping Live, then you’ve already seen me pull out and share all the items of the kits.
Here are the layouts I made with products from each of the kit. You can see them more detail by clicking here.
What makes you decide to buy a kit when there are so many venues competing for your business? Added value.
Here are some examples of added value a kit could offer and how The Treasure Box Club Kit stacks up:
1. Unique items from outside of the scrapbooking industry. Gorgeous fabric. Vintage stuff. Foreign papers. Hand-made items.
The Treasure Box Club kits had some cool stuff, like game spinners from Tim Holtz and a great time-related transparency from Creative Imaginations. But there was nothing unusual in these kits. Everything was from within the scrapbooking industry, which may or may not be a big concern for many of us.
2. Financial savings. The items may be available in my local store, but if I can get it for less money by being in a club, then it might be worth it.
This is one of the biggest reasons to buy kits from The Treasure Box Club. The papers come in bulk from just one or two companies so you get a lot of stuff for a lower price than what most kits go for.
You’re also going to save money with this kit if you have Quickutz. The Treasure Box Club offers exclusive discounts on fonts and shapes each month that coordinate with the kits’ themes.
3. Unique combination of products. Sometimes a designer surprises me with their combination choices and I want to try that choice on myself. This is the highlight of many kit clubs.
I was really surprised to see that the patterned papers in the Treasure Box Club are all from just one or two companies–even from the same line. In the birthday-themed kit, there were five or so pieces of polka-dot papers. They were the exact same patterns, but in different colors. That part was disappointing for me. At least they were two-sided papers, though, so that helped with the variety.
I found out that it is because the kits use bulk packages from one or two lines that the kits are so much less expensive than others. It’s one of the rare kits that is priced at less than retail. So I guess there is some give-and-take. Which is more important to you? Variety of lines and patterns or the cost?
4. Scrapbooking support or inspiration. The support can be through challenges, an online community, or instruction.
The Treasure Club Kit offers samples and instructions for what you can do with your kit. In fact, with each kit, you will get 26 pages worth of directions on how to make either twenty 8×8 pages or three 2-page layouts. For this reason, and because the papers are from coordinated lines and are easy to match, I think this kit is perfect for scrapbookers who struggle to come up with their own designs.
If you don’t like to copy someone else’s designs, then it is really a matter of whether you like the types of products they carry–they pick good stuff, in my opinion–and whether you’re more interested in savings, unique items or combinations, and online community challenges, as opposed to instruction.
If you think this kit is what you’re looking for, there is one other benefit that I really like. It has a flexible system. If you don’t like one of the kits, you can opt out and skip that month. And, you don’t have to commit to buying a certain amount of kits to get the discounted price. You can cancel any time, rather than commit to a three-month or six-month deal.
While this probably isn’t the idea kit club for myself, I’ll say again that I think it is a no-brainer for people who like their patterns strongly coordinated and who like help with designs. If you’re interested in seeing more, you can click here to go to their website.
Let’s take a little break from our series on Vacation Scrapbooks so that I can review the kit club, The Treasure Box Club. They sent me two of their kits to try. Right now I am just posting the layouts but I will be back in a while to post my review of the kit club.
The first section of journaling reads: You can’t even blow out your candles without infusing some hilarity into it. This is why I love you.
The larger journaling block reads: You made it clear forever ago that you wanted no birthday parties and you like to keep your social circles separate. **Then your 35th birthday crept up.** One night at dinner you announced to the kids and I that you wanted us to throw you a “surprise” party. HUH? I questioned you over and over again. I thought you were joking. But we scheduled your party for after the day to give you a real surprise. Of course, Trinity revealed the surprise and then Blake told you your gift. So there were no surprises. Just lots of fun with family and friends and your humor.
I based the above layout on a sketch challenge from Pencil Lines, which is a really great place to see how people can use a sketch as a jumping off point, rather than as a crutch. If you’ve never been to that site, I recommend you check it out.
Journaling reads: I couldn’t possibly have known you well enough in just two weeks to decide to marry you. In so many ways that decision was naive and immature. And yet, all the things I believed about you were right. You were exactly what I summed you up to be during those 2 weeks. You have goals. You make things happen. You’re real and you allow me to be real. You’re fun and funny–oh my gosh, so totally funny! You’re smart. You are peaceful and supportive. You pull out the very best in me. Marrying you was the best decision of my life.
I’m so glad I did it. I’m glad we rushed it. I love you so much, babe.
As we continue with the series, Stories From Our Vacation, I began a two-page spread for our Disney trip scrapbook. You’ll see me struggle with a desire to make the process simple, tell my story, while also capturing a feel and design that satisfies me.
I also share some of my homemade embellishments for the album and how I made them.
DISCLAIMER:
The host of this show has a tendency to mis-speak, forget words, or say the opposite of what she means when talking about technical stuff as she was doing in this video.
We didn’t scrapbook during the live show last night. Instead, we shared some very basic instruction for digital SLR’s. I also showed my four lenses and some other fun camera gadgets. If this is a subject you’re interested in, I hope you enjoy the recording.
By the way, you should know ahead of time that my explanation for focal length in the video is technically…ummm…totally wrong.
Do you have summer trips to immortalize? If your trips produced a lot of stories and a lot of photos, you may be feeling a mixture of excitement and overwhelm when it comes to putting it all together. This week we will begin a series of posts that will take you step-by-step through the process of gathering and making sense of all those photos and memories.
You will be able to turn the pieces of your trip into an album that tells a complete story. The first steps will begin either Wednesday night or Thursday morning and will continue into the following week.
A wonderful part of my own vacations has been photography practice. I’ve never read the user manual of my camera and I’ve never taken a formal class. Izzy teaches me photography while we are on vacation.
For Paperclipping Live, we’ll pull out our SLR’s and talk about the basics of using the manual settings on a digital camera. Since I’ve never been a professional, and professional terms and assumptions aren’t swimming in my head, I think I’ll be able to put it into terms that the most clueless of us will understand.
We’ll start tonight at 6:30pm PST and are likely to finish by 7:30 or earlier. If you’re unsure of the time zone difference, look for your city on this website and then compare it to my city, which is Phoenix.
Remember to register for Skype (it’s free) if you’d like to call into the show to ask a question.
I enjoyed the comment Amy left after watching this week’s episode of Paperclipping, Create Your Own Embellishments:
Noell
loved this idea gave me an idea of my own I am going to do some “embellishment olympics” this week using your tip—–I have a lot of scraps that I am going to “cut out” and make into embellishment so I have a stash of them while I watch the olympics. Needing to give some new life to papers I haven’t used and think it might be nice to have a whole pile of these to go through when I need them. Also an excuse to get some use out of what I have so I can get my hands on some of the new stuff starting to hit the stores!!! thanx for the tip-Amy
I had my own homemade embellishment marathon on Sunday. I wanted to make embellishments for the vacation album I am working on. I had a great time with Aiden, looking for scraps and leftovers with certain characteristics that I could use to make my own Mickey Mouse silhouettes.
Whether you want to make a specific type of embellishment for a vacation album, or play with whatever comes to mind for a new store of goodies, try Amy’s idea some time when you have a chance to play. It will surprise you to realize all the great potential that is sitting in your stuff right now.
