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My older sister is like a pro at it and loves to make cards and the other day I said, well, I bought an 8 x 8 scrapbook, it's real pretty, it's red, and it's still sitting there untouched. (I'm in Montana, she's in South Carolina and still waiting for the journaling and photos for our wedding scrapbook - 7 months now!)
She was stunned - she couldn't believe with all the cards I send her for every little occasion that I don't scrapbook!
I'm HORRIBLE at scrapbooking. The layouts kill me too. However, I think I make pretty decent cards. At least, everyone tells me so. But I have tried scrapbooking and I just don't want to do it anymore because it looks like a child did them pages, lol.
Maybe it's all the blank space? Because with cards- they're really small. But scrapbooks are much bigger.
I do both. Love both. Something that might help you if you really want to try scrapbooking...pick something no so very important to start with instead of something monumental like a wedding. Then you don't feel so obligated to be perfect the first time around. After a little while you'll find your style.
I was the complete opposite. I started with scrapbooking and then went to cards. To me it is harder to make such a small space as beautiful as I make my scrapbook pages.
I guess it just takes a little time to get use to the size difference. I agree with scrappinpurplefrog...start with everyday events, not something that is so special...that way it might take some of the pressure off of you.
__________________
Be the change you wish to see in the world ~ Ghandi
I understand how you feel! I love both as your other posters commented. I started out with an 8x8 (didn't feel so overwhelming to me) and then I altered books which helped get me comfortable with all the space. Recently I bought 9x9 scrapbooks at Big Lots...I have decided that the larger formats (12x12 or larger) are not for me. I agree with the gal who suggested you try and scrap something other than your wedding. Good Luck
__________________ Susan~~~One4Joydaily I'm a FAN CLUB member, U? MY GALLERYof visual Delights MY BLOG
I personally have no intention of scrapbooking my wedding!!!! Actually, what will be scrapbooked is the 7 days of bridzilla events leading up to the wedding.
It all started out trying to find dresses and finally I say to my maid of honor do you have a dress that will work? She brought over this beautiful mid-calf length dress and with both of us being SU stampers, we both proceeded to my craft room and decided her dress was elegant eggplant!
7 days before the wedding, no baker for my cake! She's backed out saying she won't get the cake done if she's to get my flowers done! The new baker drove 30 miles, looked at a pic of my very simple cake, said no problem and proceeded to make the best cake I've ever tasted! Imagine beautiful silky, buttercream frosting.....
5 days before the wedding, my maid of honor shows up at my house out of the blue and says, I want to see your wedding dress on you. She says, stand on this chair....the inside lining of the dress was longer than the outside of the dress! Thank goodness I sew well! (My dress was mid-calf length as well)
3 days before the wedding my hair stylist, whose been working for 2 months to get my very short hair to grow out and working on a hairstyle that will work with my headband, calls to inform me she has to do my hair at 9 am, before a funeral, instead of at noon (by 3 pm, you couldn't tell I'd had my hair done, the wind blew all day).
2 days before the wedding, the florist screwed up the silk arrangements for my very small wedding party! She had my ribbons and roses on the maid of honor's arrangement. Well you get the picture...this was the lady who didn't have time to make my cake after promising months in advance to do both the cake and the flowers (she opened a new business, duh).
The day before the wedding, the promised tableclothes were not where they were supposed to be! A very nice male member of our congregation thankfully had a key to the youth pastor's house, took home all the dirty tableclothes and washed and dried them while the wedding party was at the rehearsal dinner!
10 pm (the wedding is at 3 pm the next day) my dear sweet fiance and I are ironing 15 very large round tableclothes.
The day of the wedding, around noon, we arrive at the church with the pastor and his wife (our dear, dear neighbors) for a final check for our 3 pm wedding. EVERY sidewalk around the church is torn up! We've been waiting for months for this project and the contractor to get started. The Pastor was stunned. He had been at the church that morning and all was fine. My mother-in-law is in a wheelchair. Thank goodness for strong nephews! (It's a small town, my maid of honor, the mother of the contractor, forgot to remind him of the wedding date and location of the wedding....he was also invited but said he couldn't attend, he was behind schedule and really had a small project they needed to start and finish that weekend!)
See what I mean??????? Definitely scrapbook material!
My maid of honor, who is actually responsible for getting me into stamping, had her digital camera ready at all times. She got the best pre-wedding pics, including my fiance standing and ironing tableclothes! A professional photographer, the only thing we really splurged on, took the rest of the wonderul pics of our wedding and got some priceless video clips at the reception of all of us laughing and telling of the last 7 days' experience.
I looked at her at 11 pm the night before the wedding and said, I NEED ALCOHOL! She laughed and handed me ONE wine cooler and said, with the week you've had, that's all you get I am not carrying you up to the alter!
The first time I tried a 12x12 for a challenge, it was HUGE, I didn't know what to do to fill it. Since then I've done a few 8x8s for giving to friends for wedding/ milestone birthday albums, and I quite enjoy them. But I am not a scrapper, and never will be. Mostly because I think the journalling is a big part, and I am too private a person to put all my journalling out there up front. I still remember looking at that 12x12 and wondering what to do with all that space, LOL.
What a wedding saga - rather you than me!!! Yes, it's worth scrapping, and those casual informal pictures are always worth having.
I love both! I started out scrapping and then moved to card making and now I'm trying to get back into scrapping again! I scrap 8.5x11 though, 12x12 is WAY to big for me, too much blank space, lol!
Sketches- that's what you need- sketches, try the ones on here and Pagemaps.com.
Also look at other layouts.
Scrapbooks are scary, my first one was of ducks in my garden which helped kick me off as someone suggested on here- and I agree, take an innocuous subject for your first page at least.
i agree, pagemaps.com, also, i got into digital scrapbooking first, so easy to download, move around, and resize embellishments, go in and pick your pictures, and plop everything on a page!
Ok, Aiden's mommy, mommy of a new furbaby, when you do digital scrapbooking, do you print out the pics on a page already done and use lots of ink, or just design and then put the pics on a page?
Where do I find the sketches on here? I looked and looked
I have a sketch site with 10 designers. I showcase a new VERY SIMPLE sketch each Friday. Then my designers create layouts of ALL sizes, cards, tags, and altered items from that one simple sketch. The sketches are easy to work with because you can really do anything with them.
I started out as a scrapbooker but I only like to scrap 9x9. I used to do 12x12 but didn't like how big the albums were and the space they took up on my shelf. 9x9 is AMAZING IMO. 8x8 is too small. It's funny how that extra inch really, really helps and is just perfect for me. All of my layouts in my SCS gallery are 9x9.
We would love for you to join us and look at the sketches on my site. Layouts are posted on Friday with the new sketch, and on Saturday the cards, tags, and altered art are posted. You can visit my sketch blog to see everything that has been posted since April. Another great way to scrapbook is to scraplift someone. It really helps you understand the process. Then you can e-mail the person or send them a PM telling them you scraplifted their layout as inspiration. :-D
I hope this helps. My sketch blog link is in my siggie! Please feel free to PM me with questions. Have a joyous day!
__________________ Patter
Mom to Adult Identical Triplets--a police officer, 3rd year medical student, and special education teacher
I think I'm ready to take a dive into scrapbooking.
I'm looking for an answer in another forum: Is it normal to have a bunch of topics in one scrapbook, e.g. my husband and I, friends, pets, etc, or is it normal to have a scrapbook for each?
I think I'm ready to take a dive into scrapbooking.
I'm looking for an answer in another forum: Is it normal to have a bunch of topics in one scrapbook, e.g. my husband and I, friends, pets, etc, or is it normal to have a scrapbook for each?
Help!
Glad you like the sketch site! And you can organize your scrapbooks anyway you wish. I personally have several for each child that they will take with them when they leave home someday, and then I have the family albums dh and I will keep. I keep my albums in chronological order so every kind of picture and topic you can think of are in each album. I do make separate vacation albums though but that's it. Everything else is chronological. I hope that helps!
__________________ Patter
Mom to Adult Identical Triplets--a police officer, 3rd year medical student, and special education teacher
thanks! I'm bookmarking lots of stuff this morning!
I sometimes don't sleep well because of my fibromyalgia, but I do tend to get lots done as long as I keep moving around. So, I'm always stamping and decided since we haven't been married but 8 months, it's a good time to start scrapbooking!
I think I will do my chronological, that makes the most sense to me!
I've been a scrapbooker for years. You probably have all the tools you need to get started, so just jump on in! It's like making a card, but on a larger scale... and with pictures. LOL
I was the complete opposite. I started with scrapbooking and then went to cards. To me it is harder to make such a small space as beautiful as I make my scrapbook pages.
What she said.
Those sketches are a great way to begin a Scrapbook page. I've also read a few books that have helped me tremendously.
I've discovered digital scrapbooking and it's perfect for me!. I can try a ton of papers, crop and resize photos over and over, move things around the whole time. No pangs about cutting my 12 x 12 papers. Plus I can do it while being in the living room with my family at night. So....you might consider it.
__________________ Debra ---artist * teacher * designer Say yes. Be generous. Speak up. Love more. Trust yourself. Slow down. ---Patti Digh
I do both stamping and scrapbooking, I've been stamping for over 10 years and scrapbooking for about 6 now. I really go about both totally differently. I rarely stamp in my scrapbooks and would rarely use a sticker on a card but I use them in scrapbooks all the time. I do use what I know about colors, design, etc for both crafts and I have alot of products that can be used for both crafts but I usually don't "cross over" much, stamping stuff is for cards, scrapbooking stuff is for layouts, weird I know but it works for me
I was SO intimated by scrapbooking and my sister and mom really pushed me into it after my son as born. I had gotten into card making around that time to do his birth announcements and was HOOKED! It took me a while to really feel comfortable with it, but now I LOVE it.
I am enrolled in a great online class that is an off shoot of a fanatastic blog focused on scrapbook sketches. Check it out ... if you really want to get into scrapbooking it might be helpful ... www.valeriesalmon.typepad.com the blog is called "Got Sketches" I am taking her 101 class (info on blog).
Everyone kept telling me think of a page layout as a card ... that didn't help ME because the size really freaked me out!! I found sketches helpful. I also try to remember while making every page that the pictures are the most important thing on my page and that the people who are going to see these scrapbooks will appreciate it because it was made by me (their wife, daughter, mother, sister, etc) ... that sometimes helps take the pressure off me! Good luck!
I too started out scrapbooking. The first Stampin' Up! workshop I went to I left with an anxiety attack. Now I'm a demo and really enjoy both.
__________________ Jac-ee Former FSJ Founding Coach and SU! Demonstrator, now crafting for myself. "There is a fine line between 'HOBBY' and 'MENTAL ILLNESS'"
I did my first one this year: a Hawaiian cruise. It was fun to think on a different scale and use die cuts and other theme stuff that had been too big or commercially made for cards. I did have two problems. First, it was hard to resist the urge to include every dang picture that came off the two digital cameras. Second, I had a card mentality going and "needed" to get the whole scrapbook done as soon as possible. For a number of days, everything else in the house got put on hold!
I am still not "into" scrapbooking, but I'll consider it next major trip. Tackling a wedding scrapbook would be way more intimidating though.
Sometimes the best way to start is just to make some cute layouts from sketches that you have seen and then find pictures that you want with that layout. That way you are not overwhelmed by trying to find the perfect layout for the picture you have. BTW, I was cardmaker turned into scrapbooker.
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i have been a 'card maker' for several years.
i also felt intimidated by scrapbooking.
i did my first one for my son for his high school graduation open house. it was so fun. turned out to be a huge hit with all the guests. my mom said they were passing it around and oooing and aaahhing! i got a big head!
the first couple pages were kinda ruff... each page became easier. by the time i was on the 5th or 6th page i felt like a PRO. i just treated it like a big card.
mine may not be typical tho. they do look like big cards (to me) i use the same layouts, techniques and embellishments as if it were a card.
I love both
I am more of a scrapper
But I would like to get more into stamping
I see lots of stamps that I want to buy, I am trying to find a SU! rep and start ordering
I started as a card maker after attending my first SU! workshop in 1993 -- I still have my first set of stamps! I've been scrapbooking for about three years. It was a pretty easy transition for me. I have done a couple of 6x6 and 8x8 albums but really enjoy the 12x12 the most. I have tons of paper and other supplies right at hand, but my hangup is always the layout. I, too, have found pagemaps.com to be of tremendous help. I discovered them recently and printed out all of the available layouts. I keep my collection current by printing the monthly pagemaps as they are issued. Last summer I was on a roll and did albums for an Alaskan cruise (1996), re-did my wedding album (from 1971, not scrapped, just pix in an album), Acapulco cruise (early 2007), road trip to Sedona (2001), album for son (now 26) -- over 130 12x12 pages in all. I love to do double layouts. Most of my layouts include lots of pictures, cropped in different shapes. I like to combine several coordinated papers and use plenty of embellishments. One of my favorite tools is my digital camera - it's not fancy, but I don't leave home without it. Before I started all my albums last year, I went through boxes of photographs and tossed lots and lots of them. I then categorized them and have them stored in a photo box to use whenever I feel an inspiration. P.S. - I still make cards on a regular basis and attend a monthly SU! camp with an exceptional, incredibly talented demo! Whew! This is long. Thanks for listening.
I find it harder to do cards. I've been scrapbooking since 1998. I am now digital scrapbooking and I love it. I do about 6 or more pages a week now, all 12x12 and I am saving so much money. I belong to Club Scrap digital and spend 14.95 a month for a kit, they even have a kit that is only 7.95 a month. I added the additional premade pages, I just drop my photos on.
You got some great advice here - I think the hardest part is just starting. Very intimidating. Remember there are no right or wrong with scrapbooking - it is all a matter of taste!
And remember the focal point of any page is your pictures and journaling! Do what pleases your eye! Don't stress - it is suppose to be fun and good for your soul!
Let us know how you are doing! I would love to hear about it. If you really find that you can't do it - pay someone to do it for you. I have done quite a few scrapbooks for people who wanted them but didn't want to create them.
I had been card making for years before I gave scrapbooking a go.
My mom became ill and had to place in a nursing home. It fell to me to clean out and pack up her house in order to put it up for sale. While doing that, found a myriad of pics as well as various momentos. At first, I just threw them in a box but then got to thinking how nice it would be to do a scrapbook for mom.
For me it was both a major undertaking but also a real blessing. Each page helped me to get to know my mom better and gave me a feeling of closeness. It was especially special in that as I finished up pages, I would take it to the nursing home, mom would reminisce with neat stories and it is a nice memory even today.
When my mom passed away in 2005, it was displayed at the funeral home and I was so glad that I did it. However, must admit that I do not put much effort in the scrapbooks that I keep for my grandchildren, etc. It is a lot of work so I give lots of kudos to you scrapbookers for your creative endeavors. :-D
When my husband passed away in June 2005, my sister asked for pics, mementos, etc. to do a scrap book for us. We had only been married 4 years. She asked me for stories and descriptions of the pics.
Two months later I open this box and inside were TWO beautiful scrapbooks. One of our 4 years together and one of our wedding.
I was in tears as I turned the pages.
It was the best gift I ever, ever got.
I KNOW how truly blessed I am to have my sister in my life.
I recently married a wonderful man and we were moving my crafting stuff downstairs. He saw the books and asked if he could look at them. I said of course.
When he was done, he just said, wow what awesome books and he got real quiet. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I'm sorry you lost Larry. It must have been horrible." He knew Larry very well and has never once acted like I should pretend that time and my late husband never existed.
THAT's the biggest reason I want to start scrapbooking. So I can do OUR scrapbook. He is the love of my life, my best friend.
I think I'm ready to take a dive into scrapbooking.
I'm looking for an answer in another forum: Is it normal to have a bunch of topics in one scrapbook, e.g. my husband and I, friends, pets, etc, or is it normal to have a scrapbook for each?
Help!
I, personally, don't have a scrapbook for each specific thing. I don't even have my pages in chronological order. I just scrap what I feel like, when I feel like it. I think I work better that way...more fun for me to work on what I feel inspired to work on.
When my husband passed away in June 2005, my sister asked for pics, mementos, etc. to do a scrap book for us. We had only been married 4 years. She asked me for stories and descriptions of the pics.
Two months later I open this box and inside were TWO beautiful scrapbooks. One of our 4 years together and one of our wedding.
I was in tears as I turned the pages.
It was the best gift I ever, ever got.
I KNOW how truly blessed I am to have my sister in my life.
I recently married a wonderful man and we were moving my crafting stuff downstairs. He saw the books and asked if he could look at them. I said of course.
When he was done, he just said, wow what awesome books and he got real quiet. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I'm sorry you lost Larry. It must have been horrible." He knew Larry very well and has never once acted like I should pretend that time and my late husband never existed.
THAT's the biggest reason I want to start scrapbooking. So I can do OUR scrapbook. He is the love of my life, my best friend.
...The laying out of the pages terrifies me - haha...
Would it help to tell you that I am exactly the reverse? My s/b pages are where I shine. My cards *suck*. Sorry - there is no mincing words here, they *suck.* No problem ATCs, no problem with s/b pages...just cards. There is a reason I don't post much in the gallery: my cards *suck.*
However: They don't suck as bad as they used to! Now that I look at cardmaking as a series of 4.25 x 5.5 s/b pages, they're actually getting better. Not as good as my s/b pages and probably never will be. But improvement is a good sign.
My recommendation: Start with your small pages. Don't expect too much from yourself, and be surprised at how good they are when you're finished. We scrampers have a tendency to believe that "good" equates to "publishing worthy." No, no, no! "Good" in scrapbooking parlance actually means finished-and-satisifed-and-ready-for-another ____________ (page / picture / layout / event / party / whatever) and *I* am pleased with what I've done whether other people like it or not.
So don't be scared. And remember: Your worst scrapbook page will probably still be better than my best card! :cool:
__________________ Hi...My Name is Kaylyn...I'm An Alphaholic.
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When my husband passed away in June 2005, my sister asked for pics, mementos, etc. to do a scrap book for us. We had only been married 4 years. She asked me for stories and descriptions of the pics.
Two months later I open this box and inside were TWO beautiful scrapbooks. One of our 4 years together and one of our wedding.
I was in tears as I turned the pages.
It was the best gift I ever, ever got.
I KNOW how truly blessed I am to have my sister in my life.
I recently married a wonderful man and we were moving my crafting stuff downstairs. He saw the books and asked if he could look at them. I said of course.
When he was done, he just said, wow what awesome books and he got real quiet. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I'm sorry you lost Larry. It must have been horrible." He knew Larry very well and has never once acted like I should pretend that time and my late husband never existed.
THAT's the biggest reason I want to start scrapbooking. So I can do OUR scrapbook. He is the love of my life, my best friend.
I am, as usual, humbled. *THIS* is why I scrap. It isn't my story, but it is my reason nonetheless: life actually does have meaning. ~ kbc
__________________ Hi...My Name is Kaylyn...I'm An Alphaholic.
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Anybody else terrified to try...
