Flowers for you?

Have you ever made a scrapbook page that just seems a little blah? A lot of times, all it needs is a couple of flowers. Yes, you can use real flowers in your scrapbooks, but if you need a flower right now without any preparation, there’s hope :). I use a lot of silk and paper flowers in my scrapbooking. My favorite thing to do is group a few different types together in a triangular shape. It looks great at the corners of photos, or to set off a title page. Here is a title page I made recently. Yes, the paper is a bit colorful :), but the flowers add something to it that just makes the page more interesting.  I usually attach them with zots. They are easy to use and are a very strong adhesive. No worries about them falling off. Give it a try, you’ll love it!

Are your brads the wrong color?

Here’s a quick tip for you when you’re in a jam! If you’re like me, you have brads galore, but how come you can never find the perfect color for your project? Here’s a quick tip: just find the right size of brad, dip it into clear embossing ink, and then dip it into embossing powder the color you want, set it with your heat tool, and voila, perfect brad color. This is also great if you want a glimmer brad, just use sparkly embossing powder.

How to organize your scrapbooking supplies

If you’re like most scrapbookers, you see scrapbooking supplies on sale, and without an actual project in mind, you buy them because they are a great price (guilty a million times over!) Well, eventually they do come in handy, but they’re not much use scattered all over, so that you can’t even find them when you decide that you need them (um, let’s not talk about the ones that you don’t even remember buying when you finally find them lol).

Here are a few ideas I use to organize my scrapbooking supplies that might be helpful to you too. if you have access to a few small shelves, these are great for storing your  paper punches so you can see what you have. If you have shape sets, corner punches, border punches, etc, it’s great to line them up according to size or just by type. 

Another thing I use all the time are the 12″ x 12″ storage boxes that have 3-4 drawers. This way, you can store papers in one, stickers & rub-ons in another, and little packs of embellishments in another. My paper kind of took over, so I had to get one with many shelves, but the pull-out drawer type were a great way to start.

Jars are also fun. You can separate brad colors in the small baby food jars so you can see exactly what you have. I use my children’s old Nuby cups minus the tops to put my embossing pens in. keep your eyes open for things  these that make organization easier. Happy scrapping 🙂

Adding a personal touch in your scrapbook

When you are scrapbooking, it’s easy to just want to attach the pictures and some cute embellishments, but forget to leave out some personal touches. How about a piece of cloth from your child’s favorite blankie, a flower from your wedding bouquet, or a ticket from a once-in-a-lifetime event?

The problem sometimes is that you have no idea how to attach these pieces, but there are amazing scrapbooking adhesives these days.  There are keepsake envelopes to put memorabilia in that you don’t want to glue and my absolute favorite for bulky items is terrifically tacky tape. I’ve even stuck tiny beads to a scrapbook page and they stay put! It also comes in a sheet for large die cuts and large memorabilia. Liquid glues are also amazing. There are different kinds for ribbon, paper and metal embellishments.  Hope this gives you some creative ideas for saving a piece of those personal items that give you joy!

How to overcome scrapbooking burnout

Have you ever experienced scrapbook “burnout”? I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. You look at those photos and have no idea where to start- you don’t even have an idea, right? Been there, done that so many time. It’s ok, I have some ideas to get you thorough the scrapbook desert!

How about looking through those photos and just reminisce in your mind what the memories are that go with that photo. Just take a pencil and lightly jot on the back or in a notebook what the memory was that you wanted to keep. Can’t remember? Don’t stress, just move on to the next one. A family member or friend might be able to help you with the strays later.

Another fun idea is to just go through your scrapbook suppliesand organize them so they’re ready when you are. It’s discouraging to me to even start a project when I can’t find anything I’m looking for, and believe me, I’m probably the world’s messiest scrapbooker!

Another idea to get you over the doledrums is to just leaf through scrapbooking magazines and look at what others have created. I know that usually puts some ideas in my mind, even if I’m not quite ready to attack a new project yet.

Hey, maybe you did find a cool photo in that mess you were going through earlier. If so, just start with that single photo and see if you can find some matching papers, stickers, or ribbons.

I hope these few ideas have helped you like they do me. Happy scrappin!