I am trying to find ways to make it faster and easier to scrapbook my many (many!) pictures. Do you have that problem, or am I the only one? I have so many pictures from so long ago, it's not even funny. And of course I continue to take new pictures as I go along. I tell myself that it's okay to have so many pictures – that means I have lots of memories to cherish! And if I can scrap some of them as I go along, then even better. Luckily, I needed to demonstrate a scrapbooking project for my March workshops, and this is the page I created:

I love the Porcelain Prints DS paper, and had to use it on this 6x6" page. I used textured Blue Bayou card stock as the base, and layered that with the Porcelain Prints. So I could see both sides, and to add interest, I turned down one corner (adhering it with SNAIL). I love to use the flowers from the Pretties Kit, and for this embellishment, I took the white flower and colored it using Not Quite Navy chalk (from the Pastels) and my sponge dauber. Very quick and easy! To add a little more interest, I used my 2-way glue pen on the flower and then added Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The center of the flower is a clear rhinestone brad from the Pretties Kit, which I adhered to the page using a pop-up glue dot.

To create a "title" for my page, I used my favorite saying set – Define Your Life. If you haven't gotten your set yet – don't wait! It's incredible! To make it easier to see all of the different sayings, I stamped a full sheet of printer paper with all of the sayings (much easier than trying to see them in the catalog or reading them backwards on the rubber itself). LOL I punched out the memories saying with my Key Tag punch in River Rock then matted it with Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi (I pulled the colors directly from the DS paper).

This is a picture of my beautiful daughter, Kyanne, during Easter a few years back. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she was ever this small! (Considering she's 5'10" now – and still a teenager!). Now I just need to scrap my pictures of Easter for this year. Why don't you join me? Pull out some of your pictures (only a few – don't overwhelm yourself), and create a page or two. Now, doesn't that feel great?!

I hope you and your families had a wonderful holiday weekend!
- Kari

I found these great tips on better picture taking, especially pertinent right now for winter picture ops. 

Check out this link by Hewlett-Packard for some great ideas on how to take great wintertime photos:

And for those of you who know that I work for HP, I am not promoting here - actually I was sent this link via Snapfish and was impressed with the tips and wanted to share with all of you.

Now get out there and take some awesome winter pictures, then get ready to scrap them into some awesome layouts!

Happy Scrappin'!
- Kari

Here are the other 2 projects from my December parties. One of my hostesses specifically asked for some easy holiday scrapbooking ideas, and I had fun coming up with this layout:

During the paper special in November I purchased the beautiful Brocade Background double-sided designer series paper. I have to admit that I was disappointed to find that this paper is being retired this month, but at least I have more to play with! I chose one of the designs in the pack and then used coordinating River Rock textured 12x12" card stock for the page. I also used the Tagged Accents & Elements – these tins contain a plethora of self-adhesive die-cuts to use in your projects. It was a lot of fun to choose designs to use with my pictures. To see more detail, click on the picture to make it bigger. I used a simple layout balancing my photos with my journaling (I like to journal using the computer and Stampin' Up! fonts). Then I used the Tagged elements to fill in any bare spots. My stamping was done with the retiring Solemn Stillness stamp set using untraditional colors of Old Olive and Chocolate Chip to coordinate with the paper. My husband and daughter said this is one of their favorite pages. Yea!

The make & take was a project I designed a couple months ago, but for various reasons never got to play with it at a party until this month. These are treat holders – I used mint patties since my daughter is addicted to them (okay, I kinda like them myself). The idea came from a jewelry package that I thought was very clever and decided to co-opt it for my own purposes to hold candy instead. Cute, huh?

Well, I just realized that I don't have a picture of the Frosty holder closed, so the picture above is another sample of the same project idea (like I said, I created this awhile back, but never was able to use it until now). The next picture shows the holder opened, with the Frosty "sleeve" over to the side.

As you can see, this project makes liberal use of the Scallop Circle punch. If you haven't played with that punch yet, don't wait – it's addicting! Lots of things you can make with it. In fact I created an ornament for the people who attended my December workshops as a little gift from me. I'll share a picture of those soon.

To make this holder, you can choose just about any size you want. Mine are the size they are because I just happened to have strips of the Bashful Blue card stock left over from a different project. I believe the strips were approximately 3" wide by 9 ½" long. I scored the strip at 3", 3 ¼", 6 ¼" & 6 ½". The ¼" scores are to leave some room for the mint patty, since it is about that height. We punched the bottom layer with the Scallop Circle Punch and saved that piece to use on the sleeve. The mint was adhered using glue dots and centered in the second panel so the scallop circle sits over the top of it. The sleeve was made by stamping Frosty with Basic Gray ink and using the Pure Color pencils to color him in. We punched the image with the 1 ¼" circle punch and matted it with a 1 3/8" Purely Pomegranate circle. This was mounted onto the blue scallop circle, which we added some interest by putting white dots in each of the scallops using the white gel pen. The sleeve itself was cut from the Cutie Pie DS paper and to figure out the length, I just wrapped it around my holder and cut it to that length. Easy, right?

Here's a close up view of the mint in the holder:

Please let me know if you make any of these cute holders – I always love to see how everyone changes a basic idea to make it their own.

Happy New Year!
Kari

I realized that I haven't shared any scrapbooking in quite some time, so I figured it's about time.  I like to scrapbook, but for some reason I find I just don't make the time.  Perhaps I should try simplifying things - make one page a week (or month, or ...).  Hmm, maybe not.

Anyway, I saw a card layout that I really liked so I copied it, but I turned it into a scrapbook layout instead of a card.  Please let me know what you think.

I took pictures of my pages while they were in my album (in sleeve protectors) so I hope you can see them well enough.  The first page is the layout that I liked, and I simply added another page for a 2-page layout.  I love the Define Your Life stamp set and decided this was a perfect place to use one of the sayings, since my beautiful daughter is definitely an original.

I will share the recipe tomorrow, when I share another project I made using this same layout.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
- Kari

I am so excited!  I think we finally figured out my networking problem (it appears our router is trying to die on us).  So my wonderful husband gave me "his" port so that I could get some things posted.

So I am finally able to share my mini scrapbook album that I made using the Secret Garden Simply Scrappin' Kit.

I created this page for my workshops last month.  I love how fast and easy creating a scrapbook page can be using these kits!  This page literally took 5 minutes, and the majority of that was cutting the paper and stamping the title.  One of the things I like best are the self-adhesive die cuts that coordinate with our stamp sets.  On this page however, it needed a little something below the photo and believe it or not, I used a piece of the stickers that is actually the "scraps" - the part that separates 2 "real" die cuts.  I think it added just the right something - don't you?

I left the pages in their page protectors, so I hope you can see the photos okay, even though the flash went off.  Here are the next 2 layouts:

And my final 2 layouts.  These are particularly poignant for me because they are some of the few pictures I have of my brother with my daughter.  (For those of you who don't know me that well, my wonderful brother passed away unexpectedly 8 years ago and I miss him terribly.)

The supplies I used were totally from the SS kit, plus the addition of a black journaler and the Rough Edges Alphabet for the title on the first page.

Happy Stamping!
- Kari

Cross your fingers this post makes it out.  I wonder if the size of my pictures are too large, and that's why I'm suddenly having problems.  Let's hope I've got it resolved - so now, onto some stamping & scrapbooking!

Well, nuts!  I still cannot upload these pictures of my mini-album.  Hang on, let me try something different...

Sorry to keep you hanging so long - I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, but it is vexing me.  I've tried to take pictures of all of the pages instead of scanning them in.  Sure hope this helps.

Okay, I'm definitely not doing something right.  So, since I cannot upload pictures of my Secret Garden mini-album, let me share some pictures from my guest artist - Tracy Bumpus!

She used the same Simply Scrappin' Kit - Secret Garden and created these wonderful projects:

I love this page she made for her clubs this month, and I really like how she incorporated a chipboard letter (that she covered in the DS paper from the kit) to start the spelling on Luke's name.

Here's the card Tracy made that is similar to the one I posted here - we just used different stamps and accents.

And this next 12x12 page is yummy!  I could see this as a holiday page.  I really like her use of paper piecing - Tracy, are you a quilter at heart? Love that Hodgepodge hardware!  Well, this is a really cute page, but I'm still having problems and I cannot upload the photo.  Hopefully later after my ISP gets back with me.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to get this posted, just so you know I am still around.

For my workshop last weekend I used a lot of our current In Color colors for my projects.  These were a lot of fun and easy to make.  In addition to these projects, I also demonstrated the Tri-fold card from this post.

This was a fun, quick 6x6" scrapbook page that I made using Cool Caribbean, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Notations Designer Series Paper.

I stamped the dots from Polka Dots & Paisley with Cool Caribbean along the top of the page.  I punched the bottom with the Spiral punch.  I then stamped the flower using the Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip markers to ink the flower on Whisper White and cut it out.  I also punched a tab using the Round Tab punch from the white.  I used that tab for journaling the date of my picture.

I added a strip of the Notations paper and a strip of Pretty in Pink paper to the Cool Caribbean.  I stamped Happy with Chocolate Chip and then inked up "things" from the saying stamp using my marker to ink only the word "things" and stamped that on the Pretty in Pink.  I matted my photo with So Saffron and journaled with my Chocolate Chip marker.  Isn't Boone (our rescued Greyhound) the cutest?!

This next project was fun and easy.  I followed the tutorial for the one sheet box on SCS.

I used all In Color colors for this box.  The box itself is Marigold Morning with Whisper White and Cranberry Crisp cardstock.

I used Vintage Violet and the swirl stamp from Sweet Shapes to stamp the edges of my box.  I then used Marigold Morning, stamping off once, to stamp the rectangles on the white.  The butterfly was stamped with Vintage Violet, the heart with Cranberry Crisp, and the splat with True Thyme.  I layered a bit of Cranberry Crisp behind the white, sort of like the Levi tabs that are popular right now.

I tied the box closed with the True Thyme stitched ribbon, and the only change I made to the tuturial was that I used the rectangle punch to punch halfway into the sides so the ribbon has a place to rest.

Our make & take was a card that could be used for Mother's Day, but you could easily change the sentiment to use this for birthday, thinking of you, get well, etc.

I don't think the scan does this one justice, I chose the colors for the card from the Notations paper.  The background is Taken with Teal.  I used the Notations paper again along the bottom of the card matted with Old Olive (the edges were distressed using the Cutter Kit).

Using Watercolor Garden (this is a set that will be retired this year), we stamped the flowers with So Saffron, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa.  The centers of the flowers, stamped with the cocoa, were stamped off first so the color wasn't as intense.  The Happy Mother's Day from All Year Cheer II (also retiring) was stamped full strength in Close to Cocoa.

The edges were sponged in cocoa using a sponge dauber and then we used the Spiral punch to create the notebook paper-type edge.  This was matted on Close to Cocoa.  Before adhering this to the card, we stamped the butterfly from Watercolor Garden with Taken with Teal on the base card.

Don't forget that these 6 colors - Vintage Violet, Cool Caribbean, Buckaroo Blue, Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme and Marigold Morning are only available through June 29, 2007.  If you haven't ordered your cardstock, ink pads, refills (and even some ribbons) yet, get your order in soon.

Where did the time go?  Goodness, I didn't realize it's been over a week since I posted.  I hope you can forgive me.

I made this page awhile back, but never finished it because I couldn't find the "right" picture.  Well, we were being goofy one day and took some family photos and I thought this one looked great with the page.  So good in fact that it's going to be framed and hung in my stamping room!

I used the Headline Alphabet stamp set to stamp FAMILY in Creamy Caramel.  I used a variety of stamps including Everyday Flexible Phrases, Warm Words, and Expressive Flexible Phrases to add some additional sayings to each of the letters (like inspire for I).  These were stamped with Chocolate Chip.  The letters were matted on Certainly Celery or Creamy Caramel and I used various embellishments (blue gingham ribbon, HodgePodge Hardware) to accent the letters. 

The picture is matted with Certainly Celery and Chocolate Chip, and the background uses some double-sided Designer Series paper that is now retired.  The whole thing is attached to a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11" Creamy Caramel cardstock.

If you have a photo that you just love, why don't you think about framing it instead of hiding it in a scrapbook album?