I wanted to give you some fresh inspiration today. Allowing you to go into the rest of your day with a creative mind ready to go. As I was thinking about what to give you, I saw my ink pads. All the colours, some more used than others. They looked oh so pretty sitting there together. I let my mind wander and my thoughts ran from rainbows, to children giggling and talking as they paint, to the waves rolling in the ocean, to walking through the rainforest, to a beautiful, fragrant, colourful cottage garden, to. . . . . . .

What more can I add to that. Allow your mind to drift and see where your inspiration leads you. . . . . . . faraway lands, cosy corners, precious memories and beautiful people. . . . .

To capture your fresh wave of inspiration now while you have it in mind have a look at this book. 500 Sketches to use with your inspiration. A wonderful way to add your own creative inspiration without getting bogged down with the initial details of laying out the page. Click here to have a look.

Photo’s are the main focal point for us scrapbookers. I am often the envy of my scrapbooking friends because my husband is a photographer. This is definitly a bonus. In fact I often feel a little spoilt in the amount of lovely photos he provides me with.

The thing is though, the majority of my scrapbooking is done using photos I have taken. . . . . I am the one around when my little 18 months old has just helped himself to the still warm chocolate brownies cooling on the bench, leaving telling signs all around his mouth. I am the one who took them for their first haircut and captured the innocent play in the cubby under the clothesline.

CLICK HERE to learn how you can take great photos as well. Learn from a photographer. It is worth a look to see the beautiful photos on her web site!

Hi,

I have been an avid scrapbooker for about 6 years. In this time I have built on my styles and skills. I have taught scrapbooking classes and in the process inspired many friends, family members and perfect strangers to take up this hobby for themselves.

In fact my scrapbooking journey began even long before this. As a teenager, I would ’scrapbook’ my photos, memorabilia, stories from my trips or other events in ’scrapbooks’ - usually books I had made myself. This was before I had even heard of it as a craft. I have always loved this form of recording memories. To me it made perfect sense and used my creativity in a productive and long lasting way.

Now I have three young children who have become my main scrapbooking subjects. Living a rather full life, I enjoy the moments of peace and inspiration when I can get absorbed in my hobby. I also enjoy sharing my inspiration with others.

Imagine - if you can - 1 blissful day and 2 delightful nights dedicated to scrapbooking. Add in a couple people who you really enjoy to spend time with, chat, laugh and be creative together. Ahhhh, sounds delightful doesn’t it.

I had this priviledge this past week. My Mum, Sister, myself and my daughter had a wonderful couple nights (till well past midnight!!!) and one whole day of scrapbooking together. I couldn’t think of anything more wonderful. The men made the cups of tea and the children came and went as they pleased. Making cubbies under our tables or playing dolls in the corner beside us.

As the time progressed I realized just how special this time was. We don’t live near each other so it was unusual to spend this time together. The whole event wouldn’t have happened if scrapbooking wasn’t the focus. Yet here we were, 3 generations having a wonderful time together. I wonder if there are many other hobbies which bring together the generations like scrapbooking does.

Next time you get together with someone fun to be creative together why not unlock your creativity together. Check this out!!! This has the most wonderful ideas to get you even more creative - all the time!

I have been working on scrapbooing a trip for quite some time now. It seems like one of those endless projects at times and other times it seems quite manageable - after all there is a beginning and an end (unlike a child’s album). As I was working on this project I got to thinking about what was important for me to keep in mind when scrapbooking this trip.

Firstly - Keep it manageable. What is the point of having a half finished album of a trip years after the event. A holiday needs to be recorded and enjoyed so keep the whole project manageable.

Second - Enjoy it. Enjoy the process of recording your memories. Don’t allow it to become a bore or major hassle but do it in a style which you can enjoy it.

Third - Keep the end in mind. It is a definable project - not a forever project.

Now I’m off to continue working on my trip album after a quick stop for some Titles, Captions & Quotes inspiration. Check it out here.

For those who are wanting some more inspiration for collage pages, have a look at these. I had hundreds (or so it seemed!) of photos from this event. Many of them were taken from a distance so had a lot of wasted space on them. It was a great memory day but the photos weren’t necessarily the best. Wanted to preserve the memories of as many of the photos as possible - a collage seemed perfect.  To me this has turned out ‘perfect’ because this was all about preserving my memories and it has done that wonderfully. Much better than a mountain of photos in an album or box and I didn’t need to take up a complete scrapbooking album recording this one day. 

Have a look here for even more wonderful ideas and inspiration!!!

Holidays are one of the best forms of product - ie. photos - for scrapbooking. We come home with a wealth of memories just waiting to be recorded and a mountain of photographs which we snapped along the way. The daunting task is often how to scrapbook such an amount of photos. You may be fine with 1 or 2 photos per layout and the magazines (which we all love to browse through for inspiration) are full of layouts like this, showing all the great techniques and embellishments we can use. How do you tackle the task of scrapbooking a holiday?

I’m going to step you through some great ideas which will help you get started and complete some great looking holiday albums.

The tip for today is: Do a collage page. I did the layout above as a title page for a trip we took.

I know collage pages may have a bad reputation and can look amaturish at times. But. . . they don’t have to. Obviously you won’t do every page in a collage of several photos or this would look rather boring. A collage done effectively with balance and creativity can look very stylish.

Points to remember:

1. Keep to a theme. Use photos from the same event or similar colours. Keeping the consistency in a collage is important.

2. Keep it simple. Don’t try to use every photo you have or a dozen different techniques on the same page.

3. Overlap photos to cut out distracting elements. Only use the part of the photo which has meaning.

P.S. If you want even more great layout ideas for your holiday . . . Click here . . . They are great.

Watch for part two - coming soon.

Girls layouts, ahhh they just say pretty, pink, lovely and beautiful. Embellishments seem to be everywhere for girls and papers . . . . . well. . . . .aren’t they just beautiful. Why then do I often look at my girly layouts and wonder why they all look similar? Why do I always seem to use the same colours or the same embellishments or the same design layout sketches?

To help you (and me) make our girly layouts new, fresh, fun and interesting I have compiled a selection of hints and tips. Not only will I give you some ideas but also where you can go (on the net) to find further inspiration, products and ideas.

• Choose a theme or colour and go overboard with it.
• Try a different colour than you would normally - maybe neutrals, orange or black & white.
• Keep it simple. Use one or two colours in an effective, different design. Click here for some great layout design sketches.
• Look for Inspiration everywhere. Just look around you and find inspiration. Look around for something new and unusual to spark your creativity. Check this book out.
• Use a different font, title or journalling. Changing the font or adding a bold title can make a similar layout stand out with that ‘wow’ factor. Click here for heaps of different titles and caption ideas.

Creating layouts for boys are usually completely foreign to the way you would create layouts for girls. I know I find girls layouts so much fun and embellishments and papers seems to be everywhere. But boys. . . . .

At times I can struggle with a boys layout. So I have compiled a list of top ideas from a variety of scrappers, to get you started.

• Go bold. Using bold colours often creates a great masculine look - even if you do stray and use flowers or other such embellishments.
• Begin with the photo. Look at the photo and let it ‘tell’ you what the layout needs. Boys photos can be cheeky, wild, adventurous, cute but they nearly always have ‘boy’ written all over them in one way or another.
• Colour is important. You can use flowers all you like, they do come in all the colours of the rainbow!! It is the theme and colour of the page which will give it the masculinity it needs, not the blue or brown flower you use.
• Simple, straight lines are nearly always a recipe for success.
• Go rustic. Tearing, inking the edge of papers, ‘dirty’ papers, torn sheets and natural type pages jump out and say ‘boy’.
• Try something different. Use a technique you have never used before.
• Begin with a theme or layout guide. Click Here for some layout ideas.
• Look aroung the world outside. Think outside the square with boys page layouts. Make you starting point an item you find in the shed or something from the natural world for instance.
• Let your creativity run wild. Imagination is what it is all about so let it run wild here. Click here to check to see how you can unlock your creative genius.