Meg has been kind enough to invite me to write a guest blog and, by way of guest blogging, introduce you all to my very own blog, Color Me Crafty. I can't say it's all about scrapbooking and crafts, but I definitely have a passion for all things colorful and crafty.
The great thing about scrapbooking is that, like anything that requires creativity, there is no right or wrong. It's up to you what you want to do, and you should do whatever makes you happy. Unfortunately, I think that some people who are drawn to scrapbooking think that it requires too much time or too much money to take part in. But that's just not true! Sure, I could definitely spend hours on a page and my entire savings in a craft store, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.
So, what I'd like to share with you all are a few little things I have learned. First of all, craft stores have sales on scrapbooking materials (especially paper) all the time. There is no reason to buy it at full price. Also, most of them have these great sections with $1 items in them, and a lot of times those items are all made to go together so you can buy just from that section if you want.
For example, around Christmas-time Michael's had one of these sections and everything was coordinating colors -- red, black and white. They had ribbon, stickers, note cards and some other things. I used the note cards to make accordion folding scrapbooks for my cousins and decorated with the ribbon, stickers and a few other black, white and red papers that I already had. This is a great example of a simple scrapbook. All the materials were already coordinated, and I stuck with a simple layout too -- just one picture per "page." Once all the pictures were cut to size, all that needed to be done was to pop them on some background paper and glue them to the note cards. Sticking to the same layout for each page makes the process a whole lot quicker and easier (and therefore less daunting), and you still get a great finished product that you can be proud to show off. (I wish I had a picture of the finished books that I made for my cousins, but unfortunately I didn't take any before I gave them out, trust me though, they looked great and the girls loved them, and I promise they didn't take that long!)
If you're still not into the whole cut and paste idea, but you want a way to display your pictures in something more unique than a photo album, Shutterfly has these great photo books that you can get. You upload your pictures, choose which ones you want to go where, what color scheme you want for the backgrounds, how many pictures you want per page, etc. You get the personal touch of customizing your own album, but without the fuss. And if you still crave a little bit of depth and texture, once you get your photo book in the mail, you can still add your own stickers or ribbon or other embellishments.
The great thing about scrapbooking is that, like anything that requires creativity, there is no right or wrong. It's up to you what you want to do, and you should do whatever makes you happy. Unfortunately, I think that some people who are drawn to scrapbooking think that it requires too much time or too much money to take part in. But that's just not true! Sure, I could definitely spend hours on a page and my entire savings in a craft store, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.
So, what I'd like to share with you all are a few little things I have learned. First of all, craft stores have sales on scrapbooking materials (especially paper) all the time. There is no reason to buy it at full price. Also, most of them have these great sections with $1 items in them, and a lot of times those items are all made to go together so you can buy just from that section if you want.
For example, around Christmas-time Michael's had one of these sections and everything was coordinating colors -- red, black and white. They had ribbon, stickers, note cards and some other things. I used the note cards to make accordion folding scrapbooks for my cousins and decorated with the ribbon, stickers and a few other black, white and red papers that I already had. This is a great example of a simple scrapbook. All the materials were already coordinated, and I stuck with a simple layout too -- just one picture per "page." Once all the pictures were cut to size, all that needed to be done was to pop them on some background paper and glue them to the note cards. Sticking to the same layout for each page makes the process a whole lot quicker and easier (and therefore less daunting), and you still get a great finished product that you can be proud to show off. (I wish I had a picture of the finished books that I made for my cousins, but unfortunately I didn't take any before I gave them out, trust me though, they looked great and the girls loved them, and I promise they didn't take that long!)
If you're still not into the whole cut and paste idea, but you want a way to display your pictures in something more unique than a photo album, Shutterfly has these great photo books that you can get. You upload your pictures, choose which ones you want to go where, what color scheme you want for the backgrounds, how many pictures you want per page, etc. You get the personal touch of customizing your own album, but without the fuss. And if you still crave a little bit of depth and texture, once you get your photo book in the mail, you can still add your own stickers or ribbon or other embellishments.
Here is a screenshot from the photo book building process. I just made my first photo book last night, (Shutterfly kindly gave it to me for free -- I guess for being such a loyal customer :) ) and it was really simple and really fun. Below is another screen shot of one of the finished pages. Didn't it come out cute?
The whole album was a Christmas theme, and I can't wait to get it and show my whole family all of the pictures. Anyway, that's all I have to share for now, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope you feel inspired to try your own project now!
[thanks again to mel for this terrific, informative guest post. again, to read her blog, click right here. coming up tomorrow: our thursday style and another fashion-related post!]
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