Weekly Scrapbook Idea Anyone?

Does weekly Scrapbook Idea inspire you? If so, READ ALONG!

I am excited to announce that we are going to feature new scrapbook idea every week. It will work like a Meme/Tag. I kn0w a lot of you know how blog meme/tags work.

Here are the details;

Activity: New Scrapbook Idea featured weekly (every Monday) on the blog

Scope: Every week new scrapbook idea is featured in the blog along with a photo of the example scrapbook layout or project (card, altered project)

Details:

1.Every week you can check the blog for the new scrapbook idea and see how you can play with it.
2. Make your own interpretation be it card, layout or just any outcome of your artsy craftsy mood is accepted.
3.Post it in your blog, providing a link over here (note:link must be made on the specific Scrapbook Idea post for the week)
4.Hold your breath as we will raid your blog in just a moment.lol!

Boring? I hear yah! Ok here is the main catch.

1. Every week you can join us for new scrapbook idea.
2. Deadline to do your scrapbook layout,including posting it to your blog is on the following week, Monday (1 week)
3. Every month there would be 4 scrapbook ideas that will be presented here in the blog. Meaning.....lets go on no.4
4. You have 8 chances of winning the "Prize of the Month" Of course we will have fab prizes in store for you.
5. We will have one random winner each month. How you can you accumulate entries?

a.Weekly participation gives you 2 entries, so that is 8 entries in a month if you completed all the scrapbook ideas.

b. You will earn 1 entry for every comment you leave to other participant's blog.


Points To Ponder:
1.This activity is created to INSPIRE scrapbookers. So we are here to give love and respect to everyone's work.
2.Joining this prompt every week require you to visit the other participants(at least 75%). Leave them some love. Hint: leaving comment is like creating good karma
3. Dont be self centered brat
If you see people are coming and commenting to your blog please return the favor. I know we are all busy people so I am not asking you to comment to all of them in one day.You have the whole month.
4. I will allow you to use your recent projects provided that they are only 1 month old.
5. Do proper linking to the main post so your visitors can join us next time.
The more the merrier!lol!

FAQs
1. Why should I join?
Learning new scrapbook idea is fun and inspiring

2. How it will benefit me?
It will give you more inspiration and idea to your next scrapbook layout.

3. How it will affect my blogging?
Isn't it fun to have a weekly update about your scrappy work. You will gain new comment-ER
along the way,trust me!

4. Is this activity for you?
Of course this is for all scrapbookers out there.

5. Why are you having this?
This is purely for inspiring others and providing an outlet for everyone to share their works.

6. When will it start?
Depending on the response I will get today.lol!


If this interest you,please leave me your name,email address and the link to your blog so I can include you in the list.

Using Buttons in Your Scrapbook Layout

In my last post I explained how scrapbook idea works as a foundation for your scrapbook layout. Lets have an application of that today.

Scrapbookers creative minds are always on the go and creative juices are normally flowing their veins. What about the novice and beginner scrappers? Funny how I always consider myself as a tyro scrapper. In this connection, I decided to share one of basic scrapbook idea today.

Scrapbook Idea: Adding scrapbooking embellishment

Scrapbooking embellishments are the products available for scrapbookers to use in their layout. List of possible products that can be used to your scrapbook layouts are almost endless. I can go and talk them forever here. But let me leave it that way. Most popular products include chipboards,thickers,ribbons, blings and the most common used I guess are BUTTONS.

Lets apply the flow that I discussed in my last post;

Scrapbook Ideas > Scrapbooking Techniques > Scrapbook Page Idea>Scrapbook Layouts >Scrapbooking Albums

Adding Scrapbooking Embellishment > Using Buttons > Button Placement in your Page > Scrapbook Layout

Note that I gave the complete flow that I used in my scrapbook layout. To give you the visual interpretation of this flow, here is my page

Title: Kinembi (Anniversary in English)
Materials Used: Green Tangerine Kit, Such Sweet Tierney Buttons

The layout use various scrapbook ideas and some other basic scrapbooking techniques. But let us focus on using buttons this time. In my example above, you can see how I choose the buttons and scatter them around my photo. There are times that you can layer the buttons to give dimension in your layout. That is another scrapbook idea for instance.

Tips in Buying Buttons

1. Try to buy buttons along with your paper kit.
Doing this will ensure you that the buttons will match your paper and you will be able to use it and not hoard it in your stash.

2. Buy buttons according to your color scheme preference
Dont buy buttons just because you find them so cute and pretty. If you couldnt see yourself using the same button in your layout, then buying it is pointless.

3. Do not overbuy
This is the most common bad habit scrapbookers have. I am guilty of this.
Try to maximize your button purchases as you wont be able to use the old stuff that you accumulated if you would not stop buying.

4. Organize your buttons according to color
Take a look in your stash and organize your buttons.You would be surprise to know that you have enough stock to last a lifetime.lol!

5. Buy buttons with simple but funky and elegant style
When you buy buttons make sure that you are picking designs that can be used in a lot of paper and color variaton. My favorite is Basic Grey and Such Sweet Tierney Buttons. Ok forgive me with this shameless promotion but I admire how London pours a lot of time and effort in her buttons. Such Sweet Tierney buttons are not just made with funky colors but they are made with stunning designs. Check the link to their Etsy Shop and you wont be sorry that you read this far.lol!

I hope this post would somehow inspire you to try this scrapbook idea in your scrapbook layout.

Scrapbook Layout Ideas and Scrapbook Ideas

In this post I will discuss how scrapbook layout ideas and scrapbook ideas help you reinvent and formulate your own scrapbooking techniques.

Scrapbook idea is your impression or intention on how to design your scrapbook layouts. And like scrapbooking techniques, scrapbooking ideas are endless.

How they are connected? Because of creative ideas running in your head, you will come up of scrapbooking layout ideas. The next issue, is how to execute these ideas and put into actualization-hence, scrapbooking techniques.

Basic Scrapbooking Flow;

Scrapbook Ideas > Scrapbooking Techniques > Scrapbook Layout Idea>Scrapbook Layouts >Scrapbooking Albums

This flow will explain clearly on the scrapbook related tasks you should plan before making a scrapbook layout. For beginners or novice scrappers, this sound too complicated but dont worry as I will explain everything to all of you. Sometimes a certain idea or thing like scrapbooking gets complicated because of information overload so I will try to explain this as simple as I can. If you are an advance scrapbooker, please excuse me if my topics would sound too easy for you.

Base on the above flow, Scrapbook Ideas are the base of your scrapbooking albums. If you are just starting to learn scrapbooking, and reading this blog, well I bet you are a bit confuse on how and where to start. I assumed you already know the definition of scrapbooking and I assumed you have some photos already. Choosing what photos to use is a part of scrapbook ideas!

As I said, scrapbook idea is anything you think or come up with to design/make your scrapbooking layouts.

Lets have an example;

For instance I want to scrap about my wedding pictures. Picking my best pictures and how I decide to present each memories I want is simply a scrapbook idea!

Of course, the more scrapbook ideas,the better! You dont want to stop there. It is then you will decide on color theme and photo placement. Again, this is one kind of scrapbook idea.

To avoid confusion, a scrapbooker should remember that there is a thin line separating scrapbook idea and scrapbooking techniques.

Lets translate the above flow in application;

Choosing Photos/Photo Placement/ > Making a digital sketch/ Color Challenge,etc > Using more ideas to complete your page > Scrapbook Layouts > Scrapbooking Albums

Ok lets discuss each step;

1. Scrapbooking Ideas- Choosing Photo/ Photo Placement/etc.
I will discuss about this further on my next post
2. Scrapbooking Techniques - When you think of photo placement you think of techniques on how to execute this idea, so making a digital sketch or using a sketch is one of the basic scrapbooking techniques. Again, scrapbooking techniques are endless so I will not indulge myself to list them here. Though, I am planning to make a scrapbooking techniques compilation soon!
3.Scrapbook Layout Idea- again scrapbooking ideas and scrapbook page idea have a very thin line separation. They are almost the same except that scrapbook page idea tend to focuss more on ideas that could be visible and possible to your WIP(work in progress) scrapbook layout.
ex. You think of an idea on how to make your page more appealing, so you decided to add more of texture

This is when you reinvent scrapbooking techniques and create your own brand new techniques.

Dont confuse yourself, what I am trying to explain here is there are stages that you have to be familiar with to avoid intimidation of this hobby. I am speaking base on experience.lol!

4. Scrapbook Layouts- your finish product.

5. Scrapbooking Albums- this is the last stage that I think is a vital step. You want to complie your pages and ensure that your scrapbook layouts will be safely organized. After all,you dont want to waste hours planning and creating your pages and get neglected after you finished it.
I have a lot of important things to share with you in terms of scrapbooking albums but I guess it has to be a separate post. Meanwhile, you have to remember this golden rule;

Golden Rule: Scrapbooking Layouts are basically meant to be stored in Scrapbooking Albums. Help yourself by ensuring that you have the perfect albums ready for your scrapbook pages.

I had problems looking for 12 x 12 scrapbooking albums here in Japan and if I only knew how hard and costly it would cause me, I should have created smaller scrapbook layouts.

Again, you are the artist so you decide on what scrapbooking albums you will use.

Thats all for today!

Scrapbook Idea:Photoshop Image Tweaking

Scrapbooking is incomplete without learning image tweaking. Hence,one of scrapbook idea I find useful is learning Photoshop.

Today's post is a review about the "Other Methods of Image Tweaking" written by Jonathan Spencer. The article discusses methods on how you can tweak your images in Photoshop. Moreover, it provides a step by step guide in order to execute each method.

Why do we have to tweak/enhance our photos in Photoshop?
Many scrapbookers like me will agree that Photoshop can be a vital investment to learn and explore. Why? Because Photoshop provides various ways on how to edit our pictures.
Remember: A good photo makes our scrapbook layouts stand out.

There are a lot of methods on how to tweak your images in Photoshop. The article presented various ways to tweak your image;

Now, lets discuss each method the article presented.

1. Creating a New Layer and Filling it With Color
-this method makes the detail/subject stands out in your photos by filling a new layer with 50% gray. For the step by step guide to perform this action,check it here.

Here is my attempt of this method;

Before Image

After Image
Method 1

2. Contrast Masking
- this method is use to control the contrast level in your pictures by using contrast mask. Check how to use a contrast mask to enhance your images.

Before Image

After Image
Method 2

3. Warming and Cooling Filters Effect
- this technique shows how you can use warming or cooling effect to tweak your images. This is done mainly by adding a new layer and filling it up with colors like orange (warming effect) or blue (cooling effect).

Before Image

After Image
Method 3

4. Dealing with dust and noise in your image
- this method show how you can use Photoshop's History Palette and History Brush to enhance your images.

5. Unsharp Masking Filter
- this is another way to tweak your image by different sharpening options available in Photoshop. Unsharp Mask is the most used option as explained by the author using different control aspects.

6. High Pass Filter
- in this technique, photo is enhance using the High Pass Filter of Photoshop. You can try this method by following these easy steps.


Conclusion:
This article clearly provides other ways on tweaking your images in Photoshop. Please remember that results may vary base in your image quality and your level of opacity in each steps. You may want to check the author's recomendation of opacity levels and some control setting in each methods.

Note: Actual application is required to learn the effect of each action explained in this article.

You may want to try these methods and observe the variations/effect that appeal to your taste.

I strongly recommend that you save each template for future reference. This will allow you to save your time and effort.

What is the best method that works for your scrapbook layouts?

Do you find this as a useful scrapbooking technique?

Scrapboook Idea: Joining Scrapbook Challenges

Scrapbook idea for your next layout can be inspired by scrapbook challenges all over the net. This challenges require various scrapbooking techniques for your page.

My scrapbook layout was created from 3 inspirations. First is the challenge set by Ally last Spring Crop at We Scrap- Trim your Grass. The challenge is to create at least 2 different edges in your paper either by distressing or using your deco scissors. Second inspiration was from a challenge set by Papierhouse. Use Yellow color on your lo. Third is from sketch challenge of Scrapnart Designs. Now you know the explanation behind my title.lol!

Title:Dearest
Journalling: My life is complete because of you
Materials Used:Glitz Sparrow PP,Daiso papers,Prima Flowers,Prima Say it in Crystals,MM Mini brads,Creative Cafe ribbon,Daisy ds die cut,Sassafras Lass pp,Daiso embellies.

I distressed the matting of the pics by tearing and inking and then I used my scallop scissors for the yellow paper. This picture was taken last December 29,2007.

To summarize, scrapbooking ideas use are from challenge sites. Scrapbooking techniques include distressing, using scrapbook sketch and using a color theme.

Hope you learned new thing today.