Monthly Scrapbooking Club

"Out Of The Box" (OOTB) is a monthly auto-delivery program. Each month a box full of new scrapbooking products, tools, and embellishments is delivered right to your doorstep. The kits feature a different theme each month, such as Spring, Mother's Day, Weddings, Family, Ancestry, Kids, and more!

Our products are beautiful and some of the best in the scrapbooking industry! If you are looking for a way to save money and keep up to date with the newest products, this is it! Join our monthly scrapbooking club and get enough products to create several layouts or cards!

Out of the Box is our playground to bring you new, innovative products. Each box contains a mixture of new products and current catalog products, along with embellishments and other fun ideas! Many times we introduce new products through Out Of The Box. Each monthly shipment includes tons of scrapbooking supplies such as papers, embellishments, stickers, fibers, and so much more!

Snowflake Shaker Box

Materials Needed:

• Snowflake & Text 12x12 Paper
• Jolee's Snowflake Embellishment Stickers
• Twinkle, Twinkle Star Stamp
• White Ink Pad
• Dark Blue Cardstock
• White Cardstock
• Double Sided Foam Tape Strips
• Winter Scene picture or collage sheet image
• Transparency Sheet
• Confetti
• Adhesives
• Scissors/paper trimmer

Instructions:

1. 
   Cut a rectangle of dark blue cardstock - make it large enough to matte the shaker box and and picture leaving some of the stamped blue showing outside the shaker box.
2. Stamp dark blue cardstock with the star stamp inked in white pigment ink.
3. Using double sided adhesive, tape photo centered in the middle of the dark blue cardstock. For the shaker box part of the page, measure the size of frame needed to cover the picture (also the size of the foam tape since you don't want the foam to show).
4. Cut out the shaker box frame from white cardstock.
5. Cut a piece of transparency barely smaller than your white frame.
6. Adhere the transparency to the back of the frame.
7. Attach the foam adhesive to to the back of the frame.
8. Place confetti in the middle of the picture and placed the frame on top of the picture.
9. Adhere the shaker box to the snowflake and text paper.
10. The final touch is to add 3 snowflake embellishments to the bottom to the page.

From www.CanadianCountryGifts.com . Sign up for their free biweekly newsletter by sending an email to ccg-request@newsletter.cndcountrygifts.com with `sub' as the subject.

Paper Bag Scrapbook Album How-To

Paper bag scrapbook albums are quickly becoming a hot fad in scrapbooking! Who ever thought you could use lunch bags and grocery store bags to create totally cool scrapbook albums?

Well they do! These paper bag scrapbook albums are HOTTT and totally adorable! Here is a quick how-to guide on creating your own paper bag scrapbooks!


1- Collect four or five paper lunch bags of the same size and color.

2- Arrange the bags in a stack alternating open and closed ends.

3- Fold the bags in half and crease.

4- Bind the bags about a quarter inch out from the seam using stitching, ribbons or brads. If you are punching holes for ribbons or brads, because of the thickness of the bags, it is easiest to make a template and punch through one folded bag at a time. Using ribbons add some extra flair to your album! The albums that are put together using ribbon are very colorful and neat looking!

5- Cut cardstock papers to fit inside the bag as your pages.

6- Create coordinating tags to place inside the bags open ends. These can be used for journaling and additional photos. Use some fibers and ribbon and attach it to your tags, so they can easily be pulled out for viewing.

7- Decorate the cover and back of your paper bags. Try using stickers, paint, fibers, brads, and any other embellishments you see fit.

8- Attach your layouts to each page of the paper bag to finish the album.

Note that paper bag albums are not acid-free or lignin-free, so they should not be used for preserving one-of-a-kind photos. To help extend their life, you can spray them with an archival mist, but still use duplicate pictures or color copies.

Here is a completed Paper Bag Album!

Scrapbooking With Walnut Ink

Walnut ink is very easy to use, and it can be used in many different ways. No matter how it is always has the same aged and worn effect.

To prepare the ink, mix 1 TBLSP of the walnut ink granules with 1 cup of hot water. If you want the ink to be lighter (more of a tea stain), add more water. If you want it thicker (like Indian ink), add less water. The mixture does not need to be refrigerated when you store it. Put a lid on it to keep it from evaporating, and it's good for a long time. Even if it DOES evaporate, no problem, just add some water to dissolve the residue in the bottom of your container and voila - more walnut ink.

To use it....try these different approaches:

Pour the ink into a zip lock bag, put the paper or cloth item you want to stain into the bag and let it absorb the ink until it's as dark as you like. Remove the item and lay flat on a paper towel to dry.

Sponge the walnut ink onto your paper. Use a paint brush or stipple brush to transfer the walnut ink onto your paper .

Put the walnut ink in a spray bottle, and squirt it onto your paper to get a spattered design.
Get your paper nice and wet with walnut ink, then sprinkle salt on the water paper, for another interesting effect.

Ink your paper while it's smooth; or crumple your paper before you ink it. Crumpling your paper breaks the paper fibers, and the broken fibers will absorb and hold more ink than the smooth fibers.....so your weathered look will be even more obvious.

It's a debate on whether walnut ink is archival or not. Walnut ink made from actual walnut shells is NOT acid free. However, some manufacturers are not using actual walnuts anymore to make their ink....and they claim that their product IS acid free. The trick is knowing which is which. So, unless your container expressly states that it is acid free, I would recommend that you avoid using walnut ink near photo's.

Scrapbook USA Expo

For all of you scrappers in the Utah area, Scrapbook USA Expo is coming to your area!

When: May 5-6 2006
Where: South Towne Expo Center
9575 S. State Street
Sandy, UT 84070

You can register online at http://www.scrapbookusaexpo.com

Contest Call- Memory Makers

For all of you avid scrappers, you can always submit yout finished pages to Memory Makers for possible inclusion in the magazine! You can submit your scrapbook layouts at
http://www.memorymakersmagazine.com/submit_ideas.aspx

Baby Hand Scrapbook Poem

FINGERPRINTS
Sometimes you get discouraged,
because I am so small
And leave my little fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But everyday I'm growing
And soon will be so tall
That all these little fingerprints
Will be difficult to recall.
So here's a little handprint
That you can put away
So you will know how my fingers looked
On this special day.

Scrapbook Pages Withc Magic Mesh

Magic Mesh is a self-adhesive, respositionable decorative mesh that can be used to enhance many types of craft projects such as rubber stamp art, paper art, memory albums, etc. It is acid-neutral and non-toxic. It is available in a variety of colors, textures and widths.Use it to provide texture, dimension, color and excitement to your creations.

Paper Quilling

Paper quilling is the art of curling strips of paper and assembling them into designs and figural representations such as flowers, butterflies and the like. Its roots are hundreds of years old.

How it's done:
You want to use paper strips that are about 1/2" wide. Roll tightly, letting the spiral roll go so there's a little space between the roll, and secure with glue. You can use a tool called a slotted quilling tool if you prefer: simply slip the paper strip into the slot and begin rolling. Once you have rolled the strip of paper, lightly pinch it together and slide the tool out. Use these rolls to create your designs, which can then be placed on your scrapbook page to add a decorative accent.

Scrapbook Photo Matting

Use matting to make your photos, journaling, and memorabilia stand out on the page. Coordinate matting colors and textures with your photographs and memorabilia rather than detract from the subjects. Use a solid-color mat to blend in with the layout or a patterned mat to stand out. To create a simple photo mat, use a background paper or card stock that's slightly larger than your photo. Position the photo on the mat, and adhere it with archival-quality adhesive. Then trim the mat with straight- or decorative-edge scissors, a craft knife, or a paper trimmer.

Stamping Basics

When you start out, stamping products can be confusing. Use this guide to learn the basics.

The number of stamping products on the market can seem overwhelming, but you can get off to a comfortable start with just a few basics and then build your collection over time. Choose stamps that you expect to use on multiple projects. Good early purchases include background stamps, geometric shapes, and alphabets.

Rubber stamps come in two forms: mounted and unmounted. Mounted rubber stamps come glued on wood or acrylic blocks with a cushion. They are ready to use but are often more expensive than unmounted stamps. Unmounted rubber stamps require you to cut out the images and mount them (permanently or temporarily) before use. Wood, acrylic, and even new magnetic styles of unmounted stamps are available.

Rubber stamps are easy to purchase. It’s the inks that often confuse a beginning stamper. Learning the properties of the various types of ink will help you make the correct choice for your project.

Dye Ink. General-purpose ink great for stamping on all types of paper. It has a very quick drying time, which makes it difficult to heat-emboss. It is normally permanent and waterproof. Dye ink soaks into paper and becomes more muted as it dries. It also can bleed or feather, causing the image to lose clarity.

Pigment Ink. Thick ink with a slow drying time that’s a good choice for heat-embossing. This ink does not soak into the paper but instead dries on the surface, producing a crisp stamped image. A heat tool speeds up the drying process. Pigment ink does not dry on coated glossy paper.

One versatile pigment ink is a watermark ink called VersaMark. Clear when stamped, it gives a watermark look to paper surfaces, creating subtle tone-on-tone images that vary in intensity depending on the color. VersaMark also can be used to create a resist image by stamping on glossy paper and running a brayer with dye ink over the top.

Permanent Ink. Also known as solvent ink, which dries by evaporation. The ink is designed for stamping on nonporous surfaces such as shrink plastic, glass, metal, and transparencies. Hybrid ink shares traits with both dye and pigment inks. Like a dye ink, it dries quickly, but like a pigment ink, it produces crisp images. The result is a soft, almost muted, chalklike finish, yet the colors are rich.

Scrapbook Paper

Paper is the most classic scrapbooking supply you will choose. Paper comes in many styles, sizes, weights and designs and can be overwhelming especially to the beginning scrapbooker. Additionally paper can be used in so many different ways – the actual page to scrap on, mats, backgrounds and borders, punching, die cutting and more! We will begin “at the beginning” and work through a variety of types of paper and its typical uses in the art of scrapbooking.

General Guidelines

No matter what you are using the paper for, it is imperative that you use acid free paper. Acid is a byproduct of the process of making paper and while it has always been removed from high quality paper, it is not always removed from less high quality paper such as construction paper. Many everyday items – newspapers, cards, copy paper, etc. are likely not acid free. The acid causes not only the paper itself to fade and deteriorate, but the acid will also cause the photos and other items on the page to do so as well. Scrapbooking paper manufacturered specifically for the scrapbooking industry is generally acid free. If you are in doubt just ask before you purchase it!

It is also best to use lignin free paper. Lignin is a chemical naturally found in wood so it can be found in paper as well. It too can cause some of the same problems as acid, however, it is generally thought that lignin will react over a very long period of time – 100 years for example. However, most scrapbooking paper is lignin free and since paper is so often the basis of the page, it is a good idea to make sure your paper is both acid and lignin free.

View Our Exclusive Scrapbooking Paper!

Scrapbook Sheets

Scrapbookers that choose albums that come with actual scrapbooking sheets (such as the Westrim Crafts Strap-hinge Albums ) do not need to specifially choose paper to scrap their photographs on since they will simply use the sheets that come with the album. However, if one chooses an album that uses top loading page protectors some typically come with the sheets and some do not. Only one sheet is included in each double-sided protector and not everyone wishes to scrapbook on one page back to back. Therefore, some scrapbookers choose cardstock to actual form the basis of their scrapbook page. One advantage of this system is that you can choose colored or textured cardstock for the background instead of always starting with a white page. Plus if you like to use a lot of paper in your scrapbook, your album will be less thick if you are not placing background paper on a scrapbook page. However, many scrapbookers prefer to use the strap-hinge system and there is no doubt that the scrapbook pages are generally heavier than cardstock and give the album page more support.

Scrapbooking Cardstock

Cardstock is a scrapbooking supply basic! Do not confuse cardstock with construction paper. Construction paper is not high enough quality to use in your scrapbook and will fade in a very short period of time. Cardstock can be used a variety of way for backgrounds and is also used extensively for matting photographs. It is a very simple enhancement to cut a piece of color coordinated cardstock approximately ¼” larger than your photo and put the photo on top of the colored cardstock. Cardstock is available in an unlimited number of colors. Traditional cardstock is not usually textured and is readily available in either 8 1/2 X 11 or 8 1/2 X 11 sizes. The newest scrapbooking album size – 8 x 8 – has created a new line of 8 x 8 cardstock as well. This cardstock works best for punching out shapes with a scrapbooking craft punch since it is not as thick as the textured cardstock.

One of the newest trends in scrapbooking cardstock is textured paper. Typically it has a lighter or white inside which makes tearing it produce a unique look for scrapbooking and making greeting cards or other craft projects. Bazzill Basics line of textured 12 x 12 cardstock is awesome. It is often found in monochromatic packages which give the scrapbooker a full color line of this heavy, high quality paper. Additionally Die Cuts with a View has a full line of textured paper with matching scrapbooking embellishments for a complete look.

Printed Papers

Printed scrapbooking paper is a must have for any scrapbooker’s supplies. It is available in almost any theme imaginable. While most scrapbooking paper is 12 x 12, there are also great 8 ½ x 11 printed papers. The Great Papers line from Rainbow World is a particularly nice line of 8 ½ x 11 printed paper usually available for a very reasonable prince.

Printed scrapbook paper can be used as the background for the scrapbook page. Matting pictures with solid cardstock on a printed background page is a classic look. Using the printed paper as the mat on a solid background can be effective as well.

One of the newest looks is photo real scrapbooking paper. From the ocean to seashells to grass to popcorn, there is a photo real paper for everyone! This paper can be very effective – especially in a double page layout perhaps using the photo real scrapbooking paper cut in half or torn on one side of both layouts.

Most printed papers are lighter weight which makes them easy to use as backgrounds on top of a scrapbook page or solid cardstock. However, several companies offer cardstock weight printed paper. Paper Loft has an especially nice line of printed cardstock papers as well as a photo real line.

Digital Scrapbooking

It seems digital scrapbooking is getting a lot of attention lately! Every where I look I am finding digital scrapbooking graphics and software.

What is it all about any way?
Digital scrapbooking is a fun way to create scrapbook pages right on your computer. Many new scrappers are starting right into digital scrapbooking. Elements may be purchased that look exactly like real scrapbooking products.

So...in a nutshell, digital scrapbooking offers a new way to create beautiful scrapbook layouts without the hassle of lugging out all those scrapbooking supplies.

Scrapbook Journaling

By journaling your pages you will transform an ordinary collection of photographs into a vibrant and visual storyboard - telling the stories behind the pictures, revealing hidden memories and emotions.

It will give your scrapbooks a unique and intimate feel, it is this personal touch that turns your albums into something very special.

That is the power of scrapbooking journaling and why it is one of the most important elements of your scrapbooks.

What to write...
When you are doing your scrapbook journaling think about the people who will read it in the future. Try and remember that they weren't there, give them as many details as you can so that they can relive your memories and stories for themselves.

One favorite scrapbook journaling technique is to write using the 5 W's method.

- Who :: who's in the photo, who took it and who else was present. It is important to name the people in the pictures you use. People change throughout their lives, especially children, so it is vital to tell readers who they are looking at.

- What :: what is the photo about? Describe what is happening.

- Where :: where is the event in your photo taking place? Give some background information.

- When :: when was the photograph taken? Give a specific date and include the year if possible.

- Why :: why did you use this photo? Does it show a special event like a wedding or a milestone birthday? Explain why it is so memorable.

Tell the story…

Don’t be afraid of scrapbook journaling. Just ask yourself, "What would I want to tell future generations about the photos on my page?" and then write it down.

A tip to remember is that all stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

For example, a nice way to start off your scrapbooking journaling is to give your album a title page. Use one of your favorite photos and write down who or what your album is about, you can even include famous sayings, quotes or a special poem if you want.

This leads nicely onto the 'middle' part of your story, the actual scrapbook pages and when you get to the 'end' make a page about yourself. Perhaps use a picture of you working on one of the pages and explain why you have made the scrapbook

Scrapbooking Tips & Ideas

Scrapbooking is a great hobby and a wonderful way to preserve your photos with style! The art of scrapbooking is not hard at all! All you really need is a creative mind and the urge to create masterpieces!

Once you have the general idea of scrapbooking down, use these ideas to create more meaningful pages!

Your Photos- The photos you use in your scrapbooking layouts will reflect the moment you want to save forever. Instead of having everyone pose for photos, try to take pictures without poses. The pictures you catch in action, also make great photos for layouts. If you use pictures that have been professionally taken or pictures that were posed for, try to also add some pictures that capture actions and faces, instead of all posed pictures.

Color Schemes- When you are selecting the color papers to use with your layouts, try to coordinate with your photos. This way you do not draw to much attention from the photos. When your pictures, paper, and embellishments coordinate with each other, your pages will stand out more than if everything clashes. If you have an idea for a layout and your pictures just don’t match, try to edit the pictures with any photo editor and make the pictures black and white, or sepia. These tones seem to work well with any color schemes.

Journaling- Once your page is complete, make sure you add your journaling! It is important to add your thoughts on the moments that were captured in the pictures. Journaling is a great way to express your feelings and a good way to save the memories for years to come. Journaling can be in the form of what was happening when the photos were being taken, where the photos were taken, your thoughts when you saw the pictures, or any thing that comes to mind when you think of the photos.

Simple Scrapbooking Tips

The scrapbooks you create today will be your family's memories for many years to come. When you make your scrapbooks, remember that photos will last much longer if they are properly stored.

Here are several great tips to follow when you are creating new pages in your scrapbooks!

1.Use only acid-free, lignin-free products. Papers and stickers with a high acid content can, in time, damage your photos or cause them to turn to a yellow color.

2.Store your albums (and any photos that are not yet in albums) in a clean, dry area away from direct sunlight. Albums should not be exposed to extreme temperatures either, like those in a cellar or attic.

3.Use page protectors to avoid the smudges, oil, glue and dirt that are transferred from your hands.

4.NEVER use the sticky, magnetic page type of albums. If you have used these in the past, remove your pictures right away and store them in a photo-safe box until you are ready to mount them on acid-free album pages. If you have trouble getting the picture off of the sticky surface, try gently prying the picture up with a kitchen scraper. This type of album will ruin your photos and can damage the pictures if you ever try to remove them!

5.Make sure you always "journal" your scrapbook pages. Using your words to retell the events makes the scrapbook even more treasured, and also keeps us from forgetting the important names, dates, and places for each layout.

6.If you use memorabilia in your albums, be aware that it may be printed on acidic paper. Examples include certificates, tickets, awards, postcards, etc. Be sure that these items do not touch your photos because your photos will get damaged over time.

7.Do not ever crop your Polaroid photos. Doing so will cause the pictures to fall apart and be no good! If you have a lot of these, try using mats and frames over the photos to hide the white strip that often appears at the bottom.