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What to do when your life is too BORING to scrapbook. I love these ideas for things I can scrapbook about my life! #scrapbook #scrapbooking #dailylifeIt’s a common problem.

You see other people scrapping their fabulous adventures and busy lives that take them to exciting places on a daily basis.

Then you look at your life and think, “I don’t do anything exciting. My life is just not that interesting. What can I scrapbook?”

Maybe you work at home. Maybe you go to work, come home, eat, sleep and start all over again. Maybe you don’t travel. Maybe you don’t have a family, or your family is not close. Maybe it feels like there’s nothing special going on in your life.

What can you scrapbook?

First thing to do is to realize that your life is NOT too boring to scrapbook!

There are TONS of things that you can scrapbook about your life. You don’t have to have children, a life full of travel, or exciting daily adventures to have something important to share in your scrapbooks.

In part 1 we are focusing on telling your childhood stories.

Childhood Stories

You don’t have to have a plethora of photos from your childhood to tell great stories. Use the photos you do have on several pages to tell different stories. One great way to make that photo feel fresh is to print it in different sizes or in different styles like black and white, sepia, faded or over-saturated.

You can search online for photos of objects/places/styles from your childhood and use the reference photos on your layouts.

You can create a layout without a photo.

You can use a photo from today and talk about how it reminds you of something from your childhood.

Not every photo needs to be an exact replica of our topic. Use photos from your daily life to tell stories about your thoughts/feelings.

  • Stories from school
  • School friends
  • Places I lived
  • Jobs I had
  • Fashion
  • Pets
  • Siblings
  • Cousins
  • Dreams/Wishes
  • Birthdays
  • Toys
  • Now/Then layouts that show what you loved then vs. now
Thumb sucker scrapbook layout by Alice Boll #thumbsucker #blankie #scrapbook #layout #12x12 #pink #doily

Go. See. Do. At Home!

The other thing to consider is that perhaps you could use a bit more spice in your life. Each part of this series will focus on something you can do in your own hometown so you feel more connected to your community and bring a bit of variety into your scrapbooking. We’ll focus primarily on things you can do without going too far or spending too much money.

In Your Neighbourhood.

Have you really discovered your neighbourhood? Take a stroll down your street. What are the common sights and sounds? How does your neighbourhood change through the seasons? Are there people out in the street or in their yards? What photo opportunities lie just outside your own front door?

You may wish to check out the Turquoise Table. Kristin Schell placed a turquoise picnic table in her FRONT yard and used it to connect with her neighbours. They now call themselves Front Yard People. She discusses this on the Simple Show Podcast Episode 94 with Simple Show host Tsh Oxenreider. You can listen to this on the podcast HERE, (skip to 30:42 to go straight to the interview about the turquoise table).

Want more ideas on getting to know your neighbours?

  • Smile and say hello to people you pass, stop and introduce yourself. Ask them what brought them to the neighbourhood and recommendations for things they enjoy close by.
  • Spend more time outdoors, this is where you’ll meet people.
  • Borrow some sugar. It doesn’t have to be sugar, but by borrowing something you’ll have a reason for a quick introduction. Keep it small and offer to return the favour!
  • Drop off freshly baked goods.
  • Welcome new neighbours to the neighbourhood.

 

In Part 2 of this series we are looking at: Daily Life

 

Happy scrapping!

Alice.

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Fun Friday: Scrapbooking Kits are Like Shoes

It’s Friday, time for a bit of fun!
Scrapbooking kit are like shoes: a girl can never have too many! #scrapbooking #joke #funny #fun

Scrapbooking kits are like shoes, a girl can never have too many!

 

Did you miss the last Fun Friday post? You’ll like this: TREASURES GALORE!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.

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Scrapbook Live October 2017

Scrapbooking is always more fun with friends, although I used to think it wasn’t as productive!

Yeah, that’s because at a crop I’d spend more time talking than scrapping. (I’m sure I’m not the only one!)

Thankfully during Scrapbook LIVE I actually get stuff done… and I encourage you to do that too!

This month’s Scrapbook Live was held Sunday, October 22.

I was using a Deluxe kit from The Wild Hare Kits. These kits are custom curated. You fill out a style profile and you’ll find supplies in your kit that match your preferences.

I created a 12×12 layout and a double page pocket spread using primarily products from the kit.

Surprise of the day… I used my Fuse tool for the second time ever!

I can’t tell you how many people I know that still have the Fuse tool they bought in the packaging that have NEVER used it. I don’t know if they’re worried about it potentially being difficult to use, but I showed exactly how easy it was to use when I made a shaker pocket filled with gorgeous sequins from Spiegel Mom Scraps!

Here’s the full replay:

Let’s take a closer peek at the layouts:

First up was a 12×12 traditional layout.

I had a very recent photo of my son attending the open house at the University of Alberta. He met a great guy named Cody in the Engineering department and Ryan is pretty sure that engineering should be his path. He was told you need an 85% average to be considered so he’s going to have to work hard to make sure his marks are there!

Using crowd-sourced ideas from attendees at the Live crop I was inspired to use the word “today” three times on the layout and I love the way it turned out!

I’ve found that adding journaling during the live event is difficult and kind of boring, so I add it after.

Next up was double page, pocket page spread:

Normally my pocket page represents a month, or the majority of a month. This time I focused just on a single day, my birthday! It was also Thanksgiving here in Canada so we had a great family get-together, and a beautiful strawberry cake for me!

more detail

I try to keep my pocket pages fairly simple… but I can’t help wanting to add a few fun embellishments like enamel dots and shiny stuff!

 

Here’s the right hand side of the page.

Want to know the big exciting part on this layout???? The shaker pocket full of sequins!

When I saw the packet of pretty sequins I thought of how much I enjoy seeing shaker pockets in other people’s albums. I’m always too lazy to make it happen, but NOT TODAY!

I pulled out my Fuse tool… I’ve literally only used it once, and after preheating for 10-15 minutes I ran a simple line across the page to seal in the sequins and it was THAT EASY!

Everyone at the live event was shaking their heads wondering why their Fuse was still in the packaging! I get it! As I said, I’d only used it once, but now that I’ve pulled it out again… I’m hoping this will be the start of good times ahead for me and my little Fuse buddy!

Look at those gorgeous sequins from Speigelmom Scraps! So pretty!

To add a little extra bling I added a bit of Wink of Stella in clear to the pocket card. A little shine with very little effort.

 

I hope you’ll join me next month on Sunday, November 26 at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern for the next live session of Scrapbook LIVE! There will be a giveaway for a free kit from The Wild Hare Kits, but you have to attend the live session to be eligible to win. I encourage you to have your scrappy supplies handy so you can scrap along with me.

 

Happy scrapping!

Alice.

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Birthday Layout for Teenage Boy

Scrapbooking teenagers can be difficult sometimes.

They don’t always like to have their photo taken and that’s definitely not helpful when you are a scrapbooker!

Luckily, my son Ryan hasn’t objected to his photo being taken and that’s great news since it was recently his 17th birthday.

I did have to tackle a couple of common obstacles to create this layout though.

Obstacle Number 1: Photo editing, ugh!

The colour in that bottom photo was beyond salvage. Now, perhaps if you have AMAZING photoshop skills you could pull it off, but the only photo editing I usually do is to increase exposure a bit and to take away the yellow cast so whites look like white again.

Unfortunately, this time my handy dandy tricks weren’t cutting it.

I LOVE Ryan’s expression on the photo, it really captures part of his personality right now, so I didn’t want to omit the photo from the layout.

I couldn’t get the colour to look good on Ryan AND the background at the same time.

Thank goodness for black and white!

TIP: To rescue a bad photo try black and white.

It’s amazing the difference it made and I was so happy to be able to include the pic on my layout without worrying about weird colours!

Obstacle Number 2: Hoarding Pretty Papers

The other great accomplishment for this layout was using the colourful balloon paper (Webster’s Pages). I had been hoarding it since the ScrapHappy scrapbooking reunion in Grapevine, Texas last summer.

Note to Self: It’s better to keep a special paper by USING IT ON A LAYOUT, than to keep it hoarded in my stash!

I’m so happy with the layout I was able to create by actually USING the paper that I loved.

 

 

Hopefully I’ll remember these tips when I face these obstacles on my future layouts.

Do you have teenagers to scrapbook? Do you scrapbook birthdays? What do you do when you have photos with bad colour? Do you hoard your supplies? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment here, or let’s chat on Instagram @aliceboll

Happy scrapping!

Alice.

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Crop With Me October 22

Join me for Scrapbook Live on October 22 as I create two layouts using a kit from our SPONSOR The Wild Hare Kits.

Join the fun of Scrapbook LIVE a monthly online scrapbook crop! You could win a free scrapbook kit if you attend the live online crop. #scrapbooking #crop #scrapbooklive

 

Sunday, October 22 at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern.

You’ll love the kits from The Wild Hare Kits. They are custom curated JUST FOR YOU! You tell them what kinds of products you like, and actually use, and that’s exactly what you’ll receive.

I can’t wait to show you what’s in my kit for October.

Want to see what happened last month? Check it the September Scrapbook LIVE event HERE.

If you aren’t on the Scrapbook Wonderland email list yet… what are you waiting for?!!!

Sign up with the pink and blue box and you’ll receive the link to join the live event. It’s totally free, so grab your scrappy supplies and let’s get some pages done!

 

Alice.

 

 

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