What do you like to cook? Do you have a passion for baking? Are you a whiz in the kitchen?

Here’s another question:

Have you scrapbooked it?

It’s time to capture the story of your kitchen prowess for your scrapbooks!

But first, here’s my confession:

I don’t spend a  lot of time in the kitchen. I’ve never really loved baking or cooking so I kind of do the minimum required. There’s a few things I make well, and I keep going back to those things.

I do the same thing with my scrapbooking.

What is your comfort zone? What supplies do you ‘always’ use? Do you find yourself creating the same layout over and over?

That is okay!

All you need is a bit of variety. You don’t need to reinvent scrapbooking every time you sit down, you just need a few tried and true recipes, things that really work.

Then, once in a while you can try something new. A new technique, embellishment, colour-scheme, it really doesn’t matter.

This is exactly like playing with new ingredients or trying a new recipe in the kitchen, it keeps things fresh. If you tried a new recipe every day in the kitchen it could be exhausting! It works exactly the same for scrapbooking.

Find what works and then spice it up once in a while.

For me, I love to make pancakes. Here’s my story…

Journaling details:

One thing I make very well is pancakes. I even make them fairly often! My recipe is from my friend Karen, although I have modified it a bit over the years! I love them with Saskatoon berry syrup. (P.S. Do you love my fancy dishes?)

Make it Monday

Are you ready for more delicious scrapbooking ideas? Head over to see what Alison’s up to with her fun layout about what parents do when their kids are away for a week. Alison Day Designs

You may have arrived from Digital Scrapbooking HQ where Melissa is showing you how to create chevron paper!

What do you think? Do you use tried and true recipes in your scrapbooking as you would in the kitchen? I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a comment or pop over to the discussion on the Scrapbook Wonderland Facebook page.

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.

P.S. Are you wondering about that beautiful patterned paper I used on the layout? It is from Simple Stories. Summer Vibes, Shine On.

Why I started pocket page scrapbooking.

I love to create detailed layouts that showcase special moments in our life. I found my scrapbooks were not sharing the whole story of our life.

I tried to create a Project 365 book before and failed miserably. I made it 62 days before quitting. It was just too much commitment. Taking a photo every day and trying to scrapbook it all just didn’t work for me.

Eventually I found my way to pocket pages. They seemed amazing! This was going to be so easy. Boy was I wrong!

Pocket pages were so difficult to use. If my photos were horizontal I would need them to vertical, or vice versa. I could never fill in the back side of the page, the photos just wouldn’t fit! I was so frustrated!

I needed a new solution.

I needed some simple guidelines to make it easy.

How to make pocket page scrapbooking easy!

Thankfully there IS a way to make pocket page scrapbooking easy. Follow these simple guidelines and you’ll be making pocket pages quickly and painlessly too.

1. Use a printer at home. This is essential. Being about to print photos in the sizes you need to fit the pockets makes pocket scrapping so much easier.

2. Alternate the album with horizontal and vertical pages. Some pocket pages have large vertical photos, and some have large horizontal photos. By alternating these in an album you have a lot of opportunities to insert your photos.

3. Add other sizes in between your main pages. Who says all of your pages need to be the same size? No one! Mix in additional memorabilia or photos using 5×7, 6×8, 8×10, 8-1/2 x 11 or other page protectors!

4. Use flip flaps (from Close to My Heart) to add extra photos and cards. Need to add a couple of extra photos or some more journaling. No problem! These flaps stick right to your page protector so you can add more details and interaction to your layout.  4×6 flip flaps, 3×4 flip flaps *links for Canadian shoppers

5. This is the big one! There are not a required number of photos that you must use. There are no rules about layouts. A layout can represent one day, one week or one month. Less structure makes planning the pages so much easier!

Why I love pocket page scrapbooking

Scrapbooking using pocket pages allows me to continue creating traditional layouts. I know that my Project Life style of scrapbooking will hit the highlights of our life so now I can go more in-depth in my journaling and storytelling for my traditional layouts. The pocket pages share an overview of our life and I create traditional layouts to get more detailed and share special memories.

History of Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking has a LONG and interesting history. You might be surprised at the origins of this pastime we call a hobby. You can read more about it in this article on Scrapbook.com

Make it Monday

If you’ve arrived here from the Make it Monday Blog Circle you’ll have revisited your childhood toys with Melissa. If you missed it check out: Squeaky Ted http://digiscraphq.com/squeakyted

Your next stop will help you tackle unfamiliar supplies with Alison. She will take on a kit that isn’t her regular style. http://alisondaydesigns.com/tackling-a-challenge/

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.

Sewing… it was the bane of my existence.

Try not to laugh too hard. If you are new to sewing, like me, I have to show you the coolest thing ever.

I recently had the opportunity to take a class with Stephanie Ackerman. She is a wonderful teacher that teaches from the heart and takes such joy in the passion of her craft that it is absolutely contagious. (Find Stephanie online at Stephanie Ackerman Designs.)

After 16 years in the crafting world of scrapbooking I have never been as excited about stitching as I am at this moment. Ok, that is not entirely true. When I first learned the technique of faux stitching on a scrapbooking page I was probably a little more excited, but it did not give me the kind of results that this did, and the feeling of accomplishment that I have now that I have completed this.

So, what did Stephanie teach me?

She taught me about imperfection. A new stitch. A new technique.

A quick selfie with Stephanie as she teaches me how to stitch.

I would never have guessed that sewing would actually become something that I would enjoy.

It takes a long time to sew and sometimes you make mistakes. That perfectionist part of me really struggles with that.

Ideally I want it to look perfect, and even, and have the right tension. And sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you miss a stitch. Or you get completely bungled right in the middle of what you are doing.

Just when you think you have it all figured out, you mess it all up.

But you just start over and keep going and try again.

What I want to show you is the piece I created. It took time and patience. Not just on my part. It took patience on the part of the people that were helping me. I was lucky. I had three people that came to my aid.

“I don’t know how to sew. All I know is up and down and up and down.”

That’s the only stitching I have ever done.

They didn’t look at me like I had little green antennae growing on the top of my head, they said, “Oh, this is how I do it.”

That was a fun thing I discovered.

Each stitcher that helped me to complete this little project had their own unique way of approaching stitching. That showed me that there is not just one way to do something.

You can attack stitching like I attack scrapbooking. Everybody can learn a technique and then you add your own flair to it and you can achieve beautiful results through doing different things.

So, will I stitch in the future?

Probably.

Will I stitch very often?

Probably not.

I’m lucky that I’ll have this video of Stephanie teaching me how to stitch to help me remember the next time I pick up my stitching. I’ll have this tutorial video from Stephanie, a teacher that has taken the time and patience to show me what to do. The next time I pick it up again I’ll have a teacher to remind me of what to do.

Here’s my challenge to you.

Try it.

Try stitching. Try sewing. Try something you are not comfortable with or that you’ve been avoiding like crazy. Sometimes that thing that has scared you, or made you run in the opposite direction is exactly the thing you need to take your crafting into a new direction.

And show yourself that learning is something that happens all of the time. I tell my kids that all of the time, learning doesn’t just happen in a school,  and here I am, 20 years after my high school graduation and I’m learning how to stitch.

Go and pick up something you’ve never tried before, or that has intimidated you or scared you. See if you like it. And even if you don’t at least you’ll know that for sure. Try something else.

This is how we progress. This is what keeps this hobby of scrapbooking fresh and new.

(P.S. I normally don’t take vertical videos… my son would be rolling his eyes at me if he saw this… tip… hold your cell phone horizontally for video… not vertical! 😉  )

Let’s take a closer look!

If you look closely you can see the errors. The unevenness. The inconsistencies in the stitching.

I decided that this piece would be a learning tool for me. I would practice and learn how using this tag booklet.

This was the only stitching I knew how to do before learning with Stephanie. It was so slow and painstaking, and it really didn’t have a lot of flair.

I mentioned faux stitching… let me show you just how easy it is!

Faux Stitching Technique

I was thrilled when I found out the easiest technique to make a layout ‘APPEAR’ to have been stitched… without all of the troubles that seemed to be involved with stitching.

Faux Stitching Tip: Draw lines using a white gel pen. Use a paper piercer to poke holes in the paper along the white lines. That’s it! It’s that easy! Here’s a close up look at how this appears on a layout.

Make it Monday

Are you ready for more crafty tips? You may have arrived from Alison Day Designs where Alison shares how to tell a new story about an old subject http://alisondaydesigns.com/just-around-the-corner/

Your next stop is:

Share some Crazy Good recognition with Kristie from Artful Adventures making quick treat bags! http://kristiesloan.com/treat-bags/

Who Did It?

What are you doing Wednesday, September 16? Don’t miss the chance to hang out with suspense author Mollie Cox Byran online! (It’s FREE!!)
Click here to view more details

Don’t forget to pop over to the Scrapbook Wonderland Facebook page for inspiration, to see what’s new, or share your scrappy tips!

Happy sewing! Let your creativity shine!

Alice.

In part 2 of the bucket list series let’s look at creating a bucket list of pages you’d like to scrapbook.

Did you miss part 1? That’s where we created at a bucket list of techniques you’d like to use. See PART 1 HERE.

2. Create a Scrapbooking Project Bucket List

Let’s make a list of specific scrapbooking projects you’d like to complete.

This can be layouts, mini books, whole albums, whatever kind of crafty project you’d like to create can go onto this list.

Why?

1. It’s helpful to have a list of projects you’d like to complete. This gives you a jumping off point when you have time to scrapbook. It also shows you what kinds of projects are important to you right now.

2. It’s good for days when you don’t know what to scrap. Sometimes you are just not sure where to start. If you have a pre-made list of page ideas that you would like to complete you can see which idea sparks your interest and scrapbook something that truly inspires you.

Scrapbooking something that truly excites you is the best way to stay motivated to keep scrapbooking. These are the pages that you will be the most creative with. You’ll find your ideas flow much easier when you want to scrapbook something and you aren’t trying to complete a project because you ‘have to’.

3. If you have a list you can add to it when you see a good idea. You know how Pinterest can be a vacuous time suck of pretty pictures? (It’s not just me, right?) When you look up, you realize that you have been staring at, and pinning, other people’s amazing ideas for hours and you still haven’t completed your project, or found that pin you were looking for? Oops!

If you have a bucket list of page ideas you can jot down great ideas for later, that way you don’t have to get sucked into the Pinterest vortex the next time you are looking for inspiration.

The bucket list is also perfect for those times you are talking to your friends and catch yourself saying, “I should totally scrapbook that!”

Want a peek at my Scrapbooking Projects Bucket List?

• A heritage album.
• My wedding album.
• A book about my aunt.
• Complete boys’ birthday layouts!
• An album about our home.
• Music from my childhood page.
• Candy I loved as a child.
• My childhood toys.
• Story about my long letter at summer camp.
• Family genealogy page.
• Page about Joe’s awful knock-knock jokes as a 5 year old.
• Finish my selfie album.
• What strange or unusual talents/abilities do you have?
• Pet peeves.
• What’s the silliest/craziest thing you’ve ever done?
• My collections.
• What do you photograph but never scrap?
• Favourite school subjects and the dreaded ones!
• Books I love.
• Movies I love.
• What’s your beauty routine?
• Best recipe?
• Kitchen disasters!
• Tales from summer camp. (cactus – duh!)
• Favourite piece of jewelry.
• Engagement story.
• Music that reminds me of…
• Chores! You love to hate ’em!

By calling this a bucket list it helps to take some of the pressure off of these incomplete projects. You are meant to get around to them eventually, but there is no sense of looming dread over the fact that they are not done yet. Hey, you haven’t kicked the bucket yet, right?

Here’s a page from my selfie album. The photo is me taking my own photo in a multi mirrored room… the most selfies I’ve ever taken at once!

Are you ready to go and create your own bucket list of projects you’d like to create? Feel free to use any from my list if you like them! 😉

I’d love to hear what kinds of projects will go on your list, let me know in the comments.

Bucket Lists Part 3

Tomorrow we will look at the final part of the bucket list series, so check back for that!

Let your creativity shine!

Alice.