It’s Friday! Let’s have some fun!
Feel free to pin this!
Did you miss the last Fun Friday post: MY SCRAPBOOK ROOM ISN’T MESSY…
Have an awesome, scrapbooking kind of weekend!
Alice.
Want to find the fun in scrapbooking again? Sign up for the Scrapbook Wonderland email list. You’ll get super scrapbooking tips, tricks and techniques delivered right to your inbox. And there’s NO spam… I hate it too!
Did you know that it’s possible to scrapbook every day for a month? I would NEVER have believed this was possible before my first LOAD (LayOut A Day).
It’s true! I did it and you can too!
In this post I’ll share all of my best pre-LOAD tips with you. I’ll tell you about the surprises, the supplies you’ll need, and the method I used to get through a LOAD challenge successfully.
At the end of this post I’ll share more stops on this blog hop so you can get tips from other Loadsters too.
There were a lot of things I didn’t know the first time I participated in a LOAD.
I had no idea how much fun I would have!
I didn’t know that I really could scrapbook every day for a month. I didn’t think this was possible before!
I was surprised to find out that I would learn to scrapbook faster. Scrapbooking every day will teach you little tricks that speed up your scrapping process.
I didn’t know how good the people are. Every day I would add my layout to the Flickr group. Other class participants would leave encouraging and positive comments on my layouts. It was so rewarding to see the kind comments left by the other scrappers.
I had no idea how inspired I would be by the other layouts in the group. I loved seeing how other scrappers interpreted the prompts and that gave me MORE ideas of things I should scrap! I made sure I left comments for some of the other scrappers too. There was a real sense of community.
I told great stories during LOAD. In the past I struggled with journaling but the prompts were very inspiring. They lead me to tell stories I had never thought to scrap before. The pages I created had heart. They told stories from the soul.
Want to know the secret? Most of the prompts start you with a story to tell. When you start with a story, you find pictures that will help you embellish the story and papers and embellishments that will pretty it all up. By starting with the story first, not the photos the journaling was so EASY!
I needed a lot of adhesive. Be sure to stock up. I use tape runner, glue dots, liquid glass and foam tape, so don’t forget to replenish your stash now!
I didn’t realize how much I love to use Thickers and other alpha letters on my layouts. Stock up with any essentials YOU need. Not sure what your go-to items are? Take a peek at a few of the layouts you’ve made recently. What do you use a lot of? Are there any trends? Make sure you have plenty of that go-to item on hand!
A great way to complete your layouts faster is to use kits that have coordinated papers and embellishments. Kits are designed so that the elements will work together. They PAY designers to do that for you, so make it easy on yourself and use kits! I like to have a variety of kits available for scrapping during LOAD.
There are three important things related to photos that have helped me complete LOAD.
I was surprised at how determined I was to be successful. I really wanted to be able to accomplish this goal. Here’s some tips to set yourself up for success.
Reaching the end of the month successfully is so rewarding. I don’t know how to explain the sense of personal accomplishment I felt at the end of my first LOAD.
I liked to find out the prompt for the next day the night before. If I could I’d take a quick peek at the prompt before I went to sleep. (You could always check in the morning if you’re not a night owl like me.)
I thought about how I would approach the prompt as I went about my day. I’d find a time I could print the photos I’d need. In the evening I’d sneak some time to sit down and scrap.
Having all day to think about the prompt gave me time to figure out how I was going to tell the story and which photos would be the best to help tell the story.
Learning how to scrapbook faster helps too. Scrapbooking every day sparked my creativity and I made gorgeous pages that told great stories and were fun and creative.
Sometimes it gets difficult. You may miss a deadline. You may have a day where you just can’t scrapbook. These things happen! Move on, know that life can be like that, and scrap again the next day. At the end of the month you’ll still end up with a bunch of completed layouts that you will be proud of.
I was reminded of another thing that helps when things get rough by Lisa H in the post comments. It was such a great point that I had to share it here!
Here’s what I wrote before I did my very first LOAD. Read the post. I’ve learned a few things since then!
Are you registered for LOAD215? If not Click here to view more details. I’m already in LOVE with the theme for this LOAD, I’m sure I’ll be sharing great stories!
Click me to sign up for LOAD!
There’s so many more things you should know before your first LOAD. Visit the blog posts on tis blog hop to get all of the tips and tricks you’ll need to get started!
Now, let’s get ready to scrapbook… every day, for a month!
Alice.
Love these tips? Sign up for the Scrapbook Wonderland email list! You’ll receive tips and tricks to help you make your scrapbooking awesome and we are NOT spammy, ’cause we hate that too!
Large photos make a statement. They are also a great addition to your scrapbook layouts. There’s many benefits to using large sized photos, so here’s 10 tips to get those big pictures on your scrapbook pages!
First…
Are you visiting from the Make it Monday blog circle? You will have arrived from My Kreative Pursuits where you were inspired to use a sketch to help you get scrappy! Be sure to visit all of the stops along the blog circle to see the rest of the scrappy inspiration. I’ll share your next stop at the end of this post!
Okay! To see how awesome large photos are for your scrapbooks I’ve created a round up of layouts with large photos. I consider ‘large’ photos to be anything larger than a 4×6, which is my standard scrapbooking size. Try using 5×7’s, 8×10’s or 8×12’s.
Feel free to pin these pages so you can refer back to them later!
1. Large photos are a convenient way to help you complete a layout quickly since the photo covers so much space.
2. Using large photos makes it simple and easy to complete a page as there isn’t much space left for embellishments and decoration.
3. Using larger photos is perfect when you have really good photos. You can see all of the details.
4. Don’t use the large photo size to skip the journaling! You can still include all elements of a page: title, journaling, and embellishments.
5. Using large photos can make a good title page. This is especially good if you are creating multiple layouts about a topic, like a holiday.
6. Don’t forget to play with photo orientation, horizontal or vertical… both work well.
7. For something playful use a large photo as a background and layer over top. It’s kind of like creating your own background paper!
8. Don’t forget to use different sizes of ‘large photos’.
9. Using a large photo on a traditional scrapbook page is the perfect way to accompany a pocket page.
10. Layer titles or journaling right onto the photo.
Are you ready to scrapbook using large photos? Can you guess what my favourite large size photo is? You can leave your guess in the comments! Don’t forget to tell me what your favourite size to scrap is.
Continue on the Make It Monday Blog Circle. Your next stop is Digital Scrapbooking HQ where Melissa will show you how they celebrate Australia Day.
I hope you will be inspired, sometimes bigger really is better. 😉
Happy scrapping!
Alice.
Like these tips? Sign up for the Scrapbook Wonderland email list!
It’s Friday… time for some fun! Here’s a smile to finish off your work week!
Feel free to pin this image to Pinterest!
Did you miss the last Fun Friday post? I CRAFT SO HARD…
Have a wonderful weekend!
Alice.
You know how sometimes good things come at you all at once? That’s kind of how I’m feeling right now!
Just when I was super excited about the True Scrap 6 classes being available for individual sale along came The Ultimate DIY Bundle.
Now, if you spent every last dollar you had at Christmas you may want to avert your eyes now, because once you see this deal you won’t be able to get it out of your head!
Too impatient for me to tell you more?
Click here to check out EVERYTHING included in this bundle.
For everyone who is NOT completely impatient here’s the details…
The super awesome news is that this bundle of eBooks, eCourses and Bonuses is only $34.95. It won’t totally break the bank. 😉
Do you want to hear the REGULAR price on these items? Over $1200!
Seriously!
That’s because there’s 76, yup, seventy-six eBooks and eCourses included. Heck, the bonuses alone are worth triple the cost of the bundle. (uh oh! I just said ‘Heck’!)
There’s stuff for: Crafts, Holidays and Seasonal, Home and Garden, Home Decor, Photography, Scrapbooking and Art Journaling, Sewing, the Business of DIY, Writing… did I mention SCRAPBOOKING AND ART JOURNALING?
I did? Good.
If you wanted all of these eBooks and eCourses you’d probably have to spend a week just hopping from website to website entering your payment info! (That’s why bundles rock.)
Want to see what’s in The Ultimate DIY Bundle now? Click HERE.
If you’ve been hanging out in Wonderland here with me you may have noticed I love sharing cool stuff that my online friends do. These gals make great stuff and I am happy to share it.
Several of my online friends have contributed to The Ultimate DIY Bundle.
This gives me great confidence in sharing this bundle. I know how hard my friends work to make sure they produce the best possible courses and information.
As with most great things there’s always a catch, but fortunately this one isn’t too bad, if you hurry!
The sale of the bundle is ONLY until 11:59EST on Monday, January 26th. Then it’s gone. You’ll be too late. Sucks to be you. (ooh… that’s harsh!)
You can feel confident in your purchase. If for some reason you don’t think you got enough value out of your purchase you have 30 days to get a full, 100% refund. Get more details on the sales page.
Why are you still here?
Just kidding! If this isn’t for you… that’s fine. Maybe you just aren’t a do-it-yourself-er. Maybe you really did spend all of your money at Christmas. That’s okay. I’ll be back soon to share more great scrapbooking tips, tricks and techniques with you. (Are you on my email list? It’s FREE. Sign up here.)
Let your creativity shine!
Alice.
This post contains affiliate links! If you purchase I will make money. It won’t cost you extra, but it will allow me to continue haunting this part of the internet and sharing awesome scrapbooking tips, tricks and advice!
Do you want to DO more scrapbooking? Our supportive community finds ways to support each other on our scrappy adventures and actually DO MORE SCRAPBOOKING! Check us out at ScrapHappy.org
A class to help you finally create a scrapbook about YOU!
Great tips and an experience that I think many of us can relate to. I think I’ve ticked every one of your points! But one thing I might add is that when you have a bad day, the LOAD discussion board is a great place to just connect with others to share the load (no pun intended!). It always helps me feel so much better