Friday, March 26, 2010

Why Digital?

Today I thought I would try to explain my addiction to digital scrapbooking and maybe convert a few of you paper scrappers in the process!

Convenience: All of my papers, ribbons, clips, brads, stickers, scissors, etc are conveniently located on my hard drive (with a back-up copy on CD of course!). When I am in the mood to scrap, I simply go to my computer & get to it! When I am done, I walk away! No mess to drag out or to clean up. Also, if I decide I need something while in the middle of designing a page, I can hop on line, purchase & download the item I need, and be back to my page in a few minutes.

Logic: In this digital camera age all of your photos are on the computer. Why not take that one extra step before you print them? You're likely doing some edits anyway!

Cost: Anyone who has met my husband knows this is a major factor in anything I do! He is very.... frugal. His favourite thing about digi-scrapping is how much money we have saved since I stopped paper scrapping! When you purchase a digital scrapbooking kit, you can use the items over and over again unlike paper kits you can use just once. There is also a ton of freebies offered by digital scrapbooking designers. If you are selective, you can find a lot of great items without spending a dime!

Sharing: When I complete my scrapbook pages I am able to share them with anyone in the world! I post them on facebook for my friends and family to enjoy. Sometimes I print multiples of pages that I use in gift scrapbooks for relatives.

Damage Control: I make a lot of scrapbook pages. Sometimes I love the finished page - sometimes not so much! With paper scrapping once you cut your picture or your paper you're pretty much committed. If you want to change anything, you have to start all over with new products. Undo and delete are my best friends!

Laziness: When I get a page perfect (it happens!) I like to set it up as a template. Then I can use the same layout again and again by changing the papers or simply rotating or flipping the page!

Neatness: When I print my completed scrapbook pages, I put them in regular 8x8 scrapbooks. I love how all of the pages lay flat and the book fits nicely on the shelf. Nothing sticking out and no bulging page protectors!

Okay. That's it for today. It's snowing outside and I think I'll make myself a mocha and get back to reading Little Women!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Where does the time go?

What a surprise for me last night when I realized a week had gone by since my last post! At least I'm completing this post exactly one week from my last - which meets my original weekly blog post goal. (Phew!)

Creatively, I did not accomplish much this week. However, record breaking temperatures all week meant that a lot of other things were accomplished! We raked part of the yard (we have a HUGE yard - it's an ongoing process over a few days), painted the picnic table, found a bike for our daughter (definitely an answer to prayer!), made repairs on the bike for our daughter, finished some spring cleaning, wondered if it was too early to rotor till the garden, made our weekly trip to town and had a birthday dinner for my husband! All of this activity made me think about one of the the biggest reasons people say they don't scrapbook, "I don't have the time!"

I understand the time crunch! It is a perfectly valid reason for not scrapping. Between work, chores, church, homework, playing taxi for your kids (and their friends!), and attending games or plays who has any time? When you get ten minutes to yourself you'd like to relax with that book you bought... how long ago? Being a super-mom (or super-dad, or super-grandparent!) is exhausting!

So here it is - you will never find time. Yep! That's what I said. Never find time. It's not going to sneak up on you, "Oh! Hello, Time! There you are!" You need to make time. I know. "How am I going to do that? Did you see my to do list?" I saw it.

I used to hate when my sister would tell me to schedule things. She's very organized and I have often suspected her of having bathroom breaks scheduled in that day planner of hers. I don't know - I'm just saying! Me? Not so much. I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal! I don't like keeping a day planner at all. I bought one once, but only used it for about a week. If you're into that kind of thing, great! For the rest of us a wall calendar will work just fine!

Pick a day. Any day. You don't have to scrapbook every day. You don't have to scrapbook every week. You don't even have to do it every month, if you don't want to. My friends and I would scrap the first Friday of every month. We made it into a girls day out. We would head to the scrapbook store in the morning and scrap until noon. Usually we would only finish one or two pages because coffee and conversation would often take over!

Pick a time. If you're going to be scrapping with friends, pick a time that will be convenient for everyone. We always found mornings worked better for us because evenings were full of our childrens' activities and church events.

Be realistic! If you have decided that you can only devote two hours, once a month, you're not going to be able to scrap every detail of your life! Pick a few pictures of one or two significant events or moments to scrap. You will only be able to complete one or two pages in that time frame. You don't have to fill dozens of books every year. If you complete one - and you enjoyed doing it - it's a success!

Plan ahead. When time is limited, I find it helpful think about what I want to scrap ahead of time. If you keep your scrapbooking date written on your calendar it will be a lot easier to remember to do this! If you're a paper scrapper, make sure all of your supplies are ready the night before. Prepare a tote bag if you're heading out to scrap, or have one area (even a shelf in a closet) where everything is kept together if you're scrapping at home. It saves so much time when you aren't running around looking for something!

Consider going digital! I know there are tons of gals out there who would never, ever consider crossing over to the dark side and joining us digi-scrappers! I find digital scrapbooking so much more convenient for my lifestyle. I can scrap whenever I have a few free minutes. There is nothing to drag out or clean up which is a real time saver! If I have to divert a catastrophe (I'm a mom - it happens!), I simply click "save" and run to the rescue! If you are worried about losing the social aspect of traditional scrapping, you can always plan a scrapbooking LAN party! (If you're not a geek - Google it! My husband and his friends will be so proud of me right now :D)

I hope some of these tips/suggestions might help someone out there! The biggest thing about scrapbooking isn't how much you get done, or how fancy it is. Just enjoy it!

Monday, March 15, 2010

My Two Cents on Journaling

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don't know who "they" are, but in my experience a picture is worth about five. Who? What? Where? When? Why? Sure, if you're trying to describe the Taj Mahal to someone, a picture will certainly do a better job than any words. The average album or scrapbook though...

As children, my sister and I would spend hours on the "little couch" in our great-grandparents' living room flipping through album after album of old photographs. Gram and Grampy enjoyed answering, "Who is that?" "Where was this picture taken?" and, "How long ago was this?" Although we loved to listen to them talk about their friends and family, we were just kids and most of their stories went in one ear and out the other. The amount of history that was lost when they passed must be unfathomable!

My grandmother has always been a journal keeper in her own way. She doesn't keep a diary (that I know of), but she keeps newspaper clippings and writes names and dates on almost everything! She is a bit of a hoarder, so she has calenders full of birthdays and anniversaries stashed away, and boxes of old notebooks and artwork in the attic. We all tease her and say that we're just going to throw it all away some day so why bother keeping it. I'm sure that when we decide to clean her out, we'll all spend days reminiscing over her treasures!

The point I am trying to make is that journaling is a very important part of keeping an album, whether you choose to scrapbook or not. You know the who, what, where, when, and why of every photograph in your possession. Your children might not. Your grandchildren won't.

Journaling doesn't have to be extensive to be effective. I have a friend who is an amazing photographer and develops hundreds of photos every year. Although she likes to look at my scrapbooks, she prefers to keep her photos in albums. She does, however, use albums that have the little area for writing notes or comments next to every photo. I love these albums! It's the next best thing to scrapbooking! Recording nothing more than the date, names of the individuals in the picture, and the occasion or place it was taken ensures that you (or anyone else who might be looking) don't forget!

Journaling works pretty much the same way when scrapbooking. Although I have many pages with paragraphs of thoughts, I have more with nothing but a title (to capture the mood or clarify the occasion), a name and a date. Sometimes less is more - sometimes more is more! Use your own judgement. When you look at your scrapbook page and think all of the who, what, where, when and whys have been answered, then you're done!


Thursday, March 11, 2010

My First Post!

Welcome to my little space on the web! I am completely new to the entire blog world! I know - have I been living under a rock for the last ten years? Apparently there are entire blog communities and everything! I guess everyone will just have to bear with me during my growing pains!

My obsession is digital scrapbooking. I realize that any Google search will bring up a ton of digital scrapbooking sites and blogs that already exist (and are likely a bit more flashy than this one!). Why would you want to read another? I find that although there is a lot of digital scrapbooking information out there - a lot of digital scrapbookers have lost that purity and simplicity that came with traditional paper scrapping. I love to keep people guessing. The biggest compliment I was ever given was, "Is this digital scrapbooking or pages you've done and scanned?"

I guess it all started when we moved to the country. I was used to being able to run anywhere - any time of day. Cabs, buses even my own two feet could get me to friends' places for coffee, malls, book stores or the library. What a shock to the system, moving to an area that is a 45 minute car drive to the nearest town. And I mean town... think small town... very small town! Don't get me wrong - I love country life now and I don't think I could ever be a city dweller again, but that first year or so was horrible!

I had dabbled with scrapbooking a little bit here and there for years, but after the move it became a full time hobby. I met a few ladies from my church who also scrapped, so it made a wonderful venue for meeting new friends! We scrapped on my kitchen table quite a bit before discovering a little scrapbooking store in town (you remember - the very small town!). We then made it a monthly tradition to scrap together at the store and then go out for lunch.

I loved my traditional paper scrapping! The only problem was that the "neat freak" part of me was always a little disgruntled when a page protector didn't lay completely flat, or a bit of ribbon was sticking out of the top of my scrapbook. I loved the look of the embellishments, but wanted it to be tidier (if that makes any sense at all!).

I actually discovered digital scrapbooking while reading a magazine article about three years ago. A lady had made the same layout traditionally and digitally. It was amazing! I was hooked right away! I ran to my computer and Googled "digital scrapbooking" as fast as my fingers could type! The rest is history! I just sold all of my paper scrapbooking supplies last summer. I kept holding on to them, just in case. I know now that I will never go back.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me. I will try to update regularly. Maybe start a gallery of my work!