Digital Scrapbooking Blog and Scrapbook Inspiration
from DesignerDigitals

As some of you may know, I have been struggling a little lately, trying to keep up with my Project Life pages. I am almost caught up now but it sure is easy to fall behind. I’m sure I am not the only one to go through this on occasion. If that happens to you, don’t give up, you can do it!! What I encountered also was a lack of photos for certain days. Some days when everything is just crazy, the last thing I am thinking about is taking a picture, but on other days I might take a bunch. So when it comes to creating my weekly page I am faced with the dilemma of finding something to put on there. Now, is it cheating if I use a photo I already had? I think not. I have been known to look through my endless supply of flower photos, as long as the seasons match. Other times I find a picture on the internet, like I did with the movie we went to see. It works and I think it’s perfectly fine to do that, as long as the journaling goes with what you are using. Another approach would be to just journal for the day. I noticed that my kids always read everything I write on a page, it’s a big part of the memory making and just as important as a photo, don’t you think?

Here is my recent page on which I used a picture from the internet

and the facing page

It looks okay, don’t you think?

The other thing I realized is that I have to approach the PL pages as I do regular pages, meaning I use embellishments just as I would on any other page. I try to treat every section of the page individually and yet keep the colors unified. Sometimes I use more than one photo for a day and I try to group them together and embellish that section. I think you can see what I mean

Using that approach makes the whole project so much more enjoyable for me. There are so many cute things in the store, it’s hard to chose just one I have actually created a category in ACDSee called “365”. Everything that reminds me even remotely of PL will get tagged in there. It has made my life so much easier. I really love all the different pocket cards, sometimes I like to use bright colors, other times I am more in the mood for blending and muted tones. There is something for everybody.

Pocket Cards: 4x6 Vintage

Pocket Cards: Talk bubbles

How about these adorable banners?

Readymade banners: For Mom

Go check it out and remember, there is no such thing as cheating when it comes to creating your Project Life pages And the most important part is to enjoy the process!!

Anke

Welcome to the All About Me Challenge!

Summer is almost upon us, school is almost out for the year, and as unbelievable as it seems, the year is almost half over. Every year, time passes faster and faster. And I often want to hit the pause button.

My challenge for you this month is to stop and take a breath and look back at the first of the year. Did you make any resolutions? Set goals for yourself or your family? I want you to push that pause button for a few minutes and reflect upon those goals. Great results or not-so-great results - it doesn’t matter. Every result tells us something about ourselves and is a new opportunity to learn. So take the time and scrap where you are right now with those goals and resolutions.

Many of my goals and intentions at the beginning of the year centered on my parenting. I wanted to make sure that I parented my kids with purpose and with joy - I only have four more years with all of them home and I wanted to make sure that I was doing all I could do to enjoy these years.

Supplies: Cathy Zielske’s Layered Template No. 103, Rainbow Solids and Stripes Paper Pack No. 01, Elise Kit, Classic Cardstock: Festive Brights Paper Pack, Twisted Clusters Brushes and Stamps No. 01

I can’t wait to see your layouts!
~Steph

Up next in our series of Getting to Know You Interviews is another one of our dear friends from Australia, Trace (aka Tracermajig)!

Trace, I’m eager to get to know you. please introduce yourself!

Welllll, I have lived in the Sunshine State, Queensland, all of my life. We lived on a farm in pretty much the middle of nowhere until I was 11. I loved living in the country and was a real tomboy.  I also still miss it terribly sometimes. When I was 11 we moved to a beach town and that was a real culture shock for me! But I loved it and it soon became home. Mind you, I don’t like swimming in the ocean because I am terrified of sharks.

Lincoln was born in March of 2011 and life took on a new kind of busy. We decided that I wouldn’t return to work for the time being and now I am a SAHM. My days at the moment are spent chasing a busy toddler around and I love it.

Speaking of Lincoln, It’s pretty obvious from your gallery that your number one most favorite scrapping subject is your precious baby boy. You’ve done a marvelous job of telling the events leading up to his birth and his first year of life through your scrapbook pages. I am impressed that most of the time your layouts include a good deal of journaling along with the photo or photos. Does it come quite naturally to you to share the story in words as well as photos?

I am all about the story! I love to write and so the journaling is always my favourite part of the page, and sometimes even the first thing I do. I think as early as I could write, I’ve always journaled to some degree, so journaling on my scrapbook pages is completely natural to me.  All of my pages start with the story in mind, and then I go about finding a photo to go with it. And if there’s no accompanying photo, I’ll scrap it anyway. I actually struggle to get a page done if I have a photo and no story.  I also love journaling for totally selfish reasons – I have a terrible, terrible memory when it comes to details, so I like to record as much as I can before it’s permanently forgotten.

How do you manage to carve out time in your schedule to keep up with creating scrapbook pages? I’m sure all busy mums (and future mums!) would like to know how you do it!

I sacrifice sleep for scrapbooking! Ha! Scrapbooking is how I wind down, so I tend to scrapbook after Lincoln has gone to bed for the night. I am my own worst enemy though as I don’t like going to bed until I’ve finished what I have started. More often than not that means I am up til midnight or later scrapbooking. If we’re having a quiet day at home I might open something up and work on it here and there throughout the day and finish it up at night. I have a little notebook where I write down journaling prompts as I think of them (usually while doing housework!). When Lincoln was a newborn and we had no schedule and very little time, I would write things down so I didn’t forget the details so I could go back when I had time and scrap it. Already we are finding we are referring back to the early Lincoln pages to check when certain things happened, so I am really glad that I sacrificed a couple of hours sleep here and there to record the memory.

That’s so impressive! I wish I had recorded more of the details throughout my life as you are doing. If you could purchase any new technology or software no matter what the cost, to help you with scrapping, what would it be?

Something on my ultimate wish list is better storage for my stash! I scrap off a 1TB EHD and have 2 back up EHD’s but even with 3 copies of everything I worry one day they might all conspire against me and I’ll lose the lot. In the near future we are upgrading our home network to include some pretty impressive storage which also does an automatic backup on mirrored drives (or so Dylan tells me because I have no clue about these technical things!). I can then leave my EHD’s as backups only and get back to scrapping instead of worrying if today will be the day I lose the lot (again). J I’d also love to upgrade my poor, tired laptop to a Mac but that one will need to stay on the wish list for quite a while longer.

Well, you create wonderful scrapbook pages with your present equipment, Trace. I think we all worry about losing our photos or our scrapbook pages so you are giving us all a good reminder to have back up plans. You know one of our favorite questions to ask is, what are some favorite Designer Digital kits you find you use over and over again.

Ohh this is a hard one because I have so many favourites!! I tend to use Katie’s Hinge Pack and Clean Stitched Borders a lot.
Hinge Pack
Clean Stitched Borders: White No. 02
I love Maplebrook Studios Just Linens papers. I also use a lot of Ali’s word art and Katie’s stamped alphas. When my mojo is on strike I love Studio DD’s Layer Works templates as well to get me going again.

You live in a beautiful country, Trace. I think just about everyone would love to visit Australia. What advice for areas to explore would you give visitors to your country.

Ohh, that’s actually a tough question. I’d have to say see it all! We are really lucky in Australia in that we have something for everyone. From the Great Barrier Reef, to Uluru, beautiful cities and amazing country towns, tropical beaches to snow capped mountains. Each State and Territory is worth seeing for different reasons, they all have their own little gems. My biggest bit of advice though, let me know if you come to Brisbane!

In closing, let’s show everyone a favorite page from your gallery.

My favourite changes all the time, but this is my most recent favourite that I have done.

That is such a sweet layout. Everyone should visit your gallery, Trace, for more excellent scrapbook ideas. Thank you, so much for being in the interview spotlight this week and for what you bring to the Designer Digitals on a regular basis. We appreciate your involvement at DD.

Tracermajig’s Gallery

Congratulations to Scrapbird. Her layout Title Page has been selected as the featured layout of the week where she won a $ 5 DesignerDigitals Gift Certificate for product of her choice!

I couldn’t go past this adorable page by LeAnne (aka digishoes):

Bordering the page with a bolder color or a patterned paper is a great way to ‘ground’ the photos and elements on your page.

And a centered photo with added embellishments is always a great design jump-start. And LeAnne has made it extra special with the titled photo pegged to the page, the gorgeous banner behind in co-ordinating colours - and the perfect finishing touch of the slightly off-center journaling block.

I loved lifting this page, and so did Tara and Sam:

Credits: Layout by Lynn (me), Garden Mystery kit by Lynn Grieveson, Crowning Affair: Vibrant kit, Curled and Flat Photo Frames No.03 and I want To Tell You Titles by Katie Pertiet.

Credits: layout by Tara, Sun Porch clusters, Banner Templates, Sun Porch elements, Tied Fasteners No.03, Little Round Tabs No.03 by Katie Pertiet, Signature Chevrons Big, Aurora Paper, Beach Bloom Papers, Simply Fall mini-kit, Bunny Paperpack, and Signature Stripe Chunky by Andrea Victoria, Just Linens No.31 by Maplebrook Studios.

Credits: layout by Sam, Classic Curled Photo Frames No.03 by Katie Pertiet, Totally Trashed:Mayday paperpack by Lynn Grieveson, Day of the Week Banners by Ali Edwards.