My Funny Valentine

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be dripping with lovey-dovey prose and high-octane romance in dark secluded spots. For many families, February 14th is a time for love and laughter. If you are looking to create a Love Day layout for your funny Valentine, consider peppering the page with the following humorous quotes and poems: You know it’s love when you want to keep holding hands even after you’re sweaty. You can’t put a price tag on love, but you can on all its accessories. Love is a lot like a backache, it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know … Continue reading →

Subtle Holiday Touches

When it comes to crafting holiday scrapbooks, it’s not necessary to make every page as electrifying as the Griswold’s home in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” Rather, there are plenty of ways to celebrate the season with more subtle touches. For example, instead of going to extremes covering your pages with bright colors, large graphics and other extreme elements, consider softer embellishments that don’t overpower your photos or mementos. After all, if you want the focus of the layout to be your family’s treasured pictures, then attaching tons of extraneous bells and whistles will only interfere with this goal. Conversely, featuring … Continue reading →

Make Merry Layouts

Tis the season for your mailbox to overflow with holiday merriment. In a few weeks, it will be overflowing with bills accrued from making merry, so now’s the time to make the most of those seasonal greetings. As you are going through the cards, photos and newsletters sent by family and friends, take a moment to note which ones you would like to preserve. Pretty holiday greetings make fabulous additions to Christmas-themed scrapbooks. Not only do they provide gorgeous images to enhance layouts, holiday cards also allow you to save special handwritten messages from loved ones. Christmas is a magical … Continue reading →

Capture the Holiday Magic

It took nearly six years for me to capture a photo of my daughter with Santa. I can’t remember a time when my daughter wasn’t deathly afraid of the holly, jolly, chubby guy. She’s not a fan of skinny men with facial hair either, but I digress. My daughter’s exceptional fear of Mr. Claus made it impossible for me to snap a picture of the two of them together, so when it finally happened, I crafted a double page scrapbook layout commemorating the event. Two pages for a single trip to see a mall Santa may seem like overkill to … Continue reading →

Over 40 Holiday-Themed Scrapbook Title Ideas

“Holiday Hoopla” is the title of a scrapbook layout I made last year. It features photos of three generations of my family cooking together. I was going to use “Organized Chaos,” but decided to go with the seasonal title instead. Coming up with page titles is a passion for some scrapbookers, while others see it as a pain. I like to ponder page titles while I am figuring out the placement of my photos, memorabilia and embellishments. Often, a title will pop into my head as I survey all of the materials I am featuring on the layout. However, … Continue reading →

Spice Up Thanksgiving Layouts

Depending on the size and scope of your Thanksgiving Day festivities you could opt to create an entire scrapbook documenting the occasion or simply dedicate a few pages in a holiday-themed memory album. Many beginner scrapbookers select the latter because they don’t know how to fill the space. However, you don’t have to shoot hundreds of photos or go broke purchasing stacks of expensive embellishments to get rid of white space on your layouts. An affordable way to spice up your Thanksgiving layouts is to pepper them with poems that sum up the tone of the holiday. Fortunately, you can … Continue reading →

Thanks for Giving

In the chaos that surrounds the holiday season, it’s easy to lose sight of the true meaning behind the special occasions. Thanksgiving is filled with food, food and more food. The sumptuous spread can tempt people to focus more on what’s sitting on the table rather than who they are sitting next to at the table. When you are designing layouts for your Thanksgiving scrapbook, don’t forget to include memories that illustrate the true meaning of the holiday. Look for photos that speak volumes for the type of relationships your family members share with one other. You can further enhance … Continue reading →

Capturing the Spirit of Thanksgiving

This is peak season for scrapbooking. Once Halloween hits and we roll into Thanksgiving and Christmas, avid scrappers shift into marathon mode. With so many special occasions at hand, it’s often hard to keep everything straight. There are photos to take, edit and file; embellishments to buy or make; and journaling to write and proof. With Thanksgiving just a week away, now is the time to focus on the first step in creating a memorable scrapbook—-documenting. In order to fully capture the spirit of the holiday, it’s important to snap pictures that tell the story of your celebrations, and then … Continue reading →

Spice Up Your Halloween Story

When it comes down to it, a scrapbook layout is really an adventure in storytelling. Photos, embellishments, memorabilia, captions and journaling all help recount a special memory and preserve it for years to come. With Halloween just around the corner, now is the time to start strategizing holiday layouts. Consider how you want to tell the tale of your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. For example, if you want to put an emphasis on photos rather than write out lengthy journaling blocks, consider spicing up the shots by taking them from unique angles. Experiment with some extreme close ups and or … Continue reading →

Halloween Pages

Now is the time to stock up on Halloween scrapbooking supplies. Typically, I don’t purchase holiday-related items until after the 31st, so I can take advantage of post-holiday sales. However, this year, I’ve seen several major retailers (including Michaels and Hobby Lobby) offering up to 50 percent savings on Halloween-themed scrapbook elements before some kids even have their costumes picked out. Not that I am complaining. Still, if you are planning to purchase materials for your Halloween memory book prior to the holiday, there are some factors to consider. For starters, if your children haven’t already selected their costumes, stick … Continue reading →