Hope you enjoy the video above with some Scrapbooking Ideas and Saving Tips!

The kids are finally in bed and hubby is being a “couch potato” and you finally have a few minutes to sit down and make a scrapbook page or two. Then your mind goes blank and you become extremely frustrated instead of excited. This has happened to me several times and so I have come up with a great plan that has helped me and I hope will help you also.

First, find an empty 3-ring binder around your home or go to the store and buy a cheap one. Then search the internet, or scrapbook magazines, or scrapbook ideas books. Whenever you come across a cute idea for a page layout, simply print it off or cut it out and add it to your 3-ring binder. Soon your scrapbooking idea book will be full of ideas.

Next time you go to sit down and are ready to create a page layout all you will need to do is pull out your handy-dandy scrapbooking ideas book and create, create, create! Scrapbooking ideas are not hard to find, especially on the internet, so get searching. Just “Google” the words “scrapbooking ideas” and you will be rewarded with 395,000 hits (last time I checked). Maybe you better go out and buy some more 3-ring binders!

I have a scrapbooking idea of my own that I would love to share with you. These ideas have helped me a lot during the 15 years that I have been scrapbooking. The first idea I have is to go online and go to your favorite scrapbooking sites and join their forums. When you join the forum, you can at that point ask questions and get great ideas from the other members of the forum. Also, a lot of these sites will have “Galleries” where they have uploaded their page layouts and you can get great inspiration from there. I have included the link below so that you can have instant access to one of these Galleries.

http://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/layout/0/-1.html

It can be frustrating at times to pull a page layout together, but one of my most important tips that I have is to keep it simple! Sometimes we get to caught up with all of the bling and forget that all we really need to tell the story is the photo and journaling. Scrapbooking ideas are a “dime a dozen” and we can have a lot of fun with them, but simplicity is the key!

Putting together a scrapbook is a fun way for you to capture your memories and milestones. You do not need fancy paper or embellishments. All you need to start with is friend or family members that enjoy the hobby, and then get scrapbooking ideas from them. Or you can look through idea books to find the style that you like. Scrapbooking classes are quite the rave these days. You can sign up for one if you feel like you need a boost for scrapbooking ideas. Spending time with family and friends or even strangers, will help you to get motivated and get going with some pages.

If you start to get overwhelmed just stop and take a breath and realize that it doesn’t have to be complicated to find scrapbooking ideas. Scrapbooking can be as simple or complex as you make it; it is purely up to you to decide what you want to accomplish. All you need to do is remember to “keep it simple” and create a scrapbook out of scrapbooking ideas that you have found. Keep a folder or a 3-ring binder full of ideas for scrapbook pages, how to make your own embellishments and really anything that will help you to get more scrapbooking ideas.

Scrapbooking is purely to savor your special moments with your family and friends. Any way you do it and like it will work. Don’t stress if you make a page that you don’t LOVE. Keep it! It shows your progress.

My husband and I took a trip back to the beautiful state of New Hampshire this past week. If that didn’t get us ready for fall, then nothing could. It was breathtaking! They told us that we missed the “peak” foliage season by about a week. If that wasn’t the peak, then I can’t imagine how beautiful the “peak” season is. The leaves were so vibrant and the air was so crisp. It rained and drizzled a lot, but that did not dampen our spirits. In fact, the rain made everything shine and glow even more. Well, enough about our trip, and onto scrapbook topics.

I have been a part of a Scrapbook Club for over 13 years and each year myself and the other 10-11 ladies in the club take a weekend and head up to Lisa’s family cabin in the beautiful mountains of Utah. We went up the 2nd weekend in September and so I did our next podcast with some of the members of our club.

I hope you enjoy this podcast. It was fun for me and the ladies were nervous at first, but then they were able to see how easy it really is and they had fun too. In a future podcast I will go into more depth concerning Scrapbook Clubs and how to get started and the rules that we have used over the years. So sit back and enjoy a short interview with a few of my friends from my Scrapbook Club.

So what in the world is Podcasting and why should I care? What a great question! Here is a great definition from Wikipedia.com:

“A podcast is a series of digital-media files, which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.”

Our Scrapbook Podcasts here at ScrapbookTalkRadio.com can be heard here on our website by simply clicking on the green play button above or you can download our podcasts at iTunes by simply clicking on this easy to use button below:

Want to learn more about RSS Feeds check out this great video at Youtube.com, Video: RSS in Plain English.

Here is a quick video on how to subscribe to our Scrapbooking Podcasts at iTunes and Zune.

Digital or not to digital . . .

We just completed a new podcast on digital scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking is the new scrapbooking craze and there are many benefits to scrapbooking digitally as opposed to the traditional way. We talk about this in the podcast and we also talk about how to get started and what are the best software programs to use.

Cheri will be putting together several digital scrapbook tutorials that will help you tremendously in getting started. They will be for a nominal fee, and will provide a wealth of information that it took her years to figure out on her own. Look for these great tutorials and happy digi scrapin’.

I have created some digital scrapbooking pages using the Memory Mixer software program. These are pictures of flowers that we took while we were in France. The flowers there were so beautiful.

Technorati Tags: Digital Scrapbooking Podcast, Digital Scrapbooking, Memory Mixer Software

First of all, you have to find a software program that will be easy for you to start with. I started with a program called Memory Mixer and then I found a program called HP Creative Scrapbook Assistant, and then I found a program called ScrapMaxi. Now, this might confuse you because I said to start with a program that will be easy for you to use. All three of these are easy and I wouldn’t recommend buying all three like I did, but I would check each one out and see which one fits your needs best.

The next thing you need to do is find some digital kits that you can purchase that will fit the needs of the type of scrapbook you will be working on. For instance, I am working on my new granddaughters’ scrapbooks and so I have been purchasing baby girl kits. With each of the software programs I mentioned above, you can purchase kits through each of their websites. Kits will generally run around $5-7 and each kit will come with background paper, embellishments, word art, alphas, etc. Everything you will need to create page layouts.

The final step is to create your page layouts and then print them out and bind them in a photo album. There are many ways to do this and I will do another article about this subject soon. The programs I have mentioned above offers you ways to print your album. For a minimal cost, you can even have them print and bind your album for you. Unless you have a great printer, this might be the way you want to go.

In a nutshell, this is the basics to get started digital scrapbooking. Of course, there is more to it, but at least you know enough to get started.

In future articles I will be telling you about a new way that I digital scrapbook. It is using the software program called Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6.0. This is more complex and I am fairly new at it, but the reason I like this is because you can import any digital image into this program, which means that you are not stuck using just one certain program and their products only. Like I said, this is a little more complex and I am glad that I started with the simpler programs I suggested above because I was able to learn using these easier programs. But now I have become adventurous in using my new Adobe PhotoShop Elements 6.0!

Make sure you listen to our next podcast where we will be talking about digital scrapbooking more extensively. Also make sure you take our poll at the right sidebar named “Do you Digital Scrapbook?”!

Life keeps everybody busy, but there are so many opportunities for us to learn and grow. Joining scrapbooking clubs, or book clubs, or quilting clubs can give each of us the “out” that we may need. Just doing something we love and getting together with other people can result in a lot of satisfaction.
If you would like to know more about this club that I belong to, leave a comment in our “Questions” section on the right hand side.

I love this quote, “Life is not a destination, but the journey along the way”. I’m not sure who wrote this, but I love this quote and I definitely believe it is true. We need to “stop and smell the roses”, or else we won’t have taken advantage of all of the simple things of life. Life goes way to fast as it is, so hopefully we can all enjoy every minute of it.

Okay, enough of my philosophizing, and lets get back to scrapbooking. Where were we, oh yah, embellishments. As I said in the podcast, embellishments are my favorite part of scrapbooking a page. There are so many choices to choose from and the possibilities are endless. Like I talked about in the podcast, the zillions of possibilities you have with silk flowers alone! Just make sure that you purchase silk flowers that won’t run if they get wet. To test this, just take one flower off of the bunch that you have purchased and run it under water. If it runs, take the bunch back and ask a helper as the store if they can help you find a bunch that will not run. Also, you can buy silk flowers in the scrapbook store, but they tend to be more expensive. But sometimes it is better to have peace of mind in knowing that you have the perfect product.

There are a lot of great ideas on the web, just Google the word “embellishments” and have a lot of fun taking advantage of all of the ideas that others have shared. Have fun this week with your embellishments and try something new. Then, share it with us and we will post it here at Scrapbooktalkradio.com and maybe even on our podcast. Have a great day!

Scrapbook Embellishments are our favorite part of creating a scrapbook page layout.  There are endless possibilities and we will discuss a few great products and ideas here in our scrapbook podcast episode #6.

Here is the link that Cheri talked about concerning the many great embellishments you can create with silk flowers .

Cheri also talked about a darling snowflake you can create using glitter and lace.  Make sure you use scrapbook glitter!  Go thru your home and find items that you can recycle to make fun embellishments.  Cheri gives several ideas on this subject.

Melissa told us how to adhere our scrapbook embellishments using Velcro.  She also talked about metal embellishments such as spiral clips, safety pins, brads, eyelets, etc.

Carli then ended the podcast by talking about punch setters (Springlet and Karen Foster).  Also be sure you check out the new Xyron Design Runner and all of the new and fun decorative tapes .

All of the products that we have talked about can be purchased at JoAnn’s – just click on the JoAnn box on the right.

Make sure you join us for another educational podcast where we will be interviewing Garrett Pierson (Son and Brother), our podcast guru.  You will be learning about many fun podcasts and more in-depth info about podcasting.   Have a great day and an even better summer!

My Podcast Alley feed!

One of the most important projects you should do as you start scrapbooking is to get organized! In this episode we just scratch the surface of Scrapbook Organization.

Now, to organize the many supplies that you will use to create your pages. These supplies will be those freebies that you download off the internet, or the kits that you purchase from the many websites that offer great tools. You can look on the web for ideas to scrapbook organize your supplies, but I will tell you how I have become an effective scrapbook organizer.

Trust us, getting all of this organized will save you tons of time. Time you will need to scrapbook! You are on your way to becoming a great scrapbook organizer – keep going!

Here is a great article about getting your scrapbook area and storage organized:
www.simplify101.com/scrapbook-storage.php

Beginner Scrapbooking part 2 podcast continues with some great questions from beginner scrapbooker Lindsey Pierson.

Below are links to items that we talked about on the Podcast:

Scrapbook Photo Markers

Beginner Kit

Check out this great articles about Top Ten Must-Haves for Beginner Scrapbookers and article about acid-free products.