Scrapping To Go

Scrapbook Room To Go

Having a lot of space to scrapbook is truly a luxury indeed, but certainly not a necessity.  The simplest spaces can prove to be a scrapper’s dream come true.  Here above is a small space used in a crop.  A crop is generally a place where scrapper’s bring their tools and scrapbook projects, on an appointed date, under one roof and scrap until their hearts content.

Some crops can last for days, generally on a weekend, while others may last only for hours.  But no matter what the duration, a great time is had by all.  This is a time when the scrapbooker can have time to create, time to explore new technique and time to get to share and have fun with other like minded folk.

Oh by the way good food is generally involved.

Well these are just a very few items that I consider my must haves on my travel scrapbook sessions.  A paper trimmer (this slim line just happens to be lighted),  a glass cutting matt, wonderful for measuring and makes light work when using the exacto knife or any cutting tool.  My portable Ott Light, sheds pure light on the surface and also has a magnifying feature.  My Totally Cool Tote, which I sit on a carousel so I can rotate without issue.  In the Tote I have a lot of other cool tools (such as scissors, adhesives, rulers, Crop A Dile).  And of course my portable electric die-cut machine, The Slice (which you remember from my earlier review of the product).

Now we will revisit all of these tools on future posts, but know this, these tools are not mandatory to have a great scrap session, but makes my life easier.  There is no wrong way to scrap.

With these tools, your photos, some great paper and your creative juices makes for a great scrapbook session, no matter what the space, or location.

Stumped of What Color Papers to Choose? Use a Color Wheel

Color Wheel makes for more precise paper selections!

Liven up your pages, never have dull scrapbook pages again. Try a Color Wheel.

By matching the prominent color in your photo with the key color on the color wheel, the wheel will point to colors that coordinate and compliment the colors in your photos.   Color wheels can be found in most craft stores and come all sizes, manufacturers and price ranges.  Generally $4 or $5 bucks for the smaller size shown here (by EK Success) and can range upward to $10 to $12.

Use of color wheels can help you choose good color combination in home decor, clothing ensembles and other  tasks where you want you points of interest to Pop.

Hey iPhone Folks! …”Theres’ an app for that”

A cool tool review for Scrap app for the iPhone - rating 4 out of 5 brads * * * *

As you already know, the iPhone by far is one of my most favorite “cool tools”.  I often use it to take photos of everything from other cool tools to awesome pattern papers to people, places and things.  So who knew there was “an app for that” !  Well folks I must tell you I was excited.

Often with photos on my iPhone that I haven’t had a chance to do anything with yet, and occasionally some dead time, while waiting in lines or commuting, I decided to quickly download the Scrapbook Ect, Scrap app for $1.99 from the iTunes app store.

It is kinda cool, you get to play, and again can in minutes have a simple and very, very basic digital scrapbook page, up-loadable to you PC, or can be emailed from your iPhone and can even become the new wallpaper on you iPhone.

Overall, it provides ease of use and with little effort, you have something cute to show that you created includes even fonts.  You have various digital papers to choose from, you get to select your photo and before you know it, in a couple of taps you are done.  I like the price and  it doesn’t take much space on your phone because it is a web enabled app.  Now you can have a completed digital page in almost real time and on the net and distributed to your friends and family.  Woo Hoo and did I say a nice cheap price.

Now what I didn’t like… the app has frequent drops as you are configuring your digital page and you loose your selections.  You can quickly launch it again and select your image, paper and font again…. but that can be a little annoying.  Also not a very extensive choice line up yet,  it is new, and I am sure the selections will increase with future upgrades.

Cute, I have included a quick sample of one of my digital pages generated with the Scrap app, from taking the photo with my iPhone to finished page, took all of maybe 5 minutes.  Not to bad for the personalized touch and it beat me playing iPhone Dungeons and Dragons, or whatever..

I give the Scrap app  4 out of 5 brads   * * * *

Scrap App Sample of Digital iPhone app

Making Memories in Moments

Here is a solution

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No time to Scrapbook, well I completely understand.  Sometime it doesn’t seem like there is enough time to breath, however, if you do schedule some me time and stick to it, even if it is just one block of time a couple times a week, you would be surprised what you can accomplish.

I get a lot of questions about where to start, we will cover this topic more in the upcoming segments.  But for now, start gathering your photos and just store them all in one place, a shoe box or a decorated tin if you feel fancy.

Now for some of you more advanced folks, try this simple 2 page layout… colorful and easy.  For the beginners, feeling adventurous with the right paper, adhesive and photos, you too will find this layout right up your alley.

Color Can Establish the Mood for Your Photos.

Colors make it happen, make it pop!

You can design a mood in your pages with color.  Colors don’t always have to match your photos, but should compliment them.  Colors used in your scrapbook pages should not over power your photos, you want the photo as the star.  There really is no wrong way to create a page, but your use of color can be just as important to the look of the page as the emblishments that you use.

This scrapbook page is bright and sunny and pefect for Summer.  Each season can have color hints that give the page difinition even before you add the photo…shades of blue, generally thought to be cool colors for winter, white too for snow.  Oranges and browns hint fall.  Pastel colors hint Spring and Easter.

Often you can also have colors that are gender specific, pink  for baby girls,  pastel blue for baby boys  and yellows for babies in general.

Whites with silver and gold often are used on wedding pages.  Graduation pages often use the school colors as compliments on the page.

So go have fun with color, there is really no hard fast rules.  Feel free to make up color combos as you go

Happy Scrappin’

Treasure the Warmth of Family and Friends

One of my favorite scrapbook pages.

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One of the many benefits of today’s technologies is, you are able to take photos of your family and special occasions and have them in minutes.  Saving digital photos from your digital camera on your PC’s hard drive and printing them out, allows you to quickly relive the moments.

Moments that can be shared by email, snail mail, or posted to a web site.  All of those ways allows for an opportunity to embrace the experience, again and again.

Scrapbooking is a way to tresure those special occassions, along with displaying the photos in the most appealing ways.  Scrapbooking also provides a way to tell the story of the occassion, the dates, time, the who, what and where in your own words.

The stories told in the pages will live on for generations.

Welcome to SmoothMoments!

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Here you will find goodies, tips, tricks, cool tools all wrapped up with a neat photo or groovy scrapbook page.

What you need to start?  You really don’t need much, but  here is a list of topics we look into within this site:

• What does a typical scrapbook page consist of?

1. Your photos
2. Paper – both pattern and solid colors
3. A Title
4. Journaling (to tell your story)
5. Adhesive
6. Embellishments

Below is a list of tools used in scrapbooking for effect and to make your pages sore to high places.  You certainly don’t need all of the items below, but it is just nice to know they exist and how they work.  But here  is a summary:

• Scissors
  

1. Straight , sharp and pointy
2. Decorative
3. Heavy Duty
4. Brand names

• Trimmers

1. Straight edge
2. Small Personal
3. Guillotine
4. Lighted Trimer
5. Dream Cuts

• Adhesives

1. Xyron
2. Glue Dots
3. Large Guns
4. Glue Sticks
5. Liquid
6. Hermafix
7. Snails

• Rulers

• Paper and Paper Sizes

• Albums and Album Sizes

• Templates & Shape Cutters

• Die Cutters

1. Sissix
2. The Big Shot & Big Kick
3. Cricut
4. The Slice

• Pens & Markers

• Punches

• Mats & Tables

• Magazines & Idea Books

• Webcasts and Links

• Stamping & Inks

• Embellishments

• and of course Cool Tools