One of the best parts of being a paper crafter...

Let's take a break from my Styles of Scrapbooking series today and share a little more Christmas cheer.  One of the best parts of being a paper crafter is that you get to make 'just a little something' gifts to give to friends.  I made a bunch of these and quickly took a photo of the last one before I gave it to a friend yesterday.

I packaged each one in a larger cello bag after I added the treats, so nothing would fall out.  In my previous post, I shared how to use kits for scrapbooking.  This box is made from a kit, too.  It's our Gratitude for Days kit.  I still have more pieces left from the kit.  What else shall I make?

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- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Styles of Scrapbooking, Using Kits

There are many ways to scrapbook and there are new ways coming out, as well.  How do you decide what to do?  I think it's a matter of deciding what you enjoy doing the best and deciding what method you think does the best to showcase and preserve your memories.  Choose the method that you most enjoy doing and your work will be that much more creative.

Let's take a look at some of the most popular types of scrapbooking.  I've come up with 10 different popular types so far, so we'll look at one method of scrapbooking each day.  Many of my photos were taken before I added my photos to the layouts.  You'll see a few here and there that were taken with the photos, so you get to see it both ways.

1.
scrapbooking using kits
--- adding your own touches with it or just using what comes in the kit.  I've used kits to highlight a Christmas memory or to showcase a vacation to a location that is so different from where I live that I may need different embellishments and papers than what I'd typically use... such as going to the beach... I live on the Prairie:)  

This first layout is from our kit that was designed specifically for making a Christmas page for 2011.

This Halloween layout is from our kit designed for Halloween treat bags.  I added punched squares with a button on each, a snippet of ribbon and a spider web embossed banner piece.  There is a teeny, tiny bit of stamping on it.

This layout was made using some of our 'Tag A Bag' tag pieces.

This last layout is from various bits and pieces from one of our old Simply Scrappin' kits.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Styles of Scrapbooking, My Early Albums

Today, I'll share how I first started scrapbooking.  I'm sure you had albums similar to these and didn't even think of yourself as a scrapbooker.  I didn't either.  My work just rather evolved into what I do now... slowly, over time and as my life experiences took place through the years.

I started out making albums for my children.  I didn't consider them to really be scrapbook albums.  I just thought they were photo albums, but I started doing some journaling and thus, they became very simple scrapbooks.

Here are 2 of the first albums I made for my daughter when she was a baby.  They're just super simple with photos, memorabilia and bits of journaling here and there.

In addition to photos, I added artwork from her daycare and a few special cards.  The journaling is just written with an ink pen on the side of a page.  Geez!  I do so much more now:)

Then, when our first grandchild, came along, I made brag books.

When I made these little mini albums is when I first started playing with adding embellishments and stepping them up from just being photo books.

These were so much fun.  I realized I was becoming hooked.  I didn't have any interest in creating 12 X 12" (serious scrapbooking) albums until I starting making these little brag books.  I realized right away that I needed larger pages, to add more embellishments and places for journaling.  I wanted to preserve the memories... and that, dear friends, is what scrapbooking should be about doing.  You not only preserve and share the memories, but you relive them again while you're working on them and each time you reopen that album.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.