Simple Scrapbooks

I LOVE THIS!!!

This layout is in the new Simple Scrapbooks Group on our new website (still in beta). It's one of my very favorites, so I had to share it with you! Click here to see it up close and tell mlepitts how much you love it! And if you haven't joined us in our group on the new site, you simply must. We got 50 new members just this week! But I think we can do better. I just posted this week's poll question here, so come on over and let me know what you think! Sorry for all the exclamation points!!!

It's What's On the Inside That Counts

Look what arrived in the mail today? Inside this squished up box was a beautiful Pioneer photo album (also squished), that I was expecting for an album I'm putting together for our upcoming special issue tentatively titled "Quick Creative Photo Albums"... but can you believe the beating it took in the mail? Seriously, how does something like THAT happen? Do they play hockey with the boxes at the UPS warehouse? I mean, this is a heavy duty album. But the nice folks at Pioneer are sending me a replacement for the issue.

 

Maybe I could use this damaged one to house an exciting new idea for a theme album. I'll call it "Damaged Goods," and it will be all about injuries, mishaps, things I've broken, and things that have gone wrong in my life. Prime example: I have ripped THREE side mirrors off of THREE different cars I was driving: backing into a pole, hitting a huge construction barrel on the freeway, and even rolling one car over completely upside down and landing right-side-up. That's right, steer clear when I'm behind the wheel!

Hmmm...

Skulls?

Halloween was a BIG theme at the CHA show, so as I walked the floor, I snapped pictures of all the cutest skulls I saw. Some were a little creepy, some were dang cute, some were even wearing bows. My FAVORITE Halloween line of all was "Hallowhimsy" by Imaginisce, pictured above and below! (Click here to see the full line.) And click "more" below to see my collection of skulls.

Bonus Quote for the Day: "You saw one of my skulls, didn't you? Oh yes, I know you did. It belonged to a neighbor of yours. The name was Knapp. We took the house from them. I offered to buy it but you know how old people are, they grow so attached to things."
~Dr. Werner Klopek

 

 

 

 

 

Paper bag kit by K&Company

 

Paper by Creative Imaginations

 

stickers also by Creative Imaginations

 

Scissors by Ink by Steph (owned by Fiskars)

 

Glitter skull sticker by Doodlebug (adorable eye patch added by hand)

 

Skulls, pumpkins, and cat stickers from EK Success

 

Cute little skeleton by Cosmo Cricket

 

winged skulls by Rusty Pickle

 

pirate baby bib by Plaid Enterprises

The Submissions Game

It can be rough. You pour your heart and soul into a layout. You submit it to a magazine or two with hopes of being published. You wait on pins and needles in hopes of getting a call or an email. It's not easy being a scrapbooker.

It's not easy being an editor either. We get hundreds of GREAT pages, and we have to sift through all of those to pick the 20 or 30 or 40 we're publishing in our latest issue. We just got done selecting the 10 layouts for the Nov/Dec "Our Readers" column, and I have to share two of the comments that came in from women who were picked:

"So excited you want to use my layout for the Nov/Dec issue! I have to tell you how funny it was when I got the email last night with your request, because I recently wrote in an email that I haven't been published in Simple Scrapbooks yet...and now I will have 3 layouts in the Nov/Dec issue! I'm so so excited to be a part of SS and get the chance to work with all of you! Thank you so much for this opportunity!"
Stephanie Klauck, Ontario

"Thanks for choosing my layout to be published in your magazine. I'm thrilled to have a page chosen, especially one that really didn't take long to put together. My life has taken a turn for the busier, with no relief in sight, so I was considering just getting out of the submitting game... not that I submit much, maybe 1 or 2 pages a month to two different magazines. I have a hard time not getting obsessive about scrapping at a certain level but this goes to show it doesn't have to be fancy or take a long time to get noticed."
Barb Wong, Ottawa

So, if you haven't had a layout picked up yet, take heart! You never know when the stars will align and three different editors will select pages you made for the same issue. And I love Barb's perspective...she's absolutely right. It doesn't have to be fancy to get noticed here at Simple.

Oh, and p.s., it might help your chances if you moved to Canada. Just by coincidence, eight of the ten layouts in "Our Readers" this issue were designed by talented Candian scrapbookers!

Look What We Made

Simple Scrapbooks magazine, represented by me and one of our favorite contributing writers, Kelly Jeppson, participated in a "craft off" at Scrapbook USA last weekend!

The man who helped us buy sheet metal at Home Depot (nickname of "Turbo," according to his apron) thought it was really funny that there's such a thing as a craft off. You could see "Competitive crafting? That's a new one..." written all over his face. But I think even he would have been impressed had he seen us madly crafting on a stage surrounded by hundreds of tables of scrapbookers.

 

 

Here's how it worked: four magazines faced off against each other...and we had exactly 2 hours to decorate a cabinet (whatever theme we chose). It was Simple vs. Paper Crafts vs. Memory Makers vs. Family Fun. And the winner was: Family Fun with a cute cowboy-themed cabinet. Win or lose, we still had a blast! Here's our project. It's called, "Just Add Boy," and we used the Cosmo Cricket "Get Happy" line as the basis of our design. (Yes, that knob really is a part from an outdoor faucet. And our sign is hanging from a string of paper clips. And there are wheels on it.)

These cabinets will be auctioned off in a few months and all proceeds will benefit a local children's hospital. Crafting for a cause. That's us.

Incidentally, the craft-off was only the second most exciting thing that happened at the Scrapbook USA expo. Someone actually got engaged on the stage over by the deejay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Shopping Game

Next time you're scrapbook shopping with a friend, split up and buy each other a little gift (pick something that reminds you of your friend's tastes or style), and then challenge each other to use that product on a layout!

That's what the seven of us did on our little trip to Archiver's. We quickly lined up according to height (Candice really is the tallest...she's just leaning forward), and then we bought a little something for the person just shorter than us. Then we exchanged and went home to scrapbook.

Pictured from left to right: Candice Palmer, ME, Margaret Scarbrough, Marnie Flores (holding baby Lavender), Elisha Snow, Karen Glenn, Rachel Gainer. Incidentally, Rachel (the shortest) has the tallest husband of the bunch...he's 6 ft. 5 in.

 

Here are the presents we exchanged. Click more below to see our pages!

 

 

Candice (our tallest shopper) got these embroidered K&Company brads from Rachel (our shortest shopper), but somehow the package of brads didn't get into the group picture.

 

Candice (tallest) gave me (second tallest) a fun sheet of double-sided paper (red polka-dots on one side, colorful scallops on the other) and red chipboard letters, both from Scenic Route. Here's my page!

 

I gave Margaret these rubber frames from KI Memories. I actually had something else picked out for her first, but then I noticed she had that very thing in her basket already. Yep, I know my Margaret products... :-)

 

Margaret bought Marnie these cute fuzzy flower brads from Making Memories. Awww.

 

Marnie in turn picked out a sheet of SEI letter stickers for Elisha. Goodness gracious, how cute is that photo?

 

Elisha also picked those fuzzy flower brads from Making Memories, and she gave them to the shopper just shorter than her: Karen Glenn. Showing us all up, Karen made a super sweet layout AND a card.

 

Karen picked out a package of chipboard circles by Scenic Route. Rachel was inspired by the accents' theme (kind of a "his and hers" approach) and created this cute layout!

Our Bind-It-All Projects

Due to popular demand (from exactly 3 blog readers), I shall hereby post our amazing Bind-it-All notebooks. Yes, the machine is actually called the Bind-it-All, and it's made by Zutter, nevermind the fact that I called it a Zutter in the last post. (p.s. doesn't "Zutter" sound like something straight out of Dr. Seuss?) Enjoy!

 

This is my album, and everything is by Karen Foster (I just love the animal paper!). The photo overlay is from My Mind's Eye. Wild Thoughts, indeed.

 

 

Jenny Willden's cute album, using mostly the BasicGrey cupcake line, plus some Fontwerks labels. (She's our adorable Assistant Editor.)

 

and a close-up! Jenny's actually has little page protectors bound into it. Very cute!

 

Editor Rachel Gainer's adorable notebook, using BasicGrey paper and cute Fancy Pants acrylic shapes as well. (They're see-through, so I'm not sure how well they'll show up.)

 

Rachel's close up

 

Megan Hoeppner's "pretty in pink" notebook is made from Pebbles Inc. paper and die-cuts, all bound in together, from the "Party Time Girl" collection. (Welcome Megan, she's our new Senior Editor!)

 

Megan's close-up

 

This is Janice, who works for CK, who was walking by as I was taking pictures. Hi Janice!

 

Editorial Assistant Carolyn Jolley made this classy notebook using various items from the Simple Scrapbooks product stash.

 

The Editor in Chief herself, Jennafer Martin, showing off her fun notebook (with her initials on the cover). She pulled from American Crafts, Fontwerks, Pebbles and more!

 

A close up from Jennafer...and may I say that Jennafer has actually been USING her notebook! I'm afraid to use mine...like I need to be SAVING it for something really special. :-) Where's Wendy's, you ask? Well she was the trainER, and the rest of us were trainEES, so she just spent her time fielding questions and assisting us.

Amazing!

Simply amazing. You all are way too creative. I had so much fun reading through all your ideas! I'll certainly never look at pre-made titles the same way again. And those of us who haven't had children yet (or plan to have more) should keep this in mind when picking names!

I just had to list some of my favorites that I wish I had thought of myself:
Nevada = Eva or Ada
(My grandmother is named "Neva" so this also works for her! I could almost get my other grandmother's name, "Mona," from "Montana." In fact, lots of the state suggestions were pure genius.)
North Carolina = Carol
Anniversary = Ann
America = Erica
Christian = Ian
Cherish = Cheri
Totally = Ally
Thanksgiving = Hank

Okay, now for the randomly drawn winners of the cutie-patootie Doodlebug bag:
MargieJ (aka Margaret in Redondo Beach, CA)
SimplyCrafty (aka C.M. in Randolph, NJ)
scrap4fun (aka Lynda in Apple Valley, CA)

Congrats ladies! Bags 'o goodies are on the way. By the way, has anyone ever noticed that a disproportionate number of Californians win our blog contests? Maybe that's because a disproportionate number of Californians read this blog. Or perhaps because there's a disproportionate number of Californians in the world (hahaha).

p.s. RebeccaB, that state song was awesome! Thanks for posting. I'm sending you a prize just for that cool comment. (Just tell me WHICH RebeccaB you are! We have five: one in Utah, one in Idaho, two in Tennessee, and one in Calgary! Why, why, do we allow duplicate usernames on our site?)

It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time

While walking the CHA floor for 10 hours a day, I definitely enter "visual overload." I just see so much, try to absorb so much, try to remember so many people's names, that I sometimes feel like I'm in a bit of a fog. And THAT, dear ladies, is when I came up with the following idea for a feature:

Finding Loved Ones' Names in Premade Word Accents!

You see, I'm married to a man named Travis, and I often call him "Trav" for short. Well, I saw an adorable layered title sticker while touring the MAMBI booth that spelled "Travel," and I thought to myself..."I could just trim off the 'e' and 'l,' and I'd have myself a nice little title for a page!" And then the other ideas just kept coming...

Travel... got a husband named Trav? I do!
Christmas... you must know a Chris or two
Halloween... maybe there are a couple of people out there named Hal? And you can almost get Owen.
Vacation... gettin' creative here with Cati
Forever... Eve is such a lovely name, and you only have to cut off four letters to get to it!

Okay, only five ideas flowed. That where I reached the outer limits of this strange and useless idea. There aren't that many words that you commonly see in premade titles: "Easter," "Friends," "Love," also come to mind. And I don't see any human names in any of those. Do you have any to add to the list? I'd love to hear 'em. :-)

In fact, just leave me a comment (with an lame name idea or without...your choice!), and I'll pick three random winners who will get these lovely Doodlebug tote bags that we picked up at the CHA show. And no, they will not arrive empty!

editorial note: we had 127 awesome comments to this post, when it originally appeared in February of 2007, and here are just a few of them!

Our last name is Wheeler and a few years ago while I was in a LSS, I saw a laser diecut that said "18Wheeler"! I was quick to grab it up. The plan was to cut the 18 off to use our name on a page. As luck would have it (ok...I finally talked him into it!), the next baseball season, my son used the number 18! I haven't seen another "18Wheeler" accent since! Amy Wheeler/AmyInKy

Posted by: AmyInKY (February 21, 2008)

Oh, hot dang, I want one of those bags!!!! My daughter's name is Grace, so I find things for her all the time, Especially around Easter. DS's name Alex is a toughie, but DS(other)'s name Eric could be in.....um.....AMERICA!!!

Posted by: Kris in TX (February 20, 2008)

 

What about just some premade titles like Hope (it's already a name), May (the month) also a name...same with June, April, and I even know someone named September, then you could use March to spell Marc (also know someone who spells it that way), January to spell Jan, Jay, and Ray...ok my brain's on overload. Thanks for the FUN!

Posted by: RunningMom (February 20, 2008)

Delight = Del; Beautiful = Beau; Enjoy = Joy; Destination = Tina; Journey = Jo. And you would have more than enough letters left over to spell U R Nuts. Not playing for the prize, but couldn't resist. :P

Posted by: bcre8uv (February 20, 2008)

Ok, I didn't read all the comments, so sorry if this one came up: How about Dora in aDORAble? It could happen. Someone out there probably named their child that before the little Spanish speaking cartoon came along? Or maybe even on a layout about a kid's love for DORA?

Posted by: ettal (February 20, 2008)

How about "Aby" from "Baby?" As in Aby Garvey... good one, huh? Or "Ali" from California (hi Ali Monson!!). And how funny that my husband is also named Wallace/Wally, as in the 2nd post above, and it's such an uncommon name. But there's a Disney/Pixar movie coming out this year called Wall-e so maybe that will work. That is an ADORABLE tote, by the way!

Posted by: RebeccaB (February 20, 2008)

Believe to "Eli" (I actually have a neighbor with this name.) Valentine to "Val" An easy one, is "Joy" for a "Joy" Love the pink bag and think I could love the contents even more.

Posted by: CantScrapEnuf (February 21, 2008)

how about Ang from Angel?  :P  you are funny and after three days at cha - the visual overload will do that to you!

Posted by: *Celeste* (February 21, 2008)

How about hank from Thanksgiving? (maybe someone already thought of that) Lots of cute ideas!

Posted by:   (February 21, 2008)

Premade state stickers offer some possibilites.......(FLO)rida, Penn(SYLV)an(IA), (KEN)tucky, (ARI)zona, (IDA)ho, (LOUIS)iana, (CAROL)ina, (MO)ntana [that one's for Scrappin'MO who posted a comment!] Now I am going to be looking for names everywhere!! LOL!

Posted by: Reel Girl (February 21, 2008)

 

The comments with the states reminded me of this song that my husband told me about. I just looked up the lyrics and thought you might enjoy them, if you've never heard it before: Why did Cali phone ya (California) She called to say ha why ya (Hawaii) How did Wiscon sin (Wisconsin) He stole a new brass key (Nebraska) What did Ida hoe (Idaho) He hoed his merry land (Maryland) What did Missus sip (Mississippi) She sipped her many sodas (Minnesota) What did Della wear (Delaware) She wore a new jersey (New Jersey) What did Ohi owe (Ohio) He owed his many taxes (Texas) What did Io weigh (Iowa) He weighed a washing ton (Washington) How did Flori die (Florida) She died in misery (Missouri) Where has Ora gone (Oregon) He’s walking Okla home (Oklahoma) What did Tennis see (Tennesee) He saw what Arkan saw (Arkansas) What did Massi shoot (Massachusetts) He shot a nasty varmint (Vermont) What did Connie cut (Conneticutt) I don’t know a’ll ask er (Alaska)

Posted by: RebeccaB (February 21, 2008)

Christmas Card Keeper!

Want a cool idea for how to store and organize the Christmas cards you receive? This handy portfolio is made of a covered chipboard cover, with plain ole' office envelopes inside. My portfolio features MY family's Christmas card on the front of each envelope, and then I stash all my favorite Christmas cards from friends and family (especially those with pictures on them) inside the envelopes. This baby will last me until 2015! And won't it be fun to watch the evolution of my family's Christmas card over the years? My album starts with the first year of my marriage (2004), but yours can start now and go 15 years into the future! (I demonstrated this project on my recent filming experience.)

 

 

My album was based on Donna Downey's school portfolio idea featured in our Sep/Oct issue. (Read her instructions here.) I used 10.5 x 7.5 manila envelopes, which are just the right size to hold most picture Christmas cards. And the nice thing is that, unlike the example you'll see in the instructions, my Christmas card album can be made with two sheets of 12 x 12 patterned paper and two sheets of cardstock (plus chipboard and all the other stuff listed, of course.) You don't need specialty paper.

My materials: patterned paper (Scenic Route) + blue cardstock + red trim (Making Memories) + letter and snowflake stamps (Technique Tuesday) + ribbon (KI Memories) + label stamp (Close to My Heart i think) + white paint pen (Elmer's)

 

 

 

inside front cover

 

 

My 2006 Christmas card!

 

An envelope full of Christmas cards. And those men pictured? Those are two different brothers, not the same brother as it might appear initially. (One is much taller than the other in real life.)

 

inside back cover

 

The End.