Simple Scrapbooks

July/August 2008 First Bound Copy!

 

Look what I have...

 

I'm willing to give away one of these "first-bound copies" if you'll just leave me a comment telling me which of the cover call-outs most appeals to you!

I'll even send it out this week, before anyone else in the WHOLE WORLD, besides the office staff and Stacy Julian, gets to see it. (It's not supposed to be officially on sale until June 10.)

FYI, "cover call-out" means the enticing little blurbs we put on our cover. They seriously take HOURS to brainstorm and write...you have no idea how we labor over a five-word call-out. I'd love to hear which ones would make you pick up this magazine at the newsstand and plunk down your hard-earned $5.

Note: If you can't read the call-outs on my crappy web-cam photo, here they are:

SUPER EASY travel albums: make one tonight!

186 QUICK TIPS & layouts for
*summer
*travel
*sports
*teens & more

adapt any design to fit YOUR photos: 6 cool tricks

win BIG! $1,584 in mini-albums up for grabs

15 trendy looks for teen pages

Don't forget to include your username in your comment...or at least type it in at the end of your comment...so I can find you.

Winner!

Congrats to ipswich89. You've won a first bound copy of our July/August issue! Thanks everyone for your comments. It's very interesting to hear what appeals to you when you're making your newsstand purchasing decisions. The issue will be on its way today.

Winner!

Congrats to Emily Pitts! With 51 votes, she is our winner, and her layout will be published in our upcoming September/October issue. Nice work, everyone!

And now for our random commenters who will get fun prize packages sent out from the office...drumroll please...
ScrappinTheDream
moonlightgrrl

We'll be contacting ya for your addresses, winners. Thanks for playing.

Time to Vote!

It's time once again for you to vote on a layout that we'll publish in our next magazine issue (Sep/Oct 2008)! For this issue, I was browsing the reader gallery for layouts that share accomplishments, triumphs, and goals achieved (however big or small). So check these out, and leave a comment voting for your favorite!

Who knows, you might even win a prize. (I'll pick two random commenters to win fun prize packs from the office, so make sure your username shows up on your comment, even if you have to type it in yourself.)

A: girl learning to surf by KarenF.
B: silver medal in soccer by RamonaT
C: the shoes that helped Emily battle heart disease by mlepitts
D: learning to ride a bike by thyme4me
E: finally tying the knot after 9 years by Winks
F: achieving a happy divorce (NOT an easy feat) by gis4green

Happy Voting! I'll tally the votes and announce the winner by end of business on Wednesday.

And the Winner Is...

The Funnest Scrapbooker Ever (for 2007) is…and it was REALLY hard to decide...so we devised a complex logarithm or algebraic equation or whatever whereby each of our seven judges scored each part of each entry separately...and then we added all those numbers up (three different times mind you, since there are good reasons that we are all editors and not accountants)...and the magic numbers told us that the winner is...

Tamara Morrison

We surprised Tammy at the CHA show in Anaheim, CA tonight, and I'll have to share our hilarious escapades with you all as soon as I have a working Internet connection rather than typing this all out on my iPhone, in my hotel room, in my pajamas, at midnight. But enough about me.

To help you get to know Tamara a bit better, we’d like to share her entry with you. Here goes…

Joke
Q: Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
A: To get to the bottom!
(Is that too off-color? I have a spare just in case, but my kids insist that one is the funniest one in our repertoire.)
Spare joke just in case – Two rooftop antennas fell in love across the alleyway and decided to get married. The wedding wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent!

Essay
Who puts the fun in FUNctioning on six hours of sleep and a Starbucks Venti Iced Mocha? I do! Snapping pictures faster than a fleeting moment, one step ahead of my preschooler’s latest “loco”motive, able to embarrass tall teenagers with a single radio sing-along. I should be crowned The Funnest Scrapbooker Ever because I savor the vibrancy of my crazy life and record the defining moments with flair. Page challenge? I’m in! New product? My enthusiasm can’t be beat! Wear a silly costume? Why not! Throw me whatever you’ve got, Life. I’m armed with the greatest superpower of all – FUN!

In Costume, Funniest Layout,
& Layouts Using Prompts from
Scrapbook Play(respectively)

 

It's About Time!

In our Scrapbook Play special issue, we announced a super-fabulous, one-of-a-kind contest in hopes of crowning one Simple scrapper the Funnest Scrapbooker Ever (for 2007).

We had no idea the task would be so difficult—every entry we received left us LOL and ROFL (not a good idea in a small office, by the way). The costumes were clever, the layouts delightful, and the jokes left us chuckling for days.

After careful deliberation (read: after a couple minutes’ thought), we decided that picking just one fun scrapper was too hard—and we hate doing things that are hard—so we picked two attendants to help her majesty fulfill her duty of spreading laughter and good cheer throughout the scrapbooking community. Each attendant will receive a sash and a package of scrapbooking goodies from the office.

Are you ready to meet our winners? Well...

you’ll have to wait. We won’t be revealing any winners until tomorrow (the suspense is killing us too). Come back then to meet the first and second attendants; then check back on Sunday night to congratulate your Funnest Scrapbooker Ever (for 2007).

Help!

Help me choose a layout from our Reader Gallery to publish in our July/August issue. The layout with the most votes wins! I'll also pick three random commenters to win a package of scrapbooking goodies from the office (Contest closes end of business day on Monday, and only votes with usernames listed will be counted.)

As if you couldn't tell, I was on the hunt for vacation or travel themed layouts this time. Cast your votes!

A: "now" by forestsister
B: "Daughters" by Di4Kids
C: "Enjoying the View" by tdavenport
D: "Seashore" by Emilie A-hern
E: "Hang Loose" by Scarlett79
F: "He Knows Me" by forestsister

(Yeah, I know there are two layouts in the mix by forestsister, but I just couldn't resist.)

You Have Spoken

And I listened. Thanks to all your votes, "Daughters" by Di4Kids will get published in the July/August issue! Congrats to Diane in Sydney, Australia. I'll be in touch to get more info about the layout!

And the winners of the random drawing are:
scrapinhero (aka Jeri from Utah)
DanielaD (aka Daniela from Texas)
KatieScott

Hooray!

Seven posts from January 2007 in ONE Enormous Blog Post!

editorial note: here is a big group post containing lots of posts from January 2007! The comments aren't clickable or visible...this just shows how many comments were made to each post. Just a little blast from the past, folks! Now THAT'S Funny We're in the final round of judging for our Funnest Scrapbooker Ever (for 2007) Contest, first announced in our Scrapbook Play issue. And no, staff editor Rachel is NOT the winner. She's just trying on the goods. But take a closer look at those goods.   The sash says "Funniest Scrapbook Ever," a far cry from what we wrote on the order form. Needless to say, we're having the sashes reprinted. We can't have The Funnest Scrapbooker Ever and her two attendants walking around looking like fools, can we? And just for the record, the tiara Rachel is wearing is just a prop. The real tiara, which is also fake, looks much more real than this fake one. (You weren't expecting actual diamonds, I hope.) We're hoping to crown our winner by the end of next week, and the rest of the reading public will get to meet her in our May/June issue! Here's hoping the new sashes arrive on time. Comments (15)   Photo Freedom Goes To... I asked my trusty friend Rachel Gainer to pick two random numbers between 1 and 238. And she chose #61 and #172. So I counted down through the comments and stopped at... #61 aka MO Scrapper aka Kyla in Missouri #172 aka kissyj aka Christine in Utah Congrats ladies! Two signed books are on the way. And may I say that by the sound of your comments, you ALL need some serious help! Wow. And so do I. (But at least I don't have 37,000 photos or 10 children. That would put me right over the edge. I admire your stamina!) I can personally attest to the fact that the ideas in this book DO work! As I edited and proofread this book, I definitely learned a ton of helpful tricks that I'm using today. Stacy's words pop into my head all the time as I browse through my photos and sit down to scrapbook. I'm a believer. Hopefully you will be too. Comments (4)  Win This I have in my little hands a very small handful of ADVANCE COPIES of Stacy Julian's latest book, Photo Freedom: A Big Picture approach to organizing and scrapbooking your photographs. Wanna win one? Just leave me a comment here (make sure your username is listed) that mentions your biggest photo organization challenge (just because I'm curious), and I'll pick TWO random winners who will receive an autographed, advance copy of Stacy's book. (The winners will get their copies LONG before anyone else has it in their hands! The main shipment isn't due to arrive for another couple of weeks.) Can't stand the suspense? Just order your own preorder copy. Our online team is holding a contest whereby a total of FIVE people who place a preorder will get their copy for free. So reserve yours today! Click here for fun sneak peeks from Stacy's book, a new one each day for the next 10 days, and here to preorder. Click here to congratulate Stacy herself.  Comments (240) Snow Day Surprise, we woke up to 12 inches of light, fluffy, powdery snow this morning. I wouldn't have wanted to brave the drifts to drive to work, even if the office wasn't closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Ruby the Wonder Dog had to tromp through chest-deep snow to go to the bathroom. Man, it would be a great day to hit the slopes! But I'm going to be busy lying around the house, doing as little as possible. Anyone have any big plans for MLKJR day? Jan. 21, 2008 | Comments (6)   And Now for the Solution Thanks for all the helpful advice! I ended up carefully pulling off the white backing, totally mangling the patterned paper in the process. But, as you all predicted, the orange frame covered up all the mess! Thanks ladies. There's nothing like scrapbooking by committee. Here's how it looks now, and there's no danger of the orange frame popping off, thanks to Making Memories liquid glue.   Comments (4) Ever Done This? I didn't realize this cute chipboard frame by Love, Elsie was self-adhesive. So I applied plenty of liquid adhesive and slapped it onto my layout. (Yep that's me, age 8, the tall girl in the purple Cabbage Patch nightgown.) Well, what I really adhered was the adhesive BACKING, and it's permanent. Yet the chipboard peels off free and easy. Short of resorting to the magic of Un-Du (which I don't have on hand), any advice from ya'll about what to do? :-)   Comments (14)   Kicking off the New Year with a Contest! Well, it looks like it's back to real life again, which is no easy task after two luxurious 5-day weekends right in a row. The holidays were wonderful this year! I slept in almost every day, watched a movie-a-day, baked some stuff just for fun, went to the gym so I could EAT the stuff I baked, played Rock Band with the husband and the teenager, finished craft projects I started months ago, made four scrapbook layouts, did a bit of shopping and hardly any returning. Hope yours was wonderful too! Good luck getting back into the swing of things! To help you out, I'd like to kick off the new year with a little contest. You see, I'm woefully behind on my "Jan/Feb Behind the Scenes" post (it is coming, I promise), so I thought I'd do a little teaser contest in advance of the "Behind the Scenes" post. Hunt down the following three objects in your Jan/Feb issue and correctly tell me what page number each is on. I'll draw five random winners (to win, your page numbers must be correct) and send out the prizes! Tell me the page numbers where I can find: a cowboy hat a comb over a chocolate-covered strawberry Have fun! Winners. That WAS fun. Thanks everyone! The lucky randomly-drawn winners are: scarlett79 Karen F. Leanne S. ~Steph~ kristenb Awesome prizes are coming! January 2, 2008 | Comments (40)

And the Winning Layout is...

By a margin of just SIX votes!

I closed the polls at 5:03 MST when there were 168 votes. By the time I counted and posted this at 5:32 MST, there were 170 votes, but it did not alter the outcome.

Perfect Day by melsboys got 39 votes!
Following close behind was Grandpa & Me by LisaDay with 33 votes.

And our randomly drawn winner is wookiegirl! Her 10 extra votes went to E, Big Love by Neshelman, but it wasn't enough to make it the winner. Wookiegirl IS a winner, though, and will be getting a cool prize package sent out from the office.

Thanks for voting. That was fun! And congrats to melsboys!

Cast Your Votes!

Here are six great layouts from our Reader Gallery that I'm considering publishing in the May/June "Our Readers" column. Unfortunately, I only have room for one layout! How about you help me choose? Leave a comment telling me which layout is your favorite by 5:00 p.m. MST on Thursday, December 6, and the layout with the most votes will win. (Note: only comments with a username listed will be counted as votes.)

The candidates are:
A: Horse With No Name by mlepitts
B: ride by nicole s
C: ice cream by Jennifer L
D: perfect day by melsboys
E: Big Love by neshelman
F: Grandpa & Me by LisaDay

In case you detect a few recurring themes, this issue I was looking for layouts about moms, dads, grandparents, and spring/summer in general. Don't let that influence your choice, just tell me which one you like best.

And to sweeten the stakes a bit, I'm going to randomly draw one comment out of the pile which will be worth 10 votes (instead of just one), and the person who left the comment will get a package of scrapbooking goodies from the office. Okay, now vote!

Be an EDITOR for Halloween!

I like to choose one layout from our online Reader Gallery to publish in the "Our Readers" column for each issue. I'm on the hunt for my pick for the Mar/Apr issue. Wanna help?

I've narrowed it down to my top 5 choices. Leave a comment that says which one you like best, and I'll publish the layout with the most votes! Voting ends at the end of the day on November 1. Have fun!

Hint: this issue I was looking for pet pages, girlfriend pages, and spring pages.

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting...

Those cats were fast as lightning!
Why am I singing this super-cool 70s song? Because our little Kung Fu layout is the winner! I closed the polls at 5:51 MST, when there were 100 total votes. Cute Kung Fu girl won by 5 votes. Congrats! Ya'll will be seeing this one in the magazine in Mar/Apr. (And tens of thousands of non-blog-reading readers will get to see it for the first time!)