2007 November | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for November, 2007

Posted by karooch on

November 16, 2007

Five Freebies on Friday

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So here we are again with Five Freebies on Friday. More free scrapbooking stuff for you to enjoy.

Remember to leave some love when you download your freebie. It costs you nothing and means a lot to the designer.

If you like a traditional, heritage look then head over to Everyday Memorabilia and pick up a lovely Victorian Christmas frame.
There’s a small archive of freebies over at Sugarplum Paperie that you might like to check out.
If you want to pick up this gorgeous set of lacy flowers from We love to Scrap you’ll have to be quick. This freebie expires on 18th November.
Here’s a freebie with a difference. iBrowser is a free image browser supporting all popular graphics formats.
And for out PSP friends PSP Tutorials have some nice little free tutorials for you.

Would you like $10 of Scrapbooking Product for NIX?

Well here’s a fabulous opportunity for you to get it.

You may recall I told you about the wonderful competition that’s running at pcLayers throughout November. And all the fabbo prizes that are up for grabs. Enough to get any red blooded Scrapbooker all fired up.

Well pcLayers have given Scraps of Mind readers their very own competition.
How cool is that??

All you have to do is:

Right clilck on the blinkie in this post or the one in my sidebar

Select Copy Image (do not select Copy Image Location)

Paste the blinkie image into your own blog’s sidebar

Let me know you’ve done that by leaving a comment here or by emailing me

I will then enter you into the Scraps of Mind draw to win one of two prizes $10 of pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers.

Easy Peasy.

And all for doing nothing except put a blinkie on your blog.

This draw is only open to Scraps of Mind readers (and you don’t need to be a regular commenter to enter) so it’s a cosy little family affair, just between us.

On November 30 I will draw two lucky winners who can go and choose themselves a nice little pcLayers scrapbooking present.

So join in and win yourselves some scrapbooking goodies.

And don’t forget to submit some layouts to the big competition. Remember every layout submitted earns you a ticket in the Big Draw for the Canon Camera...even if the layout doesn’t win a prize in its category you’re still in the running for the big one!

Go to it Scrapbookers!!!

Posted by karooch on

November 14, 2007

Quick Pages - The Busy Scrapbooker’s Saviour

As Scrapbookers we love the process of creating, right? Hours spent on a single layout don’t matter because it’s the journey as much as the destination that we enjoy.

But sometimes we just don’t have enough time to spend an entire evening or two on a single layout. We have a pile of photos that we want to scrap which just keeps on getting bigger and the time we have to do it just seems to keep getting shorter. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

Well it’s times like these we should be considering Quick Pages, or Easy Pages or Ploppers as they’re sometimes called.

Now before I hear you cry “Where’s the creativity in that?” just take a moment to hear me out.

Quick Pages are basically layouts which a digital scrapbook designer has created and then deleted the space where the photos should go so you can insert your own. Some Quick Pages come with all the embellishments and accents you could possibly put on them. But others are quite minimalistic.

And these are the ones I’m suggesting you consider for your speedy scrapping.

With a little bit of thought you can still add your own touches, your own flair, and your own creativity to these layouts by introducing different accents and, through careful application of the Erase tool, you can blend your additions into the overall design of the page.

This Take Time to Touch layout was created using a Quick Page by Julie Hixon and then adding an assortment of embellishments from my stash to give it a little lift. It literally took me ten minutes to do and, because I have added my own touches to the design I don’t feel like I have ‘cheated’.

Whilst I wouldn’t want to do all my layouts with Quick Pages, they can be an absolute boon for the busy scrapbooker. So next time you’re in a hurry and you have a pile of photos that you want to scrap quickly, have a look at your stash of Quick Pages.

And for traditional scrappers who are just getting started in digital scrapbooking, Quick Pages are a great way to try out your wings. Below is a tutorial from Ro Paxman, CEO of Scrap Girls on how to create a layout using a Quick Page. It’s one of three in a series, and if you haven’t tried them before it’s a very handy tutorial. And Ro’s got the kind of voice that you just can’t help learning with.

The QuickPage used in the video is called Gypsy Boots Easy Page and can be found at Scrap Girls.

Posted by karooch on

November 13, 2007

Scrapbook a Layout and Win a Canon Camera

Have you seen the sensational Scrapbook Layout Contest that’s going on over at pcLayers?

The prizes are to die for. Including:

Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Printer

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

Cricutt Expression

Wacom Design Tablet

And the super exciting biggie prize, A CANON EOS 40D CAMERA!!!!!

WOW!! are they prizes or are they prizes??

So what do I have to do to get my hands on them, you may ask? Well it couldn’t be simpler.

Create a layout (or more than one)
Make sure at least 70% of it’s elements come from pcLayers. And you can used items purchased from their store and/or freebie elements from the pcLayers digital scrapbooking freebie archive.
Upload your layout to either the Simple Layout Contest Gallery or the Advanced Layout Contest Gallery.
And that’s it!

The Canon Camera will be won through a draw. Each layout you enter (you can only upload one per day) entitles you to one ticket in the draw. So even if your layout doesn’t win it’s category, you’re still in the running for the camera.

How brilliant is that?

But wait. There’s more!

(Any minute now she’s going to bring out the steak knives…)

See that little green pcLayers blinkie in my sidebar? Well go grab yourself one and sport it on your blog. The pcLayers team will be surfing the Internet looking for blogs displaying that blinky so they can give them $10 in pcPurse money to spend at pcLayers.

So fire up your scrapbooking software program and head over to pcLayers to get all the down and dirty details.

But do it quickly. This contest closes on November 30, 2007. So you’d better get cracking.

Scrapbooking in Circles

Have you ever considered making round Scrapbooking layouts?

I made a circular scrapbook layout for National Scrapbook Day last May and I really liked the look. Suddenly your 12 x 12 canvas takes on a new dimension. And it’s amazing how different your elements look when they have round, rather than straight, edges to surround them.

This scrapbook layout I made of the sun setting on the Canale delle Fondamente Nuove illustrates what I mean. Normally I would scrap a sunset layout on a 12 x 12 background, or maybe A4 with a landscape aspect. I would be aiming to maximise the feel of the wide horizon. But by making a circular scrapbook layout, I’ve created a feeling of intimacy. A sense that this particular sunset is just there for you. That may sound a bit fanciful but I hope you can see what I’m trying to say.

Reflecting the circular theme in the elements of the layout reinforces this. Of course, you can include straight edge elements and photos too. But I just love the feeling of continuity you get from circles on circles. And the gentle flow of curvy lines.

And Thao Cosgrove’s Art Journal Collection (one of my favourite kits, because you can do so much with it) is full of soft and curvy elements to create the look I wanted.

Making scrapbook layouts in the round is very easy.

For digital scrapbookers you just cut a large circle in the background paper of your choice using your selection tool and build your layout from there. I used the same technique on my photo but I gave it a feather of 20 pixels to create the soft edge that fades into the background. I looked for circular elements to reinforce the theme and curved my title around the outside using the warped text function in the tools pallette.

And traditional scrapbookers can get into the circular theme with the aid of a dinner plate to cut out the background and soft and curvy elements to reinforce the overall ’roundness’ of the layout.

I really like this look and I can see myself doing more layouts in this way. What do you think? Have you tried making circular layouts yet? And if not, do you think you might give it a try? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have a circular layout up on your blog, give us a link so we can all go and admire it.

If you think this article might be useful to other Scrapbookers, please click on the StumbleUpon icon below and help to spread it around.

Words to Live By

May the stars carry your sadness away,

May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,

May hope forever wipe away your tears,

And, above all, may silence make you strong.

–Chief Dan George

Posted by karooch on

November 9, 2007

Five Freebies on Friday

It’s time for Freebie Friday again. Have fun with more free scrapbooking stuff.

Remember to leave some love when you download your freebie. It costs you nothing and means a lot to the designer.

Scrapz by Pimptress has an archive of freebies that you’ll really love.
You’ll find a treasure trove of freebies over at Dare to Scrap. Some of them come with a ‘Commercial Use OK’ licence to use.
Hummie has a library of free digital elements you can access over at Hummie’s World. This instruction page tells you how you can get your hands on them.(Edit Note: As you can read from the comment below, Hummie has been hit by the evil Technology Demon and is rebuilding her site. This page may not be available when you follow the link. But hey, it’s worth a try anyway)
The Bad Candy Factory has a nice little collection of freebies. just click on the word Freebie in the graphic, select the item(s) of your choice and click ‘Get Now’
And here’s some inspirational poetry for your pages from the Inspirational Page.