2008 January | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for January, 2008

Posted by karooch on

January 7, 2008

Where’s Your Favourite Place to Scrap?

Welcome to Scraps of Mind. I'm delighted to see you. Why not check out the site, you'll find a bunch of great scrapbooking and blogging articles, tips and tutorials on the Articles Page. And if you enjoy this or any other articles on Scraps of Mind, I'd really appreciate you giving them a thumbs up on StumbleUpon to share them with other Scrapbookers. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing more of you.

I saw a survey on Darren Rowse’s Problogger last week called ” Where is your favourite place to blog?”. Darren was asking his readers to tell him where they liked to write their blog entries: sitting at a desk, in front of the TV, in bed, or wherever.

And I thought “I wonder where Scraps of Mind readers do their scrapping.”

As a traditional, digital and hybrid scrapbooker I like to have my own space in my study where my computer lives and I’m surrounded by all my traditional scrapbooking gear. I don’t use a laptop so, except for certain projects all my scrapbooking (and blogging) activity takes place there. And by the way, Tedward Bear is a dedicated scrapbooker too. although his first love is card making.

The windows tend to be in the shade from the morning onwards so the light isn’t as good as I’d like and I’m intending to move things around in the next few weeks. But here’s a view of what it looks like now.

At the moment my desk is positioned with my back sort of to the window and I want to change that. I thought now would be a good time to take a photo as the space is relatively tidy (must be a Christmas thing) and I know that it won’t last. As soon as I get the first project of the New Year underway it will look like a bomb site I’m afraid. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by karooch on

January 5, 2008

Words to Live by

I farewelled a good friend this week.

He fought a long tough battle with Cancer and almost won. But it was not to be.

This one’s for you David.

Everything is created from moment to moment, always new.

Like fireworks, this universe is a celebration

and you are the spectator

contemplating the eternal Fourth of July of your absolute splendor.

Francis Lucille

Posted by karooch on

January 4, 2008

Five Freebies on Friday

And to get into the swing of 2008, here are your Five Freebies on Friday.

And always remember to leave some love when you download your freebie. A thank you comment costs you nothing and means a lot to the designer.

Click over to Des Images au Bout des Doigts and you can pick up a gorgeous kit with the cutest snowflakes you have ever seen.
Then pop over to the Megabyte Mall where Merkley Designs is the featured store. Scroll to the bottom of the page to pick up her freebie kit.
Lindsay Jane Designs has a little Sampler Pack based on her Snow Biz kit.
Don’t forget that signing up for the Digital Arts Cafe newsletter is a sure fire way to get great freebies delivered to your inbox.
And I have a free Word Art sample for you here on Scraps of Mind.

Scrap Your Goals for 2008!

A fresh New Year is always the perfect time for folk to review their life, take stock, set goals and make plans for what they want from the coming year. Even though we can do this at any time (and there are probably better times than just after a holiday season to do it), most of us like to have milestones to mark beginnings and endings and the New Year makes an ideal milestone.

And of course, many of us refer to these plans as New Year’s Resolutions. But whatever you call them, they help us to start our fresh, shiny New Year with some sort of a road map of where we would like to go over the next twelve months.

The Challenge, however, is keeping focussed on our goals and remembering to keep taking the actions needed to achieve the outcomes we desire. Well here’s an idea to help you do that:

Take your Resolutions or Goals and Scrap them!

We all know that once something has become a Scrapbook Layout it must be real. So this way you can make your Resolutions ‘real’. Or another idea is to make a tag for each one of your Resolutions.

And when you have created your Resolutions Scrapbook Layout or Tags stick copies of them in places where you will constantly see them and be reminded. Because half the problem with making New Year’s Resolutions work is remembering the things you want to do or change in your life at the right time. Having these memory jogging layouts and tags handy to your eye will help you overcome that. And the actual act of creating them will help you to think and focus on your goals as well.

Maybe you could even do a progress layout each month or so to remind you of your achievements as you get closer to your goals.

The Bring it On! layout was created using Valerie Randall’s Altered State Collection. There are some very groovy papers in this collection. The journaling reads:

“Thank you, 2007 for being such a great year for me.

I have loved the changes in my life over this year, as well as all the fun and wonderful things that have happened.
And now it’s time to look towards 2008.
What will this year bring?
What goals will I strive to achieve?
What differences will I see in my life?”

And my Goals are: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by karooch on

January 2, 2008

The First Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival for the Year

Come on kids from eight to eighty
Hey there mister bring your lady
There’s a big show on the inside
It’s carnival time

(Words & music by Weisman - Wayne)

Yes folks, as Elvis says “Come on kids from eight to eighty, it’s Carnival time!”

So with a mighty drum roll, let’s start the Carousel going and get into the first Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival for 2008.

Check out these great links to get your digital scrapbooking off to a flying start for 2008. And link to this Carnival on your own blogs to spread the word.

Tips and Tutorials

Hummie has found a tutorial on How to Use Lined Journaling Elements In Your Digital Scrapbook Layouts & NOT Obscure Your Journaling! posted at Strawberry Wine Designs for Digital Scrapbooks.

Hummie’s search for great tutorials continues with this Curled Edges Video Scrapbooking Tutorial posted at Scraps of Mind.

Kelly Shults has a bunch of great Photoshop Tutorials and Craft Projects over at at Kelly Shults Designs.

Karooch recommends you check out these two video tutorials on how to save for the web and how to make your own ribbons at HummiesWorld.

Hummie has found some useful tips on how to use templates posted at Tracy’s Scraps.

Karooch also reminds you to check out this great tutorial on how you go about submitting articles to the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival on HummiesWorld.

Digital Scrapbooking Downloads

KylieM Designs has some Templates for Download posted at my digital life.

Digital Scrapbooking News and Articles

Hummie has found a great scrapping idea, 2007 Year in Review Album - Jan - June posted at Life of Scraps.

Karooch has found a useful article on Piracy 101 posted at the Stop Digital Piracy Blog

Kelly-Ann Halbert talks about the challenge of Scrapbooking Emotions posted at Kiki Scraps.

Even though Christmas is over, Hummie has found this cool article on Making Your Custom Christmas Gifts! posted at Creative Genealogy. Now you can get ready early for next Christmas.

Karooch challenges you to make your own funky Animated Scrapbook Layouts. on Scraps of Mind.

And keep those Submissions coming. The next Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival will be held on Jan 15 over at Monique’s Scrappin’ Blog

Word Art Freebie to Welcome the New Year

Happy New Year everyone and Welcome to 2008!

Over in Australia and New Zealand we’ve had the chance to sample the New Year before the rest of you. And let me tell you, it looks great! I just know that 2008 is going to be a fabulous year.

So to celebrate and to welcome it in I thought I’d make a piece of Word Art to give away to you.

I’ve used it on this layout as the title to give you an idea of how it can look. I made the layout with one of Scrapbook Max’s super quick and easy templates. Although being me, I had to modify it to make it more my own.

It was really easy to incorporate my Word Art into the template. I just dragged the PNG file from its folder in my stash onto the template with the mouse and then dragged it about to get it the size I wanted.

But on to the Freebie

I am a bit of a sentimentalist and the Christmas and New Year Season seems to bring that out even more. So I felt inspired to create this sentimental piece of Word Art for you. Read the rest of this entry »