The New Age of Scrapbooking

Once upon a time I scrapbooked.  Then I had children and tried but failed to continue to scrapbook.  I just couldn't accomplish anything because I always had little "helping hands" every time I tried.  So I put things away for the day that I could have some time to myself and/or my kids would be old enough to work on their own projects without getting into too much of a mess.  Needless to say I haven't found the time or space yet but time and technology has marched on.  Now they have all kinds of digital scrapbooking, which I LOVE by the way.  I find I can still be creative without all the cutting, pasting, embossing and sticking.  I mean you take all your pictures digitally why not scrapbook?  Then you can put them all together in a book to have printed and bound in a real book for less than it would cost you to buy all the embellishments, papers and cool toys they have for "old fashioned" scrapbooking.

There are millions of websites out there where you can buy all kinds of digital scrapbook embellishments, papers and alphabets.  I myself like free best but there are some great sets you can buy for just a couple of bucks.  That said I still like free and I just found two really cool websites with just that.

First is Shabby Princess.com.  They are all free downloads which come in kits or you can download just one part of the kits if you wish.  I download the whole thing because you never know when you might want something.  There are also free tutorials to help you get started as well.  Once there just click on downloads for the kits or tutorials for helps.

The next site I love is Jessica Sprague.com.  She has lots of kits to buy but she also has some free kits you can down load.  Just click on free stuff, then you can either pick free downloads or free tutorials.
This site is a verturial school for learning how to keep memories.  If there is anything you want to know how to do from photography to family history it's there.  Awsome site...go check it out as it is SO worth it.

Another thing I love is fonts.  My favorite site is 1001freefonts.com.  You can find any font you could ever want there all for free!! 

To put it all together I use Photoshop Elements 8, which I am still learning to use by the way, but I also use Microsoft Power Point.  I find it simpler to use sometimes I just need to remember to save my file both as a presentation so I can still make changes and as a .jpg file for printing or use on my blog. If anyone out there has any suggestions of another software they use that is both easy and fun to use please let me know.  I'm always interested in hearing of new and fun ways to scrapbook digitally.

Have fun and I hope you enjoy the new age of scrapbooking as much as I do.

My Favorite Time of Year

October is my favorite time of year!!  The temperatures get cooler, the fall colors are coming out and Halloween is just around the corner.  I love Halloween, I have always loved it.  I don't know why but it is just the most fun out of all the other holidays, at least it is to me.  So in honor of All Hallows Eve here are some fun project that I've found and am dying to try.  Dying, get it....(bad joke)
 Anyway, over at Oopsy-daisy they have this fun Halloween Matching Game.  I'm always trying to find things to keep my kids busy and entertained and this is a fun way to get them into the Halloween spirit.  I love the artwork that she found and am going to explore the website she got it from further for other holiday artwork.
 Next is the AWESOME Skull Candlesticks over at Sawdust and Paper Scraps.  This lady is SO talented and has some of the best ideas around.  I am so envious of all of her tools too.  Her website is definitely worth bookmarking and revisiting often.  Just look at how cool these candle sticks turned out.  It makes me want to run to my nearest thrift store right now. 
 Also on Sawdust and Paper Scraps she has her version of Halloween Subway Art.  I have a link in a past post for the Subway Art for Halloween from a different blog, but I really like this one.  It is not as bright (I don't do bright that well) and I love the little spiders she added.  Very cute!
Finally, over at Tatertots and Jello they have Creepy Specimen Art.  I have seen the Butterfly Art that is like it but I love the Halloween spin that she took.  I also like her instructions, very detailed and easy to follow.  I have always wondered where to find the right kind of frame for such projects and now I know.  Go check them out.  Tatertots and Jello is also a very cool blog worth bookmarking. 
After looking at all the fun stuff out there I am getting SO excited for Halloween to come.  I think I will get started decorating today as well as starting to gather stuff for these fun projects.  Happy Haunting!!