This can be a much debated subject in the scrapping world. Everyone has their own opinions. Everyone has their own rules. Today, I just thought I’d share my thoughts.

We all have layouts we don’t like. Many of them are early layouts, layouts we did before we developed our own style, or layouts that just didn’t flow. With very few exceptions, every scrapper has layouts that they don’t like. Or at least don’t like as much as the others.

Some people have vowed never to re-do a layout. Some scrappers believe that every layout is part of their scrapping history, and each layouts shows their development and progress as a scrapper. Others simply won’t re-do layouts because they have so many other photos to scrap. Others say that you simply don’t like some older layouts cause they look like older layouts, but if you re-scrap them then in 5 years you’ll probably want to re-scrap them again, and again, and again.

This is a subject I had debated internally for quite a while. At the end of last year someone posted a ‘year in review’ thread. Basically the premise was that you posted your lastest layout and then posted a layout from one year earlier. It was great to see what stayed the same, what changed, and how we had developed as scrappers. So I posted a layout, which at the the time I scrapped it was quite proud of. It was my fourth layout. But after a year, I was no longer happy with it and decided to re-scrap it (keeping the original intact). I LOVED the re-do. And a year later, my opinion hasn’t changed. This has led me to the conclusion that, for me, re-scrapping a layout isn’t a matter of cool new products vs. older products. It is simply a matter of a defined style. MY style. I’ve loaded the ‘before (Dec 2003)’ and ‘after (Dec 2004)’ layouts as part of this entry. Beyond using actual scrapping supplies (rather than just some painted paper), I also added more journalling—journalling that I think better reflects the events themselves.

Whether or not you re-do a layout is strickly a personal matter. As I see it, if I don’t like the layout and I wouldn’t put it in the album, then I will re-do the layout when I see fit or the inspiration strikes. I have a few layouts like that. I don’t plan to re-do every early layout. There might be a dozen or so. A couple other simply need some slight tweeking. If a little time re-working some layouts make me happy with them, and make me proud to display them in my albums, then I figure it is worth the time. Besides, they are my albums.

At one point in my scrapping, I had decided to do a very simple photo scrapbook. Basically a 9×6” photo on a 12×12” piece of cardstock with a vellum quote attached. The thought was nice, but I’ve since decided that this is simply a waste of time for me, and besides it was nothing more than a photo album with quotes. I have too many photos to scrap, and many of these photos in this ‘photo album’ were not actually in our main albums. And quite frankly they deserved to be. So, yes, I am re-scrapping them—or as I see it now—scrapping them properly. Giving the photos the layouts they deserve, and the journalling they deserve! Most of those photos bring back wonderful memories, and they should be documented. It only seems right to me. This layout about London in autumn is one of those layouts. Originally it just had some quote about walking through the leaves, but now it has journalling that reflects how much fun we had that day.

I once saw an interesting comment on a message board. The scrapper said she has no problem with re-doing layouts, but won’t redo layouts which are part of completed albums. Personally, I think this is a great rule of thumb, however I don’t have any completed albums, so maybe I shouldn’t agree so quickly. ;)

So in the end, you yourself need to decide whether or not re-scrapping photos/layouts is right for you. Will rescrapping a couple layouts in an album make the album flow better? Will it make you happy? Will it document the events better? Or will it simply cause you stress because of the growing mountain of unscrapped photos you have? I know I will never be caught up. I don’t think re-scrapping a dozen layouts it gonna hurt me that much, especially when it brings back great memories and simply makes me happy.

I currently have the need to scrap, again. Not because I have photos dying to get into my albums, or because I have some great some products begging to be used, but because I found out my cousin is coming from Canada just after Christmas for a visit. I’m very excited.

And this leads me to my current dilema. I want to show her everything. I want all my photos scrapped so that she can look through my albums. It’s not going to happen. The likely hood of me having even one completed album by the time she comes may even be a stretch. But other than myself and my husband, no one has ever seen my layouts in person, and this is something I’m very excited about.

In honour of her visit, I’ve ordered a couple more albums to house some of the hoards of homeless layouts, and my new albums should arrive sometime next week. I know I can only do what I can, and between work, moving and Christmas it’s quite a busy season anyway.

I’m not going to stress myself out about this. I’m going to carry on, and do what I normally do, and that is scrap whenever I have a free moment. Just with a little more drive to finish as many as possible. :)

I love the unusual. I love the weird. I love the wonderful. And as my husband says, I will take a photo of anything that moves, and two of anything that doesn’t. And it’s true. I love to photograph, and will photograph just about everything. Even public loos. Why?? Because sometimes the most common thing can be strange or wonderful. Because sometimes it’s the little things that put a smile on my face. And because sometimes, if I didn’t, no one would understand or believe me.

Now, the thing about continental Europe is that it’s hard to find a free loo (as in one you don’t have to pay to use), so when I come across a free one I usually take it when I can. However, when I entered this particular loo in Lausanne, Switzerland there was no toilet. There wasn’t even a trough. There was just this great big piece of porcelain sunken into the floor which had two islands and a hole. The infamous squat loo. I’d heard about them, but this was the first time I’d seen one. In my humble opinion, these loos are the reason that the women in the sign on the bathroom door are wearing dresses…. cause that’s about the only garment you can wear to use one without going to the trouble of getting undressed. Coveralls are definately not the garment of choice.

So here I am, standing in my coveralls and toting my large camera bag, staring at this large piece of square porcelain with two islands and a hole. I’m not planning to get undressed and lay my stuff down on the wet tile. Yet, in some way I actually feel bad not to actually do something. After a moment, I realized exactly what I had to do. I took a photo. Then I left. Two minutes of my life. One silly photo. One small moment of my life I probably would have forgotten in a few years had I just simply turned my back and walked away, yet now it’s a layout that brings a smile to my face whenever I see it.

The moral of the story?? If in doubt, take a photo. All photos are worthy of scrapping if they have a story, and sometimes it’s those the little things that make life interesting.

So we still haven’t found out when we are moving. At first we were told as early as the 10th of November. Well, since that is tomorrow, I don’t think it’s going to be then. Just as well, since we aren’t packed.

However, I’ve discovered a wonderful new method of getting stuff accomplished. For every box I pack, I do a layout. At this rate, I’ll have completed an album by the time we move. On the downside, we won’t be packed to move until Christmas 2006.

Maybe I need to revise my plan slightly. However, until I have a confirmed dated, I think this method will suit me just fine.

Today’s layout is of Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland. Lovely place. I’m using up some of the Polar Bear Press papers we received as part of our DT package. LOVE this stuff. Need more of this stuff. If you want to check out what the other DTs did with these fab papers, check out their sponsor gallery

I haven’t done much scrapping lately. It’s all been a little too hectic. This Souter Lighthouse layout is one I did last week, although I didn’t have time to photograph it until yesterday. I needed to do this layout. They are happy photos for me, and this is a happy layout for me. I needed this.

At the moment, all I want to do is brew the largest pot of tea in the world, put in in my scraproom, lock the door and curl up with my scrapping supplies. I really want to scrap. I physically need to scrap right now. But it’s not happening. There are all these nagging little voices in my head, ones telling me to organize my business life, ones telling me to organize the photos on my computer, and ones telling me I’m moving in less than a week and I should really start packing. All these voices are relevant. They are all things I should really be doing.

But what happens instead? I don’t get anything done. I go around in circles chasing my tail, whinning like a lost puppy. And so everything is taking longer than it should. Part of it is that I have no definite course. We don’t have a moving date set. Technically, we don’t even know when we get our new flat. Nothing else is as pressing at the moment as moving, but I’m really reluctant to start packing anything—especially my scrap stuff!! It’s my haven, and I dread to pack it, let alone move it. I just want a magic wand that will instantaneously transport all our belongings to our new flat—without the need to pack or unpack.

I think I need to do something. I think I really need to start packing. But right now I need to get ready for work.

I’ve been doing a lot of scrapping lately. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about scrapping lately. Although, apparently I haven’t been doing a lot of writing about scrapping lately. ;) I guess I was too busy scrapping… most of which are DT layouts. I’m loving these products, and can’t wait to share them with everyone!

But in my thinking about scrapping, I’ve been thinking about albums. And album organization. I only have a few actual albums. 4 to be precise. However, this is a large step from the zero I had last year. All the layouts that can be in albums are in albums, and the rest are simply seeking a home. And like most scrappers, those layouts live in piles. Piles and piles and piles of layouts.

I was not happy with the situation. Here are my precious layouts—layouts I’ve spent hours on— getting crushed, warped and bent out of shape by my lumpy-bumpy embellishments. So last night I did something about it.

I grabbed my pile of recent layouts (from the last year), and divided them into piles based on appropriate albums. I then bagged them in large grip-lock bags, and stood them up in a box. (Tip: the box isn’t full with layouts, and I was afraid of the laytous bending and warping, so I placed one of my altered books in there to fill the space. It seems to keep the layouts nice and upright.) Now after I finish my layouts, they either go into their albums, or go into this file of layouts waiting for albums.

By organizing my layouts in such a manner, I’m able to keep the layouts in the best condition possible. Free from warping. Free from dust and sunlight (if you put a lid on the box). And grouped into their appropriate themes. I also know which group is most deserving of an album, based on how full these bags are. And when I get around to ordering more alubms, it will be quick and easy to simply slide the layouts into their appropriate places, rather than my old trick of sorting through every single layout to find the layouts I wanted for the new albums.

While I was organizing my layouts, I also put name-tags on the 4 albums already on the shelf. I simply used some Making Memories vellum tags, and wrote the name of the album on it with my journalling pen. I got the idea from Carrie Owen’s scrap space. She uses them id for her in-progress albums, and I thought it was jus such a great idea.

I’m so happy with my new system. I just thought I’d share. :)

I was browsing through Elsie’s layouts the other day. All I can say is that I’ve been inspired. Her style is the completely the opposite of how I tend to scrap, but there is just something so whimsical about the way she scraps. I love it.

So I decided to put a little of Elsie’s whimsical nature into a layout, and I adore how it turned out. I think I need to do this more often.

If you like Elsie’s style, she does have several fonts available from 2peas shopping and she has a few new fontwerks stamps that she designed featured in her blog featured in this entry.

I think she reminds me of a dear friend of mine in toronto. They seem to have the same zest, the same style, and even the same haircut! Maybe that’s why I am really inspired by her. Or maybe it’s because she’s just a fantastic scrapper, and it’s hard not to be inspired by her.

Thanks Elsie!

In a day and age where most scrapbookers print their journalling from their computer, I still do handwritten journalling. Most of it is due to the fact that I don’t have a printer, but the fact is that I like my handwritten journalling. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s personal.

I will admit that my handwriting (or printing to be more precise) has become better since I took up scrapbooking, mostly due to the fact that I wanted it to look nice in my books. I experimented with a few styles until I found a way to write with both ease and speed without comprimising how it looked.

There are some scrapbookers with phenominal writing. Ali Edwards and Heidi Swapp immediately spring to mind. I love their writting. I want to write like them. I want to write like Ali Edwards for my journalling, and I want to write like Heidi Swap for titles. I’m still working on it.

And so comes the topic of today: How to improve your writting. The basic premise is simple. If you want to have nice handwriting, you need to practice. The more you practice, the better you become. There are a few articles online on how to improve your handwriting, I especially like the articles on eHow.com and Paperpenalia.com.

When I practice my writing I make sure I am comfortable and relaxed, put an example font in front of me, and then practice. I’m currently working on Heidi Swapp’s style. My end goal isn’t necessarily to completely immitate her writing style, but rather to get comfortable with it and expand it to a similar writing style that will work for me. We are still working on this. We are now working a little harder on this since we’ve almost completely run out of my treasured Heidi rub-ons. ;)

Speaking of Heidi Swapp, her new book Love your Handwriting is proving to be quite popular. This book doesn’t tell you how to write like Heidi, but rather how to improve your existing writing. She goes into the basics of pens, pencils, height and spacing to build your handwriting into something you love. Of course, I’m still waiting to get my hands on this book.

Now once you’ve improved your handwriting into something you love, you can hand journal endlessly on your layouts. Or you could make you wonderful new writing style into a font. If you don’t own software to do this (and most people don’t), then you can have someone else do it for you. Places like Fontifier take your handwriting and turn it into a font. You get to preview the font online, and if you like it, you can buy it for the mere $9USD.

If all this seems like a little too much work, then why not use other people’s handwriting. Fontgarden has a lovely collection of other people’s handwriting fonts which are downloadable for free. DaFont also has a wide variety of fonts in this style. An no, not all of them are as ‘grungy’ as the first few.

If you are willing to part with a few dollars US, Two peas in a bucket also has a few collections of handwriting fonts including 2peas fonts and the Autumn Leaves collection of hadwritten fonts.

In the end I hope that with all the options available, from handwriting to computer fonts, and the release with books like Heidi Swapp’s Love your Handwriting, it encourages people to journal more, or at least include some journalling on their layouts. After all, aren’t the stories behind those photographs you are scrapping just as important as the photos themselves? And maybe, just maybe, you might try some hand journalling on those layouts. I’m sure your family will delight in seeing your writing in the years to come, whether or not you love your own handwriting.

One of my favourite things to do in my scrapbooks is stamp. I love it. I mainly use alphabet stamps to create titles and journalling, but stamping is a great way to create accents, as well. Over the last few years, I’ve found tons of great sites on stamping, and I thought I’d share them with you over the course of the next few weeks, starting with inks and related mediums.

Jennifer Sizemore wrote a great article on Scrapjazz.com on Stamping in Scrapbooks, where she went through many of the basics of ink and techniques. It’s well worth a look through, especially if you are new to the stamping world. Although not included, one of my favourite brands of ink pads to use are the Distress Ink by Tim Holtz, because they have wonderfully large raised pad, they are re-inkable, safe for photos, workable, and I just love the colours. Tim Holtz offers some tips on using Distress Ink on his site—be sure to check out his gallery while you are there too!!

In the grand scheme of things, I have tried a lot of ink pads. The most important thing to me is that the ink pads have a removable lid, and a raise ink pad. Both of these attributes make direct-to-paper application much easier, such as when you are inking the edges of paper, or simply smearing the ink pad across the page to create a background.

Last year a professional stamper passed on a bit of info that I found quite interesting. Generally speaking, ink pads with clear lids tend to be pigment inks which are suitable for use with embossing powders, while those with opaque lids tend to be other forms of ink, such as dye-based, which are not suitable for use with embossing powders. I remember immediately going home to check all my stamp pads, and sure enough, she was right. However, I must admit that I generally use Tsukineko embossing ink with coloured embossing powder. You can, however, use clear embossing powder with coloured ink to create similar effects, which is great if you already own a lot of different colours of ink, and are just starting to get into embossing.

Another medium which is in the lime light at the moment is acrylic paint. It’s available either in the craft section, or you can buy artists’ acrylic at your local art shop. They both do the same job, however the craft acrylics are much more diluted (and ready to apply) and more costly in the long run. This is a great medium for use with foam stamps, because it’s easy to apply, easy to clean, and gives an opaque effect that sits on the paper (where as inks tend to settle into the paper). I’ve tried acrylics with rubber stamps, and it does work, however they can be a little slippery to stamp, and acrylic paint isn’t as easy to clean off rubber.

A couple more things before I close for today. To keep your inkpads at their best, store them upside down. This way, all the ink will be spread evenly at the top of the ink pad when you want to stamp. Also, when you are inking your stamp, place your stamp on your table image side up and dab your ink pad onto the image. There are several advantages to doing it this way. First, you can see what areas of your stamp need to be inked. Second, it allows you to be able to use any size ink pad on any size stamp. And finally, you simply don’t need to press at hard to get full coverage, which means less ink will be spread into the negative areas of your stamp, the stamp will be easier to clean, and you will waste less ink.

I hope you’ve found this information helpful, and that it encourages you to try stamping, or even try it again. For more info on the layout featured for this article, check it out in my gallery

Just thought I’d share today’s layout. May I say again how much I love Chatterbox papers?? They are so versatile, and such great colours. Best of all they just co-ordinate so well. I really need to get the new collections. All in good time…

Beyond my love of Chatterbox, I’m really liking this making my own chipboard thing. It just adds such great dimension to a page, and I can have any shape or colour I choose. For these flowers, I follow these steps, but without the letter stamping, of course.

Oh, by the way, the photos are of the interior of Sts. Michel et Gudule church in Brussels. Beautiful building!!!