Smashbooking Our Awesome Adventure!

Last summer, my husband and I celebrated our tenth anniversary with a fun and exciting trip to England (to visit family), Denmark (so I could show Dan where I lived and served as a missionary for my church), and Norway (just for fun). A couple of months before, just as we were beginning to plan the trip, I had the luck of getting to go to a Smashbooking class at Creating Keepsakes headquarters, taught by the fantastic Megan Hoeppner. I knew Smashing would be the perfect way to commemorate our upcoming adventure, so as we traveled I saved all our memorabilia so I could include it. Now, my original intention was to create the book as we went along on our trip, gluing in memorabilia and writing up journaling each day. That totally didn't happen. In fact, all of the fun bits and pieces from our trip, as well as my Smashbook, sat in a ziploc bag in my scrapbook room until March, when I went to the ScrapbookUSA Expo for a weekend and decided to make it happen. And I'm so glad I finally did, because I LOVE how it turned out! My Smashbook is heavy on journaling, because I wanted to remember all the little bits of experience we had together, and then lots of pictures and memorabilia. I know that this will be a treasure for Dan and me for the rest of our lives, because it really captures so much about our adventure together. There are a LOT of pages in a Smashbook, and I filled nearly the whole thing. That's a little much for one blog post, so I'm going to break it up into three parts. This first post covers planning the trip and the England leg of the journey. Dan's sister Jana is married to an English guy and they live in London, and my little brother Eric is married to an English girl and they live about an hour south of London, so we had lots of wonderful people to see.

I doodled this title page during the class at Creating Keepsakes.

I adhered this brochure into the book in such a way that it could fold out entirely.  Then I used the interior to add more pictures.

Smashbooking is so fun!  It stretches your creative muscles in a whole new way.  I'll post the pages from Denmark and Norway over the next few days and link them up here!

ScrapCodes -- possibly the coolest new thing in scrapbooking...

Ooh, I have the coolest new thing to show you today!  ScrapCodes makes customizable QR code stickers that are fantastic for both traditional and digital scrapbooking.  If you have a smart phone, you are probably already familiar with the little square codes we're starting to see everywhere.  Advertisers use them all the time: "Scan this code for more information!"  You scan the little code with a smart phone, and you are whisked away to whatever information is locked into that code.

So now, brilliantly, we can do the same thing on our scrapbook pages!  You can link it to a picture slideshow (hello, perfect for those of us who take 700 pictures of a single event and somehow can't figure out how to cram them all onto a layout...), upload a video, record an audio message, write a note, or link it to a website.  For my first project, I linked my QR code to a YouTube video...

Last month my daughter, sister, mom and I took a little girls' trip to Los Angeles (to be on America's Funniest Home Videos, how crazy is that?!), and we took Eliza to the Santa Monica Pier.  She became instant best friends with a street performer named Lenny Hoops, who sang and danced with her for better than 10 minutes.  I posted a video with the best 3 1/2 minutes to YouTube.  The pictures are adorable, but I knew when I scrapped this event I had to include the video somehow to really tell the story.  I was just going to include the YouTube link in the journaling, but this is SO much better!

The QR code comes as a nice, sturdy clear sticker.  I mounted it to some white cardstock, then onto a washi tape covered tag.  Now anyone flipping through our Smash book from the trip can just whip out their phone to see the awesome video.  And you don't have to have a smart phone, either -- you can also type that little web address at the bottom, and it will take you to the same place!

These ScrapCodes stickers are pretty easy to use, too.  It took me a few minutes to download the app, get logged in, and figure out the best way to link up my video, but it the instructions were simple and thorough.  Anyone familiar with a smart phone could do it easily, and I think now that I am all set up and I know what I'm doing, setting each code up will take about a minute.

The only downside I can think of is that they aren't necessarily pretty.  I think the digital-y look works great with the edgier style of Smashbooking, but what about other styles?  The code could easily be affixed to a hidden tag or journaling spot, so that it's just out of view but totally available.

I am really excited about the multi-media possibilities offered with these new stickers.  I always have way more pictures than I can add to a page, or way too much journaling, or audio or video that I wish I could include.  Now I can!

Soon you'll be able to get your ScrapCodes stickers at their website, but you can snag some this weekend at ScrapbookUSA Expo!  The Expo is Friday and Saturday, and it is going to be a seriously good time.  Hope to see you there!  (I'll be wearing a pink Design Team t-shirt, so come say hi!)

Washi Tape Monogram

Spring is just around the corner (thank heavens), and I'm starting to work on a little revamp for my entryway. My first project was this little monogram to sit on our entry table. It's a plain papier-mâché letter from Hobby Lobby dressed up with washi tape. The little flower is also made from washi tape, and I'd be happy to make a tutorial if anyone's interested.

This was a great project to break into my stash of washi tape. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has collected way more than I've ever used! If you're looking for affordable washi tape the best source I've found is Downtown Tape. They have dozens of different designs for two dollars a roll. You can find them online or they have a great booth at the ScrapbookUSA Expo at the end of this month.

Man Cards... for ScrapbookUSA Expo

When the opportunity popped up on the ScrapbookUSA Expo design team to use Basic Grey to make cards and tags for men and boys, I snagged it.  It is HARD to make cards for men, but I've always thought Basic Grey nails it with their masculine collections.  And having the right ingredients sure makes the rest of the job easier!

This first card uses the new Hipster collection -- SO cool.  I also ran a line of washi tape across the front to anchor that metal frame.

And this gift tag could really be used for any age guy.  I used the Kneehighs & Bowties collection.  I love the stickers that come with this collection -- layering them onto the basic tag shape made this project super easy.

Just over a month until ScrapbookUSA Expo!  Hope to see you there!

Stripping... (for ScrapbookUSA Expo)

I love the little strips Basic Grey includes at the bottom of their 12x12 papers -- perfectly usable little bits of paper with pretty patterns using otherwise useless little bits of paper.  Did that make any sense?

This month I got to work with some of Basic Grey's brand new collection -- Kneehighs and Bowties, with an eye towards cards and gifts for kids.  I decided for my first post to make a couple of cards using the little border strips, just to add a few more ideas of what you can do with them.

My first card shows an old favorite for little scraps -- turn them into something bigger!  To create the star on this card, I glued the strips to a piece of scrap cardstock, then cut a star out of it.  The layers of the strip create a lot of texture and interest on the card.  These great letter stickers are by Basic Grey, too.

This pretty card would be perfect for any little girly girl.  I first created the card base, then layered on the border strips to create the V pattern.  Add a few embellishments (the label and flag are stickers from the paper pack), and it's all sorts of adorable!
So don't throw away those cute little border strips!  There are so many fun things you can do with them. :)

35 Years!

In December my parents celebrated their 35th anniversary, and my brother took some really fabulous pictures of them while he was visiting from England. This past Saturday was my dad's birthday, so I thought I would make a scrapbook page for him. (Several years ago I started a scrapbook for my dad. I do 8 1/2x11 pages, and gave him an 8 1/2x11 frame so he could frame the first layout. The idea was that every time I made him a new page he could put the new one in the frame and the previous one in the book. The only hitch is that he likes the first one I made him so much he's never taken it out of the frame!)

 And my mom mentioned how much she liked the "10 Years of Us" layout I posted last month, so I thought I'd do a version of that, and I stole their wedding album last weekend to find a suitable picture.  Here's the result:

Aren't they beautiful and handsome?  My dad liked it so much he has decided to buy another frame so he can put this one up too, and not have to switch out that first layout. :)

Hmm, I don't think I've ever posted that one.  It's pretty darn cute -- I'll have to post it in the next couple days!

Valentine's Chalkboard Wall

Ah, Valentine's Day is almost upon us.  And while I'm still trying to figure out something fun and romantic for my hubby and me for V-day, I thought I'd share what I did with my chalkboard wall for this month of love...

I didn't ever figure out what to do for Valentine's decor, so I just gathered up all my red and pink washi tape, red and pink spools of thread, and red and pink flowers from my crafting stash to fill my apothecary jars, and found a spray of pink flowers to stick in my vase.