Christmas Gift Ideas - A Vintage Digital Scrapbook

As the Holiday season approaches more and more people are looking for unique and personalized Christmas gifts to give to loved ones and friends. It is always a challenge to find a Christmas gift that will be a lasting treasure and legacy for future generations.

A vintage Christmas scrapbook is an idea for a unique Christmas gift that can easily be created by digital scrapbooking.

You could quite quickly and easily create a vintage Christmas scrapbook filled with memories of previous special holiday times to give as a Christmas gift. For example, you could use photos of previous years of Christmas family get togethers and capture these memories in a special scrapbook. This special gift could become a family heirloom, that will be treasured by future generations.

First of all collect all the photographs you would like to use and place them in folder on your desktop. This makes it easier to access them. You can take older hardcopy photographs and scan them into your computer. Look for photos that show your beautifully decorated home, family members dressed in their Christmas best, sitting down for that wonderful dinner, or that capture the joy, surprise and happiness that Christmas brings.

It will be a great to create memories of your family life to see how the children have grown and changed over the years, as well as to remember those family members who are sadly no longer with you.

You will need a photo editing program to create your digital scrapbook. If you don't have one, you can purchase software programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

However if you have not tried digital scrapbooking before you might want to choose to download a free program from the internet such as Scrapbook Max or Scrapbook Flair
The next thing is to go onto the internet to find a Vintage Christmas digital scrapbook theme that you like. Ready made Vintage themes are very inexpensive and you can use them over and over again, and change them to make them unique very easily.

Once you have selected and downloaded your vintage Christmas scrapbook theme, you can start to create your pages.

Photographs can easily be placed into the layout, cropped or re-sized by the click of your mouse. Usually this can be done by dragging and dropping the images into the page.The vintage pages are usually soft and elegantly designed and perfectly coordinated to look beautiful with formal pictures.

You can even change the colours of the scrapbook layout very easily.If you want to be able to change the photograph colour to a sepia, to add to the vintage look you can easily find a online tutorial that tells you how to do that.

Most Christmas digital scrapbooking kits come complete with journal pages to record your holidays. Choose a layout that has 8 x 8" page size.This will make printing convenient and affordable. Just add your photos and your Christmas story Print your pages on your color printer or send them to your local office supply for printing.

By using different photograhs for each gift you can create a unique personalized gift for each person The great part is that you can have multiples made and keep one for yourself.

To perfect the gift find a classic album cover and wrap with a velvet ribbon.

Christmas Digital Scrapbook ideas with a scrapbooking tutorial you can use with a free software program

By Karina Stewart

How To Host a Scrapbooking Party

Hosting a scrapbooking party isn't as bad as it sounds. It is a fun choice for women to get together with the same hobby and share ideas and techniques. Hosting a party gives you extra perks like, discounts and prizes. Before you start handing out those invitations there are a few things you need to know.

First, What are the benefits of having a scrapbook party in your house. Women are more eager to attend these parties because they have a chance not only to catch up with one another, but to swap different designs and scrapbooking tools.

You will need to think of a roomy location to have your party. Each person will need plenty of room for their supplies and other items. Each person should bring their photos and memorabilia the want to exhibit. There are also some fundamental items they will need to bring along. Be sure to list them on the invitations.

Sharp scissors or shears

Small paper trimmer

Acid-free and lignin-free paper for mounting and
background

Acid-free pens for journaling

Adhesives for mounting photos and embellishments

Stickers for decorating

Now would be a good time for you to start thinking about the display of your page. Gather your pictures and cardstock and place them in clear baggies. Obtain accompaniments you wish to add.
The normal scrapbook party usually lasts two to three hours depending on how many first timers there are. Arrange to serve some light snacks and drinks. Place these away from the scrapbooking area to avoid any unwanted mishaps. Choose snacks that are easy to eat without a lot of mess.

Don't try to push yourself to complete a lot of pages during this time. Many scrapbookers only complete one to two pages at the party. This is why so many continue to have parties at different locations. You can establish a group that is willing to host parties at each others homes. A good time frame to get together again would be about once a month. This will enable everyone to establish more photos and scrapbooking items.

During your scrapbooking party is a great time to swap or borrow scrapbooking tools you do not use any more.

For more Scrapbooking hints, tips and advice visit my site now.
http://123scrapbooking.blogspot.com

By Ian McWilliams

5 Reasons To Create A Newsletter For Your Scrapbooking Customers

Your scrapbooking business really requires you to create a relationship with your customers. When a customer comes into your store you have an opportunity to visit with them face to face.

But when they approach your website, you need to capture their information so you can contact them about all of your scrapbooking specials and start giving them free information to keep them coming back to your website.

If you don't have a newsletter and haven't started building a subscriber base, you should start today.

Here are a few reasons why:

Reason #1: It's FREE advertising. Why pay a ton of money to advertise in a local newspaper when you can do it for free with yourself? Building a solid subscriber base means you have an open audience of like-minded people who either like what you have to offer, or are, at the very least, interested in your message. You just send off an email to your scrapbooking customer base and keep them in contact with what you're doing and also any specials you may have.

Reason #2: It's the perfect market research tool. Have you ever been stumped for fresh, new ideas to offer your customers? When you have a subscriber base, you can ask them for their feedback and/or ideas. What better way to give your target market what they want, than by asking them directly? You could find out what kinds of questions they have about scrapbooking so you can create online classes just for them. It keeps you in touch with what layouts they like, and most of all it keeps the communication open for them so they feel like they can contact you anytime.

Reason #3: It promotes word of mouth advertising. Everybody knows that word of mouth will get you a whole lot farther, faster, than any type of advertising. Please your subscribers, and they'll let their friends and family know. An easy way to get them talking is to run a scrapbooking contest on your site. One day I decided to run a scrapbooking contest on my site and I received 76 subscribers just in one day! A contest is well worth your time, scrapbookers love contests.

Reason #4: It keeps you in touch with your customers. What turns you into a return customer? Quality customer service! Your newsletter is an excellent way for you to stay in touch with your customers and show them your appreciation for their business. Don't just use your newsletter as a way to squeeze more money from them. Use it to express your gratitude for their business.

Even create memories for them, guide them to look forward to your emails by giving them great scrapbooking content, tips, tutorials, and contests. By providing them great information, they will look forward to receiving your tips all the time.

Reason #5: Keep your customers informed. Having a scrapbooking sale? New products arriving? Do you have something really exciting to share about your business? Mention it all to them!

Having a newsletter will give you an easy method of informing your customers about all the new things going on with your business. Keep them in touch with all the latest crops that are out there, products that are new. They will be very happy to learn more from you.

By Vera Raposo

Vera Raposo is the Scrapper's Business Coach. She is now teaching how to create your very own Custom Scrapbook Artist Business. You can sign up for her exclusive tips at ScrapVenturePro.com to help your business succeed

Your Wedding Scrapbook – Preserving your Special Occasion

There are many events that are perfect for archiving such memories, and what better occasion to do so than your own wedding. Whether you had a small, intimate wedding with only a few guests present, or opted for a large celebration with everyone you know, and perhaps some you didn’t, there are plenty of items you could include in your wedding scrapbook, and many ways to arrange them in order to recapture that very special day over and over again.

Selecting Photos for your Wedding

Scrapbook

The first items you will probably want to scrapbook will be your wedding pictures. Photos can, and often do, tell a story. They can walk you through the events of that special day every time your scrapbook is viewed. The only difficulty may be choosing which ones you should include, since you will probably have many from which to choose. They will also give your children and grandchildren something to talk about as the book is passed down through generations. Your wedding scrapbook would not be complete without pictures of the building where the ceremony took place, you walking down the aisle, and, of course, the wedding ceremony itself. You may also want to include photos of the reception, the cutting of the cake, and you and your new spouse leaving the building. These special events will then be cataloged for years of enjoyment in your very own special wedding scrapbook.

Choosing a Theme

Creating a theme that depicts your thoughts and feelings you had on your wedding day is important. A distinctive wedding scrapbook or album is essential, as it will help you to always remember the people who helped to make your day what it was. Writing down the events and the emotions you had when they occurred will also serve as a record or journal, and will supplement the pictures quite nicely.

Organizing Your Memories

There are several ways to organize a wedding scrapbook, and many layouts from which to choose. When putting together your wedding scrapbook, color is extremely important, as it will accentuate the photos and other material. Many people choose to use their own wedding colors, but you can choose other color combinations if you prefer. Even if you do choose to use your wedding colors, you may want to use other colors to add variety to your scrapbook pages and layouts. For example, if your colors were burgundy and green, you could add cream, light pink, or yellow to accent the darker colors. Putting different colors together will give your layouts a distinctive look and set them apart from other wedding scrapbooks.

Your wedding scrapbook should look elegant and charming, so you might want to add embellishments. These, as well as the right color scheme will make your wedding scrapbook unique and appealing. One option is to use vellum paper. Vellum looks elegant and is easy to find. Eyelets, brads, and ribbons are also suggested embellishments that will add character and personality to your wedding scrapbook.

Floral patterns also work great for wedding scrapbooks. They tend to match well with wedding décor, and lend themselves to the overall wedding theme. Your choices are numerous, so don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the color scheme, embellishments, and patterns that work best for you.

There are many different themes you can use to capture the love and affection felt by everyone on your wedding day. One idea is to include marriage tips from more experienced individuals. These tips may serve as simple ideas or advice that might be useful to you and your spouse on down the road. Interesting anecdotes may also serve as a fun read. You can even incorporate this as an activity at your bridal shower or bachelor party, whereby, other married people write down their tips and give them to you for the scrapbook. You can also include photos of the married couples that will serve as captions for the tips.

Another wedding scrapbooking idea is to incorporate any interests of the bride and groom that may have been a part of the overall wedding theme. For example, some couples choose to make personal interests a part of their wedding. If you or your spouse to be enjoys playing golf, you may depict this at your wedding reception. Guests may be provided with wedding favors that are golf-related and have been customized for the event. You might want to devote a page or two in your wedding scrapbook to this, and include photos or items small enough to fit on a page. This is your opportunity to be as creative as possible, while making a wedding scrapbook that will truly record your very special day.

A More Personal Approach

You may want to create a wedding scrapbook that is not considered to be traditional. There are many ways to set yours apart from others, thereby, taking the untraditional route. When planning your wedding scrapbook, you should focus around your lives together, while catering to your individual personalities. If desired, you can include pictures of memorable events that took place before your marriage, their respective dates, and any photos you may wish to add. You may also want to include your spouse in the scrapbooking activities. This will allow both your personalities to come through, and will be something the two of you can work on together.

You can add mementos and items such as the wedding invitations, reception napkins or cards. Scrapbook stores sell memory pockets for these types of items, and are easy to incorporate in your wedding scrapbook. You also might want to include any congratulatory notes or cards from friends and family you may have received during your engagement. This will add a more personal touch, and will further personalize your scrapbook. It will also serve as a reminder of your feelings during such an anticipatory time.

No matter what you decide to include in your wedding scrapbook, choose carefully. Take as much time as you need when deciding on colors, a theme, and the various photos and items you will include. Your wedding scrapbook will be a very important part of your new family, and will help preserve memories for many years to come.

Author: Michele Cardello

Get Started With Guide Scrapbooking Ultimate

If you are one of those who love to collect and preserve materials that are close to your heart then scrapbooking is for you. It is more than collecting and placing of your beloved articles. To help you get the most out of scrapbooking, you need the guide scrapbooking ultimate. This will help you learn about scrapping from the very basic to the more complicated concepts. If you are going to participate in scrapping you need to know the right way to do it with guide scrapbooking ultimate.

Many people have lately realized the beauty and wonder of scrapbooking. Scrapbooks do not only allow you to store beautiful pictures and other thing of your loved one’s but records them for you too. In fact, getting into the hobby of scrapbooking also allows you to improve your artistic and creative abilities. While there is no right or wrong when it comes to the designs you create, there is plenty of mistakes that you can make with the wrong materials or even the wrong type of pages you place your work on.

With the guide scrapbooking ultimate you won’t have to worry about such mistakes happening to you on a regular basis. If you are considering starting a new album then choose durable and long lasting scrapbooking materials. Many a times, you will come across beautiful as well as attractive scrapbooking materials and you may end up buying beautiful but wrong material, hence always look for something that is not too delicate to handle or even preserve. After all scrapbooking is all about preserving your long cherished memories.

The right guide scrapbooking ultimate for you depends on what you hope to get out of the entire scrapbooking process. A beginner will always prefer to use a different guide scrapbooking ultimate than an experienced person. Moreover, guide scrapbooking ultimate will help in developing some more in depth techniques of scrapbooking.

You can find guide scrapbooking ultimate publications in a variety of places. Your craft store will offer a wide selection of them. This may be your best resource because you can flip through each guide scrapbooking ultimate and discover what it has to offer. If you buy one online you may be disappointed once you open the cover and see what is inside. Be creative as possible as you can. Though there are ready made scrapbooks available in the market but nothing beats a personalized album that reflects the idea and creativity of the owner?

Instead of purchasing embellishments and stamps to decorate your scrapbook, use home materials or items that are lying unused in your store since many years. For example, instead of buying a post card for travel related album, you can use plane tickets or passes as this will give your scrapbook a different look.

As your skills for scrapbooking improve with the time, you will find you want to learn new skills. That may require you to purchase new guide scrapbooking ultimate books. You can save your older ones for easy reference or even sell them on the online auctions to other people who are just starting out in the area of scrapbooking.

Author: John Foster

Ideas for Layouts in Scrapbooking

What is scrapbooking?Scrapbooking is one of the ancient methods for preservation of data in the form of information. Scrapbook is just not a mere form of notebook but it is a, but it is a book which contains information which is very precious to the people.

It contains information in the form of photos, text, stickers etc. Scrapbook involves lots of creativity and attractiveness. Scrapbooks are reflection of the creativity skills of the individuals. Now a day with the advent of technology digital scrapbooking is coming in picture.

Ideas for the layout of the scrapbooking

* In the older scrapbooks photos were mounted on the corners of the quotations. The photos used to have a border to make it more attractive. To add more liveliness to the scrapbook pages used to have a memorabilia attached to them.

* To add more glamour to your scrapbook borders your scrapbook with attractive designs of medium size. Precaution should be taken that the pictures or the photos do get covered due to the borders.

* For a better layout use good color combinations. If not used a proper color combination the scrapbook will look shabby and its attractiveness.

* The layout should be such that it should be pleasing to ones eyes.

* It's always important to use high quality materials for the layouts as your scrapbook is a treasure of your memories.

* Always use those materials which are acid free as the colors or the decorations may fade over after certain time if used an acidic material.

* Using color pencils will help you to add a spark to your layout and will help to boost the creativity.

* The layout of the scrapbook should be such that it will bring a pleasant smile in your face as you go through your sweet memories.

* Try to make the borders more attractive with the help of stickers or rubber stamps. In case of rubber stamps try making use of the same stamp with variety of colors. Even the use of stencil will help.* Even you can border your main photos or pictures with multicolor pencils and make the use of sparklers to highlight it.

* If you have pasted dark color pictures or photos or you have written text in bold letter then you should go for background colors. But use only light shades preferably by pencils. Don't make the use of the bright colors, the scrapbook will look shabby and untidy.

* Try pasting good quality pictures which will help to enhance the look of your scrapbook.

* Give your 100 % creativity skills while making a scrapbook.

* Make use of good phrases or most of the people also have a habit of writing the dates and the place where they have taken the photos pasted in the scrapbook.

* Think of unique ideas and implement them to make your scrapbook look more attractive and pleasing to your eyes.

Author: Muna wa Wanjiru

Scrapbooking Your Christmas Memories

Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in America, and is full of many fun-filled memories and traditions. There are many ways to document the various events of the season, and Christmas scrapbooking provides one of the easiest and most convenient means for doing this. From a variety of delicious foods to the glorious decorations, there's something special and unique about every experience that can be chronicled in an album for many years to come.

The first step to preserving your precious memories for a Christmas scrapbook display is to gather your favorite photos that will help illustrate your family's story and give those viewing your album a good sense of who you are. You can begin by focusing only on one year, including pictures from a collage of holiday-related days or special events. If you wish to cover a longer period of time, organize your photos in chronological order so the story told by your scrapbook will be sequential.

Include pictures of your entire family, and encourage everyone to become involved. This is a great way to spend time together while taking part in a meaningful project.

Choose Christmas scrapbooking paper and embellishments that enhance your photographs, and arrange them in a way that looks festive. Prepackaged scrapbooking kits are available for a variety of occasions, and Christmas is definitely among them. These kits come complete with coordinating papers to match a wide variety of holiday themes, 3-D stickers, self-adhesive borders, frames, tags, photo corners, and embellishments. Other unique items such as your child's artwork, hand-made Christmas ornaments, and addition holiday memorabilia can be added to make the album truly your own.

When choosing a layout for your pages, take care to arrange each item so that it compliments another and places proper accent on important items. Begin by contrasting colors, mixing solid paper designs with others that are patterned, and accentuating pictures with colorful borders. You can create your layout by scratch, or adopt ideas found in scrapbooking magazines or online sources. It may also be helpful to consult with fellow Christmas scrapbooking enthusiasts to obtain their opinions and tips.

Select ribbon, rub-ons, and markers to add the finishing touches to your holiday memory masterpiece. Don't limit yourself to the items that came in your kit. Look around the house for items to serve as add-ons to complete the pages and make it a truly personal experience for your Christmas scrapbooking project.

By Michelle Cardello

Michele Cardello, director of marketing and creative for Life Imprints, a creative scrapbooking supplies company also offering contemporary picture frames, in Cleveland, Ohio, has worked in the photo packaging industry for 10 years. Cardello helps customers find creative ways to preserve and appreciate a lifetime of memories.

Baby Scrapbooking - The Best Way to Preserve Your Baby's Memories

Babies are small bundles of joy. Every couple, one day or the other, wants to start a family. If you are planning on starting a family, then be prepared to change those dirty diapers, waking up at all odd hours to tend to your baby and clean the baby bottles.

The journey of a woman, from a daughter, to a wife, and finally a mother, is beautiful. The growth of a baby is like a seed to a beautiful plant. The growth of your child, right from the birth, until he starts taking his first step, is a memorable experience. Every parent wants to preserve these memories, both for their children and for themselves.

Photo albums are very common, but a baby scrapbook is new and trendy. Baby scrapbooking is becoming very popular among parents. The scrapbooks are helpful, as every time you see them, all of your baby's memories will come alive. If you are still wondering how to start your own baby scrapbook, there are many books available to help you out. If you want more ideas on how to make your baby scrapbook, you can easily join any of the baby scrapbooking classes that are available.

Baby scrapbooking can be a very fun experience. You can start your baby scrapbook with your own pictures. You can take pictures of yourself during your pregnancy days (yoga classes, routine checkups at the hospital, etc.). When your baby is born, add his/her pictures. Capturing all of the moments of your baby is very memorable. Capture every special moment, such as when he/she smiles for the first time, starts standing, sitting, and finally walking.

You can choose the color of your papers and sketch pens. If your doctor has told you the gender of your baby, then it is easy to choose the color before your baby is born. You can select the color accordingly. If you do not know the gender of your baby, you can use sober colors, such as yellow, orange, or cream.

Keep a note on what happens on which day and how it is special. The first word he/she speaks or the first step he/she takes is very special. You can cut a small ringlet of your baby's hair and attach it to the scrapbook. It gives a personal touch to the baby scrapbook. If you feel that baby scrapbooking will take a lot of your time, then you can start early, from your pregnancy days, by starting to format the scrapbook.

Parents often regret not keeping a diary, because when children grow up, they want to know everything about themselves -- how they behaved, which words they spoke first, etc. These memories are very magnificent as they bring life to every moment that was once experienced by the parents.

A parent relieves those moments when they look at the pictures and notes. The child feels and understands what he/she did at that moment. Some memories are fun and some are heartfelt. These days can never come back, but they can be relieved through a baby scrapbook.

To learn more about baby scrapbooking, visit http://www.babyscrapbooking.net

By Steve M Barnes