Articles

Fun With Leaves

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:36:00 GMT

Playing in the leaves is a favorite childhood past time, but with a little creativity they're fun for everyone. From scrapbooking about leaves, using fun leaf products, making your own leaf embellishments, and making fun home décor projects with real leaves, you'll have so much fun you'll feel like a kid again.

Don't Call it Fall, Call it Autumn by Lisa Kisch from the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Make a scrapbook page staring the leaves in your yard.

Be YOU-nique by Liz Hicks from the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Create your own leaves using stamps and paper for your layout. For step by step instructions see page 45 of the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Happy Fall Play by Kim Watson from the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Cut leave shapes from felt and hand stitch to make fun leaf accents.

So Rich by Kim Watson from the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Take your felt leaves a step further and adhere them to a small twig.

If you don't have time to make your own leaf embellishments, Prima has you covered with their Autumn Leaves, and Caravan Desert flowers.

For a little more bling try these Flower embellishments, Gradient jewels, and Seasonal Medley sequins from Creative Charms.

Nothing beats working with real leaves though. This inexpensive and easy leaf wreath is created with a coat hanger and a pile of leaves. Click here for step by step instructions.

For a stunning window display try this banner made from waxed leaves. Click here for instructions.

Enjoy all the leaves while they last, because snow will be here before too long. (Unless of course you're one of our southern hemisphere friends!)

-Erin Weed

Journaling Solutions: Fabulous Flowers

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:01:00 GMT

Journal It

* How does my garden grow?

* To me, the power of flowers is . . .

* Roses are red; violets are blue . . .

Quote It

* "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." -A. A. Milne

* "Friendship is like a sheltering tree." -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

* "Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." -Hans Christian Andersen

* "Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity." -John Ruskin

Title It

* Growing Like a Weed

* Flower Child

* As Soft as a Petal

* Bloom & Grow

Download a PDF of these framed quotes to use on your scrapbook page.

Download a PNG of these framed quotes to use on your digital layout.

--Lara Penrod, managing editor

For more quotes and journaling ideas, visit Journaling Solutions, Creating Keepsakes, May/June 2011.

Appeared in: Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks: Fabulous Flowers. Available soon!

Quotes - Winter

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:28:00 GMT

Quotes

"Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart." - Victor Hugo

"O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." - William Blake

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell

Journaling Ideas

Make a list of 10 activities that bring you happiness when the weather is cold or frightful outside.

Do you love winter months, or do you eagerly anticipate spring? How early in the year do you begin to wish spring would arrive? Record your thoughts on layout.

Share how your schedule slows down (or speeds up) during the winter months.

Make a layout sharing your favorite activities to enjoy in the warmth of your home during the winter season.

Quotes - Fun

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:16:00 GMT

Quotes

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." - Dale Carnegie

"If it's not fun, you're not doing it right" - Bob Basso

"These things are fun, and fun is good." - Dr. Seuss

"I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That's were the fun is." - Donald Trump

"I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun." - Katharine Hepburn

"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun." - Thomas A. Edison

"Have fun in your command. Don't always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you've earned it: Spend time with your families." - Colin Powell

Layout Ideas

Make a layout about the joy of having fun. Tip: Have someone take a picture of you (or you and your loved ones) laughing.

Create a layout sharing five activities your family enjoys together.

Journaling Idea:

Relate an event when you know success came because you enjoyed the experience.

Describe how you add an element of fun to ordinary tasks.

Share your tips on how you find pleasure in the everyday.

Describe an everyday activity that brings you extraordinary joy.

Share your thoughts on the difference it makes when you have a job you love.

Quotes - Family

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:38:00 GMT

Quotes

"In time of test, family is best." - Burmese Proverb

"If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable--each segment distinct." - Letty Cottin Pogrebin

"Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future." - Gail Lumet Buckley

"The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family." - Lee Iacocca

"Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie--not perfect, but who's complaining?" - Robert Brault

"To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there." - Barbara Bush

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses." - Joyce Brothers

Layout Ideas

Create your own short rhyme about what family means to you, and then use the poem on a layout.

Jot down a trait you share in common with a parent or one of your traits you've seen your child develop. On your layout, consider using photos taken when you were the same age.

Create a page sharing five (or more!) specific ways your family shows support for each other on a daily or weekly basis. Consider ideas such as making meals for one another, attending sporting events of family members, reading to each other, teaching younger siblings new tricks, and giving praise or encouragement.

Make a layout about how your family is your greatest joy. Be specific on the items you include.

Journaling Ideas

Record the similarities and differences in personality of the members of your family.

Describe a time when your family has helped ground you and give you perspective. Perhaps it was a moment from the past, or it could be a daily occurrence!

Share a quirk unique to your family, but one that you embrace. Think about mealtime traditions, game-time personalities, funny sayings, and more. Have you recorded it on a layout yet? If not, make today the day!

Quotes - Luck

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:48:00 GMT

Quotes

"Care and diligence bring luck." - Thomas Fuller

"Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained, and using well-spoken words: This is good luck." - Buddha

"Luck never gives; it only lends." - Swedish Proverb

"Luck is believing you're lucky." - Tennessee Williams

"For each petal on the shamrock,
This brings a wish your way.
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day."
- Irish Blessing

"For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can." - Ernest Hemingway

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca

Layout Ideas

Create a layout about how an optimistic attitude helped you through an experience you thought was difficult but ended up being a blessing. You never know, the layout may help a friend or family member make it through a difficult time in the future.

Journaling Ideas

What factors do you believe help bring good luck?

Jot down a funny, heartwarming, or interesting story about when luck lent you a hand.

Share five blessings you feel lucky to have in your life.

Describe your thoughts about how work and luck correlate.

Describe a time when you know you received extra help to accomplish a task.

How have you helped bring good luck into your life because you made an extra effort or worked a little harder?

Quotes - Spring

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:33:00 GMT

Quotes

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." - Margaret Atwood

"In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." - Mark Twain

"The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness." - Therese of Lisieux

"In springtime, love is carried on the breeze." - Emma Racine de Fleur

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." - Charles Dickens

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!' " - Robin Williams

"Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men." - Chinese Proverb

Layout Ideas

Did your romance with your husband blossom in the spring? Make sure you've recorded the story in your scrapbook!

Create a scrapbook page about the activities on your must-do list when the weather warms up enough that you can finally enjoy a day outside.

Has the new season started to spring up around your home? Head outside and take pictures that show evidence spring has arrived, and then create a layout on how you feel about the arrival of spring.

Journaling Ideas

What spring aromas do you or your children carry after a morning spent outdoors?

Describe the weather on a typical spring day in your city. The journaling may not seem too extraordinary to you today, but it may to you or someone who views your albums years from now in a city with a different climate.

Record the variety of flowers you enjoy in your garden, and share why you like that particular bouquet.

Photo Idea

Take photos of your day outfits and evening outfits to show how the weather changes so much from morning to evening in your city.

Quotes - Vacation

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:23:00 GMT

Quotes

"He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left." - Chinese Proverb

"For travel to be delightful, one must have a good place to leave and return to." - Frederick B. Wilcox

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent upon arriving." - Lao Tzu

"Laughter is an instant vacation." - Milton Berle

"No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one." - Elbert Hubbard

"Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip." - Anonymous

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." - Robert Orben

Layout Ideas

Create a layout about your favorite place to visit and why it has special significance to you.

Create a layout about a day when you enjoyed 24 hours living by the moment. If you forgot to take your camera, you can still create a scrapbook page without photos.

Are you the type of person who packs an activity into every minute of your vacation, or do you enjoy relaxation time? Share your vacation approach on a layout!

Create a scrapbook page highlighting your vacation adventures over the last decade.

Journaling Ideas

Vacations are usually meant for relaxing, but we usually learn something along the way. On your spring break, did you remember the joy of taking time for yourself, did you rekindle a friendship, or did you embrace a love for nature? Jot down what new insights a vacation helped you discover.

If you enjoy vacations at home, record some highlights of the everyday activities you had the chance to enjoy more fully.

Create a list of all the must-have (or seemingly must-have) items you pack with you on a trip. Do you keep your bag to a carry-on, or do you haul everything but the kitchen sink?

What is your favorite way to spend a vacation?

Photo Idea

Next time you head out for a vacation, photograph the contents of your suitcase(s) and your car to show how tightly you pack.

Quotes - Friendship

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:22:00 GMT

Quotes

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." - Bernard Meltzer

"True friendship consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and value." - Ben Jonson

"True friendship isn't about being there when it's convenient; it's about being there when it's not." - Anonymous

"True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable." - David Tyson Gentry

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." - Anonymous

"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are." - Anonymous

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.' " - C.S. Lewis

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." - Anonymous

Layout Ideas

Create a layout about one of your funny quirks, and share ways your friends help you in that area.

Scrapbook a page about the characteristics you most admire and appreciate in your friends. Consider creating a layout with photos of several close friends where you list the incredible qualities nearby each photo.

Make a scrapbook page to thank a friend for providing you with great strength during a trying time. Consider writing notes to many friends to express thanks you have not yet given.

Share a time when you knew you were completely comfortable with a new friend and what it meant to you.

Scrapbook a page about a friend who has left a lasting impression on you. For additional quote ideas, consider the lyrics from the song "For Good" from Wicked.

Create a layout about what friendship means to you. Consider what you would write if you could update the dictionary entry for "friend."

Describe a dear friend and how you came together because of a commonality.

Write a letter to a friend thanking him or her for the friendship given to you. Send the letter to the friend, and include a copy of it on a layout about your friendship.

Photo Idea

Do you have many photos of you and your friend together? Head out to take some today!

Quotes - Birthday

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:15:00 GMT

Quotes

"Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest." - Larry Lorenzoni

"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed." - Charles Schulz

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day." - Emily Dickinson

"There is still no cure for the common birthday." - John Glenn

"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself." - Tom Wilson

"A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip." - Anonymous

"In childhood, we yearn to be grown-ups. In old age, we yearn to be kids. It just seems that all would be wonderful if we didn't have to celebrate our birthdays in chronological order." - Robert Brault

Layout Ideas

On a birthday-themed scrapbook page, share your goals to live life to the fullest in the upcoming year.

If you've turned 40, dedicate your next birthday layout to showcasing ways your life has improved since hitting that milestone mark.

You don't have to celebrate birthdays only one day a year. Create a scrapbook page showing you how celebrate the gift of life each day!

Do you have any special beauty tricks that keep you looking young? Share your daily, weekly, or monthly routines on a layout!

Create a humorous scrapbook page jotting down ways age has shown up in your life the last few years.

For your next birthday-themed scrapbook page, create a layout highlighting favorite "destinations" from the last year's journey, from everyday moments to milestone events.

Create a birthday-themed layout sharing what you know now that you wished you knew as a child, or jot down what you knew as a child that you wish you remembered more on a daily basis today.

Quotes - Creativity

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:58:00 GMT

Quotes

"Out of limitations comes creativity." - Debbie Allen

"There is nothing that cannot be achieved by firm imagination" - Japanese Proverb

"There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination." - Henry David Thoreau

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." - Erich Fromm

"It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life." - Julius Caesar

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." - Scott Adams

Layout Ideas

On your next layout, limit yourself to using only five supplies. See what creative ways you can use those supplies to complete a scrapbook page..

Tell how scrapbooking has helped you achieve something great you may not have thought possible. It may be that your scrapbooking skills helped a local hospital, or perhaps it's that you discovered how amazingly creative you really are!

Create a layout that showcases you participating in your favorite creative hobby.

Record your thoughts on how scrapbooking helps you bring your imagination to life.

If you always scrap with 4" x 6" photos, crop your photos to smaller blocks and see how they come together on a layout. If you always use cropped photos, leave some of them 4" x 6" and see how your layout comes together. Whatever your norm, deviate from it today, and see what new scrapbook pages you can create!

Create a scrapbook page that celebrates your love of scrapbooking and your creativity as a scrapbooker.

Find a product you've wanted to play with but haven't yet. Spend an hour experimenting with it, and see what you come up with!

Quotes - Mom

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:49:00 GMT

Quotes

"On Mother's Day I have written a poem for you. In the interest of poetic economy and truth, I have succeeded in concentrating my deepest feelings and beliefs into two perfectly crafted lines: You're my mother, I would have no other!" - Forest Houtenschil

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." - Henry Ward Beecher

"A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them." - Victor Hugo

"Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother." - Oprah Winfrey

"It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding." - Erma Bombeck

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." - Tenneva Jordan

"I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother." - Abraham Lincoln

Layout Ideas

Create a scrapbook page sharing 50 reasons why you love your mother! Write the text today, and e-mail it to your mom for a Mother's Day note!

Create a scrapbook page sharing lessons your mother taught you that have greatly blessed your life. Not only will it be a great honor to your mother, but it's a great opportunity to pass those lessons down to your children as well.

Create a scrapbook page sharing how you always feel safe in your mother's arms.

Create a scrapbook page honoring several women who have served as "mothers" in your life.

Create a scrapbook page sharing your feelings of love and compassion in raising your children.

Create a layout about the many ways your mother has showed selflessness and great love for you and your siblings.

Create a scrapbook page telling about how your mother is one of your richest blessings.

Quotes - Everyday

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:43:00 GMT

Quotes

"Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness." - Maxwell Maltz

"In everyday life there is always mañana. There is no urgency." - Mark Spitz

"I love to take things that are everyday and comforting and make them into the most luxurious things in the world." - Marc Jacobs

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." - John Milton

"Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and every day that fortune grants you, count as gain." - Horace

"He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every day holds the possibility of a miracle." - Elizabeth David

Layout Ideas

Celebrate daily acts of courage that bring you happiness and joy.

Make a scrapbook page about how you enjoy life and relax on a daily basis.

Scrapbook a page that shows how your everyday treasures are your life's richest blessings.

Share how an everyday moment blessed you with a new perspective.

Create a scrapbook page sharing tips on how you make every day enjoyable.

Create a page about a new adventure you've pursued that enhanced your everyday routine.

Create a scrapbook page that shares five everyday miracles in your life.

Quotes - Sunshine

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:34:00 GMT

Quotes

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." - James M. Barrie

"May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through."
- Irish Blessing

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine--and shadows will fall behind you." - Walt Whitman

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Sunshine is a welcome thing. It brings a lot of brightness." - Jimmie Davis

"When my heart is heavy, the sun helps make it light." - Astrid Alauda

Layout Ideas

Create a scrapbook page celebrating the people whom you love enjoying the sunshine with because they fill it with even more happiness and joy!

Create a scrapbook page highlighting the ways that sunshine, flowers, songbirds, and rainbows have always lined your pathway throughout life. Even during difficult times, these joys were sure to appear.

Just as sunshine can brighten your day, so can maintaining a positive outlook. Create a layout sharing how you've been blessed by looking "always toward the sunshine."

Do you live in the sunshine when it arrives? Scrapbook a page that shows how much time you spend outdoors in the spring and summer seasons. You could even create a time-line layout that shows a comparison of your time spent indoors versus outdoors throughout the various seasons of the year. If you live in a warm climate, your page might be dedicated to the sunshine you enjoy the whole year through!

Create a layout highlighting five people, places, or objects that bring happiness into your daily life!

Create a scrapbook page that celebrates your love for the sun and how it refreshes you each spring.

Photo Idea

Head outside today, and take pictures of your favorite activities to enjoy outdoors. Create a layout highlighting your sunshine-splendor photos!

Quotes - May

Scrapbooking Tips & Tricks Editors — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:04:00 GMT

Quotes

"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." - Edwin Way Teale

"Winter is many months of the year
But now at last Maytime is here;
And birds sing from a leafy screen
In the trees and hedgerow freshly green;
And the wood-anemone is out in the shade,
With its blushing petals which too soon fade;
Once more the bracken is unfurling there,
And bluebells gently perfume the damp air."
- Veronica Ann Twells

"A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere.
Oh I must pass nothing by
Without loving it much,
The raindrop try with my lips,
The grass with my touch;
For how can I be sure
I shall see again
The world on the first of May
Shining after the rain?"
- Sara Teasdale

"When April steps aside for May,
Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fresh violets open every day:
To some new bird each hour we listen."
- Lucy Larcom

"Oh! that we two were Maying
Down the stream of the soft spring breeze;
Like children with violets playing,
In the shade of the whispering trees."
- Charles Kingsley

"In the marvelous month of May
when all the buds were bursting,
then in my heart did
love arise.

"In the marvelous month of May
when all the birds were singing,
then did I reveal to her
my yearning and longing."
- Henirich Heine

"Sweet May hath come to love us,
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us
The very clouds move on."
-Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

Layout Ideas

Make a scrapbook page that highlights all the opportunities you enjoyed during May.

Do you have certain flowers or plants you include in your garden each year? Create a scrapbook page that shares why you love to include each plant!

Create a scrapbook page that shows how you experience spring through each of the five senses.

Do you see birds or spring flowers outside your window each day? Take photos of your favorite as-seen-through-my-window spring joys, and create a scrapbook page about the cheer they bring into your life each May.

Create a layout with photos themed around spring play in the breeze (think about flying kits) or in the trees.

Did you fall in love in the month of May? Share the story on a layout using this quotation.

Create a layout that shows pictures of springtime blooming around your home.