BWScrapbookings Digital-Hybrid Scrapbooking Divide

Getting a little work done at the office.

2010-03-19T19:28:00.002-04:00

Hello,

hope you are all ready for Spring. Around here is New England the weather is finally warming up. Granted we got soaked last weekend, but things look better now. Anyways I'm here to talk about our latest products that you can find in the BWScrapbooking shop. We are please to announce our new OFFICE PAPERS line of scrapbooking papers.

The line has eight different patterns that will help you scrap or paper craft late nights at the office, little ones working on home work, and even your favorite loved ones small business keeping efforts can be covered. The line of papers has a variety of graph papers, lined papers, ledgers and even handwriting practice papers for the little ones. We are sure you will enjoy our latest creations, so go check them out by clicking here.

thanks for your time

Jeff

Now Offering Double Word Points

2010-03-11T07:38:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

we are happy to announce that BWScrapbooking just released our new Scrabble Letter Tiles. This digi alpha set is perfect for projects where you want a game theme.

The set comes with all 26 letters, three symbols, and one blank tile so you can make your own. So come check it out we hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for your time

Jeff

Hello Old Friend

2010-01-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

wow its been a long time since I wrote here. Sorry to my followeing readers. Last August I started a 9 to 5 job that included a very long commute. End of story after job, commute, and family time there was no real time to design and blog. Well. That job is not over so I am back, and hopefully here to stay for the time being.

So I hope you all had a great holiday season, and a spectacular new years. Given that its a new year, its time to reflect on what we did last year, and what we want to do differently this year. As scrapbookers and paper crafters, we tend to focus on framing and packaging memories to remember those special moments. So for me this time of year has two agendas; review and plan.

Review what you did last year. Yes we want to make sure we have all our photos, and all the materials of what happened last year, but more importantly I am talking about take stock of what worked for you. what made it hard to do these projects. What do you think you need to improve. Reason I say this is even though we work hard on our layouts, card, and projects, the bottom line is this is suppose to be fun, and relaxing, and give you something special to look forwrd to doing. So lets review ad see what are the snags, disappointments, frustrations, and al out yucky things we dont like. You can do this by makinga list, or just doing a brain dump and fill a page or word document with all the things that you could do with out when making a project.

Next lets take that bad list and look at how do we improve it. Let plan for the coming year, and no i am not saying out list out per month what projects you are going to do. Think of this as more a self evaluation of ok here are the things that make my special time crafting frustrating, and look at how you can spin it around. Would organizing help, do you need better tools, do you need to find a way to take notes on the go when you take photos. Think of what you have in your day to day life whether it be the cell phone or pda in your purse, and how you can use it to help your scrap, or maybe its the local store which has crops that could teach you a new skill.

The bottom line is take stock of hat worked lat year, and how we can make it work this year =)

well have a great January everyone

JEff

Gingerbread and Clowns

2009-08-03T23:34:00.003-04:00

Hi all. well we are now in to August and its almost time for Back to school shopping. So as you start to plan for your summer vacation projects and look forward to your Christmas projects, BWScrapbooking would like to introduce you to our newest lines of products. We are proud to announce our Candy Cane Village set under our Holiday Memories line is finally available for our retail clients and partners. Around here at BWScrapbooking, we love the wonderful treats of Christmas Season: gingerbread houses, candy canes, gum drops and more.. These are some of our favorite holiday items. So we took these and made a whole kit based on them. This kit uses golden cookie colors, red and white from candy canes, as well ad the green of your favorite gum drop or lollipop. All paper designs are available in digital and real paper. We also offer a expanded kit, and a set of pre-made layouts that you can use for both printed and multimedia projects. The Digital products can be purchased as downloadable files or on CD.

Also we are pleased to announce our newest designs, Boo's Big Top. This is our new Circus themed set. This set is based on a great trip I had to the circus with my son. I based the designs on the variety of old style designs you can see on the tents, the performers, and even the snacks. Boo's Big Top, like most of our wholesale products you can get Boo's Big Top in both paper and digital versions. We know you will see this kit and related items are great for when you are scrapping about those times when your life a circus. Bithday parties, magic shows, a day at the circus / fair or carnival.

So click on the product images to check out both sets, and we hope you enjoy them as mch as we do.

thanks for your time

Jeff

Remembering our Furry Friends

2009-07-15T23:41:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

well today is a sad day at the Werner house. Today we said goodbye to our loyal protector Bubba. Bubba was a 12 year old 80lb white boxer. He was patient with our son, and would eagerly spring to defend my wife and son if he felt there was danger. So now that our furry friend is gone, I sit here thinking what can I do to scrap his story. How I had already planned on doing a my dog page in my sons baby book, but Bubba like so many pets is a family member who has quirks, and history. So given this I decided to figure out some projects and resources to help preserve the memory of this guy. So here are some ideas for creating your pet's project.

A great scrapbook theme is "A Day In The Life of ..." which would include pages about your pet's morning routines, nap time, meal time, play time and favorite toys, and outdoor time. Did you do a regular walk. If so include a map. The key is to flesh out that memory, or activity so you can embrace it down the road.

Another idea is to approach it as you would a baby book. and focus on "the firsts". If you are fortunate enough to get your pet while he or she is still a baby, then create a scrapbook album around the "firsts". Even if you adopted your pet when it was older you can still create some great "first" scrapbook pages. Create a scrapbook page or album around your pet's first bath, coming home, first holidays, first visit to the park, first car ride, etc.

A theme around "pet favorites" is also a fun idea. Take photos and create pages around your pet's favorite activities. For a cat you might include pages on favorite toys and favorite nap places. For a dog, choose photos of favorite outdoor play or playtime with favorite toys.

Lastly try making a word book using their name. Now you can either do a leltter page album, or just design your regular layout pages. Whatever format you choose, the idea will be to build out the book using their name. Now take each letter of their name, and use that letter to define the topic/theme of the layout. For example we have Bubba. We could plan out the pages as follows:

B = Brother to our Boy
U = Unconditional Love
B = Beloved
B = Beautiful
A = Affectionate

Whatever kind of pet you have, you can enjoy creating special scrapbook pages that you will enjoy for years to come!

Thanks for your time

Jeff

Come do the Craftshop Shuffle

2009-07-06T19:24:00.003-04:00

Hi all.

BWScrapbooking has joined the 2009 Craft Shop Shuffle. The shuffle is a "searching" game that leads you from one craft shop to another in order to find and register DAISY, our disco bird at each shop visited. The goal is to locate all of the birds.

Everyone who achieves this goal is automatically registered to win the grand prize picked especially for each different shuffle. In addition, anyone who locates at least half of the birds will be placed in a drawing for one of the gift certificates provided by the participating shops. So make sure to check out all of BWScrapbooking, as well as the other sites listed on http://www.craftshopshuffle.com

good luck and happy hunting

Check out ScrapTime to see our Real Papers

2009-06-09T23:50:00.004-04:00

Hello all,

One of our favorite Scrapbooking shows (online or tv) is Scraptime out of Canada. The show is produced several times a week by host Christine Urias. Christine is a SAHM mom, who has been scrapbooking since the summer of 2004. She works at a local LSS, the Fresh Collective on Queen St. W. in Toronto, where she sells her handmade cards and teaches stamping!! When asked why she does the show, she says "I love to be in the know of new products and techniques, and I want to share this information with everyone who is interested".

So you might ask why am I telling you about this? Well Christine besides offering great tips and reviews on paper scrapbooking, altered projects, and stamping, has just reviewed some of BWScrapbooking's Rela Paper Packs. So please check out the video below, and if you are avid blog reader, make sure to check out her site http://www.scraptime.ca.

So without further delay...here is Chrisitne!!

Scrap Time - Ep. 372 - BW Scrapbooking from Mark Giles on Vimeo.

Ways to Help You Storytell.

2009-06-05T11:06:00.004-04:00

Hello all you scrappers.

As I have been scrapping my sons baby book, I have had to do some serious thinking to remember info about the event. This got me wondering how you can maybe take notes when you take photos to help the journaling and scrapbooking process down the road. So here are so easy ideas that you can use to get more info for your pages.

Go Old School Use a Memopad/Notepad

One of the old tried and true methods used by old newspaper reporter is as they took photos they would right down notes for captioning, and also to help flesh out their article later on. You can find these at your local office supply store, or even your local drugstore, or dollar store. You can fund some small enough to fit in your camera case or purse. This way its with you whenever you snap that picture.

Go digital us a a Recorder, PDA, or Even Your Cellphone

lugging around a pad and taking out a pen/pencil seem a little too much. No problem, Let technology help you out. Digital recorders are so small now a days, some can attach to your keep chain. Simply click the record button and tel yourself some notes the date, and your good to go. Writers have been telling themselves notes for years to help their creative process.

Dont want to add another item to your keychain, well how about your PDA if you check out the programs you will find most Palms, blackberries, and even Ipod touch have notes programs, and most have freebie voice recorder apps that you can download. simply jot down the date whats going on and your good to go.

Oh you dont have a pda... Well how bout your cell phone. we all have free voice mail. just call you phone and leave yourself a message. most cell services allow you at least 30 seconds to leave a message. Thats plenty of time to mention whats going on, and no need to mention the date or time because you can get that info when you check your messages. Best of all no need to buy tool or electronics.

Well I hope these ideas will help you out when you are out and about taking your pictures this summer. So go out have fun and remember wirte down some notes so you are all set when you sit down and scrap.

thanks for your time

Jeff

Looking to The Past

2009-06-03T19:46:00.003-04:00

Hi all, and a happy June to you.

I found this wonderful video through one of the scrap groups I belong to. The video shows in a very Andy Rooney sort of way, an old scrapbook this man's grandmother created. Its old and brittle, but just shows how wonderful it is to get the little nuggets of info about our loved ones.

The thing about Jim's video is its exactly what I am going through. as my grandparents passed away I was able to get their old photos and mementos. Unfortunately they are not organized like Jim's grandmother did, but I have a great starting point.

So What Can Modern Day Scrappers Do?

The biggest question I think he raises is what to do with thee old albums and photo collections. I think as digital, hybrid, and even a traditional paper scrapbooker, can breath new life into these old albums and photos. We have a wonderful set of tools that can help use take what our ancestors have done, and bring them back to life. Think about it. With current technology that is accessible to the average consumer, we can easily scan photos, notes, report card, newspapers, even whole pages can be scanned or photographed and turned in to a computer file.

Once the document is digitized we have a variety of solutions to work with our old documents. you can take the scans and print them at home or at your local store and use them as we do our modern day digital photos.

We can keep them digital and you can color correct, and enhancements to bring them back to their former glory. Then using photo book vendors like photobooksetc.com and make new albums using these cherished memories that you can keep yourself, or make duplicates of for many family members.

So you say paper is no longer your thing? Well take those enhanced digital images, and use sites like scrapblog.com , you can take your old images and make high tech layouts complete with music and effects, that can give these old memories a layer of modern style that the original subjects could never have imagined.

So What Does this Mean?

The bottom line is no matter how old your family memories are you can bring them up to date. Granted this is not a quick easy task and depending on the quality of the photos this might take some effort. Depending on your skills with a graphics program, or the tools your computer comes with, you can revive images and documents from brittle decaying paper to fresh crisp clear images that allow you to experience what your relatives did from day to day.

Thanks for your time

Jeff

Hooah Sneak Preview

2009-05-22T19:53:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

We have mentioned a few time that we will be launching a new wholesale line. This means you will be able to buy our paper and digi products at your favorite scrapbooking store or website very soon. So we though it was time to give you a sneak preview of what we are working on. The first preview is our new line of Army themed products. The name of the line is Hooah. This line is will be our first products to come in both paper and digital.

The products we are offering include seven patterned papers, five solid papers, and a digi kit / premade layout cd. These papers are perfect for scrapping about your loved one who has or is defedning our country.

We hope you enjoy and thank you for your time

Jeff

Getting Back Up & Running

2009-05-20T10:20:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

Well shortly after my last blog post, the power in my 2 year old laptop died. I am not talking the battery or the power cord it was the actual power socket on the laptop itself. Well luckily I have a service plan with Dell. After waiting for the back logged parts to arrive, I got a great service call from the local tech. He stripped down and rebuilt the laptop with the new parts at a speed that would make a marine reassembling a gun envy. So now that I have my lap top back what does that mean?

Well in the day or so we will be posting a sneak peak at one of the first product lines for our new wholesale offering. What do I mean by wholesale? well starting the end of May we will be offering our new line of product directly to you local scrapbook shop, and favorite scrapbooking website. These products will be available and both digital and paper.

Some people have said why bother offering both. Why would someone want the paper version if they can get th digital version. Well here is our vision. Paper scrappers and crafters make cards, invitations, scrapbooks, and paper art using the paper. However we don't always have room for all the photos, and sometimes we dont have just photos we have video. Well with our product lines you can easily make your paper crafts, and then if you make a dvd, or slide show you can easily use the same designs with out needing to scan or photograph your paper project. We think its the best of both worlds.

Well time to make up for the downtime when the laptop was dead.

thanks for your time

Jeff

Check Out the May Hybid Challenge - May Flowers

2009-05-10T15:45:00.002-04:00

Hi All,

We just added our new May Hybrid Challenge to BWScrapbooking.

This month our hybrid challenge we take some influence from the month of May, so it is about May Flowers. Your challenge is two fold

1. to scrap a page using a our Spring Romance products. you can either buy the digi kit and do a digi layout that you then print, or you can order the real paper pack and scrap ir.

2. We want you to use real flowers or foliage (leaves, herbs, grass, etc...) as elements on the page. We are talking real here, but your can use silk and paper as well if need be.

Once you have completed your page post it here by 5pm EDT May 29th. All entries posted here will be voted on. Then on June 1st we will announce the winner. The winner will receive a $10 gift card for our shop goo for anything.

Note: there will be a limit of 2 layouts per purchase.

So make sure to check it out, good luck and let the best layout win.

http://www.bwscrapbooking.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=244

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T07:56:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

I want to send out a happy mothers day to all our followers out there. Make sure mom is taken care of, and most importantly take lots of pictures of the day =)

This morning my son gave my dear wife a little envelope that came from Scrapblog. She was so surprised and truly enjoyed her little photo card that my son helped make. Kudos to th lovely people at Scrapblog for making a simple tool and offering free Mother's day cards.

So my friends and followers what on your to do list today? Comment let us know what you think.

Thaks for your time

Jeff

Last Minute Hybrid Project Ideas for Mother's Day

2009-05-07T15:36:00.005-04:00

So its Thursday and this Sunday is Mother's Day. What?? You still haven,t gotten anything for dear old mom. You went to the card store and see they have slim pickings on selection. What do you do?? Well lets see what we can do.

Cards

Now a days there are so many sites with printable templates that you can use. Simply do a web search on "printable mothers day card". Most of the resulting sites offer patterns for cards that you can print with your typical ink jet printer. For example here is a card from FamilyFun.com.

Simply click on the link and a pdf file will open. You can either print this card out and color it using ink, watercolors, or whatever you want. If your more adventurous you can do the following.

Open the PDF in your favorite graphics program. Use the white areas as selection to make clipping masks and insert your favorite digi scrapbooking patterns (like our Mommas Secret Garden Kit). Hmm you want to do something more? Take the card you downloaded and use it to define how the paper will be folded and using your graphics program make an inside message. Use photos poems, or just a special note to your mom.

Once your done. Print out the pdf. I suggest using a heavy stock paper. I know most craft stores and LSSs will have plain white card stock available in 8 1/2 x 11. Using the heavy stock paper will let the card remain rigid even after having both sides printed.

Now take that paper the you just printed, and set it up to print on the opposite side and run it through. Some printers will need you to flip it over, some will need you to put the paper. If you are not sure go ahead and try it and if it double prints both images on the same side, no worries you can try again.

Now that you have your card printed, take a ruler and find the half way point of the paper height ( half of 11 inches is 5 1/2 inches) . Make a make along the sides. now take the ruler and line it up on the two marks. Fold the paper using the ruler. One the paper is folded take the ruler and run it along the fold.

Now your done. You have a nice custom mothers day card ready to be brought to mom on Sunday, or sent out through the mail.

Thanks for your time

J

What Programs Can Do Digi

2009-05-05T00:10:00.007-04:00

Hi all,

So today I was cruising some forums, and a question came up. A poster went to the digi area of the site and said Hi I usually do paper scrapping, but would really like to do digi. What do I need. A couple people took a crack at it, and you basically got a adobe response and a paint shop pro response. Now for those of you that don't know those names let me take a step back. When it comes to digi their are a couple big players in the software arena that digi designer as well as scrapbookers use.

Adobe

First is Adobe's Photoshop family of products. Adobe is the big name in graphics. They have been offering Adobe Photoshop since I was in college i the early 90s. There are two versions of PHotshop. First their Elements and then there is CS. Element s is the stripped down watered down version that acts as a simple place for some one interested in doing computer graphics to get started. it has all you usal tool tha tyou would need to do simple editing of photos and assembling layouts. Its also nice becuase it has a lower price than CS and really lets you get your feet wet before investing a chunk of money in to CS.

That brings us to CS. Originally Adobe only made one version of photoshop, and then around version 7 Adobe decided to streamline all their products and offer them under the CS version. CS stood for Creative Suite. The difference between element and CS, is CS gives you a much wider range of tools, image editing options, more power. Basically a tool that ywould easily allow you to make a chistmas card of you shaking hands with the president.

So when looking at the Adobe side the choices really boil down to are you just making layouts with your images, your words, and maybe some products you got online, or are you looking to design your pages from the ground up.

Corel Paint Shop Pro

On the other side of the street we have the other favorite in the digi world, Corel Paint Shop Pro, or PSP as its usually referred to. PSP was originally made by a comapny ASC. their focus make a low priced alternative to Photoshop. You would get most of the same tool, the ability to use filters/plugins, and pretty much everything else. The key defference being it was a lot cheaper. Afew years back Jasc was bought out by Corel. Today Paint Shop pro is still one of the favorites in the graphics community.

The Others

Now these two companies are not the only solutions if you want a graphics phogram. In fact their are some other programs that are cheaper and some that are even free. Here is a listing of some of them

GIMP is a free software (yes FREE.) raster graphics editor used to process digital photographs and other graphics. Primarily GIMP is used for photo enhancement. Uses include resizing and cropping photos, altering colors, combining multiple images, removing unwanted image components, and converting between different image formats. as well as creating graphics and logos. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in GIF format. It is often used as a replacement for Adobe Photoshop, the most widely used bitmap editor in the commercial printing and graphics industries; however, it is not designed to be a Photoshop clone.

Microsoft Photo Editor was an image-editing application found in Microsoft Office 97–XP versions for Windows. The program was a tool for doing raster graphics with editing tools to texturize, negative, for gamma control, GIF transparency and many others.

Paint.NET is a raster graphics editing program for Microsoft Windows.Paint.NET has evolved from a simple replacement for the Microsoft Paint program, which is included with Windows, into a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins. It is often used as a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

Now this is just a few of the many programs out there, but I am not goinfg to list them all out here. I think Wikepedia has done a good job listing them out. You can click here to review them if you like. The bottom line is there are many solutions out their. So before you put down your hard earned money on a program, take a look around.

Now no matter what option you go with their are a few things you want to make sure of.

1. Can the pgogram read images that are jpeg, gif, png formats. More importanly can it read the images you camrea creates?

2. do a google search online for INSERTPROGRAM NAME tutorials. This will let you know whats out their for resources and people to ask questions of

3. make sure it will handle images that are 300dpi. if you want to print your digi items

4. If you want to stay digi and show off your layouts as slide show can the graphics program make slide shows, or at least save the image in a format those program use.

Now for those of you who are not really software savy, or you feel you cant draw a straight line event using a paint program, well your not alone. In fact there are any ( and I do mean many) solutions out there that all you need to do is point click, drag, drop. From you favorite scrap magazines, to special programs from your favorite digi designer, to a really sweet free option that I use, there are many solutions that can use to make your pages and not worry about a paint brush.

Many of your favorite scrapbook magaziesn out their have worked software makers and created scrapbook programs that come complete with digi elements. Infact kodak, polaroid, and others have branded programs that let you quickly assemble scrapbooks in a few minutes.

Next there are many services out there that allow you to make your scrapbooks, and if it suites you need you can then print them out. One example is a site by a friend of my Photobooks etc by Kim Guymon, allows you to download a program, select a theme, insert your images and create a scrapbook that can be sent off and printed out. Another option is a great site I also use, Scrapblog.com. Scrapblog allows you to go online upload your phtos, and then using their themes, and marketplace items allotw you to quild rich quick ad easy scrapbook pages that you can show off as slide shows, or you can take it a step further and have the book printed out.

So that is my primer in to the question what software do I need to do digital scrapbooking. So to review there are a lot of solutions out their some cost money, and some are free. What you need to do is ask yourself, how much can I spend, and what format files does my camera make,

I hope this information has helped. If its not clear, please comment and I will try to get your and answer, or write some more info.

Mothers Day Card from Scrapblog

2009-05-03T23:56:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

I finally finished my wife's mothers day card through Scrapblog. They definitely have a lot of themes and elements to get for free. When you need to make cards or albums make sure to check them out

Now Blogging from my old treo

2009-05-02T22:21:00.004-04:00

Hi all,
I just set up my phone to sms to this page. Seems straight forward but you cant add too much. So I might just use twitter on the road and blog from home or when I can get to the laptop. So this opens the question. What technology do you use on the go. Do you take photos with your phone. Do you use cell photos, sms messages and other modern features of the phone to scrap?

We want to hear. Thanks for your time

J

Happy {int}National Scrapbooking Day 09

2009-05-02T15:01:00.003-04:00

Hello All,

Checking Out NSD at our LOCAL Stores:

Happy National Scrapbooking Day. Today is the day to embrace your craft, and to either try something new, or to help someone else learn what fun it is to make projects that will spotlight those favorite memories. So what are you doing today. Feel free to comment back and share with us any events you attended, and projects you worked on, or just your thoughts on this special day.

For us at BWScrapbooking we decided to check out some of our LSSs (Local Scrapbook Shops). We have two in the immediate area. Scrapbook Cupboard which is located on Route 18 in E. Bridgewater, MA. When we visited, we found the store was busy, and the store was having a contest asking previous class attendees to bring in projects they had done. Also if you check out the website, you will find a freebie digital item for NSD

The second place we visited was The Crop Shop located at 333 Weymouth Street, Rockland, Mass 02370. Here they are having a special NSD crop for beginners and experts alike. If you miss the crop on Saturday there is a second on Sunday.

All in all we found that the stores were busy, and the staff was helpful. So whether you are a paper or digital scrapper you can definitely find help in the south eastern Massachusetts area.

Make Sure to Check out our Shop:

For those of you who can't get out to shops today, make sure to check out our shop, where we are having our Spring Sale. Here is what you will find:

50% off Digital Items
25% off Chipboard Albums
25% off Paper Packs

So whether you check out and crop at you local LSS or you buy online and scrap the night away we want to make sure you have a wonderful National Scrapbooking Day.

Thanks for your time

Jeff

What makes it a scrapbook

2009-04-30T13:12:00.003-04:00

The other day I was reading one of the many scrapbooking forums (sorry could not find the forum) and a person started arguing with another poster that her digital scrapbooking layout collection couldnt be considered a scrapbook. After rolling my eyes at a person who was just making a mountain out of a mole hill, or is just closed minded to other possibilities, I started to think. What really is it that makes our collection of cherished memories a scrapbook. Now some dictionaries define a scrapbook as a book, similar to a notebook or journal, in which personal or family memorabilia and photos are collected and arrange. But really if you look at the history of the craft way before Utah, you will see that scrapbooks were products of the current technology

Now some historians say beginning in the 15th century, commonplace books, popular in England, emerged as a way to compile information that included recipes, quotes, letters, poems and more. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests. Friendship albums became popular in the 16th century. These albums were used much like modern day yearbooks, where friends or patrons would enter their names, titles and short texts or illustrations at the request of the album's owner. These albums were often created as souvenirs of European tours and would contain local memorabilia including coats of arms or works of art commissioned by local artisans. Then in 1570, it became fashionable to add colored elements depicting popular scenes such as Venetian costumes or Carnival scenes. These provided affordable options as compared to original works and, as such, these items were not sold to commemorate or document a specific event but specifically as embellishments for albums. Later in 1826 with the development of modern photography created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, came what was seen as the first permanent photograph . Photography became available to an ever-widening population with the invention of George Eastman's paper photographs in the late 1880s and the mass production of the Kodak Brownie, a camera designed to be simple (and inexpensive) enough for a child, in 1900. This allowed the average person to begin to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks.

So as you can start to see what we now see as scrapbooks, photo books, and even photo albums, were just results of the technology that was made available to the average person. Now look around today at the average household. More and more people are moving away from paper items (books, newspapers, magazines, etc..) for several reason. Paper is getting more and more expensive, it takes up room, if not properly stored and treated it can fade or even deteriorate. So it stands to reason that people will move to a more technical solution to collect their sacred memories and mementos. In the 20th century and before paper was the gold standard there was nothing better, but now there is a choice, and as more people become better aquinted with technology, I see more people storing their scrapbooks electronically. Whether its a electronic frame, a slide show on their media PC, or its a online slide show, I really see this new presentation medium as an extension of what has come before for hundreds of years.

Now personally I prefer the idea of having a paper album with memories that you can thumb through, but really with my available time, and my skills with computer graphics, I have decided to do my layouts digitally. Does this mean all paper scrappers need to go digi? Heavens no. Its just there are many of us that are comfortable doing digital, just like there are many who only do paper. I think the future of the craft is a bridging of the two ideas Whether thats making designs digitally and printing it out using services like craftsassy.com or Photo Books {etc}. Or designing your projects with paper, verious tools and glues and scannig them, or maybe it will be a interactive technology we have only dreamed of. The bottom line is like any creative medium there are many variations out there, and we can all appreciate each others work and collectively say we all make scrapbooks.

Thanks for yor time

Jeff

New Template Products in the Shop

2009-04-29T07:35:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

We just added some new goodies to the shop and members area. Check out these great new shape templates. Perfect for adding some distinct lines to your layout designs. Simply resize as needed then style or recolor them as needed even use the as a clipping mask.

Bracket Outline Templates for Digital Scrapbooking

and

Oddball Scalloped Circle Templates for Digital Scrapbooking

We hope you enjoy them.

Jeff

Ready for NSD09???

2009-04-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Some of you might ask what is NSD09. Well NSD is short for National Scrapbooking Day. NSD was started in 1994 by the well-known album company Creative Memories. and is celebrated on the first Saturday each May. Thank you Creative Memories for giving us a day for our favorite hobby!
That means for this year NSD will be on May 02. So what will you be doing??

What you don't have plans.. hmmm how bout this. Here are a few ideas of what you can do.

1. Go out and attend a crop or scrapbooking party! Of course, this would be #1 on the list! There is nothing better, and more motivating, than to scrap with friends! If you didn't plan to attend a crop, be spontaneous and consider inviting some friends over!

2. Go shopping at your LSS (Local Scrapbook Store)! No scrapper can resist buying some new goodies! If you find that you are on more of a shoestring budget, set yourself a limit, say $5.00, and buy some new papers or some new stickers.

3. Scrap by family! We all do scrapbooking by ourselves from time to time, but what about with your kids. Share the creation of these magic moments with them. build the project together to make it more magical.

4. Learn a new technique! Even if you aren't signed up for your local scrapbook stores (LSS) classes, turn to the Internet to learn to learn a new technique for your pages. Visit your favorite search engine, and type in what you would like to learn about.

5. Join a new email list! There are literally hundreds of scrapbooking email lists on the Internet, so why not join a new one! Just visit sites such as http://groups.yahoo.com or http://www.topica.com and put the word "scrapbooking" into their search box. Even if you don't want the extra email, you can always read the messages on the web!

6. Submit your best layouts to magazines! If you find that you are home on NSD, why not submit some of your best layouts to magazines?

7. Organize! Is your scrapbook area getting a little cluttered? Spend some time organizing and decluttering it! While this may not sound like a fun thing to do, it is essential to have a neat scrapping space to create your masterpieces.

8. Copy And Steal Everything (CASE)! One of the best ways to get ideas for your own layouts is to see what other scrappers have created. Spend some time reviewing your favorite scrapping magazines or visit a site such as http://www.scrapbooking.com to be inspired.

9. Try something different! Have you always wanted to use your rubber stamps in your layout? Maybe you would like to try the use of wire, jute, buttons, or ribbon? If you have always thought of using something non-scrapbooking related in your album, spend some time doing just that!

10. Teach! I think one of the best way to spend NSD is to teach a non-scrapper your favorite hobby! Think of at least one friend or family member that doesn't scrapbook, invite them over (be sure to have them bring some photos), and let them use your supplies to create a few pages. Before you know it, you will have a new scrappin' buddy!

So get out and about this NSD09. Enjoy yourself. and have fun doing your favorite hobby.

Thanks for your time

Jeff

Free Mothersday Card on Scrapblog

2009-04-28T11:33:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

One of our favorite digi scrapbooking tools is Scrapblog.
Its and online program, its easy to use, and best of all its FREE!!! For those of you who have not seen Scrapblog before, here is a cool video from the folks at Life Time's The Balancing Act. The video will give you a quick run through of what Scrapblog has to offer.

Also in the video they mention a great offer Scrapblog is doing for Mother's Day. Simply go to Scrapblog's site and you will see an offer to design and have sent a free Mother's Day Card. So Go Check em out.

Our New Home for Rambling On!!!

2009-04-27T08:25:00.001-04:00

Hi all,

I have finally updated our blog. We were using an old tool from our content site, but there are just too many cool add ons now that our old blog did not support. You can still read our old postings by going to: http://bwscrapbooking.com/modules.php?name=News

So tell us what you think. What types of digi, paper, or hybrid scrapbooking do you want to discuss?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Jeff
Owner
BWScrapbooking