Wedding Scrapbooking

You’ve got good news, and you want to share it with the world! There’s a precious bundle of joy on the way- a brand new baby to light up the world of those close in distance as well as those that are close at heart. Show the expecting mother-to-be that care- it’s time to begin planning a festive party in honor of the new parents and their upcoming little one- it’s time to begin planning the baby shower.

Oddly enough, the baby showers of days gone by used to be held after the child was born for fear of bad luck. As far back as ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire, friends and neighbors of a newborn baby’s family often brought gifts for the little one, or handcrafted something special for the new parents. Today’s style of organized baby showers, complete with a very pregnant mother present, didn’t start popping onto the scene until after World War II, coinciding with the beginning of the baby boom.

For upcoming parents, a new baby can be overwhelming and expensive- that’s where the baby shower comes in. Friends of the family-to-be traditionally do the planning for the event, but more recent years have seen the future grandparents lending a hand or two as the expense of a baby shower can be somewhat overwhelming in itself. One way of chipping in is by taking care of the baby shower invitations. It’s a relatively small expense comparatively, but one of great importance and in need of detailed attention.

Nothing sets the stage for a great baby shower more than the invitations. Not only do they notify friends and family of the upcoming event, but they also make wonderful keepsakes for years to come- making the perfect page focus for an avid scrap-booking fan. Custom printed invitations complete this task with a minimal amount of effort from you, so you’ll be able to spend more time on other details of the upcoming event. Be sure to pick out your party theme before ordering the invitations so that every detail of the shower will be coordinated.

If you know the gender of baby beforehand, you can have a color theme plus one baby detail, like lavender diapers, yellow rubber duckies, pink safety pins, or blue pacifiers- pick out the invitations first, then the party décor. Be a bit cautious not to overdo the theme! A solid color tablecloth mixed with patterned cake plates and solid dinner plates, pattern cake napkins and solid dinner napkins will be an ideal mix for a stunning display. And on the center table, next to the cake, have a matted and framed baby shower invitation for the proud parents-to-be to place on the wall in the nursery.

on my question i kinda had a typo..i meant what kind of paper cutter is best and where can i find it!

If you have an Archive's store by you they have free wedding invitation classes. Also try you library for wedding invitations and card books. Don't forget to check out scrapbooking and card and paper magizines.

The best paper trimmer is by Fiskars. if you are doing a lot of cutting I would go with a table top model. You can find them at any craft or sewing store. JoAnns, Michael's, Hobby Lobby,

I think scrapbooking would be a fun and creative outlet for my daughter but how can she get started. Where can I find supplies and materials to get started? Is there a basic kit or set?

A good place to start is about.com http://scrapbooking.about.com/
which has articles showing how to get started
http://scrapbooking.about.com/cs/gshowtos/a/supplies.htm
and supplies http://scrapbooking.about.com/cs/gshowtos/a/supplies.htm
and even Free Stuff http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/freestuff/
Topics on the clickable links in red on the left also include product reviews, layouts and digital scrapbooking. In the 'Offers' section there are assembled kits for kid's scrapbooking too.

As I write this article, I am on my way home from a 10-day vacation. A wonderful time, relaxing yet filled with fun and educational things to do. In this article, I want to share with you some tips and ideas for Scrapbooking your trip on what to do before and during your vacation to ensure a pleasurable scrapping experience for when you return.

Prior to leaving, have in mind what you want to accomplish. Do you want to document your vacation and incorporate it into your present album? Do you plan on creating a theme album, making the entire album about your vacation? You may always change your mind, but if you know prior you may take more or less photos.

Here are some ideas for during your vacation:

1. Save your ticket stubs. Use as an accent on your page or tuck into a pocket, mini envelope or file folder.

2. Save brochures, programs and other items to be used as embellishments or accents in your scrapbook.

3. Have a street map, map to the amusement park or any other kind of map? Maps tend to be large and would make a great background paper. You can also use for matting photos, page borders, or fold into a pocket or envelope. (use the map itself to create the pocket/envelope).

4. Can’t get the perfect photo? Weather or lighting not cooperating? Too many people? Whatever the reason may be, make sure you make a stop at the gift shop and look for postcards. Postcards are inexpensive, typically .25-.35, and offer beautiful glossy photos.

5. Start your journey with a large envelope or file folder. Keep maps and information about your possible destinations. After visiting, file your memorabilia there. This will keep everything together in one place and be ready for Scrapbooking upon your trip home.

6. Immediately jot down funny stories, important events/happenings on the way home (from that days event) to keep the memories fresh. Again store in the same large envelope/folder.

7. Did you learn an interesting fact while touring? Be sure to document it. Whether in a photo or as journaling. Write it down and store away.

Upon your return, once you get back all your photos from the trip, look them over. Look for a common theme or color. Based on your findings, decide what papers and colors you want to use. Purchase or gather papers, embellishments, stickers or anything else you want or may need to include in your album. By using the same theme and colors of paper your vacation will be more unified into one theme. Plus this will ensure scrapping your entire trip much easier and quicker. Each page can have a different background yet coordinating. For each page, choose your photos, accents and embellishments from your trip or some you may have purchased with the papers. Add your journaling and then see what needs to be done to complete it. Now you have a completed album or pages to remember your vacation and to share with others.

Do you have extra photos from your vacation? Here are a few ideas on how to use those extra photos:

1. Ask all those involved in the vacation what there favorite part was. Create a top 5 or 10 page and use up the extra photos of the top favorites. Be sure to include a quick summary in the journaling.

2. Use extra photos and let the kids make their own vacation memory album.

3. Use extra photos to make a mini album of the vacation for someone who went along and may not be a scrapbooker themselves. What a great gift idea!

4. Mount an extra photo to a piece of cardstock and use as a thank you card to give to someone who may have taken care of your pets, mail or plants while you were away.

I hope the above tips will prepare you for your next vacation and help you “Scrap your Trip”!

If you haven’t heard the word ‘niche’ being batted around by Internet Marketers then you haven’t been listening. Finding a niche has become the antidote to competing in overly saturated online markets.

What is a niche?

According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary a niche is described as “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted… a specialized market”.

Have you noticed that despite the closing of many businesses in these harsh economic times, the local hobby train store is still around? That the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ eatery is thriving? Or that trends such as scrapbooking can start with a bang and still close within a year when four similar businesses start up in the same area?

The online business world reflects the same trends as experienced in the offline world - often with faster turnover and startup rates. Those who promote a product or site that targets a small, select audience can tap into a market that is otherwise not being served. Despite the limitations of the client base, the targeted nature of the business creates a devoted and active market - the aim of any business.

HOW DO I FIND A NICHE?

Finding a niche requires diligent research. Whether you have access to software that harvests and sorts information or you take a manual approach you must first start with ideas.

With a pen and paper (or computer, if that’s more comfortable) brainstorm a list of businesses, products and industries. Create a list of keywords and phrases you think would be used by individuals looking for these items online.

Use a software program such as Wordtracker or a free resource such as the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to find keywords for your niche that have a high amount of traffic.

Although a program like Wordtracker makes it easy to find details such as how many sites compete for that market, you can also do your own research.

Concentrate your attention on question phrases such as “how do I…” or “where can I…”. These questions will clue you into potential markets that need servicing.

Next, look in Google Answers. Type one of your keywords into the search area. What questions are being asked and how much are people willing to pay for answers? If you find a group of keywords with a high number of questions then enter these words in your browser’s search engine.

What sites come up? Do they provide answers or solutions to the problem? How are they making money? Can you see an opportunity to service these individuals?

Finding a niche can open the door to a profitable online business. Research the market and be certain that your product or service is valuable to this group. Find forums or groups that target this audience and pay close attention to their concerns.

If you can help these people you WILL make money. The best of both worlds!

I need help with any cute homemade ideas for christmas. I’m having a baby right before then so I wanted to make something special for my parents and grandparents that repersents her in some way. Any ideas?

My Daughter makes a dif ornament each year for family members and they love It

I've been scrapbooking lately and a friend of mine uses Glue Dots w/lots of her scrapbooking stuff…she bought some on QVC for about $21 (they came in a variety of sizes)…thats the cheapest I have found…any other suggestions?

Maybe these places?

http://www.createforless.com/search/search.aspx?SH=D%3D15~G%3D17881^2~

http://www.just4funcrafts.com/product_detail.asp?ProdNbr=381

http://www.gluedots.com/display/router.aspx?docid=297

The Beauty of a Scrapbook

Life presents us with many memories, both good and bad. The good memories may leave us brimming ear to ear in a joyous smile, while the bad ones a sadness in our hearts. And memories have the funny tendency to occur when it is least expected.

Keeping pictures of events in life is one way to keep those memories alive. Joyous moments and special occasions such as field trips, holidays, vacations, birthdays, graduations, weddings, and many other occasions often captured in photographs. Further, these photos keep the memory of the event or circumstance alive, and give others who are able to look at the photos a brief glimpse of the scene and ability to share, to a degree, some of the emotion around the photos. So the question arises: “Do you want to let these special photos lie still in plain and traditionally-looking photo albums? Or do you want to really spice them up? How about using a Scrapbook to house your precious photos.

You don’t have to be an expert at taking photos or even an experienced artist to create these scrapbooks. All you really need is a concept to express your idea, a design to house your ideas, and your precious photos to fit into your design.

Scrapbooking allows you to keep the memories alive with the use of poems, quotes, love songs, or simple statements expressing your feeling to the person or events as captions for your photos. In this manner, your most intimate feelings will be kept alive in your work of artistry.

When journaling the events surrounding your photos, you may recall some funny or memorable incident about the photo that you may include to make the caption more expressive and alive. Colors also play a great role in your scrapbook. Softer colors such as cream and blue or silver and gold are mostly used. These colors make the pages of the scrapbook more attractive and lively.

A scrapbook is perfect for capturing times of joy and love in your life. For example, your scrapbook may serve as memorabilia of the items such as cards, love letters, restaurant menu dined at, concerts attended, dried flowers, and many other things which you and your loved one have given to each other. Another example is a question and answer portion that you and your loved one ca answer in the scrapbook. The questions may revolve around your favorite food, pet peeves, traditions, future goals, favorite pastimes, and the things which you mostly agree and disagree on. Scrapbooking is a quick and easy method for recording special memories that you and your loved one share. And creating the scrapbook can be great fun as well.

Before starting your scrapbook, first get all the pictures that you will include in your work. Then, chronologically sort them out by date. Before pasting the photos, make sure that you’ve already conceptualized the sequence of those as they will appear in the pages. Once in a while, put in artistic embellishments to the pages. Never fail to include the captions too. Do this all throughout the pages of the scrapbook. By carefully following the ins and outs of the steps, you are on your way to creating your beautiful scrapbook

Will it hurt the pictures? I can get a bunch of super glue from my work and I like to scrapbook, but will it eventually ruin everyhting as far as ageing? I would like to pass them on eventaully.
NO! I am not just taking it from work! They scrap alot of stuff because the packaging is messed up or they have expired so they can't sell them to customers!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh NO!!! Liquid super glue is going to seep right through the photos
Use only acid free adhesive. I wouldn't use a glue stick at all. It drys up and everything falls off. This happen to my SIL and her album was only a year old.

Try a two way tape runner. Even Wal Mart sells them. Look in the scrapbook department. Hobby Lobby has them at 50% quite often.

If you are going to take the time and money to make a scrapbook and want to hand it down do it right.

The costs for scrapbooking can really add up. What are some ways to save?

There are two variants.

1. You can go into digital scrapooking. Though there has been a recent discussion on whether digital scrapbooking is really cheaper (it was about cost of 12×12 printing)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av0I.hCkTMfB0I6z_2lZoX7ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080507030105AAi3JGE&show=7#profile-info-qZd9GZI3aa

2. You can try so called "printables". These are digital images that you can print out and use in your paper scrapbooks.
If you have color printer at home, this might be a good solution.