Puzzle Maker

I just purchased this nifty little gadget. You can take any photo and turn it into a puzzle! You adhere a photo to a foam backing. Then punch out each piece. I was pleased with the ease of which this worked. I originally thought it would be cool to make puzzles for my 3-year old nephew. But he was more fascinated with the actual punch then the finished product! Another idea is to make party invitations into puzzles and mail them disassembled. The recepient would have to put the puzzle together to read the message. The puzzle punch is made by Ecstasy Crafts.

Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking

Have you thought you would like to try Digital Scrapbooking, but think it’s too complicated or too expensive? Getting started is not as intimidating as you may think.

When you create a digital scrapbooking layout or image, you do it in much the same way that you would with traditional scrapbooking, in that you layer papers and elements on top of one another. Each paper, photo, or embellishment exists on its own layer in your document, and you can reposition them at your discretion.

It’s easy to get started and you don’t have to invest any money. You can download a free image and photo editing software at www.paint.net. It features an intuitive user interface with support for layers and special effects, along with a wide variety of useful photo editing tools. Don’t worry if your not very computer savvy, they have tutorials to guide you. Did I mention that the best part is it’s FREE?

There are many sites that also offer free digital kits and ready-made pages to download. Take a look at www.digifree.blogspot.com/ or www.digiscrapdepot.com/freebies.

You can choose to print your finished pages, post them to a website for family and friends to see, display in a digital frame or use them as screensavers. Digital scrapbooking is especially useful if you want to create the same album for several people as gifts. You create the first album, save it, and then print as many as you need.

Even if you don’t want to create an entire layout digitally, you can use the papers and elements separately and print them out to add to your traditional paper scrapbooking.

Here are a couple of my layouts using free quick page templates. Using quick pages takes very little time.

Follow these steps:
1) Choose your template to download
2) Open the template in an image software program such as the free program I mentioned or Adobe Photoshop.
3) Enlarge image to 12x12.
4) Insert photo of your choice and place/layer behind the template.
5) Save file under a new name.
6) Post, email, or print.

Another fun alternative are scrapbook services such as Smilebox. They have hundreds of professional designed page layouts for you to choose from. You can sign up for free and then simply drag & drop your photos or videos into a design. You also have the option of adding music, captions, and embellishments. Email your creation or post it to Facebook, MySpace, or blog for free!

Try these free scrapbooking alternatives and see if digital scrapbooking is for you.

2 More Submissions Accepted!

I just found out today that 2 of my submissions will be featured in upcoming magazines. Check them out by clicking on the their blinkies (in left-hand column)!

August/September 2009 Ready, Set, Create magazine -- an owl greeting card

August 2009 Scrapbook News and Review magazine -- Playing Ball digital layout

Published!

Ready, Set, Create online magazine accepted 2 of my submissions for publication! They were in the March/April 2009 magazine. Here they are:


This card was made from a recycled mini gift bag. I cut the front off the bag and attached it to a 3x5 blank greeting card. Punched 2 holes on each side of the card. Using the handle from the bag, I threaded the metal tags onto the cord and then through each side of the card. The black & white flower is the gift tag from the bag.

Papers and elements: Denim & Lace digital kit by Rachael Hudnall.
Title was handstitched and then scanned in.

More Uses for Scrapbook Supplies

Do you have leftover scrapbook supplies that you'll probably never use? I know I do! Don't throw the items away or let them take up all the room in your supplies folder, use them to decorate other parts of the house.

Here's an example of what I did with a few leftover supplies:

BEFORE PHOTO

I found this wall plaque at a discount store.

The middle is a cermaic plaque that slides out of the frame and came with a printed leaf on it.

I took the cermaic plaque out and glued layers of torn handmade paper to it and, to finish it off, placed a skelton leaf in the middle.

AFTER PHOTO

What can you do with your leftover scrapbook supplies? Here are 12 ideas to get you started:

1. Make handmade cards.

2. Add dimensional texture to your scrapbook borders by layering.

3. Make matchbooks out of your scraps.

4. Use the scraps to frame smaller photos.

5. Use as photo corners.

6. Make gift tags.

7. Make homemade envelopes.

8. Piece together a paper crazy quilt. Adhere your scrap down to your

album page to mke a crazy quilt background. Use your pens to make

fun or fancy 'stitches.'

9. Exchange supplies on a craft forum.

10. Make a mini album.

11. Make fridge magnets. View examples here.

12. Tear up or shred as a gift bag filler.

Alternative Uses for Scrapbook Paper

Scrapbook paper can be used in a variety of ways -- other than scrapbooking. Think outside the box! There are many different textures and patterns of paper that make terrific collages for wall art. Here are a couple of examples of collages I have made.




I purchased a 10x10 artist stretched canvas and painted it black. Then I layered and glued different textures and sizes of scrapbooking papers.


Across the bottom, I pierced two holes on each side with a sewing needle and threaded a wired string of orange beads.


Paper is from Paper Pizzaz.

When I saw this frame I thought it was perfect for a paper collage. The papers are sandwiched between two pieces of glass, which makes them appear to "float."

I crumbled the paper and then smoothed it back out for a textured look. Paper is from Paper Pizzaz. Other elements are Rebecca Sower's Fresh Cuts - Keys to the Past.

Scrapbook Flip Calendar

I bought several of these flip calendar kits from K & Company. I made one for me and 3 other for gifts.

The kits includes the easel-back calendar, die-cut pocket pages, lined and numbered tab cards, die-cuts, stickers, Grand Adhesions, Clearly Yours, rub-on transfers, lace, buttons, ribbons, bow, colored floss and string. You add your own photos for each month. It also comes with 5 years worth of stickers to change the year at the bottom of the calendar.







Since this involved so much time in creating, I wanted to use it year after year. So, I attached each photo with photo-safe repositionable tape, so that I could change the photos out.


These are close-ups of two of the months created with photos of my nephew.














The tabs for each month pull out and you can write dates to remember on the cards and then slide them back in the pocket.