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At Scrapbook for Box Tops - we are still collecting box tops and swaping them for free scrapbook supplies. Come on over and read about the new products offering box tops, get free printable coupons to use on the participating products and for a limited time as a back to school event...they are offering DOUBLE box tops on many items!

Scrapbook for Box Tops

So...print a coupon, save money on the product, cut the box tops and send them off for free scrapbook embellishments - all the while you are eating healthy! What a great way to scrap!!!!

ABC Scrapbook Album - Not the Ordinary ABC's!

Whether you child is a toddler, pre-schooler, or kindergardener,an SBC album is a great educational tool (as well as alot of fun!) for them to have a book about the ABC's that they will enjoy and WANT to look at often, thereby helping them LEARN THE FUN WAY!!!

I made a scrapbook ABC album for my grand daughter and gave it to her when she was 2. Now, in 2st grade, she STILL picks out that book when she is at my house and totally enjoys looking through it, even tho she knows her ABC's. These layouts are not complicated, however you can make your ABC scrapbook as structured as you like. I used the "I Spy" collage theme.

But this isn't just a regular A is for apple, B is for boy ABC scrapbook album. I used ACTUAL things that she knows for the letters, not just the ordinary things. I also tried to incorporate a few things from her mother's life - D is for Dynamo which was the duck her mommy had when she was little. R is for Rainy Day, the rabbit we had when she was young and has now died. D is for Daddy, M is for Mommy and included a photo of each! These are memories that she will have for years, and can even hand down to HER children! Who knew the alphabet could have so many memories!

Q is for quarter and I glued a quarter on the page. N is of Nanny and I put a photo of me. M is for Mommy and Me and I put a photo of her and her mommy. U is for Uncle Michael and I put a photo of her uncle. Y is for yarn and I took a length of actual yarn and squiggled it up and glued it down! G is for goat and I used a photo of her mommy and uncle when they were little playing with a goat. Every letter a memory! What wonderful ideas can you come up with for your childs ABC album!

Educationally speaking: If you are making the scrapbook for a toddler or pre-schooler, it helps alot if they KNOW the picture they are looking at and can then relate the letter to the picture instead of learning the letter and trying to find something that relates to the letter.

In addition to some of the usual items or "normal" kind of items, I used items that meant something to her and only her. I used white cardstock for each page and those letters that have a color (p is pink, purple) i used that color to embellish - like strips across the page and then wrote "pink" or "purple" under the color. I also wrote the name next to each item in colored gel pens.

C is for California (she lives in California, die cut) cotton Candy (die cut and her and her favorite candy!) C is for Christmas (a photo of her mommy at christmas when she was 2) C is for Cinderella (stickers of Cinderella, although she now tells me that the pink dress is not Cinderella, it was Sleeping Beauty or whoever, I am bad at the names of all the princesses!) C is for coins (sticker of coins in this ATM card world)

D is for Daddy (photo of Daddy) D is for Dolphin (photo of dolphin when we took her to Sea World and she is now mezmerized wtih dolphins!) D is for Dynamo ( photo of her mommys pet)D is for Dragon fly (an unusual bug)

M is for Mommy and Me (photo of her and her mommy) M is for magician (die cut) M is for Mermaid (sticker) M is for money (stickers of dollar bills)

S is for sleeping bag (sticker, what she loves to sleep in when she spends the night at my house) S is for Strawberry Shortcake (sticker and she and her mom love this character) S is for Sylvester (sticker, she liked the cartoon cat) S is for saxaphone (die cut, she liked tooting horns!)
P is for Papa (photo of her Papa) P is for paw (die cut, from the Blue's Clue's days!) P is for Powerpuff Girls (stickers and she liked them back then!) P is for pumpkin (die cut, she loves carving pumpkins) P is for Panda (sticker, she loves animals)

So you get the idea. Create an album uniquely to your child and his/her likes, interests and family. They will enjoy them for years! Make memories in your ABC albums - education and memories - what a great combination!

Small Envelope Pattern

I found this pattern in all my inventory of scrapbooking supplies and embellishments. It is really a good pattern to use for adding an embellishment to work with journaling. Write your journaling on a piece of cardstock and slide it into the envelope. Decorate the front of the envelope.

Or, my favorite way to use this pattern is with vellum - make the envelope out of vellum and use a sticker on the front, or cut a photo the exact size of the front of the envelope and slide that in the envelope. Then you have a muted photo front to the envelope.






Click on the pattern and it will take you to a larger size to print out. You can reduce the patter to make is smaller if you like!

Scrapbook 11 Photos- One Page - The Accordion Way!

I was one of those scrappers that took photos upon photos upon photos of my first grand daughter. No matter what she did or where she did it, Nanny was there with that camera! Probably the most photographed kid in the country! Okay, I know I share that with every other grand mother, but the next problem was how to display all those photos! Throw away a photo? Yeah, like that's going to happen! I wanted every second to be remembered.

But again, that age old question of how many photos per scrapbook page? I use 12x12 instead of 8x10 for the main purpose of being able to have more space for memories and photos, but even a 12x12 can only take so many! So I had to figure out a way to put more photos on the 12x12 pages!

An accordion album can mean alot of things and can be created alot of ways. I was concerned about the thickness this embellishment would cause. But, where there's a will, there' s usually a way! So intead of making an "all by itself", "book in a book" kind of thing, I just did a simple technique with a couple folds and made the perfect accordion fold booklet for my scrapbook layout.

This layout was just of my grand daughter playing outside in the sprinkler. Since this layout was #2 in the sprinkler "photo layout", I didn't do any journaling on this layout as that was already on the first scrapbook layout. However, all you'd have to do if you did want journaling would be to use sections of the accordion book and journal on it instead of putting a photo on it.

In addition, this layout was not particularily to remember the event or what she was doing, but it was more to remember that FACE!! That precious little cherib, darling, princess, cute, adorable, face with its priceless and beautiful smile!!! Totally unrehearsed, just plain, pure sweetness! A picture that is saying about 5,000 words!

The only other embellishment is four, 1 inch square punchies with a water splat sticker .

To Make the Accordion Folder

To make the folder, just choose the size of photos you want to use. I cropped these to the size of just the main picture and very little background. I wanted to see the baby, not the background. This folder is about 4x4 in size. I used 12x12 size cardstock and cut 2, 4 inch by 12 inch lengths. I scored them every 4 inches, and then made the folds. Then I glued the 2 lengths together and folded the total length into 4" pages. One 4" section is glued to the background cardstock. To add the photos, there are 4 photos and one "cover" on the one side of the folder, and then 4 photos on the other side. A little tab pull made from a piece of folded cardstock and adhered as the "pull" of the book. I decorated the cover with matching squares as I used on the page embellishment.

So quick and easy and you have 11 photos on one scrapbook layout page!

To Put In a Page Protector...

To put this scrapbook layout in a page protector, just slide the layout into the page protector with the accordion folder closed. On the right side edge of the accordion folder, take your craft knife and make a slice down the length of the back edge. Start about 1/4" above the folder's spine and slice to about 1/4" below the spine. This allows for the accordion folder to open without pulling on the page protector. Now, gently, work it until you pull the length of the accordion folder out through the sliced opening in the page protector. Now you have the accordion folder on the outside of the page protector, and the layout is inside the page protector.

Look "Outside the Box" for Scrapbook Memories

There is so much available in the scrapbooking world these days, that it seems there is no limit. There is something for every event, theme, happening, time, era, person, place, thing and then some. Scrapbooking is all about using different items to preserve a memory. And you have those items! You don't always have to get your embellishments at a store!

Some memories are so personal and deeply felt, that a purchased embellishment and a photo, just don't convey the memory. So what do you do? All you have to do is look "outside of the box". You have things you could use, you just don't know it as you don't think "scrapbooking" when you look at them.

The Baby T-Shirt

This is a scrapbook layout that is very dear to me. It is the t-shirt my son got in the hospital when he was born. Because it is the actual shirt he wore is a memory in itself - "my little boy, who is now 24, wore that shirt!" This is a memory a photo couldn't give. It also reminds me of how small he was and how I loved to hold him and rock him to sleep. The T-shirt is a tiny little thing, fits perfectly on a 12x12 scrapbook layout page! A black background page, the shirt, a title and a few stickers. Quick and easy, but holds the most precious memories for me. (the glare is from the camera flash)

Now, back in the "old-days", baby formula stained. Hard as I tried, I couldn't get that stain out. However, now that I am day-caring HIS baby girl, I notice how far things have come - baby formula no longer stains! A new memory created - cheesey, but a memory nevertheless! I adhered the t-shirt to the back ground cardstock with the photo adhesive squares. Some on the back of the shirt and some on the inside to hold the two layers together. Once in a page protector, there is no sliding. Everything is secure and protected.

The Title is a Memory Too!

The title is also quite a memory. "Baby of Mine" is the name of a song in the Disney movie, "Dumbo" - the song that Mrs. Jumbo sang to her baby, Dumbo. This movie was my son's most favorite movie when he was in pre-school and kindergarten. MANY mornings I couldn't get him out of bed unless I turned this movie on. Once he heard the movie, he was up and ready to go! I use metallic silver scrapbooking paper and a letter punch to make the letters. You could use any alphabet template if you don't have a punch system.

Other Embellishments

This layout is quick and easy. The only other embellishments I used were some color matching, floral stickers and some thin strips of the silver metallic paper, which I cut using a paper trimmer. It just needed a little "something" extra to compliment the layout since the t-shirt was so large and filled the layout page.

So take a look around at what you have. Memories are everywhere. There is more to scrapping than what's in the stores! Just think "Scrapbook" as you look around and see what memories you can find!