Books & Blogs: Scrapbook Workshop

Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.


I am very excited to share my review of Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Scrapbook Bloggers edited by May Flaum with you today. I’ve been a fan of May’s and several of her contributors for awhile now, so have been patiently waiting for the release of Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Scrapbook Bloggers.

Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Scrapbook Bloggers doesn’t disappoint. I bought the e-book version of this book. Every scrapbook idea book and magazine needs an e-book version. I understand that folks like to dog-ear pages and tear pages out. I want to be able to bring it all with me. Digital copies allow me to do this. Thanks to the publisher for making this both a paper book and an e-book.

Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Scrapbook Bloggers contains technique from 26 different bloggers. May selected a great mix of contributors. She included folks I had heard of before and were already following and plenty of folks I had never heard of before but am now following. I read the book on my iPad with my browser opened on my laptop so I could easily add new blogs to my RSS without missing a beat.

The contributors are also diverse. They currently reside in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Most of the bloggers are U.S. based, but even then, they come from different parts of the country. The group was also diverse in terms of race and parenting status. Kudos, May! If May creates a second volume with new bloggers (and she should), she should try to recruit a couple of men scrappy bloggers (and the do exist).

What I liked best is that this is a book of technique. It has me rethinking dumping my xyron machine and heat gun–two tools I never use and which are currently residing in my box of stuff to donate/giveaway. I felt like I could use these techniques without running out and buying a bunch of new stuff (which I do not want to do). Several examples focused on using your scraps. Other techniques gave you several options for completing the look so that you are more likely to be able to complete the look with the stuff you have on hand.

This book is primarily for paper-scrapbookers, hybrid scrappers, and sometimes digi scrappers. There were a few ideas for digi scrappers, but if you only digi scrap, this might not be for you. I did like that at least one of the digi scrapping techniques used Microsoft Word, so you don’t have to go out and buy fancy software to test the digi scrapping waters.

I am glad that May stuck with bloggers for contributors. I find it frustrating to discover someone new in a magazine or idea book and search for them online and come up empty. I would suggest that every contributor make it very easy for new readers to sign up for their RSS feed and make it crystal clear where you can be found outside of your blog (twitter, facebook, and so on). I had to dig around on a few of the blogs for this information and resorted to just manually adding new blogs to my RSS feed. I did this because I am always looking for new blogs to review here. Most people will not do this.

I think my favorite new idea from this book comes from Sasha Holloway, who shows you how to hand-stitch a title. Sounds intimidating but actually looks pretty painless. I can’t wait to try it!

Overall, I highly recommend Scrapbook Workshop: The Best Techniques From Your Favorite Scrapbook Bloggers.

Which scrappy bloggers would you like to see in a book like this? Comment below or join the conversation on facebook or twitter.

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Stephanie