Posts - Scrapworthy Lives - Page 43Scrapworthy Lives | because your life is worth scrapbooking

This Week on Scrapworthy Lives: April 22, 2011

Posted on 04/23/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 6 of 47 in the series This Week on Scrapworthy Lives

Each Saturday, I provide a compilation of links from the week’s posts.

9 Ways to get more out of Scrapworthy Lives:
1. Subscribe by RSS. Click on the RSS button (in the upper right corner) and you can receive all of Scrapworthy Live’s posts in your RSS feeder.
2. Comment. I would love to hear from you! Join the discussion by commenting.
3. Become a fan of Scrapworthy Lives on Facebook.
4. Follow scrapworthy on Twitter.
5. Join the Email List so you never miss a post! You will receive no more than two emails a week from this list. Subscribers will be the first to learn about any new products and promotions at Scrapworthy Lives.
6. Subscribe to Scrapworthy Lives on your Kindle!
7. Show your love for Scrapworthy Lives. Visit my store at Skreened.
8. Email me your questions and suggestions. Email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com or contact me here (http://www.scrapworthylives.com/contact-me/) and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I will personally respond to your emails and may use your questions in future articles.
9. Share a great article you find with your friends. Tweet it, facebook it (is that a real expression?), email it, save it and so on. Just look at the link at the bottom of each article to share it in the way that suits you best. I appreciate it!

Stephanie

Posted in This Week | Tagged This Week | Comments Off

Scrapbook on the Road: A Minimalist Scrapbooking Course

Posted on 04/22/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 2 of 37 in the series Minimalist Scrapbooking

My early scrapbooking days involved scrapbooking trips. I still scrapbook trips. It didn’t dawn on me until I began working in a LSS to scrapbook much besides trips.

Sometimes it takes awhile for a trip album to be completed. I am finally finished a scrapbook about a trip to New York City earlier this year. The trip occurred in 2007. I tried my best to complete the album before my daughter was born in 2008, but I was also trying to complete all of my interviews for my dissertation before she was born, too. Excuses, excuses, I know. Anyway, it is finished.

We are now preparing for our next big trip. We will be going to San Diego and Los Angeles. I really don’t want all of those memories to be sitting in a box waiting for their day to be scrapbooked several years from now. I imagine my photographs and memorabilia sitting in the cabinet like the toys in Toy Story. They get all excited that I am sitting down to scrapbook. “Choose me,” they say, yet I ignore them and scrapbook something else. They fear the day when they will just be thrown away or even worse, sold in a rummage sale and hung on the walls in some chain restaurant. Enough of the dramatic.

I found out about this a couple of weeks ago:

I knew people scrapbooked “on the road” but I never have. I take a notebook with me foe notes to remind me of what I did each day, take hundreds of photographs, and collect memorabilia, but that’s about it.

I decided to purchase Ali’s course. For $14, what did I have to lose? It is a great course. I think you could use this course even if you are not taking an actual trip. It is really great idea for any sort of journey you might be taking. The course includes handouts, supply list, and videos, all of which are very high quality.

What I love most about this course is that Ali encourages you to use the supplies you already have on hand. She lists items she used for her examples, in case you want some of the items she uses, but she emphasizes how that is not the point.

For me, this course fits nicely into minimalist scrapbooking. I went through my stash to see what I could use. I even had book binding rings that I had purchased to one day use. Unfortunately, the three I started using quickly became to small and I only have two in the size I need so I will have to buy another book binding ring in the size I need. Other than that, I shopped my stash.

I completed the skeleton of my album last weekend and can’t wait for our trip so that I can finish the album. I took photos of the album, but want to redo them once I get the book binding ring I need because the album does not photograph well as it is. I also kept all the scraps and handouts from the course in one container so that way if I need more materials when I complete the album, I can focus on using up the supplies I already have begun using.

All in all, $14 well spent. Stay tuned for the photos of the skeleton and for the complete album later this summer.

Books & Blogs: Time to Scrapbook

Posted on 04/21/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 22 of 45 in the series Books & Blogs Review

Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking.
The Review
Time to Scrapbook! is a collection of 27 tips from the 2010 most influential scrapbookers.
The best part of this e-book is that the group of scrapbookers is somewhat diverse. Most have children living at home, but a couple do not. Some are traditional scrapbookers and some are digital scrapbookers.
Unfortunately, all of the people sharing their time-saving strategies are professional scrapbookers. They all work in the industry. How do “regular” people find time or make time to scrapbook? That’s a book I want to read. (Maybe I should write that book since I have actual data from my dissertation that I could draw from.)
Honestly, the only reason to buy this e-book is to pull together a couple of dozen of diverse tips to help you find time to scrapbook. Most of the tips have been published or discussed elsewhere. And many of the tips are basic time management tips (e.g., schedule scrapbooking time) applied to scrapbooking.
Dear readers, how do you find time to scrapbook? Comment below.
Everyone
If there is a scrapbooking-related book or blog that you want to see reviewed here, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com. If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.

Stephanie

Posted in B&B Review | Tagged B&B Review | 3 Comments

Do You Ever Redo a Scrapbook Page?

Posted on 04/20/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 6 of 86 in the series Scrapworthy Lives Results

Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.

In my study, I found that redoing a scrapbook page is rare.

One scrapbooker talks about how she redid one layout three times before giving up on it. She does not redo layouts anymore. In this example, she redid the layout to get the look she wanted, not to edit the story at a later time.

A scrapbook page may be later edited to fix spelling errors or add details that are remembered later. Not all errors are corrected, though. For example, a respondent’s father started a family tree and one of the birth dates was incorrect. She included this tree in the scrapbook, errors and all because her father created it. She then compiled an accurate family tree to also include in the book and wrote journaling about the original family tree pointing out the error. She did not think twice about not erasing what her dad had written and correcting the tree, but corrected it in a different way.

Another respondent told me that she wants to redo one of the pages she showed me because she just does not like the colors. Others talk about redoing a page that is falling apart; here they are repairing the page, not necessarily redoing the page. Though Goodsell and Seiter’s(2010) respondent never redoes pages and is held out as the exception among scrapbookers, not redoing pages is standard practice. Redoing pages is very rare and when they are redone, it is typically for artistic reasons rather than to rewrite the story.

Do you ever redo scrapbook pages? Why? Under what conditions might you redo a scrapbook page? Comment below and join the conversation on twitter.

Reference:
Goodsell, Todd L. and Liann Seiter. 2010. “Scrapbooking: Family Capital and the Construction of Family Discourse.” Bringham Young University.

Stephanie

Posted in Scrapbooking Norms, Findings | Tagged Scrapbooking Norms, Dissertation | 15 Comments

The Message Communicated

Posted on 04/19/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

Following up last week’s post on poetry, this week I have a second question that is raised in David Kirby’s NY Times piece.

Kirby writes about his interactions with teachers that use his poetry in the classroom. He states, “The teachers thought that my poem said one thing but meant another, and that it’s the reader’s job to figure out what the poet is really saying. No wonder poetry doesn’t have a bigger audience. All that code cracking. Who has the time?“

This reminds me of one of the questions I asked scrapbookers when doing my dissertation research. I asked them:
“On your scrapbook pages, how do you make sure the viewer gets the same message from the page that you intend? For example, if somebody were to look at your album in a hundred years, how do you arrange the page to make sure the viewer receives the message you want him or her to receive? What role does journaling and titles play?”

I followed this up by actually reviewing a selection of their layouts with one of their family members or friends. What I found is that most scrapbookers don’t care if anyone else really understands the story. What other viewers understand may or may not be the same story. Might poetry be like scrapbooking? Perhaps there really is no code to crack. You either get it or you don’t. What do you think? Do you care if other people understand the story you are sharing in your scrapbook? Do you care?

Feel free to share below in the comments section or join the conversation on twitter or facebook.

Stephanie

Posted in Dissertation, Poetry | Tagged Dissertation, Poetry | 2 Comments

Embrace Scrapbooking

Posted on 04/18/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 22 of 66 in the series My Scrap Happy Project

Another Monday, another Scrap Happy post. Do you scrapbook because it is fun? I do. Sometimes I hear scrapbookers talk about how they are “finally caught up” or are “two years behind.” I’d rather be “two years behind” than “caught up.” Why, you might ask? Well, if I have everything I want scrapbooked, then what? I enjoy scrapbooking. It is unimportant to me if I am “caught up.” Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that a couple of months ago, I finally finished my New York City album about a trip we took in 2007. I am also glad, that I have just about all my photos from 2009 scrapbooked. (Yes, I am a semi-chronological scrapbooker.) If I were completely caught up with my scrapbooking, I’d have to find something else to do. To me it also implies that life has become very boring because nothing appears to be scrapworthy. Embracing scrapbooking is a way to be serious about play.

If you want to read more about The Happiness Project or my Scrap Happy Project, check out the other posts in the Scrap Happy series.

Are you doing a happiness project? Are you doing a scrap happy project? What’s stopping you? Join me today!

Subscribe by RSS. Click on the RSS button (in the upper right corner) and you can receive all of Scrapworthy Live’s posts in your RSS feeder.

Stephanie

Posted in Scrap Happy, Be Seriuos About Play | Tagged Scrap Happy | Comments Off

Alphanumeric Blog Hop

Posted on 04/17/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

Welcome to Scrapworthy Lives! This is my first ever participation in a blog hop! I hope my post goes live at the correct time as I am in the US and many of the other participants are in the UK.
If you got here via the hop, you should have arrived from Scrappyjacky.
There is a giveaway at I Speak Melsh, so be sure to make it through the hop. I think you have to figure out everyone’s letter and number along the way to be entered, but check out I Speak Melsh for the details. Some of the other bloggers might also have giveaways. Either way, a great big THANK YOU goes out to Mel for organizing this hop.
So, now that I have all those details out of the way, let’s get on with it.

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter S!

Scrapbookers are a sharing rather than selfish group.

Here are six ways scrapbookers share:

Scholarship (Knowledge)

We tell others about scrapbooking. We teach others how to scrapbook. We share our knowledge of new techniques and creative ways to use products, new or old.

Scrapbook Pages or Layouts

We love to share our creations with others. We show our pages to our families and friends. But, we quickly learn that most of our non-scrapbooking friends and family members that are teenaged or older, really don’t care to see our pages (at least not too often), so we start blogs and upload our layouts there or publish our layouts to online galleries. It is not enough just to create a layout; we want to share it, too.

Stretches of Time

We share our time with new scrapbookers, to help them get started. We share our time whenever we scrapbook with others. We share our time when we share our scrapbook layouts and we share our time when we create scrapbooks as gifts.

Stories

Our scrapbooks contain stories. Our stories. Our family’s stories. Stories that would otherwise disappear if not recorded. We share our stories in scrapbooks.

Strategies

We share money saving tips and strategies to make our stash go further. We share strategies about how to use random products we bought “because they were so cool” but we now have know idea how to incorporate them into our scrapbooking.

Stash

If we have the perfect yellow ribbon for our friend’s layout, we give it to her (or him). Digital scrapbookers share templates and digital elements that they have created. Our stash is shared.

Scrapbookers are a sharing bunch. What do you think? Comment below.

Next up is Staring At The Sea.

Before you go, if you liked this post, please consider following me on Twitter, liking the site on Facebook, subscribing by RSS (upper right), and/or signing up for the weekly newsletter (upper right). Thanks!

Here is a list of all the participating blogs:
I Speak Melsh
BE Glorious
Captured On Film
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig
Creating Room
Curiouser and Curiouser
Daily Life – Bits and Pieces
Deb’s World
Den’s Crafty Diary
From High In The Sky
Gallo Organico
Ginger’s Life Of Spice
Handmade By Kirsty
Havoc and Mayhem
Heather’s Scraps
Helena’s Creative Maven
Holaday’s Happy Hearts
Jeant-Jinnag
Just Jimjams
K’s Crafty Corner
Life…As I See It
{Life Behind The Purple Door}
Lisa E Design Blog
Living Life One Blessing At A Time
Mary’s Musings
Michelle Loves…
Obstinate Pursuit
Over At Our Place
Paper Turtle
Peonies and Pennies
Random Reflections
Rosalind Revival
Scrap Dreams
Scrappyjacky
Scrapworthy Lives
Staring At The Sea
Surefiredaisy Says
This Kalil Life
This Little Life Of Mine
Xnomads’ Blog

Stephanie

Posted in Blog Hops | Tagged Blog Hops | 22 Comments

This Week on Scrapworthy Lives: April 16, 2011

Posted on 04/16/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 5 of 47 in the series This Week on Scrapworthy Lives

Each Saturday, I provide a compilation of links from the week’s posts.

5. Join the Email List so you never miss a post! You will receive no more than two emails a week from this list. Subscribers will be the first to learn about any new products and promotions at Scrapworthy Lives.
6. Subscribe to Scrapworthy Lives on your Kindle!
7. Show your love for Scrapworthy Lives. Visit my store at Skreened.
8. Email me your questions and suggestions. Email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com or contact me here (http://www.scrapworthylives.com/contact-me/) and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I will personally respond to your emails and may use your questions in future articles.
9. Share a great article you find with your friends. Tweet it, facebook it (is that a real expression?), email it, save it and so on. Just look at the link at the bottom of each article to share it in the way that suits you best. I appreciate it!

Stephanie

Posted in This Week | Tagged This Week | 4 Comments

An App to Make Scrapbooking Easier

Posted on 04/15/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

Do you use an Iphone or Android apps to help you scrapbook? I have seen several lists floating around out there with suggestions for apps that help you scrapbook. Most of these lists focus on all the fun photography apps. Though I enjoy some of these apps, I already have a camera and photo-editing software. I have been thinking about apps that actually help me scrapbook, rather than just give me more stuff to scrapbook.

As I was cleaning up my scrap area a few days ago, I moved not one but two books of quotes. I rarely use these books anymore, but used to use them periodically when scrapbooking. Sometimes someone else has already said something profound that would just complete my layout. At first, I thought that maybe there is an e-book version of a quotation dictionary that I could add to my kindle or nook app on my ipod touch. I found a couple e-books, but thought I might find something cheaper. I decided to check out the Itunes app store and found 23,000 Great Quotes“>23,0000 Great Quotes for $0.99.

With this handy little app, you can add a quote to your favorites, search by keyword, browse by authors, and share the quote via twitter, facebook, or email right from the app. I was sold on the search by keyword feature. There were a couple of free quote apps where you could save and share quotes but they lacked this search function. Now I can pick up my ipod and select a theme of a quote I am looking for, like family or beach. I can easily find that perfect quote for my layout.

Now, aren’t I encouraging you to buy something when just last week I said that I was going to stop buying stuff for scrapbooking? Yes, I said that. Here’s the thing, this one app is replacing two books on my bookshelf. It takes up a lot less space and it’s much more portable. When I go to a crop, I never even take my quote books with me anymore. Now, I’ll have one with me right on my ipod. That to me is minimalist.

What apps do you use to help make scrapbooking easier or more fun? Comment below.

Posted in Minimalist Scrapbooking | Tagged Minimalist Scrapbooking | Comments Off

Books and Blogs: Confessions of a Chocoholic

Posted on 04/14/2011 by Stephanie Medley-Rath

This entry is part 21 of 45 in the series Books & Blogs Review

Each Thursday I review a book or blog related to scrapbooking. In the spirit of Minimalist Scrapbooking, I will only be reviewing blogs and e-books for the foreseeable future. Yes, e-books clutter up your hard drive and blogs can clutter up your reader or in-box, but they don’t clutter up your house.
The Review

Confessions of a Chocoholic is May Flaum’s blog. You may have read May’s work at Scrapbook Update or heard her on Paperclipping Roundtable. She also teaches for Big Picture Classes among other places.

I reviewed her posts from March 8 to April 8, 2011.

During this month, the posts were split between personal posts and more scrapbooking focused. If you are looking for more scrapbooking-focused content and less personal, than this blog might not work for you. That being said, over the past few months she has had some excellent posts about photo processing places for instance, so don’t just ignore May’s blog either.

May posts quite a few of her layouts and other craft projects. She is definitely a talented scrapbooker and I enjoy looking at her projects. Overall, check out Confessions of a Chocoholic to learn more about this talented scrapbooker.

Publishers and Authors
If you are a publisher or an author and would like me to review your scrapbooking-related book or blog, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com.

Stephanie
Show your love for Scrapworthy Lives. Visit my store at Skreened.

Posted in B&B Review | Tagged B&B Review | Comments Off