Wednesday Sponsor Giveaways: Elise Blaha, ReVa, Studio Calico, & SheyB

Such great give-aways! Would love to win the camera strap & bag or class!
I am pretty much self taught. I have an art/graphic design background. I do collage, so I haven't had many road blocks. Thanks to sites like this the details of scrapbooking are well laid out. But, I know people that when they were new felt like they had to buy everything and it had to be a specific brand and expensive! So not true. Anything can be a scrapbooking tool! Look in bargain bins and clearance isles. Really, magazines and ordinary scissors work just fine!

Actually some one did tell me this and it was great advice
"Don't try to go back and start with old photos---start with what is current right now"

My advice? Don't worry if you don't have children. It always seemed to me that the best pages always had bright, sunny little faces shining out from them, and I felt mine missed the mark in comparison; I felt they seemed shallow or pathetic. So many scrappers get into it to treasure the memories of growing children (totally get that!), and over time I realised I was growing just as fast as those kids, and there was plenty I wanted to look back on myself. After all, there's no reason a page about your new flip-flops or that divine pasta sauce shouldn't be equally fun and engaging.

My advice is to start with a little scrapbooking kit and focus on pictures.

I wish someone told me: Don't scrap all your pictures from your 2003 vacation to France chronological! That album is still not complete...it's 2009.

The best advice is to not worry about what everyone else is doing. Do your own thing, your family doesn't know what's in style and what's not. They appreciate the time you took to document their lives.

Oh , I wish to have some advises when I started.
1.Take a pictures with you when you go shopping for a fresh product.Don't buy some extra paper you do not know what you will use for( it is hard one ).It will be sitting in your shells for some time probably.Or if you buying some patterned paper make sure you get a cardstock matching.Or always have white one is stock.
2.There is NO RULES how to great your work,just continue a story on your pages and balance the pages.Don't over do with too many pictures or embellishment.
3.Print pictures in smaller sizes too,for adding with large one or by it self.
4.If you have too many pictures(from birthdays or trips) make a mini album, it much easier and you can place all your pictures.It is hard to choose picture from large selection.

I wished someone ahd told me that I don't have to scrap every single picture I take. It is a creative process that you can work with a single picture and interpret what that means to you in the scrapbook art form. There is so much more than adding embellishments to a piece of paper, it is capturing the moment as you feel right then. There is something so very powerful about that !!!

My best advice is JUST START! Don't put it off. Pick one event & create a small scrapbook & you will be hooked!

My advice to a new scrapbooker is a piece of advice I was given when I started. Don't get too caught up with the gadgets. Just get the basics and don't forget to scrap the everyday things...not just special events!

Spend some time researching the basic tools and start with just those. You don't need everything. There are so many duplicates in tools that just a few must haves are all you need. Wait to buy other things and ask a friend if you can try theirs out before you buy. Your real needs are few.

My advice to a new scrapbooker would be that you do not need to go in chronological order. Just take the memory most fresh or inspiring to you at the moment and get it down. Have fun and don't sweat the end result. It does not need to look perfect, it just needs to have your touch on it.

for me i loved looking at other peoples layouts online. there is link after link after link that you can follow to get great ideas and tips on scrapbooking.

My advice is DO NOT buy everything and every product available. But a few essentials -- patterned paper you love, neutral cardstock, good pens, a few embellies you love and just play. Also, don't be afraid to glue it down. I used to get paralyzed thinking once it was down it was FOREVER and that was daunting. Now you can use repositionable tape to make changes OR just let it be...which I find works best. :)

Only buy supplies as you need them. It can be tempting to purchase lots of paper and embelliments. If you don't have the space to store all the purchases, it can be very frustrating and you will spend your time organizing and not scrapping!

Gosh, there is so much to tell a new scrapper. I guess I would let him or her know that it's all about their life story. :) and to never forget that.

my best advice would be keep it simple and dont over buy supplies, you can easily over-whelm yourself if you do. Also beauty is in the eye of the beholder, make your pages pleasing to yourself. There is no right or wrong way, just your way!
Peg :)

I would tell them some advice that I got out of book...IT IS OKAY! I hadn't been scrapbooking long and when I read that Life Artist and it helped me beyond belief. I realized that I didn't need to get everything perfect or have a certain style. As long as I was telling our story. That book would be amazing advice to give someone. I'd probably just buy them a copy of it. (Cause I can't give mine up) Such great advice all throughout that one.

I think I would encourage a new scrapbooker to make the most of every free minute for scrapbooking instead of waiting until they have a big block of time they can devote to working on their layouts. If only I was more diligent about working in 15- or 30-minute increments...I would be much further ahead!

I wish I'd gone into scrapbooking for the purpose of "telling my story" instead of just playing with sticker, paper and pictures. I have many albums full of pages that have little to no journaling. That makes me sad because many of those memories are long gone from my memory now.