Today I’m unboxing the latest card kit from Simon Says Stamp for July 2022: You Shine. This kit has SUCH a vintage vibe and I had to create four cards that really do all go together like ducks in a row! From a simple, square design like the one above, to this fun window frame design: I’m not really known for vintage style but these papers from Simple Stories (and yes, some elements of the kit can be purchased separately!), are just too fun! The golds, blacks, yellows and teals are such a wonderfully rich palette work with. I barely touched the stamp set, and honestly, that is absolutely d ..read more

Today I’m pleased to have another guest designer share her work on my blog! Meet Tracey Holdyk. Tracey has SUCH a great hybrid style. These layouts she’s sharing today are amazing! Get to know Tracey! How long have you been scrapbooking, give or take? I have been scrapbooking for approx. 20 years now but I still love it as much today as I did when I first started. Tracey used CZ Layered Template 191 What is your preferred page size? That depends on what I’m doing really, I keep changing it up. Right now my fav size is 7 x 8.25 and I’m obsessed with it. What are your top three ride or die sc ..read more

Today I’m so pleased to have another guest designer on my blog. Meet Jennifer! Layered Template 039 Let’s have a few questions and get to know Jennifer! How long have you been scrapbooking, give or take? I started paper scrapbooking in 2002 with the birth of my oldest son and switched to digital in 2008 with the birth of my youngest son. I haven’t looked back since switching to digital, but still love to put together hybrid mini albums! What is your preferred page size? I love to create big beautiful 12×12 pages for my boys and our family albums! This year I have been dabbling in a few differ ..read more

Today I’m so pleased to have another guest designer on my blog. Meet Jennifer! Here is an amazing page featuring one of my favorite templates. These time travel pages get me right in the heart! Especially because my baby boy is now 21. Let’s have a few questions and get to know Jennifer! How long have you been scrapbooking, give or take? In 2009, after my first son was born, I started looking online for digital scrapbooking ideas. I had no idea it was even called “digital scrapbooking” at the time, I just wanted to utilize my design skills (I’m a graphic designer by profession) and make him ..read more

Today I’m sharing a sweet and very easy little mini album project designed to help celebrate momentous occasions. It’s called Guest Book. The idea is very simple: create blank cards, have folks fill them out, add some patterned paper or other embellishments, pop them into an album with 6 x 4 pockets and give them as a gift to the guest or guests of honor. Even during this current era where we aren’t gathering in the same way, you, as the crafty one, could help create a gift album with this set by soliciting messages from friends and family, either by sending the cards out to be hand written ..read more

Today I’m so happy to introduce to my featured designer for this new release. Her name is Kirsten and here’s a look at some of her wonderful work, as well as a little Q&A to help you get to know her! FIVE QUESTIONS WITH KIRSTEN QUESTION 1:  How long have you been scrapbooking, give or take?  I think it’s been about 20 years. I started out with a group of friends, and we’d meet regularly to make cards. We attended stamp conventions, and later Creating Keepsakes conventions, and that’s where the switch to scrapbooking happened for me. I’ve always had an interest in photography an ..read more

Since launching my digital shop, I’ve been wanting to start sharing videos to show you how to use my digital products. Today is the first video tutorial of what I hope are more to come and our topic today: hybrid scrapbooking. Hybrid scrapbooking is simply scrapbooking that involves any type of digital process that is combined with tangible, physical products. In other words, how I’ve been scrapbooking since my very first layout. (You wanna see that one? Oh, you KNOW I have that image always ready!) Yep. That’s my first scrapbook page, made back in 2002, I believe. That computer-generated ti ..read more

Today I’m sharing my latest addition to my year-long album project I call Scrapbook Your Year. I think we can all agree that the month of March is quite possibly like any other in our lifetimes, especially if you’re anywhere around the age of 54, like me. Or older. Or younger. Hell—if you are presently a human subject living on the planet known as Earth—life right now is anything but normal. Here’s how I documented life in March 2020. March came in somewhat like a lamb, if you define lamb as “we had no freaking clue as to how differently the end of the month would look.” Dan and I always sta ..read more

In my column for the winter issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today, I focused on telling stories without the perfect photos to accompany your words. I have always been a proponent of the idea that you really don’t need perfect shots to tell a story. The photo and the story together are the thing, you know? Context, friends. That is what a good record of time has the potential to serve up. I created this layout featuring a selfie taken on a road trip with one of my besties. This is what a hybrid scrapbook page looks like. If you’re new to either scrapbooking, or the term hybrid, all it means is ..read more

With a little extra time on my hands these days, I figured it was time to get back into my year-long scrapbook project that I call Scrapbook Your Year. If you are unfamiliar with how I document life in the modern age, here is a video showing you last year’s finished, printed book:  The system is a simple, no-frills way of saving photos and a few words. I like the simplicity of it and once you get the digital part down, it’s really quite simple. Here are my pages for January and February. I had less than 100 photos each month to choose from. I think I am taking less photos than ever before ..read more