It's been a while....

Hey, sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I was on vacation in Mexico. It was so much fun. Good to spend some time with the family. Now I get to scrapbook the whole trip! I can't wait!!

Speaking of scrapbooking, we've gone through basic materials you need and where you can find them. Now we get into how to digitally scrapbook. I will mostly focus on photoshop since that is what I use. There are many classes out there, usually at community centers and scrapbooking stores. You can also find lots of tutorials online. I will share some of my favorites in later posts. Through these, you can learn the basics, such as resizing a photo, to advanced techniques like creating layer masks.

Mastering the more advanced techniques is really simple with step by step tutorials and will allow you to create amazing pages.

Happy Scrapping!

Fun with Fonts

As I've said before, I hate my handwriting!! And in my experience, I'm not alone. A lot of people don't like their handwriting. Even if you do have great handwriting, you only have one style of writing. That's why I love digital scrapbooking and all of the fonts that you can play with. Quite a few of them are free, and they are quite versitile. You can make them any size you want, from large Titles to small journalling. You can type in any color of the rainbow. You can find anything from cursive handwriting styles to letters shaped like plants or animals. With so many options, you're sure to be able to find the perfect font for your page. They're really easy to use, too! All you need to do is download them to your computer and place them in the right file folder on your computer. They usually come with great instructions.

I've gotten most of my favorite fonts from www.1001freefonts.com, but a guick google search will find plenty of different sites with tons of options. Be sure to read their terms of use!

Check out my use of a font that looks like logs here: LOGS

Em-'Bella'-shments

In a previous entry, I talked about embellishments. They make your page as beautiful as Bella is in Edward's eyes. If you paper scrapbook, you can find them at scrapbooking stores, but where do you find digital embellishments? Well, there are many online stores with digital embellishments. Some examples are: Store 1 and Store 2. But if you're looking for freebies, there are a lot out there. You can check out: Freebie Blog - I get a lot of freebies from here.

Blogs are a great place to find freebies, but searching through blogs can take a lot of time. So my favorite place to find freebies is DigiFree. It searches through all kinds of blogs and websites and finds all the freebies for you. You can look through all the thumbnail pictures and when you find the one(s) you like, a simple click will take you to the site where you can download it.

There is so much out there, I'm sure you will be able to find any thing you want. Your biggest issue then will be trying not to overload your computer's memory!

Enjoy and Happy Scrapping!

Wow, check out the New Story!!

Hi! I just put up a new story at Scrapbooking Tales. It's Phantom of the Opera! Any fans of Phantom out there? Better check it out!
Happy Scrapping!

Check out a freebie!!

Just a quick note to say that from today until 7/10, you can get a free page at my site, http://scrapbookingtales.mybisi.com! Check it out for full details!

The phrase that stirkes fear everywhere - "I've been thinking..."

And it should strike fear! But I have been thinking a bit more about my fanfic. My latest thought is that the vampire hunter that comes after the Cullens could possibly be related to Carlisle - a descendant of a brother he never knew he had. Or possibly he did know, maybe he has kept tabs on his family through the years... since he does have extra money, has he helped them anamously? (While keeping them off the trail of actual vampires, I think)
My second thought is that I would love to connect in Esme's backstory. What did she think when she found out she was a vampire? What made Carlisle fall in love with her? What made her fall in love with him? Who was the father of her child who died? Where was/is he now? I have a lot of material to work with for her, but how do I connect it into the vampire hunter? I haven't figured that out yet.

Well, I'm still thinking - chime in if you have a great idea for me!

Happy scrapping!

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to quickly let you know about my Father's Day sale on digital scrapbooking pages at Scrapbooking Tales. There is one page that you will only find available for one week, and two others with special pricing - 50% off!! Check it out and Happy Scrapping!

Bree's second life could have been better

I'm taking a break from the scrapbooking this week to review Stephenie Meyer's newest book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I was so excited for it to come out. I read it the very first day! There were some things I really liked about it. It did give Twihards a lot of background information on Eclipse, such as the Volturi coming to Victoria before the battle. It had some great funny lines and moments. I think my favorite was "All I got was, 'Want a burger, kid?'"
Unfortunately I didn't love this book as much as any of her others. It clearly was written mostly as background information and not as a stand alone story because there wasn't really a climax. You get near the end of the book, and Diego simply doesn't come back. It is implied that he was tortured and killed later, but by that time it's almost anti-climactic. Bree already has a fall-back in Freaky Fred, who turns out to be quite handsome when you're actually able to look at him.
If I were Stephenie, I would have had the question of whether or not they could trust Riley push Diego and Bree even harder. It would eventually lead them to the climax scene, where Diego confronts Riley about his discovery with sunlight. Riley in the meantime has convinced Raoul and his gang that Diego is dangerous, and gives the signal to attack. Bree, realizing at the last second how her love for Diego has altered her forever, jumps into the fight trying desperately to save him. They are outnumbered and Diego is killed. Just before Diego is set on fire, he mouths to Bree that he loves her too. After that, Bree loses the will to live. Riley drags her to the fight with the Cullens because he needs all the bodies he can get. Bree surrenders to Carlisle because she really doesn't want to do anything, even fight. She thinks about her time with Diego as the Volturi visit the Cullens, but not out of any desire to help. Edward 'hears' everything he needs to. When Bree is killed, it is a relief.
One of the other criticism's I've heard of the story is that Bree is supposed to be one of the very blood-thirsty out-of-control newborns, but that she's very tame. I did think that in the first scene where Bree is out hunting with Kevin and another vampire without a name, it is not very likely that she would have turned her back and distracted herself while Kevin feed on a human right behind her. She is supposedly very thirsty, as evidenced by the two people she drains of blood while with Diego. In Breaking Dawn, Bella just smells humans on her first hunt and she nearly loses control, going so far as to hiss at Edward. The fact that she is able to hold her breath and run away is evidence of her amazing self control. So Bree must be something else if she's able to be right near fresh, flowing blood and not go berserk.
Thinking about how I would have written the story has made me consider writing a Twilight fanfic of my own. It would come after Breaking Dawn in the timeline. I've been toying with this idea of a vampire hunter who comes upon the Cullens and tries to kill them all. It could be very funny to have him first attempt to keep them away with garlic. I think I would have Emmett pop it into his mouth and eat it. Maybe he would use a cross to try to ward off Carlisle. That would be some nice irony. The climax scene would have to have fire, something where the Cullens were actually in danger. I'll have to keep thinking about it, and please let me know what you think...is it too cliche?

Paper! Get your Paper!

If you're not going to use quick pages, the first thing you need in digital scrapbooking is the same thing you need for paper scrapbooking. You need a background paper. If you are using Photoshop and simply want a single color background, you can quickly make your own. However, you may want something more interesting. There are so many choices out there. You can find many at online stores - including my store Scrapbooking Tales. You can also find many freebies. One of my favorite places to find freebie papers is McGee Designs. Always remember to check the Terms of Use (TOU) before you use somebody else's design.
One thing to note - I always drag the paper over to a new page before making my scrapbook page, that way I don't mistakenly save my scrapbooking page over the paper!

Happy Scrapping!

Pages multiplying like Rabbits!

One of the fastest ways to make digital scrapbooking pages is Plopper pages - also known as Quick pages. These are pages that have been completely embellished for you. All you have to do is 'plop' your picture into the predetermined space and it's done. You can buy these at many great scrapbooking stores online, or you can find a great selection of freebie pages! One of my favorite freebie sites is Sindiego's Scraps. She's got tons of great Quick pages.

I've only created one true quick page for my store, Scrapbooking Tales. Check it out: Quick page.

If you use Quick pages, you'll be making pages so fast that they'll be multiplying like rabbits!!

Happy Scrapping!

National Scrapbooking Day!

I'm Celebrating National Scrapbooking Day with a great sale at Scrapbooking Tales!
Check out the Discount code for great value!!

*Special Discount just for Blog readers!*
Purchase two pages or more and mention my blog to receive an additional page FREE!!
We all love freebies!

Both the Discount code and the Blog special are good for Sat and Sun (5/1-5/2) only.

Happy Scrapping!

So many options!

To begin digital scrapbooking, you need a computer program that deals with photos and graphics. Fortunately, there are many choices out there in a variety of price ranges. They also vary in functionality, so make sure that the program will do as much as you want it to before you buy anything.

Probably the easiest programs to use are internet sites where you can upload your photos and use their preset backgrounds and embellishments to create a photobook. They have user-friendly drag and drop controls that are simple to learn and use quite effectively. I have seen some really great photobooks made using these kinds of programs. However, they usually require you to have their printing service print up your book. This can be quite costly. Also, you are usually limited to their selection of backgrounds, embellishments, and layouts which can limit your creativity. I don't use these programs myself, so I can't recommend one over any other but here are a few of the choices out there:

printmyphotobok.com
shutterfly.com
mixbook.com
photoworks.com

There are so many scrapbooking software programs out there that I can't possibly even go through the options. However, this site: http://scrapbooking-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ has rated several popular software choices. It gives them a rating on many aspects such as ease of use, help and support, backgrounds, embellishments, and publishing and sharing your pages. What a great help to make your purchasing decision! It also lets you compare the cost - they range from $28.99 to $49.99.

For the most control, options, and features you definately have to go with PhotoShop. The C S5 version that is just coming out will cost you $699. If you are like me that is way out of the budget, but don't give up just yet! You can get older versions for much less that will still have the functionality that you want.

I hope this helped you find a digital scrapbooking option that is right for you. Coming up soon - info on tutorials and where to find great freebies!

As always, please check out my store Scrapbooking Tales

and

Happy Scrapping!!!

The digital revolution

So here I was, finally getting into some real scrapbooking. I was now using archival quality products, journaling, and making pages look great with embellishments. My kitchen table was covered with papers, ribbons, scissors, pens, glues...you name it, it was there. I had books full of page layouts and ideas. I had all my scrapbooks and page protectors. I had boxes of all of the pictures and papers that I needed to scrapbook.

It was so much fun, but... every time I wanted to scrapbook I had to pull it all out and put it away when I was done. It took up a lot of time, a lot of space, and it was getting expensive! Also, I always had to use stencils or alphabet stickers to write anything on my pages because I hated my handwriting.

Then I discovered digital scrapbooking. I had always loved computers, so to be able to combine that with scrapbooking was awesome! It also solved all of my issues with paper scrapbooking. Everything was on the computer, so there was no big set up and take down required. That saved time and space. I found tons of great freebies - pages, fonts, brushes, embellishments - to save money. And, I could type any text I wanted on the page in any font and have it come out looking great! I especially loved that I could make a page and then come back and do it over again if I changed my mind even a year later! It took a bit of learning, but pretty soon I was even faster at digital scrapbooking than I had been at paper scrapbooking.

Digital scrapbooking can be simple using 'plopper pages' or fairly complex if you want to create your own elements. So my next few blogs will have a lot of resorces for you, from learning how to use digital scrapbooking programs to freebie sites and a whole lot in between. Here's a great one to start with: Digital Scrapbook Teacher< Check it out!

Happy Scrapping!

Talk about wish fulfilment!

Just last post I said that I wish Stephenie Meyer would release another book soon. Then this week I learn that she will be releasing a new book - the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner!! If you've read Eclipse, you know the newborn vampire army that Victoria creates to attack the Cullen clan. After the battle, Bella is surprised to see one of the newborns alive. Carlisle has offered to spare her life if she will promise to behave herself. This newborn vampire is Bree Tanner. We don't get to know much more about her because the Volturi come and kill her.

In all my hopes that Stephanie would write more for the Twilight saga, this backstory had never crossed my mind. However, anything from Stephenie is welcome. I am curious to read Bree's story. I wonder if Stephenie can make us care about these wilder, more viscious characters. I am so excited for this book to come out!!

I would love for Stephenie to write the backstory on Esme - we know she had a child that died, but we never hear about the father of the child. What did she think of becoming a vampire? How did she fall in love with Carlisle?

I have also wondered about the backstory of Emmett. What was his life before he was attacked by the bear? What did he think about becoming a vampire? How did he fall in love with Rosalie?

I look forward to this newest story of Stephenie's, and I sure hope for so much more to come!!!

I got mine!!

I went to the New Moon DVD release party at Wal-Mart last night with my daughter and her friend. It was fun. We got Edward and Jacob waterbottles, stickers, postcards, and trading cards. My daughter is covered in Twilight tatoos from head to toe today. I got second place in the costume contest and won a bag - unfortunately got a team Jacob one. I bought a necklace that says I'm a sucker for vampires. We ate cake and 'blood' punch.

I was sad to see how few people were there. I would have thought there would be a better turn out. Also, there was a teenage boy there - I think with his girlfriend - who kept saying rude things about Twilight fans and the Twilight movies. That was really annoying. I wanted to tell him to just leave then since he didn't want to be there, but I didn't dare.

I took flyers to the local Blockbuster to be handed out to the Twilight fans there, so I hope there will be a lot of visitors to my store.

I watched New Moon for the third time today. I really do love it. I love the cliffhanger ending - even though I know what she's going to answer! I am more excited than ever for Eclipse to come out!!! I don't know how I'll make it to July. I sure hope Stephenie puts out another book here soon. I'd love it if it were something in the Twilight series, but even if it isn't I would love to read anything by her.

So, do you have your copy?

I feel pretty!

I have been trying to think what I could say about embellishments. Embellishments are things like ribbons, stickers, die-cuts and other products to make your page look prettier. But there is no compelling reason to use them like there is with journaling or archival quality products.

However, after scrapbooking for a while I began looking at other people's scrapbooks. The embellishments these other people used did make the pages look so much better and more interesting. I began to experiment with some - and this is truly where the artistry comes into scrapbooking. You really have to think about placement on the page. It is also important to use enough to give visual interest, but not too many to clutter your page or detract from the focus of your page. There are so many different choices - products, styles, and colors - that your individual personality comes through. Even when my mom or my daughter scrapbooks the same picture as me, we come up with completely different pages because of the embellishments we choose.

Some embellishments like stickers are fairly easy to use - but remember to make sure they are acid-free. Others like brads and eyelets can take some getting used to. This is where a trip to the scrapbooking store can be helpful (and lots of fun!). You can check out all the different choices and the workers in the store can usually help you learn to use them. Sometimes scrapbooking stores even have classes to learn some of the more difficult techniques. There are also great ideas books out there to help inspire you.

Embellishments may not be necessary, but this is where your scrapbook comes alive with your personality!

Happy Scrapping!

New Moon Event

New Moon came to theaters on Nov. 20th. What were you doing? I was at the New Moon event put on by Events by Alice. It was so much fun! There were look-alikes, costume contests, and replicas of the characters' cars. My daughter was able to have her hair done at "Alice's Salon" and have her picture taken at Volterra, Italy. There were games with fun prizes and music by the Twilight Music Girls. TMG is now my favorite group, I listen to their 'La Tua Cantata' cd all the time. Sorry the pic of the Edward look-alike is fuzzy.

I had a booth there for Scrapbooking Tales. I got to meet a lot of great people. Now I can't wait until the movie comes out on dvd! But until then, here is one of the scrapbook pages I made just for the occasion: New Moon Event page

Living Forever

"When you can live forever, what do you live for?"

Unfortunately, I'm not a vampire. I'm a human and I won't live forever. But I can live on in the memories of my children, grandchildren, and so on. How can I live on for my great-great-grandchildren? They won't ever know me or have their own memories of me. However, if they have my scrapbooks they can get to know me. They can see what I looked like, both as a child and as an adult. They can see the kinds of things I did. If I journal well, they will know what I was thinking.

The only issue with this is how to keep my scrapbooks in good condition for that long? I looked at a scrapbook my greatgrandma made and the newspaper clippings were yellowed and some of the pictures were cracking - it was already showing it's age! I looked around scrapbooking stores and found out that the plain tape and other products that I was using were totally not helping me to preserve these memories for generations to come. I began using acid-free and lignin-free archival quality products in my scrapbook.

So now my scrapbooks may not live on forever, but they'll sure last a whole lot longer!

Memory like a sieve

"Don't worry. You're human - your memory is no more than a sieve." - Edward Cullen

Edward said this to Bella when he was leaving her at the beginning of New Moon. I found out just how true this was when I was looking through my early scrapbooks. I was looking at a picture of one of my dance groups. My arm was around one of the girls and they had obviously been a friend of mine - but I couldn't remember her name! I racked my brain for days and even called my mom to see if she remembered, but to no avail.

This made me realize the importance of journaling. From then on, I labeled everything in my scrapbook with at least the date and the people involved. I have been glad that I did this on many occasions when I have forgotten a name or date and I could look it up in my scrapbook.

But journaling doesn't have to be just the names and dates. For example, if you were scrapbooking a page about your best friend you could journal your favorite memories with them, things you admire about them, or list their favorite things. This kind of journaling can add interest to the page as well as helping you remember.

Journaling is such an important part of my scrapbooks now that I have created an entire line of journaling pages for my scrapbooking store. These include "I'm Team Edward because..." and "Stephanie Meyer has inspired me..." Check it out here: Journaling Example.

Happy Scrapping!

Just the beginning...

Hi! I'm Janae and this is my first blog ever! I'm really excited to be able to share my favorite things with you - scrapbooking and Twilight. I plan to post to this blog about once a week on all kinds of topics, from scrapbooking products and techniques to Twilight fansites, fanfiction, events, and merchandise. I hope you enjoy reading my 'Tale'.

I got into scrapbooking about 15 years ago. My first attempts at pages were pretty sad. I used plain tape (yikes!) and stuck a few of my school certificates on some construction paper. Acid-free? Archival quality? I had never heard of anything like that. My pages had no journaling or embelishments at all. One thing about scrapbooking this way - I could get a lot of pages done in a short amount of time!

At least this kept some of my memories from getting wrinkled, torn, water damaged, or thrown away...but it was just the beginning.


To see the scrapbooking I'm doing now, check out http://scrapbookingtales.mybisi.com.

Happy Scrapping!