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Scrapbook Storytelling
E-Zine
April, 2003
"Because a memory a day keeps the
blues far away."
Click here to sign up to receive these E-zines each month.
Contents
- Scrapbooking Ideas for April
- Page Design Technique: Layered Tissue Paper
- Featured Journaling Technique: Rites of
Passage
- New Product Spotlight: Mini-Brads
- Cou*pon for F*R*E*E Stuff
- Scrapbooking and Memory Saving in the News: Memory Books
in Africa
- Coming Next Month…Preview of upcoming articles
- Stuff You Need to Know…Contact information and so
on
Scrapbooking Ideas for April: April
is a great month for scrapbookers to…
- Press flowers to use on later pages. I grab
a few spring blossoms every time I take out the dogs and stick them in the
pages of a fat, fat cookbook. I don’t even line the pages first, but if
you do, use tissue paper or plain paper without a weave. Otherwise the
flattened flowers will have the imprint of the weave. Every few days I
check the pressed blossoms to see how they are drying.
- Carry a camera in the car. Wildlife is
waking up after a long winter’s nap. We stopped to take photos of a fox
intently watching a burrow in an empty cornfield. I think the fox was
too hungry and sleepy to think, “Hey, open field, bad idea.” In a few weeks,
the fox will be too clever to sit and wait while I take his picture.
(PS Carry your camera all the time. You NEVER know when a great
photo opportunity will happen.)
- Journal a funny family story for future
laughs. Make it an April Fool’s Day page. Here’s mine: According
to Simple Solutions for Barking, dogs bark because they are bored. The
experts suggest “fill a paper bag with treats and toys, tape it up, then leave
it for your dog to get into on his own. He’ll spend his time trying to
get at the treats instead of barking his head off.” I
tried it. I came home and couldn’t find the bag. Our pup Vicky ate
the treat AND the bag AND the tape holding the bag shut. April Fool, you dog
experts you.
Page Design Technique: Layered Tissue
Paper
Have you seen all the neat patterns of tissue paper
available? Maybe you’ve received a gift wrapped in a tissue paper too cool
to toss away. Try this fun technique using this super-thin wrapping
paper. (You can see our sample page Star Power on our website http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/ezine-pages-2003-04.shtml)
Using a glue stick like the one from Memories
Forever or a collage gel like new Artsy Collage Gel (available at www.my-memories.net), glue little pieces
of tissue paper onto a piece of cardstock. Also spread the glue on top of
the tissue paper as you stick in down because the glue makes the finished piece
more transparent. I like to tear off the small pieces of tissue paper so
the edges are rough. Keep layering the tissue pieces until you get a
pleasing density, texture and design. Let the layered paper dry. You
can tear or cut the new multi-layered paper you’ve created. Or use a frame
shaped piece of cardstock and layer it with the tissue paper.
Caution: Your tissue paper may or may not be archivally safe so be
advised.
Featured Journaling Technique: Rites
of Passage
Life is chockablock full of moments when we move
from one stage to another. My friend Nancy was feeling blue the other day
because her little guy Jackson is graduating to the toddler class in
daycare. My son Michael came home from the orthodontist’s office with
braces. My AARP card arrived in the mail last week. (“I thought I’d
better not mention it,” said my husband. Good thinking, pal.)
Write about some of the rites of passage your
family is having. Notice the small “rites” as well as the more formal
ones. Has your child moved out of her crib to a big bed? Does your
old pooch need a boost to get up on the sofa? Is your husband using
Rogaine to save his hair? Life is all about change. (See the Nifty at 50
page at http://www.scrapbookstorytelling.com/ezine-pages-2003-04.shtml
for an idea of what this might look like.)
Here’s a partial list of “rites” you might
scrap—
- First sleep over
- First camping experience
- First dance or first date or first job
- First lesson—ballet, driving, golfing, cooking,
and so on
- First report card or school project
- First dental experiences—teeth in or out, braces,
retainer
- First solid food
- First Communion or Bar or Bat Mitzvah
- First fender bender
- Last week home before college
- Last look at a home when you are moving
- Last movie ticket at student prices before moving
to adult prices
- Parting with toys from childhood
- Purchasing a stereo or CD player for/by your
teen
- Getting a cell phone or a computer (like my aunt
just did)
- Wearing a parent’s clothes (that moment when you
and your kid are the same size)
Why not brainstorm a bigger list and keep it near
your scrapbook supplies?
New Product Spotlight: Mini-Brads
Everyone is familiar with the brass brads used in offices. A new twist has
come to the scrapbooking world. Decorative mini-brads offer a great way to
attach tags, vellum or journaling blocks. The brads come up to six shapes
(heart, flower, star, square, triangle, round) and in up to 25 different
colors.
If you’ve ever used adhesive on your vellum, you know that the adhesive
changes the density and look of your vellum. What was sheer and see-through
becomes opaque. Lots of scrapbookers find that adhering vellum with brads allows
you to keep that delicate, see-through look. Plus, mini-brads are much
easier to use than eyelets. You won’t have to search for your hubby’s hammer to
get them on a page. You can read more about mini-brads (or order them) from www.my-memories.net
Cou*pon for F*R*E*E Mini-Brads
A f*r*e*e sample pack of assorted mini-brads with any order over $25 from
www.my-memories.net when you mention
the Scrapbook Storytelling E-Zine in the comment section of your order.
This offer expires May 15, 2003.
Scrapbooking (and Memory Saving) in the News: Memory Books in
Africa
AIDS organizations in Africa are offering memory album training to help
dying AIDS sufferers preserve family memories. Since the disease has
ravaged the population, there are more orphans on the continent of Africa than
anywhere. Many of these children are shipped off to relatives and
separated from siblings at a very early age, giving them little chance to
remember their birth families.
Organizations who encourage memory book making are urging parents to begin
early to document their lives and their hopes for their children before the
disease leaves the adults too weak to communicate their final wishes. “You
can’t leave your children with half-baked information from your deathbed,” said
Dorothy Namutamba, a Ugandan who teaches seminars on memory books to Africans
dying of AIDS.
The completed books not only comfort the children who are left behind, but
also serve as a positive focus for the AIDS sufferers, who often find joy
in remembering their life stories even as they face death.
Adapted from African AIDS, and Helping Orphans Remember by Marc Lacey, The
New York Times, April 2, 2003
Coming Next Month…
- Feature Story: Scrapbook Entrepreneurs—Who are they and what do they
do? Could you be one? Is it the best of both worlds? How did
they get started?
- May is a great month for scrapbookers to…
- Scrapbooking in the News: The lasting value of love letters
- Page Design Technique: Color blocking
- Featured Journaling Technique: One word journaling
- New Product Spotlight: Jotters ™
Stuff You Need to Know
http://www.joannacampbellslan.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1.
Comments? Contact Joanna at savetales@aol.com. We love to hear
what you think and what you’d like to read more about. We like questions,
too, but give us a while to answer them, okay?
Have a product you’d like for us to try? Send us samples at Scrapbook
Storytelling, 7 Ailanthus Court, Chesterfield, MO, 63005. Phone
636-519-1612.
About the author…Journaling goddess Joanna Campell Slan is the author of
Scrapbook Storytelling which has sold 40,000 copies in addition to five other
books on scrapbooking, one textbook on storytelling, and two inspirational
books. Contact Joanna at savetales@aol.com
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