Winter 2007

"Because a memory a day keeps the blues far away."

Table of Contents

1. Advance Praise for Paper, Scissors, Death: A Scrapbooking Mystery by Joanna Campbell Slan
2. Announcing our winner of the five Shirley Damsgaard books
3. Journaling Technique-"I'd Rather..."
4. Let's Have Some Fun...and You Could Win...
5. Who Says Scrapbooking Has to Be Expensive?
6. Two Ultra-Cheap Albums
7. My Holiday Gift to YOU!
8. A New Contest! I Love S. C. (You can win a bag, a box of tea, a mug, and a signed book, all related to the Carolinas.)

Advance Praise for Paper, Scissors, Death: A Scrapbooking Mystery

"Charming, funny, and very enjoyable! Slan combines mystery, romance, suspense, and humor in this wonderful debut, and her scrapbooking heroine Kiki Lowenstein is a real cut-up."

JA Konrath, author of Fuzzy Navel.

Announcing our winner of the five Shirley Damsgaard books...

Wendi Neumann of Maryland!

Journaling Technique-"I'd Rather..."

Life is NOT always a bowl of cherries. Somedays it's a chair of bowlies. Somedays it's the pits.

So what would you rather do?

• I'd rather take a beating with a baseball bat than shop for a formal dress.
• I'd rather have soap in my eyes than go to a big party where I don't know anyone.
• I'd rather eat white paste than have to cook dinner some nights.
• I'd rather wear a pair of nylons pulled over my face than go out without makeup.
• I'd rather walk two miles in the pouring rain than exercise in a room where hot air blows on me.
• I'd rather lug around all my luggage and any parcels by myself than ask a man for help.
• I'd rather go without an item than pay full price if I know I have a coupon at home.
• I'd rather...

Well, you get my drift. Try that little sentence stem, that journaling prompt "I'd rather..." and see where it leads you. Chances are you'll wind up smiling about how silly you are! I did. Click the picture to the right to see where "I'd rather..." led me when I made a scrapbooking page.

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Let's Have Some Fun...and You Could Win...

The stress of the holidays is upon me. I was actually THRILLED when a friend canceled a lunch yesterday. How sick is THAT?

I'm wondering if you, too, feel overloaded. And how do you de-stress?

Write me at joannaslan@aol.com and tell me before January 3. I'll send a GIFT to the person whose answer I like best. (Doesn't HAVE to be a great idea. Just one that works for YOU.) We need to put as much effort and planning into having fun as we do into getting our work done.

Meanwhile, here are three little de-stressors I've happened upon:

1. Santa's Jigsaw Puzzle - http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=ER13610552
2. Meditation from the opera Thais - (Trust me, even if you aren't an opera fan, you'll love this.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2yyNSUoe3E
3. And here's something you have to see. Six million other people have viewed Paul Potts, doing what God put him on earth to do. I click on it almost daily-and it lifts my heart. This is so fantastic, I can't even write about the performance without gushing...so go ahead: http://www.pcplanets.com/videoyoutube-Paul-Potts-Britain-s-Got-Talent.DelJrP3P7tA.shtml

Who Says Scrapbooking Has to Be Expensive?

Not I!

Okay, so last year a friend told me she had all these scrapbook supplies but didn't know where to start. And she'd spent so much money, she didn't want to give up or ruin any of her stuff. In other words, she was paralyzed. So, I offered to help. The biggest problem was that she had a variety of "things," none of which went together. Kind of like a haphazard wardrobe, you know?

If you want to start scrapbooking, but you're worried it will take too much money, here are a few ideas for starting with the basics:

1. Buy a kit. You can find them with paper, embellishments and an album. Turn the kit over and look carefully. There should be plenty of paper in a variety of patterns, all co-ordinated, at least one alphabet and one set of embellishments such as tags and labels. (I found one at JoAnn's on sale for about $20 from Colorbok. This is the BEST use of a 30% off or 40% off coupon, say, from one of the craft supply chains.)
2. Invest in a good papercutter. (If you find one, let me know. I hate all of them that I own. YUCK!)
3. Buy a variety of adhesives: photo splits, Hermafix dots, some sort of glue you can put on with a toothpick.
4. Buy a journaling stamp. Archivers has a nice, reasonably priced line of journaling stamps. (These are stamps that print out lines for you to write on. Buy some black ink to go with. You can see an example in the I Love S. C. layout below.)
5. Buy a good archival pen or two. I like the Avery set that has a variety of colors, but Sakura has a great selection that's probably safer.
6. Be sure to buy solid paper in light colors to go with your kit. This gives you a surface to write on where your words will show.

See? That's reasonable. You can purchase all this for, oh, under $60. And best of all, you'll have the right products to actually produce an album. After you get all this stash, sign up for a beginning scrapbooking class at a store. The one thing you CAN'T buy is confidence. A class will give you that.

Two Ultra-Cheap Albums

Here's proof that you really, really can make a nice album for very little money.

8 Nights to Celebrate a Miracle (A Hanukkah Album)

This album consists of four pockets in graduated sizes. You will "bind" the album by running ribbon through holes on the left side, the folded selvage, of each pocket. The pockets fold back like pages, so you can mount a photo on the pockets. Inside each pocket is a silver tag. On the silver side of the tag you can mount a photo. On the backside, which is white, you can write your journaling.

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Ingredients: Two 12" x 12" pieces of paper in blue, one 12" x 12" paper in silver, lettering stickers (one set small, one round or colored, one large number "8"), a rhinestone word (Celebrate or Holiday or whatever) on a piece of clear acetate (you can buy one of these in the fabric section of WalMart), a hole punch, ribbon, double-sided tape.

• Cut your blue paper this way:
  • One strip 9" by 5"
  • One strip 10" x 5"
  • One strip 11" x 5"
  • One strip 12" x 5"
• Score and fold each strip in half vertically. (You'll have a piece 4 1/2" x 5, 5" by 5", 5 1/2" x 5", and 6" x 5")
• Score each piece 1/2" on either side of the fold. This forms the left hand margin of your four pockets. Here's a chart to show you how the first "pocket" is created. You'll repeat this for each pocket so they are in graduated sizes.
• Run double-sided tape around the outside left and bottom of each pocket.
• Punch three holes, evenly spaced, down the left margin of each pocket. (To align your holes, punch them first in the smallest pocket, use those punches as guides to punch holes in each of the next pockets.)
• Attach lettering to the smallest pocket, which is your cover. Punch two holes in the rhinestone word's plastic sheet.
• Stack your pockets on top of each other, small to large. Run ribbon through the holes (and the holes of the rhinestone word) to assemble your album. Cut tags to fit inside your pockets. Run ribbon through the top of the tags. (I ran a string of sequins through the alternating tags.)

2007 Merry Christmas

This is a simple album made from stuff you'd usually throw away: cereal boxes and old manila file folders. You will cover the cardstock and folders with scrapbook paper.

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Ingredients: Cereal box, four old file folders, two silver rings (found in the office supplies, a pack of six is less than $3), two ribbon scrunchies (found in the $1 area of Target), a holiday paper pack from Making Memories ($5.99), a set of sparkling Making Memories letters ($3.99), UHU glue stick (I forget...certainly less than $10), hole punch, decorative edge scissors, one extra sheet of red paper ($.99), a Holiday Card or the Antique Santa image that's my gift to you (see below).

• Trim your Holiday Card or Santa and matt it. I put some sparkle on mine and laminated it, but that's not necessary.
• Cut the cereal box into two pieces, each 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".
• Cut the file folders in half along their fold. Cut them into pieces 7" x 7".
• Cover all with scrapbook paper. I used a corner rounder because I like the look of rounded corners.
• Decorate your cover with the Holiday Card or Antique Santa.
• Punch holes in the two big pieces of covered cardstock. Use them as guides to cut holes in all the file folder pieces.
• Cut the elastic ring of the scrunchie. This is easier than untying all the ribbons and re-tying them on the rings.
• Thread the silver rings through the "covers" of cardstock and the file folders. Now thread the ribbons onto the rings.

My Holiday Gift to YOU!

Click here to download this wonderful Santa from an old advertising poster I bought in an antique store in the UK.

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A New Contest! I Love S.C.

Yes, I surely do. (And a big shout-out to our friend Sonja who lives there!) I'd rather be in South Carolina than anywhere on earth. Sigh. See the pages I created. Last time I went, I visited the ONLY tea plantation in the United States, the Charleston Tea Plantation. And I brought back a special prize for one of you: A lovely tote bag from the plantation A mug A box of tea And I've added a book, Sweet Home Carolina by Patricia Rice. (Of course, it's autographed!) To Win: You must join the email list on my website www.joannaslan.com If you are already signed up, you don't need to sign up again! Deadline: I will choose a contest winner from the email addresses entered between now and January 31, 2007.

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Have a Happy Holiday, a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year!

-- Joanna

Stuff You Might Need to Know

Like the ideas here? You'll love our books. You can order any of our books through msbstchas@sbcglobal.net (That's Main Street Books of St. Charles, MO)

Comments? Contact Joanna at joannaslan@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?

About the author...Journaling goddess Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of Scrapbook Storytelling which has sold 80,000 copies in addition to seven other books on scrapbooking, one textbook on storytelling, two inspirational books. Her new mystery series featuring Kiki Lowenstein, scrapbooker extra-ordinaire will debut from Midnight Ink in Fall 2008. The first book in the series will be Paper, Scissors, Death. Contact Joanna at joannaslan@aol.com