Friday Picks and October Preview

Friday Picks is a regular blog feature, showcasing my favorite online scrapbooking finds for your surfing pleasure.  You can now click on the thumbnail photo of each pick to take you to the link. Enjoy!

Click on photos for links

Pick #1

Pick #2

Pick #3

Pick #4

Pick #5

InLinkz.com

#1 If you're like me, your computer is bursting at the seams with pictures you've taken and want to scrap. Katrina will help us tame the mess with her 7 steps to Take Control of Your Photo Volume.

#2 What will they think of next over at October Afternoon? Scrapbookers, cardmakers, quilters and sewers, feast your eyes on the release of this new Farm Fresh Fabric! Check out the great projects and enter their giveaway!

#3 Jen Jockish is the Crate Paper Guest Designer this month and her layouts are fabulous! I think I pinned just about every one. Some serious eye candy here.

#4 Pam over at Ideas for Scrapbookers has issued the challenge to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone with 10 layouts showing how she was willing to try something new. There are several of these I'd like to try!

#5 I found a new blog this week, called Crafterminds: Resources for Creative Bloggers. You'll want to surf the whole site, but especially take a look at their self-paced Craft Photography Class, now being offered at 20% off. Looks like a good deal!

Here is the September Challenge for Scrap Our Stash.

Here is the September Challenge for Scrapbookers Anonymous.

October is going to be a busy month on the blog! Of course, Friday Picks will appear every week. Here's what else I have lined up so far:

• Scrapbookers Anonymous October Challenge
• Scrapbookers Anonymous A to Z Challenge
• Scrap Our Stash October Challenge
• Ten Things on the 10th
• Color Combo Blog Hop
• Two-Page Tuesday
• plus, 4 more posts as the Guest Designer on one of my very favorite blogs!        (as soon as they post the news, you can be sure I will be revealing it here)

So I will shamelessly suggest that if you are not already a follower, now may be a great time to click on the little "Join This Site" button in my sidebar. I hope you have a great weekend and get in some scrapping time!

Happy Birthday Mini Challenge

Happy Birthday, Scrapbookers Anonymous! The challenge site is a year old this month. I've had the privilege of working with Theresa and Lea from the beginning, and they are too much fun! Along with the usual monthly challenge and A to Z challenge, there are several mini challenges being posted throughout this month. Today it's my turn.

My mini-challenge is this:
Create a layout with a long title and use up a chunk of your alphabet stash! 


I love longer titles. Here are three reasons why.
Reason #1: You can mix the font styles, sizes, and colors for a fun and eye-catching title.

Reason #2: A longer title becomes a prominent design element on the page, like the way this title fills in my grid.

Reason #3: Telling your story in a longer title reduces the need for lengthy journaling. It's all there in the title and photos.

Now it's your turn! You have until October 7th at midnight EST to complete your project and get your link added. Link up your project here. Winners will be announced by the end of the day on October 10th. Give this a try, you might get hooked on longer titles like I am!

Friday Picks

Friday Picks is a regular blog feature, showcasing my favorite online scrapbooking finds for your surfing pleasure.  You can now click on the thumbnail photo of each pick to take you to the link. Please let me know if you like this, and as always, enjoy!

Click on photos for links

Pick #1

Pick #2

Pick #3

PIck #4

Pick #5

InLinkz.com

#1 Here's some Autumn is Awesome scrapping inspiration, courtesy of our friends at Write.Click.Scrapbook. Time to get the camera (or iPhone) out and start capturing those great fall photos!

#2 Is it too soon to start Selecting Holiday Paper? Well, not until you watch Lisa's video! Great tips on how to choose paper that will serve some general purposes after the holidays.

#3 If you're like me and have a generous supply of journaling spots in your stash, then you'll love Tammy's ideas to Use Your Stash: Journaling Spots. 

#4 Are you loving the latest trend in Baker's Twine? Then feast your eyes on this photo heavy post from Scrapbook Update! 

#5 Marcy has wanted to create a layout with a large Chevron Background pattern on it for a long time and she thought it might make a great tutorial. Indeed, it does!

Here is the September Challenge for Scrap Our Stash.

Here is the September Challenge for Scrapbookers Anonymous.

This afternoon we are attending a wedding at a place called The Little Wedding Chapel in Heritage Park. Can't wait to see what that is all about! And it truth be told, I appreciate the Friday wedding so my Saturday college football will proceed uninterrupted. Sports and scrapping are a perfect combination in my book. Happy weekend to everyone!

Two-Page Tuesday

On these recent two-page layouts, I challenged myself to mix smaller photos with my usual 4x6's. I've been printing 4x3 and 2x3 photos at home and storing them with the 4x6 photos I get from my outside developer. Sometimes cropping 4x6 photos can ruin the picture, so I'm loving these smaller sizes that still capture all the detail. You'll see plenty of pictures on these pages, while still leaving room for white space. I need my white space!

Historical Lexington, KY

Journaling reads: "Phil and I loved strolling the streets of the historical district near downtown. We spent the night in Lexington on our way to Biltmore House in North Carolina, and stopped here again on our way home to tour the Henry Clay house and estate."

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Journaling reads: "Of all the exotic plants growing in the Biltmore greenhouse, these simple flowers in unusual containers were by far my favorite!"

I'm still experimenting, but learning that I love a mix of photo sizes on two-page layouts. Sometimes I can achieve that by cropping, sometimes not, so printing smaller sizes at home is working for me. When deciding what to print, I'm choosing which photos might deserve to be a focal point and ordering them in 4x6. The potential supporting photos are printed at home in smaller sizes. So I'm already considering page design before any printed photo makes it to my scrap table. Easy enough to do with a small batch of photos, but more of a challenge when faced with hundreds of pictures from vacation!


I hope this gives you some ideas about choosing photo sizes and how to have a variety at your fingertips, if that's something you want to do!


SUPPLIES (place cursor on photo for description, click on photo for link)
Historical Lexington, KY

InLinkz.com

How Does Your Garden Grow?
Patterned Paper and Small Alpha Stickers: Echo Park "A Walk in the Park" (older collection)

InLinkz.com

I Was Featured on Ideas for Scrapbookers!

Yesterday I had the honor of being included in the post over at Ideas for Scrapbookers! Pam Callaghan has been running a series called Define YOUR Scrapbook Style. I like to think of my style as Clean, Classic and Colorful and yesterday's post featured 3 of my recent layouts illustrating that. Here's what was shown.

And Pam was kind enough to write the following:

"Sue's style shows us that she does indeed have a clean style to her pages. She uses wonderful clean lines to make her designs stand out. Sue also has a classic style which makes it timeless through the years. You can see this with elements like using squares blocks and photos lined up, stuff that always stays trendy.  She also loves to use colors and it shows. Check out all of the bright colors that enhance her wonderful designs. It really makes for beautiful pages. I really like her style and she creates gorgeous pages with it!"

Wow, I am flattered and motivated. As I'm sure you know, the list of possible scrapbooking styles is at least a mile long. Check out Pam's on her blog, Ideas for Scrapbookers. This is well worth the visit. You will find informative posts and a sidebar to browse for hours! It made my weekend, and I hope yours is wonderful, too!

Friday Picks

Friday Picks is a regular blog feature, showcasing my favorite online scrapbooking finds for your surfing pleasure. I'm trying something new this week. You can now click on the thumbnail photo of each pick to take you to the link. Please let me know if you like this, and as always, enjoy!

Click on photos for links

Pick #1

Pick #2

Pick #3

Pick #4

Pick #5

InLinkz.com

#1 Has your scrapping been "in the groove" or "stuck in a groove" lately? Debbie Hodge helps you find that good groove in her article, Reworking a Layout Design/When Being Stuck In A Groove is OK.

#2 October Afternoon is debuting their new line, Farmhouse. They describe it as "vintage patterns including wallpaper and dollies, rulers and newspaper....take you back to time when schedules were not as full and a chore would take all day." And they're giving some of it away for free!

#3 I was happy to read that 6x6 paper pads are now becoming almost essential for inclusion in any new paper collection release. Nancy Nally's article on these little gems shows you why, with lots of photos illustrating her points.

#4 Another hot trend these days is hexagons and chevrons. They can add an interesting graphic feel to layouts, and Practical Scrappers has loads of examples to show you! Think I'll be digging out my hexagon punch...

#5 How do you start a scrapbook page? With a photo, a story, or a design/product/technique? Marnie Flores from Write.Click.Scrapbook. shows you how to bounce between all three Starting Points.

Here is the September Challenge for Scrap Our Stash.

Here is the September Challenge for Scrapbookers Anonymous.

The weather has turned very fall-like here in Michigan practically overnight! I'm okay with that, and happy to pull out my jeans and longer sleeves. Hoping we have a spectacular fall color season, but it's too soon to tell. Should be a relaxing weekend, with plenty of time for football and scrapping. Hope you get to do some things you love, too!