This photo is from our trip to the beach when I was pregnant with Julia. I can’t believe she is now the age Gabe was in this photo…and I can’t believe I haven’t scrapbooked these photos yet – LOL!

*Click here to go to the download page*

The download includes a 12″x12″ png file with a “hole” for the photo (to use in Photoshop, etc) and a 12″x12″ jpeg file for printing or uploading to photo book software. Enjoy!

Scrapbook Cover Idea: The Group Photo!

For each family vacation we take, I always try to make sure we have at least one group photo. These are perfect for the cover of the scrapbook! The group photo instantly shows:

• Who was on the trip?
• When was the trip (before the kids were born…when the kids were little…etc.)?
• Where were we?

This works for digital scrapbooks and paper scrapbook covers. For digital scrapbooks you can usually add a photo right to the cover – or at least place the photo on the first page, so that it will show through a “peek-a-boo” window in the cover. For traditional (paper) scrapbooks, I like to look for a scrapbook album with a photo frame in the cover to put the group photo in.

Vacation Group Photo Tips

Here are some things to think about when taking your group photo for the scrapbook cover:

• Location – try to find a spot that shows the setting of your vacation. For the Hawaii vacation scrapbook, we posed on the balcony of the condo with the ocean and palm trees in the background. As it turns out, the photo frame was too small to show the palms, but you get the idea .
• Attire – If possible, try to have the people in the group photo wear coordinating clothes that fit the over-all feel of the trip. I love the look of coordinating, but not exactly matching. I’m sure this is easier while my kids are young, because I still choose their clothes .

For each of my scrapbooks, I like to create a title page. The title page is that first page on the inside of your scrapbook. It is different from the rest of the pages, because it typically doesn’t have a “mate”.

Tips for Designing a Scrapbook Title Page:

• Use the title page to share information about what the scrapbook is about. Consider including information about Who, What, When, Where and Why type questions. In this case, I included the location and date, plus plenty of embellishment to show that it was a fun trip for vacation.
• You may or may not need/want to include photos on the title page. The only “photo” on my Hawaii scrapbook title page is just an image I clipped from a travel brochure! I saved the photos for other pages in the book, because I want to title page to stay focused on information about the book.
• The title page sets the tone for the rest of the scrapbook. Feel free to go crazy with embellishments !  Or not – it all depends on the feel of your scrapbook. In this case I included tons of tropical flowers, bright colors and a picture of a surfer on the beach.

Do you have any other ideas or tips for designing scrapbook covers or title pages? If so, please share in the comments !

If you will be spending time outside this summer, you might enjoy this tip for photographing nature: try positioning yourself behind some natural foliage or flowers and shooting through them to create a dreamy look around your subject. You will need to be careful that your camera is focused on the subject of your photo, so that the leaves or flowers in the foreground become blurry, not vice versa. I have seen this effect done with portraits too!

This page is another one from my Summer Flowers photo book, the paper is from my Loveliness freebie .

Travel Scrapbook Idea: Document the Unique Details of Your Surroundings

Are you planning any travels for the summer months this year? Here’s a little tip to keep in mind for your summer travels scrapbook: keep an eye out for details about your vacation destination that are unique and different from your daily life. Try to get some photos to capture what makes the location special. One thing we noticed right away on our honey moon to Aruba was that there were grass huts called palapas on the beaches – we had never seen them before in person, so I took lots of pictures of them and added a little paragraph about them to my scrapbook !

I LOVE being a mom, and my two sweet kids are a blessing to me every day! When my second was born, it took us a while to get used to the new dynamic, and my scrapbooking was pretty much put on hold (as were a lot of other things). Anyway, it’s really fun for me as I’m getting caught up, because I’m scrapbooking photos from this year as well as photos from the same time of year in previous years. It is AMAZING how much the kids change in just one year! Makes me really want to cherish every moment with them even more .

Credits: Digital papers from my free kit, Loveliness. Ribbons, buttons and flowers from my free kit, So Flirty. Template by Shabby Princess.

I realize that Mother’s Day photos are more springy than summery – but the scrapbooking tips I want to share with you today are about taking photos outside – perfect for summertime !

Tips for Taking Photos Outside:

• The best light is actually not in bright sunshine, as you might expect! The bright light tends to create harsh shadows and makes you squint too much. For softer light, try sitting in the shade, like I did with my kids for our Mother’s Day photo.
• Taking photos on a cloudy/overcast day also works – just try to sit near something bright and colorful to counter the dull colors, like in our photo in a huge blue chair (above).
• If you plan on sitting on the ground, bring along a blanket or quilt – it’s handy for keeping clean and comfortable – plus it adds extra sweetness . I found mine at a yard sale !

Is there something you tend to take LOTS of photos of every summer? Why not make a mini scrapbook or photo book with just a collection of photos of that favorite thing? It could be trips to the pool, ball games, or even something as simple as a collection of summer flower photos, like mine from last summer. Sometimes grouping “like” photos together from the course of a season, year or even several years can create more impact and are more relevant together than randomly spread throughout many pages or albums.

I am always inspired by flowers, so I seek them out and photograph them where ever we go. Most of the time I just have too many to put them all into my regular scrapbooks, and they don’t really need any text, so I love to  make picture books filled with some of my favorites! This photo book was created using Mixbook (I used an awesome coupon!), and I uploaded digital scrapbook paper from my freebie kit {Loveliness} to use for the backgrounds. Very simple, but I love the result !

How about you? Have you scrapbooked any collections? Something to think about as you’re snapping your summer photos this year .

Even though spring isn’t officially over yet, sunshine and warm weather in my little corner of the world has me already planning ahead for sunny summer days with my family. If fitting in time for scrapbooking has been tough during the school year, I can only imagine how it will be this summer. That’s how I came up with an idea to try to motivate myself to keep up with scrapbooking throughout the summer, while *hopefully* also catching up on summer scrapbook pages I never got around to in past years.  For the next 100 Days (ending on August 26, my birthday), I plan to dedicate all posts here at Scrapbook Ideas to summer scrapbooking themes! I thought it also might be fun to share layouts from some of my older scrapbooks I’ve never shared here before . I will not be posting every day, but when I do, you can expect to see some summer scrapbook ideas!

Care to join me? I really want to create a great source of Summer Scrapbooking Inspiration here at Scrapbook Ideas. If you have scrapbook layouts (paper or digital) with summer themes (think vacations, camp, VBS, beach, Independence Day, BBQ etc) that you’d like to share with us – please get in touch!  I’m also interested in guest posts with summer themed tutorials and inspiration. This will be so much fun !

OK, ready for the first “summer” scrapbook page? Actually, the photos were not taken in the summertime, they’re from October 2003, during my honeymoon in Aruba! I just thought you’d like to see a page from my first real scrapbook (not including the type I used to make growing up). Now you will see where the photo from my “About” page is from !

Yes, I know I’m revealing how out-of-date my about page photo is, but now you see why I love it – it reminds me of a very happy time in my life, plus it’s from my first scrapbook – how perfect is that? Gotta love looking back on those early scrapbook pages – it’s fun to see how my style has changed in the past several years !

I also have lots of Easter photos, but I’ll save those for another layout .

Credits: Everything by the Shabby Princess: Project SCRAP April 2012 templates, Whisper and Splendid for the papers and embellishments, and the flowers are from: French Country, Twirl, Promise, Sandbox and Flea Market Chic.

Are you working on any scrapbooking projects right now?

Here’s a close-up – I love all the bright colors these pens come in!!

Here are some of the claims Paper Mate makes about the InkJoy pens (as seen on the Amazon website):

I totally agree with the above! The pens are super easy to use. They write very smoothly, much smoother than the average ballpoint pen. You know when you go to write something with a pen, and the ink refuses to come out, so you have to find a scrap piece of paper to scribble like crazy on until the pen starts working again? This hasn’t happened at all with the InkJoy pens! They instantly start writing when the pen hits the paper. They only require a very light touch – even brushing the paper they will draw, so you will ot be experiencing any writer’s cramp with these, especially with the comfy grip! If you’re looking for a new set of colorful pens for doodling and journaling, I think you’ll like these new InkJoy pens, by Paper Mate !

*Click here to go to the download page*