just one more

the run of divided page protector pages is coming to an end, you will be relieved to find I am sure. But I am pleased that it got me back in the scrapping saddle after many months of not doing any at all.

This time I chose to print a photo I liked as an enlargement on my printer at home, I only had two photos and didn't really want to crop them both down for this big page. It makes a nice change, as I normally just use standard 4x6 photos.

(BTW, does anyone have any hints on how to get your printer calibrated with pse? The enlargement printed far darker than it showed on the screen. I have a canon iP4850)

I think I may have used those stickers last week :-) and finally, a use for those die cut journaling blocks, I never know what to do with them (not using my handwriting a lot on my pages, and yes I KNOW, Nicole, I should!)  great for title placement!

Anyone with any questions,  ideas or suggestions, for what you would like to see on the blog here, please don't hesitate to leave a comment anytime, we look forward to your feedback and love nothing better than a good discussion!

Sharon

no one's complained yet

so here is another instalment from me, using divided page protectors. Nope, I'm still not sick of them!

This time I decided to use a set or two of the freebie Project Life journalling cards that are around the web at the moment.  I typed the text in PSE, dropped them onto one canvas, printed and cropped.  The journalling contains some snippets and stories that didn't necessarily need a whole page each. I could have found a random photo to pop in I suppose, but I felt like NOT having one!

LOVE these stickers, had them for a long time.

I am having fun seeing what different things I can do with my divided pages, without getting complicated.  Still enjoying how quickly and simply they come together...

Anyone else had a go with divided page protectors too?

Winning Wednesday!

Hello everyone this fine Wednesday! Today we reveal the winner of our great giveaway from Bite Sized Scrapbooking, but first I want to share with you another page I've done using my new Becky Higgins page protectors.

This style of divided page works well for me, as I like to buck the norm and take a great deal of my photos portrait style. I cropped down two to fit in the smaller pockets and then printed my journalling straight onto my pre-cut cards. I can do this as I have made up a word template to suit that size, and my printer is happy to accept that size (I had to make a template in my printer settings too, which is very easy to do) and this has simplified and sped up the process even further.

Now while there isn't any meaningful story told on this simple page, it does however, in my sons album, show a little slice of our life over the course of a year (and how cute my boy was in his little hat and orange shirt....although it may appear that these photos were all taken on one day, there were not, its just that the orange shirt was a favourite for work day outings!)

Righto! now onto the FUN PART OF THE DAY!

Without further ado....drum roll please......the winner of the Bundle #2 from Bite Sized Scrapbooking is......

COMMENTER #9 - SYLVIA!!!!

Sylvia, could you please email me at thequietlifeqld (at) yahoo.com.au  or leave a comment with your details and we will get your special winning code to you so you can pop over to Bite Sized Scrapbooking and claim your bundle of inspiration! (and please do share some of the results!)

Thank you to everyone that entered the draw, we really love your comments and ideas (there were some great ones for getting pages done!).  I hope everyone too has seen the brilliant sketch from Amy from the other day, you are welcome to link up on that post, or even drop your page into the Flikr pool, although if you don't leave a comment no-one knows that its there to see!

Hello Wednesday...and a giveaway!

hello readers! yay that we are back after our summer holiday! so good to see what the other girls have been up to over the holidays, and excited about what they have in store for us in the coming weeks.

Recently, I caved in ;-) and bought a pack of Project Life Page Protectors.  Now I am not undertaking Project Life, but I DO like the style of the divided page protectors. And when I found a little pile of sorted photos the other day, complete with notes, that I had forgotten about (yegads) I thought what a perfect way to try out the new divided page protectors (and fill that gap in my boys album, I was wondering why it was looking a little sparse!)

I LOVE how easily and quickly this came together! At first I was worried that the smaller pockets might be problematic for me, but no, I love them.  And if you don't mind, I'll be sharing a few more simple pages using these divided page protectors in the coming weeks. Don't get me wrong, I still love doing a "normal" page, but what I love even more is how quickly I can get a page done using these page protectors, when I have limited time in which to do a page. (no measuring or re-arranging ! slip in the photos, cut my patterned paper to size (which I have written down for easy future reference, print the journaling on a pre-cut 4x6 card, on a 4x6 word document template I have already set up, add any extras like a thickers title etc that I feel like and wah-laa!....its that easy!)

ANYHOW! onto the exciting bit for the day...

A GIVEAWAY!!!

Kim at Bite Sized Scrapbooking, a fan of the quick and simple, and who offers great ideas and plans for the time and inspiration starved scrapbooker on her site Bite Sized Scrapbooking, has generously offered one of bundles of simple scrapbooking plans that is the perfect way to get TWENTY SIX pages done in a simple, fuss free way.

The winner will get BSS Bundle #2 which is chock full of great layout plans in three simple steps. Please do follow the links and check it out!

Leave a comment on this post and you will go in the draw to win this great little prize!  I will announce the winner next Wednesday, so you have until then to post your comment - tell me about your quick and simple tips for getting a page done?!

See you next week!

Sharon

what to do with all of those photos

I asked the question last week about what you did with all of your photos. In these digital days I would hazard a guess that a good deal of them are languishing on hard drives, some of them scrapped, and maybe some of them printed.

I decided to tackle my own photo issues and came up with my own solution. Not unique, not anything new, and not the cheapest option, but its working for me. The biggest hurdle or delay for me in this process is the selecting of photos to be printed.

So, this is what I am doing.

Found these 12x12 ring binder albums at my local "discount" store for around $16 each. Slip in a stack of divided page protectors (I have used WRMK and American Crafts in a variety of layouts), slip in my printed photos (more on this part below) leaving a pocket per double spread empty. Print some 4x6 Ali Edwards journaling blocks on cardstock, write on my notes, and done.

  In more depth, lets talk about PRINTING.  Because of digital, I tend to take LOTS and LOTS of photos of the one occasion (don't we all) I do delete the outright awful ones when uploading, but am still left with heaps of shots. So I very quickly select one or two, or more if it was a big day, of the set, without too much thought, and send to my print folder. No double guessing, I just want an overview. If its something I know I will scrap about, I will select some extras, or particularly good picture of the kids as well. I try to summarise and keep it simple. I set myself a task of sorting through a month at a time, and the more I do it the more streamlined the selection process.  Sure, I am still left with lots of photos on my hard drive, but the essence of our family life is printed and easily accessible for all to enjoy.

PAGE PROTECTORS:  After using WRMK and American Crafts, I will be purchasing the standard 6 per page in portrait style (and some landscape too) for maximum ease in putting the photos away (AC allow for sliding in photos from BOTH sides of the page, WRMK does not) and as you can see I take a LOT of my photos in portrait orientation.  I did dabble with some of these other AC page protectors, which I love, but the loss of storage capacity is  drawback.

I don't really care if some of the photos will be sideways in the pocket, at least they are IN a pocket to be seen! 

I do store the photos in chronological order (is there any other way that makes sense?!) and so far have fit 12 months of photos in this album, and slightly more in the next one. I anticipate fitting more as I get better and more ruthless in sending my selection to the print file (and let me share a secret....um...I've not printed any from 2010 OR 2011....two years behind seems to be standard for me! I've plans on uploading 3 monthly batches over the summer holidays!)

I chose to print out the cards and handwrite on them, as lets face it, I spend enough time in front of this screen as it is, and by handwriting I could sit myself down in front of the TV in the evenings and put photos away and write on the cards as I went. And the handwriting adds a personal touch to it too of course!

No long stories, just a few pertinent notes about the photos as one looks at a double page spread.

Sometimes the photos pretty much speak for themselves and not a lot of words are needed, just a general feel and importantly for me, DATE.

I was using this system beforehand, in cheap slip in albums which are slowly being wrecked by the kids looking at the photos. Now I am not going to go and swap them out, but from this point on will be using this system. I still have my "regular" scrapbooks which are apart from these, but should I ever not scrap properly again, the photos and the essence of our lives is still captured. 

So, I've got some sorting and selecting to do on hot summer afternoons, but don't plan on putting too much thought into it, just a quick drag and dump and be ruthless about it. No matter what I print, its better than being lost on the hard drive!

So, what are your thoughts? do you do something similar, or employ a Project Life approach?

making it achievable

One thing I am quietly pleased about is that through sharing how I have used divided page protectors on my blog, I have two of my friends "memory keeping". It may not be scrapbooking as the purists may see it, but it is still MEMORY KEEPING a step further along the line from simply slipping photos into an album.  One friend, a mother of four, has a D Ring album for each child, with simple divided pockets that hold 4x6 photos.  She slips in her photos, keeps one pocket per double spread empty and in there she puts her notes and journaling.

I keep suggesting to throw a few bits of patterned paper into the mix, and with the arrival of her fourth child - finally a girl! - I sent to her some lovely little girly Echo Park paper pads to assist in this endeavour. I'll see if I can get her to share.

So, you can tell I really really love divided page protectors. Especially when I am feeling particularly lazy and but wanting to get through some photos and put pages in albums.

This is far from a perfect page (the two polar opposite patterned papers on each page? WHAT WAS I THINKING? do you have moments like that? sadly, my super strong tape did not allow for easy removal, so I got over it at the time and moved on). However it's done, and captured some moments of this child's life.

I particularly love these AC divided pockets for offering both orientations of photos, which suits me perfectly. I take MOST of my photos in portrait orientation, which bucks the norm.

What I love even more that I was feeling just a little bit crafty, so happily fiddled with just those two 4x6 bits of card with thickers and my sewing machine, and it was over, done with. SO quickly! Slip them into their pocket and done. And no trimming of photos. SO easy.

Do you use divided protectors? yes/no/maybe? do let me know your thoughts!

Sharon

A Week In The Life

Is over again for another year, and over here at Simple Aussie Girls, four of us took part this year. Nicole declared this to be far too big a commitment, and normally I share that opinion, but this year I decided to join in and give it a go. My plan was to keep the whole thing as simple and pain free as possible, so that I could reduce any self imposed hurdles that might prevent this from being yet another un-finished project.

This week we plan to share our respective takes on Ali Edwards Week In The Life, and hope you enjoy seeing a bit of how we've gone about things, and of our daily lives.

Like I mentioned before, my intention was to keep things as simple as possible for myself. I downloaded the PDF's thoughtfully provided by Ali, printed them and kept them accessible on my kitchen counter. With a pen tied to the bulldog clip holding them together so the kids couldn't run away with it. I kept basic notes about each day, and took photos. Not nearly as many as other people, but when it came down to the end, I wasn't able to use all of them anyhow!

I put the album together in a hybrid fashion.  My title page, using some word art from CZ.

I won't share every page as they are pretty much the same, but just give you a taste of how it came together.

I decided on a simple double page spread for each day, facing each other.

The above photos I printed and chopped up, and slid them into divided photo pockets. It looks great and I love the slight see through element of it all, but I am not sure I will do this again! It wasn't as fast as I would have liked it to have been!

And how it looks all put together:

I made a slight error when printing - I didn't "flip" the text - I printed them all the same, however when you flip the page the text doesn't lay at the centre of the main page, which gives a great big ole bit of trapped space in the middle. However, I didn't want to print or re-do those pages again do just left it be and made a mental note for "next time"!

And if you have done the mental math on the pages, you would realise that I would end with a blank divided page at the back - which I intend to fill with photos I didn't use already for the week.

I decided to include the daily pages that I had scribbled on.

  I've put them in a pocket, and as they are a bit messy, simple made a cover to put in front of them in the same pocket.

This has left me with a blank pocket on the other side of those daily pages...which I have filled with a special layout, that you will see more of in a few weeks time, involving Amy's next challenge.

If I do this again? Go into a little more depth, I think. I've skimmed the surface in keeping it so simple. Use some patterned paper, I think. While I don't mind the clean graphic look, a bit of pretty paper would have been nice. But I can't be bothered adding any now its done!  Other thoughts: include the front page of the newspaper, folded in a pocket. Print out some news headlines for one day, from an on line news service. For sure, include shopping dockets (I didn't actually go to the grocery shop during my WITL!) But now, I've done it once, and its pretty much done and away in its album.  I think I might do this every second year, and house it in the same album.

Pop by tomorrow and see how Amy put her WITL together! Feel free to share a link to your own Week in the Life in the comments, or on our Flickr page (just let us know so we know to have a look!)

super simple pages

I love divided page protectors for those times I have a heap of photos I want to include in my child's album (heaven knows I have plenty) but don't have an awful lot to say. For more, head over to my blog.