Wedding Invitation Tips ~ Save The Date Wording

Whether you are sending a save the dates, by mail or email, make sure you include the full date (Month Day Year) as well as the city and state.

June 28 in Nashville can be interpreted as July 28, 2012 in Nashville, TN. That would be fine if the wedding wasn't really July 28, 2011 in Nashville, IL. Don't assume your guest will know what you meant.

Buying Adhesive

Try out new adhesives before you buy them. It’s just like buying shoes; you want to make sure it fits right. Test your friends’ adhesive or see if the store has a demo for you to try.

Use your grocery shopping skills when buying adhesive. Compare the unit prices of the different adhesives you use. Some buys may be better than others.

Take advantage of sales. Look out for adhesive sales and stock up on your favorites. You can never have enough.

Five Money Savers

Below you’ll read about five money savers. Try one, some, or all and continue to use the savers that work best for you.

Use Your Scraps It is very rare for me to use all the products I purchase for my various products. I may only use half a piece of pattern paper or a foot of a yard of the ribbon I purchased. This process leaves me with tons of scraps (cardstock, paper, embellishments, ribbon etc.) at my disposal. All of the scraps that I save are futile unless I make use of them. The key to saving scraps is remembering that you have them and using them. I recommend coming up with a storage system that will encourage you to use your scraps often.

Make More Than One Card Often I make a card for a specific person or event. Usually if I’m making just one card I’ll have products leftover. Similar to using leftover scrapbook products when I scrapbook, I make several cards at the same time using the leftover products. This process actually saves money and time.

Cut Back on Embellishments I know embellishments add a lot to your layouts and cards but when you are using a lot of them they become quite expensive. A lot of times your embellishments are the bulk of your project cost. So I try to incorporate more generic (colored, non seasonal) embellishments in my projects. The generic embellishments can be used numerous project not just one. I still use seasonal embellishments, just not as frequently.

Scrap Out of Season Just like shopping for clothing, you can find some great deals when you purchase scrapbook products out of season. Usually the prices of seasonal products will be reduced shortly after the season (holiday, event, etc.) has past. This shouldn’t pose a problem for scrapbooking but it may for card making if you were planning to make cards in season. Many times I make cards for the next season with the reduced scrapbooking products I purchase. You can also just save the products for the next season. To save or use the scrapbook products is totally up to you.

Share Tools I know when you read the latest Creating Keepsakes or see a product demonstration at your local scrapbook store you just have to have the NEW tool that you saw. Let’s face it; many of the latest and greatest tools are not needed to fulfill the majority of your scrapbooking needs. A lot of times it’s not cost effective to purchase a tool that you are only going to use for a small percentage of your projects. A solution to this dilemma is sharing your tools. Get together with a friend or two that you normally scrapbook with and purchase the tool together. You could use the tool at your scrapbooking sessions and/or work out a usage schedule. This option would get you the NEW tool but not hurt your checking account as bad.

Learn how to preserve your moments

Visit our Online Classroom to learn how to preserve your memories. This free blog will provide instructions on various techniques and projects. So stop by and see what we have to offer.

Journaling Tip ~ Document events soon after they occur

Often I don’t get a chance to scrapbook events immediately after they happen. Sometimes it can take me up to a year to scrapbook an event. So, to make sure I remember all the details of the event, I document the event in my journal as soon as possible. Sometimes, I include a layout sketch also. So now I can scrapbook the concert I went to in January 2006 without out a problem.

Journaling ~ The Basics ~ Part 1

Journaling is the most important aspect of scrapbooking. It separates a scrapbook from a photo album. By journaling in your scrapbook you are able to complete the story that your photos and memorabilia started. One is able to relay their thoughts and feelings through journaling.

When journaling, the basics (Who, What, When, Where, & Why) at the very least should be included. Basic journaling can often be captured with a Title and Captions.

Many scrapbookers tell detailed stories. This is a perfect way to encompass all the details of the event. But if the details and or space are limited, one can use bullet points, poetry, interviews, and hidden journaling to relay their thoughts and feelings.

Journaling can be handwritten, computer generated, or a combination. Although computer generated journaling may be neat in appearance, handwritten journaling adds a touch of the scrapbooker. Believe or not, future generations will treasure your handwriting. I recommend a combination of handwritten and computer generated journaling.

Finally, keeping some form of a journal is beneficial. One can easily record the details of various events and activities for future reference. A calendar, notepad, note cards, journal, or etc. could be used.

Hopefully this overview will get your journaling started on the right track. Be sure to stay tuned for future articles discussing this topic in greater detail.

How to Resize Digital Photographs

In this post you’ll find some information I found on scaling digital photos.

How to Upsize Your Digital Photos Without Sacrificing Quality
In this article you’ll learn how to upsize your digital photos. This article talks a lot about resolution. Here is a tip to remember: use 300 dpi. You’ll learn more about this in the article.

Here is some information I gathered from my Google Search.

How to Resize Your Images - Smarter Ways
This article discusses digital cameras, online photo resizers, and software programs used to resize your photos.

How to Resize Photos for E-mail or Web: A Step-by-Step Tutorial
This is a step by step tutorial for resizing your photos in Photoshop Elements (PSE). It includes screen shots of PSE.

How-to: Resizing photos the easy way
This is a Youtube video that shows you how to resize a photo with an online photo resizer (webresizer.com) and a free photo resizer program (GIMP).

What program do you use to resize your photos?

Scrapbook Kits… another way to scrap

If you are looking to save time and some gas money, you should definitely consider purchasing scrapbook kits. Most of the kits include numerous papers and embellishments to complete several projects and layouts (save time by not having to coordinate your supplies and save gas by not having to drive all over town to coordinating elements.) Many of the kits also include instructions sheets for various projects. You can buy the kits as you need them or sign up for a subscription.

Some kit clubs are technique based. Each month you will learn a new technique. This would be great for scrapers who want to learn more about scrapbooking. Distinctive Moments will be offering a technique based Scrapaholix Club this Fall in Columbus, OH. Stay tuned for more information.


Below are a few Kit Clubs:

Lickety Split Scrapbooks
Lickety Split Scrapbooks offers both page kits and board book kits.

Memory Workshop
These kits are designed to make 6+ 12x12 pages. Memeory Workshop is a Canadian based business.

Serendipity Scrapbooks
Each month Serendipity Scrapbooks offers at least 3 types of kits to choose from.


So if you haven’t tried scrapbooking with a kit, why not try it today. If you have used kits in the past, what are some of you favorites?

Paper Bag Albums

Would you believe before I read How to Make a Paper Bag Scrapbook by Angela Vader, I had never made a paper bag album. My scrapbooking friends where shocked.

So take a look at my first paper bag album. I plan to use the album as an overview of my summer.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tips:

· I used four (4) paper bags. Five (5) paper bags were to bulky for me.
· I used a Crop-A-Dile to punch my binding holes.
· I used three (3) large eyelets (3/16") to bind my album. I tried the 1/8” eyelets but they couldn’t bind all the paper bags. You could also use small jump rings or ribbon.
· I designed my pages before I attached them to the album. (So the eyelets wouldn’t show though the bag.)
· I stamped journaling blocks to use for my journaling.
· I added cards with tabs for extra photos and journaling.

Simple Ribbon Storage

I buy quite a bit of my ribbon by the yard. I often find it hard to keep my ribbon organized. I ended up buying the same ribbon again because I didn’t know I already had it. So I decided to make a ribbon ring for my ribbon.

I started with the following nine color groups: white, brown, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I also organize my paper and embellishments in these groups. I added a pink ribbon group because I have a ton of pink ribbon.

I used a large ring and jumbo paper clips to make my ribbon ring. I tied the ribbon to the paper clips and fastened the paper clips together with the ring. When I need ribbon, I just cut a piece off. Now tell me that wasn’t simple!

I also store embellishments and acrylic stamps on a large ring.

How do you store your ribbon?

What are your favorite adhesives?

Here is a list of my favorite adhesives. I find myself using these the most of the adhesives I have.

1. Scotch ATG Gold Transfer Tape by 3M (Used with the Scotch ATG714 Adhesive Applicator). Great for large projects. One roll lasts an extremely long time.

2. Dot 'N' Roller Permanent by Kokuyo. This is great everyday adhesive. It’s easy to apply and refill.

3. Tape 'N' Roller Plus Permanent by Kokuyo. When I prefer a tape adhesive I often use this adhesive. It is extremely easy to refill.

4. 3-D Zots by Thermoweb. I when I need to add dimension to my cards I use Zots. Be careful when applying them, one of my customers calls them evil because she always gets her fingers stuck when using them.

5. Glue Dots 3/16" Mini Dots by Glue Dots. Great for adhering embellishments.

6. Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Adhesive by 3M. Great for adhering embellishments.

7. Art Accentz Terrifically Tacky Tape by Provo Craft. I often use this adhesive when adhering ribbon and chipboard to my altered items. This is an extremely strong tape. I even used it to adhere a photo frame to the front of a scrapbook album.

8. Adhesive Pick-Up by Thermoweb. I use the pick-up to remove any excess adhesive.

What are your favorite adhesives?

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I've also included a link to an article about vavious adhesives. Read it to learn a little more about scrapbooking adhesives.

Scrapbooking Adhesives - Stick To The Basics
By Christine Perry

How Can I Get More Pictures Per Page?

Below is a link to an article about placing more photographs on your scrapbook page.

How Can I Get More Pictures Per Page? By Ms. Demi


Many of the albums I design for my clients and my personal albums include numerous photos per layout. I continue to look for ways to maximize my layout space.

Something that works well for me is printing 2” x 3” and 3” x 4” (from a 4” x 6” photo collage) photos to use in my layouts. These sizes are small enough to add several photos to the layout and still have room for your journaling and title.


What tips do you have for adding more pictures per page?

Tips for Scrapbooking Birth Certificates

Do you what to add your little one’s birth certificate to his or her scrapbook, but don’t know the best way? Read Some Tips for Scrapbooking Birth Certificates by Christine Perry. You’ll find some great tips in this article.

I personally make copies of any important documents and include them in my scrapbooks. It depends on your personal preference.

A new year, a new look, with the same motto.

A New Year

Happy New! We hope your year has started off as great as Distinctive Moments’ year. We are excited about the great things in store this year. So thanks in advance for your continued support in 2008!


A New Look

We have decided to do something a little different this year. Instead of emailing our newsletter to those of you on our mailing list, we will be posting the following topics on Distinctive Moments’ Blog World:

· What's New?
· Articles
· Other Blogs
· Tips & Techniques
· What You're Saying...
· Contest & Challenges
· Ant the winner is…
· Our Etsy Shop
· Upcoming Events

By making this change we hope to provide you with more information, more often. Feel free to visit Distinctive Moments’ Blog World at your leisure to catch-up on what we are up to. If you would like to receive an email with promotions and upcoming events PRIOR to blog postings (i.e Sneak Peak), be sure to join our email list.

We hope you enjoy this new format. Any questions or suggestions can be emailed to info@distinctivemoments.com. Your comments may end up in the What You're Saying...section.


The Same Motto

Distinctive Moments motto is providing bridal and scrapbook needs. Even though you see our motto everywhere, we wanted to make sure you knew we are here to make sure your bridal and scrapbook needs are met. That even means directing you elsewhere if we can’t provide a specific need. If you don’t see a particular item or service offered, please contact us anyway. We’ll try our best to provide some options for you.