I guess, here, in humid coastal Virginia, some may wish for cooler days, but for me, there is something about all the COLORS (flowers, new patio furniture with fun umbrellas and pillows, fresh watermelons, strawberries and pineapples, bright colored clothes and turquoise jewelry, green yards, and colorful birds!),
SMELLS (honeysuckle, freshly mown lawns, salt water, burgers on the grill),
and QUALITY TIME it offers with family and friends ( vacays, pool time, boating, fishing, beach days, barbecues) that creates anticipation for GREAT summer memories!
The super cute Summer embellishment at the top and the popsicles are from a fun pack of laser-cut embellishments from Sun Rays for Days.
I often speak to people that are behind in their scrapbooks and as a result, have a hard time jumping back in. Are you in that situation? If so, I find that jumping back in takes something pretty exciting to be motivating. Typically, something CURRENT provides that motivation like the cruise photos with friends, family reunion, or wedding. The older the photos get, the more likely it is that your excitement will wane. I am not one of those that believes that EVERY photo has to be preserved. However, I DO believe that scrapbooking is not only fun but is also a work of love for your family and if you use your books to not only store your favorite photos but also to include the stories alongside those photos, you are providing a little bit of your heart to those most precious to you. Sometimes, during ordinary days with my spouse and my kids, what they hear from my mouth and my body language is I AM BUSY. Sigh. I hate to admit that, but some days, I don’t know what end is up! I find my albums to be that place where I can SLOW DOWN and communicate to my family how special the times that we spend together really ARE. They hear my thoughts and true feelings for them because they are written down. They are reminded about being positive and grateful ALL the time. When you read something, say, from your momma or your big brother, can’t you just hear their voice? I love that about the written word.
SUMMER is the perfect time to spend extra time on your scrapbooks! With longer days and less hauling around of all the kiddos, and maybe even fewer hours at work, it could be the perfect time to DIVE RIGHT IN! Take your favorite summer activity and start there. Your album can be just a collection of those FAVORITE events. Don’t get caught up on the photos that haven’t been done. Concentrate on the NOW! Once you get started, if something fun that you want scrapbooked pops into your head that was from long ago, PUT IT IN. Contrary to popular belief, YOUR ALBUM IS YOUR ALBUM and there are NO RULES. You do NOT have to have chronological order. Just document the times on your events and that way, no one will be confused! If it’s not something that makes you happy and excited, then it can wait until another time (or not at all!).
I love using laser borders to make a border in an unexpected place like this one!
If you are working on summer photos, the Sun Rays for Days line by Creative Memories may be a GREAT place to start! There is no way that working with this line combined with your favorite photos from this summer won’t put you in a happy place! This line is very comprehensive with stickers, laser border embellishments, mats, a punch, AND a border maker cartridge PLUS two packs of papers. One of the paper packs (fast 2 fab inspired) is my favorite! It is sheets of paper that appear to already be partially scrapbooked! These give me a springboard of where to start and cut completion time in half. If you need MORE motivation, I suggest you attend a Creative memories workshop, crop, or even a weekend retreat!
Recently, I hired a professional organizer, Lisa Younger, owner of Downsize Simply, from Williamsburg, VA to help me get a couple of key areas of my home more organized! After speaking to her, it hit me. I COULD sort through my stuff and toss things on my own and relocate things that don’t belong, but working ALONGSIDE someone to get that done, made it NOT A CHORE, but kind of fun. The ideas she gave me made it exciting to get started and the result of the organized spaces gave me PRIDE.
Cropper Kris Young captured this photo at our recent National Scrapbook Day event.
That is exactly why attending an in-person event with an advisor and others that are hoping to complete scrapbooks is so enjoyable. It is the community that makes it FUN. The new friends, the ideas, the suggestions, the SHOPPING while you crop, all keep you motivated because you tend to want to KEEP coming. And the completed album?? OH, what a feeling! I hope if you aren’t already regularly scrapbooking with a supportive group, that you will make it a priority soon. Don’t be shy! You may go to a workshop for the first time and not know anyone but after that? You will find lifelong friends. Reach out to me if you want to join my group either in person or virtually or find a Creative Memories advisor near you by clicking here.
And if you need a new album cover for your summer journey, try this one!
May your summer be blessed with plenty of colors, smells, and opportunities to be with special people doing special things, and may you complete a summer scrapbook to remember those blessings ALL THE TIME.
Below, are some fun summertime layouts using the Sun Rays for Days line. I hope they will inspire you to DIVE IN. Enjoy.
Try popping your laser borders with foam squares for extra dimension.This double page spread was super easy because I used the fast 2 fab inspired paper pack. That means it was already partially “scrapbooked” so adding just a couple of mats and a laser border made it MINE but it was beautiful to start so it helped me to finish quicker.This double-page spread started with the fast 2 fab inspired paper line so it was way easier than it looks!notice how I used the laser border matted on a white strip and placed it at an angle. the popped summer embellishment and the sunshine border is from the laser border pack. Try making your border and then trimming it to go across a corner of your page for a different look. Notice how I included the left overs under the yellow mat.The papers here were also the fast 2 fab inspired ones but I actually cut up the one on the right side. Remember, no rules. I have used the umbrella punch and the sand castle border maker cartridge to complete this page.I added a super fun border here by first making a sand castle border using the sandcastle border maker cartridge and then snipped it in several places and laid them at angles on the white strip. I loved the umbrella punch for making beach umbrellas fast. Pick a piece of paper for your umbrella where you love the front AND the back and that way, you can flip and put the scraps back into the umbrella for multi colored looks fast. See other ideas using the umbrella punch at https://youtu.be/Wja_5u-oD7AI zoomed in here to show you how nice the wave blade that you can get for your CM trimmer looks when you have plenty of contrast to show it off. I also used the sand castle border maker cartridge to add interest on the bottom of a photo mat.I love these flowers. One of our fellow advisors was featured on our company website teaching us how to make these for National Scrapbook Day. If you are working with an advisor, you probably saw this concept. But did you consider making the same cute flowers on other pages besides NSD stuff? They were too cute to not use more than once so I incorporated both the flowers AND the cute bumble bee punch ( coming back soon if you didn’t get it) along with the Sun Rays for days line. The grass borders came from the laser embellishment pack and the leaves on the flowers were made with the 5-leaf punch ( a must-have punch. I use it all the time)Another double-page spread started with partially completed papers (fast 2 fab inspired). Notice how I used ONE laser border here on goldenrod cardstock and then cut it down the middle to bridge the two pages together. This is a fast and cost-effective technique that looks great! I also added a couple of the mats from the mat packs and some popped stickers.I was asked to do a spread for one of the recent worldwide crops and though this is not the one I submitted, I liked the sketch so much, that I did it again, this time with the Sun Rays for Days line. I love a lot of things about this sketch. I loved the little bits of paper that we put on the edges of the photo mats. Such a simple touch that adds an interesting element. I used the laser border on the left side, popped with foam pads, and on the right side, I cut it up to remind you they can be an entire border OR NOT. Last, I loved the strips of paper for an interesting-looking journal block. Have a lot to say? WRITE SMALL and include several lines of journaling on each strip. I love this technique where I cut an umbrella ‘hole’ in my white mat and then put a blue umbrella in the hole. the orangy color popping through is from the orange mat that was already under the white mat. See other cool journal box ideas like this by watching this video: https://youtu.be/EPweIr_mMssI love the use of the summer totally tonal border stickers here. The green and blue strips nestle nicely together and instead of going all the way across, I used them as embellishments. The base papers were fast 2 fab inspired papers even the grid at bottom and grass were already there.I used the SUMMER TEXTURE totally tonal paper to mat here. Texture add dimension and looks amazing here.The base papers here were also from the fast 2 fab paper line but I added the sandcastle border (suns were there already). The sand was also from the summer texture totally tonal paper pack. I LOVE IT. I added extra dimension by popping every other sticker on this hand made journal mat and also let PART of the sandcastle border overlap the mat. Also, I popped the blue strip cut with the decorative trimmer with foam squares and even added a sticker strip to pull the colors all together.I love this layout. Plus, it was super simple. I simply cut the blue print in half to split amongst both pages and the yellow suns were sticker strips from the collection. The sun/cloud on gingham in the top left were mats from the variety mat pack. I added dimension by adding the watermelon and lemonade to the homemade mat on the right side.Above are JUST A FEW pictures of some of my amazing clients that have started AND completed albums in 2022 😉 See the smiles? They are PLEASED!Our croppers really love coming together to scrapbook! They love dressing up to the themes and are truly lifelong friends. These ladies represent LOTS of completed pages for their families!
If you don’t currently have a Creative Memories advisor, I would love to help you get started with our scrapbooking supplies and introduce you to my fun, creative community. I’ll send you pack of FREE Spring-themed page embellishments as a “thank you” and you’ll also receive my scrapbooking tips & tricks in your email periodically. (Unsubscribe at any time.) Limit 1 embellishment pack per person.
Love this
thank you Debra 😉 And thanks for reading!!!