Search Results for: blog ways to spice up your holiday photos

How to Save Money on Family Portraits

Family portraits are a nice way to create lifelong memories, celebrate special occasions or craft a favorite holiday gift. You can capture your family moments without spending a ton of money. Whether you get photos of just the kids or the whole extended clan, use the following ways to save more and spend less on all of your family pictures. Portrait Studio Deals and Coupons You can get some good coupons and deals with the chain portrait studios, especially if you are a new customer. They want to get you in the door where you will hopefully love your photos … Continue reading →

Bring On the Borders

Maybe it’s the time of year, or perhaps, it’s because I saw them used in a prize-winning layout. Regardless of the reason, I’ve been adding garlands, banners and borders on nearly all of my page designs this fall. The fun embellishments are an easy way to spice up an otherwise boring layout. What’s more, scrapbooking manufacturers are making it easier to add them to page designs by rolling out banners and borders in every theme imaginable. Festive holiday banners are readily available online and in stores, as are colorful borders featuring everything from baby to zoo themes. Making Memories has … Continue reading →

Layouts with Love

With Valentine’s Day just a couple of days away, now is the time to start planning lovey-dovey page designs. Regardless of whom you select as your sweetheart this Love Day, your holiday layout should feature more than just a few photos and some paper hearts. An easy way to spice up your Valentine’s Day spread is to express your true love for your sweetheart with well-chosen words. If you don’t have a spouse, then turn your attention to your parents, children, siblings, or anyone who has touched your heart. If you struggle to express your feelings on paper, then turn … Continue reading →

Be Specific

Theme scrapbooks are extremely popular with both beginner and avid crafters. Having a central focus, such as a wedding, birth, anniversary or holiday, makes it easy to design layouts and create a cohesive storyline. However, if you are looking to expand on your theme, it pays to be specific. For example, recipe scrapbooks have long been a staple for scrappers looking to preserve favorite family dishes. Traditionally, recipes are written or printed on cardstock or scrapbook paper and placed in a layout along with photos of the finished product. However, to create page designs that will really pop, add as … Continue reading →

More Ways to Spice Up Seasonal Pet Shots

Okay, I’ve never actually seen a real hamster dressed up in a Santa’s hat for a Christmas card shoot, but that’s what Photoshop is for, right? Clearly, some pets are easier to deck out for a holiday photo shoot than others, but that shouldn’t stop you from adding your Fur Baby to a festive scene. Even if Fido doesn’t want to keep the reindeer antlers on his head, you can make him look merry by placing him in front of a seasonal background. Christmas trees and fireplaces are ideal backdrops for Christmas photos. Another option is to take Fluffy outside … Continue reading →

Embracing Embellishments

If it weren’t for embellishments, then scrapbooks would be little more than glorified photo albums. Stickers, stamps, die cuts, brads, and flocking powder help add spice to scrapbook designs. What’s more, they help enhance other materials featured on a page. For example, if you are working on a Christmas-themed layout you could use a Santa Claus tag to jazz up a section on holiday gifts. Likewise, embellishments that include quotes or famous sayings can help add intrigue to a journaling block. The embellishment can also serve as inspiration should you be suffering from writer’s block. Colorful embellishments or ones that … Continue reading →

More Ideas for Easter Layouts

My all-time favorite Easter-themed scrapbook layout features a timeline of my young daughter’s encounters with the Easter Bunny. Typically, these meet and greets take place at the mall, though I have a few photos of her in recent years trying to hit up the Bunny for chocolate at outdoor Easter egg hunts sponsored by the city or our local zoo. This year I will keep the tradition going by snapping her in the park with Peter Cottontail and adding the photos to the layout. There are a variety of ways you can make a page design like this work, though … Continue reading →

Spring is in the Air

Less than a week after being hit by the blizzard that went on to pummel the East Coast, we are experiencing a bit of a spring thaw here in the Midwest. Highs are expected to be in the 50s by the end of the week. Practically bathing suit weather, joked my neighbor. She’s only half kidding. The weather roller coaster got me thinking about creating an early spring scrapbook layout. It would be a good way to use the photos I snapped of the record snowfall. I could then juxtapose those with snapshots I take later this week of the … Continue reading →

Visiting Santa

I recently wrote about our Breakfast With Santa. The toddler would not get within two feet of Santa. I really don’t blame her; I never liked Santa when I was a child. I don’t like characters at all; I’ve been a character and I still don’t like characters. Last year we got a picture of the family with Jessie hysterical while I held her behind Santa. My photographer friend did non-Santa Christmas shoots for all the families who didn’t get a picture with Santa at my moms’ groups Christmas party at Wiggly Play Center. Jessie wouldn’t go in the same … Continue reading →

Using Leftovers

I hate wasting leftovers. Whether it’s two-day-old meatloaf or two-year-old scrapbook stickers, I rather use leftovers rather than toss them out. This time of year it is not unusual for scrappers to do inventory on their materials. I spend at least a week trying to make use of all my leftover supplies, so I don’t start the New Year purchasing items I don’t need. Once I figure out what and how much I have, I set about using as much as possible to embellish layouts. However, I try to find unique ways to spice up my leftovers, so they don’t … Continue reading →