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I’ve noticed that quite a few people have been landing on the blog by way of a smilebox search. So, since I haven’t put together a Smilebox creation in quite some time I decided to do one of the pictures I’ve taken this month. Mostly pumpkin patch stuff. I did a “photobook” instead of the “scrapbook” and I do like how it turned out. One new feature I liked was when I uploaded my pictures smilebox detected them and asked if I wanted to make a Smilebox creation with them…. handy!  Especially since sometimes I have a hard time finding where my pictures are stored with their menus! LOL

So, enjoy this Smilebox and if you make one of your own, please share it on the forums!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Hello all!  I was without internet service again as my household did some shifting around and during that time my service was up for payment and I barely got it paid in time to save all my stuff, whew! So, I am back, again… and hopefully I won’t have any more issues like that! I’m going to try and get all caught up with things this weekend and get back to posting more regularly, although maybe not quite as often, possibly just 2 - 3 times a week. I went to “craft night” at my church this evening and did 2 layouts. I will take pictures of time and show them off.. and also some of the cards I’ve made recently. I  know there are a few of you who are dropping by the blog but not making it over to the forums… please check out the forums too… a fun interactive community.. or it could be if you were there!  I’m trying to make it a place where people can chat about scrapbooking and share their ideas and layouts and ask for help. As of now there aren’t many people there, but with everyones help we can all make it grow. So, check it out at http://www.mybookinonline.com/forums/

So I missed out on an opportunity today to put together scrapbook pages for adoptive families here in my town. I really wanted to go, but my family has too much going on this week for me to add yet another night away from home. A friend of mine went, so I look forward to hearing from her how it went.  Instead today we took our daughter to the dentist for the first time (can you say disaster?!) and did some fall bulb planting in the yard. I eagerly look forward to all the crocus and tulips in the spring, yeah!

This Saturday is World Card Making Day... from their website

World Card Making Day is a holiday especially for card makers around the world to:

Celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and the personal connection that they create between friends and family

Kick off (and get a head start on) the holiday card-making season

I know I have at least one card to make… a thank you to my Grandmother. So my goal is to at least do that one.  I don’t know how much more I will get done as my house is going to be rather chaotic this weekend. I will post a picture of the card though. If you make any cards for World Card Making Day, sign up in the forum and share it there!

Just about my favorite scrapbook catalog is Paper Wishes. They have a huge variety of items and the pages also have loads of ideas. On the website is their virtual catalog, but you can sign up to get them by mail also.

Type in “heritage” to their search engine and you get pages of great items. For those of you short on time, the “almost done” pages are great pretty much all you do is stick on your pictures and an embellishment and that’s it!  As you look through the pages of products there are several that have just punches or brass stencils.. keep going.. check out all the pages because there is lots of neat stuff there. Don’t forget to click the links under “search summery” as well. There are page ideas to be found and articles also.

For more on heritage scrapbooking, check out Scrapbooking.com. There is a good article there.

Hope this information helps some of you. When you create some of your hertiage pages, don’t forget to pop over to the forums and share your page with us! By sharing your ideas, you get to help out otheres who might be stuck for inspiration. You also could be featured on the blog!

Happy Bookin’!

Many of you out there have older photos you wish to scrapbook. These tips will hopefully help you keep your older photographs nice and help you scrapbook them.

If your photos are damaged in any way you will want to store them in sleeves. Never use tape to fix them, this will damage the photos more.  Before bookin’ your old pictures, scan them into your computer, or take them to a place that specializes in this sort of thing and they can scan them and probably fix any flaws.

You can also color copy or scan any 3-D memorabilia you have to help with the bulk of your scrapbook and to keep the items from wrecking pages.  Keep the original memorabilia and photos in a safe place.

Many people choose to scrap hertiage (older) photos with neutral colors, shades of white, black and brown. Keep embellishments to a minimum and neutral; metals, neutral ribbon, old buttons, charms, lace. Think about the time period the picture was taken and how decoration was used, less was more!

Try to include as much journaling as you can. If you know the backstory to your photos, make sure to document it! You don’t have to worry so much about titles and extras. It’s important to get the stories told.

This week all my ideas will be about bookin’ heritage photos, so stay tuned and come back!

When you get a layout finished, let us see it by clicking on the “forum” link on the right and joining the bookin forum.

Happy Bookin’!

If you are stuck for journaling, here are some quick tips to help you think about what to write.

Ask your subject their thoughts on the period of time. 

Use a list method instead of storytelling journaling. You can use bulletpoints (use brads, eyelets, etc for this also), numbers, abc’s.

Write a letter to the subject of the layout. 

Use a quote or song lyrics

Think about how you would explain the set of pictures to a friend. Write down what you would say. I am always finding myself explaining a layout differently outloud than what I have journaled. 

If you have any other great journaling tips, head over the to forums and leave your tip in the journaling forum. 

Happy Bookin’!

Sorry for the extended downtime the site had the past few weeks. Server issues, but all has (hopefully) been cleared up. So, let’s start new, for the new school year!!!

Welcome to MyBookinOnline! This blog is a gateway to the bookin’ forums.  On the blog I will post several times a week about tips and techniques related to scrapbooking, scrapbooking products, scrapbooking freebies, and examples of things I (or others) have made on online scrapbook template sites.  If you want to be a part of the fun, please register on the forums. There are many ways to contribute. Tell us a great tip or technique and you could be featured on the blog page. Participate in the Monthly Challenge and your work could be shown on the blog page. Tell us why you like your favorite scrapbook tool or product and you could be featured on the blog page.  Create a SmileBox or a Scrapblog and put the link in the forum yours could be featured on the blog! So, get involved, tell all your bookin’ friends and let’s get this party started!!

Happy Bookin’!

I’ve had this eyelet setter for several years. Before this I had the regular tool kit that had the small hammer and eyelet setter tool that you had to bang on….loudly… several times to make a hole and then bag again…..even louder…. to set the eyelet. It just didn’t work for me. For one thing, even though I mostly do all my bookin’ outside of my home, I’m with a group, and would have to remember to call out “hammering!” every time I wanted to set an eyelet, or else I would either upset the lady sitting at the same table with me as she’s trying to do her handwritten journaling and I’m hammering away, or startling nearly everyone else in the room! If I try to do my bookin’ at home, it’s nearly always after my daughter has gone to bed, and I don’t want to wake her up with the hammering. So, I invested in the Instant Setter by Making Memories. While not “silent” it is quieter than hammering. One (slightly loud) click to make your hole and one (at the most two) clicks to set the eyelet. It usually doesn’t result in an eyelet back that is “perfectly” spread, but one usually hides the back of an eyelet anyway, so no biggie to me. You can adjust the tension on it, so if you have an especially soft eyelet, make it hit less hard and just do it a couple of times to get it as flat as you like. It’s easy to change setter heads, just slip in a new one and it’s magnetically held in place until you take it out. It’s a little on the hard side to clean out the puncher tool as you can’t stick a needle straight in, but there is a hole on the side to do the job, it just takes a bit of doing.

All in all, a great tool for eyelet setting.

Do you have a favorite tool? Let us know over at the Bookin’ Forums!

Happy Bookin’!

For this days bookin’ tips I will direct your attention to 50 Fabulous Scrapbooking Tips.  There are actually more than 50, probably more like 200 with all 4 pages, but I took the time to read just the first 50. I will be going back to that website though and reading through all the tips. I really liked tip #35 that has a unique use for soda can tabs.

Don’t forget, if you have a great bookin tip or technique, jump on over to the Bookin Forums, register and leave your tip or technique in the tips forum. Your tip could be the featured tip of the week!

I finally got the August Bookin’ Challenge up at the forums. Come on over and check it out! August Challenge