Signing your work

So Picasso always signed his and so did Rembrandt. So why not you?
Yes your pages are a piece of art and so it deserves your signature. After all you put all that work into it and the pages shine with your creativity. I bet a piece of your personality went into each and every page. Some scrappers are framing their work and hanging on them on their walls instead of pictures.

So how to sign your work.
It should be with a scrapbook safe pen. You can sign them on the front somewhere if you prefer or on the back. I personally sign mine on the back. Mine are signed just as I write my name. Debbie Ruggles. I even sign the back of my kids layouts that way. That way when someone finds my books in about a few hundred years they will be able to know who signed them.

Yep I can see these books tucked away in some Attic somewhere because family couldn't get rid of them. After all they are family history and you can't just throw that away.
Then again what do we do with them all. So nicely tucked away for safe keeping they will be. Someday someone will find them and see how interesting they are and wonder who made the books. If they happen to take them out they will find my signature nicely on the back of them.

Please sign those layouts, they are yours, you spent the time to make them for yourself, or someone special, so why not let the future know how talented their relatives were.
Not to mention you are giving them a sample of your handwritting, which is always important!
Article by:
Debbie Ruggles

Scary times ahead

Now its time for those little devils, ghost and gouls to come out and play! Time will soon be here when we hand out all that candy and send them home to their mothers. I thought this month I would hand you a bunch of saying and quotes for your halloween layouts that I think you might be making here in the next little while!

Here are a few quotes:
-Eat, drink and be scary
-Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.
-Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story. ~Mason Cooley
A couple Poems:
On Halloween the thing you must do
Is pretend that nothing can frighten you
And if somethin' scares you and you want to run
Just let on like it's Hallowe'en fun.~Author Unknown

May Jack-o-lanterns burning bright
Of soft and golden hue
Pierce through the future’s veil and show
What fate now holds for you.~Author Unknown



Some Phrases:
-Monster Mash
-Eat Drink and be SCARY
-Just Scaring up some fun
-Chills and Thrills
-Ghosts have real spirit
-Whitchful Thinking

Have fun with this fun time.
Oh and Happy Haunted Scrapping

Its about Family and Friends

Titles are important for our layouts. Sometimes it pretty hard to come up with a great title for your layout. So this month I thought that we would just give you some of our favorite quotes and titles to help out with those layouts you are about to tackle during the winter months.

Here they are
Family Moments
Family Ties
Family Friends
Family Life
Thankful for Family
Special Times
Forever Family
Full House
Forever Friends
Friends Turned Family
Family Friends
One Big Happy Family
Family Gathering
Recipe for Family
Grandma Knows Best
Grandpa Knows Best
Cousins
Cozy Cousins
Kissing Cousins
Kindred Spirits
Yours Mine and Ours
Brother Like No Other
Sisters by Chance, Friends by Choice
Part of the Clan
Fathers And Sons
Mothers and Daughters
Generations
Circle of Love

Some of our Favorite Quotes:
A family is like a warm quilt wrapped around your heart
Having some place to go is home. Having someone to love is family. Having both is a blessing
Friends are our chosen family.
A Family is a Work of Heart.
Other things may change us, but we start and end with Family.
Happiness is being with Family
Best Buddies are We, My Brother and Me!
Sisters, like stars in the sky, shine a light on each other's hopes and dreams.

Hopefully these will give you some inspiration for your pages.

Happy Winter Scrapping

Journaling Prescription

A prescription for journaling. What are we talking about?
We have heard it many times, "Journaling is hard for me, I really don't know what to write"
It can be hard to start, but once you get a handle on it, your pictures just seems to write the journaling all by themselves.

Lets look at the whole journaling issue.
We are told to journal the pages according to the pictures. What about the before the picture and even after the picture. Or the trip to get the picture? Lots of the story can be wasted if we just write about that one little picture. Say you have a picture of your child sitting on a rock by the lake and you put a title that says something like, a beautiful day, memories etc. So lets say that this was part of a great day, a spur of the moment outing that ended with a picture taken a dusk by the lake. How about the rest of the story behind the picture.

Now for Debbie's prescription for Journaling. I thought about this for a while.
There is definately the Who, What, When and Where journaling rule, but there is also other things that apply with the whole journaling idea. Things that you can use to make the journaling part much easier. So lets see if I can try and map them out, or give you my prescription to heal your journaling slump!

1. Memoriabila: Yep keep those theatre tickets or amusement park passes, programs. They make a great ways to add journaling to your layout. Remember the where and when. They usually have a date and a time and a place, and the event you went to. These things are awesome to work into a layout.

2. Use a list or calendar. Timeline once again. Its great to list out the places you seen or the things you did on your vacation etc.

3. Reciepts, certificates, etc. Remember the first drivers license? So you got the real thing, the permit is a great thing to put in your scrapbook, or how about the trip to get your license, driving test receipts etc. These things are all perfect ideas to add to your pages to help define the journaling crunch.

Camping trips can include the receipt from the campgrounds. They usually have a logo on them. Water parks the same, so keep a look out for things you can use.

4.Keep those Christmas lists, or Birthday lists your children create: These are the best things to look back on when doing a Holiday layout. Don't throw these away, incorporate them in your scrapbooking. They ususally have their name on them, a list of the presents they want and their own handwritting. These are great!

There it is a my prescription to make journaling easier. Don't forget to include the basics, but look around and see what else there is that you can incorporate into a layout.

Its great to put some of these things on your layouts. Don't be afraid of a crumpled up note your child gave to you or even one of those cards they create just because. Believe me in 20 years will be so glad you kept them and safely stored them in your scrapbooks.

Journal, Journal and More Journaling. The more you do it the better you become!

Article by:

Debbie Ruggles

Write? What you talking about?

Many scrappers don't put any details on their pages than those that they can obtain from some letter stickers or a title. For most of us we don't have the perfect handwriting. I know myself that if I just go for it and begin to write I find my writing going downhill. Sometimes it just looks sloppy no matter how I careful I try to be about having good penmanship. I know that I am not alone with this one, so I thought that a good article for the Journaling page would be one that would highlight some great tips to help make it more "comfortable" to add your own handwriting in your pages.

Here is a easy one that will just give you a little bit of your handwriting on your pages. Start with the date. Remember you can always write it on a tag or a separate piece of card stock. With that in mind don't be afraid that you are going to ruin your layout with your ugly handwriting. You can try it, and if it doesn't look good enough to adorn your page, just throw it away. No damage done!

Another tip I have is to use the same technique, by that I mean a separate piece of card stock. Use a ruler for your guide. Now if you don't think you can keep the ruler straight on a the paper, then using a pencil make a very faint line and go ahead and write your message with your pen then just erase the line. Believe me if you make the pencil very faint you won't even know that you have used a line as your guide.

One more tip. Think about hidden journaling. I love this. Leave a special handwritten message behind a photo. Can't go wrong with this one. The fact that its hidden should give you the confidence to just write your message and slip it behind your photo. Remember its hidden so all is fine for the first look at your page. Then you leave a great hidden message for the future to reveal and read. What a romantic idea!

Simple things make the difference. Scrapbooking isn't all about how "Pretty" the page looks its also about the specialness that you add with your own little sentimental touches. One of those being your very own handwriting.

Good ahead and try some of these. Add you to your pages by writing up a little bit of journaling to leave behind for generations to come! After all isn't that what its about? Leaving our memories to share with someone else. Those special little messages will probably be talked about by people that aren't even born yet. Who knows what will happen with your books. They might become a great historical piece of work proudly displayed in a museum somewhere. So how about that story telling with your own handwriting. Think about how special that will be in the pages you worked so hard and took such care in creating! Remember its just another part of what makes you a scrap artist!

Would love to hear any tips you may have about Scrap Journaling and your techniques. If you have some to share email them to me at debbie@accents2scrapbooking.com and I will be glad to share them with everyone!

Journal by
Debbie Ruggles

Journaling About Me!

Yeah you!

Why not tell about the person behind the camera? After all you are part of your families history.
My grammy is 95 years old. Just turned that as a matter of fact. She has never really told me or my other family members to much about her life. It would be sooooo interesting to just know a little piece or two about her childhood and how things were like way back when!

Ok if your are like me, well I haven't done to much with myself but I have started to do some. I started and "About Me" album. Its mostly my journal with some pictures. I have also started to do some layouts of myself and incorporate them into my family albums. When I look back there really aren't to many pictures of ME in there.

I know you hate the camera. Me to, but lets face facts, you deserve to be put in that book. How are the future generations going to know about their great, great grandmother or grandpa if you don't add yourself to the history. Start out journaling your first page, make it a likes and dislike page, or perhaps a sentimental journaling page about your life and the important parts in it. Remember finding out you were going to have a baby, and then having one! Remember what it was like as a teenager falling in love.

Then take on some childhood photos. Get into the highschool and then your Graduation. How about attempting some of those wedding photos and perhaps the ones when you were pregnant with your kids. Get those photos out of hiding and start making them part of the family history. We all hate how we look, but I tell you there will be a generation that will think you are absolutely beautiful. They will also be grateful they have something to look at.

I look back at the couple photos I have of my Grandma and I am amazed at how beautiful she was. I can sure see why Grandpa went after her. I just wish there were some journaling of a long, wonderful like to go with them. I know there is a story to tell, I just don't have any words from her to write down about it. Don't keep your life a secret from your future generations. Give them amazing story of your life, add a few photos and I know they will be intriqued by how you lived and what you did in your life.

How to get it started? Well just sit right down and start taking a few notes. Write down things from your childhood you would like to write about to put in your book. Just make notes, they don't have to be ten pages, just a quick note about a time from your past.
Here is an example. I remember our reunions from whene we were little. I can even remember the smell of the pot luck luncheon in the hall. The reunion was totally packed with all kinds of relatives that I had no clue who they were. I just knew they would always talk about how big we were all getting. Now from there I can take it a step further later, but its a passing memory and I jotted in my notebook for future use!

Keep jotting things down and then go on a search and see if your parents or relatives have any photos of the times. Don't worry if they say they do but they won't part with them. Say thats ok I can just scan them in and print them off later! After this point your are ready to begin to think about that scrapbook layout about a time from your past. Remember to bring the memory back to life and use descriptive words in your journaling to add to the details. Don't worry about it being to long because in 100 years there won't be any of it long enough for the reader!

I would love to hear your comments about this one. Email any ideas you have about doing layouts journaling your past. I would love to share some with our readers in the future.

email them to debbie@accents2scrapbooking.com

Article by
Debbie Ruggles

Journaling Style

Everyone has their own way of journaling. Whether its a simple journaling with just a date and a couple sentences to those of us who could journal pages about a single picture. So in this little article I decided to try and decipher the different journaling styles, or ways that we journal.

Well here it goes

My first is the way I journal. Emotional journaling. This type of journaling usually involves some lengthy journaling about a event, person or place. Usually its about a certain emotion. For instance the birth of your baby. The journaling might be about the how it felt to become a parent and all the emotions of the moment. Remember your first love or your marriage. All those important events that have some great meaning in your life. For me I can probably come up with some emotion for just about every layout I do, its jus who I am and I would have to say its my way of journaling.

The next way is from the "Once upon a time" I Love this one. It can be a great one for a wedding or love story. Starting your journaling with "Once upon a time" is such a great intro to some great journaling. How about a growing up page. Once Upon a time there was a little girl.....
Try this one out. You might just like it for a few of your pages.

Story Telling: Ok I need to add this to my Emotional, story telling journaling. With this journaling you tell the story of the person, place, event or thing in the layout. Remember your Scrapbooks are telling a story of your life and those of the people around you. Nothing wrong with doing a large journaling page about a event that took place in your life!

Poems and Quotes: Some people prefer to add a poem or quote to their layout. Remember no one says they have to come from a poet of the past. You can add your own verbage to your layout and give it your special quote. You might be surprised how much wisdom you can come up with by just giving a little thought to it.

These are just a few ways to journal. Maybe you fit into one of these categories or maybe you might want to try one of these out. Below are a few phrases to get you starte with your journaling. Try using one as the opening of your journaling and then add to it.

This moment in time......
Once upon a time.......
What a moment......
Once upon a memory.....
Remember when....
Family matters......
This is a moment....
The day was.........
The perfect moment.......
Captured in time...
With all my heart.....
On this day.......
I am so glad to be alive because..........
So this is love.........
I could have never known.........


Article by
Debbie Ruggles

How can I figure out the date a picture that was taken years ago?

This question was posed to me by one of our readers.

Here are some of the different tricks to keep the information straight.

1. Look at your pictures, many of them have dates on them. Now if you print off your own pictures you might not have that.
2. Look for signs or other objects in your pictures that will tell you where they were taken and perhaps that will give you a date line. Like a vacation, family reunion etc.
3. The age of the people in the photos will help to date them. Such as a school function, sports activity etc.
4. If they are really old photos that are people who are long since gone, you might want to seek the help of elderly people in your family or try this website, it had some interesting help to give you an approximate date: http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm
5. Unfortunately if you don't have the exact date somewhere on the photo, and you can't remember the time line, you will only be able to approximate the date. Nothing wrong with putting on your layout August of 2007 or just 2007 etc. It at least gives it a time line.

Remember to journal about the surrounding in your back ground. Look it over and perhaps there is something you can tell about the day the photo was taken, even if you can't remember the exact date. Remember we love the story.

If you are in a hurry and scrapbooking. A tip that I use a lot for keeping the date, is to write up a quick post it note about the page with the date and then slap it on the page until I have the time to get to journaling about it. At least this way its not lost and I don't have to rely on my memory to keep the date handy.

Hopefully these tips will help out a little bit of trying to get these photos dates or at least in a sequence.

Remember a little journaling is definately better than none!

Article by:

Debbie Ruggles

Handwritten Journaling

Handwriting is one of the most difficult things to do in your scrapbooks, but you should. You should always try and give a copy of your writing somewhere in them. Below are a few pointers for those of you who are trying to do it, but it just doesn't work out the way you intended. Hopefully we can help you out just a tiny bit with it.

*Use a journaling block that is not attached to your layout at first. This way if it doesn't work out then you have lost nothing on your layout.

*Keep pencil marks light. A heavy line will leave imprints on your page and be more difficult to erase.

*If you make a mistake, erase it, but be gentle. Remember you don't want to tear your paper.
Small, evenly placed characters look clean and precise, no matter how talented the letterer.

*If you want to use a ruler for straight lines, go ahead! You can draw your lines, but draw them lightly. I mean lightly, almost invisible! Next write just above the lines so that you have room to erase them. Remember you are using them as a guide and nothing else! You do not want them to remain on your journaling

*If you are journaling, then do just that! Walking away and coming back does not work. You want your lettering to look good, so take the time to do it right.

*Find a style that suits you. Are you someone who loves cursive? Do you write in all caps, all lowers, or a mixture of both? Make sure that your style shows off your best handwriting!
Sometimes the faster you go, the better it looks! Did I catch you there? Just making sure that you're concentrating. If you're trying for a carefree look, make your guides, pencil in your text for correct spacing, and then go for it!

*Use a straight edge for your verticals. If you're doing large letters for a title, or even for your journaling, use a ruler to make your verticals. This is a trick architects use to make their printing look prefect every time.

*Use shadowing for a great effect. It softens the subtle imperfections in your writing, making your letters look better. Grab a Black and Platinum Zig Writer and create letters that jump off your page.
*Last but not least! Its your handwriting, it should not be perfect! So don't give up, just keep practicing

Ok here is another way to get your handwriting for all you computer journaling people. You can get your own handwriting turned into a font! For $9.00 this company will turn your handwriting into your very own font. Here is the web address to go and check it out. http://www.fontifier.com/

Since scrapbooking has become such a great craft, perhaps handwriting can come back to be a intricate part of this craft. Good handwriting is a craft in itself. So practice, practice and more practice. I myself find it easier to just get on the computer and print them off, but I am making an attempt to try and do a little bit more of journaling in my own handwriting. Maybe if I practice hard enough I might even find myself with a handwriting like one of the above! Who knows?

Winter Page Titles

My good friend Mary gave me this list of winter titles for my pages. I have kept it and opened it many times to grab one out of. I would like to share it with the rest of the Scrapbooking world as it has worked for me many times to find a titles to go with one of my layouts.


All Bundled Up.....Artic Blast......Baby its cold outside.....Brrrrrr It’s Cold.....Bundle Up!.....Cuddlin’ with Cocoa.....Dashing Through the Snow.....Digging Out.....Even when it’s cold outside, our memories keep us warm.....First Snow.....First Snowball of the Season....Freeze Frame.....Frosty and Friends.....Frosty the Snowman.....Fun in the snow Hitting the Slopes.....Hug a Snowman.....In a Meadow, We Can Build a Snowman......In the Frosty Air.....It’s Cold Out.....Jack Frost nippin’ at your nose.....Just add Snow.....Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!.....Making a New Friend (Snowman Pictures).....Our Snow Day.....Romping in the snow..... Scarves and Mittens and Hats – Oh My!.....Ski Bum.....Slip and Slide.....Snow Adventure.....Snow- one nicer than you.....Snow Angels.....Snow Prince (Princess).....Snow-one else like you.....Snowbaby.....Snowball Fight.....Snowflakes are Angel Kisses.....Snowflakes Keep Falling On My Head.....Snowmen melt your heart.....Snowmen Fall From Heaven, Some Assembly Required.....Solstice is Here.....Some of my best friends are flakes.....South for the Winter.....The Abominable Snowman.....The Big Chill.....The Big Freeze.....The Fire is so Delightful.....There’s no time like SNOW time.....There’s no Business like Snow Business.....There’s Snow Place Like Home.....Think Snow.....Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland.....Winter Play.....Winter Fun.....Winter is Snow Much Fun.

Thank You Mary Crowe for the wonderful list you gave to me
By Debbie Ruggles

Scrap Journaling! What a Concept.

Well isn't this a challenge, why on earth would anyone want to create a scrapbook page without a picture on it. Well why not. How about the school project you and your child slaved over for hours and all you have to show for it is a piece of paper that they hand you and with a proudly displayed A adorning the front of it. Oh yes those kindergarten years with all those wonderful paper projects that you just have to keep. Remember you don't have the pictures but you sure do have the memories. This sort of Scrapbooking, well as I call it Scrap Journaling is a great and wonderful way to incorporate those art projects and those memories that are in your memories but you don't have any pictures to tell show for them. I can see this going to a whole other area of scrapbooking for us Journaling nuts!

How about that spontaneous drive to the beach where you all got out of the car and waded through the waves of the water watched your children build the big sand castle. After hours of fun trying to keep them away from the sand so there clothes would dry off before they got back into the car. Now I know that everyone has moments like these. Everyone does. Now the question is: Just because you don't have the pictures to show for it, does that mean you waste the memories? Heck NO! Let’s turn those memories into one giant layout about the day!
Let’s not forget the About Me pages we need to make about ourselves. Most of us don't have too many pictures of our childhood. I know that each of you have some memories of those days that you would love to incorporate in your books if you just had the pictures! Don't let that stop you go and write your story.

So how do you do all this? Well take a moment and think about it. Use your imagination and yes your journaling powers!

Let’s take the beach trip. How about starting with some paper that you might be about the beach, sandcastles or better yet make your self a background. Keep motivating the project. How about some die-cuts of sand castles or maybe a paper piecing or two. Don't forget the sun and then there are those cute little shovels and pails. Or beach sandles! Jolees has tons of 3-D things you can pick out! Maybe some sticker or even some cute little brads. Keep thinking!How about some ribbon! Oh now we are getting there. So I can see the layout its all about the words on the center of the page. Maybe we have torn the edges of our computer or handwritten journaling and put a little ink around the edges.

Here is an example layout that I made because I wanted to remember the first day my youngest son went to Kindergarten. Its a good example of a reason to do a journal page.
As you can see I used a chalkboard paper and then embellished the page around my journaling. It was a pretty good story and I wanted to remember it. I do have a kindergaten picture I can put on it, but I decided to just leave it like it is. It was one of those days when there was not time to think and of course mom forgot her camera, but there was no reason we needed to forget the memories. So I jotted it down and told his first day of school story!



Hopefully you can realize that scrap journaling can be a great addition to your scrapbooks. If you have a series of photos you can incorporate one page of journaling to tell the entire story and then show the pictures. No matter how you see fit to use just words, go ahead and try it. Telling the story adds so much interest in your books and you will be amazed at how others just want to sit and look and read them.

Article by
Debbie Ruggles