31 Days of Q&As

by Lain Ehmann on June 27, 2012

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(c) Marco Bellucci

Got a question?

Wondering what to do with a trunkful of photos from your great-great grandmother?

Don’t know how to combined patterned papers?

Need some ideas for scrapbooking your baby’s first year (and your baby is 14)?

Want to figure out how to make money from your scrapbooking blog?

Or maybe you just want to know the latest trends in paper crafting?

Well, I’ve got some answers!

In fact, over the 31 days of July, I’m going to be answering 31 questions… one a day!

But… of course, I need those questions to answer, and that’s where you come in.

I want you to submit your burning scrapbooking questions to me!

Here’s how:

  • Leave a comment on this page below, or
  • Email me at lain(at)layoutaday(dot)com with the subject “31 Days,” or
  • Send me a Tweet (@lainehmann)

If your question is chosen, you’ll receive a little gifty from me in the mail (that’s 31 chances to win a cute lil’ somethin’-somethin’!).

Ready?

Set?

ASK!

simple scrapbooking layouts

P.S. The sooner you send in a question, the better your chance of being chosen because as the month goes on, more questions will be submitted! So ask NOW!

 
  • gela

    What are the winning lotto numbers!? LOL . First I’m sorry to have missed “your story matters” I was all geared up for it when “life” interfered. Sigh…… I hope it was a big success and it will be repeated. I have one simple urging question. Storing ink stamps. My scrap space is a corner of my livingroom. Most of my stuff is in an cabinate. I have re-arraigned and purged a lot of stuff. I am stumped on how best to store ink stamps. Thanks for all you do to preserve our memories.

  • http://twitter.com/SusanB722 SusanB722

    Any tips for organizing inspiration? I do have a pinterest board but I also have lots of pages ripped from magazines, sketches that I’ve printed out from online sites and idea books with dog-eared pages. I’d like to have a system to help me find things faster. Sometimes I spend waaaaayyyy too much time looking for something when I could actually be making something. Thanks for all the fun you bring to this hobby!!

  • Jcuebas

    Can you please give me ideas on organizing my stories, in order to inspire some layouts? Thanks for the opportunity.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sktbaker Susan Traub Baker

    So my question is… Do you have a perspective on keeping up with trends and changes to the world of scrapping?  I find that palettes change, stripes, dots, patterns, solids, digital, paper, chunky, flat, many pics, lots of white space and so on seem to change or evolve faster than I am. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed I just stop.  Kind of an open response type question but I don’t think I am alone in wanting an answer to it.

    PS I think you talked to my brother a couple days ago.  Small world made smaller by technology. I have been stalking you for years and all of the sudden your name shows up on my brother’s twitter weird! @andytraub is one great guy!

  • Jenny Leonard

    Hi Lain,

    I’ve heard people refer to a triangle when laying out embellishments on a page.  What is the guideline they talking about?  Also are there any other guidelines ( I won’t say rules) to keep in mind when designing a page?

  • Claire in Australia

    Hi Lain!
    Being as online classes are HUGE now, do you have any tips for keeping everything organised on your computer so you know what you’ve signed up for and when? How to remember to take it etc? Is it just me?
    I have my classes organised in Outlook (for the emails) but sometimes, I simply forget!
    Thanking you in anticipation :)

    Claire

  • Shelly789_1

    My parents have tons of old photos that are in those plastic sleeved books. The books are now falling apart and the photos are sticking to the plastic. What is a fast way to rescue these pictures without taking up too much of my scrapbook time for my own photos??

  • C.Robin Sullivan

    Hi Lain, I have a few cricuts, what do you think of electronic cutting machine. Thanks you for helping keep scrapbooking information coming. C.Robin    

  • LauraZM

    Coming off the great free webinar by Gretchen last night (thnx for the generosity!), why do we hoard our “special papers” and supplies? Why do we keep buying and saving rather than using and creating? I know you’ve helped me move in the direction of being the storyteller I want to be, but i want to keep moving in that direction.

    Are we helplessly lost in our why? Unclear bout wh we are in this hobby? How do we keep moving in the direction of being story tellers with beautiful papers/supplies and away from beautiful paper/supply hoarders? Is there a ten step program we need to sign up for? Is their an oth we need to take?

  • LauraZM

    Oh geeze, sorry for the typos in the second part
    *unclear about why
    *is their an oath

  • stampartiste

    Have you ever used an iPhone trip journal to help document a vacation?  I currently have downloaded TripColor, HipGeo and Trip Photos to play around with before going on our summer vacation.  If you have used a trip journal app, which one do you recommend?  And how did you incorporate the information from your trip journal into your vacation scrapbook?

  • Kari Daverson

    I don’t have many photos from my childhood.  My parents were not picture takers and my mom says they just weren’t very sentimental.  I’ve been scrapbooking for 16+ years and have documented so much of my family’s lives (I am sentimental!!) that now they want to see more of my life before they were in it.  Without pictures, I’m kind of at a loss for how to do this.  I have my memories of course, but don’t really know how to approach a project like this.  Have you ever scrapped old memories without pictures?  How? 

  • Jen D.

    I am struggling with organization right now, specifically my scrapbooks. Currently, I have a family album for each year, a Christmas Album that is separate,  a baby album fore each of my three children and a few mini-albums. I do not scrapbook in chronological order, but I do place my pages in chronological order when I put them into a scrapbook. Although, I scrapbook regularly I don’t have any “Finished” scrapbooks besides the baby books. I am also running out of space in the year albums and have needed to move to two and three albums for one year. What I want to know is, what are the different ways both chronological and non-chronological to organize scrapbooks? What categories are there?  How do others organize their scrapbooks? The more detailed the answers, the better.  Thank you for your blog and for being such a great inspiration. I listen to your Podcast regularly and it is the only scrapbooking podcast my husband will listen to in the car with me, without going a little crazy. I love the scrappy talk. Thank you!

  • Luniegirls

    Hi Lain – I live in Las Vegas – IT’S HOT.  We recently moved and I have no room inside for a “craft room”, just a small area.  Now I have to store all my scrappy stuff in the garage.  My concern is the heat – is it bad for any of my items, especially those that have adhesive?  We don’t really have winters like you do, but it does get cold, so the same goes for the cold weather.  Thank you – Julie

  • Jodi R.

    My husband and I have both been designated as the family geneologist for our respective families.  As a result, we have a lot of heritage photos and documents.  Do you have any ideas about how to scrap these items when I don’t always have a lot of the background information?  Thanks for your insight!

  • Jenny McGee

    Hmm, A question for Lain.  I have a ton of older stickers – CM and themed,  I want to use them in a creative way.  What can I do with them???   Thanks.

  • Ellie Augustin

    I have a question what if say someone (no names here :) ) Went a little photo happy &  let’s say there are more then 200 pictures & 2 rolls of pictures that still need to be developed of the same event. Say this was a very proud Mama moment. How many mini & scrapbook pages album can I make w/out being repetitive  Because all the pictures even though they are so many each one is special & I don’t want them to just be stuffed into a reg. photo album.  Or being I’ll have to face the music & do that? HELP.  Thanks Lain!  

  • Pingback: Free Journaling Spot – and Mom/Daughter Layout

  • Vianna M

    My question revolves around making mini-albums.  What are some guidelines for maintaining continuity and “consistency” throughout a mini album when  the photos have every color of the rainbow (aside from turning every photo to black and white)?.  Whenever I go to a party or some other event (birthday or dinner party, a boat trip with friends, etc) I always take photographs then make a mini-album as a gift for the hostess (I use photoshop to create photo collages so I can include as many photos as possible) and the albums are always small, 4×6 or 5×7, mostly handmade from scratch and spiral bound.  I’m a ‘simple scrapbooker’ and dont use a lot of product or bulky embellishments.   The albums always include a few places where the hostess can do her own journaling (sometimes I leave space on the layout pages for this, but more often I prefer tags behind photos to keep the journaling private.  So again, the question is: what are some guidelines for creating a mini-album that’s well put together, that moves fluidly from one page to the next when there are a multitude of colors and photo types included (protraits and scenery and food, etc).  Thank you for choosing my question. indeed. 

  • http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/ Susanne

    Oh I have a question.  What format or features do think make the most readable scrapbooking blogs?  Both for blogs that are trying to make and profit and those that are just for fun.

  • Jenny Leonard

    Hi Lain,  

    I thought of another question for you.  How do you organize your pattern papers and your scraps?  I can group the solid colors together but I’m having trouble deciding how to group the pattern papers since there can be so many different colors in each one or should I go by the type of pattern.

  • Lilola

    Lain,how do you organize your scrapping supplies?  Especially the digital ones.  I get overwhelmed when I try!

  • Stampinwithmj

    what is the most efficient way to scrapbook 15 years of pictures of your kids?  i may have exactly 3 layouts of my son when he was a baby.   and unfortunately his printed pictures are in several rubbermaid containers under my bed.  some dated, most not.  help!  and thank you!

  • Clcain

    I do have the trunk full of photos problem – I know that these people are family but I don’t have anyone left to ask who they are.  I hate to just dump them but I don’t know what to do with them.  I have b&W, sepia, tin and glass.  The glass are fading.  I just don’t know what to do with them all.

  • Cathy from Atlanta

    I have no clue about how to upload to a gallery.  Is there some special way I am suppose to take a picture of my layout?  I don’t have a DSL camera, just my trusty Canon Power Shot SD1200.  Any pointers would be so appreciated.

  • Tobeygeorge

    I have the same. I hope we get some good suggestions. It seems like a sacrilege to just throw family away, even when you don’t know them all.

  • Finicky Fred

    Lain
    I have friends that come over and scrap – but they always use some of my stuff.  Once in a while would be OK, but not EVERY time.  How do I tell them that they have to “pay to play?”

  • Finicky Fred

    You might check with a local museum.  They may want the tin or glass pictures.  A couple of years ago there was a display of tin types at the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas City – so I know there is some interest soemwhere.

  • Finicky Fred

    Another question – my parents have oodles/bunches/boxes/and loose picture slides.  What is the best way to organize all of them.
     

  • Nancy McM

    My question is how do you work with being overwhelmed with so much product and ideas available to us through magazines, websites, blogs, etc. There are SO many papers, and embellishments, and ink pads, and spray bottles of different types of paints, and washi tape and pins and flags and the standby brads & buttons, “it just goes on and on and on… “

  • Nancy McM

    Hi Finicky Fred- My Dad gave us his slides. My husband scanned them into the computer {took a while} and I have been slowly going through them and tagging what I can. Some of them I just don’t know who or where or can barely estimate a date. It’s been fun, though, I found pics of myself from grammar school, 1st Communion, etc so I made some fun layouts. Hope this helps you somewhat! 

  • Jschonrock

    I seem to be somewhat of a collector of paper–sets or kits, as well as individual papers. In order to make my scrapbooking process move along more smoothly and efficiently, do you have specific hints as far as sorting papers– by color, design, etc. and even more so, how to keep my multitudes of partial papers and paper scraps of all sizes. I just seem to get overwhelmed by and lost with all them, forgetting what I have.

  • Lynn Wigren

    I’d like to know how to make money from my blog.  
    I’d also like to know your thoughts on the number of albums we make and what our children are going to do with them.  How do we keep them meaningful (I know you’ve discussed this piece before) and portable.  People move so much more often these days, are looking to keep stuff to the minimum and I think the days of huge houses are over & I’m just thinking about all this – where & how future generations will keep all of these albums. 

  • Lzmilazzo

    Ditto! I’ve given a ton to my kiddos, but keep holding onto lots still!

  • LauraZM

    How do you backup your digi photos? Do you have an external drive and/or use an online site? Ohio and some other states in the Eastern part of the US had severe power outages this past weekend. We had to leave very suddenly. ( I know others are dealing with wildfires and other calamaties.) all this has me rethinking if an external backup is really enough? Would I really grab it in an emergency? Didn’t when we left suddenly last weekend. What should we be thinking about for backup?

  • http://www.facebook.com/dawncheshire2010 Dawn Cheshire

    I’ve got 2 young sons and I’m trying to make a baby album for both of them. I don’t want to repeat titles too much throughout the albums so could you give me some ideas for titles!

  • Lisa Harris

    Hmm…my question is sort of a spinoff of some others, but I seem to have the  OPPOSITE problem of not enough photos. I LOVE scrapbooking for the sake of playing with paper, scissors, and glue. I love the trends and techniques that I see everywhere, and love to try out new things. But my photos (which are very boy-centric and are usually events – birthdays, holidays, vacations) don’t “go” with the things I want to play with. Any thoughts, ideas, tips, suggestions?

    By the way – thanks for taking the time to do these daily videos!

  • Korey McCormick

    Most of the questions you asked in the teaser. Especially scrapbooking baby’s first year. My baby is really 14.

  • Samantha

    I need to know where to go to learn basic things- e.g. I’m doing Project Life this year and loving it!! I’ve found cute 3×4 journaling cards, but can’t figure how to print them to the proper size. I know this is a super basic question, but it has me stumped! I either get cards too big or too small…… help!

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