New series of blog posts: "New Scrapbooking Ideas" from The Scrapbook Fairy

I have been thinking a lot lately of themes for new scrapbook projects. Over the next couple weeks I will post a series of blog entries explaining my new ideas and how my business can be a help to you.

Maybe you have a family member or friend who is the "person who has everything." Consider purchasing a gift certificate from The Scrapbook Fairy. I'm pretty sure that a personalized, hand-crafted scrapbook is something they don't already have.

Are you a new mom? Do you have tons of pictures of your bundle of joy and no time or energy to put them together into an album? Let me do it for you! I will take all of your pictures, help you choose the best among them, and create a beautiful, customized scrapbook for you and your family to enjoy.

Or maybe you are in the military or know someone who is. I can help you preserve all your photos of your or your friend's military service. Enlistment, promotions, and overseas tours are important moments that you want to remember.

Look for these and other ideas over the next few weeks. And if you mention my blog you will get a 15% discount on your entire order.

If you have an idea, don't hesitate to send me an email at info@scrapookfairy.net so we can talk about turning your idea into reality.

To receive The Scrapbook Fairy's monthly newsletter subscribe here.

Weddings! New pages for my portfolio

I realized recently that I don't have enough wedding pages in my portfolio. I reached out to my friend Joy who owns After The Wedding Day, a wedding registry company and she in turn got in touch with some of her recently married friends who were kind enough to share their wedding photos with me. Below are some of the pages I've been working on. I started with black and white photos and decided to use an antique style of scrapping, using lots of inked edges, fabric, and fabric flowers, to add texture and interest around the photos. I also used one of Scrapperlicious' techniques (see links to my favorite blogs for more of her work) for distressing photos using several different sized hole punches. You can see this technique if you look closely at the corners of the pictures on the second page. Check back soon for some color photo pages!

Sewing machines and scrapbooking you ask? Yes, I say!

I was brainstorming ideas for wedding album pages and I thought of this layout that I did a couple of years ago. It came to mind because several of the wedding photos I plan to use are black and white. I remembered this layout because the photo is black and white and it really popped on the page with the addition of the machine stitching on the black paper. The title of this page is "10 things I love about you." I got the general idea from a scrapbooking magazine and adapted it to the size and shape of my photo.




On the second page of this layout I used the same technique of stitching on a black background, but instead of the structured layout of the previous page, I decided to go a little crazy. I also added some ribbon for a little color.

The stitching technique is super easy with a machine. I have also done some hand stitching, but it's more labor intensive and the stitches are more obvious.

Check Out the New Elements on Scrapbook Fairy's Blog

I recently added some new elements to my blog which I thought might be of interest to readers. In the toolbar you will now find "Scrapbook Fairy's Favorite Blogs" and "Scrapbook Fairy's Favorite Articles.

One of my favorite blogs which I've been following for about a year now is Scrapperlicious. I decided to add a link to this blog because Scrapperlicious' work is so amazing and beautiful that it deserves to be shared. I've actually had a lot of inspiration from the new techniques that Scrapperlicious introduces in her blog. Check out the first image on my Baby Gallery 2. This page was directly inspired by Scrapperlicious. I shamelessly copied her idea to ink the edges of fabric flowers and also to layer many flowers to add depth to the page.

In the section of my favorite articles I posted links to three articles which I believe readers will enjoy. These three articles can also be accessed through my website, www.scrapbookfairy.net, on the Links page. I think the most important article of the three that I posted is "How to Take Care of Your Scrapbook Heirlooms" because many people may not know that their most precious memories can be easily damaged. Read the article for simple, yet important, steps to preserving your photos.

Collaborating with other women business owners

Yesterday I had a great meeting with a friend of mine who also owns her own business. She gave me some great insight into marketing Scrapbook Fairy and also suggested some really good resources like Ladies Who Launch. Talking with her inspired me to work even harder in my business and also to find new ways to network with other women who are running their own businesses.

I encourage you to take a look at my friend's company, After The Wedding Day. She offers a totally new take on the wedding registry that is much more in tune with the diversity of contemporary couples. I really enjoy the concept behind her company and I'm excited to work with her in the future.

Also, if you're interested in networking with Scrapbook Fairy, send me an email any time to info@scrapbookfairy.net!

Happy scrapping!

Ideas?

I've rededicated myself to my business but now I realize that I really don't know how to market myself. I did a couple of newsletter email campaigns to my family and friends, but although I got a little more traffic to my website, it didn't result in any new business. So now I'm searching for ways to make Scrapbook Fairy known. Ideas anyone? I'm not a super HTML genius, so anything I do will have to be pretty simple. If you have any great ideas, send me an email! Please!!!

My New Newsletter

I recently discovered an online service called Mail Chimp that lets you create newsletters from a template and also manages your mailing list. Mail Chimp was obviously created for people like me, that is people who have absolutely no idea how to write HTML code and are not interested in learning. I created and sent my first newsletter yesterday and I hope to do one monthly.

So now that I'm back in the swing of things I'm just making updates to my website and hoping that people visit it. If you're reading my blog, you probably got here via my website, www.scrapbookfairy.net. If you know anyone who is interested in scrapbooking, send them my way!