One of my favorite scrapbook sites is closing their digital art store. Polka Dot Potato has long been one of the premier digital scrapbook stores. But now they are shifting gears and focusing on their great print service – they print the BEST 12×12 prints ever, and they are priced right! In addition, they have some business to business ventures, plus graphic and web design. Boy! They are going to be busy!

So, even though we are so sad to see Polka Dot Potato close their digital scrapbook store, there are great savings to be had by all! Now through August 25, you can save 60% on your order, with a minimum purchase of $10. Plus, if you spend over $100 you will save an ADDITIONAL 15%! Incredible savings on incredible art! Click on the graphic below to enter the store and fill your cart!

It is time once again for the fabulous Potato Bar at Polka Dot Potato! For those of you who have not experienced the bar, you can get fabulous scrapbook kits, templates, and more for only .99 cents! There are some great products available and you can’t beat the price. The bar only comes around a few times a year and it is one of the best times to stock up on quality digital scrapbook products.

The Potato Bar is operating a little differently this time. All the designers were given color swatches to work with and as a result you have coordinating products. The products are grouped under certain categories and the products you buy in the same category will go together. This way you can mix and match and come up with a great variety of papers and elements! The categories are: Bunny Hop, Rainy Days, Spring Fever, & Tulip Garden.  There is also the ‘Buy the Bar’ option. This is where you can buy all of a designers Potato Bar products for a 25% discount.  I tell you, there are great deals all around during the Potato Bar!

Here is the official Potato Bar ad:

Once the bar is closed these products will go away forever – well, maybe not forever but they won’t be this price ever again! By the way, if you are new to digi scrapping this is a perfect opportunity to build up your supply of digi products and get a feel for the different designers.  If you are a veteran scrapper, here is your chance to try out some of the new designers at Polka Dot Potato – one of the best digital scrapbook stores around!

I have a friend who is really on top of picture taking and scrapbooking. Every year she takes pictures of family parties, events and general everyday living then she puts it all together in a book at the end of the year. Okay, so this just sounds like the scrapbooking we all do right? Well, she takes it a step further and makes it more like family history keeping! She creates a spiral bound, 8.5 x 11 book for every member of her family. In this book there are several pages for each family member and their pursuits throughout the year. She also includes family vacations, get togethers and just fun stuff. I have to tell you that this friend is the party queen and she hosts fabulous event parties for Easter, Mother’s Day, etc. She includes the invitations and pictures of these events. Is there any better way to remember the year and create a wonderful history for posterity at the same time?

Here are some tips to create your own yearbook. First of all – take lots of pictures! You can’t have a quality yearbook unless you have great photos to put in it. Don’t just take pictures of the stuff you think is important. Take pictures of everyday events – Mom cooking dinner, Dad mowing the lawn, the family playing the Wii. It is the everyday events that make memories and these things will endear you to your future posterity. Think about it, isn’t it the stories of everyday life that you enjoy most about your ancestors? Make sure you take notes and record the who, what, why, where, etc. No one likes to look though a scrapbook and play guess who!

Next, to avoid an overwhelming task at the end of the year scrap the pages throughout the year. If you stay on top of it, you will remember the details of the events and you will have less stress at the end of the year. You will just need to print, bind and wrap! A ready made gift that you have created with love all year long.

When printing your book you can rely on professional printers to create a beautifully bound book. Or you can print it yourself using a high quality printer (I like HP Photosmart printers, but everyone has their favorites!). Make sure you use good quality paper like the Epson Double Sided Photo Paper. This paper is high quality, shows the colors brilliantly, and since it is matte you won’t have a glare.

NOTE – Anything you print with an inkjet printer is not waterproof so if it gets wet you will get smears. To prevent this, put your pages in sheet protectors or treat it with Preserve-It Digital Photo & Paper Protectant. This is a spray that will create a water and fade proof barrier on your inkjet printed photos. Just to test, I printed scrapbook page on the Epson paper and then sprayed them with Preserve-It. I then ran the page under a faucet and it didn’t run or smear. Of course you would never put a photo under running water, but I was a skeptic so I had to test it!

Start now to create a wonderful keepsake for your family and friends. Not only will you be giving them a wonderful gift of memories, you will be creating an invaluable history of your family.

Here it is, a brand new year. Have you made your resolutions yet? It seems we like to start the year resolving to eat better, exercise more, and be budget wise. But what are your scrapbook goals? Now, don’t laugh – I am serious! Do you have any scrapbook goals for 2010?

If you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions that have the word ‘scrapbook’ in them, let me help you. The number one thing you should resolve to do this year is take more pictures!. Keep a small camera with you all the time, because you never know when the perfect shot will happen. There are wonderful compact cameras on the market that take excellent photos. So even though you might prefer to take pictures with your ‘nice’ camera, you will find that having a purse camera is very handy!

Next, get the pictures off the camera! So now that you have taken all these great photos, where are they? If you are like a lot of people they are still sitting on your memory card – in the camera. Upload the photos to your computer and then back them up. It is a good idea to have at least to back up copies of your photos and scrapbook pages. You never know when you might have hard drive failure.

Make a scrapbook plan. Set a goal for scrapbooking so many times per month, or finishing so many pages. Make it a realistic goal that you will be able to attain – we want success, not failure! One idea for the new year is to create a ‘year in review’ book. Start now and take photos and create a layout each month. At the end of the year you have a fun book that has all the highlights of the previous month. This type of book makes a great gift for grandparents too!

Make a photo book. Another fun gift for almost anyone is a professionally bound photo book. These books become treasured keepsakes and look wonderful – just like something you would pick up at a bookstore, but it is all about your family!  Learn how to make a photo book today!

Print your pages. As you finish your layouts – print them! Everyone loves to flip through a scrapbook and relive memories. Sure, you can look at the layouts on your computers, but having them in a book you can hold is wonderful. Polka Dot Potato does wonderful scrapbook printing, any size including 12×12. Their prices are great and the quality is fabulous!

Sit down and write your scrapbook goals for the coming year. When you get to next December you will be glad you did!

How many of us have looked at scrapbooks from the past and wondered who was in the photo and what were they doing? Why was Aunt Sally at Cape Cod in 1952?  Did she know someone there? How long did she visit? Was there a wedding or event, that may have had printed invitations? When we scrapbook we need to answer the who, what, where, & why’s of the future.

Who will end up with your scrapbooks in the future? You are preserving memories not only for your immediate family, but for your posterity as well.  By being descriptive in your journaling you are creating a history that will endear you to future generations.

• Tell the story behind the pictures. Where are you and why are you there? Why is Uncle Bob laughing so hard? Even if the story doesn’t seem interesting, it tells who you are. I cherish my grandmothers journal even though there is only one sentence per page. It tells of her everyday life and brings a human element that I can relate to now that I am a wife and mother.
• Journaling doesn’t need photos. Did a funny thing happen on your vacation that you don’t have photos for? Included that story in your journaling! You will remember the fun when you read it. There doesn’t need to be a photo for everything. Take a photo of grandpa and then journal stories about his childhood.
• Be creative! Don’t just put dates and names in a line under the photo. Journal around the photo or in a creative shape! Just make sure your writing is easy to read.
• Use fun fonts – but sparingly! There are a lot of fun fonts available and they are great for titles and some captions. But make sure your journaling is in an easy to read font. We want people to be able to enjoy the story – not be frustrated because they can’t read it!

Did you know you can have your own handwriting made into a font? You can do your journaling on the computer but still in your own handwriting! Many online digital scrapbook stores offer this service so check it out.

Scrapbooking is a great way to preserve our family memories and stories for our posterity. By journaling we let them know what kind of people we were and what we enjoyed. Don’t sugar coat it – show who you really are. Your future family will love you no matter what. Now get journaling!

There are a lot of people who wonder why someone would choose digital scrapbooking over traditional paper scrapping.  I think there are several reasons, two of them are it is inexpensive and it is so easy!

COST

When you paper scrap, each layout can cost anywhere from $3 on up depending on what you put into it. I know you can do minimal embellishments and bring the cost of the layout down, but do you really want to cut things out? The cost of paper scrapping is going up and up, with just a single 12×12 sheet of colored cardstock costing close to $1!

With digital scrapbooking you can get a high quality full size kit for around $3 to $5! For less than the cost of one paper layout, you can create multiple, stunning layouts with one digital kit! Since you can reuse digital kits over and over, you can make a fun brag book or mini gift album that has the same theme throughout. What a great inexpensive gift!

Your major expense with digital scrapbooking is your software. There are many different programs to choose from. I will talk more on programs later.

EASY TO DO

Digital scrapbooking is very easy to learn and fun to do! You can resize pictures right on you layouts to fit where you need them – no more getting out the ruler and cropping! It is great to be able to see your layout on the screen and move things around as you wish.

It is much faster to scrap digitally. Setting up your supplies is just a matter of turning on your computer! When you need to take a break, you can save your layout and come back later. Everything will be ready to go again when you return.

It is great not to have to worry about kids getting into your supplies or running out of something. I am sure we have all been scrapping late at night and needed a certain color paper or the perfect accent, right? With digital scrapping all your supplies are right on your computer and if you need something you can always find it on the internet where digital scrapbook stores are open 24/7!

In my opinion, digital scrapbooking is the way of the future. Join in the fun – you will be glad you did!