11 ways to create with less and stay trendy

13 April 201612 April 2016

11 ways to keep up with crafty trends without spending more money

This post could otherwise be titled, How to follow crafty trends without spending a ton. Because since I’ve made a conscious effort to spend less while still creating, part of that effort includes committing to not spend money on products I don’t need.

Still, it can be oh so tempting when I see inspiring new products and creative trends which make me have all the heart eye emojis. Most of the time, I need to use all my willpower to stop myself from succumbing and seriously ask myself, Do I really need this?, considering my already full stash at home.

That said, not spending money on new products or tools doesn’t mean that you can’t have a go at crafty trends, some of which end up staying a lot longer than you might expect.

Sneak peak: a closer look at my Thailand travel journal

16 March 201630 March 2016

Ideas for your travel journal (and a Moleskine review)

As promised in last week’s post of my five travel journal ideas, I’m back to share a closer look at this soft-cover plain Moleskine that I finally decided to use for my Thailand adventure last year.

Ameliawrites-thaitraveljournal-review4

What I love:

Price

It ships for free from Book Depository! I ordered and had it shipped directly to my destination so I could start documenting straightaway when I arrived. Book Depository has a much better price than a physical store in this case. Win.

A Midori traveler’s notebook was a close second but I didn’t want to spend money getting a cover + new notebooks and tempt myself by being sucked into another trend where I would end up spending more than I needed to.

5 versatile travel journal ideas for your next trip (and decision-making tips!)

9 March 201630 March 2016

Stuck for ways to document your trip? Here are 5 versatile travel journal ideas to document!

Are you doing anything for spring break? I keep seeing cheap flight tickets to different countries and I’m so tempted to make plans! While I probably won’t be headed anywhere this spring break, travel is definitely on my mind as I get ready for a big trip this summer and plan to document my past trips as well.

My inner documenter always gets excited about documenting trips as I anticipate new experiences. But it can also be stressful when I get stumped as to what is the best way to document. To help me with my indecision, I turned to Pinterest and scouted for various travel journal ideas and looked for something that would work best in my situation.

I explored and considered various ideas as I was preparing for my two-month long trip last October. And I would totally use these ideas again in another situation!

Appreciating and documenting traditions (and a challenge!)

6 February 20166 February 2016

Learn to appreciate and document your traditions with these four questions.

Here in Singapore (and Asia), we’re celebrating the Chinese New Year (also called the Lunar New Year) this Monday. And for the next fifteen days after. So places and stores have been buzzing with activity and excitement as everyone makes preparations for the New Year.

I didn’t always appreciate or fully understand our traditions for the Lunar New Year. In fact, I even thought they were rather routine and annoying at some point in my younger years. Through the years, gaining an understanding of Chinese traditions and the meaning behind them has brought my appreciation of Lunar New Year to a whole new level as I start to soak in the festivities for myself.

But this year, I find myself having a brand-new appreciation for the customs and cultures of one of the biggest Chinese holidays ever, as I share them with my students and help them to understand this holiday.

While it’s easy to take traditions for granted, sharing my cultural traditions with others has made me pause and consider the traditions we’ve had for Chinese New Year for as long as I can remember. Because the thing about traditions is, you never know when they might change.

So this year, I’m taking extra notice of the traditions we have, the things we do, the food we eat, the places we go and everything in between.

Here are some things I’m thinking about as I go about my celebrations and visitations this year:

Notice the yearly traditions. What are they? Are there many traditions?

Think about the details, the little things, the things that you don’t realize or notice are traditions, but actually are, because you would miss them if they weren’t there.

What food do you eat? Where do you go? Who do you spend time with? What do you do?

What do you like about these traditions? Which traditions make you excited? Why do you like them?

Some of my favorite traditions include our color-coordinated outfits and our annual DIY family photo shoot. And I love them for how they document our lives each year. Getting to visit family and friends I don’t see very often also gets me excited for all the catching up we get to do.

What would you change about your traditions?

As with many things, there are some traditions you don’t like and would rather change or get rid of altogether. What are they?

What new traditions would you like to start for these holidays?

There are seasons of life and some things come and go. Some traditions might work in one season, but may be unrealistic for another season. It is absolutely okay to change some traditions, do away with others, and come up with ones that are brand new just to suit the season of life that you are in.

While I don’t foresee any new traditions this year, I’m sure that there will be new ones once we move into a different season of life.

Although I may not necessarily enjoy all the cultural traditions, I definitely appreciate the values that our traditions embody and being able to share them with others gives me a deeper appreciation and better embracing of the things and traditions that make our culture unique.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF:

So now here’s the challenge – however you decide, write down your traditions, photograph them, art journal them, scrapbook them – just document them in a way that you can look back on them in twenty years and appreciate the traditions for what they were and all that they encapsulated for you at that point in life.

For me, I’m documenting our Lunar New Year traditions this week. For you, that could look totally different (depending on where you live) and you could document some seasonal traditions or holiday traditions instead.

Who’s joining me?

Scrapbook Evolution

27 January 201625 January 2016

What has become of traditional scrapbooking? Discussing facets of scrapbook evolution

Remember when I used to scrap traditional 12×12 scrapbook layouts?

As I was organizing and looking through my blog archives one day, I started reminiscing about all the traditional scrapbooking layouts I used to make before Project Life came into the picture and I sorta “gave up” on traditional scrapbooking. Back in 2012, I even had a whole project going where I made one project a week!

But I daresay it’s been a whole three years since I last made a traditional 12×12 scrapbook page. And truth be told, I actually don’t really miss traditional scrapbook layouts very much at all. I love watching scrapbookers and their creative processes for creating bigger 12×12 pages – it’s still inspiring!

I’ve since discovered that the fun of scrapbooking for me is being able to document my memories whilst being creative. Since I felt as if I would never get “caught up” with documenting through traditional layouts, pocket scrapbooking has been the perfect solution for me.

Once in awhile, I miss making bigger pages. But for the most part, I’m thoroughly embracing pocket page scrapbooking and how it is working for my life right now. And when I need a “large-scale” project, mini albums give me the right fix when I feel I need to work on something bigger.

Through the years, scrapbooking has evolved, but it’s taken on so much more than just scrapbooking in the traditional sense – which has been incredible to watch. Some trends have come and gone, and others have become a permanent part of the industry. Recently, the planner worlds and scrapbook worlds have overlapped and I love seeing the expansion of creativity since these two industries collided, and options are no longer limited to a 12×12 sheet of paper.

So while I no longer scrap 12×12 pages for this season, they will always hold a special place in my heart. I will forever appreciate how they started me on memory keeping and playing with paper, gave me a love for creativity and experimenting with techniques, and combined my love for documenting with paper.

Here’s to many more years of documenting and memory keeping, no matter what shape or form.

How has scrapbooking evolved for you?

How to create square photos without using Photoshop

6 October 20156 October 2015

Amelia Writes | Create square photos without using Photoshop

We’ve been talking a lot about square photos on the blog lately.

And while we’re at it, I thought that I might as well share how I print my square photos – without using Photoshop.

Previously, I always hesitated to use square photos because one 4×6 or two 3x4s were always so much more convenient and much less of a hassle to create than trying to wrestle with fitting a square size on a 4×6 sheet. But when I had to make my first 4×4 mini album two weeks ago, I decided to conquer the formidable square photos and give this size a shot.

Obviously, Photoshop is a great tool for printing your square photos. And while I’m somewhat familiar with Photoshop, I’m not fully comfortable with it yet so I still tend to gravitate towards something quick and easy when I need to print photos in a hurry.

So recently, I started using Picasa (a free software by Google) to create one 4×4 and two 2×2 photos that I can use in my mini album and it’s been a game-changer for me.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Upload your photos on your computer (not pictured).

2. Open Picasa and select photos to import.

NOTE: My computer automatically syncs new photos onto Picasa when I open the Picasa software. Since Picasa is not my primary photo organization system, I don’t mess around with the settings at all. I do my quick and simple edits in Picasa and export them out for printing or uploading. That’s it.

Amelia Writes | Create square photos without using Photoshop

3. Select the photos that you want to create into a collage.

You can see that all my selected photos are held in the tray in the bottom left corner.

Amelia Writes | Create square photos without using Photoshop

4. Individually crop your selected photos to the square size.

TIP: To crop, double click the photo you want to crop and select the crop tool. Use the drop down bar to select what size you want to crop to.

Amelia Writes | Create square photos without using Photoshop

5. Apply the crop setting.

6. After cropping your photo, select CREATE > PICTURE COLLAGE in the task bar of Picasa.

7. Once your photos open up, select MOSAIC.

TIP: Before creating your collage, you can drag the photos around to choose which photo is the 4×4 size, and which ones are the 2×2 size. When you click on the photo you want to move, the selected photo will be highlighted with an orange box.

9. Select CREATE COLLAGE.

Violá! Your collage is created.

10. To finish, select your collage and export with the settings you prefer.

Since I usually print my collages, I save them in the original size to avoid losing any resolution.

Amelia Writes | Create square photos without using Photoshop

There you have it – how I create square photos without using Photoshop.

I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but if you have any questions about this process, let me know in the comments! If you have any other ways to create square photos, I would love to hear about them in the comments too.

P.S. If you want more options for photo sizes, Lauren also has a great Picasa tutorial here.

Mini album | tips for experimenting and creating

2 October 20156 October 2015

Earlier this week, I shared my very first 4×4 mini album.

Since I naturally gravitate to rectangular photos (instead of square ones that the album is meant for), I always thought that 4×4 albums and I were not a good fit, so I tended to shy away from the 4×4 size before. But after my recent experience completing my first-ever mini album in this 4×4 size, I daresay I’ve finally overcome my fear of square albums because I love it and can’t wait to make more.

If you are in the same spot as I am, wanting to try something new but being slightly hesitant about it, I totally understand. So here are my tips for tackling a mini album in an unfamiliar/intimidating size (like 4×4, or any size you are unsure of, really!).

Note: I already gave the album to its recipient, so check out this post if you missed seeing the full album with all the details and want to make sense of what I’m talking about.

Choose similar colors – have “base” colors and accent colors.

For example, for the 4×4 mini album, I chose to have more neutral colors such as black, white, and a cork/woodgrain texture from the journaling cards. My accent colors ended up being gold, mint green, and mustard. I kept my color scheme in mind when picking paper or embellishments for the album – it made the decision process much easier than having ten different options that all looked good. This also helped the album to have a cohesive look throughout.

Use repeated elements and similar embellishments.

My embellishments included stamping, Heidi Swapp’s acetate and paper die shapes, chipboard shapes from Studio Calico and some die shapes from Amy Tangerine.

Break the “rules”.

While the 4×4 We R Memory Keeper albums are meant for primarily square Instagram photos, I actually incorporated many 3×4 photos as well simply by adding 4×4 patterned paper as the background. So go ahead and use rectangular photos if you need to – don’t let the size confine you!

Don’t be afraid of the size.

Sometimes, fear is the biggest thing that keeps us from stepping out of our comfort zones and trying new things. So face that fear and just try whatever unfamiliar or intimidating size you’re thinking about.

What album sizes are most difficult or challenging for you to work with? What are your tips for tackling a new size? Let me know in the comments!

4 x 4 Mini Album | FAREWELL

29 September 201528 September 2015

Create an easy farewell gift using the WRMK 4x4 mini albums | Amelia Writes

When I shared a sneak of this mini album on Instagram, I commented that I’ve always loved how cute and tiny these 4×4 We R Memory Keeper albums are, but I never knew what to do with them.

But after making my first mini album in this size this past week, I can finally understand all the hype surrounding these – they are seriously cute and so much fun to work with!

I decided on this size as a farewell gift for a friend, since it would be compact enough for her to bring along. For this album, I used the beautifully designed Project Life Everyday edition 4×4 cards as the base in the pockets.

And since it was a farewell album, I had my friends write notes on 3×4 cards from the Midnight edition and scattered them throughout the entire album.

For embellishments, I used a mixture of acrylic shapes from Heidi Swapp, gold sequins, and chipboard shapes from Studio Calico.

I always wanted to try see-through pockets and I love that I finally got to do that for this mini album. You’ll also notice that I used the Tiny Attacher to adhere the “floating” elements in the see-through pockets. If I had to pick, my favorite parts are the see-through pockets and the vellum text!

I think I’m hooked and I can’t wait to make more mini albums in this size again.

What about you guys? Let me know in the comments: Do you like scrapbooking in this size? What are your favorite ways to use these 4×4 mini albums?

So here’s a flip through of the whole album – enjoy!

National Scrapbook Day 2015 | blog hop with Kellie Stamps

1 May 2015

Welcome to the National Scrapbook Day Kellie Stamps blog hop and stamp challenge!

Scrapbooking is such a huge part of my life and I love that it gets an entire day to itself (:

To celebrate National Scrapbook Day this weekend, Kellie and the Kellie Stamps Design Team, together with Jessica from Color Cast Designs is having a blog hop where we’re sharing fun stamping techniques with you all. Best of all, we’re having a bunch of stamp giveaways!

EXCITING NEWS : Today, Kellie is starting a pre-order for the May stamp releases, Today and Outline It. There is more – for this weekend ONLY you can use the code : NSDAY2015 for 10% OFF your order, until Monday 4 May at midnight, AEST.

WANT TO WIN A STAMP SET? We are giving you three chances to try winning a stamp set for yourself!

Here’s how:

Take part in the blog hop. To do this, hop along to each blog on the list below, leave a comment on each Kellie Stamps National Scrapbook Day blog post.
Join our challenges by copying one of the stamping techniques shared by a design team member. Projects must be NEW, no linking to old blog projects. Once your projects are complete, add your link to the linky at the end of the blog post. Links can be to blog posts or images from instagram.
ALL of the above.

You have till midnight AEST on Monday 4 May to take part in both the blog hop and the challenge.

Today, I’m sharing these fun stamped cards using the new Today and Outline stamp sets from May (Don’t forget to pre-order!).

I’ve always loved stamping. And I naturally gravitate towards just stamping with black ink. But recently, I’ve fallen in love with colored inks. So I decided to combine my love for stamping and colored inks to create these cards.

For the thank you card, I used the alphas in the Outline stamp set and highlighted Thank You with a different color. The Hello card uses arrows from the Today stamp set to create a muted pattern that can be used as a background.

I picked my favorite dye ink colors for the Love card and just stamped repeatedly. I did the same thing for the Today card and just switched up the colors.

YOUR CHALLENGE: Use colored inks (any color but black) + a repeated image to create a stamped pattern that can be used on its own or as a background.

Now, here’s the fun part! Check out all the ladies taking part in the blog hop here :

Happy National Scrapbook Day! I can’t wait to see what you create.

An InLinkz Link-up

All the Memories | how I started memory keeping

24 March 2015

Since we’ve been talking about memories and memory-keeping over the past couple of months, I thought I would share my story of how I started scrapbooking and memory keeping. It isn’t a grand or dramatic story, but it’s what I remember about this part of my creative journey.

When my siblings and I were growing up, my dad was the memory keeper in our family. He was the one who consistently took our photos, printed them and organized them neatly in photo albums. This was back when everyone still used film cameras and printed pictures. He put the “scrap” in scrapbooking by literally using paper scraps to make our amazing baby albums that each of us immensely treasure today (there are three of us and we each have at least one!). Because of him, we are now able to pull out those family albums and laugh, reminisce and remember all those memories from back in the day.

Those were the initial stages of any exposure I had to the idea or concept of scrapbooking and memory keeping.

The first time I remember making a real scrapbook album (ie. 12×12 spreads) was when our family first came back from a trip to Australia in 2005. We had purchased some patterned papers from the Australian K-mart while we were on vacation and collectively worked on the album together as a family to document our trip after we returned. This was before I even knew about acid- or lignin-free products. All we wanted to do was to get our photos and memories recorded.

Then in 2007, my dad brought me to our local scrapbooking store and together, we learned about scrapbooking basics. After our conversation with the owners, my dad very promptly (and generously) bought me my first set of scrapbooking supplies of acid- and lignin-free glue and paper that day.

And I haven’t looked back since.

Thus, my journey in scrapbooking and creating 12×12 layouts “officially” began. For a season, I also loved making mini books and have a basket-full of them now.

In 2012, I started hearing more about Project Life and contemplated jumping on the bandwagon, before I eventually decided to take the plunge. While I finally made the leap, I never quite made it through my first year. Discouraged, I didn’t continue in 2013. But I decided to intentionally document with Project life in 2014 and I loved it. (Confession: I’m still working on finishing my 2014 album, and still need to start for 2015 – but I’m getting there!)

Sure, there have been times where scrapbooking has taken a backseat when life has taken over and the inspiration has run a bit low. But this creative/scrapbooking/memory-keeping part of me runs deep and strong and I reckon it won’t be going away any time soon.

Through the years, my family has supported my paper addiction, enduring all those seemingly unending hours in the scrapbook store as I perused and ooh-ed and ahh-ed over all the paper goodies.

As much as I love how mind-blowing this digital age can be, there is nothing is quite the same as actually holding printed photos in your hands and flipping through a handmade album full of memories.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to start memory keeping and be a memory keeper because I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Are you a scrapbooker/memory keeper? How did you get started? I’d love to hear your story so let me know in the comments!

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

—

All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!