Whether it’s a summer trip you never want to forget, or endless days of Little League and swim lessons, there’s a pretty good chance you’re snapping lots of pictures during the long, warm days. But how do you make sure your summer memories don’t become the stuff of neglected memory cards? Easy — a summer scrapbook.
Seasonal scrapbooking is such a great idea, for several reasons — not the least of which is that summer usually means more time to sit down and work with your craft projects. Unfortunately, though, summer scrapbooking does have its share of challenges. But with a little help and creativity, you can over come them.
Use the photos you have: You know how the best camera is the one you have with you? This summer, it’s probably your phone — and that’s ok. Borrow some advice from Todd Porter and Diane Cu, the White on Rice Couple, and gussy up your phone pictures with a photo-editing app.
“A lot of people don’t know that there are editing apps,” says Diane, which are usually either free or inexpensive, and can help adjust the color and other elements of your photos. Todd and Diane recommend VSCO, Snapseed, and Photoshop Express.
Go for a theme within a theme: “Summertime” is the general theme of your seasonal scrapbook, but how else can you divide it up? Becky Higgins recommends pulling from some of the most popular themes, including travel, holiday, or project. Consider doing pages for events of all sizes, whether it be sports teams, camping trips, holidays, favorite barbecue recipes, yard improvement, or whatever else you’ve been up to this summer.
Forget about perfection: Sunburned noses, bumped knees, and other “imperfections” are common sights in summertime photos. And while you could spend a lot of time in Photoshop trying to get the ice cream stains off your kids’ shirt, it’s really not necessary.
“As a recovering perfectionist myself, I completely get it,” says CreativeLive instructor Lain Ehmann, “You sit down to scrapbook and maybe your photos are a little out of focus, or you don’t have the perfect cardstock to match your ribbon, or you don’t know where to put things on your design… and you know what? Life isn’t perfect.”
Instead of focusing on how to make a perfect scrapbook, aim to make a scrapbook that perfectly tells the story of the summer exactly as it really was.
Now that you know what to do, show us what you’ve got.
We are so excited to announce our Scrapbook Your Summer Contest! Show us your most creative layouts and you could win big. We want to see your digital scrapbooking creations or the paper layouts you’re most proud of. Submit your entry right here.
We’ve partnered with Adorama and Blurb who gave us some sweet prizes! One winner will receive a Pentax K-50 Digital SLR Camera with a 18-55mm Lens ($596.95) from Adorama, think about all the great summer vacation photos you’ll be able to snap with this beauty! Another winner will get a $500 gift certificate to use on Blurb, perfect for printing out books of your digital scrapbook layouts. And if you tune into Jared Platt’s course airing now through 6/27 you can find out how to master Lightroom for scrapbooking!
To enter to win simply head to our contest page and submit your entry. This contest ends on July 28th so you have a month to enter.
In the mean time be sure to check out our scrapbooking classes and RSVP now for Megan Hoeppner’s From App to Archive: Social Media Scrapbooking, and learn how to turn those instagram photos into lifelong keepsakes.
We’ll announce the winners on this blog post on July 29th. Good luck!
*Congratulations to our winners! Cathy P. & Frances P.! You can view both of their entries right here.*
