Crop Corner

Mini Scrapbooks make great weekend projects and are perfect gifts. You can even make them with your children as a family project. The only paper needed for this mini book is one sheet of 12"x12" scrapbook paper! 1) Cut a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper into 4 strips that are each 3" wide. 2) Fold each strip in half. Open. And, then fold each end towards the center and crease. 3) To create pockets in the pages, insert a small cutting pad or a piece of chipboard between the folded layers and cut around a pre-printed design with a craft knife.

In our Nov/Dec "As Time Goes By" article, you learned how interesting it is to scrapbook a subject over time. Now, follow my instructions for making the paper bag album in a tin that I created for my daughter, Poppy. I used 53 white craft bags (3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches) for my projectone for each week of Poppy's first year, plus a cover page. 1 Fold bottom panel of bag in half, back upon itself, so bag lays flat. Repeat for each bag. This folding "closes off" bottom and side panels of bag and gives the book a stronger "spine" when bags are stacked together.

Step 2) Slip the cardstock into the Fastenater, while holding the fibers in place. Step 3) Press down on the tool, attaching the decorative bar over the fibers. The Fastenater can staple a decorative bar through 6 sheets of regular paper or 3 sheets of cardstock. You can use it to attach vellum, transparencies, fibers, and photos to your scrapbook pages. The bars themselves are so decorative that they make perfect metal page embellishments on their own.

Step 1) Place the item you wish to apply an eyelet to on the cutting mat provided in the tool kit. Step 2) Insert the size hole tip that matches your eyelet size into the tool (three tips are provided). Step 3) Using firm pressure press the tip of the tool onto the cardstock. You may wish to rock the tip slightly as you press. Step 4) Insert eyelet into the hole and flip the cardstock with eyelet in it over on the mat. Step 5) Insert the eyelet setting tip that matches the size of the eyelet into the tool (three tips are provided).

As many of our readers know, our all-new offering: Digital Photography: The Complete Course is now available. Click here for a free catalog describing our new Course. What you may not know is that we've been barraged for the past year by e-mail from current NYI students and graduates and other visitors to our Web site asking all sorts of questions about digital photography techniques and equipment. One of the great things about the Complete Digital Photography Course is that you don't have to go it alone. In fact, several months ago, we had new staff members join us to oversee the challenge of offering advice to our digital photography students.

Available at Wal-Mart, Michaels, Jo-Ann and A.C. Moore stores nationwide.

Thank you for sending in your favorite holiday memories! Enjoy Jessica Miller's winning essay in the November/December issue of Simple Scrapbooks. In addition, we've selected four other first-prize winners and two honorable mention winners. We're pleased to publish their outstanding entries online. Congratulations to Jessica, Kelly, Betty Jane, Christy and Johanna, each of whom will win a full-year scrap club membership. Soon they'll be receiving monthly deliveries of cool scrapbook kits and supplies, right to their doors! And to Natalie and Jan, a prize bag worth $50 of the latest and greatest in scrapbooking supplies.

Louise Richer creates a three-dimensional favorite things shadowbox. At the age of eight, Louise Richer of Pembroke Pines, Fla., was already sewing a line of clothing for her dolls. She then branched out into jewelry and also found a market selling her artwork to her neighbors. But this imaginative crafter's latest inspiration is incorporating her scrapbooking techniques into clever three-dimensional shadow boxes.

In our Nov/Dec issue, you learned that Lizz Parsons favorite album is not about a birthday or even her last vacation, but a liver transplant! Her personal, four-year journey from diagnosis to transplant is so packed with information and details that we just had to put the entire album online for you to read.

When my son was nine months old, I was sorting through a box of old baby things my mother-in-law had sent me. One of the treasures I discovered was the baby outfit my husband wore in his baby picture. I eyed the outfit, then eyed my son. I wondered if it would fit. It did, and I couldnt wait to photograph him and send the picture to my mother-in-law. Necia Wiggins had a similar experience. I was fortunate that one of the things my mother saved was the dress I wore in my one-year-old picture. So when Kaelyn was born, says Necia, I wanted to carry on the tradition with my daughter.