November Editors' Corner

Happy layouts from happy readers

In celebration of our latest eBook, 20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers by Stacy Julian and our very own Lain Ehmann, we asked you to send us pictures of your happiest layouts. We wanted to see what made you giggle, grin, and get your happy scrapping shoes on.

And boy, did you deliver! We received dozens of submissions, all of which were truly smile-inducing. It was tough to narrow it down to just five! The submissions spanned a variety of topics and angles on happiness, with several main themes. Read on for more inspiration!

Supplies:

software (Adobe Photoshop CS4) • patterned paper (Michelle Martin, designerdigitals.com) • alphabet (C.D. Muckosky, littledreamerdesigns.com) • Retro Digital Frame (ellapublishing.com) • drop shadows (Kristen Rice, afterfivedesigns.com) • Pea Annalee font • 12 x 12 layout by Cammy-Jo Plummer

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1. Your daily delights make you happy.

This digital page from Cammie-Jo Plummer is a wonderful encapsulation of her everyday joys. This will be so fun for her look back on in the years to come! Try it yourself. You could even turn this concept into an ongoing album that you add to on a monthly or yearly basis—or an album with one page from each family member. (Psst! Did you see that cute Ella Retro Digital Frame? It's the one that appears to have been stuck to the page with masking tape.)

Supplies:

cardstock (Bazzill) • chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp) • number stamps (All Night Media) • flourish foam stamp (Lisa Bearnson Kit of the Month) • ribbon (BasicGrey) • paint (Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers) • pen (American Crafts) • ink (Staz On, Tsukineko) • 12 x 12 layout by Margie Scarpignato

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2. Your photographs make you happy.

Margie Scarpignato is quite the world traveler. She turns to scrapbooking and blogging as a way of documenting and appreciating her family’s voyages. This layout is a collection of the photos she’s chosen for her blog banner since her family moved to Beijing last year. “The photos that I use as blog banners are always favorites, so to compile a collection of them onto one page is just really cool,” she says. (Note: In general, we’re huge proponents of journaling on scrapbook layouts. But in cases like this, the photos and the title tell the story all on their own.)

Supplies:

cardstock (Bazzill) • patterned paper (Basic Grey) • chipboard (Scenic Route) • buttons (Basic Grey) • floss (Bazzill) • pen (Micron by Sakura) • fluid chalk (Color Box) • American Typewriter font (Adobe) • Black Jack font (dafont.com ) • corner rounder (Chomper by We R Memory Keepers) • glue dots (Glue Dots) • 12 x 12 layout by Lee Currie

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3. Little discoveries make you happy.

In Lee Currie's world, and hopefully yours as well, a smile is just a green balloon away. On one regular, average day, Lee captured this candid photo of her son killing time. “I watched in amazement how that simple green balloon occupied him for almost an hour: a happy time worth remembering!” Did you pay attention to the cute way the collection of embellishments look just like...balloons? When a particular aspect of a photo makes you happy, repeat that element on your layout for emphasis.

Supplies:

cardstock (Bazzill) • patterned paper (Collage Press) • label stickers (Fontwerks) • letter stickers (Making Memories) • chipboard (Rusty Pickle) • brad (Creative Imaginations) • ribbon and clip (unknown) • pen (Sakura) • 12 x 12 layout by Sherry Steveson

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4. Your family makes you happy.

Of course your family makes you happy! (Well, most of the time, right? Saturday-morning chore battles excepted.) As Sherry Steveson realized, happiness doesn’t always come with big lightning bolts; sometimes all it takes is an ordinary day with the ones you love to make your cup overflow with joy. And sometimes you don't realize how extraordinary that day was until you look back at your photos a few days, months, or years later. All the more reason to preserve everyday memories on scrapbook pages!

Supplies:

cardstock (Bazzill) • patterned paper (KI Memories, Love, Elsie and Scenic Route) • alphabet stickers (Doodlebug, American Crafts) • chipboard letters (KI Memories, Heidi Swapp) • ribbon (American Crafts) • ghost heart (Heidi Swapp) • felt flower and tickets (Creative Cafe) • brad (Making Memories) • "smile" flair (American Crafts) • precision pen (American Crafts) • paperclips (source unknown) • 12 x 12 layout by Tami Vik

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5. Scrapbooking makes you happy.

How could anyone resist this creative, colorful layout that documents one woman's love of scrapbooking? Tami Vik created this layout while participating in the Layout a Day Challenge (L.O.A.D.) that Lain organizes through her Scrap Happy blog several times a year. Participants complete one layout every day for an entire month, post their layouts to a shared gallery where they can cheer each other on, and become eligible for cool prize packages. As Tami's layout can attest, the L.O.A.D. challenge is a great way to infuse your scrapbooking with like-minded friends, playful productivity, and feelings of accomplishment.

Wasn't that fun? We hope you are just as inspired by these happy scrappers' designs as we were, and we hope you'll find the time to document your own moments of happiness, be they big or small!

Now, as the craziness of the holiday season is about to ensue, you may quickly run out of time to sit down and scrapbook your happy moments. So we encourage you to either let Monica McNeill’s article convince you to make room in your schedule for scrapbooking, or to take a few photos and jot a few lines in your journaler’s notebook over the next few weeks and just set them aside. They’ll be there waiting for you in January when (hopefully) your life calms down!

Here’s to a happy and fulfilling season of plenty,

p.s. Several of our featured readers this month have never submitted a page for publication anywhere before, and we’re glad to host their debut! Make sure to check our Daily Trumpet blog and submissions page for the latest information on our current calls!

Oh, and one more thing...

For more helpful tips to keep you smiling while you scrap (plus scientific proof that scrapbooking can make you happier), make sure to download your copy of 20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers by Stacy Julian and Lain Ehmann!