Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Colorful. There are different ways you can see this theme. I decided to take a few very colorful things from my Scrap Studio that inspire me every time I'm working there.

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:03 AM in Category: Photo Hunt , photos
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Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Cooked / Cooking. I always intended to make a recipe Scrapbook album. However, it has not yet come to that. I have made one recipe mini album, though. It's about Chocolate Mousse (Or as we in the family like to call it: Heavenly Mud). In the mini album I've covered every step you have to take to make this Heavenly mud. This is one of the steps:

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:55 AM in Category: Hemelse Modder , Photo Hunt , photos
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Hey all,

As I said before I'm dreaming about the "Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit". Okay, it's not officially called this name, but that's what I call it! I've been a member of Club Scrap before (April 2004 - June 2005), but due to my RSI problems, I had hardly used the Club Scrap Kits. Then there came a time when I wanted to make scrapbook examples for my shop, so I mainly used supplies I had in my shop. Now I'm starting to use Club Scrap kits again. And I love it.

the Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit
Club Scrap has such a high quality for their kits, that it's hard to not love their supplies! I have several scrapbook projects in my head right now and since I'm scrapping more and more I think there comes time that I don't have any Club Scrap Supplies anymore. Of course I can buy supplies from other brands (I do that now too), but I still LOVE Club Scrap. So now I'm dreaming about a kit with the following supplies {Source: Club Scrap}:

• Main Entree:
  
  
  
  • Papers — A healthy blend of at least sixteen 12x12s, and ten 8.5x11s of premium quality textured card stock and translucent sheets, perfect for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.
    
  • Goodies — We shop and create for you! Expect a discriminating and coordinated selection of fresh and innovative craft products to enhance your projects.
    
  • Sticker or Stencil — On alternating months you'll receive either a sheet of original Stickers or a 5.5x8.5 Stencil template, both exceptional methods of page embellishing.
    
  • Idea Recipe Cards — An indispensable tool for the perfect craft seasoning . . . a brand new FONT Card for you to trace and copy onto your projects, a BORDERS & BACKGROUNDS Card that offers coordinated images for unlimited uses, and a LAYOUT Card that hands you ideas on a silver platter!
    
  • Scrap Rap™ — A robust and colorful 8-page newsletter that's jam-packed with priceless ideas, techniques and projects from the CS® Design Team and our talented Members.
    
  
  
• The Three Side orders
  
  
  
  • Wood Mounted Stamp(s) — Superbly artistic and perfectly coordinated original stamps . . . you'll receive one large or two smaller stamps in each kit.
    
  • Embellishment Pack — A delightful mix to your craft collection . . .:
    
    
    
    • One portion of hand selectedbeads, brads, charms, nail heads, eyelets and more
      
    • A set of perfectly matched fibers for each kit — 6-8 yards of 4 different styles
      
    • Twelve Photo Mattes at 6.25x4.25 that make matting and layering a piece of cake
      
    • Two 8.5x11 Tag Sheets that include combinations of printed and plain options
      
    • PaperCuts that equal two 8.5x11 sheets — exclusive CS® diecuts, both printed and plain
      
    
    
  • Greetings to Go — an exquisite variety and a cardmakers dream . . . :
    
    
    
    • Fifteen Scored Sheets for ready-to-make cards in an assortment of sizes
      
    • Fifteen Kindred Panels that are poised for accessorizing
      
    • Fifteen Coordinated Envelopes for instant in-the-mail capabilities
      
    • A portion of adhesive or a coordinated ink for on-the-go handiwork
      
    
    
  
  
• Extra's from the à La Carte Menu:
  
  
  
  • Extra CS Paper Helping — A second helping of CS® paper
    
  • POP's — A luscious "pound of CS® paper" cut down to bite-size servings for easy crafting
    
  • StampXtras — Greeting {a touch of life's occasions} & Art Nouveau {a glimpse of life and art}
    
  • The Swatch Card — A catalog of your kit's paper swatches, designs and ingredients — a must for any future cravings
    
  • The Unmounted Rubber Set — Images right from the Idea Recipe Cards — Fonts and Backgrounds & Borders
    
  
  

The reasons
And why do I want all those things? Let's see about each part, shall we?
The Main Entree
This is the best package you can get. There's also a junior package, but you won't have as much in it. Although granted, it does costs less also :). Anyway, the cardstock is from a highly quality. It's really thick. This makes it possible to have it as the main background and put it in a page protector when the entire page is finished. And that's what I like. I don't like these thin background papers with which you still need cardstock to give it the sufficient protection. And on top of it, the designs are all from Club Scrap! It's all original, unlike with in kits from other manufacturers! The goodies are always matching perfectly with the cardstock. Several of them are specially selected for Club Scrap and you can't always get your hand on it! The stickers are always great. Sometimes you get alphabet stickers and other times you'll get stickers with a certain design. The stencils are also very useful. With my previous subscription, I've already had a few envelop templates, drawings to fill with chalk or paint and much more! The Idea recipe cards give you layout sketches, and prints of the fonts and Borders & Backgrounds. So, if you're looking for ideas for your layout, these cards are excellent to use. And as a great bonus you'll get the Scrap Rap. You can see this as the Club Scrap Newsletter with examples for that month's kit, work from other members from previous months and sometimes a project description. This has given me inspiration for my SAG album already!
Three side orders
I love the quality of these side orders. The wood mounted stamps are coordinating with the kits perfectly. Several of them are unique for Club Scrap and come in limited editions. Can you imagine that? The Embellishments pack has everything you need. In my case I love the tags you get. In the past I've especially ordered sheets of tags, just because I liked the designs and because I knew I could use them somewhere. The photo mats have come in handy very much already in the past! And talk about the fibers. These are usually things I can't find in my local stores. That's why I always had these ordered too! The rest of the pack is as good too! The Greetings to go is something new for me. I understand that crafters in America have only recently started making cards. Here in the Netherlands this is something we've been doing for ages. As I see the description, I think this will be a wonderful pack for card making.
Extra's
The Extra helping of papers have already come in very handy for me with regards to a few projects. In the past I've ordered these separately when I found papers I really liked. It's just so easy to work with. The POP's are so great to work. Not only can you use them for photo mats, but you can also use them for journaling blocks, die cuts and much more! These weren't part of my standard package in the past, but I did order several POP's in addition to the kits I already had. What was standard in my order, were the StampXtra's. These were also specially designed for Clubscrap. Up until now I've only used a few of them, but I do see where I can use others already :). Another thing that's really good is the swatch card. This gives you a sample of the cardstock and the designs. This way you'll always know which cardstock belongs to which kit. And if you happen to run out of the cardstock, you can easily order it {assuming Club Scrap still has the necessary supplies}. One last thing I hadn't in my orders in the past was the Unmounted stamp set. However, in the future I would consider having this in my standard order. These are so beautiful!!!

Well this is about all I can say. Oh, one last addition: It's all such a high quality! Of course you'll "pay" for that, but if I compare it to other companies, I think this is great and you're not paying anything extra for the quality. Better yet, all taken together, I think Club Scrap is even better with their pricing!

Keep on dreaming
However, although I'm only dreaming about it right now, this maybe achievable in the future if I receive enough money from Pay-per-post programs and ad incomes. That would be funny, wouldn't it? Until then..... I keep on dreaming!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:23 PM in Category: babble , babble , blogs , Club Scrap , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

It's Friday again and as usual I'm surfing the net and searching for things for my hobbies {especially scrapbooking}. It's always so fun to search for new things, but it's even more fun to actually buy new things. And that's why I love Blogging & Money, as I call it. Writing posts for money gives me the opportunity to earn a little bit extra cash to support my Scrapbook projects! And don't get me wrong, I love my blog and I'll always continue to write here for myself {as in not paid!}. But making a few extra bucks to support my hobby is something I can't say no to, could you? So let's talk a bit about earning this little extra cash!

Pay Per Post
Usually I check the web about once a week for opportunities on Blogging & Money. As I told you before I'm using multiple companies for this. One of those companies is Pay per Post. This company's specialty is blog advertising. I can hear you thinking: "Why did you choose for this company?". Well, if you haven't read any of my previous posts, here's why {and in a way it's simple}: This was the second company that accepted my blog for ads on blogs and the first company where I had several posting opportunities almost instantly. With Pay per Post I also get more opportunities available when my stats {visitors and other sites who link to mine} are improving, which is of course very fun!
And although Pay Per Post has it's basis in the United States, bloggers from all over the world can participate here, as long as you have a Paypal account. And that's the beauty of it. Nowadays it's very easy to get a Paypal account. I have an account for several years now, so participating with Pay Per Post is no problem for me!

Posting for Pay per Post
I've been writing for Pay per Post since March 3, 2007, so it has been about 10 weeks ago that I started. In that time I've taken 5 opportunities {6 with this one included} and earned $35.50 with those opportunities! That makes an average of one opportunity per two weeks and $7.- per opportunity. This might not seem that much to you {at least if you're looking for a way to earn a lot of money with your blog} but I see it as a start. When you start a new job in an area of expertise where you haven't worked before, you don't get paid the highest salary from the beginning either.
Although it doesn't seem like much at the moment, things are changing. Granted, they change slowly..... Since my stats have improved I'm seeing more opportunities with higher payouts available. In fact, I've found about 5 possible opportunities yesterday. I'll have to dig into them a bit deeper, so that I know what to write about, but it's a good thing.

Meeting new people
One of the fun things is that I've gotten to know a few new people too. Pay per Post has a Blog of the Day and I regularly check those blogs, just to see what these posties are writing about. It's fun to see the sites and I happen to come across some scrapbooking sites as well. That's what I really like a lot! Another way of meeting fellow posties is through the forum from Pay per Post. We're all exchanging ideas and learning from each other. That way you can really lift your blog to a higher level. And not necessarily for more posting opportunities, but also just for in example improving your writing skills.

What I've learned since blogging for money
As I said before, I'm not only blogging for money. I'm blogging for me. That's my starting point. Many people use their blog as an online diary, as do I. That's why I'm always using opportunities that actually mean something to me. I've learned very soon not to take each opportunity I see. The best way for me to write about something, is when I'm really connected to the subject, one way or the other.
While writing about those subjects and visiting other peoples blog, I'm also learning to improve my writing skills. That's something which will always come in handy. For instance, I have a job where I have to write several big and small texts / plans and I have to make sure it's something everybody can read and understand. Writing in my blog and improving my writing skills helps me to make me better in my job.
One last thing I'm beginning to learn is how others blog for money. Some just take every opportunity they see. Others really only take the opportunities they have "something" with, like me. I think the latter is the best way. It makes it possible for you to really write a post "from the heart".

Downsides
And of course, it's not always "Rozengeur & Maneschijn" (the icing on the cake). The fact that you'll get paid only 30 days after you've written the posts is a downside for me. I have to wait a full 30 days before I get paid! On the other hand, this is not something I do for a living, so it's not THAT big of a deal. I hope I'll be able to pay for my scrapbooking hobby in the future. For instance, if I would make enough money per month to pay for one of the big kits at Club Scrap. I'm dreaming about the A la Carte Club Scrap Hearty Appetite. Granted, it costs about $110.- per month {excluding shipping costs to Europe} but it has sooooo much!!!!!!! I just love it!!!!! Anyway, that would mean I have to make about $150,- per month, if I want to have shipping included. I can dream, can't I? :) Until then...... I'll just dream, and finish the stack I still have from the time I was a member, but hardly could use it, due to my RSI problems.
Okay, back to the downsides. One more downside is that it takes a few days before your posts get approved. I'm alway curious if I've done the right thing and in those cases I'm not that good in waiting for approval. On the other hand I do understand they have a lot of entries to check, so they don't have the time to finish everything in a day. And another plus on this subject is the fact that {like I said above}, once your post has been approved, you'll get paid 30 days after you've submitted your post and NOT 30 days after your post has been approved. That makes a huge difference!
One other downside is the fact that I have the idea the actual advertisers are hardly reading the blog entries we write. I've hardly heard of any comment advertises actually made on an entry. It would be good to know what they think of your entry. At the same time I know this is also a tough job for advertisers because it's possible they'd have to check dozens or hundreds of blog entries. So the time to check them all........................

Goals
As I told you before, one of my dreams is to be able to pay for my hobby entirely with earnings from blog. I think I'll reach my goal some time in the future. I know several Pay per Post members are making quite a lot of money with their blog and they all manage to seamlessly integrate all their posts for Pay per Post into their blog. The top posters even make between $500.- and $ 900.- per month. So I know it's doable! I'm really looking forward to a bit more money then $30.-!

Having fun!
The most important thing for me is that I still have fun in writing those post. Having these opportunities does encourage me to write more about everything that's going on in my daily life, by the way. I get inspired by other peoples blogs, I get inspired by the subjects from the opportunities and much more! That is why I love to do this!

If you want to experience the fun as much as I do, use this sign up form to sign up instantly!

Have fun and as always, thanks for your comments!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:09 AM in Category: Blogging & Money , blogs , Pay per Post
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Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Five. Of course you have a great variety of ways to see this theme. This week I've chosen for a photo that obviously doesn't contain 5 things:

Why did I pick this photo for the theme 5? It's about the idea behind this photo, so let me explain. I've been looking for an ideal way to have my embellishments orderly stashed and yet still visible. During one of my lunch breaks I head to a shop near my job and found these cute jars. I though they would be perfect for all my embellishments. I did want all three sorts, so I started with five of each. I'm not sure what the cashier was thinking when I told her I wanted them all, but her look was telling something :) I though these fifteen jars would do the job. Well, as you can see here and here this fifteen jars were not enough at all!!!! So, I started with five jars from each model and ended with a whole lot more!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:47 AM in Category: Photo Hunt , photos
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Hey all,

It seems that the Rent my Blog feature from Blogexplosion is still not working properly. I can put an offer up, I can deny bids, but I cannot accept bids. Therefore I have decided I'll list all the sites that have bid on my offer:

• Mandy Charlton from Don't pose. This is wonderful photo blog. I love the photos she's made. Do visit her site!
  
• Dana from Southern girl goes North
  
• Melinda from From Reason to Freedom
  
• Women Diary
  
• Free Grabber
  
• Political Realm
  

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:43 PM in Category: Blogexplosion , blogs
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Hey all,

I told you before I have a few dreams to fulfill with the money I earn with blogging. So far I've been paid out about $30,- for a few posts. The ads seem to do hardly anything, unfortunately. Maybe they will do better in the future :) So, it's not an incredible income (good idea NOT to give up my fulltime dayjob *grin*) as for now. I hope it will get better in the future. So, that's why I decided to dig a little deeper into the subject and to see what tips I can find which can be useful for me, and maybe for you too.

1. Start looking for "high income" bloggers
If you want to start anywhere, start with a blog from someone who claims to have a high income through blogging. It's not a guarantee that you'll find something useful for you, but you'll never know. Just look for tips they display and see if you can find the same things. Maybe you can use their tips / subjects in YOUR blog as well. I found the website from Darren Rowse. If it's all truth what he states on his blog, we can only hope that one day we'll be able to do the same! Browse his site and try out a few things!

2. Define for yourself how far you are willing to go
With programs like Pay per Post and Blogsvertise you'll get lots of opportunities and it is tempting to use whichever you can to make money. But if you're not careful you'll probably end up having a blog filled with only posts helping you to make money, but nothing about the subject you started your blog for. And that's not what you want to happen. After all, you have several readers who come to your blog because of the subject you originally choose. So try to stick to that, or any other subject you choose to blog about. Just keep it close to your self. If you don't feel comfortable talking about gambling, debts, loans and more things like that, then don't! Set yourself some parameters.

3. Try out new things
If you see something on someone else's blog, don't hesitate to check it out to see if it's something you can use! It's not like the blog you saw it first at has the sole right to this method.......

4. have fun!
My motto for scrapping applies here perfectly well: Have Fun! If you're not having fun anymore, then stop it.

Now that I have shared my basic tips, let's look at how everything is working out for me. I've made several posts based upon Pay Per Post or Blogsvertise opportunities. This is always interesting to do. However, I do keep close to what I believe in. You'll find no posts about dating sites, loans, credit cards, gambling sites and more things like here on my blog. Although I know there are several opportunities on these subjects, I do think these just don't fit me nor my blog.

I've also included ads by Google Adsense. This is interesting, but you have to know how it works. I'm looking for tips on improving the results for this. I've decided to not only include ads in my sidebar, but also under every post. Because they are related to scrapbooking and other things my blog is about, I don't mind it. When I find out more and more ads are about different things, not related to me or my blog, I'll remove the whole thing from my blog. Now, is it working for me? To be honest, at the moment I haven't made a dime with AdSense. I hope I'll make some money with this last change I've made.

As for trying out new things, if I happen to come across something which I think is worthwhile, I'll definitely use it. I keep on looking for new interesting things, subjects and sort, just for the fun of it! My main goal for this blog is having a journal for myself. If, in this process of journaling, I happen to make money with it, that's nice and fun. If I don't, too bad........

Well, these were my two cents on it. What's your experience?

Babbled by Ilse at 8:00 PM in Category: blogging , blogs
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Hey all,

Believe it or not, but Pay per Post is trying to get 2,000 unique Human (so no bots!!!) comments on their blog post. I think it's a truly remarkable thing. As they say, no one has ever tried this before. It is known that blogs have had over 200 and 500 comments per post, but 2,000? Imagine this would be worthwhile for the Guinness Book of World Records! I can't imagine that it would come into that. Will they ever be able to receive that many unique comments? On the other hand it would be great to be a part of such an endeavor! So, here goes! It would be a great thing, wouldn't it? And just for the heck of it, I'm going to participate in this adventure. Come on in and join us all in the worldly undertaking! I sure know I would be impressed big time if we, all of us, would succeed in this job. Knowing to be a part of such a thing is wonderful. I’ve already read several comments and many people are willing to give this a try. Work on it, people, and deliver your contribution to this job! Become part of one of the greatest things the Guinness Book of World Records has ever seen!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:50 PM in Category: blogging , blogs , Pay per Post
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Hey all,

As you can see on the right handside, I have a new roommate again! Please welcome Otilius from Nitty Gritty New York. He's got an amazing photoblog with photos of interesting and wonderful things of New York. And occasionally he gives you photos that really gets you thinking! I love it!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 6:25 AM in Category: blogs
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Hey all,

Here in my little corner of the world I have a new roommate since today! She's here to stay for a week, so please give a warm welcome to Much more than a Mom! She talks about everything in her daily life! Her blog is very fun to read and I think many parents can recognize certain things about their children in everything she writes!

Have fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:10 AM in Category: babble , babble , blogs
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Hey all,

Well, I've written about this before. Thought I'd let you know about Pay per Post. My journal has been approved to participate in their blogs program recently. *Three times Hurray*!!! So, now I'm participating in two programs, but that's fun! One for which I can choose all the posts myself and one for which I get assignments.

And what am I going to do with all the money I'm going to earn with these programs? Well, I can think of a lot of things. One of the things is certainly trying to earn enough money to pay all the expenses for my blog, so for the web space and for the domain name. All in all this is about $100,-. Once I have that, I want to earn enough money for Scrapbooking. I have so many things I want. Let's have a look at that, shall we?

Scrapstudio
For my scrapstudio I want to have a large table where I can scrap with my friends. And of course some chairs to go with that. I think the table needs to be at least 1.50 meters x 1.50 meters. And I'd at least need four chairs. And if more people would like to join us scrapping on our Sunday afternoons, a larger table and more chairs would come in handy :)
I already have a huge photo, namely the wallpaper, on my wall, so I don't need that one, but I have seen some other ideas that are nice to include in my scrapstudio. Like big letters from wood, or the words "Create", "Imagine" and "Fun" in big letters. I could keep them at the top of the closet (I have some room left there), or I could keep them somewhere else where their visible.

Scrap supplies
If I say scrap supplies, what do you say? SHOP! Well, that's exactly what I'd like to do with the money I earn with these programs. I'd go shopping and buy........
* (mini) albums
* mini album kits
* quarterly or monthly kits like Club Scrap
* cardstock in a great variety of solid colors
* background papers
* fibers & ribbons
* eyelets in a great variety of colors
* alphabet stickers
* other stickers
* adhesives (you can never have enough of these....)
* Oh, and save money for a Cricut machine and cartridges to go with it
* or more Quickutz or Sizzix dies or any of the other machines. How nice would that be?
* Any more????

Besides scrapbooking
Of course I have other hobbies too! I can't name everything I'd like to spend my money on, but here are a few things:
* Digital Camera (Canon EOS300d or something like that)
* Books. I can't name them now, but when I'm in a bookstore...... oh, I'd like to buy all of it!
* DVD's. I just love the movie DVD's. I'm always going for the special (extended) editions, because they have so much more! We already have several movies on DVD, but I have a big list of everything we'd still like to have. Well, to be honest, I like them more then James.......
* Get my loan paid off. Now that would a very nice thing! If I could do that with earning enough money with blogging..............................

Well, I guess that's about it for now. If I've bought something with the money I earned while blogging, I'll let you know!

And what would you do, or what do you do with the money you've earned while blogging? I'm always curious!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 6:34 PM in Category: blogging , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've just been tagged by americanmom from Scrapbook Obsession. I've never done this before, but I like the questions, so here goes!

1. Find the nearest book
Hmmm, normally, well, to be honest, if I'd cleaned the house by now, this wouldn't be easy. But, since I haven't done the big cleaning yet, it's fairly easy. It's right in front of me and it's looking very good! Dark blue cover which can be framed, has been in the stores for quite some time now and the last book after this is going to stores on July 21st, 2007. I've already read this book a dozen times, but I still like to read it again :)

2. Name the book and the author:
Author: J. K. Rowling
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Can't wait for part 7 to be in the stores!

3. Turn to page 123
I'm lucky I usually read the "major" books which have a lot of pages! So that's easily done! BTW, you want the American Amazon version (comes in a hard case with a cover you can frame) or the dutch version (not in a hard case with a cover to be framed but very good nonetheless? Okay, I'll take the American version.

4. Go to the 5th sentence on the page & copy out the next 3 sentences onto your blog.
Harry nodded, still unable to think of anything to say.
"Don't lose your temper," said Sirius abruptly. "Be polite and stick to the facts."
Harry nodded again.
"The law's on your side," said Lupin quietly. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life-threatening situations."
Something very cold trickled down the back of Harry's neck; for a moment he thought someone was putting a Disillusionment Charm on him again, then he realized that Mrs, Weasley was attacking his hair with a wet comb.

5. Tag 3 more people.
Okay, this is a hard one. Who to choose? I'll choose.......
Marjolein from M@rjolein Blogging
Dawn from Keeping it Real
Isolde from Peek into my world

Tag, you're it girls. Have fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:20 PM in Category: babble , babble , tagged
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Hey all,

Today I visited Deb's Lounge. She blogs about everything that's going on in her life. And she has wonderful tips about "Get Paid Opportunities", as she calls it. One of these opportunities is about generating traffic to your website from BlogExplosion. It's a wonderful thing. You don't have to pay anything. All you have to do is register for free and visit member sites. That way you will earn credits and with these credits you can generate traffic again. How simpler can you get it? But, why should you do this? Well, if you want your blog known by other scrappers, in example. Or if you're looking for possibilities to earn some money, but you do need a steady flow of traffic to your blog. Or just for the heck of it :). I'm just doing it as something fun. If it attracts more visitors, thats nice. But if it doesn't.... oh well, no harm done, right? :)

I've registered and I'll just wait and see what happens. All blogs have to manually approved first, which may take 48 up to 72 hours. I just hope it won't take that long :) And then I can start surfing. It would be fun if I'd come across some scrappers out there!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:35 PM in Category: blogs , traffic
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Hey all,

I've been collecting scrapbook blog links the last few weeks. I have 22 "famous" scrapbook blogs and 32 "normal" scrapbook blog links. I've seen marvelous works on all blogs and several of them inspired for other projects! For now go and check them out!

Have Fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 6:53 PM in Category: blogs , scrapbook
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Hey all,

I'm slowly making it a habit of checking Google and Technorati for blogs about scrapbooking. I'm always interested in what other people come up with for scrapbooking, like ideas, layouts, paper piecings and much more. A few days ago I read in the Just Me Blog about some Scrapbook blog debacle in 2006. I haven't heard anything about it, but maybe that's just because I wasn't really looking for scrapbook blogs at that time. It did give me the impression, though, that someone had said something (I guess his or her honest opinion) about someone or a product and that this honest opinion wasn't appreciated. This with the result that apparently no one was writing what they wanted to write in their blogs. This confuses me.

It led me to the following question:
What do you look for in a scrapbook blog? Let's discuss about that, shall we? I'll start with giving you the things I'm looking for in a scrapbook blog.

Scrapbook subjects
Although I've already been scrapbooking for a few years, I'm always looking for new subjects to scrap about. Sometimes I find a subject on someone's blog that makes me think: of course, why didn't I think of it?. And sometimes I find a subject that so good that I keep it in mind for the next time and I try to make special photos for it. One example of this is the scrapbook about the zoo that I'm going to make. Someone had posted a layout about elephants and had included a detail of an elephants feet. That got me thinking that I could take that kind of photos the next time I would be in the zoo. And so I did :)

Layouts
I'm always looking for inspirational sketches for layouts. That way I can try to prevent that I'll always use the same basic sketch for a layout. If I'll find an inspirational layout, I'll download it and keep it on my hard drive. That way I can always have a look to see if I can use something.
I also always look for ideas for journaling, cause that's what I use a lot in my albums nowadays! I'm always looking for the balance between my photos and my journaling. And that's not always easy, I can assure you that! Especially when you're using so much journaling like I am. I'm always looking for creative ideas to somehow include all the journaling I want to include.

Mini albums
I like making mini albums. I've made a few for myself and one for a friend of mine {which she really appreciated, btw!}. Currently I am working on a mini album for James. I know it's not always possible to include all the photos I've made in scrapbook and that's why I'm looking for ideas for mini albums. And not only ideas for subjects, but also for how to make the mini album (the project description) and the result of it.

Experience
When a new tool has come in the market I always see if I can find someone who has had experience with it. That way I can determine if this is worth buying for myself. Also someone's experience with certain producers of scrapbook supplies, with shops and more things like are very interesting.

Opinions
I always highly appreciate someones opinion. Also about scrapbooking. It doesn't mean I always agree with them, but I do appreciate the opinion. That's also why I'm looking for other's opinions about product and more things. And it's fun to see how one can think this way and how another one can think another way about something. And that's perfectly okay. After all, we're all humans, aren't we? And it wouldn't be good if we'd all have the same opinion.

Conclusion
All taken together I think I'm looking in blogs for everything I chat with friends about when were talking about scrapbooking. Is this bad? No, I don't think so. This gives you more experience, more knowledge and that way you'll be better prepared and you can evolve. And is that a bad thing?

I'm looking forward to the things you look for in a blog about scrapbooking!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:00 AM in Category: blogs , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've just read and interview made buy Rebecca Blood. I think there were some very good questions and I've decided to answer several of them here for myself too. Have fun reading! And don't hesitate to this interview yourself too!

What is the first weblog you read?
To be honest? I haven't got a clue. I've been surfing the web for so long that I really don't remember it. I guess it has something to with scrapbooking or with television series I really like. In either one of these "categories" I've seen the first blog, I think.

Why did you start your weblog?
I've been busy with my own sites for about 8 years. It went from putting up information and photos about my favorite television series (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Charmed at the time) to a place where I could keep my own stories I'd written about the television series, to a place where I kept a Fan Fiction Archive with a few other people. The archive wasn't manageable. Fewer people could help out, so in the end I decided to quit with the archive. What remained for me was the fact that I wanted a place to scribble down my thoughts and everything that happens in my life. I also wanted a place where I could post my scrapbook layouts and the photos I make. This blog is ideal for these things!

I can do everything exactly the way I want it too. I don't need to know how other people think about it before I change or do something, I don't need to wait for others contributions, I don't need to wait for others reaction, nothing like that. It's exactly how I want it. This makes a site so much more manageable! And that makes it fun for me. This way I can try things out, I can do whatever I want and when something doesn't work.... Well, it won't be a disappointment to a lot of people, but only to myself.

This seems selfish, I know, but I know from experience. And most important, I think at least, it's my blog about my personal life. And that means it has to be the way I want it to be. I'm feeling comfortable with it right now :)

What is your site about?
My blog is about my personal life, scrapbooking, television series, books, and more. Just everything that keeps me busy. Sometimes I'll talk about things I've seen or heard on the news, things that worry me or that make me happy. It just depends on my mood.

How often do you update?
Whenever I'm in the mood. Sometimes it's several times per day. Sometimes it's just once every few weeks. It also depends on how much time I have to write something. And it depends on how much I want to write at that moment. If it's just a little piece, I'll write it that same day, but if it's something longer, I might wait until I have my day of or more time at night.

How much traffic do you get?
According to the counter not much. But that's alright. I'm not doing this to get a lot people to my site. It would be fun though if people would react on my scrapbook layouts or on my post more often. I guess I'd need more traffic for that. Oh well.........

Do you make money on your site?
No, not directly at least. I have a shop with CaféPress, but I definitely need to update it with new pictures. Right now it's not gaining any money. It would be fun if the shop would cover the costs of this site, but it doesn't need to.

Which tool do you use? Why?
I use MovableType. First I've searched for several Blog programs and I've even tried a few free ones. This was all to figure out if they could fit my needs. It turned out they couldn't. Movabletype can. I want to be able to make my own layouts easy. I'd like to include extra things whenever possible. For instance the fact that I can define categories and at the same time use tags to organize my blog for me and blog visitors is really good! Also the default templates come in very handy. I've been able to adjust them so I could have the layout I wanted. At the same time I have the files with the basics to turn too if something isn't working.
What I like the most is the build in junk filter. This works great! Sometimes it works a bit too well. Seen the fact that I can decide to delete all the junk comments and junk trackbacks, instead of having these deleted automatically is very good. That way I have saved a few comments I wanted to keep :)
And last but not least, this program is so easy to install and update! There's hardly anything that can go wrong!

Has your weblog led to any other opportunities?
Not really. It has given me some ideas though. Some of them I've included in my ordinary day, some of them I'll use in Scrapping Memories and some of them I've included in my blog already.

How do you choose items to link?
I have a few categories of sites I link to. I don't want my blog to become a link site, so that's why I've kept the link categories to a minimum. If I come across a site I really like and that fits in one of the three categories, I'll link it there. Otherwise I'll keep it in my favorites on my PC.

What is your advice for a new blogger?
First, think about what you want to be able to do with your blog. What features do you want to include. Then think about how much work you are willing / able to put into (extra) coding. Try out several programs before you make your final choice.
And remember, if it's your personal blog: if you think it's good, it is good! No matter what others may think!

Well, this is it. Do you want to know more about me and blogging? Let me know at ilse at ilsesjournal dot com!

Babbled by Ilse at 5:47 PM in Category: babble , babble , blogs , scrapbook , television
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