Happy Tuesday, y’all…

It’s raining here. Nasty, wet and cold.  My youngest is at home with me – she has the sniffles. We are snuggled up in the house and I’m trying really hard to remember that I work full-time and stay focused on work.  What I really want to do is grab a blanket or two, light a fire, make some hot tea, and snuggle by the fire with my little Doodlebug.  Maybe that will come in just a little bit.  Must get a few more things done.

I thought today I would share a layout idea that has inspired me.  I found it over at Ella Publishing Company’s website. They have a neat new eZine that has some pretty awesome ideas in it. I’m finding great inspiration for layouts, color schemes, you name it.  One thing I’ve learned over the  years  is to always be on the lookout for things that catch my eye.  Once I find them, I either take a picture, save it on my PC, or put it in a folder I have of scrapbooking ideas.

Here’s my folder –

I just rip pages out of magazines and save them here. When I sit down to scrapbook and need a little inspiration or help getting the creative juices flowing, I just rummage around in the pile of ideas. That is usually a good way to get me started.

I used to subscribe to tons of scrapbook magazines.  Now, not so many.  I have found that I can get the same inspiration from looking at blogs and other scrapbook related websites (like Ella’s) to find (free) ideas.  So, I have started an electronic version of my idea “folder” as well.  This is a little simpler – it’s just a PowerPoint file that I copy/paste images into whenever I see an idea that inspires me.

Here are some places for you to consider as you search for ideas for yourself:

• Designer Digitals – they have challenges that are awesome. If you are a digital scrapbooker, the downloads that come with the challenges are pretty awesome, too.  If you are traditional, consider getting the downloads anyway. You can always print them on your own cardstock or re-create the layout, etc. on your own.  The ladies at DD are really talented and I always find a few things I want to try over there.
• Ali Edwards – always has awesome ideas.  Check her blog out (if you haven’t already) – it is well worth the visit.
• Cathy Zielske – I love her no-nonsense style of scrapbooking. Clean lines, lots of whitespace and capturing the essence of a story.

Okay, enough rambling…. Here’s the original layout that inspired me:

Here’s my version:

And, here’s a bonus for you – a link to a template you can use in StoryBook Creator + (3.0) if you are using that for your digital scrapbooking. (as soon as I get Photoshop Elements, I’ll include those, too. Not in the budget yet, though)

Send me your pages! I’d love to see what you do with the idea!