Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Newsletter: November 21, 2012

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You Have a Story to Tell...

...and we want to hear it! Scrapbookers are all about telling their stories – family stories, personal stories, children's and grandchildren's stories. Why, even the word "history" has a story in it! And my-oh-my, we love history around here.

Make some history of your own this year by putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, to be more precise, and tell us a Christmas story from your own experience.

Last year, we were blown away by the incredible stories that were submitted to our 12 Days of Christmas Story Contest. This year, we know you've got more stories just waiting to be told. We want to hear your stories of Christmas past, of Christmas memories, marvels, magic, or miracles. Was there a time when you saw something wonderful happen at Christmas or during the holiday season? Can you recall a first Christmas or holiday memory with your loved one, your child, or maybe the last Christmas with your great-grandmother? Maybe it's a story handed down through the generations in your family. We love to share good stories around here, and we don't mind having to grab a tissue, so write with all your heart to speak to our hearts.

We will select 12 stories - with one story revealed in our newsletter from December 13-24, every day, including Sundays. Just to keep things interesting, we're not going to tell anyone if they have been selected ahead of time. You'll just have to hop out of bed every morning, rush to your computer, and open up your Scrap Girls Newsletter with all the wonder of a child on Christmas morning and look to see if your story was published that day!

Here are the Submission Guidelines, so start those creative juices flowing!

The deadline for submissions is Midnight (ET), Friday, December 7. Email your story to cindy@scrapgirls.com with a subject line of My 12 Days Story. With your email, please include the following attachments:
- Your story: Story length - maximum of 700 words. Your story must be true (to the best of your knowledge), and it must tell a story/event centered around a holiday theme, not just a collection of thoughts about why you love this time of year. One entry per person. Send your story in MS Word or something similar. At the top of your story, include your name, Forum username (if you have one), your mailing address, and your email address. At the bottom of your story, write a few sentences about yourself – where you live, what you do, your family, your job, your hobbies, etc.
- Scrap Girls publication release (download it here)
- One image/layout (optional): You may submit one image or layout that is related to your story - but only one, so make it good! Images should be no more than 300 pixels long on either width or height. If you submit a layout, we need two sizes: a 300-pixel image (72 dpi) and a 600-pixel image (72 dpi). Please show off our beautiful Scrap Girls products in your layout and include a supply list of products used (along with links to those products in the Boutique). Even if the product is retired, please include it in the list (without a link). By the way, submitting a photo or layout will not drastically improve the likelihood of a story being published, but it's a nice accompaniment to give our readers.
A few miscellaneous details:
- We reserve the right to edit the story as needed for clarity, grammar, punctuation, length, etc., though we will make every effort not to change the meaning of what you write. However, the better you write, the less we have to edit, and the happier you will make our editor.
- If you submitted a story last year that was not chosen, you may resubmit it this year!
Hmmm, what have we forgotten? Ah, yes, the prizes! What is a contest without prizes?!
- Everyone who submits a story will get a JIF 6 kit that coordinates with our "12 Days of Christmas Stories" this year! That's right – you get a prize just for entering! And this JIF 6 will only be given to our story tellers, not available in the Boutique. You want it? Then write a story and send it in!
- The 12 winners will get what everyone needs at this time of year – a little extra cash! If your story is published in our newsletter, you'll receive a $25 Visa gift card.

We look forward to hearing your story as we launch our annual 12 Days of Christmas celebration!

Thanksgiving is a special time of year, sometimes overlooked between Halloween and Christmas. At the Flanagan household, it’s an extra special time of year as we have many family birthdays and events at the end of November. One of the long-standing traditions surrounding Thanksgiving is that my camera is always close at hand. Over time, though, I have felt like I really didn't have very many "good" pictures of the Thanksgiving holiday.

A few years ago, I decided to combat that frustration by attacking my holiday photo-taking from a slightly different angle. Literally! I have many table shots of the whole family at the table. While I know they are meaningful, they are difficult to scrap - for me, anyway! All the dishes seem to get in the way! Therefore, I started working on zooming in close on family members and taking detail shots of table decorations, food, texture, and fall colors. Instead of a long shot of the whole table, I zoomed in on the glass bobble in the centerpiece. Instead of a posed dinner table shot, I took candid shots of our family members after dinner around the table.

Some other ideas would be to try taking family portraits outdoors (with all that natural light!) rather than indoors. While outside, capture the kids playing in the leaves, making fun holiday memories.

In our family, we have many birthdays around Thanksgiving time, so close-up photos of the birthday cakes over the years have become a tradition! Try zooming in close on your centerpiece or home decorations and see what creative angles you can come up with for a new twist on your family photos.

Since there are many themes to our family traditions, I decided to put my layout together using a calendar template. This monthly template was altered to create a list-type layout showing some of our many Thanksgiving holiday traditions. I left the calendar grid as a means of emphasizing the importance of the entire month. Each space that was intended for a week of the month became a space for a unique representation of the various traditions of our family. The note section of the calendar became my journaling square. Now I have a very nice, cohesive layout displaying multiple Flanagan Family Traditions using a single calendar template!

Try a different angle on your family holiday photo-taking this year as you document your family traditions! Be creative, try a new perspective, get low, think differently, and see what fun you can create as you document your family gatherings!

* There is a "free download" button on the details page for each gift. You don't need to put them in your shopping cart unless you are shopping for other items. Also note that if you are slow reading your newsletter, you may find this freebie has already been retired, as the freebies are only available as gifts for about two newsletter cycles.

Join April (April Showers) each Wednesday at 12 Noon ET for the High Noon Crop. All coasts and time zones are welcome! These crops are designed to allow you to work on your own photos and themes, simply giving participants a one hour goal and a fun, new challenge each week.

On November 21st, we'll do a Ribbon Challenge. Create a layout using at least one ribbon.

Create your layout and upload it to the special High Noon Crop Gallery. You'll be amazed what you can get done in just one hour, but there is no High Noon Sheriff timing you! Hope to see you in the chat room!

Join Shannon (tinkerbell11) in the chat room for a Calendar chat. We can help keep each other on track, share ideas for getting started, organized and even printing! Calendars make a fantastic gift for family and friends, come and join in the fun.

This November, we are playing the Products Picks game where we encourage you to stroll through the aisles of the boutique and do a little window shopping.

Each Monday through Saturday in November, a member of the Welcoming Committee will post the name of one or two product designers in this Product Picks game thread. You will then head to the Scrap Girls Boutique and navigate to that particular designer's product pages. Choose any of their products (your favorite product, one you like, or one you wish you owned), then head over to the Product Picks game thread and share the product name, boutique link, and a brief explanation of why you chose that product.

At the end of the month, members who haves posted links to 41 products (one for each designer) will be entered in a drawing for one of three $10 Gift Certificates. Members who have posted links to 16-40 products will be entered in a drawing for one of two $5 Gift Certificates. And members who have posted links to 10-15 products will be entered in a drawing for one of two $3 Gift Certificates.

November Monthly Layout Contest: What are you thankful for? Have you thought about your blessing lately? For the November Layout Contest, we'd love to flood the Gallery with layouts showcasing what you are thankful for! Post your layouts in the November Monthly Layout Gallery before Midnight ET on November 30th and you could one of the two people who will win a $10 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique! Please be sure to list your layout's product credits in the description or under the EXIF Properties.

Club Concepts Layout Contest: Post your new layout using the current club selection (either the Scrap Girls Club or the ScrapSimple Club) in our Scrap Girls Club Members Gallery or the ScrapSimple Club Members' Gallery. Be sure to list all of the Scrap Girls products you used. If your layout is chosen, it will be showcased as a Club Concepts layout winner, and you will win a $5 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Check our Forum calendar if you have any questions about what is happening at Scrap Girls. All event times are given in the Eastern Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-New York-New York' as the location for the Eastern time zone.)

Thanksgiving Traditions
Wednesday, November 21, 2012

IN TODAY'S ISSUE:

GENERAL INFORMATION

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU

Thanksgiving Traditions Wednesday, November 21, 2012

IN TODAY'S ISSUE:

GENERAL INFORMATION

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU

Thanksgiving Traditions
Wednesday, November 21, 2012