Okay, NOW I can blog about the Arccivo!!! Felix wanted to be the first to announce it's arrival, so I patiently waited to put it in the blog. But his time has come and gone, and now it's my turn. So here goes...

We now have the Arccivo (pronounced AR-CHEE-VO) which is like a tote/portfiolio made specifically for scrapbookers so they can have a 3-foot wide, nonskid surface to work on, that can be folded up and taken to a crop or moved to another area without disturbing the layout's placement. How, you might ask? It has two large magnetic sheets that cover either side of the work surface, and which hold everything in place, even if you shake it! It is PERFECT for those of you who have to do your papercrafting on the dining room table and have to then move it to serve meals. Working on the Arccivo allows you to keep everything safely in place and totally portable. It even has a zipper closing, for extra safety. It will fit your layout (even dimensional layouts) and up to 50 sheets of cardstock. So that means you can carry everything you need all in this one tote and not have to lug around those larger totes you've been taking to crops. It comes in four colors, Blu (a light blue), Blossom (a gorgeous deep pink), Southern Clay (a reddish, orange clay color), and Honeydew (a kiwi-green). Come by and check it out for yourself. I'm sure you'll be impressed and want one for yourself!

I'll be having a Basic Scrapbooking class this Thursday, and still have a couple seats open. If you feel like you've just been collecting supplies and never really knew where to start, this class is for you. I'll be teaching you about what is archivally safe to use, what is considered not archivally safe, and how to use items that are considered archivally unsafe (because you can, if you follow these simple rules). I'll have lots of tools out for you to learn how to use, so you can make an informed decision on which tools to actually purchase. I'll also teach you what you absolutely have GOT to have to begin, and then take you through an actual layout. All this in just 2 1/2 hours!

TIP OF THE DAY
Have you heard of the Rule of Thirds? Basically it involves dividing your scrapbooking pages into thirds, for better visual interest. This is an easy formula to use to keep your layouts 'balanced'. No, you do not have to draw lines and actually divide the page up, but what it means is that your photo should take up one-third or two-thirds of the page, then you would have next to it one-third or two-thirds of the page as a journaling block or embellishment area. The Rule of Thirds goes for horizontal as well as vertical on the page. To learn more about this, click on this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds) and just substitute "photography" with "scrapbooking". If you want even more info on it, just type RULE OF THIRDS into your browser, and several different sites will pop up with more info. Isn't it fun to learn new things about scrapbooking?!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Dee