Are you like me when it comes to scrapbooking? Over-obsessing over every embellishment, color choice and photo placement? Does it take you two days to finish a page? Do you sometimes NEVER finish a layout? Well the fabulous May Flaum comes to our rescue with, “Fashionably Fast: Ten Strategies for stylish, speedy scrapbook pages.” This is an eBook available through Big Pictures Classes. According to the publisher:
Join the speediest scrapbooker on the block, May Flaum, as she joins forces with five of the fastest (and most fabulous) scrapbookers she knows in Fashionably Fast: 10 strategies for stylish, speedy scrapbook pages.
This two-time author and popular instructor has compiled her 10 best time-saving strategies, which are illustrated by 20 gorgeous scrapbook pages and accompanied with 30 minutes of exclusive video instruction! See how easy it can be to accelerate your scrapbooking process without sacrificing artistry.
Although I know May personally, I can honestly say that she is one girl that is filled endless creativity and talent. She has been a staple in the crafting industry for years and has a very chic and identifiable style that has attracted top manufacturing companies and publications. May also asked some of her friends and fellow scrapbookers to help show us different approaches to all of the strategies; Amy Tan, Shimelle Laine, Lisa Dickinson and Melissa Stinson.
The book is 36 pages in length and full-color. There are ten major strategies and two “takes,” or examples, of each strategy with a note from the designer on their process for the layout. The designer also gives additional tips for each strategy. There are also three hyperlinks within the eBook that takes you to fabulous little videos that May created in conjunction with the book. How awesome is that?
I truly enjoyed every single tip that May wrote about. My favorite tip is, “divide and conquer.” I easily get overwhelmed and then shut-down and get nothing done. I really liked how May explained how she maximizes her creative time and how, “The key to fast scrapbooking is making the most of the time you have.” I also enjoyed her general notes at the beginning of the book that gave additional tips and advice like how the only person that judges our work is ourselves and how we need to create and get our hands dirty to become more prolific crafters. Good advice!
Since I was determined to give some of these ideas a try and make myself scrapbook faster, I whipped out a few photos and set the timer!
I’ve been wanting to scrapbook these pictures from a photo shoot for a while now. I took May’s advice to start with a paper collection that I already had. I chose Lawn Fawn because of its bright and happy colors. I decided to use another one of May’s tip to “stick to the center.” This made arranging the page go pretty quickly. I kept things totally simple on this page. I thought the bright colors stood for themselves and didn’t feel overwhelmed to throw on a ton of embellishments.
With this layout I again used Heidi Swapp’s Color Shine line and other Heidi products I’ve collected over the years. I also incorporated another tip that was arrange photos down the center and even used the sketch that May supplied in the book. This made things go impossibly fast. She also suggested to decorate the border around the photos, which I did with Ranger enamel accents which gave it that extra little bit of something.
I worked on both of these layouts at the same time; while one had paint or spritz drying, I worked on the other one. I complete both layouts in under two hours which is pretty impressive for me because the last layout I did took me three days to finish.
You can purchase May’s book through Big Picture Classes’ website here. At $9.99 I find this book an absolute steal with all of the strategies and examples shown. May’s book completely inspired me to let go and not worry in scrapbooking. If I ran into one problem there was always a go-to tip in the book that helped me solve it. She reminded me to, “let go and enjoy the process,” and I truly tried to take that to heart with the above layouts. Well crafters, what do you think? Would you try this book out? Have you? Let me know in the comments!
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This truly sounds like a book that would help me get past the “fill that page” blues! Thanks for the tip into May’s wonderful ways around creating! She is amazing!!!