"Steal"ing some trendy inspiration

I don't know about you all, but some days, I don't know where to start. And so I end up walking away from my craft room and heading up to the media room to catch up on my TiVo.

The lack of inspiration (which leads to zero scrappy motivation) is a huge problem for me. It's the reason I have no less than 1000 printed photos and not so many completed albums.

When Stephanie told me that she was going to be putting the new Scrapbook Trends and Cards up for today's steals, I told her I wanted to take a look at one. I've seen other idea books, and even subscribe to two scrapbooking magazines, but I had never once picked up a Scrapbook Trends (mainly because it seemed so expensive and I didn't want to WANT it badly enough to pay $14.95 for it!). So I went over to the Crafty Steals headquarters and picked one up.

Let me tell you, I am really impressed! I love that the layouts are a full page! Not teeny-tiny pictures you see in some other idea books. And there are tons of them! Not even thirty pages in, (there are 130 pages in Scrapbook Trends), I was drawn to this layout:

This was just one of the layouts in a section called "Years & Counting", all showcasing ways to document the length of a relationship. This got me to thinking about my husband. You see, our 14 year anniversary is coming up (on Valentine's Day - cheesy, yes, I know, but that really was the first night we thought of each other romantically, did a little smooching, and haven't been apart since). So....I decided to give it a whirl and see if I could do a little scraplifting in honor of our anniversary.
Here's what I came up with:

I kept her idea of the circle, but added more pictures - documenting our whole relationship from college (where we fell in love), to wedding, to babies. I used the My Mind's Eye Love Me Do line from the past steals page, added some of those famous Thickers letter stickers and journaling, and voila! An easy, quick layout (the thing that took the most time was finding the photos - note to self to organize those things!).

Beyond layouts, there are Valentine's card ideas, mini albums, and some really great instructions on how to use ink, and rub-ons on your pages. Truly, I was really suprised at the wealth of information this little book has! And thumbing through Cards and Simply Handmade, I am filled with so many ideas (well, I'm filled with other people's ideas) for not only scrapping, but cards, crafts for my kids, and even home decor! Go get yours before they're gone, you won't be sorry!

Happy crafting!