We love this paper piecing pattern from Valerie Salmon. Make it as a page in your scrapbook or as sumer wall decor on canvas.

Download the pattern here.

Update an old clipboard with chalkboard paint for an easy (and stylish) to-do list or a great way to keep kids entertained in car rides. See our step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Place painter’s tape across any areas you don’t want covered in paint. This will also help you make straight lines on the clipboard. Let paint dry.

Step 2: Once the paint is dry, prime the painted surface by rubbing chalk over it and then wiping it off with a cloth.

Step 3: Peel the tape off. Repeat the steps to add another paint color in the empty spaces. Or embellish with stencils, stickers, and other fun accents.

We love this great woven paper project from Lisa Storms in our August 2012 issue. It’s amazing the techniques you can do with just paper. Here are the step-by-steps for making this easy project.

Step 1: Adhere white and blue strips perpendicular onto second white strips.

Step 2: Adhere second blue strip perpendicular onto perviously adhered strips, as shown.

Step 3: Fold right white strip over to left side, being sure to line up with the left strips.

Step 4: Repeat with the left white strip over to the right side.

Step 5: Continue with next color; repeat, always making sure to keep your strips lined up.

Social Media: The Facebook and Twitter pages will be shut down at the end of August. Until that time, we will continue posting new scrapbook content and answering any scrapbook-related questions. Our Pinterest will stay up, but will be branded with the Better Homes and Gardens logo.

Website: The website will continue to receive updates and showcase new content through August. After that time, the website will remain up for inspiration and scrapbooking ideas.

Back Issues: If you missed an issue, or want to catch up, you can order past magazines here.

Questions: Any subscription and refund questions should be directed to our customer service e-mail: sbecustserv@cdsfulfillment.com. (They are very busy right now, so please be patient!)

Melissa Inman (former editor), Michelle Rubin (editor), Heidi Palkovic (former editor)

Maria Charbonneaux (former staff writer), Brittany Hopkins (former staff writer)

Mary Heaton (copy editor), Katie Parker (former associate editor)

Lindsay Fullington (web editor), Katrina Widener (editorial assistant)

Around SBE HQ, we are obsessed with finding fun photo apps. Here are some of our favorites, with links at the end to get the app for your particular phone:

Shooting

Camera+: Set the exposure, choose a shooting mode or zoom with this app—just like an actual camera! iPhone

FxCamera: Take a photo with various effects, including instant and Warhol-esque looks. Android

Hipstamatic: Choose a camera and film combination for fun retro images. iPhone

Pocketbooth: Turn your phone into a vintage photobooth with this app that shoots three consecutive images and groups them in a strip. Save and share the photos, or have prints sent to you. Android,  iPhone

Retro Camera: Turn your phone into an old-school camera to take photos with instant nostalgia. Android, iPhone

Sharing

Disposable Hipstamatic: From the fine people at Hipstamatic, this app let’s you “share” a camera with friends, and when all 24 exposures have been taken, it sends all of you the images. iPhone

Flickr: Did you know you can upload photos to Flickr from your phone with the easy-to-use Flickr app? Android, iPhone

Instagram: The popular photo-sharing app allows you to apply a number of primo filters to your images before sharing them with friends. It’s also great for gathering inspiration (and seeing what your friends are up to). iPhone

Path: A cool photo journal you can share with friends, Path also lets you record check-ins and posts from your other social media accounts. Android, iPhone

Camerabag

Editing

100 Cameras in 1: As the title suggests, a phone with this app is like carrying around 100 cameras—all with different effects. It’s speedy, fun, and a little addictive. Android, iPhone

Adobe Photoshop Express: This mobile version of the popular image-editing software provides basic tools, such as cropping, lighting adjustments, conversion to black-and-white, and vintage and vignette effects. iPhone, Android

BeFunky: Edit your photos with creative photo effects, editing tools, and frames. Android, iPhone

Camerabag: This app allows you to apply more than a dozen different professional filters to your photos—without sharing them. iPhone

Camera Zoom FX: Apply a variety of filters and frames to your images, including a Polaroid effect. Android

Diptic: Use this app to combine multiple images into a collage. iPhone

imgEdit: Let imgEdit rotate, flip, and mirror the image or add special effects, such as gray scale, sepia tone, a negative look, and more. Blackberry

Labelbox: Add captions to your images with strips of digital decorative tape. iPhone

Lightbox Photos: Enhance your mobile photos with fun effects and share them with friends. Android

Pano: Use Pano to create seamless panoramic photos with up to 16 photos. Android, iPhone, Windows

Photo Editor: With this app you can crop, rotate, adjust brightness, adjust contrast, resize and change the color of your images. Blackberry

Picoli: This traditional photo-editing program lets you edit the brightness and sharpness of your images and offers such effects as sepia, night vision, and color dithering. iPhone

PicSay: Color-correct, edit, and add text to your photos before sharing them with friends in this easy-to use app. Android

Radical Draw with Photo Editing: This app can be used to crop or rotate pictures, draw on photographs, or even create your own pictures. Blackberry

Snapseed: Perform photo editing with the swipe of a finger, with Snapseed’s numerous enhancements and effects, including auto correct. iPhone, Android

Thumba Photo Editor: This standard photo editor allows you to crop, flip, and remove red-eye, among other features. Windows

Printing

Air Photo Wifi Printing: Print images to a printer on a Wifi network (though you must have Air Photo Server, which is free, running on your desktop). iPhone

Epson iPrint: Print photos and other files to an Epson printer on a wireless network. Android, iPhone

HP ePrint Home & Biz: Print mobile images to your HP printer. Android, iPhone

LifePics: Send photos to a nearby photo-finisher from teh LifePics Photofinisher Network of more than 18,000 stores then pick up and pay for your photos in person. Android,  iPhone, Windows

Photo Prints by Mail: Get 4×6″ prints delivered from your phone to your mailbox. Android

PostalPix: Upload and order images (even square prints for Instagram pics) from your phone and have them sent to you. iPhone

Print Magic: Send photos (and other documents) to most printers on a wireless network. iPhone

Walgreens: Upload, share and order images to be printed at a nearby pharmacy. Android, iPhone

So what are your favorite apps?

The August 2012 issue, with an on-sale date of June 19, will be released on schedule to our 350,000 subscribers and newsstand buyers through the scheduled off-sale date of August 14, 2012. The ScrapbooksEtc.com website will support the print issue throughout this time period as well.

Meredith Corporation continues our strong support of the crafts industry with our Holiday Crafts titles and our newest addition, Make it Yourself, launching in October 2012. And of course we will continue to serve the growing quilting industry with our multiple quilting titles and website, allpeoplequilt.com.

For questions regarding your subscription, please e-mail sbecustserv@cdsfulfillment.com. If you’d like to purchase past issues for use on a mobile device, go to www.zinio.com/sbe.

On a personal note from the editorial staff, we are grateful for your support through the years. We could not have asked for better readers, and we have loved seeing your scrapbook pages and craft projects in our inboxes, on our website, and on our Facebook page. You inspired us in our mission to give you the ideas and information you wanted to preserve your memories and express yourselves creatively, and we hope that we in turn inspired you to create great pages and projects.

We’ll be posting here on the blog for a few more weeks as the August issue hits newsstands. And look for a post celebrating some of our favorite projects through the years.

THANK YOU!

Xyron has just published its first eBook! Sticky Goodness Vol 1: The Best of Xyron includes great project how-tos—everything from summer layouts to holiday decorations. It’s FREE and is available for iPad here and as a PDF here.  

Today’s photo challenge is a guilty pleasure. Is it a food you know you shouldn’t eat? Is it a TV show you just can’t get enough of?

See my guilty pleasure picture below. I absolutely love day trips. My friends and I can find the strangest tourist attractions in the smallest towns and make a day of it. This picture is from The Grotto of Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. The Grotto is a composite of nine separate Grottos, each portraying a scene in the life of Christ–and all made of rocks! It includes the largest collection of precious stones and gems found anywhere in one location. It’s amazing.

Keep following along with us with these daily photo prompts!

 

1. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DESIGNING? I have been designing since 2007.

2. WERE YOU A SCRAPBOOKER BEFORE STARTING TO DESIGN? IF SO, HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DIGITAL OR DID YOU TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONAL PAPER SCRAPPING? I was a scrapbooker before I started designing. I actually started as a paper scrapbooker and worked for a number of scrapbooking companies and magazines during that time. I started experimenting with hybrid techniques after seeing the work that Tia Bennett and CD Muckosky (among others) were doing. After that, I got a chance to write a book with May Flaum about hybrid scrapbooking, which was a lot of fun. Not long after the book came out, my family moved to a different city and a much smaller house, which prompted me to switch completely to digital scrapbooking.

 3. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ITEMS TO DESIGN? I really enjoy making papers — something about the combination of patterns and colors really appeals to me. I also love making word art, too. I’ve been a quote collector for most of my life, so that just seems fitting.

4. HOW LONG DOES IT TYPICALLY TAKE YOU SO DESIGN A KIT? It really depends. If I’ve done a lot of the thinking and planning ahead of time, then I can sit down and crank out a kit in a few hours (with no interruptions). Usually, it takes me a handful of hours spread out over a few days, though — typically three or four.

5. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INSPIRATION SOURCES? Inspiration is everywhere — of course, Pinterest makes it really simple to find great color swatches or themes. A lot of times, I’m inspired by words or phrases and all of the associations that come along with them. Magazines ­­are a great source of inspiration, and so are CD covers — just music in general, actually.

CHECK OUT SOME PROJECTS FEATURING AUDREY’S DESIGNS:

Good Things designed by Audrey Neal

pen pals designed by Audrey Neal

Flatbread designed by Celeste Smith

Someday designed by Gennifer Bursett

This Love designed by Jennifer Hignite

belly button designed by Jennifer Peck

Inside her head designed by Shannon Dombkowski

FIND AUDREY HERE: