Simple Scrapbooks Review May/June

I love Simple Scrapbooks! Some issues though are better than others and I have to say I liked this one a lot! Lots of eye candy lots of inspiration. Below are my opinions of the mag, favorite layouts, my thoughts on the articles and general comments.

• Cover - Nice layout. Seeing lots of flowers made from patterned paper recently. Its a current trend but I'm undecided as to whether I like it or not, lol. For a May/June issue I thought the layout was a little subdued, a little washed out. But then I seem to be drawn to bright colors lately so that's just personal preference!
  
• Pg 18 - Simple layout by Kim Morgan, lots of white space, good mini album concept. Totally inspired me to make a page/mini album and that makes it a good layout!
• Creative combo's - all about circles and well if you've looked at my recent stuff lately you'll see tons! Been on a total circle fad since early February really. So preaching to the converted there! Some interesting layouts though
• Tool spotlight - Along with some other tools is the steel metal ruler. I have to say I've been using my steel rule and craft knife LOTS lately! I just love it for thin clean straight lines. Nothing beats it! Plus you can see what you're doing better! To date I've only cut myself once! Not bad in 4 years!
• Donna Downey - Make the most of it is all about photo corners. I thought it was a great article from DD, loved her uses of photo corners, especially the flower ones! I also have to add here that one heart... one mind get a mention in this article as she used their photo corners on one of her layouts. Have to say I've been using the metal photo corners a lot lately too!
• Fab Finds - All about buttons. Personally I've been more into bling than buttons, but heck who doesn't have a ton of buttons? I should use mine more! Though I did use one today on a card as a flower center! Must just use them more in general, especially on layouts!
• Gimme 5 product challenge - I liked the concept of just using 5 products. Sometimes its overwhelming to sit and start a project when you're surrounded by STUFF. So much stuff! I think this is one of the reasons I like design teams. Send me stuff and I'll use it. The rules are laid out for ya. Especially manufacturer design teams, just use product line xyz? ok! Even sponsor teams are great too. If it weren't for Treasures to Scrap being sponsored by SEI one month I would never have tried SEI Kaboom. But its a line I absolutely LOVE! I did notice lots of white space on the layouts in this article, which is fine by me! Love white space! My favorite layout of this article is the one by Anna Aspnes, its a digi layout that has a great design to it!
• Learn about design - is all about symmetry. Love it. I alreay do the flip/turn for double pagers so nothing new to me, but I liked the reminder and the layouts.
• Write from the heart - Journalling is something I sometimes struggle with. Its eiether a topic that's WAY too personal and I ramble or its a totally cheesey. So I love the journal prompts in this article. One of my recent favorite books is the simple scrapbooking "Quizzes and Questions". Love that little jumpstart to get me going. Plus I can fill out the questions in my journal and use them later.
• Wedding article - I'm gonna be honest and say I've scrapped 2 pics from my wedding and that's all. It's been 8 years! The photo's ARE in an album, just with photocorners, no journalling. Its on my scrapping "to-do" list. Anyway I loved this article. For anyone doing a wedding album thise article is a must! Great prompts for journalling or page ideas. If you buy this mag just for this article and the journal prompts its worth it!
  

Things I want to do after reading this issue:-

• hybrid layouts - I think thats more just me that the mag though.
• Computer journalling on layouts more, and computer generated titles. Seems like the computer journalling is coming back! Hurrah! Loved Cathy Z's article on typesetting. Good to recap on!
• photography, a need to go out and take more pics! Just of everyday stuff!
• mini books - lots of mini books in this issue (maybe I just noticed them more?). I do HAVE tons of mini books, I just never seem to use them much. This issue seemed to have more than the usual share in, which was great, lots of ideas!
• journal - I don't journal enough. I loved the prompts in this issue and hope its going to be a regular feature.
• I also realised I need a "pages I want to do" notebook. Cos I have a ton of ideas for pages now from the the journal prompts, or from the layouts themselves and I need to write them down!
  

All in all a great mag this month! I just picked up the 2nd installment of the new Simple Scrapbooks digital mag. I wasn't impressed that much with the premiere issue so I guess we'll see how the second issue fairs! I also have the latest CK and SB etc to review too!