Scrapbook Your Way

Bre Randon makes around 250 digital pages a year. Sara Case pulls two stories at the end of each month, and if those two layouts get made, she's good. For the second half of our two-part series leading into the 2027 Planning Party, I'm joined by Simple Scrapper staff and creative team members to talk about how each of us decides what counts as enough. The answers range from tracking hours to tracking nothing at all, and none of us do it exactly the same.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw353

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Square digital pages, 12x12 paper layouts, 6x8 inserts, Blurb trade books, and three-ring binders all show up in this conversation with six members of the Simple Scrapper staff and creative team. In the first of a two-part series leading into the 2027 Planning Party, we dig into format: digital or paper, what size, layouts or pockets, and how each of those choices shapes what actually gets finished. The group's approaches could hardly be more different, yet the same lessons keep surfacing. Know why you're making it, pick what checks the most boxes, and leave yourself room to change.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw352

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Alissa Williams is a central Illinois librarian and longtime scrapbooker who found herself at a crossroads this year. With her daughters growing up, fewer photos to work with, and a family health crisis that turned everything upside down, she needed a more flexible approach to memory keeping. Her solution: a monthly 6x8 pocket page project that captures everyday stories without the pressure of 12x12 Project Life or full-size layouts.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw351

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Bre Randon is a digital scrapbooker who got her start in the mid-90s printing clip art on a dot matrix-era printer and taping photos to homemade paper frames. Twenty-five years later, she creates emotional, colorful, detail-rich layouts in Photoshop while working full-time, raising a middle schooler, and serving as a Simple Scrapper creative team member. In this My Way episode, she shares how her approach to scrapbooking has been shaped by small spaces, big stashes, and a philosophy of letting go.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw350

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Kelly Wardlow is an engineer-turned-designer outside of Philadelphia who brings an analytical mind and a deeply personal mission to her digital scrapbooking practice. As the creator of Connection Keeping at Sweet Shop Designs, Kelly designs the kits and templates she actually uses to document life with her four kids in a 200-plus-page family yearbook each year. Her origin story as a designer is rooted in working with adoptive families and the neuroscience behind why scrapbooks help children build identity and connection.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw349

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Leanne Millo has tried nearly every Project Life format in the span of just a few years. From her first 12x12 album to 9x12 pocket pages to 10x8 and now Creative Memories strap-hinge albums, she's been on a mission to find the system that lets her document weekly life in a single album per year. Her story is one of constant refinement, creative problem-solving, and a deep belief that everyday moments are worth capturing.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw348

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Heather Cerulo is a fourth grade teacher who has been scrapbooking since the late '90s, when she was photocopying her mom's pictures at Staples just to have something to put on the page. As our September 2026 featured artist, she joins us for this My Way episode to share how becoming a mom to her two-year-old daughter, Abigail, transformed her approach to memory keeping and brought a new sense of purpose to her layouts.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw347

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Lauren Hinds is a Southern California scrapbooker, Creative Memories advisor, and the creator behind Craft Some Joy. She joins us to share the organizing systems and planning tools that have helped her move from feeling overwhelmed by unfinished projects to actively working on multiple albums at once. Lauren's approach centers on a philosophy she calls POP, which stands for Progress On Projects, and a set of practical strategies for fitting scrapbooking into real life.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw346

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Five foundational habits that sustain creative energy all year long: reflection, proximity, saying yes, action, and camaraderie. This is a bonus replay from our archive of 77 members-only episodes that aired before Scrapbook Your Way launched. You'll hear references to tools and platforms from that time, along with live Q&A.

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

What to do when creative burnout is real and you can't just push through it. Five simple ways to ease back into your hobby when the world has been heavy. This is a bonus replay from our archive of 77 members-only episodes that aired before Scrapbook Your Way launched. You'll hear references to tools and platforms from that time, along with live Q&A.

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Three guideposts for vacation scrapbooking: cherry-picking photos, finding a format that fits your life, and knowing your priorities. This is a bonus replay from our archive of 77 members-only episodes that aired before Scrapbook Your Way launched. You'll hear references to tools and platforms from that time, along with live Q&A.

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Amanda Rowinski is a mom of two, former industry insider, and self-described modern-day memory keeping millennial mom who is navigating a creative comeback after years away from sharing online. With experience designing paper lines for We R Memory Keepers, helping launch The Happy Planner at Me and My Big Ideas, and co-hosting the Crafty Ass Female podcast, she brings a unique perspective on returning to a hobby that has changed almost as much as she has. In this conversation, Amanda opens up about what it means to start over in a space you once knew well.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw345

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Hannah Lopez started scrapbooking in 2014 to document her daughter's Make-A-Wish trip during treatment for childhood leukemia, and within six months she was already making YouTube videos about her new hobby. Today she runs The Crafty Maven Getaway, a mixed media kit company and online community she first launched in 2015, stepped away from for several years, and recently relaunched with a design team and a fresh focus. Our conversation covers content creation in the scrapbooking space, the logistics of running a small product-based business, and what younger crafters might do differently.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw344

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Angela Speir is a recently retired grandmother of seven from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi who scrapbooks with big florals, plenty of pop dots, and a philosophy that everyday moments matter more than holidays. As our July 2026 featured artist, she joins us for this My Way episode to share how she creates, what she's learned from decades of memory keeping, and the massive scrap room renovation that's consuming her year.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw343

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Shanel Pettijohn is an Oklahoma-based scrapbooker, elementary school reading interventionist, and design team member for both Pear Tree Cut Files and Hip Kit Club. As a mom of three grown sons and grandmother to four girls, she's found a new creative rhythm as an empty nester, returning to scrapbooking with more time and fresh energy. Her pages are known for bold color, layered shapes, and hand-stitched details that make each layout feel like a small piece of art.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw342

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Leilani Schirmer is a Mississippi-based scrapbooker, Project Life devotee, and self-described indoor kid who has turned her love of nostalgia into a creative practice. Known online as @leilani_scraps, she returns to the podcast to talk about why we’re drawn to looking back, the pop culture and physical media she’s collecting, and how she documents childhood memories she doesn’t want to lose. Turning 40 this year, Leilani brings a colorful, playful, maximalist energy to her craft room and every project she takes on.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw341

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Rebeca Ruiz is a Puerto Rico-based scrapbooker, class instructor, and design team member who recently overhauled her entire craft room without adding a single square foot. After years of storing embellishments by product type and squeezing paper into every available corner, she emptied everything out of her creative space and started from scratch. What followed was a months-long project that reshaped not just her space but her relationship with her supplies.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw340

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Elizabeth Albers is a mom of seven who has built a digital template design business in the margins of an extremely full life. She started as a paper scrapbooker, discovered digital through a friend, and quickly realized that designing page layouts was her favorite part of the whole process. Today she creates eclectic, photo-focused templates at Hey Scrapper and maintains a weekly scrapbooking practice that produces a complete family album every year.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw339

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Molove Lee is a Brooklyn-based school counselor, scrapbooker, and junk journal enthusiast who has found a way to bring all of her creative interests together under one roof. Known online as @rememberthedayz21, she joins us to share how she moved from traditional scrapbooking and Project Life into junk journaling, and why this format has given her a new sense of creative freedom. Mo also opens up about hosting her first in-person junk journaling event and the growing community she's building both locally and online.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw338

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27

Marci Villanueva is a Washington State scrapbooker with a colorful, symmetrical style and a genuine love of embellishments. As the June 2026 featured artist at Simple Scrapper, she joins us for this My Way episode to share what keeps her coming back to her craft room in a season of life that also includes going back to school for a master's degree in graphic design.

🔗 Find all the mentioned links at https://www.simplescrapper.com/syw337

✨ Register for the Planning Party at https://www.simplescrapper.com/plan27