sketch books Archives - Scrapbook OBSESSION Blog.com

As I have written in the past HERE and HERE, I *heart* anything by ALLISON DAVIS, SKETCH SUPPORT, and SCRAPBOOK GENERATION. In one of my past entries, I mentioned the DVD they were working on and gave a link where you could pre-order it.

The DVD was something I was going to get “someday” … the same someday I ever got around to ordering Volumes 6 and 7 of the “SKETCHES FOR SCRAPBOOKING” books and Volume 2 of “Sketches for Cardmaking.” Yeah, like, SOON.

But I guess the DVD will have to wait awhile … I read THIS THREAD today on 2peas :( Here is what Allison Davis posted:

Sadly, the DVD turned into a big mess. We (the SG gals) and the producer could never come to an agreement on the way the DVD should look. To make a long story short, we just didn’t feel that the end result was “us”. We were promised a certain look and quality and what we got was not up to our standards, not even close. There was no way that we were going to release an okay product and expect people to pay for it. We want each product we present to be the best that we can make it. Needless to say it’s been very frustrating and exhausting to deal with. We finally came to the conclusion that moving forward with the DVD and the producer was not an option.

I am so sorry that we haven’t let anyone know of this situation until now. Speaking for myself, it has been a very embarrassing. However, I feel that releasing the DVD would be even more embarrassing. We have been trying to come up with a way to use the material we have for the DVD (25 sketches and 75 layouts that we love!) minus the instructional segments. We are currently looking into turning it into a CD to view on your computer and then you can print the sketches and layouts as you please. We are hoping that this is something we can do in the near future.

If anyone has any questions about it, don’t hesitate to ask!

And this is what I posted on the thread in response:

I’m so sorry that happened to you guys, Allison. Thank you for letting us know. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You did the right thing, not putting out an inferior product that doesn’t represent SG the way you want it to.

I look forward to whatever you choose to do with the sketches and layouts. Your whole family and what you share with us has been a huge blessing to me also. I’m a busy working mom and you have me turning out amazing layouts so quickly!

I went over to the DVD PAGE at Scrapbook Generation and it still shows the DVD but no release date and no way to order. I do hope they find a solution they’re happy with very soon!

By the by, I think Volume 8 of “Sketches for Scrapbooking” comes out on July 1, 2011.

Anyhow, just wanted to give you an update on the DVD in case you were looking for it! Oh, and if you’d like to give your input to Allison/Scrapbook Generation on whether you like the idea of the CD instead of the DVD, please let them know! You can add to that thread I linked earlier; the SG girls are wicked smart and they stayed tuned to what the Peas have to say, LOL. Or you can contact them HERE.

Happy Sketchy Scrapping!

ALLISON DAVIS has always been one of my favorite scrapbookers. Ali was a member of the 2008 and 2009 Dream Teams for CREATING KEEPSAKES magazine. I always enjoy her layouts in CK and my eye immediately goes to them because she scraps like I scrap. In fact, when she was a guest BLOGGER for CK in July 2009 and described the way she scraps, I could have written the exact same thing about myself:

“I am a two-page, multiphoto kinda gal. Mostly because I take too many pictures and have way too much to say for any other format. I try to fit lots of pictures on my layouts. This can be blamed on my complete lack of control over the photo selection process. It’s just so hard to narrow it down to only a few!”

Her books are called “Sketches for Scrapbooking” and here is more about them, from Alison’s website:

“Each volume of “Sketches for Scrapbooking” contains 30 exclusive sketches designed by Scrapbook Generation’s Debbie Sanders and Allison Davis. All sketches have a key that indicates which areas are stripes, small patterns, large patterns, contrasting cardstock, etc to make paper selection super easy. Photo sizes and paper measurements are included on each sketch.”

You can purchase them HERE. As of now, there are Scrapbooking sketch books, volumes 1 through 5 ($12.99 each) and even a sketchbook for cardmaking ($12.99). The sketchbooks are by Allison Davis and Debbie Sanders, and the cardmaking book is by Stacey Atchley, all from the SCRAPBOOK GENERATION store.

What finally reminded/convinced me to purchase some of these books was THIS thread at 2peas. I love the idea several Peas have posted about how they tear the books apart and sort them in binders by the number of photos per sketch. And here are a couple reviews that really sold me:

“Not only does she give photo dimensions, but also the dimensions for the various paper pieces that are used on the layout along with positioning information.”

“I so love these sketch books! I think I have almost every sketch book made these are the easiest to use and the layouts are so good when completed. They are also the quickest to finish, I have probably finished about 40 pages in the last 6 weeks which is alot for me.”

Holy scrapbooking, Batman! Forty pages in 6 weeks!?!?! That totally rocks. These books remind me of my beloved EASY PATTERNS for SCRAPBOOKING by BRENDA ARNALL that I’ve mentioned MANY TIMES. Of course, I admire and adore the work of those scrappers who can spend hours on one layout and create an artistic masterpiece, but that’s just not how I scrap. I might look at their layout and take one element to use on mine, like a paper flower, a photo arrangement, or a color scheme. But I take so many photos and have so many events, vacations, and other projects I want to scrap, I need to keep it moving. It sounds like these sketch books will be perfect for me.

You can see a preview of her upcoming DVD “Scrapbooking with Allison Davis” HERE and PRE-purchase it HERE ($19.99).

The shipping is ONLY $2.99 no matter how many books you order, so why not order several at once? I just purchased all 5 of the sketchbooks, and plan to get the cardmaking book and DVD in the future. How about you? Do you have these books already or plan to get them?

ETA 4/5/10: I noticed that Melissa/Scrappy Jedi, who left a comment on this entry, has also written a review of these books. Go check it out HERE.

ETAA 4/5/10: I started a THREAD on 2peas to let the girls know they totally enabled me to buy these 5 sketchbooks, and one of the Scrapbook Generation girls posted this: “Is this a good time to tell you that we’ll have volume 6 ready for sale on July 1?” So there’s a heads up for you Allison David sketchbook fans!

ETAA 7/12/12: The plans for the DVD were “scrapped” {bwahahaha … scrapped!} but they have added lotsa’ more sketch books. There are now:
Sketches for Scrapbooking (all two-page layouts): Volumes 1 through 8
Sketches for Scrapbooking: One Page Sketches: Volumes 1 and 2
Sketches for Scrapbook: Travel Sketches
Sketches for Cardmaking: Volumes 1 and 2

Now instead of $12.99, each sketch book is $15.99. They’re still very popular and very much a part of my own scrapbooking. Here is an update from one of the Scrapbook Generation team, who posted it at 2 Peas on 06/17/12:

Several of you are right!

— Of the “regular” Sketches for Scrapbooking double-page books, volume eight is the most current.

— The most recent books are volume one of travel and volume two of Allison’s one-page series, both of which came out in January of 2012.

Our schedule in the past has been to do at least one book every six months, coming out with new books in January and July. We will not be publishing new books this July because we are working on a huge project involving sketches that requires every bit of our time and energy right now. That’s why we’re cutting back on some other time-consuming activities like retreats.

I’m actually dying to tell what the newest project is, but we have to pass a few more hurdles before we do a big announcement. (We learned our lesson with the DVD disaster a couple of years ago!)

When we do finally get to let you in on the secret, I think it will have been worth the wait!

Sounds exciting!

sketch books

“Stretch Your Scrapbooking” DVD by Scrapbook Generation

Allison Davis Sketch Books and DVD