Is the Shotbox the answer to scrapbooking goals?

Following up on my 2016 goals for the year I wanted to give you all my initial impression of the Shotbox which was my big Christmas present from my DH! (I know he's a keeper right?)

I first heard about this great device from the Paperclipping Roundtable podcast from Stacey Julian and it peaked my interest. (By the way if you have never listened they have a dose of amazing inspiration over there!) At lunch that very day I jumped on their website and I knew instantly that I really wanted one... It was the answer to all of my scrapping goals!

Like so many of you, I am drowning in memorabilia which I cannot make myself dispose of! I have tons of old fragile scrapbooks that I want to document to share with my family, photos in terrible old magnetic albums, older scrapbook layouts in different sizes (8 1/2" X 11") plus  I really needed a way to  document lots of physical memorabilia. 

I have a very nice scanner (Epson V600) but it doesn't handle everything I wanted to do. I have taken pictures with a white backdrop and had some luck but it's not so easy and I can really only take pictures on certain days. Since I work full time and really can only take pictures on the weekends - it really limits my ability and flexibility. Plus it needs to be on a fairly bright day when I don't have something else going on.. even more limits!

The Shotbox was originally sold through a Kickstarter campaign - I missed out on that but got in the first order group. The giant box arrived shortly after the holidays so this the second weekend I have had to play with it - and play I have!

I ordered the Shotbox plus the Sideshoot to take pics of physical memorabilia - the backdrops and the carry bag were "extras" that came with the package - they might have included it in the description but they were a surprise to me - a very nice surprise!

The main box is super light and folds flat. And it has its own built in lighting - so no waiting for the sun and light to be just right to take pictures !!  There is a great video on their site which shows them assembling it - literally takes 15 seconds! Shotbox videos

The box unfolds and has 2 simple support arms on the side.

The black base comes separately so it can also be removed. This is the carry bag for all the goodies

There are 4 different backdrops - white, black, green (my DH said it was for special effects like Star Wars..) and blue for various options for picture taking - I will have to play around with these different options to see which one works better.

The Sideshot attaches easily on the top and has its own light source in addition to the light source within the Shotbox.

As a busy scrapper I really like things that are easy to store and transport (think about going to visit family to take pictures of their heritage photos or special collection of grandma's jewelry) I know there are a lot of Etsy and Ebay sellers that will be interested potentially. All you need is access to 1 electric outlet since the Sideshot is also powered directly from the Shotbox.

The bag really makes me so happy!! Everything fits in it perfectly and has nice long shoulder straps to be able to easily carry on you shoulder.

So most importantly how does the Shotbox perform - here are a few examples of cards and scrapbook layouts plus a brochure to see how it goes..

*** Edited to add: There are 3 different light settings - I played around with those and got a much, much better image with no glare this time - I didn't even realize that this was an option - look forward to playing even more!***

So what are my impressions so far... I think the Shotbox will be a perfect tool for cards, photos (taken out of albums or frames), any brochures, tickets etc - I have boxes and boxes of school papers that I need to go through... I think it does a nice job on scrapbook layouts that are flattish.. but not in a page protector (too much glare from the LED lights). I am not sure that it will work as well for those older photos in magnetic albums - here I think a scanner is still a better tool plus the Epson has a nice built in photo restoration setting that does a fine job. 3D memorabilia will also work very well in the Shotbox with a little creative cropping.

Overall I would buy it again without hesitation! Yes, the Shotbox is mostly the answer to my Scrapbooking goals! These opinions are my own and I didn't receive any free products from them..but if you are interested please use the following affliate link  to Shotbox.me to go check it out! It is the same price to you but help supports our blog.. thanks for sticking through this long and photo heavy post!

Scrapbooking Two Years at Once

This is a repost of my Creative Team post over at The Pocket Source. If you don't know them yet, hop over and check it out. It's a fabulous community.

I got so far behind I decided to do 2014 and 2015 simultaneously. It was a goal I posted about back in February, here. I had visions of getting tons done and being caught up with both by the end of this year. Well, I'm not trending in that direction but I've revamped my plan to make it more doable. That said, I have been doing some simultaneous months. It is fun comparing pictures that are a year apart. Sheesh, kids grow too fast. They are not going in the same book, I'm just doing January layouts, for instance,  from 2014 at the same time as those January 2015 layouts. Here are two I just did.

  

I used cards from Project Life Jade and Plus One in this 2014 layout, studio calico wood veneers, Target washi and my good old embossing label maker.

These cards and embellishments were from the April Paper Issues Swag Bag. I tried it out when they had it on sale. Love!! Will definitely be shopping with them again.

So, my process has morphed since the idea of doing 2014/15 simultaneously. I'd love to do another post that gives more details on that, but I'll just give you the abbreviated version.  

• I planned out all the layouts in the PL app for Jan-Apr 2015. It was getting a bit old by the end, but it makes printing and putting them together quicker. And now, I keep that up along with journaling in the PL app, just so I can get more of those cute little stories written down. It's is so good for me to do it this way! 
• I already had Jan-Feb 2014 printed. For 2015, I did ALL the photo editing on my phone, using a combination of pic stitch, pic tap go and Dropbox. As I referred to my layouts, I saved my edited photos to a new "print" folder in Dropbox. 
• Then, I uploaded that whole folder to Persnickety Prints. Wow, my first order from them. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go anywhere else. I was overwhelmingly happy with my prints. 
• I could barely contain my excitement, as I filled my pocket pages, again referring to that PL app of planned layouts! So, then, I had this book full of just photos, and I've been happily skipping all over the place working on whichever layout suits me at the moment. (I just had a mental image of myself literally skipping on top of my scrapbook pages with a big grin on my face. Anyone else? The horror!). I'm loving this system, people. It is so freeing to just have the photos where they go and dig into all my supplies and get it done!

EEK, I need a mani.

Go get some scrapbooking time in this week.

Holly Genc

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