Inspired by Carina's Colour play post I've been tinkering with this online colour palette generator. You provide a link to an image online (I used my own that I keep on Flickr, but you could link to any image you like online) and the website analyses the colours in the image and spits out two palettes, one dull and one vibrant. It's designed for website building, but it's a fun tool for matching colours to photos for scrapbooking.

Below are my test photos with the palettes they generated - some are quite obvious, but others aren't what I expected.

The June issue (41) of ScrapBook inspirations goes on sale next Wednesday, 28th May

In this issue you'll find...
* Celebrate your men masses manly layouts in honour of Father's Day!
* Seaside photography creative ways to snap your holidays
* Your designs our most colourful reader gallery ever!
* Glitter galore easy ways to add sparkle and shine
* Get shirty mini book Shirley Toogood shares her ideas
* Make your stash work harder oodles of ways to use stickers on your layouts
All this, plus loads more!

Ever wondered how we spend our days here at ScrapBook inspirations HQ? Here's a peek at an average day...

8.40am: Rosie & Cara yawn their way into the office. First stop: the kettle for a brew.
9.15am: Discussion about new patterned paper releases.
9.30am: Helen (a freelancer) arrives. First stop: the kettle for a brew.
10.00am: Jane works different hours to the rest of us so she arrives last. First stop? Yep, the kettle for a brew.
10-11.30am: An air of calm descends as everyone gets caught up in their work. Rosie is dreaming up coverlines, Jane is laying out Ready, Steady, Scrap!, Cara is putting the finishing touching to the layout for the cover and Helen is subbing an article about taking more photos.
11.30am: Post arrives. Everything stops for five minutes as we watch Cara open a parcel containing a Big Bite from We R Memory Keepers. Woo hoo!

11.50am: Rosie cracks open her sandwiches - she never can wait til lunch!
1.00pm: The office is deserted as everyone heads out for a lunch break.
1.45pm: Rosie ropes Helen into helping her with the post. Lots of parcels to put together and send out!
3.00pm: Time for a brew. PaperCraft inspirations are discussing last night's Apprentice, we join in then get onto our favourite, Gok!
3.30pm: Jane starts to gather items for tomorrow's photo shoot. She'll be photographing the cover layout and some last minute products for the news pages. Cara gives her a hand and they discuss how to make some new ribbons look particularly enticing!
4.00pm: Our publisher Andrea pops over to discuss an upcoming issues.
4.45pm: Cara's just left, but Rosie and Jane carry on working on the next issue. Rosie is proofreading the contents page and Jane is looking over the photos for a mini book feature.
6.00pm: The day draws to a close and we head home... thanks for dropping in!

Did you see Shirley Toogood’s family history album in the June issue? She made the album to celebrate five generations of men in her family. The mini album is based on a simple accordion book, which Shirley adapted to suit her subjects. The whole book is shaped like a folded man’s shirt, and Shirley made pockets to hold journaling cards. If you want to make your own pocket mini book here’s what you need to do.

Supplies
* Two sheets of cardstock for basic book plus extra for the binding, journaling cards and decoration
* Paper trimmer or craft knife and cutting mat
* Patterned paper
* Sticky ribbon, buttons to embellish
* Leather cord for the binding
* Double-sided tape and glue stick or roll
* Ruler, scissors, pencil

1. Cut four pieces of cardstock each measuring 30x14.5cm. Score and fold each to make three 9.5x14.5cm sections, with an extra 1.5 cm piece at one end - this will act as a tab.

2. Cut the tops to make the shirt shape.

3. Stick the strips together, overlapping the tabs to create a long accordion.

4. To make the pockets stick double-sided tape along the bottom and two outside fold edges of two sections at intervals along the accordion.

5. Cut strips of cardstock to measure 12x3cm.

6. Sandwich one of the 12x3cm strips between the two sections when sticking them together, leaving the card sticking out 2cm like a handle.

7. This section will be used to bind the book together. Repeat this to make five pockets in total (Shirley didn’t make a pocket on the front or back covers). Punch two holes 5cm apart in the centres of the 12x3cm strips. Fold the book so the strips line up and tie cord or ribbon through the holes to bind.

8. The journaling cards slot into the pockets made in step four. To make, cut five pieces of cardstock (8x12cm). You can cut them down into shirt shapes if you like.

9. Add journaling or extra photos to each of the journaling cards. This is one of Shirley's finished cards. To make pull tabs for the journaling cards cut a slot as wide your sticky ribbon at the top of each card. Cut a strip of ribbon around 6cm long and thread it through the slot. Fold the ribbon up and back on itself to form a tab.

10. Decorate each of the pages - it's easier to do this when the book is unbound so you can lie it flat. Here's one of Shirley's finished pages:

Ta da! Here's Shirley's finished book. To read the full article and see more of Shirley's book make sure you get hold of the June issue of Scrapbook Inspirations, on sale 25th May.

Online crafty tutorials are a great way to learn new tricks. This week I've had a go at two flowery themed ones and I thought I'd show you the results.

First up, magnet flowers from Fiona on Pursuit of Craftiness. Fiona made her sunny flowers with crackle paints but I didn't have any so I had to resort to other techniques. Here are mine.

They're on a filing cabinet next to my desk. I used Floral Delight blank chipboard flowers from Melissa Frances and painted them using Adirondack acrylic dabbers. To embellish the turquoise one I used Perfect pearls (I just rubbed it into the paint with my finger, messy but effective) and added a yellow button. I attempted some distressing on the purple one but it didn't come out right and I decided I liked it with just a simple orange button middle. The green one is probably my favourite - I added white rub-ons from American Crafts. To finish I just stuck flat back magnets to each one. These little magnets are so easy to make - I did these during lunch yesterday and the only delay was waiting for the paint to dry.

Second, are ribbon flowers. This tutorial has a video - I don't know if it has sound, if it does, I didn't hear it (I didn't want to disturb the people working around me!). But it really didn't matter - I was able to make my own flower after watching the video through once. Here it is:

I used pale purple grosgrain ribbon and cotton to sew it up. My first version fell apart because the cotton snapped (I imagine if you can hear the sound one of the pieces of advice you get is to use strong thread! What can I say, I'm not great at following instructions!), but the second time it was fine. I used biggish loose stitches and hid the hole in the middle with a large green button. Again, very easy - this probably took me 15 minutes altogether but that includes finding the ribbon and a needle.

Have you got any online tutorials (either video or photos) you can recommend? Or have you had a go at either of these? I'd love to see what you've made. Post a comment below and let me know.

This week I've been asking the design team what they're loving at the moment.

Cheryl Johnson's up first: "I'm loving the new SEI Chick A Doo Alphabet Stickers and Big Brads (above), they will make the perfect embellishment for some black & white photos of my sons that have been sitting on my desk for an age. The colours will really pop on the page."

Jane Dean says: "I just bought papers from Daisy D's 'Wonder years' collection (above) and they arrived Saturday. I love the style of the designer, the colours are fresh and they are so easy to use. Probably my most favourite papers this year, I’ll definitely need to buy more I was a bit stuck for inspiration on a magazine assignment but these certainly got me started on some ideas."

Shimelle Laine can't wait to get her hands on wood grain letter stamps from Elsie's Forrest line for Ki Memories (above). She says, "They look lovely with the rest of the camping and nature themed line, but I think they will really come into their own paired with bright white cardstock, spring greens and interior shots too."

Shimelle also loves the Spirograph stickers from SupergirlStickers. "I've finally come to grips with things from my own childhood being retro and vintage so it's time I just admit how much I love them. These stickers combine a text background that works fabulously in scrapbooks with handprinted accents made with...a spirograph! What's not to love?! And I think this is a natural match for all those robot-themed products hitting the shelves recently."

Anita Mundt sent me a link to these cute chipboard dolls from Buzz and Bloom. They also have cute birds, 3D trees and brilliant vines.

And because I can't resist adding my own, here's my current favourite (below) from Ki Memories, 'Hula' lace cardstock. Yum!

Are you lusting after a new bit of stash? Post a link in the comments section and share your finds!

Welcome to the first scrappy interview! My first victim interviewee is Anita Mundt. Anita is a member of the ScrapBook inspirations design team; she likes taking photos, bright colours and puppies. Here we go!

Rosie: What’s on your desk right now?
Anita: My glasses, a delicious pile of new Hambly papers, a new printer cartridge waiting to be installed, my canon 5D camera, my mary-jane Crocs (don’t ask why!), a glue stick, a roll of gaffer tape, my iPod, my Macbook and a bunch of wild flowers in a jam jar my DH brought (no... really, he’s THAT thoughtful!)

What was the first scrapbooking supply you ever bought?
Oh my goodness, that was a LONG time ago! I think probably some patterned papers, followed by eyelets.

Have you ever injured yourself while scrapping?
Hmm... several paper cuts, small but nasty! I’ve also cut myself lots of times when being impatient trying to unpack new products in blister packs (I hate those!) I hurt my hand quite frequently on my old Sizzix machine (the one with the press down handle), thank goodness they replaced it with the turning handle on the Big Kick!

Please share a layout that you've recently made
This is a layout I made with a photo I took of an old friend. I used the kit from De Creatie. Dutch graffiti is always so creative and made a perfect theme for this layout.

What’s your scrapbook superhero skill?
I’m pretty good at cutting with an exacto knife intricate patterns, my hand is very steady and a can manoeuvre it easily, a skill I picked up at art college I think. Other than that, I like to doodle... on anything and everything!

Tell us a scrapbooking secret
When We R Memory Keepers first released the Crop-a-Dile I misread it and called it a Crop-o-Dilly for weeks. I even taught a workshop calling it a Crop-o-Dilly before someone told me I was pronouncing it wrong! I like to be individual though, so still insist on calling it my Crop-o-Dilly, just for fun

Any recent photos we can see?
Here are a couple from a recent photo shoot...

You can see lots more of Anita's gorgeous photographs on her blog. Thanks so much for taking part in my very first scrappy interview.

Would you like to be interviewed for the blog? Or would you like to nominate someone for a scrappy interview? Let me know in the comments below!

It's been pretty quiet on the blog lately - we are here, just super-busy with the next issue. I have however found the time to sign up for a few email newsletters (e-letters?) and I wanted to share my favourite with you. Photojojo is a twice-weekly email newsletter filled with photo tips and DIY projects. It's very useful and also very witty (which I like!).

The latest email just arrived and I was pleased to see that it combines two of my favourite things: sewing and cameras! It's a project on how to sew your own camera case from Pink Penguin. I love it! And it might encourage me to have a go at actually quilting something.

Tomorrow, 3rd May, is National Scrapbooking Day - but we've already started celebrating!

Creative editor, Cara, spent yesterday at Paperarts where they were hosting a special National Scrapbooking Day crop. Cara had a fab time (Jane and I had to stay in the office and finish off the next issue, boo) ad made a layout with Paperarts' special NSD kit. Half the people at the crop had never scrapped before which is great news - keep spreading the word everyone! A big thank you to Fiona from Paperarts for organising the crop and making Cara so welcome.

Cara did take photos, but forgot her camera today, so I will post them next week. In the mean time, if you're wondering how to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day, why not host your own mini crop and enter our competition? It's not too late to join in!

Here's what you need to know:
1. Invite a group of friends round to your house (you don't have to meet up on National Scrapbook Day itself - any date that suits you is fine!)
2. Order National Scrapbooking Day kits from one of these friendly shops. You'll need one for each person attending - they're newbie friendly.
3. Plan you day with military precision using our handy downloadable guides!
4. Enjoy a day of scrapbooking fun and hopefully convert a few of your pals to the joys of scrapping. Take photos!
5. To enter our NSD competition (sponsored by Craft Superstore) send copies of your photos to us at: NSD Crop, Scrapbook Inspirations, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Your photos should arrive by the 28th May 2008. All entries will be put into a big knitted hat and five winners selected at random. Normal comp rules apply.

And that's it! You don't have to enter the competition if you don't fancy it (but you might win amazing Chatterbox goodies if you do!), and you can of course tailor your mini crop to suit you and your friends. The aim of National Scrapbooking Day is to get people having a go - so go for it!

On page 72-73 of the May issue of ScrapBook inspirations Jane Dean shared her ideas for adding interactive features to your scrapbook layouts. From a milkman's magic wallet to a concealed flap there are lots of things you can do to hide little surprises around your pages.

One design was a push/pull feature that reveals two hidden photographs when you know the trick. If you fancy making your own you can find a PDF of Jane's instructions for a Push-Me-Pull-You feature on her blog now. Have fun!