Scrapbooking tranquility and peace

I love scrapbooking bigger photos. I do this when I see a photo that I particularly love which makes me happy. In this case it was this picture of a beautiful duck. I took this photo along a local lake that my husband and I walk around, and it looked so beautiful with the surrounding branches and the reflections that I took the picture, later printing it in 8x12, waiting for a story. Here's the page:

I used a story starter and sketch by Simple Scrapper for this. I also picked some products to reflect the story (pun intended): since we were on a walk, I picked travel products, including arrows to show direction; I picked gold accents that reflected much like the photo was of a reflection; and I used a scallop border, sort of like a wave. Here's some details:

So what did I use to scrap this tranquil photo and retain the mood? Here are some of my tips:

1. Use fairly neutral colors.
2. Use products from one or two lines that mesh with the theme.
3. Use embellishments of various textures and sizes and shapes.
4. Cluster embellishments into one big and one small cluster.
5. Arrange the clusters to lead the eye through the page.

Thank you again for visiting! Please visit Simple Scrapper and check out all they have to offer this next month, including classes, inspiration, and a monthly magazine.

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November page for Simple Scrapper: Scrapbooking photos across time

I'm here with my second layout for this month's Simple Scrapper, this time using a sketch and an old story starter. 

I had started taking photos of the boys next to the big movie displays when we went to the theater. I never tagged them, and I unfortunately deleted at least one from Muppets Most Wanted (argghhh!), but I got a good representation of these posers across the years and put them together onto a page to celebrate this family tradition.

I took color inspiration from the photos, using yellow, teal, and purpley-pink.

What a gift it was to find the viewfinder in my die cuts! Most of the other embellishments I dug out of stash, either die cuts or puffy stickers or enamel. (Note: I've been able to use my die cuts more since I rearranged my storage system. I'll share that this month.)

The vinyl title letters were losing some stick, so I sewed them down.

Thank you for visiting! I'll come by later this week to share more pages I made on my retreat. Please visit Simple Scrapper to check out the other inspirational content available, and consider a membership!

Going back in time: Scrapbooking photos across years

Hello! The school year is over. Aside from preparing for the next school year, I am filling my time with gardening, reading, and scrapbooking.

One thing I have done this past month involves scrapbooking photos of my boys across the years. First: I had printed some photos of my boys recently posing next to the statues of Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett outside Target Field. It dawned on my that the boys' heads are now OVER Killebrew's bat where they used to be BELOW them. At that point I realized that, since Target Field opened in 2010, the statues have been our growth charts. And so I made this page:

I used a sketch and story starter from Simple Scrapper to help me with this page. I picked bright primary colors because they make me think of baseball. Here's some closer shots:

The two die cuts--the magic is real and the journaling spots--are from the June Simple Scrapper downloads.

Next is a page that I made for Simple Scrapper for July. I had printed these photos of my boys in trees at the Minneapolis Peace Garden, but I didn't know what to do with them. The story starter for July gave me the idea to pair them with older photos of them in trees. Just like trees, these two grow, but not out of this favorite hobby.

The photos were a little dark, especially of Rowan, so the Jellybean Soup frames helped draw attention to them. The basic chipboard pieces from Ali Edwards were the perfect embellishments for this layout.

And then a page about my son and his years of playing violin from kindergarten to today. The recitals at first were in a lounge at an apartment, then for years they were at his teacher's home. Recently they returned to the teacher's apartment, where we can see his growth by the phone on the wall behind him. I printed photos from the past and now to highlight the growth.

Again, I chose bright colors, and I dug into my October Afternoon die cuts to create some bright clusters. The title is from old American Crafts foam letters--and yes, I had run out of an S, so I cut apart an 8.

Thank you for visiting! I have another post to share soon about the boys in my life, including my husband, particularly as we approach Father's Day.

Most of the pages I make are ordinary

Here's where I'll be honest: most of the time my pages do not do anything showstopping or innovative or emotionally charged. They're nice looking and I've recorded the memory (yay!) but that's it. Here's a few of those pages I've made recently:

This page includes one of my favorite recent photos of four generations in my grandma's new digs. The colors were a bit odd in the photo, as was the composition (lots of random details that weren't really attractive), so this made the photo tricky to scrap. I decided to use mostly neutral colors with it, a dramatic title, and some mist and stitching for texture.

Another OK page, this time with a photo of me from high school:

I'd scanned the photo, but it was taken in the 80s and was grainy. I added a Crate Paper overlay to mask the grain a bit (hence the photo glare from the window). I used a lot of pink because this October Studio Calico kit came with some (all three of these pages come from that kit). I have boys, so pink means a page about me most of the time. It was a little too pink, though, so I added the neutral strips along the edges. I guess this page has more design in it than the last one--I like the title and the accent clusters--but I've done stuff like this before. Nothing innovative, really. Just a nice page inspired by a photo.

And finally, a page about my son earning money for an iPod:

I loved the paper (Fascinating Friends by Dear Lizzy American Crafts) and I had a so-so photo taken from a distance of my son. I thought I'd trim the photo to fit the frame; however, the frames had uneven edges, so instead I trimmed the frame and adhered the photo to the back. I added squares of patterned paper here and these for interest. Since the paper was so dramatic, I didn't add many embellishments. So the page records the memory, which is fine.

Thank you for looking at some pages that make up the bulk of my scrapping--pretty but ordinary pages that do what they're supposed to: record the story.

Left brain photo selection

I'm taking the class The Art and Science of Scrapbooking at Big Picture Scrapbooking right now. I knew before taking the class that I was left brained, but I was surprised to see how I am 60/40 left brained/ right brained. I thought it would be more extreme.

My first project for the class involved photo selection. I started with the left brained challenge, which I figured to be more comfortable for me. Here's my page:

I decided to enlarge the photo to 8x12 because it was so dramatic. The bright colors in the September Studio Calico kit worked very well with the bright ride at the fair. Here's some details:

The acetate frame was an easy pick to highlight my son in the swing, who of course has his hands in the air, making him easy to find. I've been using a lot of frames on big photos lately to draw attention to the subject. And I was surprised at how much I loved using the sequins on this page. I'm not much for sequins, but the color and cheer of the sprinkles seemed the fit the mood.

The kit came with a vintage ticket--how perfect was that?

Thanks for looking at my page! Tell me: how often is your starting point for a page a photo?

Scrap retreat: finished pages

I may be insane. This must be noted immediately, because three days after returning from our vacation to Glacier, I went on a scrap retreat at the Nowthen Getaway with my girlfriends, the Scrappin' J's.

I didn't plan pages, really. I didn't pull photos and coordinate supplies to make the pages and pre-cut titles and pre-print journaling. I packed a bit of everything I like to scrap with and went--and amazingly, I use everything that I brought! Wow.

It was a blast. We go on a few retreats a year in addition to scrapping occasionally at Archiver's, and the company was just so much fun.

I made about 13 layouts and 2 minis (some I made and finished, some I finished except for titles/journaling, and some I'd already started and finished). I'll share what I made through the rest of the month. Here's what I did completely at the retreat, from start to finish:

This was our first challenge. We like to do timed challenges to encourage us to design without overthinking (plus, it's fun!). This was an open 30-minute challenge. I used older photos of my son with a garden statue I got for Christmas a few years ago. I'm not sure of the date, but I wrote 2012 on the page, so that's what it was. I used Studio Calico's June kit Roundabout with this page. (Note: after our challenges, we always tweak the pages. I added stitching and the confetti.) I really love using products humorously. This sticker that says "Get Away!" means something totally different (it's from the Travel Girl line), but it makes sense in the context of the story I scrapped. I love doing that.

I made the next page with Studio Calico's July kit Valley High with this page. It's pretty simple. I have used this idea before: cutting circles to use as a photo mat, then adding a few stitched circles with my Bazzill stitching template. I decided to make an 8.5x11 page because the photos were so small. The photos, BTW, were left over from a project that I didn't use them on.

This is a good example of my starting a page with something random on my scrap table. I had these Mason jars lying around; I'd planned on using them for an American Crafts page when I was a guest designer this year but didn't. Since they were sort of girly and present-like, I decided to use them as the starting point for this page. I decided the jars should sit on a "shelf," so I went through the patterned paper I'd brought and picked matching shades. Then I put the photos below after some stitching (of course) and added journaling and title. Easy peasy!

The final page was another challenge, this one more difficult: we had an hour but had to include 4 things we all decided individually: Journaling, something black, stitching or misting or stamping, and washi. (Bonus is you guess which challenge is mine!) I again used the July Studio Calico kit to make this page:

 

 

Right now I am enamored with photos along the top or bottom of the page. I was also impressed at how nice the letter stickers worked with a page about a Children's Museum. Fun fun fun.

Thanks for sharing my pages! I'll be sharing the remaining pages I made over the next two weeks. Tell me: do you have a scrapping group? And how do you feel about going on crops?

Scrapbooking many photos

I have some exciting news for today: I was asked to design some projects for the American Crafts blog, specifically highlighting how to scrapbook many photos! If you've followed my blog for a while, you know I love putting many photos on a page. Here's the projects I made, mostly using the My Girl, Amy Tangerine, and Dear Lizzy Colections:

As you can see, I like using smaller photos on one-page layouts if I use many photos on a page. I tend to go to town when I use many photos on a two-page layout, but still, shrinking the size of the photos to get a lot on the page.

Please go visit the American Crafts blog--I shared some design tips on the pages I designed. and thank you, American Crafts, for creating such inspiring products!

How do you spell "portcullis"?

I have scrapped more Lego pages than I can count. Ever since Rowan and Dominic started the Lego Club, I've put together pages of their club days. Recently, Rowan has asked me to take photos of his creations. Since this seems to be because he wants to remember them, I complied. Here's the latest:

I used Studio Calico's February kit for this page.  Since I had only one 4x6 photo and a couple 3x3 photos, I set them together on a bigger mat and embellished around them. Here's some details:

 

Confession: I teach English, and I don't know how to spell Portcullis. I do now--two "L's"--but when I laid the title down at first, I only had one "L". When I journaled, Microsoft Word helpfully informed me that there were two "L's" so I had to correct the title. That's why the "I" doesn't want to stick. I'd moved it. 

%#$@!

I added the Glitz banner to sort of reflect the sweeping chains I picture on a castle drawbridge. Keep in mind I am no expert on castles.

  

Lots of fun embellishments in this kit, so I layered and clustered them across the page. I am a slave to the visual triangle, which I did with the embellishments.

 

Thanks for sharing this page with me! Tell me--do you scrap your hobbies or your families? Do you do them multiple times like I do?

Write Click Scrapbook March sneak

Presidents Day weekend means two things: celebrating Dominic's birthday and scrapbooking. The birthday boy had a great time at Space Alien and enjoyed his favorite present: a bearded dragon he calls Stone. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

For scrapbooking, I spent all day Friday making my project for March's Write Click Scrapbook gallery. Here's a sneak:

I loved using the new Dear Lizzy flair on this project. I paired it with older Studio Calico chipboard clouds and American Crafts Thickers, plus some newer Studio Calico and October Afternoon stickers and Crate Paper photo overlays. That's one of my favorite things to do: play with new products while mixing them with old stash. This happened on my WCS project.

Come back to Write Click Scrapbook see the whole project on the 1st!

CHA Winter 2013: trends and must haves

Here's take-two of trying to post the trends I noticed at CHA and the products I loved and want to get. Hopefully SAVE will work this time.

Trends

This project by Basic Grey is filled with many of the trends I noticed:

Here's what I saw a lot of:

1. Mustaches

Teresa Collins had a nice line that would work for both men and women called He Said She Said. On the left side you can see a sheet of paper with a 'stache of fun! (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) Lots of designers had mustache products. I know people have mixed feelings about mustache designs, so this trend could be a little hairy for some of you, but I think it will grow on you. Hee!

2. Arrows

These too were everywhere. Stamps, wood veneer, papers, and so on. Sorry if you don't like arrows, because it seems like they'll be on many, many lines this year. Since I'm a mother of boys, I'm OK with them--they're a nice accent for them.

3. Little bags

I saw these at a few places--these by Crate and in Webster's Pages too. Not sure what they are--glassine envelope-like bags with cute patterns.

4. Ombre

Not sure if this is the right term, but there were several places I noticed Ombre patterns, subtle gradations of hue. Like here with the Amy Tangerine latter stickers:

And these Thickers and stickers from the Studio Calico Sundrifter line:

And this line by Cosmo Cricket:

When used on a page like this:

The gradated color seems to add a hint of distressing, just achieved in a significantly less messy way than by misting or inking.

5. Speech bubbles

This is another trend that you either love or hate. Lots of companies had speech bubble patterns on their papers, in their stamps, in their dies. I like them--they are nice as a base for a title or  embellishment cluster. This page by BoBunny has sweet and not-so-sweet phrases to use when scrapping all areas of your life.

6. Instagram/polaroid frames

Many companies--American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, Crate Paper--had papers or products with vintage-type frames on them, especially Polaroid and  Instagram-ish filters. Fun.

7. Wood veneer

Studio Calico has had nice, unpainted Wood Veneer for a while; this time I also liked seeing it at Basic Grey and Prima. Also: note the arrows and speech bubbles. This year we will all be going places and talking on the way.

8. Acetate/acrylic

People were talking about Pink Paislee/ Heidi Swapp's return to the acrylic letters; I also saw this clear trend in other places, like Crate Paper and Basic Grey. I'm glad I never got rid of my vellum adhesive.

9. Project Life as an industry standard

I don't do Project Life, but after having visited the Project Life booth and checking out the lovely kits (hello, Jade), I admittedly found myself succumbing to the Siren-call of Project Life. Most companies must have heard the call too because they seems to size everything to fit those cards--the 4x3 size is standard for die cuts, mini-frames, page protectors, stamps, dies, and so on. In addition, companies like We R Memory Keepers and BoBunny have come out with smaller and cheaper Project Life-like kits. The WRMK set on the left has half the cards as PL but cost $10; the Misc Me line from BoBunny can see a wonderfully decked out smaller album for around $26.

Must-Have Products

1. 2-page page protectors

Lots of interesting combinations of page protectors, but this one, showed to me by Donna Januzzi, is clever: it's a two-page on by WRMK. Stitched together on the left side, it  keeps your two-page layouts together even in 3-ring binders. Here it is in action:

2. EK Success Doily punch

As a mother of boys, I don't have much use for doilies, but I do love circles, and this punch by EK Success/ Martha Stewart was super easy, allowing you to punch various sizes. Can you picture this as the base for a wedding centerpiece?

3. 3x4 punch

This punch by WRMK is really perfect. True, you can size photos to 4x3, or you can use your trimmer, but a punch is quicker and easier. This is a prototype; it's expected in June, which should be just in time for when the new PL official kits arrive (heh).

4. Teresa Collins mini-albums and portable adhesive kits

 

Teresa Collins makes  nice products, but it's not a line I tend to frequent, mainly because I think it tends toward the feminine. Someone told me I should check out the booth before I left, and I'm so glad I did. Lots of cool embellishments and unique products like these two mini albums and this portable adhesive kit:

 I thought it would be cool to pack a mini in this sturdy box and take it with me the next time I travel.

 5. Jenni Bowlin Punches

I know that some people think punches are dead since the Cameo is so convenient, and ubiquitous, but punches can go everywhere and are quicker and easier to use. I cannot wait to get the two-tab ones on the lower left and upper right.

6. Trimmer

How much would you pay for a trimmer that never dulls and always cuts straight? It's an interesting question about to become not-so-philosophical. This Fiskars ProCision Rotary Bypass Trimmer can do both, and it costs about $120. If my current Sure-Cut trimmer dies again (no pun intended), I might need to save up.

So this concludes my picks from CHA! What are you excited about? How do you feel about Project life? And how much would you spend for a trimmer that never dulls and always cuts straight?