Scrapbooking the art of film

Hello! The month of February came and went pretty fast. I did a lot of scrapbooking, so I wanted to start sharing what I did.

This next layout I wanted to share since its inspiration, Guillermo del Toro won the Oscar last night. We've seen some of his films, and last year an exhibit of his personal art and inspiration went on exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The boys and I got tickets and went, and it was worth every penny. Here's the page:

The walls in the exhibit were bright, bloody red, and the ceiling was black, so I chose that for my page. I dug into my Halloween stash for nondescript creepy and somewhat amusing products--since so much of his work is comic inspired, the whimsical items seemed appropriate.

A lot of the things in the exhibit were things you did not want to turn your back on. For example, those eyeballs in the entrance gateway blinked. The boys didn't want to stand in front of them because they could hear them closing and opening. The H.P. Lovecraft statue looked real, which was really unsettling too.

Another uncomfortable turning-our-backs moment: that hologram in the lower right. Yikes.

Here's some close-ups of the embellishment clusters in particular:

Those flair buttons my husband got me when he traveled to London and visited the Globe theater; they mostly reference the Scottish play, which starts with witches, so I loved using them on this page.

This photo might be my favorite. I'm glad I captured the boys underneath the arm of the Pale Man. It just looks cool.

I used a lot of Pebbles (the chalk speech bubble), October Afternoon (labels and brads), 7Gypsies (vintage stickers), and Bella Blvd (most words and cute images).

To create the design, I added the strips on the bottom, then created the photo collage on the right. I had many fewer photos on the left, so I arranged them the best way I could, leaving space for title and journaling.

And that is my creepy page of creepy photos from a fun time at the art museum. And congratulations to Guillermo del Toro for his Oscars win!

Two-page layouts: Products, memorabilia, and a grid

For the past month, I have scrapped several two-page layouts. I shared one the other day. Today I wanted to share the next page I made.

Like the last layout, I started with autumn die cuts I had pulled as I sorted and color-coded my die cuts. This time All of my photos but one were the same size, so I picked a couple pieces of patterned paper from my scraps as background and set the photos up as a grid. Here it is:

This commemorates a trip to a local orchard with a cider house. While we were there, we enjoyed the sights and tastes, but the boys particularly loved the scavenger hunt for the gnomes all around the barn. Each gnomes had a shaped punch (scrapbooking tools--hooray!) that they used on their game card, and the completed card earned them free apples. Nice! I made sure to put the cards on the page.

Here's a closer look:

To enclose the memorabilia, I adhered the die cut with dimensional stickers to tuck the cards behind.

About the gnomes: they came from Pebbles die cuts, I believe. When I saw them, I set them aside to use on this page. The apples I cut from Bella BLVD and adhered with dimensional stickers. Lots of die cuts from Elle's Studio too.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gives you some inspiration in scrapping an event photo layout. Back soon with another two-page layout!

Happy layers on a scrapbook page

The school year has started out. We're not too busy with writing yet, though it's coming soon. Mostly we've been enjoying the start of Dominic's last year in middle school and the start of Rowan's first year in high school. Here's a page I made recently about the two of them and a stint in Dinner Theater:

They'd seen the show for several years and dreamed of being in it, so I want to remember each year they do it. Since it's so dark at the show, I only included one shot of the finale number, which was well lit; the one of the boys I took after.

To lighten the photos, I picked a light background paper and happy-colored Project Life cards to layer over it. They weren't enough, so I added a couple strips of scrap paper. I put the photos on top, then embellished.

Before I stuck everything down, I added some mist for some texture. Here's some details:

I don't have a lot of the Illustrated Faith line, but I was happy to use it on this page.

Some old and beloved Basic Grey layered flowers worked well for contrast on this layout.

After I was finished, I realized how symbolic, albeit inadvertently, the background paper with crosses was. My son the stickler, however, said, "They're pluses not crosses ,Mom." He obviously won't be the English teacher. Sigh.

Thank you for coming today! I hope this gave you ideas about adding colors and layers to capture the feeling on the page, even when the photos aren't stellar.

My favorite scrapbooking pages of 2015

I don't think I did a reap of my favorite pages from last year. Although I was less prolific last year, I still enjoyed the process. Here's some of my favorite pages, in no particular order:

This was a recent page for Scrapbook Circle that I finished right at the end of 2015. I love the photo of my boys and used it as a base of a page that described their relationship using different nouns. #EnglishTeacher

Another recent page for Simple Scrapper, this time celebrating my garden. I love taking a one-page sketch and stretching it to two.

Perhaps my favorite page of the year using a heritage photo of me in Germany when I was in college. I reminisce on the song that is the title using a sketch and story starter for Simple Scrapper. Note: travel lines are my favorite themed paper, so I jump at the chance to use them on a page.

This page by Simple Scrapper I played around with circles from the sketch, this time with hand stitching, which I generally did less of this year. Note: More travel paper!

My son at the Bakken museum. I made serious use of stash on this page, starting with an older piece of bella Blvd that made a nice base for the technical page.

Both this and the last were Simple Scrapper pages. I loved that the sketch had diamond shapes, so I was able to use these shape stickers. Lots of machine stitching on this page, which I did do a lot of this year. I need to get my machine tuned up again, and it might be time to get a new one after 20+ years. Parts are falling off.

This page for Scrapbook Circle did something I fell in love with this year: taking inspiration for the page from a product. In this case I was inspired by the grid background paper to journal and embellish as I did.

More travel paper! I used it on a recent "travel" to Minneapolis to one of our favorite restaurants, The Freehouse. Note: this design is typical for me--same size photos in a line--but the huge tags and journaling on the bottom breaks it up and makes it look different.

Another page where I took inspiration from the background paper. I did a lot of big picture scrapbooking. This might have been my favorite because it might have been my favorite shot. Love white space.

Grids are good. Here I put all the shots in a grid, but one didn't fit, so I used it to embellish the title.

Finally, I (finally) got around to documenting my week in the life from the previous year. This might have been one of the only non-design team pages I made, which is a scrapbooking goal I have for the upcoming year: more pages using stash for a little randomness.

So what do I notice from my pages this year? A recap:

1. Color
2. Shape
3. Layers of embellishments
4. Pivotal stitching as a design element
5.  Big titles
6. Journaling strips
7. Designing from product

Thank you for visiting today! And thank you for letting me share some of my favorite pages. I've started some scrapbooking on my own this week, so I will be sharing as I complete more over the next month.

Winter CHA 2013: Inspiring pages and products

Here it is, the morning of the second day of CHA. I thought I'd post some wonderful projects I saw yesterday; I'm also pinning them on a Pinterest board CHA Winter 2013 (on Pinterest my name is Buffyfanlarson; that's also my Twitter handle if you'd like to follow my progress around the room today and a bit tomorrow). Here's some of what I saw and loved yesterday:

I started at Echo Park, and this is the wall that epitomizes the style of many eye-catching booths: white walls, clusters of pages, fewer decorations. There are some amazingly decorated booths, but the ones I am gravitating toward are the clean and simple ones. Typical of me.

 

I loved the products and projects at Webster's Pages. I don't use them typically because they are more ornate than I scrap, but the projects in the booth did a good job showing how to use them for a clean page. The one above made good use of the Silhouette to use doses of the paper.

This next one has lots of stuff, including trim, but look how clean it is! It uses a spring/baby collection called New Beginnings--look at that adorable animal paper on the bottom!

 

And there are two things to note below: the page did a terrific starburst with patterned paper, but some are covered with overlays for extra texture and interest. Nice! Finally, those little coin purses are made with overlays. AMAZING.

I loved the new stuff with the new Fancy Pants brag books. They are bound differently to make it easier to remove covers and pages, a problem I noticed with my current Smash book; the fact that Fancy Pants addressed this concern is nice. and look at the creative way this Brag Book makes use of the template as a peek-a-boo into the next photo. For people without a Silhouette, or just anyone who likes to keep scrapping easy, these templates are cute and versatile.

 

Here's also an inspiring circle page from Fancy Pants:

 

Simple Stories Urban Traveler pages. The collection is AMAZING and the pages are inspiring. This booth was also where I ran into past Ella friend, current friend, Donna Januzzi! Though it was fun to travel the show earlier, it was more fun with friends.

 

 This is the Silhouette booth, another clean wall. I love these projects, especially the one on the lower right. Wouldn't that be a good gift for a new parent?

  

And this framed page speaks to everyone who has a little monster in her life. Heh.

 

Lily Bee's booth was amazing. This gorgeous page with the banners as a photo mat was inspiring. I also love how it uses  patterned paper as a background, not just white paper. Inspiring!

  

This one's hard to see--it was on the back of a ladder, and the twine is not part of the page. Still, patterned paper background and a cluster of papers at the top makes for a very pretty page.

 

Here's another look at a clean wall, this time Basic Grey.

 

They had two collections I loved, Hipster and Bowties. Perfect for moms of boys. If you look closely at the above page, you'll see something new to me: felt rubons. It made for an incredible title.

Bowties also connects with a feminine collection, Knee Highs. Bowties is boyish, Knee Highs is girlish, but you can use them both together if you have photos with both genders. Nice.

Look at the amazing stitching on this Knee Highs page:

 

After being on the Elle's Studio design team for the past six months, I was so happy to see Elle Price and her booth!  News: she has three paper collections coming out with her new tags, and Donna and I decided we especially need to get Day to Day, a bright, fun collection. Here's some pages:

  

  

  

We R Memory Keepers had many amazing products I'll write about later, but this page made me swoon. Again, a busy paper used to make a clean page:

 

I tweeted about this yesterday:

Bella Blvd FTW.

There is some amazing stitching on this Bella Blvd page, and the banner card underneath is terrific.

I'm not a feather person, but this page used feathers well:

My Mind's Eye had their typically beautiful products. I loved this grid layouts:

 

And this next page from Crate Paper used an already out collection, Fourteen, but the fussy cutting was incredible. I'll go back to Crate today to take some photos of Maggie Holmes' new collection.

 

Right around the Becky Higgins booth We ran into listgirl, Christine Newman! We have plans for some of the Becky Higgins collections. they were inspiring.

Studio Calico had their usual lovely layouts demonstrating their products. Here were some of the most inspiring:

  

Living under the rock I have apprently been, I did not know that Studio Calico was releasing patterned brads! They are used terrifically here. Check out the colorful stitching.

  

Speech bubbles are huge at the show, as are mustaches and arrows. Here a misting template with speech bubbles was used to create patterned paper by outlining.

  

Sometimes die cut tags can be used for alternative uses, like as a photo frame...

  

---or as a date in a pocket. Check out the awesome photo frames here too.

 

Finally, lots to love on this page, but in particular I loved the vellum photo pocket with the subdued title and the stitching over them both.

I'll be back at the show tweeting, posting on Pinterest, and otherwise sharing the inspiration I see!