Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Scrapbooking Over the Fold Day 4: Embellishing and it's give.away.day. featuring ELLA PUBLISHING & BIG PICTURE SCRAPBOOKING!

Welcome back! Jennifer Larson sharing a few embellishment tips on two-page layouts before our giveaway.

 

I love embellishing. Love Love Love. The problem? On two-page layouts, there tends to be a lot of photos, so how do you do it without making the spread look too full? Here's some ways I do this on a two-page layout.

 

1. Visual triangle

The visual triangle is a classic, I know, but I admit, I love it. Here I used the speech bubbles to create a visual triangle that led the eye across the page, and gave some humorous side comments to the main journaling as well.

 

Diane Payne did a great job of creating a visual triangle with her stars, which were perfectly thematic as well!

 

2. Balance across the spread.

I learned this from Stacy Julian in her book, The Big Picture. She described a basic embellishment principle that has served me well: what you do on one side of the page, you should do on the other. I would add, with some asymmetry. On the left I added an embellishment cluster, and on the right I made the same cluster but smaller.

 

And here Diane Payne did the same thing: punched circles and dots on the less, the same but fewer on the right.

 

3. Go with very little embellishment.

You can see on some previous pages that I love embellishments; in comparison, on this page I haven't included many embellishments. I'm not crazy enough to go without--not me! Still, this page is mainly photos and strips of patterned paper, plus a stitched circle around the main subject in the big photo.

 

Christa Paustenbaugh was much more austere than I: just the pinked circle next to the main photo plus some tags and a button. Note the visual triangle!

 

This page by Marnie Flores is a perfect example of how stunning a page can be with few embellishments. Look at how beautifully the attention is drawn to the photos! Love the journaling on the photo.

 

And now, for the giveaway!

This week we are excited to have help for three of you!! First, one of you will receive a free copy of the Danielle Flanders' eBook from Ella Publishing, Embellishing Handbook.

Here is a little bit about Danielle's book. 

When it comes to embellishing, how do you know what should go where? And how do you know when enough is enough? Get help from Danielle Flanders' timeless tips for accenting and adorning your scrapbook layouts and cards. In this eBook, you'll learn Danielle's top five strategies for WHY we embellish:
● to establish a focal point
● to set a mood
● to reinforce a style
● to add character and creativity
● to incorporate texture

You'll also delve into her top five strategies for HOW to embellish more effectively:
● vary scale
● use repetition
● choose odd numbers
● create accent clusters
● combine patterns
Each embellishing secret is illustrated by two different projects—a beautiful layout and must-try card idea, all designed by Danielle herself. Get ready to embellish like a pro!

This ebook will certainly contain some strategies for finding places to embellish on your two page layouts!!

 

Next, another lucky reader will take home a free copy of May Flaum's new eBook from Ella Publishing, Fashionable Fast.

Here is a little bit about May's book.

You've heard of being fashionably late, but what about being fashionably FAST? Join the speediest scrapbooker on the block, May Flaum, as she joins forces with five of the fastest (and most fabulous) scrapbookers she knows in Fashionably Fast: 10 strategies for stylish, speedy scrapbook pages. This two-time author and popular instructor has compiled her 10 best time-saving strategies, which are illustrated by 20 gorgeous scrapbook pages and accompanied with 30 minutes of exclusive video instruction! See how easy it can be to accelerate your scrapbooking process without sacrificing artistry. 

 

And our third lucky reader will get a spot in Lisa Day's new class, 28 Days of Sketches.

Here is a little about the class:

Lisa Day is back with another round of 28 sketches! This time, in addition to receiving 28 daily sketches accompanied by layouts from Lisa, you will also receive exclusive layouts and cards from seven fabulous guest stars! This means that you will receive 28 brand new sketches and 56 exclusive projects to inspire you to create beautiful layouts and cards quickly.

Another exciting new addition is that in addition to the 12" x 12" daily sketch, you will see the sketch adapted to a double page layout and an 8 1/2" x 11" sketch. All this means MORE inspiration and MORE ideas of how to make a sketch work for you!

 

We hope these books and this class help your layouts come together more quickly and more beautifully. If you would like to be considered for our giveaway, please leave us a comment telling us more about your use of two page layouts. Do you love them? use them? Exclusively or never? Do you struggle with them? And if so, what part? We love gaining insight into your struggles so that we can help you resolve your issues!

Comments will remain open throughout the evening. Three lucky numbers will be selected at random and posted tomorrow morning. Please remember it is your responsibility to check back and to claim your lucky number before midnight Saturday.

Thanks again for coming! Tomorrow we'll share the lucky number and some journaling tips.

 

Scrapbooking Over the Fold Day 3: Number of Photos

Jennifer Larson again. I'm so glad you're here sharing more about scrapbooking two-page layouts! Today I'll write about the number of photos I use on a two page layout.

Total honesty: I've never scrapped a two-page layout with fewer than 3 photos. Maybe I did one with two photos once that I can't remember, but one or zero photos? Never. Still, one can scrap a variety of photo amounts with two pages, though the size lends itself nicely to scrapping a lot. Here's some examples of how I've scrapped different amounts of photos.

 

1. 0-4 photos

Like I said, I tend to scrap at least 3 photos on a two page layout. This one I used a one-page sketch from Studio Calico.To make it two pages, I looked at the middle of the sketch and sort of stretched it on either side. I hope that makes sense. Grouping the photos together made them look more substantial on the wide 12x24 spread.

More common for me: I stretch the photos out in a line. Here I made use of Pink Paislee's darlng photo frames to house my small photos and make them more weighty on the page.

This darling layout by Christa Paustenbaugh uses three photos on a two page spread. I love how the title goes across the white space on the starring photo! Plus, check out the banner of fun stuff along the side of the starring photo. So much fun.

 

2. 5-7 photos

This too is more common for me. Like I said before, I love lines stretched across two pages. I've heard once that's a good way to unify two pages, with something stretching across the span. Here I used paper and photos. Still lots of white space.

Another winter layout (Sorry! Snowing here today in Minnesota), this one by Diane Payne. I love so much about the page: the colors (not typical winter), the one big photo framed by smaller detail shots, the die cut paper bookending each side. So many design ideas!

 

3. 8-10 photos

A lot of photos, but doable with some breathing room. Since we went to Space Aliens restaurant for my son's birthday, I followed a space theme, making my photo mat planets and orbits.

And here's another page by Diane Payne, this time with 8 photos. I love how they are housed on polaroid frames, taped down by washi.

 

4. 11+ photos.

Otherwise known as a boatload, this is an amount I do rarely, but it's not too difficult. I trim the photos until they all fit across one block, filling in empty space with patterned paper and embellishments. I think there are about 23 photos on this layout. It leaves not much white space, but there is room for small embellishment clusters and a dramatic title.

Another page full of photos, and as a mother of boys, this one by Diane make me smile! I love how clean the page looks with so many photos stretched on the banner, and the pairing of the old and young photos on the bottom is terrific. Great ideas for scrapping school photos.

 

So glad again you could come back and visit! Tomorrow is a special day: I'll talk about embellishing, which I love!

Scrapbooking Over the Fold Day 2: Photo Selection and Size

Hello, Jennifer Larson again, sharing more about creating two-page layouts. Today I'll write about how I go about selecting photos to scrap and deciding how to size them.

 

First, photo selection: I keep a list of page ideas to scrap in my journal, but when I edit photos, I also figure out which pages I want to do. Based on the number of photos, I know if it will probably be a one or two-page layout. It's pretty simple: more photos or more big photos (I swear that's grammatical), I will do a two-page layout. Fewer photos or smaller photos means a one-pager.

In general, I look to see if any photos are "lead actors." Those I size bigger--4x6, 5x7, or larger. These photos will be the star on the page and should be bigger.

If the photos are "supporting actors"--providing detail and color but maybe supporting the story rather than being the star--those I print smaller: 2.5 square, 3 square, more rarely 4 square, or wallet sized. (NOTE: I don't print at home. I send them to a local developer online.) Sometimes a story might be all "supporting actors," sort of like the cast of Friends. It's the ensemble that's important in that case, not one photo above others, so those I print all the same size.

 

Next, more specifics about photo size. There are basically 4 types of photo sizes I use on a two-page layout:

1. A BIG photo with several smaller ones.

My local developer doesn't print 12x12 or 8.5x11 photos, so I can't do a photo on the whole page unless I send away for the photos to be mailed to me. Then I have to wait, and I hate waiting to scrap, so I rarely do that. My local developer DOES print 8x12, which I love. It doesn't fit the whole page, leaving some room for paper strips and embellishments, like on the page above, Around Town. I mostly added smaller photos plus one normal sized photo to complete this photo record of the places I go in my town.

On this page, I did something similar, this time with a people photo. I find this photo of my husband and son walking in the woods evocative, so I loved enlarging it to epitomize the lovely scene. (I'm pretty sure this is a Donna Januzzi sketch.)

 

2. Several 4x6 photos

I used pure 4x6 photos on this page about my beloved scrapping group, the Scrappin' J's, because to crop the photos would be to leave out details from our scrap retreats and shopping trips. It is harder to fit a bunch of 4x6 photos on a two-page spread, so when I want this to happen, I follow a hint I got from Angie Lucas at Simple Scrapbook years ago when I found the online scrapbooking community: I start at the middle, placing the photos there, and working outward until all the photos fit well and look good.

 

3. Tiny photos

This is an example of a page filled with supporting actors but no star. I didn't want to highlight one photo or one moment, so instead I tried to show the process where I documented my vacation via Instagram. To do so, I printed them all 2.5 square. (NOTE: I am not a Photoshop Elements expert, but I learned to make a 4x6 print that housed smaller prints by following this tutorial by Cathy Zielske. It's for a multi photo grid, but the concepts apply to fewer photos on a 4x6 print.)

 

4. Cropped 4x6 photos

(Please ignore the bent page; I have no clue how that happened!) Although a lot of time I plan on making a two-page layout when I'm editing photos, sometimes I print them and then decide on design later. That's the case for this page: I'd printed the photos then decided to use a sketch by Allison Davis. So I did what scrappers have done for years: trimmed the photos to fit the design, keeping the best photos the largest. (NOTE: The photo of my husband and me I took using the classic extend-an-arm technique. It's served me well for getting photos of me and my guy.)

 

Thanks again for sharing my process for selecting and sizing photos! Come back tomorrow when I talk about the number of photos I use.

Scrapping Over the Fold: Two-Page Layouts

Hello! Jennifer Larson here, sharing some of my favorite pages to make: two-page layouts. I make one page layouts, sure, but since I am a mostly sequential scrapper, I record a lot of events, and those pages always seem to have a lot of photos, which makes scrapping two pages easier for me.

 

Here's what I'll be sharing with you this week:

• Day 1 (that's today!): Two-page layout size
• Day 2: Photo selection and size
• Day 3: Number of photos
• Day 4: Embellishments
• Day 5: Journaling

 

On to today's topic...

Page Size

1. 12x12 spread

I have always been a 12x12 scrapper, so these are the two-page layouts I make the most. It's the size I did for this month's gallery page, Everyone's Favorite Meal. Advantages: you can fit a lot of photos, journaling, and product without it looking too squooshed.

 

2. 8.5x11 spread

I do this less often, selecting it when the photos I have would look cramped on one page (either 8.5x11 or 12x12) but would like like they were swimming swimming in a vast ocean on a 12x12 spread. I used this size on the above layout, Future Scientist. I had three 4x6 photos I trimmed a bit of their backgrounds, and when I tried making this into a 12x12 spead, there was just too much open space. If one can feel agoraphobic about a layout, that was me. When I trimmed the papers down to 8.5x11, though, it all looked Just Right.

 

3. 12x18

I got the idea for doing this type of two-page layout from write. click. scrapbook., I believe from Jody Dent-Pruks? (Loyal readers, correct me if I'm wrong and you remember who it was!). My albums are American Crafts 3-ring binders, which mean I can fit all sorts of pages in them. Why not put a 12x12 page next to a 6x12 page? I use this spread rarely, but it's good when my photos are too tall for 8.5x11 but too narrow for 12x12, like I did on this page, Lego Club. I used basically two horizontal stacks of 4x6 collage photos across the pages, then added only one 4x6 vertical collage to the left, the perfect amount and size for a 12x18 spread.

 

4. 8x8 spread

This is my least used two-page layout. With 8x8, I've discovered I need to have only small photos (wallet size, for example) if I want several photos on the page, and since I tend to use a lot of photos on most of my pages, I tend not to gravitate toward this size. Still, There's something sweet and intimate about this size. It's like a page in miniature! This layout, Family Outings, I made for a Big Picture Classes class with Lisa Day a couple years ago called, This is Me. It was terrific, and I was assigned to use an 8x8 sized album, so I got some practice making 8x8 spreads.

 

Thanks for reading my first day of two-page layouts! Please share in the comments which size of two-page spreads you tend to use, especially if there's a size I haven't mentioned!

Write.

Maybe writing a post that starts with running on a scrapbooking site is a strange thing. Stick with me, though, because I’ll bring them together! I came across something in my new copy of Runner’s World magazine that struck me about scrapbooking. The editor was writing about George Sheehan, who was a doctor, a runner, and a writer. "To me," David Willey (the current RW editor) writes, Sheehan "personified the idea that running and writing have something in common. Something approaching soul."

This idea stayed with me for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I (although famous neither for my running nor my writing) totally get what he means: partly I run because I like writing about running, and they each make the other better.

The same thing goes for scrapbooking. It is the space where art (photography and embellishments) and writing have something in common, and they each make the other better. If we just had words, we’d only have a journal; if we just had art we’d only have something pretty. But when we put them together: well. Now we have soul.

I kept this idea in mind when I was working on my layout for the gallery this month (you can see it here). It’s about how one of the things that makes it feel like spring to me is our tradition of watching for the little crocuses in my front flowerbeds to bloom. We watch & wait & anticipate, and on the day they finally bloom it’s like a sigh of relief: spring’s coming!

The idea for the photos came from Lisa’s Click. post in March. I mean—part of the tradition is taking pictures when they bloom, but I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures of them yet this year. So I got some, and then I wrote what I felt, and then a few weeks later I made the layout. That process—that, to me, is where the soul part comes in.  I’d taken some photos before. I’d not ever written down the story. When I did both I made something that has a stronger impact than the two would separately.

Which is why, in my mind, scrapbooking wouldn’t be as cool without the words.

After I made my gallery layout, I started paying attention. What spring traditions had I not told the story of? I made a list of the small and simple ways I celebrate spring:

1. A strawberry themed dessert or two. Or five.
2. New sandals. (This stems from my mom’s tradition of putting sandals in our Easter baskets.)
3. Making sure I wear something pastel on the first day of spring.
4. Sitting on my front porch steps when both sides are surrounded by blooming hyacinths. Is there anything sweeter than that smell? Maybe only lilacs!
5. Watching the kids in our neighborhood gather again at our old apple tree.

I have pictures for some of those stories—but I’ve never written them down. So I picked one, wrote the story, found some photos, and made a layout:

 

Paula did, too:

And that’s my challenge to you on this gorgeous April morning! Make a list of the small, simple things you do to celebrate spring (or fall if you’re on the other side of the world). Pick one and write the story. Look for some pictures that go along with the story, or watch for the chance to take some this spring. Find your soul in the process!

Welcome, April!

April is here and we're not fooling! We are so very excited that a new month is upon us. This month we are looking forward to Kelly, Lisa, Teacher's Appreciation preparation and Mother's Day preparation. We hope to inspire your spring pages, and help you get ready for the holidays ahead of us.

 

The first also brings us a

This month we are celebrating shapes: circles, triangles, hexagons, squares, stars. Whether the graphic elements be big or small, our pages love them all. Here is a look at our gallery as a whole!

And here are the pages one by one. Please click on over to the gallery to see them bigger, and read the journaling! 

That's it! We hope you have found a layout or two, or twenty, that will appeal to you and your scrapbooks! We look forward to seeing your "inspired by" layouts! And please let us know if you like the new cards.

scrapbook!

This is one my favorite times of year. Breaking out of the winter doldrums, and seeing the sunshine would be joy enough.  But it is also a time of peaceful interlude for school, sports, and family. A status quo month with few changes and few hiccups in the schedule. Which is a good equation for getting to scrapbook. And this month I have been so inspired by all the mini albums. I have lists of new journaling thoughts for layouts, and new colors schemes, and new design ideas. Looking through the minis also gave me some ideas for taking photo series. Oooh, I love percolating creativity!!

 

For our scrapbook! Saturday, we have our favorite three offerings: a sketch, a color palette, and a trend watch. Three more ways to inspire you and help move you to scrapbook.

 

THE SKETCH

This month, Diane created a sketch

based upon Amy's beautiful layout from her blogging week last month.

And look what our amazing team did with it.

 

Celeste stuck true to the sketch cleverly making a digital title that mimics a cut file. Celeste always has such nifty ways to incorporate trends whilst sticking true to her style.

 

Lisa made a vertical rectangle layout substituting one of the photos for a journaling card. I like how she striped the washi tape and stamped over the edges of the tags.

 

Monika also put a lovely and spring-y layout together. She added a matte around the sketch, and dropped one of her photos down. A fun twist on the sketch for certain.

If you would like to download a layered template you may do so here! Please leave us a comment if you take a turn with the sketch so that we might see your good works!

 

ROYGBIV

This month the color palette

is based upon Deb's mini album cover.

Doesn't it feel so current and trendy? I couldn't wait to use it on a layout! I have had these pictures waiting for something soft and light and black and this set of five colors was absolutely perfect!

I used the same kit that I used for my mini this past week. Being digital means I can use the color balance to match the colors on the palette. Teehee. So sneaky!

Did you notice that Deb and I used nearly the same arrow? Love that. Great minds, and all that... :)

TRENDING

This month I noticed many cut elements in our mini albums. There are lacy doilies, cut files, and laser cut wooden veneers. They remind me of acrylic chairs: add just what you need without adding visual clutter. I was excited to try my hand with some digitally created cut elements. (I know, I know, I could just use my Cricut, but I'm out of adhesive... :) ) I did the title and then decided it was the perfect thing.

I hope that you have had a fun Saturday! Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see your layouts when you are done!! 

Write.

Last month I went to a writing workshop with the writer Terry Tempest Williams. Since writing is the art I feel most passionate about, and since I admire her work greatly, I soaked in everything she said. I took copious notes and I am still, three weeks later, thinking about her writing advice. Using it. But the thing that continues coming back to me is the thing I wrote largest (in big block letters so I wouldn't forget) in my notes:

Only I can tell my stories. Only I have my voice.

Then, on Wednesday, I was admiring Aliza’s post about creativity, and I read this sentence on her "On Writing" layout: "I feel like I have found a voice."

And seriously: when the universe tells me something more than once, I tend to listen.

"Voice" in writing can mean several things. The most immediate one is the way your writing sounds—your style, in other words. And while embracing (and developing) that journaling voice is important, it’s not the voice I mean.

"Voice" also means what you have to say. Both what your life has taught you and how combine in this voice. Since no one else but you has had the experiences that have formed who you are, no one else has the same voice as you.

No one but you can tell your stories.

In one of my earliest scrapbooking layouts (made, in, oh, about 1997, go ahead and imagine the gingham patterned paper and the photos cut into hearts and stars), I wrote a bit of journaling from my baby daughter’s perspective. "Mommy fed me" and "I played with toys" and "I love being alive" and other such statements filled up the space. Even before I stuck it down, I hated that journaling. Some people can pull that off, but not me. It didn’t feel authentic to either my style or to her. How could I know what she thought?

I can’t. I only know for certain what I think.

Sometimes with scrapbook journaling it’s easy to lose our individual voice. After all, quite often we’re writing about things that happened to someone else—babies or teenagers or spouses or parents. (This is why I think more of us need to make layouts about ourselves, but that’s an entirely different post!) Unless we had the journaling responsibility over to the subject (something I’m also a fan of!) or only write about what happened, the only stories we really can tell are filtered through our own perspectives.

And whether you’re writing about your own experiences or someone else’s, only you can tell your story in your way. Here are three different ways to write about someone else while still including your (significant!) story:

Your Perspective

When you look at the photos you’re scrapping, what do you notice that no one else might? Or when you took the pictures—when you were involved in the experience itself—what did you think, feel, remember, understand, or feel strongly about? That is a perspective no one but you can write from.

In this layout:

 

the impetus for the journaling is the look of adoration on my youngest child’s face. When I saw it on the print I immediately thought of how often I see this look on his face when he is with his older brother—but how the age difference between them means that his brother doesn’t see it. My perspective on their relationship is necessarily different than their perspective; writing it down helped me get on paper what it might take Nathan (the older brother) a while to figure out.

Behind the Scenes

What happened before the experience in the photos? How did you organize or plan it, or was it totally spur-of-the-moment? What was the impetus?

Here, I journaled about how a comment in January inspired a picnic in March:

 

This is also a story only I can tell because I’m the only one who remembered Kaleb’s cute longing-for-spring comment. (I made sure I remembered by writing it down!)

Memory as Inspiration

Is there a memory of yours that your photos take you back to? Write it down! I’ve found that many of my own childhood memories come streaming back when I watch my kids just being kids. Sometimes they like hearing those stories—sometimes they’d rather stay in the moment of their own experience. Weaving your old memory into the experience in the photo is a way of telling your story without interrupting.

 

On the day I took these photos, we were swimming at my sister’s pool, and for a few minutes I was overwhelmed with memories about her husband, who was killed a decade ago. But as I witnessed my boys run, splash, shriek, and play in the water, I thought about just how happy those sights and sounds would’ve made my brother-in-law, and I decided to be happy myself as a way of honoring that. I tried to capture that same idea in the journaling.

How do you convey your perspective in your journaling?

Inspiration

Hello! Tomorrow is March 1st (March!), and that means a new gallery! I believe you shan't be disappointed. So today I am back for my final day this week of exploring the joys (and occasional hardships) of creativity. I thought I'd wrap things up this week with some thoughts and projects about inspiration.  

 

Collecting Your Ideas

Inspiration can come from everywhere and anywhere, and while I have notebooks set aside for jotting down ideas as they come, just as often, I quickly write things down on scraps of paper, or type a note on my phone.I just feel that the sooner I get an idea written down and out of my head, the more likely it will be that I will go back to it at some point.  I like to keep my notes, or photos that I'd like to use, out and about on my desk, so that I usually have some project to turn to when I am ready to sit down and scrap.

Both Lisa and Christine made layouts to record some of the things inspiring then right now.

Christine created an inspiration board within her layout (genius!).

 Lisa printed photos of some of her favorite pins on Pinterest, and then used the inspiration from those pins in her layout. (Again-genius!)

 

Reminders

To stay inspired to keep creating, I like to surround myself with little reminders, in the form of home decor. 

I created this project as a message directed to my kids, but now that it is framed and hung up in the kitchen, it gives me a little (inspirational and nutritional) boost too.

Here is a more specific reminder to keep taking pictures, that I keep near my desk.


And this one, doesn't use any words. Just some wood veneer and patterned paper, to remind me of the joy that cutting paper can bring.

Put Something In

Once again I will close with some inspiration from the world of children's literature. Here is a poem by Shel Silverstein, that I have loved since discovering it in college. The closing line forever inspires me to keep on making things. 

Put Something In

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-grumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

Process, Process, Process

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I, Aliza, am back again with some thoughts about living a creative life. 

Let's jump right in to another aspect of creativity. If you are regularly involved in the act of creating, at some point you will most likely have to face being stuck. There are many great sources out there with suggestions for what do when this happens. I'd like to talk about one way to get past a creative block. And that is by focusing on the process of being creative, rather than producing a particular product. 

Allow me to explain:

We all get stuck for a variety of reasons: 

You might...

1.feel like you're out of ideas for subject matter, or just not inspired by anything at the moment. (Sigh.)

2. have lots of ideas but get stuck on where to start. (Grrr!)

3. have a started project that isn't coming out like you planned in your head. (Aargh!)

4. be comparing yourself to others, and feeling like your work is not good enough. (Been there and done that. Repeatedly.)

Remember all of my examples about children and their creative, pretend play? Well, I recently discovered that they get stuck too sometimes. This layout tells the story of how, one evening,  Sam kept trying to start  playing with his action figures, but he had some trouble. He said,  "Every time I start to play, it doesn't go anywhere." I know the feeling, kid. I really do.

 

Process Not Product

To begin talking about what I mean by focusing on the process, let's do what I do every work day, and go back to preschool.

When talking about art In the world of early childhood education, the phrase "process over product" is used frequently. Often, the end product of a small child's painting, is lots of paint sloshed all around the paper. It might not look that exciting. But when you get to see how it was created, it's a whole other story. Maybe the child was covered to his elbows in paint, thoughtfully covering every inch of white space. Or perhaps, while painting the child narrated an entire story (or two, or three). Or, before getting to a big, muddy mess of brown, he noticed the different colors mixing together, and exclaimed, "Look! I made orange!! I made purple!!" And in that one paper covered in paint, so much learning and growth took place.

So, here's my advice to you, fellow crafters.  Rather than thinking about whether one particular project looks good or bad in the end, think about the fact that this is one piece in your entire creative life. And on this day, at this time, this is where you are in the process of being creative. But it is not where you will always be. And as long as you keep creating, you have an alomost infinite amount of opportunities to keep experimenting, improving, and building on what you already know.

A few years ago, I made a layout about just this topic. 

And to illustrate the point that we grow and change as artists, I made this layout that documents how my relationship to writing and journaling has changed over the years.

One More Thing

This week, asI was planning this post, I rediscovered a children's book, that seems to perfect to share here. I also will probably not be able to write about it without getting a little teary. The Dot is about a young girl, who, with an empty sheet of paper at the end of art class declares to her teacher, "I just CAN'T draw!" Her teacher tells her to simply make a mark on her paper. Angrily, she jabs her marker to make one dot on her page. "Now, sign it, please"  says her teacher. When the girl arrives next time, there is her dot, framed and hung up on the wall. When she sees that, the girl proceeds to paint dots of different sizes, and colors, and when the school art show rolls around, there is a wall full of her paintings.

The moral of the story is, make something. Anything. See where it takes you.

You can also take a look back, and see where you have been.