Write. Click. Scrapbook.

give.away.day. featuring OCTOBER AFTERNOON

Road Trip. What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear the words? Do you think back to college days? to friends piled in a barely functioning car with windows rolled down to preserve the gas singing along to popular music du jour? Or do you smile fondly remembering a minivan crammed with your kids playing "I Spy" in an effort to stave off the full bladder needing the fifth potty break of the morning?

Summer is the time of Road Trip. Here at write. click. scrapbook. we took a mini-poll.

A sampling of cities we will visit this summer:
Hilton Head, Charlotte, Philly, King of Prussia, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Palm Desert, Orlando, Washington DC, New York City, White Mountain, Yellowstone, Bear Lake, Preston, Moab, Cape Cod, Tampa, Long Beach Island, Hollywood, Anaheim, Fresno, San Francisco, Caddo, Denison, Boston, Montreal, Port Renfew, the West Coast Trail, and Ottawa

And the states & provinces:
AZ CA CT DE FL ID MA MD ME MT NC NH NJ NY OH OK PA SC TX UT VA VT WV WY AB BC MB ON QC SK

And the miles traveled:
41 116.

And in spite of all the travel around here, we haven't forgotten that today is

In honor of the miles, the staycations, the no doz, the car songs, the carsickness, the gas, and the fun, today our we are excited to announce a giveaway from 

October Afternoon, always a crowd favorite, has, in a very short period, created quite a following. And for good reason. With fantastic patterned paper and sweet embellies (who could forget these? oooh, so fun!)

everyone knew they were a company here to stay. And if you love October Afternoon and would like your very own

collection, then you have come to the right place. Using papers like these

and embellishments like this:

you'll be making sweet layouts like these, in no time:

or maybe a card or two like this:

(pages and cards by Linda Barber)

Or perhaps a mini-album suits you better:

(album by Tina Cockburn)

Katrina Simeck used the Road Map collection on her Project of the Day yesterday at Fiskars. And October Afternoon has their very own blog that's filled with even more ideas.

If you would like to be considered for today's giveaway, leave a comment with your favorite vacation spot. It may be somewhere you have been, or somewhere you have always dreamed of going! Comments will close at 8:00 pm PST. We will randomly select a lucky number tomorrow. Check back to see if you are the lucky one. If you are, please email us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com by midnight Saturday to claim your gift!

Best of luck and don't forget to buckle up!

Step by Step

Wow! I am blown away by all the wonderful comments yet again! I really enjoyed sharing my work with you all, and the response makes it that much better! Today I am going to take you through my scrapbooking process step by step. Things don't always work the way I will show, but in a majority of cases this is how I pull my pages together. Usually I start with a story idea and the photos to suit. But in this case the page was inspired by product.

As soon as I saw this cherry paper by Cosmo Cricket I knew I'd use it to do a page above my love of cherries. Just the week before I'd been practising some close up shots with a bowl of cherries, so I already had the perfect photos.

 

Then I chose some coordinating papers, also by Cosmo Cricket

 

and Thickers (of course) for the title. Because I had already decided what the title would be, I knew I would need at least eight 'e's, so I decided to use three different alphabet sets since I didn't have more than one package of the same kind.

 

Then I went to my Doo-Dad and Journaling baskets and selected a journaling note and embellishments.

(I'll talk more about these baskets on Friday) When selecting these kind of items I tend to take a few that I think will work, knowing that I probably won't use them all.

Now to get started. I'm really into photos with white borders lately so I crop them that way. I don't measure, I just eyeball and use a metal ruler and craft knife to cut them out.

 

Of course I am using a kraft background. The first thing I do is arrange the photos on the kraft until I find a layout I like.

 

This is good but since I know I want my title to be down the left side of the page it won't work.

 

This will work, but it seems a little off

Ah, better! This way the eye flows across the page better, the small photo with lots of cherries felt too "heavy" to be on the bottom of the page.

Now to add patterned paper

 

Way too much red, so I want to add some complementary colours.

 

I also placed the journaling spot to see how things look. Also note there is a piece missing from the red patterned paper. I'm not too worried about that, I'll figure out a way to cover it up later.

At this point I remembered that I was working with double sided papers and decided to use the flip side of the cherry paper too.

 

I don't like how the different patterned paper edges look against each other, so decorative tape to the rescue!

 

By the way, notice that I haven't stuck anything down yet. I learned the hard way to wait until I was really satisfied with my page layout before using adhesive!

At this point I start figuring out where to put my title. Again I pretty much eyeball it, and hold a couple letters over the page to see. When I'm using a long title like this I tend to write it out to count the letters I will need,and in this case to help me decide which colour to use where. Here is my little scribbling.

 

Yes, I spelt cherries wrong, so in fact I need less 'e's than I thought. Luckily I caught that before it was too late.....

Ok, it's now time to stick everything down. At this point I realise I only need to use a 3" wide strip of the cherry paper. (Yay! More left for other pages!)

 

But oops, I don't have a long enough strip of the flip side! I do have some scraps though, and since I know the journaling spot is going there it's enough

 

About my journaling: I tend to do stream of consciousness journaling in that I don't really preplan what I am going to say. Since I generally know ahead of time what story I want to tell, I can usually write my journaling out directly onto the spot or page in one go. I almost always use handwritten journaling. It's faster and I'm lazy!

I add the photos and title

 

I decide at this point that I don't like the first "cherries" in blue, so I change that

That makes a bit of an "oops" here

 

Which I'll fix with an embellishment

 

I finish up the page by making a slight change to the title (moved the "the") and by adding two more cherry embellishments for balance.

 

 

 

And there you have it! It's somewhat random, but this is pretty much what happens when I sit to scrap. And in case you're wondering it took me around 3&1/2 hours to do this including taking the photos and stopping to nurse, play with and rock Kieran to sleep. If I were to do a page like this in one sitting it would most likely take me under an hour. 

And now for a challenge

This is one of my favourite ways to challenge myself, and is sorta linked to the way I choose embellishments for my pages. I tend to be a pretty messy scrapper, and I don't always get to clean up (ahem, I mean I never do!), so sometimes when the urge to scrap hits me but I can't make sense of all my stuff, I simply grab 5 to 7 things from my desk, and challenge myself to make a quick page using at least three of them. Think you're up for it? Add your pages to the flickr group and I'll pick a few to highlight on Saturday here on the blog. The more organised among you can still play along by choosing items from your stash that you've been meaning to use but haven't yet. And bonus points if you use kraft!

Tomorrow is giveaway day and it's a great one (as always) so don't forget to check in for your chance to win! I'll be back Friday to talk about where I scrap and how I organise my stuff.

You Scrapbook About What?

First off, thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday, I got quite a few laughs! It seems that kraft cardstock is a favourite of many of you as well, so I'm in great company!! Today I want to talk about all the things I scrap about. Along the way I'll point out a few tips and tricks that I used on the pages I'm posting. This will be a pretty long post so thanks in advance for sticking with me!

As I said yesterday I started out scrapbooking travel photos. I later branched out into photos of my childhood and those from my years at university. It wasn't until I started cruising online message boards that I realised that the majority of scrapbookers did pages about their kids. I'm so glad I didn't notice that in the beginning, else I may never have gotten started! And up until April of this year I scrapped about everything but kids. So what did I scrap about?

My Childhood

Where better to start than all those tiny weird coloured photos from the 70s? Whenever I go home I try to find old photos that my family members have and scan a copy for myself. Since I no longer live in the place of my birth, these memories are very important to me.

 

My sister and I circa 1975 matching outfits and all. I used this photo pretty much as it was, but this is a reprint of the scan I made of the original.

 

These photos are from the 80s and I used them as is.

It's official, kraft cardstock is perfect for old photos!

Places

I expanded on the idea of travel to scrap about places near and far. Be it the corner store, or the Caribbean, I get lots of fodder from locations.

 

These photos were taken on a Sunday walk around the city. 

Tip: I used some Making Memories Christmas themed paper on this page! If a pattern isn't obviously themed then I use it wherever I can.

   

As I looked back the way I came along the beach (in Barbados) and saw my footprints, this old saying came to mind. I immediately snapped a photo. 

Tips and Tricks: I used my Slice cutter to cut out all the frames from scraps.The scalloped mat was made by cutting down a 6x12 scallopped cardstock by Bazzill

People

I wouldn't call myself a very good portrait photographer because I prefer candid to posed shots. Couple that with my shyness and most of my photos of people are pretty bad. But the good shots I do get, I love to use on pages to talk about my friends and family.

 

Tips and Tricks: I used a scallop punch to cut out all the patterned paper pieces and used my sewing machine to create a stitched grid.

Two of my close friends from high school. This photo dates back to the late 80s and is an original.

Tip: I used the embellishments, journaling spots and title letters to cover up all the wasted space in the photo. I was traveling at the time I made this page and didn't have access to a scanner or photo editing software to edit the photo.

I do a lot of pages to record our love story.

Look Ma! No kraft!

And of course my largest amount of pages to date are about me. Call me vain, but I am my most patient photo subject, plus I know more about myself than any other subject! :)

 In this page I documented how my life didn't exactly go the way I thought it would. Once again I used a Christmas paper (this time by BasicGrey) on a non-themed page. And those pink chipboard letters date way back and were by Lil Davis Designs.

Food, Glorious Food

We live in France and my husband loves to cook. Nuff said. I have hundreds of photos of food and drink. What else should a scrapper do but get them down on a page? 

 

 

I paper pieced a tomato from red patterned paper for this page. I am ridiculously proud of that for some reason!

Events and Holidays

This category is the thinnest one for me, I really have a hard time scrapping events. The only holiday I do manage to do a page or two for every year is Christmas, because it's my favourite.

And when I do scrap events I tend to focus more on the details like the decorations rather than the people or event itself. It's an area that I need to work on!

Things

I take lots of photos of objects in my attempt to be artsy. They also end up on pages because I figure years in the future it will be fun to look back to see what objects were precious or part of culture at that time.

 

All the photos on this page were totally random ones. I used a square punch to cut out interesting bits from them and created this grid collage.

Random

This covers a lot of my pages. I love quotations, book excerpts and song lyrics and sometimes they are perfect to describe a feeling or moment captured in a photo.

 

The journaling is an excerpt taken from the book Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The photos I used here were not very good ones originally, they were blurry and grainy, having been taken at night. But I loved them and converted them to black and white which really improved how they looked!

Oh baby!

Since late last year though, the main subject around here has been first my pregnancy, and then Kieran. I don't have a pregnancy album and I'm not doing a baby book, I just capture moments as I normally do and then tell the story.

 

Photos taken at 17 weeks pregnant.

 

I did say that I go crazy with patterned paper backgrounds sometimes, remember? I did a blog post about Kieran's super cloth diapers and this is the page that came from that.

Well if you've made it all the way through, you're a trooper! Remember you can click on the photos to see them bigger. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have, and sign in tomorrow when I will talk a bit about my scrapping process.

Scrapvolution

Hello everybody, Francine here! I'm super excited to be hosting the blog this week, but a bit intimidated to be following on the heels of the super organised Celeste: power-scrapper extraordinaire! As you will probably find out, my process is, shall we say, the complete opposite of hers? :-)

I thought I'd start the week out with a bit of a trip down memory lane. I loved it when some of the team posted about their earlier layouts and how their style has evolved, so I thought I'd join in the fun! You have to promise not to laugh too much though, okay?

I discovered scrapbooking in early 2002 while visiting my sister in Massachusetts. She made costume jewelry and one day we took a trip to AC Moore, and while she browsed the jewelry aisle I wandered around and came upon the scrapbooking aisle. As I looked at all the paper and stickers I thought "Hey, I can do this!" I had a wealth of photos from my days at university just sitting in boxes. I decided to start with a travel album. I clearly remember decorating the cover of that 10x10 spiral album while on the train to New Jersey to visit my cousins. This is probably my favourite page from that album.

Note well the triple matted photos with scalloped cut edges and the sticker sneeze!

  

This is probably the page I laugh at the most from that album

The less said about that the better!

Then I discovered scrapbook magazines and 12x12 double-pages. Here is a masterpiece from that era, or as my hubby likes to call it "that blue and yellow thing"

Soon after I did get somewhat better at page design, thanks to the discovery of message boards and sketches.

I stuck with 2-pagers until early 2006 when I started seeing one page layouts online at sites like Two Peas in a Bucket. It was an eye-opening experience and a huge relief since I really struggled with double pages.But no one had ever told me that I didn't "have" to scrap that way!

 

My first 1-page 1-photo layout, and also the most product I ever used on a page at that time. Circa January 2006

I also struggled with keeping chronological albums, I have never actually scrapped chronologically, but I did store my albums by year. Another eye-opening moment came when I read The Big Picture by Stacy Julian. It was like a light bulb went off in my head!

Since then I scrap single page layouts almost exclusively. I do mix up the sizes however, scrapping 12x12, 8&1/2x11 and 6x12 alternately. In the last three years I have also gone though different stages in my scrap evolution (scrapvolution).

The sketching phase: When I realised that I wasn't properly translating the design ideas in my head onto my pages I started sketching out all my pages before scrapping them. Here is an example:

From Sketch

To Page

I very rarely do this anymore. but the experience I gained using this process for about a year really helped me to get my ideas to move more easily from my brain to my pages.

The technique phase: You name it, I've tried it!! Some days I would just throw everything I had at the page I was working on. To wit:

Lets see: painting, stamping, die cuts, acrylic, rub-ons, layering, collage.....a bit much perhaps? Can you even tell what the title is? I still use all these techniques, but thankfully on a more individual basis.

The Challenge Phase: I think I've done every challenge out there at least once and I've scrapped in just about every style there is! This was also the period where I was doing the Layout A Day Challenge on Two Peas.

 

A layout done for the How Much is Too Much Challenge in 2007

Doing the challenges was truly a learning experience for me, I really got to know what I liked, and more importantly what I was good at! My advice would be to try as many different things as you dare to, even though it might not be your "style". You'll learn a lot, including how to incorporate different techniques your way. The LOAD challenge was also a huge factor in getting into my groove.

The kraft and Thickers phase: Then I discovered kraft cardstock in early 2007 and the rest is history. I really started hitting my stride when I stared pairing kraft cardstock backgrounds with patterned papers. There was a point where I would force myself not to use it all the time for fear of becoming boring, but then I realised that I loved my pages with kraft (or another neutral background) most of all. Now it is the first thing I reach for when I sit to scrap, followed by American Crafts Thickers. It is rare that I use something else for my titles. Other staples in my arsenal include graphic patterned papers, stamps and inks, journaling spots and tiny letter stickers.

 

 

Yes, I do go wild every so often and use a patterned paper background

 

But I'm truly in my element with kraft. 

Which reminds me, I'm running low and need to replenish my stash!

I hope this made some sort of sense to someone out there. For the rest of the week I plan to talk a bit more about my process, including the kinds of topics I scrap about, and share some of my favourite tips and tricks. In between I'll touch on some of the topics you mentioned wanting to see on the blog, like scrapping 70s photos and using up your stash. I'll also throw a challenge in there. It's all going to be kind of random, er, eclectic, but I did warn you! As usual we will have our weekly giveaway on Thursday, so I hope you will keep checking in everyday this week. Until tomorrow!!

Small Miracles

photo and quote selection by Angie Lucas

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye...

My last day blogging here at WCS. I had such a great time posting and reading your comments. I know it's summer so everyone's busy, but if you get a chance to do the challenge later please be sure to post on the thread, I really want to see what you came up with. Thanks for joining in this week.

 

 

As for my crop, my evil little plan worked!  ;)  I have a stack of completed layouts and of course some that need to have some journaling or product added.  See...

 

 

 

Now for your questions…

mary said...

I too, love the idea of sorting all the little stuff by color. Do you keep your brads with all the embellies in the same container as well? Just wondering since brads are a constant go-to for me! Also, How do you store all the other things like in the top middle picture? Ihave not figured out a system that works with all that larger 'stuff'.

Mary - great questions! I have two sets of brads. The ones by color go into my bins - I also have a holder for crops that has all American Crafts brads in almost every color sort by color. The larger things simply go into large clear plastic baggies.

lynne mooresaid...

Neat tips. I was just chatting with a friend about packing for away crops. The protable wire rack, what do you do with it at crops? I have a couple "locker shelves" but I use them for display levels when I "work" (vendor supplies) at a crop. What do you do with it to play at a crop?

Lynne - the wire shelf just acts as a place to put more stuff. I usually put my brads and tools under it and then lay some of my bags of kits on top. It just gives me a little more room - if I had my way I'd use two big tables just for myself.

Christa Weldonsaid...

Thanks for your tips. I love those printable lists!! WHERE DID YOU FIND THEM?!!! {drool} I am so in need of these b/c I have tons to do...as does every scrapper! hahaha

Christa - I browse through about a hundred sites everyday and post a find every day on my blog. This was just one of the items I stumbled across. I found another cute to do list here...

http://celestefs.blogspot.com/2009/07/lovely-printable-to-do-lists.html

Melanie K. said... I have a question about your layout ... I am both a digi and a traditional scrapper ... did you print out the cluster of photos, then cut them out? If so, How did you get the margins so perfect on the white 'mats'? OR did you just print the background and photos, then add the tags and staples? I must know! I love the look and love those fish!

Melanie - I printed it out on photo paper - then using regular old scissors I cut them out! :) Glued it down on the patterned paper and added the tags, staples, and journaling after. Those frames for Designer Digitals are to die for and they are layers so you can delete some of the layers or resize them as you need to.

Mande said...

Hi Celeste

Talking about the process is right up my alley! I am very interested in people's processes! Okay, I do have a question for you. You said you that you sometimes print out your own photos after working with them on Photoshop. Is there a secret to getting the colors to come out right? I have an Epson PM-A840 and do not normally print out photos except for special occasions, but the colors don't always look good. Is it something I should change in photoshop or on my printer settings?

Thanks!

Mande - there are a couple things I do to ensure the color is close (sometimes it's not exact, but close.) I would suggest that you either use Epson photo paper or if you use another brand sometimes you can get some software that will calibrate the printer to the paper. I buy my paper from Adorama and it's not Epson. It's called ProJet Royal Satin. I've been using it for years and Adorama has a software download.

The other is monitor calibration. I have the Spyder 3 and I try to calibrate my monitor each time I print. Here is a link to information on how to do this without the Spyder software.

http://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-Your-Monitor

You should also run tests on your printer to ensure that the ink is flowing properly, etc. Look this up in your printer manual or online at the manufacturer's website.

And one more be sure that you have the latest printer driver installed for your printer - check the manufacturer's website for information about this as well.

Here's one more article that is even more technical. If you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_calibration

 

Did you see the ad inspiration loveliness in the FLICKR gallery? Here are some layouts for your viewing pleasure...

From Theadora...

 

From Jennifer Larson...

From cadenova...

From our own Marnie Flores...

and

 

Thanks everyone for playing along!  I had a great week and I hope you did too! Next week you get the pleasure of Francine Clouden, fresh from vacation, and broadcasting from across the Atlantic! Come back on Monday to see what she has in store for you!

The Lovelies

Ah product how I love thee! I recently purged about half of my stash. So freeing! I had a garage sale and sold off most of it. My plan is to swap rooms with my younger son in the fall – his room is smaller. So I had to reduce my stash drastically in order to do that. If you would like to take a look at my studio, you can visit my blog. The photos are a little older, but essentially the room is the same. Once I move I'll have less tables and one less Expedit .

Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture changed the way I scrap. After seeing her system for sorting elements by color, I realized that I typically scrap with colors in mind. A couple of years ago, I dumped everything I owned into the center of my studio floor and began to make piles of colors. It was a huge undertaking, but I’m so pleased I did it. No regrets! All my little embellishments, ribbon and brads, etc. are in embroidery boxes by color. All items from a color go into my Expedit in the Kassat boxes. Cardstock is sorted by color. Patterned paper - well I couldn't give up by manufacturer so that's the way it is. I believe that the way you organize your room should reflect how you scrap so this method may not be for everyone. Really think about your process and how you scrap before changing your organization method around.

 

Each day this week I've given you a little freebie printable. I mulled this over for this product post and  came up with printable labels. These are great not only for layouts, but can also be used to label jars, boxes, and drawers in your scraproom. I just love the vintage-y goodness. I recolored and resized one these labels and used it on my first layout for the write.click.scrapbook gallery.

 

:: from Just Something I Made

 

When I’m getting ready for a crop I pull product in a variety of ways. One really easy way to get ready for a crop is to purchase a kit from one of the many kit clubs out there. The great thing about kits is everything you need is already packed! I find I can create 8-10 layouts from every kit if I add a little extra cardstock. Another trick - if you have any of the patterned paper lines in the kit, slide those in as well - instant coordination! Once I have the kit in hand, I slip in photos I think will work with the colors in the kit and the journaling and sketch that goes with them. There are so many great kit clubs– a great place to start looking is willowtraders.com. The site lists all of the kits available and there is quite a bit of chatter about them as well. Also, be sure to visit our kit club sponsors to the right - fabulous kits!

Another way I pull product is to grab one coordinating line of pattern paper from a particular company. Then I match as many photos as I can to the line. Throw in some matching cardstock and pull out my color bins to grab embellishments that look good with the line. Photos, journaling and sketches go into a large plastic baggie with the items I’ve gathered.

Now I have a stack of photos with no home! I pull patterned paper from my stash based on the sketches I’ve done – adding cardstock and embellishments as required. I make up mini-kits with three layouts in each bag for these with the completed journaling, photos and sketches.

Notice I haven’t mentioned some items that typically would be in those kits. I crop on a monthly basis. I keep a few items in my crop bag all the time which makes preparing for cropping a lot easier. I always bring...

• a large bag of assorted American Crafts Thickers 

• some of those mini-alphas from My Little Shoebox

• a small bag of buttons

• an assortment of brads

• my circle cutter with glass mat

• a baggie with some journal spots in a variety of colors

• a set of alpha stamps

• kraft, chocolate, black and white cardstock

• card sentiment rub-ons

I always plan on making cards with my leftover scraps at a crop. If you want to learn more about my card making process, I’ve written it up here.

 

I keep a standard list of items that need to come with me as well – things like..

• my red ATG gun (I could disgress here and go on and on about my love for this tool!)

• my portable cutter

• punches

• water

• candy :)

• my tool tote (filled with pens, scissors, adhesives, ink pads, etc.)

• my portable wire rack (I have no idea where to get one of these. It's bigger than this and white.)

• my cup holder

• Post-it notes

The Post-It Notes are a must to make notes on my incomplete pages to remind me to add journaling

,embellishments, etc.

when I get home. While at the crop if I don't have something I need, I either buy it (usually colored cardstock), borrow it (thanks lovely croppin' friends) or make a note on a Post-It to add it later.

Now that all of my kits are ready for a crop,

I’m heading out tonight to my LSS. I hope to get some projects done! Tomorrow for my last post I’ll share my results, post some of your awesome ad inspired layouts, and answer any questions from this week.

 

and the giveaway goes to...

Congratulations to Wendy you said:

I'm a 12x12 kinda lady. I split my 1 and 2 page layouts about equally and I almost always put at between 3 and 6 photos on a page.

Hooray, Wendy! Please contact us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com with your contact information before Saturday at midnight! And thank you to Color Me Daisy for a terrific kit!

give.away.day. featuring COLOR ME DAISY

This week Celeste has been helping us to streamline our processes. We all have photos, stories, and the desire. But time is another matter. Time runs quickly. Often two steps ahead of us, it darts this way and that way, always trying to stay just out of our grasp. And in that moment when we feel we might have just a minute to sit and create, when time is nearly in our grasp, it turns and impishly grins at us knowing that with just a phone call, a baby cry, a doorbell ring, anything really, and it will be gone again.

But this week, we are taming the time shrew. We are learning to better prepare so when we have a minute to sit we are prepared with photos, stories, design, and plan. All that's left is product. So we thought this week we should get you some. How about this?

The Color Me Daisy crew is generously providing one of lucky Write.Click.Scrapbook. reader with their July Kit, "Summertime Fun."  Bright as a summer day, July's kit will inspire you to capture all your summer fun: days in the pool, playing at the beach, time spent outside. Summer in a box, July's kit is filled with bright and happy love from Basic Grey, Fancy Pants Designs, Sassafras Lass, Maya Road, Bazzill and more. You will be blooming with ideas all month long!

If you haven't tried Color Me Daisy, then now is a great time. Blooming with the best products from the finest compnies, their monthly scrapbooking and papercrafting kits include enough products to complete several layouts, cards and an altered project.  They do the work so you can spend your time creating and preserving your memories. You may choose from 3 or 6 month subscriptions, or single kit purchases.  Additionally, each month there are add-ons from which to choose, picked to perfectly coordinate with your kit. Browse through their store and check out the specials for great prices on past kits and add-ons.  And with flat rate U.S. shipping and reasonable international shipping rates, you can load up lots of goodies to play with.

And the best part of acting now? One word. Chocolate. If you sign up now for a 6 month subscription, you get this chocolate kit. Free. (I know you can't eat it, but consider those saved calories as an added bonus. And if you must, I am sure you may lick your paper without too much consequence...)
 
Once your kit arrives, you can join in monthly challenges on the message board. Or spend some time in the Idea Gallery which blooms with creativity from the Daisy Girls design team. Little blossoms of wonder like Daydream by Aimee Kidd:

Merry Go Round Gina Johnson:

Forever by Melina Borrero:

Pretzel Dipping by Mara Campbell:

When I See by Kristii Lockart:

 or Sick Boy by Michelle Carr:

Or this sweet card by Melina Borrero:
So order now. (No wait! First see if you are the lucky one. Then order tomorrow!) If you would like to be considered for the giveaway, please leave your comment telling us what size scrapbooker you are (i'm a small on top, medium below - oh, you meant page size...), if you prefer one page or two, and the number of photos you average per layout.

Comments will remain open until 8:00 pm EST. One number will be selected at random. Gift will ship directly from Color Me Daisy. Gift must be claimed by emailing writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com before the last stroke of midnight on Saturday. Best of luck. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see if you are the lucky one, and to hear more from Miss Celeste concerning the final step in her ultimate preparation guide. Grin on, little fiendish time, soon, you will be captured and put to good use!

Tell the Story

Now that I have the sketches with photos all set to go I can plan out the stories for my pages. I journal in a variety of ways – sometimes I just tell about what we were doing, where we were, etc. Other times I relate a funny story or tidbit of conversation from the boys. Sometimes I write about the boys’ emotions, their development, etc.

I have always had a hard time journaling at crops. I can’t concentrate on my journaling and talk to my friends. So I have a two-pronged approach to how I journal for crops. Some of my journaling I type up ahead of time and bring with me. The rest I complete at home leaving room for the journaling somewhere on my page.

When I pre-plan my journaling, typically I use the computer. With the sketch, the photos and my list of stories I want to tell, I type up the journaling in Word. I make a note near the journaling of the number that corresponds to the sketch/photos.

One easy way to add journaling at crops is strip journaling. I type up my journaling and then set the width of the lines. I usually type the journaling with the line spacing at 1.5 – this gives me room to cut the journaling into strips later. The strips can easily be added at the crop.

 

 

materials: patterned papers (October Afternoon) + stickers (October Afternoon) + letter stickers (American Crafts) + Font (Another Typewriter)

Another way I journal for crops is block journaling. This takes a little more finessing and guessing the size you’ll need for the text box. I use text boxes in word for this.

 

 

materials: cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned papers (American Crafts) + fonts (Fling, Century Gothic) + Digital Brush (Scrap Girls)

All of my preplanned journaling is printed on inexpensive acid-free white flat cardstock from Staples. I find that printing on flat cardstock is crisper and the fact that it is inexpensive is guilt-free if I decide to wait until I get home to reprint the journaling on a different color of cardstock.

 

I do send some layouts to a crop without journaling. These are usually the type that just explain where we were and what we were doing. When I get home I add journal strips and/or blocks. I added the strip below after the crop.

 

 

materials: cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned papers (October Afternoon) + die cuts (October Afternoon) + stickers (October Afternoon) + button (Buttons Galore) + brad (American Crafts) + letter stickers (EK Success) + punch (Fiskars) + font (TW Cen MT)

I have always handwritten on my pages. I try to have about a third of my pages with handwriting on them. I’m not a huge fan of my own handwriting, so I probably don’t share a lot of these! I save my handwritten journaling for home after the crop. I do draw lines on my layouts with pencil before I journal. As well, I frequently use journal spots adding them at the crop and writing later. You can easily make your own journal spots or download free printable ones. I created a set for an article in Simple Scrapbooks last year. The set is still available and below is the layout I created for that article.

 

materials: cardstock (Bazzill) + letter stickers  (American Crafts) + rub ons (American Crafts)

 

You can also print your journaling directly on lined journal spots. It’s a bit of a process and you’ll need a scanner and Photoshop. I posted some directions on my blog awhile back.  Here is a layout using that technique.

 

 

materials: cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket) + chipboard (American Crafts) + buttons  (American Crafts) + sticker (Sassafras Lass) + journal spot (Elle’s Studio) + ribbon (American Crafts)

 

Now that the journaling is complete, the gathering begins. Product - my favorite part! On Friday, I’ll show you how I pull product, give you a peek at how I organize my stash, and give you some easy tips on how not to bring your entire scrap room with you when you go to a crop!  Be sure to check back tomorrow for another giveaway day - it's a goodie!