Write. Click. Scrapbook.

lovely photos

This time of year makes me think of couples in looooove! :) Here are some of my favorite couple photos that I've seen online. This first one taken by my husband! This image just screams romantic to me! 

When getting far away shots, be sure to get some nice close ups too!
Sometimes people are a little shy in front of the camera. If you have them talk to each other and pretend you're not there, sometimes you get moments like this..... Chris captured such a genuine moment of laughter! Sometimes it's the surroundings that make it so romantic! Love the couple alone in the vineyard!
I took these, I like the idea of incorporating personal items into a shoot. It helps people feel more relaxed and their personalities shine through! This just looks cozy and romantic to me. Sigh.
Sweet gesture, captured so perfectly!

And for those who'd like to include the kids, here are some photos I took over the last couple of years during Valentine's!

 

Now, go get some lovely photos on Valentine's! Share some at the Flickr group so we can see! :) 

and the giveaway goes to . . .

My goodness, some of you have the kindest families! Some highlights:

- being grateful for a box of sweethearts. love the simple pleasures. and thoughtful natures.

- husbands who try to make cards for us knowing that homemade matters to us, even if it isn't their gig. speaking to another in their "love language" is incredibly romantic.

- kids who make cards melt moms hearts. from toddlers to teens. some cards will be kept forever.

- will work for free gifts r.o.c.k.

- time can certainly be a gift. a good one.

Thank you all for leaving your comments. And to Renee for the providing a class to

 

Cheri, we are very excited for you to be able to learn how to use ACDSee and as importantly how to maximize its usefulness for you. For everyone else, plunk down that cashola before the discount runs out! Molly is an old Simple Scrapper. She is funny, smart, and would be a great inspiration!

Stay tuned for more Jamie...

give.away.day. featuring RENEEPEARSON.COM

February. The time of love. Romance. Without wanting to be cynical, what makes you feel more loved? A dozen roses or a dozen loads of laundry washed dried and folded? A box of chocolates or a box of clutter put away?  A relationship expert (seriously??!!) on The Today Show yesterday counseled men to not underestimate the power of helping around the house.

We wanted to offer you a gift of love on this week of hearts and love that would truly help you feel loved. So we listened to that relationship expert. And well, we can't exactly come clean your bathroom for you (much as we want to! teehee!) but we can help you get your photos and digital supplies organized! So we proudly present

Molly's class, at reneepearson.com, will help you get a handle on your digital photos, scanned images and digital scrapbooking supplies once and for all with this hands-on class. You’ll learn how to design, step-by-step, an organizational system that works for you and the way you scrapbook. She'll provide the encouragement and motivation you need to create a system you’ll actually enjoy keeping up to date. And you will scrapbook more and faster than ever before when you know just where every holiday snapshot, vintage family photo and piece of digital paper is located. Class begins March 17th for 4 weeks.

If you would like to be considered for this loving giveaway, please leave us a comment telling us your best valentine's present ever. (As an additional bonus of love, what if you used this memory to put together a quick page using hearts (Jamie's challenge) and something inspired by Jamie's list of inspirations yesterday. A chance to get lucky (in the lucky number sense) and a page prompt. It is a fine day!)

Comments will remain open until 8:00 pm PST and the lucky number will be announced tomorrow. Don't forget to check back as it is your responsibility to claim your gift by Saturday at midnight.

And for everyone, register by February 18th, and you will receive $10 off the cost of the class. A little bit more love from reneepearson.com. Thank you Renee! And good luck to all. Can't wait to read your stories!

Valentine's Inspiration

We internet lovers know that there is a plethora of inspiration online! There are lots of the things that capture my eye and make me think, how can I incorporate that into a scrapbook page? Is it the typography, the colors, the shapes?

If you need a little jumpstart of Valentine inspiration, here's some fun stuff I found online:
How cute is this suit from Old Navy? That title is begging to be scrapbooked!

I could just see this translated on a scrapbook page as well!
I want to do this too! How many thousands of buttons do you own? :) Even if you don't make something scrappy with it, can't you just see a cute necklace for a girl? I love it!

 
This could easily be translated into an embellishment on a page! Even the bright blue color for hearts, probably not something I would have thought of but it works so well! Untraditional Valentine's, hooray! :)  I adore this look!  

This just looks fun! I want to make lots of smoothies and use straws like these! Ha! Or you can make similar little hearts for your pages/projects of course! Layer different sized hearts with floral and type phrased stickers, how sweet! 

 

I think that this would be a neat embellishment, the idea of shaping a bunch of flowers into a heart! Can be punched flowers, stickers, maybe even handdrawn?! Pretty!

If you have the patience to make something like this across your wall, go for it! If you just want to do a few, have it made for the length across your layout! :)  

Two words: PAPER PIECING! :)

And for any non-sewers out there, (like me!;) ) how about the look of stitch!? Just a few simple hand drawn lines mimic the sewn look! Now why didn't I think of that?!
How about a cute Valentine's color combination? This just screams spring, love and happiness to me!


Finally this, I want to make a double page layout, with this by itself on one side and a photo on the other. What a statement! Striking!

Challenge: Hearts!

Hi guys!
Can you believe that Valentine's day is this weekend? And if you have children at school, and are really on top of the ball, you probably already have your projects done! :) But for those who don't, I'd love to challenge you to make a project, card or layout with HEARTS on it! It doesn't have to be Valentine-ish but it has to have hearts! Big hearts, little hearts, one or many- please share your project with us at our Flickr group! 

Here's a layout I made for the challenge, lots of little hearts and using the new Anthology line from Studio Calico!

And a card that I made for my husband last year:
And an older layout I made with hearts as a focal point:
I was peeking through the Flickr group and these projects caught my eye! Amazing and inspiring! People, there's still time to make cute Valentine's projects! :) This is just amazing, Monika!

This is just beautiful, Alexandra s.m.! Unexpected Valentine color and I just love the texture beneath the heart cut out.

Can't wait to see what you guys come up with! :)

Week with Jamie

Hi Write.Click.Scrapbook. friends, Jamie Waters here, hosting this week's blog posts. Bear with me as I am one of the newbies here! :) I wanted to share a little bit about me before I dive into a few of my layouts. I am a mother of 4 and I currently live in Southern California. I'm mostly a stay at home mom, but 4 years ago, my husband and I opened a wedding photography business together. My weekends are either spent on the soccer field with the kids (watching them of course!) or at a wedding. I love scrapbooking. I love everything that comes with it. The memory recording, the photos, the pretty supplies :) Here's a little walk through my scrapbooking history.... from the very start!

I believe this was my very first layout. Single photo, simple title, no journaling, lots of white space, monochromatic, black and white photo. 8 1/2x11. I started out at that size and when I felt I did about every design I could think of with that size, I moved on to 12x12. Do you remember those letter stickers? I bet I still have them. I looooved them!

Another early layout. Trend here: cardstock and pen. No journaling again. Like how the cardstock strips match his shirt exactly? I did :)  

Here's where I slowly started using embellishments, bits of greeting cards- still very clean and simple designs. I used a few conchos, filled with patterned paper... I was getting adventurous!:) Still no journaling except for the title, which was a song lyric, and a hand cut title! Wow, I actually miss doing that! There's some paper tearing action too :) Sigh, good ol' days!  

Again, a little adventurous with an embellishment. I hoarded so many of those bookplates! And Jolees! More font work and again, no journaling. I must have used all the font work I had in me in these first 6 months of scrapbooking because I don't think I've done it since! :)
Finally, my style is emerging... A big chunk of patterned paper, my own handwriting, mix of type- but not in form of a computer font. Neutral background paper but with bursts of color popping in.... this feels like me.  

And finally, a recent page of mine :) 12x12, lots of white space. Snippets of journaling words in my own handwriting, just little thoughts. A single photo, a mix of patterned paper, still some white space.
I am so honored to be hosting this week here at Write.Click.Scrapbook! With Valentine's Day around the corner, I'll be sharing some inspiration, sharing some lovely photos, asking to see your projects and more! Thanks for stopping by!

Ice

photo and quote selection by Candice Palmer

I hope you have taken your travel calm, because today we are day tripping to the Great Barrier Reef...

Welcome to the very last stop on our colour inspiration tour. I can't believe that our trip is almost over but we have an exciting, colourful day ahead of us, so let's go.

And just a little note before we go on...it has been raining and storms here for the past 48 hours and finally my poor internet and television could take it no more. I have zero connection and have dashed like a crazy woman to a friends house (thanks Jane & Andrew) to make this post. I am on an unfamiliar computer and I am just warning you that anything could happen (not to mention my stress levels are at about 150%. Ha!).

Now back to the tour and today we are headed to the "GREAT BARRIER REEF"

1. Inspiration Photo - Great Barrier Reef - Queensland

One of Australia's most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world's largest coral reef. The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays. 

2. The Colour Board:

The jewel colours are breathtaking with greens, pinks, blues, yellows, oranges and purple all vying for your attention. It is a wild mix of vibrant colour that we are going to be inspired by.

3. The Layouts:

I found this little mini album and the vibrant colours just jumped out at me (I had been thinking about what I might do for this colour story so was very pleased to chance upon it). With so much colour I decided that black and white photos was the way to go. Now my mum has an updated brag book which was a simple project to complete.

This little mini book came about as a solution to a problem. I like to keep the ticket stubs from when I go to the movies and I had them all sitting there in a small box and wondered what I should do with them. Solution...mini book. I cut up baseball card holder sheets into just one row wide, found that great Basic Grey paper with all that colour and put the book together with my bind-it-all. I then went through my stash of patterned paper scraps and pulled all the bright colours I could find and cut them for the backs. A few rub-ons and a little sorting of tickets into date order and I was finished. 

4. Cultural Lesson:

"My Island Home" sung by Christina Anu

Six years of been in the city
and every night i dream of the sea
they say home is where u find it
will this place ever satisfy me
for i come from the salt water people
we always live by the sea
now i'm down here living in the city
with my man and a family

my island home
my island home
my island home
is waiting for me.

in the evening dry wind blows
from the hills and across the plains
i close my eyes and i'm standing
in a boat on the sea again
and i'm holding that long 
turtle spear
and i feel i'm close
to where it must be
my island home is
waiting for me

for i come from the salt water people
we always live by the sea
now i'm down here living in the city
with my man and a family

my island home
my island home
my island home
is waiting for me

This song was sung at the 2000 olympics and it is absolutely worth you-tubing it!

5. Australia 101:

Well this is it, the end of the tour. I hope you have all enjoyed yourselves as we have made our way (plane, train, bus, boat) around Australia, taking a quick peek at the colours she presents for our inspiration. I hope you have been able to use that inspiration to look upon your stash and your scrapbooking with new eyes...eyes that see colour inspiration EVERYWHERE!

Here's a little treat I made you all to take on your flight home; enjoy and thanks for being such a great tour group. I hope to see you all again real soon.

Jody  xx

ps: don't think I haven't listened when you mentioned how much you enjoy organisational posts...wink wink!

The train is about to leave the station and it's full steam ahead to the beach...

I hope you all enjoyed your stop over and are well rested and ready to get back to the tour. And thanks for the give away Ali, what a great "souvenir" from our trip (yes, that may be stretching the travel theme a little to far, but indulge me!)

Today we are heading to the coast (and there is plenty of coastline to be found around this island of ours) and we will take our colour inspiration from the "BEACH".

1. Inspiration Photo - East Coast of Australia

 

Australia boasts some of the world’s best beaches and the huge coastline stretches for nearly 37,000 km, which includes 11,011 beaches, more than any other nation. Most of Australia's cities and towns are situated on the coast, within a few kilometres of the ocean, which amounts to about 85% of Australia's population living within one hour's drive of the coastline. I am one of the lucky ones and have always lived about 5 minutes from the beach.

2. The Colour Board:

 

The colours of the beach are pale: creams, beiges, and yellows. This colour palette is calm and neutral and works well with many themes. 

3. The Layouts:

This photo was taken from a very brief photo shoot I did with my son Oscar when he turned 17 (and no, I can't believe that he will be "officially" an adult - 18 years old - towards the end of this year). When I say brief you must understand that this 17 year old would rather do chores than pose for photos, but he indulged me and I wanted to make a layout to celebrate.

The colours in this photo were very strong, so I decided that a neutral background would put all the focus on the photo (and those green eyes).

For this layout it was my photos that contained the beach colours from our colour board and I chose complimentary cardstock and patterned papers, keeping a large white border for needed white space.

4. Cultural Lesson:

"On the Beach" – a poem by Michael Williams

At dawn, bare footed, viewing as far as eyes can reach,

the water's edge advances and recedes along the beach. 

Before me I see a carpet of half-buried shells of sea-creatures,

tide washed and rippled in sodden sand along the beach. 

I move, exploring, sodden sand oozing between my toes,

beyond me the wavelets breaking on the sand along the beach. 

Behind me, my wandering trail is blurred and indistinct,

as the water's edge advances and recedes along the beach. 

At mid-day, on the soft dry sand behind the water's edge,

undressed worshippers lie in the sun that beats down along the beach.

At night, the moon's reflection at the water's edge

resembles sea serpents playing in the wavelets along the beach.

This poem is simple, contemporary and perfectly captures the essence of the beach; I know it makes me want to bury my feet in the sand and chase the waves at the waters edge.

5. Australia 101:

First, we say lolly instead of candy and I have to tell you this lolly is a hard minty chewy treat that has been responsible for pulling out many a filling from people's teeth and my dentist is always warning me not to chew them. Like that is going to stop me. Ha! 

After living in London for a few years in the late 80s, I remember touching down at Sydney airport and buying a nice big bag of these at the duty free shop. Yes, I missed this classic Aussie treat.

So today you can head back to your stash and see if you can put together a buttery, pale layout inspired by the beach. We will be back on the road again tomorrow as we say goodbye to the beach and head off on our next colour adventure.

 

and the giveaway goes to . . .

Before we reveal the name, I must first thank Ali for providing the giveaway this week. I know I am not the lucky number (something about not being allowed comes to mind...) but I am still very much going to purchase theses overlays. First, those rounded corners just sing to me. And secondly, what a quick and easy way to keep my photos in order for my daily photo projects. Feel free to buy them too! Unless of course your name is Susan and you left this comment:

For then you should send us an email (to writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com) with your contact information (by midnight Saturday please). Congratulations Susan!

Clearly Ali has taught many many many of us that scrapbooking is as much about the story as the photo. In a very approachable way. With focus on those tedious little details of our lives which really aren't so tedious after all. I loved how Cynthia stated it: "being grateful for the "normal" that is today (even if it doesn't feel normal) because there might just be a time when things are no longer normal and you find yourself wishing for your old "normal" back."

Oh, and to Laura, who cannot cross her toes, you should practice, girlfriend, mine can do it! teehee!

Stay tuned for more tours, colour stories, excellent layouts and Australian lessons from our beloved Jody!

Enjoy your day! And THANK YOU for stopping by!