Write. Click. Scrapbook.

a hi-hat with a souped up tempo...

 

...I'm on a roll and it's time to go solo!

Ah yes, Vanilla Ice, we are defiantly on a roll but you don’t have to go solo, because I’m here dancing, singing and scrapping with you all! 

Today we are going to take a look at yet another solution for those piles of photos and ephemera that we have been talking about all week. 

Sometimes we just have to face the fact…there is no time, and yet you still want to do something with your photos instead of them sitting sadly in boxes and bags! The solution is to use a photo album and as little or as much embellishment as you have time for. 

But that’s not scrapbooking I hear you murmur…aahhh, but it is. I am recording memories through pictures and a few words and adding something fancy into the mix (You know that “stash” we all have LOL). 

First up, let’s take a look at the photos I had from my Mum’s 70^th birthday party.  Believe me when I tell you this party was huge and there were a lot of photos from the night. 

Because we had handmade all the invitations,

And all the mini book party favours,

And a memento of thoughts & best wishes from all the guests,

and boogied till 4.00am in the morning

We were, well, worn out! When the hundreds of photos came back from being printed, along with other people’s photos of the night, we had a mountain of work ahead of us and I could feel a little of the joy slipping away (never a good thing). 

And that’s when I made the decision to put the best 200 photos into a 2 up album and be done. I added some coordinating papers and journaling and I also burnt a DVD of all the photos and scrapped the cover to match. Guess what…my mum loved it. 

Note: The silver haired George Clooney look-a-like standing with my mum in the photo above is not my dad; he is a tenor that sang my mum’s favourite song to her on the night. He was very popular with the female guests!! (his name is Mark, but we all call him George LOL) 

I have also employed this solution to our holiday photos (there are always so many – photos, not holidays!!). In the examples below I have just used the photos in the albums. These albums do not contain ephemera. This really is the quickest type of scrapbooking and it has been a great relief to go back and get all those boxed up photos into albums for everyone to share. 

In my Taree & Port Maquarie album I just scrapped the opening page like a layout and then slipped all my photos in. I used a portion of the last page to journal some brief memories of the trip.

Once my album was done I was also motivated to make a layout to go into our “people we love” album. This was the first time we had all met baby William so that was the memory I wanted to scrap and a one page layout was all I needed to do.

My sister also used the same method for one of her family holidays to Bali. In this album she used a lot of patterned papers and rub-ons to make each page look more like a scrapbook layout. That’s the beauty of this method of scrapbooking, you can do as little or as much as you want.

Note: My sister and I picked those albums up dirt cheap on a throw out table. We knew we would find a use for them and between us we took all they had. I have not seen them since but I see many similar albums around.

No matter how time poor you are, photo albums really do help you move through those piles of photos waiting to be scrapped. And that just frees me up to get all fancy with the photos I really want to play with!

More problem solving tomorrow…

"Deadly when I play a dope melody,                                                                                           anything less than the best is a felony..."

 

Now that the party is jumping...

 

...with the bass kicked in and the vegas are pumpin!

Welcome back for another day of Vanilla Ice inspired problem solving and I apologise if that song is now stuck in your head and you are freaking your family & friends out with your awesome dance moves!!!!! 

Yesterday we were attacking those bags / piles / boxes of photos and ephemera that we collect on trips both long and short. 

Today we have another one of those bags but our solution is a little different, another option to consider. 

You know when you get home from a holiday, be it 3 days or 3 weeks, and you are still on that high where you want to make an album so you can scrapbook every single photo and story because the trip was so much fun. 

You start fantasising about the 40+ page 12” x 12” album you will complete when the 1250 photos you took come back from the printer! And then things like laundry (so much laundry after a trip), and life and work get in the way, and that album just never gets started.  It’s a problem you can all relate to, yes? 

Today I am going to show you a couple of solutions to that problem. First up a quick mini album that will capture the essence of your trip and can be completed in a night.

I “borrowed” my sisters Melbourne mini album because this is exactly what I had in mind (and sisters are good for borrowing from!!) After a great week in Melbourne my sister had photos, postcards, ticket stubs, business cards and good memories.  

This quick and simple mini was made by using smaller sized photos, and the postcards she had collected formed the “pages” of the album – the blank side used for photos or journaling or covered in patterned paper. 

A map was used for the cover along with the wristband from the skywalk (good use of ephemera). Boarding passes and theatre tickets all found their way into the book because they helped tell the story without the need for journaling. 

All the highlights of the trip are here and Nikki completed this mini in a night. Everything else, that didn’t find its way into the album, gone! 

The second option is to use an album. I have also visited Melbourne a few times in the past couple of years and wanted to document these trips, and other short trips I have taken. I am normally a very simple scrapper, but I really wanted to use a lot of the bits and pieces I had collected. 

I used a 12” x 6” American Crafts album and I plan to use this album to house all my “Mini Breaks”. I might complete 10 pages for one trip and maybe only 5 for another, but all those little holidays you don’t know what to do with are now all in one album, and can be added to at any time. It’s fun to flick through this album and remember the places we visited, even if it was only for a weekend. 

I also used smaller photos, maps, business cards and a few sheets of coordinating patterned paper – the colours green and orange kept jumping out at me so that’s what I went with. I used the last page for all my journaling. Anything left over…gone! 

In the last photo you see the title page for my trip to Melbourne the previous year, and I went with a blue theme through those pages.

       

Those bags we started off with are slowly decreasing and that has to be a good thing. I’m so happy I think I might just…dance! 

“To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal

Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle”

  

STOP! collaborate and listen...

   

Now I bet you don’t know where this is heading? Well believe it or not, Vanilla Ice will be helping us out this week on the write click scrapbook blog. Let me explain…

During a recent Glee episode, I was motivated to not only sing along, but to bust out those Ice, Ice baby moves. Let me tell you just how impressed my boys (17 & 14) were to see that spectacle!  

In the middle of all this coolness (ok, embarrassing craziness) Vanilla Ice spoke to me… 

”if there was a problem, yo I’ll solve it” 

…and the seed was sown for a week of problem solving here at wcs, so thank you very much Robert Van Winkle!

So what do we think is one of our biggest problems? I bet it looks something like this… 

Super busy family & work schedule + limited time + 1000’s of photos = one overwhelmed scrapbooker! Time, or lack there of, has to be up there as a problem for most people. 

We have so many great plans and ideas for our scrapbooking that we literally don’t know where to start. And then we don’t. And where is the fun in that? 

There is no one right way to attack this problem, that’s why I do different things at different times, because life is like that. Sometimes I have a lot of time (like a fun girls scrapbook weekend away) and other times I have a few hours after dinner while watching TV. And sometimes I have no time at all and I don't even crack open the scrapbook cupboard.

What I will say is that just seeing what other people do is inspiration enough to overcome your own obstacles and to get you moving forward. 

This week, we are going to dive right in, solve some problems and get some scrapping done, so let’s get going. 

 

OK, see this pile. These bags all contain photos and ephemera that I have diligently collected when we have been on a holiday or outing. I bundle it up and label it and put it in a basket and there it sits, in my scrapbooking cupboard. That pile just keeps growing and growing. You know that you have something similar going on, maybe in boxes, in a drawer, or in folders, but it’s there.

Now the solution is to just dive right in and make a decision. I am going to tell you straight up that I have about 3 lifetimes of photos and ephemera so I am pretty sure I will never have the time, or the inclination, to scrap it all. And I am ok with that.

So I just begin by picking a bag, emptying it out and deciding what I want to remember, the story I want to tell. In this case I had saved everything we came across on a 2 day break in Sydney. We made the trip to take our son Oscar to see The Archibald’s as he had just chosen to do Art as one of his senior HSC subjects.

When I looked at everything in front of me, and considered the 15 page mini book I had planed to make I realised that the real memory I wanted to document was the visit to the Art Gallery; viewing the Archibald’s, and seeing the people’s-choice wining entry of Heath Ledger. 

So guess what? I just scrapped a single page for Oscar’s album. 

I stuck the program from the exhibit on the back of the layout,

 

I put a few of the really good photos of Sydney into my “Places” file,

I filed the photos I wanted to keep into photo boxes,

I kept the cool paper bag that had the name “Oscar” on it because I know I can use that for something, some day,

  and then I ditched everything else (everything you see below). Yes really, I did.

Now I know that seems scary but I have the memory I wanted to keep scrapped, and I am one baggie down. This may not be how I treat all those bags, (more on that later this week) but it got me moving through that pile, which made me feel good. 

Now that’s solving a problem! I’ll see you tomorrow… 

“Word to your mother,

Ice ice baby too cold too cold”

 

The Sea

photo by Moon Ko

Summer pages: Last day

Here we are on our last day of our summer pages week. I was going to try to get a photo of me and cilantro together at the grocery today but as I approached the evil weed, it gave off its stink and I went running for the bread aisle.

You gotta give me some credit for trying, right? I wanted us to come to a truce but it just wasn't meant to be.

Today, I wanted to close the week with a few school and birthday pages. I'll be the first one to admit it: I have thought about the day when my kids will be back in school. Fondly.

There. I said it. I've even made a layout of my youngest and the year he'll be entering Kindergarten:

This was done for the American Crafts' blog.

2013: What a glorious year it will be. In all truthfulness, I will probably be a blubbering, snot-filled mess when I watch my youngest walk through those double doors and into the elementary school. How do I know? Because I did when his oldest sister did it. And I did when his middle sister did. I can talk the big talk but I sure as heck can't walk it. In fact, I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Let's move on to some more school pages, shall we?

Here are a couple from Emily Pitts:

She's a Wonder Woman of putting different pattern papers together and making it all work on a page.

A wonderful idea to show "growth" over the year because my children completely trash their shoes over the course of a school year. I just never thought to record them. Thanks for the idea, Emily!

Here's one from Monika Wright:

Uh. Does that say "Class of 2010"? Congratulations to you, Zach! And Monika, I have tissues if you need some.

Now onto some birthday layouts. It seems like there are the most birthdays in the summer months for my family: me, my two daughters, my sister, my dad, my nephews, my best friend, my mother in law, my sister in law, my brother in law...the list goes on and on. So I thought I could show you some birthday pages as well.

Here's one from Cheryl Overton:

Just love the fact that she used purple on her son's page and great action shots as well.

And one from Monika:

This was from Isabella's (Monika's daughter) first birthday party.

And lastly one (I mean two) from me. I scraplifted myself (again) to save time and I think I'm going to use this format for all of Katie's birthday photos from now on. Here's the one from a year ago:

And one from a few days ago:

I love seeing the similarities and changes over a year's time.

And well, you know...

Download Birthday template

Thanks for spending the past few days with me. It's been fun!

Summer pages: Day Four

Welcome back to fast summer pages week. So far we've touched on beach/vacation pages as well as holiday pages. Next up are pool/summer pages. It really wouldn't be summer without a couple of pool pages, now would it? Keep in mind the colors used by the designers for all the summer pages and see if you can see a trend. Summer pages are bright, bold and fun to look at.

Let's jump right in with one from Emily Pitts:

Design tip: white space, or in this case, orange space: keeps the focus on the photos of cute hubby and kids.

Here a couple from Jody Wenke:

Orange and pink. Super fun summer color combo.

Love how Jody pulled the colors from her daughter's bathing suit to create the color palette to her layout.

And here are a couple from Lisa Dickinson:

Design tip: sewing-I just started doing this to some of my pages and it's a great way to tie all of your elements together without it being obvious. 

And one more from Lisa:

Another great color combo: red and turquoise.

And finally, a layout from me:

Design tip: it's OK to scraplift. Really. Especially if it's yourself. Here's my original layout which was inspired by a former WCS member, Melanie Louette:

Super fast. Super simple. And if you guessed another template, you'd be right.

:)

Download Pool fun template

Hope you're having a great Thursday!

and the giveaway goes to . . .

Paparazzi! All of you! Kids, pets, flowers...they entice us all to snap snap snap.

And aren't you glad??

We were happy to be able to introduce you to BeFunky and hope that you will enjoy their services. Is 14 your lucky number today?

Thank you to BeFunky and congratulations to our lucky number! Please email us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com before midnight on Saturday to claim your lucky number!

Moon will be back shortly with more quick and creative ideas for summer! Enjoy!

give.away.day. featuring BEFUNKY.COM

We are all in the throes of summer adventures, and whether that means too many photos by the pool, or too many photos in the snow, during peak seasons, there is that tendency for too (Moon told us yesterday there is no such thing as too many photos, so we will just say many) many photos.

And what does one do with that 134th pool picture? Add it to the pile, I suppose, unless of course you funkify it with

 

BeFunky.com is the place to have fun with your photos, arming users with easy one-click tools to edit and create unique and funky effects for the photos they love most.

From fixing fuzziness, over exposure and boosting colors on a dull photo with to Andy Warhol-like effects, oil painting and even grunge effects, BeFunky boasts the biggest effects portfolio on the Web. There’s no need for special software or expertise and experience to create fun photos -- the BeFunky Art Engine does all of the complicated behind-the-scenes work for you.

BeFunky.com basic service is free, but because today is

one lucky Write. Click. Scrapbook. reader will win a 1-year BeFunky Professional account, valued at $99.95/year, that offers all capabilities including the highest resolution output, full screen workspace and photo storage and tracking.

BeFunky offered Elizabeth a chance to try their service. Here is what she had to say:

Top five reasons I loved working with BeFunky:

1. Very easy and intuitive. Everything was right out in the open, and I could figure out everything I wanted to do by just clicking around and looking at menus.

2. So much variety! There are so many photo effects to try. There are other things too (frames, text editing, etc.) but I was content to play with the photo effects.

3. Certain photo effects work better with some photos than others, and it was fun to match up the feel of a photo with an effect that worked.

4. I loved how certain effects made me think of layout ideas! The Holgaart effect I used in the photo of Maddie made me think of a little girl who is starting to come into focus, starting to develop from many parts into one whole. I might not have thought to journal about how she is on the brink of so many things had it not been for that photo. (see below)

5. The site makes it very easy to link to an existing Flickr account (or other social networking site), as well as to Zazzle to create custom merchandise. I like when things connect to each other without me needing to log in every single time.

(And because every List of 5 is apparently better with a sixth...)

6. Bonus: I'm sure many of the effects are achievable in Photoshop or similar, but for someone who does not have Photoshop, it was extremely easy and fast to achieve some pretty amazing effects.

Here are a few examples of Elizabeth's fun:

Using the Pointillism effect, Elizabeth turned two already extraordinary photos into even more extraordinary art pieces.

 

For this layout, Elizabeth used the Holgaart effect.

Using Popart1 and Popart13, and some help from Zazzle, Elizabeth quickly made stamps and notecards.

Please take a moment and click on over to BeFunky.com and check things out. Or you may watch their youtube video for more examples and how-to's. And once you are addicted you can join them on facebook, follow them on twitter (@befunky), and they have their own Flickr gallery. Oh the possibilities. Don't forget, we have warned you how fun it can be!

If you would like to be considered for the one year membership, please leave us a comment telling us what something you tend to photograph too much this time of year. As per our new custom, I will go first to break the ice...

Water. Sprinklers. Baby pools. Swimming pools, Oceans (if I am lucky enough). Rain puddles. I love water and I am incapable of NOT taking hundreds of pictures of my kids playing in it. I love the blues, the sun reflecting, tanned bodies. The wild abandon that water causes. I love it all. And try to capture it all. Every time. I could have an whole separate album for just water shots and water layouts. Water is my peace.

Now it is your turn. Comments will remain open until 8:00 pm PST and one lucky number will be selected at random and posted tomorrow. Please don't forget to check back to see if yours is the lucky number before Saturday at midnight!

BEFORE YOU GO, we have one last public service announcement. The University of Connecticut contacted us to see if our readers would be interested in participating in a study they are conducting. If you have 8 minutes, click

here

and you can add in your two cents! We are in no way connected to the study, nor do we receive anything from them for asking you to participate. It is voluntary and not connected to the giveaway. But consider the notion that someone will be hearing what you say! That alone was reason enough for me!  

Summer Pages: Day Three

Here's a more recent photo of me with my family. Lucky for us, there was a random woman walking down the beach who was willing to snap a few family photos of us. She did a good job, I must say. Thank you, random beach walker woman!

I hope you're enjoying your week so far. I know I am. And to think I was nervous about hosting this week...

I wanted to talk about summer holidays today. I know my Canadian friends just celebrated Canada Day and I know my French friends are getting ready to celebrate Bastille Day. I know there are tons of others but I'm just not that smart, y'all.

We'll start with a few layouts from Elizabeth Dillow:

Design tip: Love how Elizabeth used splashes or red on her layout. Keeps my eyes moving from one part of her page to the next. A nice visual triangle.

 

This layout was done for Ella Year in the Life book
Photo tip: Take lots of photos for things that only come around once a year because once they're over, it's over. You can never take too many photos. Ever.

Design tip: This is a great way of using lots of photos to capture an eventful day. Crop your photos to all the same size and a visual story will start to unfold.

Next up, we have a couple from Monika Wright:

Monika writes:  I used the same patterned paper on these layouts, but a different version for my son's album. The girls both have the same layout (I made two of the same layout) in their own albums.

Great idea, Monika! There's no rule that says you can only use the same paper once and by creating the same layout for each of her girls, there's no question on whose album the layout will go into.

Journaling tip: Use your own handwriting can same time. I know this but my handwriting isn't as cute as Monika's so I tend to use my computer. 

Here's one from me:

Another fast, simple layout from the photos I took this past Sunday. Oh, and here's the template if you're interested.

:)

Download Celebrate

Digital papers are by Crystal Wilkerson

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Summer Pages: Day Two

Hey there! Thanks for joining me today and for those of you who posted a comment on yesterday's post I just wanted to say: cilantro tastes like soap and armpits to me. And, boy, a lot of you camp. AND ENJOY IT. How is that even possible? I think that's why houses were built...

hee.

I really enjoyed reading all the fun things you all are doing right now (besides those of you munching on cilantro and camping).

Enough with the joking. Let's get down to business and dive right into today's topic: Beach/Vacation/Stay-cation layouts. I'll start with one from the very talented Beth Proudfoot:

Design tip: Go ahead and use those elements that are already pre-made and pre-cut for you as Beth did to create this layout. Love how she used the tag for her title and the starfish embellishments and waves to add dimension to her page.

Next we have a couple from Jody Wenke:

Journaling tip: Use a favorite quote to create your journaling as well as your title like Jody did. Ingenious, my friend.

Design tip: To make your photos stand out (especially if you're using white cardstock) draw a border on your photos.

And now a few from Celeste Smith:

 

Journaling tip: Write down what your kids say for your journaling like Celeste did. One of my favorite ways to journal, if I do say so myself.

And one more from Celeste:

Design tip: Even though this is a two page layout, you could easily convert it into a one pager because two page layouts can be a little daunting to some of you sometimes (even for me). I've provided an 11x8.5 sketch of the layout for those of you who might be interested:

And here's a mini accordion album from Kelly Jeppson:

Design tip: Kelly said that she sized all of these photos to a wallet size to create the mini album. This is a quick and easy solution for all those vacation photos that you may have.

I've never done an accordion but I'm going to try one now. Thanks, Kelly!

And here's a layout by me:

Design tip: by creating 12x12 pages, I could just use 4x6 and 6x4 photos without having to cut any of my photos. They fit perfectly.

Journaling tip: I used numbers as a prompt for my journaling. I totally stole this from Laura Kurz, btw.

Here's a closer look at my journaling page:

If you don't want to do a two page layout, you can put your journaling just on the first page by downloading this FREE template. All you have to do is add your photos and change your destination to whatever you'd like.

:)

Download Summer2010 template