Write. Click. Scrapbook.

inspired by (part 2)

Happy Tuesday everyone! Paula here with your Tuesday dose of Summertime inspiration. If you checked in yesterday you would have seen Monika's wonderful post. Monika is the unofficial queen of mini books here at Write.Click.Scrapbook and I for one, have been very inspired by her many creations.

I had the honor of being the source of inspiration for Monika's mini book that she created for her son who is in the Navy. I love the idea of sending a mini album to someone - I think I'm going to have to create another Monika-inspired-mini to send to my parents who live overseas.

Today's post is about the mini-album that created based on of one Monika's. She has so many wonderful and varied mini's to choose from it was hard to pick just one but I was particularly drawn to her "my favorite memories of us" smash-style album:

I followed the instructions on her blog and in no time at all I had created a fun smash book of my own. 

Here's a few images from my book - first up, the cover. I mimiced Monika's with the textured cardstock, the decorative journaling sports and stickers. I sewed the book together using my sewing machine (a first for me):

 

Like Monika, I pulled various papers, journaling spots and embellishments from my stash along a color scheme and layered them to create the book. It's a fun way to use up things that have been sitting around for a while (years!):

I love using word strips and labels and I have tons of them!

I hope this inspires you to make your own mini album. Don't forget to click on Monika's details page to see all the extra goodies inside of her album.

Happy mini-making!

inspired by

Happy Monday to you all! Hi, I'm Monika, and at our house, we're getting ready for a birthday party and making sure we have everything on our back-to-school list. Next Monday, our girls will be enjoying their First Day of School. Hard to believe our Summer is almost over.

I think by now, you all know how much I adore a mini book. During last month's Gallery here at write.click.scrapbook. the theme was Perfect Pairings. At one point, I was paired with the amazingly talented Paula Gilarde. Then we added some lovely new members here and we had both had new pairings, but I still wanted to share with you a tutorial from Paula that inspired me.

It's a perfect summertime project and uses goodies you already have on hand...cardstock and photos. Anything else you add is just extra goodness! Here's my mini book...

...and here is Paula's mini book that inspired me. Here's another she shared here at w.c.s. recently.

 

ACCORDIAN MINI BOOK

Since I'm sending this to my son, who's in the Navy, I kept the embellishments simple. Don't worry, he's used to his Mom making mini books for him, so he won't be too embarrassed receiving this in the mail!

So simple that there are just 3 photos and Instagram photos at that.

STAMPS AS JOURNALING TOOLS

Have you ever thought to use all those sentiment stamps you have as a way to journal? I arranged a few stamps around my page and added my own words to fill in the gaps using different colored inks to make the stamp images stand out.

STAMPS AS EMBELLISHMENTS

Another favorite trick is to stamp an image, trim around it and add it to my page...instant embellishment. Perfect for mini books and layouts alike and you can even stamp on patterned paper!

So, excuse me now while I check our school supply list one more time and wonder how we're going to fit in a few more things from our Summer bucket list.

 

 

Sunday Photo + Words

In Review

July is finishing, the Olympics beginning, and school is just around the corner. With so much going on, this month's theme, Five is Fun! is perfect as we take our limited items and create some simpler works of art to help us complete some summer pages and document those memories before they fade away into a summer sunset.

Let's put on our fanciest flip flops, and our most comfy summer whites, and stroll through our gallery one last time. Together. The way we like it best, no?

 

Before we begin our prompt lists, let's do a bit of trend spotting. There are many multiple photos layouts this month; 12 in fact. 5 use grids. 6 use linear stacks. If you copied each of these 12 layouts, you would be scrapbooking 57 photos. Imagine how freeing it would seem to have 57 photos properly preserved?

For a mid-summer gallery, the colors are also light and bright. Lots of pastels and muted brights here. Right on trend according to Project Runway this week!

Let's get to our lists! First up, journaling prompts.

1. have you a dream? (Francine)
2. thoughts on the gender of your children (Deb)
3. the personality of your pet (Lisa)
4. a way that your child is changing (Emily)
5. a Fourth of July tradition (Celeste)
6. documenting something you have been waiting for (Diane)
7. look deeper at a field trip detail (Vivian)
8. a current creative stage of you or your child (Kathy)
9. document how a tradition began (Paula)
10. a treat and why you love it (Teka)
11. different aspects of your child (Valerie)
12. capture a moment of zaniness (Emily)
13. look at your child. what do you see? (Sarah)
14. party details. bare bones. (Donna)
15. journal the start of a conversation. the photos will be the end. (Erin)
16. record a gratitude to your child (Marnie)
17. document a special relationship (Christa)
18. a summer delight (Amy)
19. something that makes life good (Monika)
20. a list of a few goods and bads from a day of vacation (Marie)
21. record some details from a touristy day (Kelly)
22. your thoughts as you look back at an old photo (Alexandra)

 

And your photography prompts:

1. stand by a window for a selfie (Francine)
2. take a portrait shot of each of your kids with the same background on the same day (Deb)
3. take a series of photos to help better tell the story (Lisa)
4. be higher than your subject (Emily)
5. have your subjects lay down and stand over them (Celeste)
6. use a fun filter (Diane)
7. take two: one up close, one far away (Vivian)
8. use a white background for a detail shot (Kathy)
9. get a series that help tell the story (Paula)
10. foodie photos. yum! (Teka)
11. block a chunk of time, patiently sit and capture expression changes (Valerie)
12. before you clean, click! (Emily)
13. take an everyday shot of someone you love (Sarah)
14. the birthday candle, before and after (Donna)
15. look back through your photos and match them up for a page (Erin)
16. same subject, front and back (Marnie)
17. look for a moment that you can capture the essence of relationship in a photo (Christa)
18. summer food eating action shot (Amy)
19. set your scene with near, far, up, down, left and right (Marie)
20. tourist day: remember the people pictures, too (Kelly)
21. remember to add in the background for an additional bit of preservation (Alexandra)

 

And lastly, 22 things to try when you scrapbook this month:

1. use an unlikely thread for a banner (Francine)
2. rounded corners on your photos, squared corners on the mattes (Deb)
3. use the negatives of a punch (Lisa)
4. create a photo strip by reusing the same photo 3 or more times (Emily)
5. keep your layout in the upper half of the page, with lots of breathing room below (Celeste)
6. try a black photo matte to help your colorful photo pop (Diane)
7. emulate a graphic on your photo with paper (Vivian)
8. enlarge a photo with unusual proportions (Kathy)
9. have a perfectly centered and symmetrical layout (Paula)
10. use patterned tape on top of patterned paper. i dare you! (Teka)
11. jump the gender gap with products (Valerie)
12. tip your photo away from the lines of your layout (Emily)
13. use a reference point in your photo in the background decor (Sarah)
14. keep an uniform margin in a block of photos (Donna)
15. let an embellishment aid in your storytelling (Erin)
16. use a ribbon in lieu of a patterned paper (Marnie)
17. journal round your photo (Christa)
18. use a graphic element three times (Amy)
19. place your title over a strip of washi tape (Monika)
20. place your photo grid on the lower left hand corner and then use your journaling and embellishments to create a visual triangle (Marie)
21. journal on our photos (Kelly)
22. use those old decorative scissors! (Alexandra)

 That's it! 66 ideas to keep your juices flowing and pages coming!

 

As a thank you for the time you have spent with us this month, our lovely Monika created this printable for you and our Five is Fun! theme.

You may download it here.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a terrific weekend!

Summer Trend: Triangles

Coming up with my theme for today I was browsing my favorite inspiration site, Pinterest. I was hugely inspired by the triangles that are popping up everywhere in knit tops, quilts, posters, jewelry, and fabric patterns. Instead of using them as an embellishment I wanted to translate them into a scrapbook page background without being too literal. I have a love affair with stripes and wanted to merge the two. Instead of using stripes as a background I would translate them to long acute isosceles triangles:

 

Details

For this layout I wanted to use bright bold colors to represent my trip to Spain last summer. After I found the perfect papers to represent the trip, I made the triangle background by printing and cutting out a template triangle on printer paper. Once all my triangles were cut out, I adhered these to a piece of plain 8.5 x 11 cardstock and trimmed 1/4 inch off all sides so I could matte it on a piece of white cardstock. I then stitched around all the edges.

 

Next, I grabbed my photos and arranged them how I liked I realised the colors in my background were a little too bright and competing with the bright colors in my photos. This is where White Spray Mist is your best friend, at least it is mine. :) I gave it a few sprays lightly misting the colors to tone them down a bit. Still I worried (I know I worry too much) the photos would be lost so I popped them up on pop dots to give them that extra oomph they needed.

Because there was so much to look at on this page I wanted to keep the journaling short and sweet. I felt this one sentence pretty much summed up the reason I made this page.

 

Additional Inspiration

If you are still hungry for more triangles here is a layout by the talented Emily Spahn:

A little Blurb from Emily: I fell in love with Teka's page immediately. I knew that I wanted to flip her sketch to have the triangles going vertically, with a little blank space at the bottom for my title.  I had originally planned on creating long, acute triangles like Teka used, but after seeing this image on pinterest, I decided to go with smaller right triangles instead. The most challenging part of this layout?  Having to recall some geometry skills that I hadn't used in years in order to make my triangles the correct width!  So while my final layout looks very little like Teka's page, her fabulous triangles were my original inspiration!

Don't worry digi scrappers we haven't forgotten about you! The talented Marnie Flores made a page with the downloadable template below:

 

Sketch

If you would like to play along, please, be my guest! Here is a sketch for you to use:

If you prefer, you may download a layered template here. If you would link it up in the comments, I would LOVE to see.

Bored No More!

Hi Kathy Martin here with a few ideas to help get you through these long hot dog days of summer when you hear the kids utter, "Mom, I'm bored! There's nothing to do!" Fortunately we have Pinterest at our fingertips and a craft room full of all the supplies needed to whip up some pretty cool summertime crafts.

With a few toilet paper rolls, paint, card stock and glue you can create these adorable projects.

(source)

(source)

 

Since it's mid-summer, there should be a few popsicle sticks laying around to make airplanes out of!

 

While the kids are busy cutting, pasting and crafting up a storm, you can get a little scrapbooking in! 

 

Christopher and I recently made this adorable kitty from paper plates. Another great idea from Pinterest.

 

Do you have an old puzzle in the closet, one that's missing several pieces? Christopher created this puzzle piece tree at camp recently.

 This creepy rock bug is next on our crafty to-do list. Who knew you could make something this cool with a few rocks and sticks from the back yard?!?!

Happy crafting!

Instagram and Pixlr-o-matic

 Hello everyone! It's Deb and today I want to share a couple of my favorite ways to add a bit of personality to my photos. Sometimes my older photos don't look the greatest. Even my more recent photos don't always turn out quite right. I don't always want to spend time trying to fix them in photoshop. That's where some fun editing programs/apps come in.

My favorite is Instagram. When I want to spruce up a ho hum photo, I just email it to myself, open it on my phone and apply an Instagram filter. The Earlybird filter is my favoite for sure. You can put your phone in airplane mode if you don't want the images published to your feed. They'll still be in your camera roll.

 

Here are a few layouts I've made with photos after adding instagram filters.

If you aren't on Instagram, there's a free download called Pixlr-o-matic. It's available as an app for iPhones or androids, but the good news is you don't have to have a smart phone to use it. There is a vesion available for download to your computer or you can even use the online editor. Click here to find out more about it. If you want to download it, just click on the Pixlr-o-matic tab. Some of the effects are a little wild, but there are some fun ones too!

For the photo in this layout, I used the Julia filter and the Nolaroid frame. I love how it made this beach photo look a little bit vintage.

So if you have some photos you'd like to scrap but you're not happy with, try adding some filters from instagram or pixlr-o-matic. You may be surprised with the results!

Summer Reflection

 

Morning all! Lisa K here with an idea for a quick summer photo. Find a reflective surface out in the world and snap away! My hubby and I were on a summer date one evening, and rather than asking a stranger to take a photo, we found a mirrored store window and set up our own shot:

bonus: we likely wouldn't have smooched if a stranger was taking the photo! ;)

 

I love the grainy, dreamy quality of this photo--  it's reminds me of a 60's magazine ad.

 

Here is the resulting layout:

 

This summer, while you are out and about, find a reflective surface, and create your own self-portrait!!

Summertime Birthday Gift Album

How's your summer going? It's Kelly here today, with a few thoughts on summer gifts for the procrastinator in all of us.

I love summer. I love waking up and not having to make lunches for my kids to take to school. I love hanging out in my jammies until noon, because I don't have to go take kids to school. I love watching my kids splash around at the pool. I love stocking the fridge with watermelon and the freezer with popsicles. In other words, I love the absence of some stress in my life.

So, since I am a bit lazier than usual, I didn't see a few events sneaking up on me: my pop's birthday, and the departure of my baby sister for graduate school (I don't want her to go!). Since I want to make something special for each of these occasions, I searched my stash for something to whip up. And what better than a cute little mini album for each of them?

 

I started with an album for Pop, simply titled, "Dear Pop, thanks for..."

I grabbed a mini album by Making Memories, a few snapshots of Pop taken over the years, a black marker, and a few assorted accents. Then I sat down to watch the end of the Tour de France (love that!) while I glued and journaled. For every photo, I added a sentence or two that began with "Thank you for..."

Here's another layout:

Here's a shot of the front page of the album:

And one last layout, featuring photos of my siblings with Pop almost 20 years ago, and just this year:

I kept the pages simple, with just a few accents on each page. My album was finished in no time, and now I have a great meaningful gift to give to Pop. I'm planning on making one for my sister, too. Just as soon as I eat another popsicle poolside.

Cheers!

 

Sunday Photo + Words

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,

the Master calls a butterfly.

- Richard Bach