Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Sunday Photo + Words

Click.

Welcome to this months Click. post where we focus on the photos in your projects! This time I saw a few cool multi photo layouts in the gallery. I thought I´d give some tips and tricks on using photo mosaics in your scrapbooking and even home decor. First, I define a photo mosaic to be multiple photos in any way really. It doesn´t have to be 36 square photos, but can also be 3 photos for example. Let´s see some pages!

 Christa Paustenbaugh

Above, Christa used 6 photos on her 12x12 layout. The different shapes and sizes makes it interesting for the eye, especially her focal photo that is really front and center.

Erin Sweeney

Erin created mosaics with 8 photos in different sizes. And doesn´t it look great with a full grid of photos!

Marie Taylor

 On Maries page she used more of a storyboard type strip with her photos. I also love to use the same photo but in different ways like on this page below.

Here I used a favorite photo of my daughter in both black and white and color. It makes the page a little more interesting and add some layering too.  

An easy way to make a mosaic of photos is to use the indexd size when you print. On my printer I can simply print the index of a file with a puch of a button. Research your printer and I am sure you can find a way. Ofcourse this can be easily done just printing out small versions of the photos and piecing them together by hand.

 When we go on holiday or even as in this case on a weekend trip, I take alot of photos that I wouldn´t scrapbook on their own, but together like this it tells a whole story of our time spend. This mosaic was made at bighugelabs using 36 photos and i left one square blank so I could add some text there after I had printed it out.

Here is another example of a trip recorded with a mosaic. This is also from bighugelabs! To create this I used the 4x4 with large center option.

As you can probably see I am big fan, so I have also added a photo collage/mosaic to my Project Life album here and there!

I have also made collages where I have printed it on a 6x4 card and just slipped it in the page protector.

 

It is a super way of including lots of photo in one or two pages without crowding the page.

When I print my mosaics I usually open them up in Word and there I can resize them as I want before printing them.

I want to give a few more tips:

Lately i have used picmonkey for most of my photo editing. They also have lots of cool mosaic shapes and sizes. Here are a few examples.

Here is the typical before and after version :)

Here i have used the Pinter-etsy option, which is awesome to use on blogs!

 

Here are a few more examples where I have used mosaics in scrapbooking!

We have this framed in our house...

and here is the page I did with the same mosaic.

A birthday collage and here is the page I made with it.

Ok, I think you all get the picture (pun intended!) that using photo mosaics are great to include in your scrapbooking!

 Now, go and play with some mosaics and consider uploading the pages to our Flickr group!

 

Summer of '89 - a mini album

Hi there everyone! Kelly here (in the middle of the photo, pink shirt), with a flashback from 1989. I was in seventh grade, and I had a wild mane of red hair, complete with fluffy bangs. I wore my t-shirts big and rolled up the sleeves, cut off my jeans to make shorts, and tried to act grown up.

I was recently reminded of this awesome period of time when I un-earthed an old, white photo album with magnetic sticky pages full of photos I had taken. Most of them were of a 10-day science trip I got to go on with my earth science teacher and a bunch of other kids from my school. We were lucky enough to be chosen for an after-school science club, and we were promised that if we worked hard and helped earn money, we could go on a trip at the end of the year. We visited places like Mesa Verde (in Colorado), Bryce Canyon and Arches National Parks (Utah), Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona), Four Corners, and a lot of other scenic science stops along the way. Did I mention it was 10 days on a yellow school bus, camping along the way? It was AMAZING. I'm not sure the chaperones felt the same way, but the students had the time of our lives. It was the longest I'd been away from home. I don't remember if I called home, but I sent some pretty cheeky postcards, and took lots of photos. Not all great. But enough for a mini album, which is what I decided to make with them. 

I got to these photos just in time - the edges were starting to adhere to the pages! Since these were not the most precious photos I own, I decided to put the best of them into a mini I made using cardstock as a base (no page protectors, in other words). I cut sheets of heavy kraft paper in half, and then sewed them together into a book (with my sewing machine). You could use another method of binding, but I was lazy. My machine was right there. I didn't even bother changing the thread color!

Then I went to work, weeding out the really bad photos, and keeping just the ones that told the story of this crazy experience of my twelfth year. Some of the photos made me laugh out loud, because I remember feeling so grown up to have a camera at my disposal. And I can still feel the anticipation of waiting for my photos to be returned to me in the mail after I sent them to be developed (can you imagine?!). I also learned a great lesson on this trip: look behind you before backing up to take a picture. There might be a giant petrified log behind you that you will trip over and get scraped up on. Good lesson.

I grabbed some random supplies from my stash, including a sheet of travel-themed stickers from Making Memories, and a pad of paper from K&Company. I wanted to make my photos fit the time period, so I rounded the corners (because that, for me, is very 80s - isn't it?). By the way, I think I have taken that same photo of Balanced Rock at Arches almost every time I have been there (which is quite a few times!). But it always makes for a great shot.

I used a fine-tip Sharpie for all my journaling, because I wanted to keep the look very casual. I found that I wrote more about how looking at these photos now makes me feel. It's interesting that most of the people I hung around with on that trip were my friends all through high school (and even beyond). A few of the pages:

I included the postcards that I sent home (smart of me to save them!), because they are really hilarious to read. I sewed this one into the center binding, so I could see both sides of it.

Here's a shot of the back cover:

I love making minis like this one, because they tell a very specific story. This one is different for me, because I have gained perspective since I was twelve that adds another element to the story. I wish I knew where Mr. Tuley is now, so I could tell him how much fun I had on that trip, and how much fun I had re-living it this week as I made my mini. I think I'm going to go curl my bangs under and find a t-shirt clip!

 

 

Summer Photo Challenge

Good morning, everyone! Lisa Kisch here, with a summer photo bucket list! My summer has been crazy and beautiful, and I have done my best to take as many photos as possible. So let me give you a little photo challenge, using some of my own examples for inspiration. Are you ready?

A Landscape:

A Shot from Above:

A Little Fuzzy:

A Local Monument:

A Work of Art:

An Important List:

A Close-Up:

Get Some Distance:

A Picnic:

A Self-Portrait:

Hand the Camera to a Stranger:

A Kiss:

"Show Me Your Best Pose!":

 

What do you think? Can you get all of these shots before summer is through? Go!

layout a day

Hello everyone! This is Deb with another summer daily. I want to share with you how I spent part of my summer. July was a busy month of scrapbooking for me. I decided to challenge myself to make a layout every day for a month. I ended up with 20 scrapbook layouts and 8 Project Life pages. Okay... so maybe 20+8 doesn't exactly equal 31, but it was a great experience... lots of fun and I learned a little about my scrapbooking self. You see, I'm in my third year of Project Life, but I just started getting back into scrapping regular layouts earlier this year. I think I'll be able to scrap a little faster now after figuring out what works for me, what I like, and what I don't like.

It just makes me happy to see them all together in a collage. :)

Want to know what I learned from this fun experiment? Here's what I concluded after my month of focusing on scrapbooking--

1. Computer journaling takes too long so I'd rather just write it by hand.
2. I like to use labels especially for noting the date with my date stamp.
3. The 8.5x11 size is fun and a little easier to work with, but I like 12x12 too. Variety is good.
4. The verdict is still out on whether or not I like misting.
5. I like scrapping the same season I’m currently in even if I’m scrapping photos from prior years.
6. I love scrapping really old photos (I only did one this month, but I will definitely be doing more).
7. A layout isn't complete without at least a bit of stamping.
8. I enjoy plain white backgrounds, just not every time.
9. Lots of little embellishments are a good thing.

Before I go I'll share one of my favorites from the month. I scrapped a photo from 1961 of my mother bringing home her baby boy from the hospital in their '56 Ford Fairlane.

It just so happens that this layout contradicts with some of what I just listed above. There's no stamping, no label with a date stamp and I printed my journaling on the computer this time, but that's okay. It reminds me of one more thing I learned. Exceptions to the rule can be a good thing too.

Let's Talk

They've been quite popular as photo props lately, from chalkboards to white boards to handmade tag boards. They've made an appearance here and there in scrapbookingland for the last three or four years, but I have a sneaking suspicion, speech bubbles are going to be big for the next while. More and more manufacturers are jumping on the speech bubble bandwagon and if you look around the web, you see them all over the place.

Why?

Because they are fun!

It's like creating your own private cartoon strip!

For the layout below, I started with the photo in the left bottom corner. I had split the layout into two sections, the bottom that housed my title and the top that housed my photo and journaling. I started the journaling on a tag but something wasn't right. I tried writing it straight onto the layout like I often do, but again, it wasn't right. Then it hit me, it was boring. That's the only way I can describe it. So to liven it up, I totally changed the top portion, making it two even columns. Then I moved the photo to sit between the two columns. I made some speech bubbles in Photoshop and adjusted them to fit my journaling and the side of the layout to indicate who was speaking. It made a plain old layout really fun.

  

Vivian made this layout using October Afternoon's Cakewalk line. It's actually for the Here & Now 6x8 binder system, but Viv used it as an element on her 12x12 page. Doesn't it just work with her journaling so well?  

For this story about my son's preteen voice issues, I needed something that would make light of a very.serious.issue. Getting mistaken on the phone for your mom isn't something a boy is proud of. I took a photo of my boy and my mom (the usual culprit in mistaken identity) and handcut a really big speech bubble to represent the deep voice that he used to muster up when he saw it was grandma calling. I made two, to show the break in his speech pattern, he'd stop after he said," Hi Grandma" then proceed with the second part, "This is Ethan." See how many things speech bubbles can do for you!

Along with the October Afternoon speech bubbles that Vivian used, you can find a few other varieties out there, including the Simple Stories Sn@p! line. My favorite is a sheet of paper called Bubbles, it's covered with all sort of different varieties filled with text. Here's some of their journaling cards, see the many speech bubbles!

Amy Tangerine has a couple of sheets of paper in her new line Ready, Set, Go (coming soon) that feature speech bubbles. They'd be great to use either as a whole sheet or cut out a few individual ones and use on your page or card. She's also got this cute chipboard element as well.

Pebbles has a paper from their With Love collection with more whimsical varieties to choose from as well.

And yet another approach you can take with speech bubbles is to add them to your camera phone photos with any number of photo editors. Just do a search in your apps store and read some reviews. I have an Android base phone and downloaded PicSay from the Google Play Store for free (there's a full service version called PicSayPro for a small fee). I looked at a couple of others before settling on this particular app because it had great reviews. It was easy to figure out and there are quite a few options. I could size the speech bubble, choose the font, move the bubble to fit my photo, share it a number of ways, and I know there's lots more I can do, but I was looking for speech bubbles and this was the perfect fit.

So step away from the boring, add a little playful element to your next scrapbook page or card, let's talk speech bubbles!

A little piece of them

Marie back here with you today, wondering how it is August already, yet to the point of summer that I can't wait for cooler weather, boots, jeans, and a few children back at school with a regular routine. Speaking of back to school, do you have a kid going off to school for the first time? To Kindergarten or gulp, college? Or perhaps you or a friend has moved away, and you want a little reminder of them. Something simple that when you walk by, just makes you smile.
My friend, Jess, had this amazing mat cut in the shape of Pennsylvania and framed a photo of my silly friends and I. The photo tells a story, but the mat adds more to that story, and reminds me of those friends from a state I grew to love during my time living there. (Now hanging in my bedroom, and no, didn't make my bed yet today ;) 

Another way to remind yourself of someone is with a simple piece of art. Back in May, my grandmother passed away. At 93, she had a wonderfully full life as a professional knitter, roller derby champ, and mother of three. For many years she lived in Iowa, home of the National Balloon Classic. As I have friends who live in Iowa, there Instagram feeds are filled with beautiful photos of hot air balloons, and it reminds me of how much she loved them. So I decided to create a little print to honor that love. 
I created this in Photoshop Elements, simply using the custom shape tool (which just happened to have a hot air balloon shape :) then took strips of paper (using the function + command + g keystrokes on a Mac to fit the paper into the shape) from my favorite new Paislee Press Kit, Meant to Be, and whala, a little something of my grandma to hang in my home, which when I pass it, will remind me of her.

Is there something special that reminds you of a loved one? Or an awesome "you had to be there" moment you could turn into a little piece of art? Share some memories in the comments below, or your projects in our Flickr group! As always, thanks for stopping by today!


 

Sunday Photo + Words

(photo: Emily Spahn)

write.

I love writing.  I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.
~James Michener

Hi there! Amy here, and for this month’s write. Saturday, we’re going to be looking at that tangle from a few different perspectives. One of the keys to good journaling is getting yourself involved in what’s happening in your journaling space—not being afraid to share your thoughts, ideas, and emotions, even if it’s a layout about someone else. This month’s gallery had several layouts that did just that, and I used them as a starting spot for three journaling prompts that will help you get what’s real, fresh, and true tangled up with your words.

1.  Combine memories.

You know how it feels when you see your child experience something and it takes you back to yourself as a child, experiencing the same thing? Write a piece of journaling that explores that feeling. It can be short and sweet: this reminds me of back then. Or you can develop it a little bit more: how is it the same, how have things changed, what do you miss about that long-ago moment?

Sarah’s gallery layout, Choose Your Own Adventure, explores her memories of riding her bike as a child, combining them with her daughter’s experiences. For my layout:

I journaled about a trip to Lagoon, which is an amusement park here in Utah. I used to go every year with my family, and I wrote about those memories bumping up against the experience of watching my daughter run around the same place I used to.

When you combine memories this way, try to look for connections. Sarah’s journaling, for example, explores the freedom of imagination that bike riding gave both her daughter and herself. In mine, I wrote about what’s changed but also what's remained the same. The mingling of present and past memories makes journaling that keeps the reader's attention. 

2. Document your food feelings.

I confess: I don’t love ice cream. I mean, I like it. But it has to be really, really cold and hard before I can enjoy it enough to justify the calories. Hand me a plate of warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, however, and I am powerless in the face of such buttery, sweet, chocolate perfection.

Kathy’s gallery layout, Ice Cream, however, made me think that a nice bowlful would be delicious! Our reactions to our favorite foods are made of fairly powerful stuff and it’s a fantastic thing to document.

Erin kindly shared two food-related layouts. In the first one

she writes about her affection for shaved ice. Notice how she doesn’t just write "I love shaved ice" but she gets the details tangled up with her affection? Her favorite flavor, the place she buys it, a the side note all get us wrapped up in the story.

When I was 15, I worked at a little pizza joint my cousin owned, called The Pizza Pan. A few years later he closed the place, but I still remember exactly how good that pizza was. I wish I had a photo and my adolescent thoughts about The Pizza Pan, because sometimes our food favorites are connected so strongly to a place. In this layout:

Erin makes both herself and her reader hungry for pizza! She does this by taking us along to Lu’s Pizza and sharing her connection to it. She doesn’t have to describe the pizza itself; just the long-standing connection helps us know how good it is.

Marnie also shared a food layout that includes a great story:

By documenting the restaurant experience she tangles up her fondness for a perfect piece of beef and how it might bump up against stereotypes—but it doesn’t matter in the face of a rare steak.

I also wrote about one of my food affections:

In my journaling I focus on the history of why I love berries so much, telling the story of one of my earliest memories. I think we all have foods we’re emotionally bonded with; we love them not only because of how they taste but of what they help us remember.

3. Focus on the deepest connections.

Try responding to this idea:   _______________________ is your element.  (As in: sand is your element. Or autumn. Or the desert. Or whatever!) You can use it as the first sentence of your journaling or as a writing prompt to see where the idea takes you, but I think you’ll find you land in a good, strong place. Think about a setting that is essential to the person you’re writing about, one of the places, seasons, or elements without which they would just not be who they are. Then find a photo to go along with what you write.

This idea came from Katie’s You Summer Girl gallery layout. In her journaling she draws us in by expressing the joy her daughter takes from summer. (I have my own summer girl so I can relate!) I think her words brim with sunshine!

Marnie shared this gorgeous journaling:

 
wherein she writes about how, even though she’s landlocked, the ocean is her element. Not just because she’s happy there but because she feels her greatest sense of peace there. What place do you go to that sparks a similar response? (For me, it’s the mountains!)

My son Jake also has a strong response to the great outdoors:

In this journaling, the details of the hike itself didn’t really matter; what I wanted to capture was his response to hiking in general. Especially as he’s entered the I-hate-everything phase of teenagedom, I wanted to make sure he knows I know he doesn’t, really, hate everything!

I hope you’ll respond to one (or all!) of these prompts. Link us up if you do! But even if you don’t make a layout right now with the journaling you write, you’ll have gotten your emotions tangled up with your words, which is the perfect place for them to be.

Something Different with Masks and Templates

I'm always looking for an excuse to get out some art supplies that I might have *gasp* forgotten about. Recently I pulled out some colored pencils from my basket of miscellaneous supplies and might have needed to dust them off. I have a fun and simple technique to share with you today. It has popped up on a couple of my recent layouts. All you need is a mask or template and a colored pencil. 

The masks I have been using are these two simple "handmade" circle templates. The templates were made with my Silhouette SD and some leftover cream cardstock from an invitation project.

Don't worry if you don't have a die cutting machine. Any shape punch will work too. To make a mask using a shape punch, cut a strip of paper and then punch evenly across the length of the strip. 

Here are my recent layouts with a circle mask and colored pencil:

(for Little Black Dress Kit Club)

(for Elle's Studio)

Usually, I use masks or templates with mist or paint. Here's the same circle mask with paint:

(for Little Black Dress Kit Club)

Try dusting off your masks and templates or make your own this weekend and use a different medium that is a little out of the box for you. I'd love to see what you create. Please link up your layout(s) in the comments section below.