Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Sunday Photo + Words

Click.

 

Do you find yourself taking more photos this time of the year? When the Holidays are near we often tend to grab our camera for those special moments. But I wanted to post a reminder to also include the everyday kind of shots during these months. Because, after all, our everyday is still there, isn´t it. 

I often scrapbook with those everyday kind of photos, just because I really want to tell the stories of everyday. 

Homework

Laundry

My teenager in her room

Well, you get the picture ;)

So, while capturing the magic of Thanksgiving and Christmas turn your camera to the behind scenes also!

Happy snapping!

 

Map Week: Maps As Home Decor & Map Grab Bag

I had originally planned our last day of the week with a "Maps As Home Decor" theme, but several team members shared some projects and a tutorial that didn't fit anywhere, so we're going to throw it all in here today so you don't miss any mappy (yes, I just made that word up) goodness.

Without further ado, let's look at some more ways to use maps!

Maps As Home Decor

Paula shared an absolutely wonderful (and simple!) home decor project that I adore:

See that? That's Paula and her husband in map form. Paula covered chipboard people with maps showing where she and her husband are from. (In case you can't read the maps, Paula is from Ireland and her husband is from Boston.) Two chipboard shapes + two maps + a heart sticker + a frame = instant, meaningful, classy, mappy home decor. What could be better?

Map Grab Bag

Let's start this section with a couple of mini-album projects.

First up is a travel mini-album cover that Katie created.

Aren't the layered maps and cameras fun?

Francine created adventure books as party favors for her son's birthday party. The party theme was based on the movie "Up."

I know my kids would love to have received something like this in a goody bag!

Our last grab bag item is a tutorial that Christine pointed us to. This is something for all you digi folks out there! It's a Photoshop tutorial on how to do map shapes on a digi page, along with a FREE template of the U.S. map!

How To Create a Scrap-worthy Map with Photoshop

And Thus Ends Map Week

Thank you to all of you for hanging out with us this week! Be sure to tune in next week when we will have a special Thanksgiving Theme Week put together by the write. click. scrapbook. team!

and the giveaway goes to...

Melissa, please email us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com to claim your lucky number! Thank you!

give.away.day. featuring BO BUNNY

That's right, today is a give.away.day. Any guess as to what we're giving away today? (Hint: what have we been talking about all week?) If you said map-themed products you'd be right! Today we are giving away Bo Bunny's Detour line to one lucky winner!

Detour is a fabulous map and travel line, with lots of interesting takes on map prints. Here are a few examples:

 

Vivian created two layouts with Detour. The first one takes us back to Tuesday's "Maps Instead of Photos" theme:

 

The second one takes us back to Wedesday's "Maps As Embellishments" theme:

If you would like to take home this amazing line so you can recreate Vivian's layouts, or make some all your own, please leave us a comment telling us where you would travel if you could travel anywhere.

And...if you haven't done so already, why not click on over to Facebook and like Bo Bunny to thank them for supporting us!

Comments will remain open through this evening. One lucky number will be selected at random and posted tomorrow. Please remember it is your responsibility to check back and claim your lucky number via email before the midnight bell tolls on Saturday!

Stay tuned for the final day of Map Week here tomorrow...

Map Week: Maps as Embellishments

Welcome to Day 3 of Map Week! Thus far we've looked at maps as backgrounds and maps instead of photos; today we'll take a look at maps as embellishments. Instead of thinking of maps as a feature, today we'll think about using maps as accents. There are lots of terrific pre-made map-print embellishments on the market, from stickers to flair to brads, but today we're going to showcase map embellishments that you can create yourself using map-print patterned paper.

First up is a layout I created by die-cutting a shape from my background cardstock (using my Silhouette) and then backing it with map-print patterned paper:

Diane also created die-cut embellishments, using maps in several different ways. At the top of her layout, Diane included map arrows in her row of arrows. In the center of the layout, Diane backed some of her arrows with map-print patterned paper and also cut one of the circular arrow shapes from map-print patterned paper:

Diane's layout includes some hidden journaling on a tag, which she shared with us:

Francine used map-print patterned paper as part of the sunburst and in the banner on her vacation layout:

Lisa (Ottosson) included a fun map heart on her layout:

Here's a close-up of that awesome heart!

What kinds of fun ways have you used maps as embellishments on your layouts? What new ideas has this post generated for you? Let us know!

Happy creating with maps!

 

Map Week: Maps Instead of Photos

Welcome to Day 2 of Map Week! Today we have a fun twist: maps instead of photos. Grab a map-themed product (or a bunch of them!) and use it to tell a story. This is a fun twist on the photo-less layout and is a great for when you don't have photos to go with your story. You can also go photo-less even if you have photos - sometimes the map tells the story more clearly.

Our very own Christa is very skilled at the "maps instead of photos" genre of layout. Her "On the Road Again" layout uses a map-print patterned paper to document all of the moves she (and her family) have made over the years.

Another layout by Christa, "Home Sweet Homes," documents the places she's lived in another way. Christa cut the states from a map-print patterned paper apart and adhered them to her background with dimensional adhesive:

On this layout about her move this past summer, Christa used map die cuts to tell her story. She cut the maps from patterned paper and backed each with a contrasting patterned paper:

I created this layout to talk about how I love city life, using a street-view map-print patterned paper instead of photos:

Maps are a great excuse to document lots of things even if you don't have photos. Take a cue from Christa and from me, grab map-themed products, don't worry about whether or not you have photos to go with your story (unless you really want to) and create layouts about any or all of the following:

1. A move
2. All the moves you've ever made
3. Where you live
4. Everywhere you've ever lived
5. A trip you took
6. All the trips you took in a year
7. Every trip you've ever taken
8. A place you'd like to go
9. All the places you'd like to go
10. A place your ancestors are from
11. All the places your ancestors are from
12. The place you'd live if you could live anywhere
13. Do you prefer cities? Suburbs? Small towns? The country?
14. Where you went to high school
15. Where you went to college
16. Where you studied abroad
17. Where you grew up
18. Where you and your spouse are from
19. Where everyone in your family was born
20. Where everyone in your extended family lives
21. What your daily travels involve
22. Your feelings about a current event
23. Your feelings about a series of current events
24. A deployment
25. Where your friends live

Not enough ideas for you? Share more in the comments here!

Map Week: Maps in the Background

Did you know that next week is Geography Awareness Week? Probably not, unless like me, Vivian, you are a geography geek. As a kid, I always had my nose in an atlas of some sort and grew up to be a social studies teacher/curriculum coordinator/instructional coach whose passion has always been in the area of geography. Maps lie at the core of geography, so, as you might imagine, I was thrilled when the trend toward map-themed products started a couple of years ago in the papercrafting industry. We'll be exploring that trend this week, with a different focus each day.

Here's our schedule for the week:

Monday: Maps in the Background

Tuesday: Maps Instead of Photos

Wednesday: Maps as Embellishments

Thursday: Give.Away.Day. (yes, you read that right! :))

Friday: Maps as Home Decor

So...let's dive into our exploration of maps in the background. 

 

Maps in the Background, Part I: Using Maps Literally

One way to use a map in the background is to use it for the specific location(s) depicted, using the map to help tell the location piece of your story.

On this layout, I used the Blue Christmas patterned paper from Crate Paper's new Sleigh Ride collection to help tell the story of our Christmas Eve tradition. (How much fun is that North Pole print?!)

You may have already seen this layout I created a while back, but I still love it and it's a great example of using a map for the specific locations depicted. This layout tells the story of my grandfather's family's journey to the United States.

Another oldie but goodie of mine is this layout, which marks San Francisco on the map:

Katie used a New York map-print patterned paper as the background on her gorgeous black, white, and red layout about her love of New York:

Lisa (Ottosson) used a map to locate all of the connections she's made with people around the world:

Deb's "Bryce Canyon" layout has the journaling pocket/card resting on top of Utah:

Diane's fun "I'll Go Anywhere!" layout is another great example of this type of map use. She added embellishments to show the two locations discussed in her journaling. The space between Los Angeles and Boston on the map was just the right size for her to include her photo there:

Maps in the Background, Part II: Using Maps Figuratively

Another great way to use maps in the background is for layouts about travel in general, journeys, or places you go.

I used a globe-print paper in this way to document my son's obsession with geography:

Francine used a map in the background on a layout about how her son is a good traveler:

Amy (Coose) used a map on a layout about her son's educational journey:

Deb used a map on a layout about a weekend treat destination:

As you can see, maps are very popular with the whole write.click.scrapbook. team! Are you already using maps in the background? If you're using them literally, try using them figuratively. If you're using them figuratively, try using them literally. If you're not yet using maps, give it a try!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about using maps instead of photos...

Sunday Photo + Words

write.

Today's Write. Saturday is going to be missing something you usually see in all of our posts: images. 

I'm doing that on purpose, not just because my October was stressful and busy and sad and wonderful all at once. In fact, I'm not including any images because I want to make a point: you don't have to immediately make a layout with the journaling you write.Creating a layout and writing your journaling don't always have to be two parts of one process; they can be done at separate times.

In fact, I've often gone years between the time I write a piece of journaling and the day I actually pair it up with a photo and make a layout with it. I tend to think of my journaling, in fact, as an extension of the photos. A snapshot in words, if you will, that adds something extra that the photos don't convey. If you write it as an afterthought, after you've made your layout and are trying to find a little bit of space to squish in the story, it won't be as vibrant as it could be.

And really, how often do you make a layout with photos you took just a few days ago? Or even a month ago? Yet I'm certain you copy them somewhere safe to wait until you are ready to scrapbook them.

Journaling doesn't have to be any different.

Let's take Halloween as an example, since it just happened a few days ago. If you're anything like me, you took fifty or so photos, and you've already downloaded them, deleted the bad ones, and found a few you fell in love with. Maybe you've even processed them already. (If you've already printed them, you're my hero!)

Now's the perfect time to write the story to go along with those pictures, when the memories are still fresh. Writing your journaling within a few days of a big event helps you to capture the small details that otherwise get lost to the vagaries of memory.

Here are 13 (oooooh, spooky!) prompts to get you started writing your Halloween journaling:

1. Write about something funny, cute, or surprisingly intelligent your child said. ("I have walked out all of my wanting for candy," my 7-year-old told me when I asked if he wanted to trick-or-treat on just one more street.) Or recreate an especially memorable conversation (my daughter Haley, for example, told me all about the hipster Disney princesses she’d seen somewhere. "You’ve probably never heard it" was, of course, included!)
2. Write down the bare facts: what did you do, who did you do it with, and where? 
3. Write about a detail of a costume—a color, an accessory, a prop, for example—that made it feel unique in some way. (One year, the beads on my daughter's hippie costume were so fabulously, wonderfully perfect that they are the focus of all the Halloween journaling.)
4. Make a list of all the kinds of candy in your kid’s bucket.
5. Write about a reaction. This is perfect for Halloween because it practically begs for reactions, what with all the scary, gory, silly, scanty, or startling characters about. There are also reactions to trick or treating by little ones, or to your neighbor's scary porch decorations, or to the enormous pile of candy. Or the sheer pleasure of taking off an obnoxious or itchy costume! (This year, my husband tried on his sister’s blimp costume and I was pretty certain my son Nathan might pee his pants he was laughing so hard.)
6. Write about how Halloween has changed since you were a kid.
7. Tell the story of a costume. Why was it chosen? Where did it come from? Does the costume-wearer have any sort of emotional or historical connection to the costume? (My 18-month-old niece Lydia is in love with all things Toy Story, so her affection for her Jessie costume was exceedingly cute!)
8. Use numbers to tell the story: what was the temperature? About how far did you walk? At how many houses did you trick or treat? How many times did your little one drop her candy bucket?
9. Write about something unique that’s never happened before. (Like my two oldest teenagers, who had a brawl over an extra-large Mountain Dew and who might’ve drank it all and then five minutes later they were happily answering the door for trick-or-treaters.
10. Describe your Halloween dinner. Do you eat before or after trick-or-treating? Do you always have the same thing? How do you fit (nutritious) food into the sugar-laden experience?
11. Write down the at-the-door process of trick-or-treating. Who knocks at the door? Does everyone say "trick or treat" or just one kid? Do your kids say thank you?
12. Respond to this starter: In twenty years, what I want to remember about this Halloween is:
13. Write about how Halloween smells. There’s something magical—I haven’t quite figured out yet what the key ingredients are—about the way a bucketful of Halloween candy smells. It takes me right back to being a kid. What scents do you associate with Halloween?

Once you've written your journaling about Halloween 2012, save it somewhere you'll find it when you scrap the photos. Put a copy of the file right into the folder with the pictures, maybe. Or put your journaling on your blog. Doesn't matter where, so long as you can find it! What matters is that you'll have gotten down a story, experience, or little bit of memory that might otherwise be lost when the time came to scrap those photos.