Welcome back! I hope I didn't scare away too many of you with yesterday's post. I've found that the more thought I put into my process upfront, the more it ends up paying off when I am ready to scrap. So my goal is to get you thinking about some of your processes so you can streamline them to make it work for you.
So let's talk about journaling. In my experience, this is the part many scrappers dread. Some have nothing to say, others have too much to say. Some people hate their handwriting. Some people can't fit in the journaling into their design, etc, etc.
In my experience, having your story ready is a huge time-saver when you're scrapbooking. It gives you an opportunity to integrate it into your page so it flows along with all the other elements on the layout. Like yesterday, I separated today into a few categories, so let's get started.
How to Write
I find that most people either like to write by hand or like to write on the computer exclusively. There are very few people who sometimes type and other times write by hand. A big part of the reason most people prefer the computer is that they don't like the way their handwriting looks on the page or how it doesn't allow them to plan out the size and shape of the journaling.
I used to be an only-on-the-computer journaler. When I decided I wanted to try doing a Layout a Day last year, I knew there was no way I could type journaling each day and, for me, journaling is a crucial part of my layout, so I wasn't willing to give it up. I decided to try journaling by hand. I found a journaling stamp and cut off its frame so all I had was just lines and used that on all the pages I created that month.
Above the frame I cut off from my stamp and below is what I am left with; just a few journaling lines.
The lines in the stamp were close together so I ended up writing pretty small and this made me hate my handwriting less. It also allowed me to integrate the journaling into the design of my page. So if you've always been one type of journaler, it might be worth trying something else just to see if it works for you.
Either way, what matters most is knowing your preference. Alexandra says: "I don't like to see my handwriting on my pages so I keep a journal and other notebooks. When I'm ready to type, all I have to do is go back to my notebook for all the references." This way, when she's ready to journal, she already has her stories ready.
[Alexandra's book]
When I used to journal on the computer, I often would sit for an hour and type up a few stories. This way, I had them ready to go when I created the layout. The creative juices don't always flow, so I really didn't want to have to sit and type when I was feeling creative.
Where to Write
There are many different ways to collect and save your stories. Across our team, the most common one is to blog. Many members of our team have personal or family blogs where they write up stories as they happen. Then, when it's time to make a layout, they will print the story from their blog and they are ready to go.
Lisa said that she also uses Facebook to get down the funny little things her kids say. She will sometimes print out a month of status updates and use that as journaling for a page. You can do the same with Twitter or Google Plus or other social networks you use.
Lisa says, "I also keep a little notebook beside my bed. I tend to think a lot as I am going to sleep, and sometimes I will turn on the light to write it all down." I know people who keep little notebooks all over the house so whatever room they happen to be in, they can jot down an idea or a quote.
[lisa's notebook]
The most important thing to remember is that our memory is flawed. If you really want to remember the details, you need to preserve them soon after they occur. Amy says "I try to write a lot of my journaling on the day I took the photos, or very soon after. That way, I get down the details while the experience is still fresh." She even does this while on vacation.
Like several others, I also use my blog to record details. I also keep a Book of Stories for my journaling. This is a system I developed for a class but it's basically a way for me to keep track of all the stories I might like to tell so they are not specifically tied to a particular event or series of photos. This way I can match a story I want to tell with a smiling photo of my son and still get those thoughts or feelings down on my page. Amy does something similar, she wrote: "I also sometimes write down some journaling and then go out and take some photos to go with it." There's no rule saying that photos must come first. You can think of the stories you want to tell and take some photos to tell them with.
[my book of stories]
So think about where you want to store your stories. It can be something simple like a notebook. Or you can use a blog or create files on your computer. You can even use a tape recorder to leave yourself messages throughout the day. There's no wrong way to do this.
Just remember that if you're a computer-journaler and write your stories in a notebook, you will at some point have to type them up, so using the computer from the getgo might save you time. But this will only work if you use it. So if the notebook is more convenient for you and allows you to actually write down ideas, use that even if it means extra steps later. It's better to have stories you have to type up than to have nothing at all!
Helpful Extras
I had a few other ideas that didn't fall into either category but wanted to mention them anyway.
I really liked Amy's system for storing her journaling alongside the photos so I thought you might, too. Here's what she says: "I keep a folder on my computer for each member of my family and I save the journaling there with the date and a description in the file name. Then, in the directory where the photos are stored, I put a second copy of the journaling document. When I've scrapped those photos, I delete the second copy from the photo directory. This all means that no matter how long it takes me to scrap something, I nearly always have a place to start with my journaling. (I use what I wrote as a starting point and revise from there.)"
Isn't that brilliant?
[screenshot of amy's system]
I also found that if I spend some time thinking of a title or theme that goes along with my photos, it makes it easier for me to come up with the journaling. So I will look at my photos and think about why I want to scrap them. What's the story I want to tell with them? Why am I picking these particular photos to scrap? I will try to come up with one sentence like "You always take the time to help your brother." This way I know what I want the layout to be about and it's easier to come up with the rest of the journaling because I have my theme.
So, now it's your turn. Think about your journaling process. Do you like to write by hand or on the computer? What are ways you can prep your journaling ahead of time so when you sit at your table, you can get right down to scrapping?
Do you have tricks that work for you? Please share them with us in the comments, I'd love to know them!
Thank you for spending another day with me! See you tomorrow when we talk about scrappy supplies and organization!
Hi everyone! I am so excited to be back here with all of you!
I spent a long time thinking about my week and finally settled on a week of "making it easy." The biggest worry I hear from all my friends who scrapbook is that they don't have enough time. They'd like to scrap more but they can never find the time to sit and do it. When they have time, their photos aren't ready or they don't know what story to scrap and by the time they have the photo printed and the journaling typed up, they've used up all their free time for the day.
So I thought it would be worthwhile to ask the write.click.scrapbook. team how they streamlined their scrapbooking so that they could find time to scrap more regularly. Throughout the week, we're going to focus on four different areas of time-saving tips.
Today starts with photos and then tomorrow we will talk about journaling. On Wednesday we're going to talk about supplies. How to organize them and where to place them so they can be most efficient. And, finally, on Friday we're going to focus on things you can do in a super-short time or what you can do when you have time but are feeling uninspired to create.
The goal is that when you're feeling super-creative and find yourself with a chunk of time, you can sit at your table and create. You don't have to waste this precious time processing or printing photos. Or figuring out journaling or looking for embellishments, etc. You can just sit and play.
I asked the whole write.click.scrapbook team to pitch in with their tried and tested ideas so that we can have suggestions and ideas for every kind of scrapper. I am hoping that at least some of these will resonate with you and give you ideas on how to make the process a little bit easier for yourself.
So let's get started, shall we?
I wanted to begin with photos for two reasons. One, because I think that's where most people begin their layouts. Most people are photo-driven scrappers and it's the first element we put down on our page. So if you don't have photos, you don't have your initial starting point.
And, two, unfortunately, photos often take a long time to get ready. You have to download them, edit them, print them or upload them somewhere so you can order prints and wait for them to come in. There's a lot of process that goes into getting your photos ready to be scrapped, so I thought it would be a good place to start saving time and streamlining.
I collected ideas from the whole team and grouped them into several areas:
Editing and Preparing Photos
Let's talk about getting the photos ready. Once you take a photo, you have to download it onto your computer and then decide whether you will edit it or not. This could be simple editing like cropping and sizing or it could be a more complicated process that takes several minutes per photo. There's no right or wrong answer here, the idea is to do what works for you. However, if you're taking so much time editing each photo that you now have no time to actually scrap them, you're doing yourself a disservice. So the first step for you is to go through your process and figure out how much time you're spending downloading and editing your photos. Can you speed up the process in any way?
I generally take photos every single day. At the end of the day, I put my card into my computer and download that day's photos. I pick out my favorites (generally about 6-10 photos) and I edit them. Once they look the way I like, I put them in a special folder on my computer. The whole process takes me about 15 minutes a day.
If I downloaded my photos weekly or monthly, there would be too many photos to go through and too many favorites to edit and it would be a several-hour process which would make me feel overwhelmed and I would likely put it off. 15 minutes a day doesn't seem terrible to me but 2-3 hours on a weekend is a lot more work, for me. But if you take photos less frequently, a weekly download and edit time might be more appropriate for you. Another idea is to do what Lisa does, she edits her photos while she's watching TV. So if you're watching an hour-long show, you can get quite a bit of processing done at the same time. However, unless you can do it at the same time as another long activity (like TV) I recommend keeping your process around 15-25 minutes. To most people, that doesn't feel like a large amount of time and we are more inclined to sit and do it instead of putting it off.
You can see in the photo above that my folder is called "2011 photos" and the images all have the date on them. For January 1, 2011, I have 5 favorite images. For January 2, I have 7, etc. I download and save these daily.
One other note on organizing photos. Some people spend time puttting tags and comments in their photos. This is very worthwhile if you find yourself going back and searching for specfic photos. However, if you're not going back to old photos ever, don't spend time doing this extra step. I generally scrap current photos, so when I process my images each night, I put them in one big folder called 2011. If I know a specific story I want to scrap with them, I will create another folder in the 2011 folder and give it the story's name. For example I might say "first day of school" and put all my favorite, already-processed, first-day photos in there. The date is there my default and I don't add any other tags or information. This saves me a lot of time.
Where you save things matters, too, while I save my photos in a folder, Lisa creates photo collages in Picasa or Photoshop so they are completely ready to print when she's ready to print. We will discuss this more down below in the printing section.
So here are some questions for you to think about editing and prepping photos:
1. How often do you download your photos? Do you wait until there's a full card or do you do it each time you take new photos?
2. Do you like to edit while you watch TV or listen to a specific podcast, etc. where you know you can put a large chunk of time aside to edit? Or do you need to do it in 15-20 mintues you find here and there? How can you make it so you have the right amount of photos to edit when you sit to do it (so you're not overwhelmed before you even begin.)
3. Is there any part in your editing process that you can cut down?
4. How and where do you save the photos so they are ready to be printed?
Sizing Photos
Since I print my photos ahead of time, the most common question I get is how I know what size to print them in. How do I know what size will work best with my layout? The truth is, I don't know. I know that I tend to favor smaller photos. I also know that if I have a series of photos, I like them all to be the same size. So I size each of my photos differently, using small sizes. I make some of them 2x3s and others 3x4.5s etc. When it comes time to scrap, I just work with the size I have. For me, this process works just fine. But here are some ideas from other members of the team:
Donna says: "I always start my scrapbooking process by pairing photos I want to scrapbook with a corresponding sketch from my sketch notebook. Then I size and print my photos according to the sketches I have chosen. Generally I do this in batches and send my photos to be printed at my favorite printer. I number the pages of my sketch notebook so that I can keep track of which photos go with which sketch. When I have time to scrapbook I simply pull out my sketch notebook and my photos and put everything together."
Isn't that super-clever? If you're a sketch-user, I think this is a fantastic idea!
[photo of donna's book]
Just in case you're thinking you can't ever be so sure which sketch you want to use or that you won't change your mind, she also says: "To avoid getting stuck, because sometimes I do change my mind about the focus of a layout, I often print photos in a variety of sizes and choose multiple sketches for any given story. Any leftover photos are saved for personality or seasonal pages (I like to make pages such as, "my favorite summer photos" and so on), or I will send those extra photos to the grandparents."
It's a matter of having extras vs flexibility. If you want to be more frugal, you need to be more decisive.
If you're not a huge sketch-user, but my system seems too relaxed for you, here's another clever idea from Amy: "When I'm processing photos, I have what I think of as "primary" and "secondary" photos. The secondary pictures are maybe not as strong as the primary photos, or not as important. I print the primary photos as 4x6s and the secondary photos as 2 3x4s. With photos I really, really love, I get 5x7s printed—they are probably my favorite size to work with for one-photo layouts. I store groupings of photos for layouts in ziplock bags, the sandwich size."
Do you have a favorite size? I've come to learn that knowing what size of photos work best for you is a really important step in having your photos ready to go. It's also important to know how many photos you like to have on a page and whether you prefer single-page layouts or double-pagers. All of these decisions will factor in the size of your photos.
Having pictures on hand before you sit to scrap will save you a lot of time and headache. So spending some time thinking about your preferences is worth the effort. Here are some questions to help you decide how you should size your photos:
1. Do you like to use sketches? Can a sketch help dictate sizes for you?
2. Do you like small or large photos? Do you have a favorite size?
3. Do you tend to scrap many photos per page or just one photo?
4. What's your preferred layout size?
Like most things, deciding the size of your photos ahead of time takes practice but if you put the effort into figuring out how to make it work for you, you will be able to seperate it from the creating time so you can have your photos waiting for you when you sit at your table.
Printing and Storing Photos
Now that we've downloaded, edited, and sized our photos, it's time to print them. Here, too, there are a lot of different options available to you. I tend to print my photos at home. Mostly cause I am too impatient for them to come in the mail. Once a month, I open up my 2011 folder and pick all the new photos from that month, I resize them randomly and prepare 8.5x11-sized collages. I then print them out, cut them up, and put them in a small container right next to my desk. During that month, I use those photos for my layouts. Next month, I repeat the process. Some months, I don't get to scrap all the ones I printed and I might do them the next month or I might save them in my excess envelopes. Those envelopes are then used for random projects that come up throughout the year.
Just in case you don't know how to make one, here's a video on how to make collages for layouts. I use this to also just print lots of photos on one page and then cut them out for different layouts.
Lisa and Celeste both said they take advantage of sales at my their online photo processing sites and get a bunch of photos printed. Celeste also mentioned making some two-up 3x4s. This way they always have a few photos ready to go.
Several of the others print at home, like me. Erin said that even though she doesn't deliberately print photos in advance, when she's printing photos for a layout, she likes to fill up her 8.5x11 page so she ends up with a bunch of extra photos that she can put in a stash.
Just so you don't think we all print in advance, Francine says "I only print after I have a general idea of how my page will look, then I decide what size or sizes or if to print in colour or black & white. Any photos that I don't end up using at that time, I place in a storage box, so that I have a source to just pull from without having to go through editing and printing."
So even she ends up with a few extras and a stash to use when the mood strikes. Maybe having all your photos printed ahead of time feels overwhelming so you can just get a few of them ready to use in case you feel motivated to scrap but don't feel like going through the computer and printing photos out.
As I mentioned, I tend to store my pages in a little box, but I loved Alexandra's idea, too. She says, "If I have an idea for the cardstock I'd like to use or the patterned papers, then I'll add them to the picture(s) and slide them in a see-through folder. This way it's easy for me to continue where I left off and my picture+papers are protected." Isn't that fabulous? It makes the process that much easier and faster.
Amy also mentioned storing her photos in groupings. She said she puts them in sandwich-sized ziplock bags. This keeps the connected photos together so you don't have to go digging in your stash each time.
The hardest part of getting the photos printed ahead of time is figuring out the sizing. So if you can commit to a particular size, there are two other questions to answer:
1. How many photos will you use to create this one layout? (so, how many photos do you need to print)
2. Do you want color or black and white or a combination of the two?
One you know the sizes and the answer to these two questions, you can start printing your photos ahead of time and building yourself a stash. A word of caution here, I generally recommend that you have a small stash of photos at any particular time. Maybe enough for 8-10 layouts. Unless you're a super-scrapper and create 20-30 layouts a month, it's nice to be able to have a small stash so you don't feel overwhelmed and can regularly add more recent photos to your pile. At least that's what I prefer. If you're more of a heritage scrapper, you might feel differently. Just pay attention to how different sized-stashes effect your scrapbooking and you'll find what's ideal for you.
And here we are. I know reading all of this might seem overwhelming but the idea is to think about all the steps between taking a photo and having it ready to be scrapped. If you can create a process that works for you so that your photos are ready and waiting for you when you sit at your table, you are much more likely to use the creative to create a layout.
So your homework today is to figure out your own process and how you can make it easier. If you have questions about anything I didn't mention or want further explanations of some of our systems, just leave a message and I'll make sure to respond to comments. If you have other creative ideas please make sure to leave those in the comments, too!
And see you tomorrow when we talk about journaling!
Hello Dear Friends! This is alexandra and today we're looking at cards and a mini book all showcasing Hipstamatic shots.
Here is a first card I made using two Hipstamatic pictures:
and this one with an off-centered glittered frame...
and to finish off this week of posts on the magic of Hipstamatic shots, here is a crazy mini. The idea behind it is a portrait of each member of the family (minus DD#1 who is away at University) coupled with a manuscript journaling of their favorite things in life! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Avital for providing the journaling cards used in this mini-album.
Thank you for your visits and comments! I've enjoyed being your host this week. Happy Scrapping everyone!
Hello Dear Friends! This is alexandra again and today we're going to take a look at the Hipstamatic pictures on lay-outs.
These pictures are a lot easier to use than one might think. Depending on the effect chosen, they can convey a dream-like state, a sense of innocence or create a bold contrast and really catching the attention...
This page is about the joy of winter. The saturated blues accentuate the idea of cold weather and make a nice contrast with the whimsical banner.
On this page, what would have been common pictures had they been taken with a regular camera actually appear to be magical with that white glare in the middle.
I often feel that Hipstamatic shots are a truer translation of how we remember a moment. For instance, that moment in Paris when we sat at the Jardin du Palais Royal to enjoy an esquisite pastry from Ladurée actually looks like that in my memory!
For the project "2011 in 52 pages" that my co-host Pascale and Virginie are helping me conduct at Scrap Rendez-Vous, I have often mixed Hipstamatic photos with regular pictures...
or even used a photo collage of Hipstamatic shots as the base for my page...
here is another page with a majority of hipstamatic shots...
On this page, I layered several shots on top of each other and attached them with a brad...
I hope this has given you some ideas on how to mix and match hipstamatic shots on your pages. In my next post, we'll see how one can make fun cards using Hipstamatic pictures and I'll also have a very fun new mini to share.
Hello Friends! This is alexandra sirugue-macleod and I'm honored to be your host this week. I love my iPhone and it has nothing to do with the phone itself. No, what I'm crazy about is the Hipstamatic application, you know, the app. that allows you to make tiny square pictures with all kinds of cool effects. These pictures are so easy and fun to scrap, I thought we could explore a few different ways to do just that this week...
And how about starting the week with a mini-book I made with hipstamatic pictures taken during the course of January.
With this mini, I wanted to highlight things that our family enjoyed doing during that cold month. All pictures were taken with my iPhone and measure 2 x 2 inches. The cover of this mini is a kraft envelope folded in two and the collection of patterned papers is mostly Webster's Pages.
This inside page showcases things I enjoyed creating in January.
Can you see now why I love these photos? They are a perfect size. I hope you enjoy this album. Tomorrow we will build one together!
Hi there! Welcome to Click. Saturday! I thought we´d go on with the topic of this week; design. Emily has done such a great job showing us the principles of design that I thought the photo challenges would go with that.
Now, design can, of course be of different characters: paper/fabric, architecture, design as in home decor.
Design Around Town
The first photo challenge is to go out in your neighbourhood or town and take photos of some typical architecture.
Don´t forget the detail shots!
Marnie accepted the challenge, took a few shots, and added them to a layout based upon a Becky Fleck sketch.
Home Design
Challenge number 2 is to look in your home/house where you can find design. Maybe it is special pieces of furniture or colors. Or perhaps your house has some funky features on the outside?!
And here are the photographs incorporated into a layout.
This is an older layout I did to highlight our home decor style.
Paige shares a page giving us a glimpse of her home. Such a beautiful page!
Such photos and layouts can also include our outdoor spaces. Alexandra created a darling layout about her new backyard makeover!
Fashion Design
The third photo challenge is to take a look in your wardrobe. Do you have a specific style of clothes?
These are the sorts of photos that, while we might not think them important, will be fun to look back on and remember. And I promise, it's more than just the clothes you will remember when you look back on a picture like this!!
And while you are in the mood and have a photo in hand, take a minute and scrap it. No time like the present!!
Marnie was excited to document her love of stripes. What a great season to shop for a stripe lover!
Here are the challenges again:
Go out in your neighbourhood, town, or city (wherever you may live!) and capture the specific design/styles of the buildings. Maybe there is some public art somewhere?
Once home, head inside and see if you can capture the style in the architecture of your house. Is there anything inside your home that shows a specific style?
Head into your closet. Look in your wardrobe; just take a photo of your clothes hanging for example. Do you have a style of clothes that you love? A favorite designer perhaps?
Please feel free to share your photos and layouts with us. We would love to see what you come up with!
This month's theme is shadows. We thought it might be a fun twist on a spooky theme. Funny thing happened--it didn't turn out to be so spooky at all!!
[Except for our resident Halloween lovers. Who came through with some awesome Halloweenhome decor! (Just like we were expecting hoping!!)]
One of the greatest parts about a one word theme is all the different places it can take you.This might be one of our most diverse galleries in a long time. We hope you love it!
Is there a song lyric that will inspire your thoughts?
Or an amazing quote that inspires some thoughtful journaling?
We hope we can inspire you to document your little shadow. You know, the one that follows you everywhere. We know how easy it can be to forget to document our everyday things. And taking a picture of ourselves with our littles can be tricky. But made easier with a shadow picture.
The idea of having/being a shadow can extend to children, too. Do you have one that shadows another? Do you still walk in your sibling's shadow? Maybe this is the month to document it!
Can you use the idea of shadows as a springboard for an advice page?
And the graphic nature of shadows makes them interesting for action photos.
Follow Vivian's lead and substitute a photo for a silhouette. This allows lots of space so you can journal up a storm!
Have you tried Cloud's splatter technique that she taught us a few weeks ago? Her layout this month shows off the splatter. It's not too late to try it! Be forewarned, it's addicting. And may delight your children as well.
And lastly, we know you have other hobbies. (Guess what? we do, too!) Don't forget to include them in your scrapbooks!
While you are here, we have a couple of changes to tell you about.
WRITE. CLICK. SCRAPBOOK. EVERYWHERE!
Write. Click. Scrapbook. is taking over the world!! Okay, not exactly, but we are thrilled to have increased our social media presence.
Pinterest
We are now on Pinterest! We are so very excited to have a new place to post things that inspire us. If you have a Pinterest account, and like to pin us, please add our name to your comment so others can see us, too!
Facebook
Have you stopped by the Write. Click. Scrapbook. Facebook page recently? Please join us each day as we highlight and link the daily post from our website, feature our awesome sponsors and let you know where else you can find our talented collective! It's also a great place for questions you may want answered! Come on over and "like" us!"
Twitter
Did you know that we are up to 628 followers? Are you one of them? We'd love to have you! Our twitter name is writeclickscrap. If you follow us, we'll follow you and together we will have so very much fun!
Subscribe
This week we got all of our media outlets connected! Which means we had to switch our feed from a full feed to a partial. We realize that this means those of you who subscribe are going to have click over to read the full post. We are sorry for the inconvenience but are certain that having us active on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter will be worth it!! We do value our subscribed readers and appreciate your loyalty. If you would like to receive our daily updates in your reader, please subscribe to us here.
SUNDAY PHOTO+QUOTE
We would like you to contribute! Yes, if you'd like to submit a photo and quote for our Sunday Photo+Word posts you are more than welcome! Just send an email to writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com with SUNDAY in the subject line. Please include your name and blog address (if you have one) so that we can credit you properly. We will notify you if you your photo and quote are going to be posted.
FAREWELLS
Lastly, the time has come to bid three friends farewell. We are devastated to lose three of our originals, Angie, Autumn, and Jody. We have pleaded with them to stay, we really did. But alas, our pleas weren't enough. We will miss them all and can't imagine our team without them. Witty, wise, and so good at what they do. We are glad to have been together for babies, moves, and cancer free announcements. We really do wish all three of you the best. Please stop by often. Pretty please. And thank you for all you have done for us! xoxoxoxoxo
September is here and brings with it a few changes. But before we tell you the news, we first must say goodbye.
Moon is leaving us. She is a wonderful lady who will be sorely missed. Moon's pages are witty, well designed, and executed flawlessly. Her sense of humor oozes from her pages and her self-deprecating style help us all to remember to not take life quite so seriously. Thank you, Moon, for spending the last couple of years with us!
And now, for the changes. As our summer draws to a close, our summertime dailies are also ending this week. Please leave us a comment and let us know if you enjoyed the daily posts. And further, if you would like to see the feature return again next summer.
Next week, we return to week long author posts. Each author's week will be shortened by one day with Saturdays now becoming editorial days. Beginning next week, our Saturdays will emphasize our three pronged approach to scrapbooking: journaling (Write.), photography (Click.) and design (Scrapbook.) Saturdays will now feature journaling and photography prompts and challenges, sketches, printables, and Flickr tours. We hope to enhance your experience with us by providing you with additional reasons to scrapbook!! Because at the end of the day, that's what we are hoping for for you--inspiration to scrapbook and permission to do it simply.
We look forward to hearing your response to the new feature when it launches!! Please let us know.
Giveaways will return next Thursday. At which time we will return to the former schedule: comments closing Thursday evenings, lucky numbers posting Friday mornings, and the time to claim the lucky number expiring Saturday at midnight.
But for now, we are here with a brand new gallery. Please put your hands together for our new gallery, Books & Reading--a bit of a roundabout back-to-school celebration. Our team has put together an amazing set of layouts. You may see them here. Please enjoy!
Hello Dear Friends, it's Alexandra today. I've recently fallen in love with the 6 x 6 " format. It's easy and fast and since I keep all my pages in a 3-ring binder, these small lay-outs look great amidst the more traditional formats. I've made 6x6 pages to divide different sections in my album, to add a nice quote or "just because". They've become like the sprinkles on a cake, totally optional but so much more fun when they're here and there.
This summer, I've decided it was time I started compiling pictures and memories of all of my girlfriends met thanks to this wonderful hobby into a mini album. The 6x6 format allows me to have no "set structure" and gives me the freedom to begin making pages without worrying where I'll put them away. Maybe I'll keep these pages in a drawer, maybe they'll have a designated album or maybe they'll be part of my 3-ring binder...
I find that the most efficient way to tackle such a project is to make four pages at a time. I chose a 12x12 sheet of kraft cardstock, cut it in four and started ...
First, I made a cover page:
and proceeded to making three others:
To keep a sense of continuity I have used:
* the same kraft cardstock for my background base
* the same alpha letters for each title
* p.p that belong to the same palette of "candy colors"
* walnut ink to give the page a bit of a distressed look
* printed the journaling on a tag that slides in and out
* machine-stitching
* one strong embellishment such as a die-cut (branch) a stamp (big butterfly) or a doily.
Whether you make them to illustrate a theme or one at a time, 6x6 layouts are fun and the perfect creative outlet on a summer day.
For many of us, scrapbook pages begin with a photograph. We use it to help set the mood of the page. It is our springboard for product selection, both in color and in style. Sometimes we use it to help tell our story, and other times we let it be the whole story. Our photographs are usually the focal point of our pages. Because we like them to be. Because they are pretty, funny, purposeful, memorializing.
But what happens when the story has no photo? Do you leave it out of your scrapbook? Do you just let it stay in your journal, or (gasp!) your mind? Why do we deem these stories unworthy of our scrapbooks, just because the have no photo?
This month, we wanted to take a moment to show how layouts can be amazing without photos. Just know you might just cry, or laugh, or both, as there are some great stories this month. And there are also some artistic pages that were a chance for our artistic sides to take center stage as we played with a page with no boundaries. Be on the lookout for product taking the lead on a page, and for creative uses for product packaging. You might notice some large graphics taking the place of a photo. and as you read through the messages from the designers, you can see how their pages evolved--as none of us are used to creating without pictures. But without exception we hope you see a collection of amazing layouts that relay a message without a photograph taking center stage.
What we hope you realize at the end of the day, is that stories are important. And they can stand on their own. And they can be the reason to create a page. Because sometimes, there are No Photos Required.
