Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Welcome, April!

April is here and we're not fooling! We are so very excited that a new month is upon us. This month we are looking forward to Kelly, Lisa, Teacher's Appreciation preparation and Mother's Day preparation. We hope to inspire your spring pages, and help you get ready for the holidays ahead of us.

 

The first also brings us a

This month we are celebrating shapes: circles, triangles, hexagons, squares, stars. Whether the graphic elements be big or small, our pages love them all. Here is a look at our gallery as a whole!

And here are the pages one by one. Please click on over to the gallery to see them bigger, and read the journaling! 

That's it! We hope you have found a layout or two, or twenty, that will appeal to you and your scrapbooks! We look forward to seeing your "inspired by" layouts! And please let us know if you like the new cards.

Those Were the Days

Let's dust off that shoebox you have stored somewhere in your home that is full of old photos. Today I challenge you to take a walk down memory lane and scrapbook a photo or two from your childhood. I LOVE looking at photos from my childhood, and despite the color cast and poor image quality, they still deserve a spot in my scrapbooks. I often don't have the exact year or much of any journaling to go with the earliest ones, but look at that little girl! That's me! It's part of my story.

So I end the week with some inspiring layouts from the collective. Let's ooh and ahh over all these cute photos of our much younger selves. Thanks for spending the week with me!

Here's me on my first birthday. I love the all the white space and the simplicity of this layout. 

 

Nice saddle shoes! Maybe those will be the next big fashion trend? Another layout by me, Valerie.

 

Deb is such a pro at using numerous patterned papers on one page. 

 

And here's another Birthday celebration. Layout by Deb Duty.

 

Don't forget about Halloween! Isn't Katie the cutest as the Wonder Woman! Love how she did the title on this layout.

 

Less is more on this layout by Kelly Jeppson about how her mom used to make most of her clothes.

 

Christine shares a memorable story about fourth grade. Don't let not having a photo stop you from telling a story.

 

A great multiple photo layout by Jennifer.

 

Don't forget about those sometimes awkward teenage years. Love how Diane worked the strips of paper.

 

This evolution of Diane's hairstyles layout is so inspiring! I wonder if I could find enough photos to try this concept?

Advice for Layouts About Your Childhood

• Don't get hung up on the details. Don't stress if you don't know how old you are or the location of the photo. Don't let anything stop you from scrapping those photos.
• Don't get hung up on picture quality. You can always try scanning the photo and making adjustments with your photo editing software.
• Do try an evolution/comparison type layout like Diane's Mane Event layout above.
• Do try telling a memorable moment without any photos.
• Do have fun creating layouts with your old photos!

More of Us

In keeping with the gallery theme this month, I decided a week of blogging all about us—the scrapbooker—was in order. For me, this is definitely a challenge that needs conquering. I just don't make myself a priority. I think our kids and family will look back through our scrapbooks and really cherish those layouts that include us or are entirely about us. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I am the one behind the camera in my home. I made two goals for myself when scrapping this year: (1) journal more and (2) get in more photos. It's so much more fun and maybe even easier to create layouts about our kids. But this week I challenge you to get in front of the camera and make a layout, or two, or more about yourself. The January gallery and Lisa's Click post on taking self portraits have gotten us off to a great start. I have a lot of prompts, ideas, and inspiration up my sleeve from myself and the collective. 

Let's start with something simple, that some of you may cringe at the thought of talking about: our birthdays, or more specifically—our age. Yes, our kids birthdays are so much more fun, but why not celebrate our own too?

Christa made this fun page about her last year in her thirties.

 

Christine talks about turning 40 and includes maybe the first photo ever taken of her. Layouts with then and now photos are always great.

 

Diane made of list of things to do that matches her age in years.

 

And me, I simply stated a fun little fact about myself on my birthday.

Journaling Prompts for Birthday/Age Related Layouts

1. State the who, what, when, and where of your birthday celebration.
2. Make a list of things to do. Make the list length match your age in years.
3. Make a layout with photos celebrating each decade of your life (20's, 30's, 40's, etc.)
4. Scrap a past birthday and share fun facts about the big things that happened that year.
5. What are you looking forward to/not looking forward to about being a particular age?
6. What was your favorite birthday gift ever?
7. What has been your favorite age and why?
8. Make a layout about your most memorable birthday moment.
9. What is your dessert of choice/favorite cake flavor you like to have on your birthday?
10. Do you have any birthday traditions?

Pretty Paper: Party Time!

Hi Everyone! I'm back today with birthday party decorations made with...patterned paper! Pretty paper can be used for lots of fun party decor like cupcake toppers, banners, favors, frames, and my personal favorite: pinwheels! 

Handmade decorations give birthday parties an extra special, whimsical feel. And guests oooh and ahhhh over anything handmade, no matter how simple. For my daughter's carnival/circus themed party, I browsed etsy for ideas, googled tutorials, and made all my own decorations lickity split. My friends thought I spent days on things that took a few hours.

 

I decorated a frame of the birthday girl with paper and a fabric bunting (which could also be made from paper!):

 

 

And made some paper pinwheels which I secured with brads and hot glued to dowels to use as centerpieces:

 

 

Jennie also made some beautiful pinwheel party decorations:

 

 

 

Valerie made some gorgeous cupcake toppers with pretty paper:

 

 

And a matching birthday banner that could not be cuter or more festive:

 

 

Party favors like these cute butterflies add a special touch to goody bags:

 

 

Finally, pretty paper can even be used to make a handmade gift for the birthday girl or boy. I altered this Jenga game by mod podging patterned paper to the pieces, and then hand writing numbers on each piece to create a fun addition and subtraction game for my oldest daughter.

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure you come back tomorrow for an awesome giveaway:  Studio Calico has generously sponsored a giveaway featuring their gorgeous Darling Dear line! Trust me, you don't wanna miss it!

Home Decor featuring The Twinery

All this week, our write.click.scrapbook. members will be showcasing projects, layouts, cards and altered items featuring baker's twine from The Twinery. I've had a sneak at what will be featured and you're going to love it all! 

 Hi, I'm Monika and today Kelly and I will be your hosts. You'll be seeing some amazing projects all this week from other write. click. scrapbook. team members all using baker's twine...a trend that has quickly become a go-to item for crafters, scrapbookers and card makers.

 

HOME DECOR

With the 22 colors of baker's twine available from The Twinery, it's not difficult to find a shade that coordinates perfectly with your home decor. Here, Kelly Jeppson has embellished a soup can with pencils, burlap, a book page flower and Mandarin baker's twine to add an extra splash of color. She also used a bit of Stone on the button.

 

As The Twinery adds new colors to their inventory, I add a new styrofoam covered twine ball to my vase. Looks like I need to add a few more balls and get a larger vase! Sometimes I display it in my studio and other times I move it into the family room for a pop of color. Either way, it makes me smile.

Here's the super-sized version, where I used Carribean and Marigold. It helped that I began with a styrofoam ball form, but be prepared to put a dent into your baker's twine collection with this project.

 

This is one of my newest projects and I kinda sorta have a crush on it. I wrapped bendable wire with Strawberry twine and added it to a painted canvas to inspire me in my studio. You can see my tutorial here.

LAYOUTS

Kelly also embellished this layout highlighting the fun birthday Luau for her daughter with a rainbow of baker's twine from The Twinery. I spy Pink Sorbet, Lilac, Honeydew, Mandarin and Denim. The pom pom's are just adorable and add such a festive flair.

For this layout about our youngest daughter's first days of Kindergarten last year, I used Cappuccino baker's twine to serve as lines for my journaling and to embellish the die cut.

AND ONE MORE

I adore how Kelly used the burlap scraps from her vase project and designed a rosette flower hair clip for her darling daughter.

Looking forward to a fun week and a super awesome give.away.day. on Thursday!

 

write. click. scrapbook. is pleased to have had the opportunity to team up with The Twinery in creating our projects this week. Connect with The Twinery on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Flickr. 

The Twinery's twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, their baker's twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! Baker's twine from The Twinery comes in 22 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! And all that color lends to a fun, candy-striped look.

PREPPING FOR A GOOD YEAR day five: birthdays

Funny thing, birthdays. They come once a year. On a specific day. Bringing with it a specific age. (For most, that is. Mine hasn't moved in a long while. Do you think I need to bump up to 35 this year instead of my usual 29? Nigel is going to be 14 which makes me think that 29n needs to become 35b. Oh, how that math is keeping me honest'ish!) Coming once a year means you can count on them (for better or worse), which makes birthdays prime candidates for pre-planned pages!!

This year, if all goes well, we will celebrate 5 in house birthdays. We sometimes travel to family for a birthday or two, but this week is about planning for scheduled events, which means I am going to ignore the potentials, and stick with the for certains.

Let's get starting planning our layouts.

 

COLOR

Each child in our family has a fabric birthday banner. A few years back I was inspired by Pottery Barn's fabric birthday banner, so I made one for each of my girls. Then Nigel asked for one, too, so he didn't feel like a second rate citizen (hahaha! hard to be 6 years older than a princess or two!). Their banners come out every year the night before their birthdays and then stay for the week. Poppy's is purple, Lavender's pink, and Nigel's blue, green, and grey.

Last year, we added a personalized poster for each child. It stood next to their gifts on the table, and now sits atop their shelf in their bedroom. Here are the girls' posters.

You can see that the colors match their banners, which means the color palette for their party decor is well set!

 

DESIGN

My littles still have parties, with 5ish friends that come help celebrate. They have already picked their themes and activities which will help me know what to expect for their layouts. Further, I usually try to get a horizontal group shot, and then vertical individuals of each of the party goers. I will see if I can fit everything on one page, but realize I may have to venture into the two page layout category.

Nigel hasn't done an official party for a couple of years. Instead, he opts to take a friend to the movies. And now that phones have cameras I can get a picture while we are there. (He is much less bothered by my snapping a phone pic than hauling out my big camera.) His layout will just need room for one phone photo which means it will be more square than usual.

Richard's party will be a family affair with dinner, presents, and cake. His photos will include a food shot, a cake shot, and then some present-opening photos. These are the highlights for his birthday. A few years ago, I realized that I wasn't very good at buying him presents, so I began a new tradition of thematic gifts. His presents are small, low-budget, and must fit within the theme. The first was "As Seen On TV." Others have included "Go Go Kitchen Gadgets," "Dinner & a Movie," and the least successful, "Welcome to Hollywood" (which was tooth whitening and sunglasses!). Knowing that the presents play a fun part of the day, I am going to plan for a five photo layout: four presents, and a kids n' dad photo. I will let the food/cake shots be their own layout.

I am not a big center of attention girl, so my party will be a family dinner of grilled steak and seasoned potatoes. With a gluten free brownie for dessert. (Oh, how I miss my baked goods... sigh... ) My gifts are homemade cards and a Yagoot gift card (my froyo of choice). There are only so many Yagoot layouts a girl can make, so my birthday layout will just need room for a picture of the meal and my family.

 

LAYOUTS

The Birthday Person

The first three layouts that I put together will incorporate the subway art and a vertical birthday photo. My kids each have their own books, so I went ahead and made them each the same. Even if they all went in one book, they would be separated by a month each, so that they are the same isn't too crazy, right? I left the layouts relatively plain as the subway art has lots to read and lots of different fonts.

The Birthday Celebrations

Now, we need some birthday celebration layouts! Remembering all the planning details, let's put together some layouts. In order of appearance on the calendar...

And with that, all our birthdays will be recorded on time and in cute ways!! Who knew I had it in me??

 

I hope that you have had a fantastic week. I have appreciated you comments and your input. Hopefully you have gained a new strategy for completing some of those pages that we know we can count on year after year.

Additionally, I have long understood that organization in my home frees my spirit. This week I learned that the same is true of my scrapbooks. Fear of event layouts has a way of weighing down my spirit and causing me to hide from my photos. But with all that we have accomplished this week, I feel fulfilled and ready for all those layouts that I love to make! Please tell me if your experience is the same.

I hope you have a wonderful autumn. Amy will be here tomorrow for some journaling love and Francine will be here Monday to start a new week!! Thank you, dear friends and readers, for stopping by!

You say it's your birthday...

...it's my birthday, too! Yes, today is my birthday and I have the grey hair & wrinkles to prove it! Let's just say I'm old as the hills and leave it at that. I'm sure I'll be getting an email from fellow team member, Paula Gilarde, rubbing it in that I'm older than her (her birthday is in two weeks and we were born in the same year! LOL)

Since it's my birthday, I thought I'd share a couple birthday themed pages and of course what would a birthday be without a little gift? 

First up, my good friend Jennifer Hignite, created this fabulous birthday page. The banners give it such a festive feel and I love that she included two photos, one from each party. That's like scrapping two events at once! Go Jennifer!

I rarely get to scrap with pink. How thrilled was I when my son invited two girls to his birthday party and insisted on Pinkberry instead of cake?  Pink is a little non-traditional for a boy page, but so is not having cake so I went with it!

Both of these layouts use the fabulous kit, Sprinkles on Top by one of my favorite digital designers, Robyn Meierotto. I love how she takes a theme and is able to make it really contemporary while still providing elements that will reinforce the theme. Paper scrappers might know some of Robyn's designs as she has designed a few lines for My Mind's Eye. Be sure to check out her store and her blog for more inspiration!

 

Amazing Robyn has generously offered a $5 gift card to her store for one lucky write.click.scrapbook reader. Simply comment on this post, let me know what month your birthday is in and you'll be entered to win! I'll pull a winner this evening, so check back later.

Until next time, happy scrappin'...

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!

 

Lisa Likes Lists

For June's In Review post, Marnie put together a super good Gallery Walk that showed 25 journaling ideas, 25 photo ideas and 26 design ideas! I tell ya, if you haven´t checked it out yet you just have to!

So, when I planned my second summertime post I wanted to take advantage of those ideas in some way. I have made 3 layouts where I have used one journaling idea and 1 design idea from Marnie's lists.

 

Journaling #20 + Design #16

The first one is number 20 on the list of journaling ideas is "something that made me happy today was…" and number 16 on the design idea list was "use your washi tape for journaling strips." I listed a few things I was happy about that day and printed the list out on my computer, then cut it up to strips. On my background paper I layered my tape and just simply added the journaling strips to the tape!

 

Journaling #06 + Design #09

The second page is number 6 on the journaling list (how I celebrated my birthdays as a child). Since my grandmother passed away earlier this year we have been going through her things and we got to take the photos we wanted from her (big) collection. I had seen a few of these photos of my first birthday before but as I went through the boxes I collected a whole series of them; from the cake preparations to the photo of everyone wipeing me of after me grabbing the cake. I also used design idea number 9 (try layering your photo mattes, tipping each layer slightly askew).  

Journaling #14 + Design #11

On the third layout I used journaling idea number 14, to record something that is ending. I chose to journal my feelings about my daughter growing up and starting a new chapter as she begins junior high. I paired this with design idea is number 11, and layered my letter stickers onto of my photo.

It was super helpful to have that list of ideas when I planned the pages! I hope you will give it a try!

click.

Welcome! For our photography challenges, we are going to look to this month's gallery to find three different photography subjects.

1. Snapshots

The first tip I want to give when it comes to snapshots is clearly to have your camera out and ready at all times. I don't have small kids, but even if you do just keep your camera on a higher counter or shelf. Just to have it ready when you need it.

The next tip is that it is okay to do properly compose a "snapshot," too. It still is a snapshot, even if you make some adjustments. For example, try to not shot against the sun or a window if you are inside, because you will probably just end up with a shadow as your subject. Just take a few steps in either direction so that you have a better angle.

Lastly, while zooming in close has its benefits, sometimes, the surroundings help tell a bit of the story as well! Look for it for perspective and context.

layout by Christa

 

As you look to take some snapshots, consider following Celeste's lead and take a quick snap of each of your family members. Then don't forget to put the pics on a layout!!

 

2. Celebrations

Parties, and other celebrations are fun to photograph. For me, this mostly happens around birthdays.A new favorite thing to do is to take a photo through someone else's viewfinder like the photo above. I have done this at weddings too. It gives another perspective!

 

When you want to take photos of someone blowing out candles, be ready both before and after the candles are out, something like this can happen :)  My daughter's cousin thought she was too slow so he leaned in and blew out her candle!

Also try to look around the room, there is always something going on while people wait to see the birthday child open presents etc. There can be lots of emotions. Look for them.

 

Go backstage. I mean when at a party sneak into the kitchen to see the preparations and also catch the details from the party. My example above is from my sister's 40th birthday party. We joked about her having so many candles she had to have two cakes! So I made sure I took a picture of those candles.

 

And when you scrapbook those celebration photos and can't decide on which photos to include, just make a mosaic. Just look at how many photos I could use in this layout!

 

I like to have my camera set to take sequences. It's very helpful at parties. As you can see from my layout, I wanted to catch my daughter's expression when she opened her gift and then when she saw what she got!

 

Our new team member Valerie O´Neall shares this fun birthday layout. I love that she cut her photos into circles! 

3. Pets

Pets are much like kids; they move around a lot! I have had some practice photographing pets since we have so many :) I like to follow them around with my camera and take photos of them in the different places they end up playing or resting. While my pets are now used to me having that big camera in front of my face, the first night Dixon (our lab) spent the night at our house, I wanted to take a close up of him while he slept. He woke up with this big lens in his face, got scared and barked at me so loudly I think I might peed my pants :) He is totally used to it now though!

I have so much fun taking photos of them doing what they love to do. Outside it is pretty easy to capture them even when they are moving around because the light is mostly good.

 

Inside I almost never use my flash. I just sit my camera on something, like a table or something so that the image doesn´t get too blurry. If they still get blurry I turn them black and white :)

And having scrapbook pages in your album about your pets is so much fun!

Thanks for stopping by! Here are your challenges. We would love to see your photos and layouts!