Write. Click. Scrapbook.

scrapbook!

Welcome to our May edition of scrapbook! Saturday. I am having a wonderful month here at write. click. scrapbook. How about you?

This month's gallery is a favorite of mine. I love the reminder to take time to scrapbook our daily moments. Those times in between the events that used to dominate our scrapbooks. I hope that you have felt inspired, too.

For our three scrapbook! challenges we are going to go back to our May gallery, Everydaily III, and find three inspiration pieces. Ready?

 

THE SKETCH

This month, Diane created a sketch based upon Amy's layout, Everyday He, in our Everydaily gallery.

 

Here is her sketch.

I love the tags and the details and that it has matching photos. I couldn't wait to use it. But first, let's look and see how two of my teammates took it on.

 

Jennie's layout chronicles her yummy doggy. She stuck closely to the sketch, but switched her journaling box to one sized more like the tags on the side. I love the little red sequins. Mmm.

 

Diane's layout is going to make you smile!! Her choosing a faux corkboard was so smart. And the pearl tops look just like push pins. Genius! 

This makes my heart happy. The happy smiles and mugging for the selfies are too too fun!!!

 

And here is mine. I turned the photos on their side and then had to take out the title bar. I very lazily left Diane's shapes along the right hand side. (I love when sketches work so well!)

Thank you, Diane, for the sketch this month! If you would like to download a layered template you may do so here. Please leave us a comment if you take a turn with the sketch so that we might see your good works!

 

ROYGBIV

This month the color palette

is based upon Christine's layout, Love to Run.

With all those luscious pinks, I couldn't resist. Here is what I came up with.

I know the pink is bright and central, but the other four colors are there. And helps to take a bit of pep out of the peptol bismol bright!!

 

I can't wait to see what you do with this palette. There are so many ways to go with it. I'm looking forward to seeing yours.

 

TRENDING

This month nearly every layout in the gallery has a color photo. Well, except mine. So I thought perhaps I should join in! 

And while we were doing color, I thought I would go for broke with a color filled background paper, too!

 

That's it! I am so happy that you stopped by and that we could work on some layouts together. I hope that you feel inspired by our gallery and that you will enjoy the colors, designs, and trends you find there!

Enjoy your day!

And don't forget to let me know if you make a layout or two!

scrapbook!

This is one my favorite times of year. Breaking out of the winter doldrums, and seeing the sunshine would be joy enough.  But it is also a time of peaceful interlude for school, sports, and family. A status quo month with few changes and few hiccups in the schedule. Which is a good equation for getting to scrapbook. And this month I have been so inspired by all the mini albums. I have lists of new journaling thoughts for layouts, and new colors schemes, and new design ideas. Looking through the minis also gave me some ideas for taking photo series. Oooh, I love percolating creativity!!

 

For our scrapbook! Saturday, we have our favorite three offerings: a sketch, a color palette, and a trend watch. Three more ways to inspire you and help move you to scrapbook.

 

THE SKETCH

This month, Diane created a sketch

based upon Amy's beautiful layout from her blogging week last month.

And look what our amazing team did with it.

 

Celeste stuck true to the sketch cleverly making a digital title that mimics a cut file. Celeste always has such nifty ways to incorporate trends whilst sticking true to her style.

 

Lisa made a vertical rectangle layout substituting one of the photos for a journaling card. I like how she striped the washi tape and stamped over the edges of the tags.

 

Monika also put a lovely and spring-y layout together. She added a matte around the sketch, and dropped one of her photos down. A fun twist on the sketch for certain.

If you would like to download a layered template you may do so here! Please leave us a comment if you take a turn with the sketch so that we might see your good works!

 

ROYGBIV

This month the color palette

is based upon Deb's mini album cover.

Doesn't it feel so current and trendy? I couldn't wait to use it on a layout! I have had these pictures waiting for something soft and light and black and this set of five colors was absolutely perfect!

I used the same kit that I used for my mini this past week. Being digital means I can use the color balance to match the colors on the palette. Teehee. So sneaky!

Did you notice that Deb and I used nearly the same arrow? Love that. Great minds, and all that... :)

TRENDING

This month I noticed many cut elements in our mini albums. There are lacy doilies, cut files, and laser cut wooden veneers. They remind me of acrylic chairs: add just what you need without adding visual clutter. I was excited to try my hand with some digitally created cut elements. (I know, I know, I could just use my Cricut, but I'm out of adhesive... :) ) I did the title and then decided it was the perfect thing.

I hope that you have had a fun Saturday! Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see your layouts when you are done!! 

How About Using Up Some Cardstock?

 

Cardstock is something I can never get enough of. I spent years collecting it in every color imaginable, only now I tend to use more neutral backgrounds like kraft, white, black and vanilla. What should you do with all those colors? Let's see what we can come up with.

I usually stay away from super bright colors, but when I got this bright orange cardstock in a kit, I just had to use it. I created a mask and used some white spray mist to tone it down a bit, and I was really happy with the result.

 

I also love using Core'dinations Cardstock, because of the different colored core.  It enables you to get so many different looks.  This one I placed a heart cut out under the Core'dinations and sanded it, then cut out patterned paper to fill it up.

For this next layout, I used mostly cardstock as my embellishments and only a few strips of patterned paper.

I cut several phrases using my Cameo, then made the snowflakes using a punch.

Another fun way to use up some of that cardstock is to make cards.  Here is one I made out of cardstock and stamps.

The very talented Christine sent along a few of her "cardstock only" creations.  How fabulous are these cards?

Hope this gives you a few ideas for using up that cardstock. Don't forget about the challenge to take home a $35 gift gertificate to Chic Tags.

Welcome to "Use Your Stash" Week

Hey everyone, I am so happy to be here this week to help us use all that scrapbooking stash you have laying around.  With all the CHA goodies coming out, I'm sure you're quite tempted to reach for your wallet and load up on new supplies, but how about we try and make a dent in the stuff we have already purchased?  

I'm starting out the week with a post on organizing your stuff.  For me, I totally forget what I have unless it's out in front of me.  I try to keep myself organized so that I actually use those gorgeous products that I purchase.  Here is a little peek into my scrap space.

 

I usually purchase kits, instead of individual supplies.  I found that this helps me to actually use all my supplies before purchasing more.  I keep my kits together in the drawers under my desk so they're easy to grab and use. When my kit is almost used up, I move my embellishments into these small baskets on my desk.

 

These baskets hold my journaling supplies and embellishments, so they are right at my fingertips. I try to go through these baskets every few months and clean them out.  I always have a box for donating supplies handy.  

 

Christine also sent some pictures of her very organized space.  She said she's a firm believer in open storage so that she can see what she has and use it. She also keeps her most often used items near her work table so that seh has easy access to them. Both help her to use her stash!

How about a challenge to get our week started off?  You have until Friday, Feb 22 at midnight, and I'll pick a lucky number.  What's the challenge?

Use at least 3 older products to create a project of your choice tag, card, layout, mini, whatever you'd like and link us up to your project in the comments.

What will you get? How about a GC to Chic Tags? They have a great selection of tags and flair for you to pick from. The person chosen will get a $35 GC to spend on whatever they'd like.

Now, let's use up that stash to make room for more!!

scrapbook!

This month is flying by. I can't believe it is scrapbook! Saturday already. Do you ever have months like that? Where you go to put your memory card into the computer to download a few days worth of photos and then see that it has been a month since you last did?! A month! Holy guacamole! When this happens to me, I try to breathe deeply, and then sit down and breathe some more. 

And once I have my feet under me again, I go looking for three excuses to scrapbook some of those photos. Three excuses named sketch, ROYGBIV, and trending.

 

1. Sketch

This month our resident sketch artist, Diane, created a sketch

based upon Paula's February layout.

 

This sketch is a perfect starting point for a layout. There is plenty of room for lots of journaling like Amy did...

 

... or cut the arrow into smaller sections like Francine did...

... or you could layer all sorts of papers below and above it as I did.

 

You can download the sketch here! I can't wait to see what you do with it. Please leave us a comment with a link to your layout when you are done so that we can see it!

 

2. ROYGBIV

This month our color palette 

comes from Francine's February layout.

 

I loved the rich but bright tones. I'm not usually one for brown, black seems to trump, but I was so drawn to this blue-ish hue of brown, that it had to be my starting point.

 

Here is my layout. You'll notice that it doesn't much look like Francine's colors, but they are all there.

I made one of Janna Werner's layouts into a sketch and then used it for my design. I really wanted to get a layout done, but couldn't seem to get one done without help. And she is the definition of talent so I thought she would make it easier. And it did. Her design let the colors and my photos shine. Which makes for a perfect layout in my book.

I hope you will put your own layout together using our new five color palette!

 

3. Trending

In our gallery this month there are twelve layouts that have small white border around their photos. Back before I went digital and starting printing at home, I used to have the photo lab print them that way. It feels right to me. I love that so many have joined me in my opinion.

 

Best of all, it's my third excuse for a layout.

 

Thank you for stopping by to see us today! I always appreciate your visits. Please feel free to jump in and play along with any of our three challenges. I truly love to see how you are inspired!

scrapbook!

Hello! Welcome to Scrapbook! Saturday. I am so happy to be here with you today. Didn't you think this month's gallery was amazing? I loved reading the little bits of advice, the life lessons, and the resolutions. As I made notes of pages I wanted to make, I found my journaling list was long. It's not that I wasn't inspired by the design or products on the pages, I was just so beguiled by the words, that I failed to note the rest. Does this happen to you sometimes, too?

Even though the stories were the first notice, going back through with an eye on design I was glad that I had taken the time, as there is much to love there, too! I run through life so quickly, that I often forget to truly pay attention. Similarly, it is easy  to click through the gallery without actually absorbing anything. But when I sit down and look, really look, I find all sorts of treasures that I might have missed. Let's get started and see what we can find.

SKETCH

First up is our sketch. Looking to Jennifer's January gallery layout,

Diane created this sketch for us:

 

And look at how well our team made use of it. 

 

Amy followed the sketch closely, and made great use of a beautiful photo as a background.

 

Jennie swapped the journaling block for some spotted vellum. A lovely part of sketches is their flexibility.

 

LisaO has all the elements but shuffled them around a bit.

 

Aliza's page is not for the faint of heart! I love how she shortened the lower strip, making it even with the title's edge. Don't you think it transforms the sketch into something new?

I stuck closely to the sketch, but deleted a couple of embellishments, and stretched my photos into rectangles as my photos weren't cropable. (Is that even a word??!!)

 

Lastly, we have Diane's lovely layout. Do you see the sketch in it? She told me that she began with the sketch, but once the photos came into play it took on a life of its own. Don't you love when that happens? The sketch gets you started and then creative lightning strikes and suddenly you have a wonderful layout sitting in front of you. Just like that!

 You may download the layered template here. Enjoy!

 

ROYGBIV

Take a moment and pop on over to the gallery and see if there is a color scheme that appeals to you. There are five kraft layouts, ten with white backgrounds, and a handful with prominent patterned paper. Have you a preference?

Looking for an entire palette, I was drawn to Jennie's layout from our Note to Self gallery.

With its soft muted hues, I just knew it would make a lovely color scheme for us this month.

I used it on a layout celebrating an exhibit I saw this past week featuring Aurora Robson. (Be sure to stop by her site. Her work is amazing!) Her work was all in white with a white window behind it, so the light papers were the perfect backdrop.

I hope that you will find these shades as useful as I have!

 

TRENDING

This month we have three equally outstanding trends: arrows, tags and labels. I spotted 11 layouts with arrows, 12 with tags, and 10 with labels. How about you? have you been using them lately, too? Should we check? I'll wait if you want to go find the last layout you made so you can see...

Did you find some? I did...

Alright, maybe I just made it...  I had fun adding in all three elements. I hope you will have fun, too!

 

Thank you, for joining me today! What a great week. With Christa's ideas for getting our men into our scrapbooks and with all the CHA sneak peaks, this week couldn't have been better. Thank you for letting me highlight some inspiration from our gallery, and thank you Diane, for putting our sketch together! Can't wait to see you all back tomorrow!

scrapbook!

Hi! It's Marnie, also known as shopper, wrapper, baker, and general holiday elf. In all the excitement of the season, it's sometimes so hard to find/take time to scrapbook. But sometimes taking just a moment away makes all the difference. And gets a page done, which is a perfect holiday gift to ourselves!

Today we have three ideas to help you get a photo and memory preserved.

 

SKETCH

This month's sketch comes from Katie's layout in our December gallery. 

Diane created a sketch for us based upon Katie's layout.

If you prefer, she also created a layered downloadable template that's available here.

 

Diane used the sketch to create a wonderful layout. We did a secret Santa exchange and she got a box of washi tape! How fun, right? It didn't take her long to dig right in and put it to good use!

I love everything about this layout. With such lovely and fun photos as a starting place, the horizontal lines create a terrific backdrop. And Diane's layout truly proves that you don't need traditional colors for a lovely holiday page.

 

When I went looking for a tall rectangle and a square photo, I found two in the Christmas batch from last year. I thought Crystal's funky Christmas kit was the perfect place to start for colors and embellishements. I quite like the result. Thank you, Katie, for a terrific starting place!

If you would like a layered template, all ready for a quick layout, just click here!

 

ROGYBIV

This month for our color palette, I was hoping or something with a bit of holiday mixed in with a bit of winter and I found just what I wanted in Sarah's layout.

Doesn't it look lovely with its grey skies, chilly blues, and berries?

I couldn't wait to see it on paper...

 

 

TRENDING

This month our gallery has 17 layouts that showcase photographs with relationships. Looking through, I saw moms and sons, fathers and sons. I saw moms and daughters. Siblings. Families. And love. So much love. This month I thought our third prompt would be to find a photo that showcases the love in a relationship. 

Here is mine. Thank you for giving me a reason to put it together.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope that you can put the sketch, the color palette, and the phototrend to use on a layout or three!

In Review

Hello and welcome to our final September Saturday! We have had a wonderful month here and hope that you have had as well. While we love our Summertime Dailies, our week long author weeks are near and dear to our hearts, and this month has been spectacular! Marnie got us off to a good start with a week of preparations for a "new year." Then Francine provided us all with a much appreciated photography skills week. Monika spearheaded an inspirational week demonstrating the many uses of twine which lead us right into this technique week filled with Kathy's amazing talents, hints, and suggestions.

And as if that wasn't enough, we had our Saturday workshop challenges. Did you practice adding in details as per Amy's helpful article? Or maybe you were inspired by Lisa's monthly photo challenge? You still have a couple of days before the calendar changes to put together a plan for the month of October... Lastly, Marnie brought you three more page starters, with a sketch, a color combo, and a design trend.

It really has been an incredible, information-packed, inspiration-filled month.

Before we welcome October, as with each month's end, today we are taking one last walk back through our gallery. Let's look back at Looking Back!

 

This month we are going to maintain our lists, but with a twist. Using our gallery layouts, we've put together three lists of ten things we can try on our layouts.

1. make a list of things that you mightn't have expected from your life Diane
2. find a childhood photo and let your mind wander. spend 10 minutes recording memories. Vivian
3. write about something that affected you greatly Celeste
4. find a childhood photo. write down the thing that first comes to mind. Deb
5. relate the story of a skill that was acquired Erin
6. find a then and now photo pairing and record the changes Christa
7. write about a recent event as if it had happened longer before. see how (if) your perspective changes. Alexandra
8. record things about your older children that their younger selves would have loved Amy
9. compare and contrast a photo from now with a photo taken on the exact day two years earlier. Marnie
10. document your ongoing (or everchanging!) food loves Francine

 

1. use a now and a then photo Francine
2. find an photo that you haven't scrapped that shows a snippet of real life Emily
3. gather a selection of photos that span a year and use them all on one layout Jennifer
4. use a photo more than 15 years old Monika
5. find friends who have shown up in photos over the years. put the photos all on one layout. Paula
6. enlarge a closeup photograph Teka
7. find a photo from the same day two years earlier. use both on one layout. Marnie
8. ask your parents for a photo of you as a child with your grandparent(s) Kelly
9. go take a photo of a place you used to live/visit/spend time (even if it doesn't look the same) Katie
10. take a photo of your rearview mirror or side mirror to help emphasize a reflective layout Diane

 

1. use a graphic element three times in varying proportion Katie
2. mask and mist Valerie
3. punch an element out of your patterned paper and then use the punched piece elsewhere on the layout Lisa
4. use patterned paper that helps tell the story of your layout Kathy
5. use a calender element on a page about change Christa
6. use varying shades of the same color Sarah
7. try out a new size Alexandra
8. trim your photos and papers in varying sizes of the same shape Jennifer
9. keep all your page elements in a central column Teka
10. use two primary colors and one secondary Deb

 

30 more reasons to scrapbook!! And to help you create some fun pages we have a new printable for you that accompanies our theme of Looking Back.

You may download it here. And for extra points, see if you can name the tv show that inspired the 90s tag!

Have a terrific weekend and we will see you back Monday for our brand new gallery!

Schoolwork Layouts

School Memories

I am guessing that many of you, like me, have sent children back to school in recent weeks (or are getting ready to do so very soon). While I am always happy to have the routine of the school year back in place, the school year brings on another challenge - how to preserve and record those school memories. Enter today's blog post, complete with two different challenges that will (hopefully!) help all of us document more of those school memories.

Challenge #1: Scrap an Assignment

I must admit that I don't have a great system for preserving school-related papers. A few years back I set up file folders for each of my kids for each grade, with folders for schoolwork, report cards and awards, class newsletters and information, school photos, and art and writing they produce at home during that school year. Everything is shoved in folders and collecting dust.

Whatever your system is for keeping school papers, grab one and turn it into a layout. Yes, I know it's not a photo, but if you know me, I am a fan of photoless layouts, or layouts where a photo is an embellishment, rather than the focal point. You can either use the actual piece of work or can scan and print it at a reduced size. This is an even more fun challenge if you go back a few years (if your kids are old enough) and find something that catches your eye. Then walk down memory lane.

I did this recently, pulling a particularly funny piece of work my son completed in 2nd grade (he just started 5th grade this week). I scanned and printed the assignment to fit on my layout and embellished it with a small photo of my son taken the same month the assignment was completed:

Christa Paustenbaugh created a layout featuring an assignment her daughter completed, one that she and her husband found especially funny:

Hopefully, after you pull an older assignment and walk down memory lane, you will be newly inspired as the papers come through the door this year and will be ready to preserve some of the best, worst, and funniest work your kids bring home.

Challenge #2: No Photo and No Assignment? No Problem!

There are times when something great happens at school but there's nothing tangible to prove it. It might be a field trip your child went on. It might be an afterschool activity you never captured on film, or, as Jenny Larson shows us, it might be a gift your child has.

Jenny's son brought home a photo, but it was lost. It was important to Jenny to document this story anyway so she simply chose a photo of her son that matched the playful tenor of her story:

Here's a closer look at Jenny's journaling:

Choose something that happened at school - a class activity, a field trip, something funny a teacher said, etc. - and document it even if you don't have a photo or an assignment to put on the layout. Do as Jenny did and choose a photo that matches the mood of your journaling or go photoless and have fun with embellishments instead.

We hope that you will be inspired by one (or both!) of these challenges and will get more of those school memories down on paper.

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!