Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Pretty Paper: Patterned Paper's Plethora of Purposes

Hi All! Katie Ehmann here with you for a week filled with the beautiful, the versatile, the jack-of-all-trades, the mother of all scrapbook supplies--patterned paper! Pretty paper is what sucked me into this hobby, and it keeps my creative mojo on its toes with its never ending patterns and multitude of uses. I'm pretty sure I have over one billion sheets of patterned paper, each one prettier than the next. Here's what is on the docket for the week:

 

• Monday: Scrapbook Layouts made with 99.9% paper
• Tuesday: Home Decor
• Wednesday: Party Fun
• Thursday: Giveaway Day (!!!) Featuring the gorgeous Darling Dear line from Studio Calico
• Friday: Holiday Trimmings

 

 

So, let's jump in, shall we? Patterned paper is often a key ingredient in the recipe of a well crafted layout. It works as a layer, a graphic element, an embellishment, a journaling spot, a title, or an overall complement to that perfect photo. More often than not, I begin my layouts by weeding through my billion-paper stacks and choosing a few pretty papers that work with my photo. I'll then select some embellishments, arrange everything on my page, add a title, some journaling, and I'm good to go. For this week, however, I decided to challenge myself to create some layouts that used 99.9% patterned paper--as backgrounds, as embellishments, and as titles. And I got some of my talented WCS teammates to play along!

 

Punches and Shapes

 

For this layout I cut strips of paper and weaved them together to create a unique patterned paper background. I embellished with more patterned paper punched into stars, and added a title. Hidden journaling is tucked behind my photo. Using foam adhesive can help turn paper into a dimensional element on your page. Using a die-cutting machine, like the Silhouette Cameo, can quickly turn paper or cardstock into a title.

 

 

I broke out my star punches and foam adhesive on this Halloween layout as well. This time I used the stars and the negatives to add even more interest.  

 

 

 

Emily S. used punches and negatives on her layout, "Daddy Kisses." And could the photo be any cuter? Seriously!

 

 

Paper Strips

 

For the next layout, I used the cut-off strips from the bottoms of 12x12 patterned paper and adhered them in a striped pattern on grey cardstock. I added my brief journaling to one of the strips, added a small button and a die cut shape, and called it good. Super simple, but a fun way to show off this instagram pic from last Thanksgiving. Plus I used those strips that I'd otherwise have tossed in the trash.

 

 

 

I also used left over strips for this layout, but these were created when I used an edge punch to make some confetti. They were so pretty I couldn't bear to throw them away, so I glued them down, added some stars punched from vellum and more paper, cut a title, and again hid my journaling behind my photo.

 

 

 

 

Emily S. also rocked the patterned paper strips in this layout:

 

 

 

 

 

Blocks and Layers

 

Patterned paper can also be used in blocks or in layers on a layout to give it a clean, graphic feel. Deb's layouts use blocks and strips of paper to complement her photos beautifully. I love her bold, graphic, signature style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily S. showcased patterned paper on these layouts by also choosing big blocks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on this layout by using smaller squares:

 

 

 

 

Amy used smaller, more organically shaped patterned paper pieces on her layout. I love how she used the twine to "tie-in" her title!

 

 

 

Thanks for joining me today! Have you made layouts with 99.9% patterned paper? Leave me a comment and tell me about it! I hope you'll be back each day this week for more pretty paper projects!

 

Thanksgiving Week

We hope that you are enjoying Thanksgiving prep week! With only a week to go, we hope you are finding inspiration and looking forward to your own festivities.

 

On Tuesday, one of finest readers, Sue, left us a comment telling us about an album she made last year from her family's gratitude lists. We loved the idea and wanted to help all of you to make something so wonderful. So Marnie put together a printable for you. It is a 4x6 card with room for a photo and journaling.

First, download the printable. (You may download it here.) We put three on a page to make it easy for you!

Next, print as many as you will need for all your guests. Trim them apart and have them ready for everyone. The grey rectangle is 2x3 and is waiting for a photo, so be sure to ask everyone to smile!

Once you have collected your cards, you can spiffy them up or leave them plain. Once you add a cover, you will have a wonderful memory album!

And, if your family happens to be apart, no worries! Each household could download a page, fill it out, and then send to the designated assembler!

 

Next up, we have an album that will be a Gratitude-In-Pictures album. We put together a set of photo overlays for you that will fit on 4x6 photos. SImply gather photos that fit the themes and then cut and paste the overlays on top. It's a quick and easy way to put together a gratitude mini of another kind.

You may download the overlays here. This is how they will look. (Your photo will take the place of the brown background.) 

 

Marnie put together a few pages for her album to give you an idea of how it will look on your photos.

 

We hope you enjoy these ideas for putting together a shared album and a picture album! We would love to hear if you enjoy them! Thank you! See you for our final day tomorrow!

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!

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!

write.

"We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing."

That idea comes from one of my favorite books about writing, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I think it applies to all kinds of writing, even scrapbook journaling, because honesty and openness are qualities that create good writing. Coming to love the details—including lots of specific ones—does, too, and that’s our topic today: getting the details into the stories you tell.

Details make your journaling come alive because they give the reader something specific to imagine. They give us a place to attach our senses, making the reading experience that much more vivid.

What do I mean by "details"? I mean getting the specifics down, and using the word that comes closest to capturing the true meaning of what you want to say. It means including words that appeal to the things we can experience with our bodies—the way a thing tastes, for example; not just good watermelon, but juicy watermelon, or sweet, or ice-cold, or even watermelon made salty by the sweat on your lip.

Here’s another example of including details. You might write:

We had such a good time when we went out to dinner to celebrate Amanda’s birthday. Good food plus good friends equals a great birthday celebration.

Basic journaling there; it conveys something about the event. But it’s hard for a reader to picture the event until you write with specific details:

We celebrated Amanda’s seventeenth birthday by going to dinner at her favorite little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant, NYCP. Gabby was there, and Sophie and Tyler and of course her boyfriend Chad. Fettuccini Alfredo, garlic bread, and cannolis might not be the traditional way to celebrate, but an evening laughing over good food with awesome friends is perfect.

Sure—the second example is longer. It might take up a little bit more space on your layout. But the details (the name of the restaurant and guests, the food that was eaten, and the year of her birthday) help paint a much more complete picture for the reader.

It really is all in the details!

Inspired by September's gallery, here are some layouts that use details to tell the story more completely.

The journaling on Katie's layout, "Little House," is full of specific details about her grandparents' house: the foods they ate, TV shows they watched, celebrations they had. Her writing makes the little house come alive with memory; it left me itching to write about my own house:

 

In my journaling, I wrote about both what I wish I could change about my house and what I wouldn't change for the world, and about the intersection between house & home. Some of the details I included: the year-to-date count of Christmases we've had in this house (19!), the list of changes I wish I could make, the fact that I planted my daffodil bulbs the year I was pregnant with my daughter and the tidbit that my irises came from my dad. The details give a more complete image of my emotional connection to my house; the types of details you include will always lead back to the emotions you have about your topic.

 Vivan's layout, "A Day to Remember," includes the details about long-ago vacations to the beach when she was a child. The little snippets of story—the sand in the sandwiches, the seaglass collecting, the digging of sand mansions—relate entire summers' worth of simple vacation memories. Her layout made me want to make a layout about my own childhood vacations, but until I can get some photos from my mom I made a layout about a slightly more recent trip:

This is about a family trip to San Diego we took almost six years ago. I took a broad approach to the trip, trying to summarize it all on one layout, but I still used specific details. I wrote about one memorable thing from each place we went to, focusing in on one small piece of a much larger picture. Then, in the narrow journaling space, I wrote the Sorensen-family-favorite "good samich" story, using details like where and when we were eating and the exact menu item that inspired all that cuteness.

Lastly, I was inspired (and touched!) by Celeste's lovely "Here's the Story" layout. She writes about her parents' experiences with cancer and how they have affected her life as well. Medical issues are hard to journal about because they are so wrapped up in how we feel about our loved ones, but they are still important to document. (Even if you only look at it from a medical history perspective.) Using specific details—dates, the name of the diagnosis, the doctors, or the medical facilities—along with the truth behind your response to the experience helps you work around the fear a little bit.

Emily S. shared this layout, about her daughter's early medical experiences:

Her use of the specific names of tests and procedures that were performed helps give us an idea of what was happening, and her response to them helps us see what she learned from what happened.

In this layout by Jennifer:

we read about specific places, medicines, and treatments for her son Rowan's reoccuring bouts of croup. Those details help us imagine the medical situation through Rowan's eyes while others (the toys she brought, the knowledge she gained) give an image of Jennifer's connection.

I finally scrapbooked about my son Kaleb's heart condition, nearly two years after his diagnosis:

The specifics I included were the family history of aortic valve troubles and some statistics about it, as well as the doctor's name, the date of the diagnosis, and his probable prognosis. Even though it likely will never be a problem for him, Kaleb's bicuspid valve makes me anxious, but journaling about it helped me feel like I have a better grasp on the situation.

So! Here are three journaling challenges. Sometime or other during the upcoming week, write some journaling about the following three topics, trying to focus on adding specific, concrete details to the story:

1. Journal about a house
2. Journal about a trip you took at least five years ago
3. Journal about a medical condition or a disease

Notice I didn't challenge you to make a layout—just to write the journaling. Save it somewhere and make a layout when you're ready. And, as always, let us know, we love seeing what you are working on!

Welcome, September!

September is here. This month, not only will the leaves begin to change; so, too, does our format. We hope you enjoyed this year's summertime dailies. A delightful smattering of technique, permissions, and inspirations, our summertime dailies are a carefree schedule for a carefree season.

But school is back in session and so are we! Our weekly author series return beginning Monday. This month, you can look forward to the reading the wit and wonder of Marnie Flores, Francine Clouden, Monika Wright, and Kathy Martin.

They have four weeks of top notch content ready for you--we look forward to seeing you each day as you stop by for some scrapbooking fun and learning. If you haven't already, you may want to consider subscribing to the our feed, then you won't miss a thing! Just click the subscribe button up there and to the right in the grey navigation bar!!

 

A new month always brings a new gallery! And this month, the theme is Looking Back. September seemed the perfect season to look back and document a change, a memory, or something that you hadn't yet. We hope you enjoy our layouts! And now, you have two ways to enjoy the layouts. You may scroll below, or you may click over to the photo album! The layouts will be full size in the photoalbum and the journaling will be available there, too! But now, you may stay right here and get a taste of each layout. We hope that allows you to comment on the projects more easily and to let each designer know how much you appreciate the time and effort they spend to bring you a little artistic love! Enjoy!

 

The More Things Change | Francine Clouden

12x12 | materials patterned paper (October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Crate Paper) + chipboard stickers (October Afternoon) + stickers (Glitz Design, Authentique) + Bingo Card (Jenni Bowlin) + button + spray inks

A Note from Francine
This page documents Kieran’s abiding love for hummus. He is 8 months old in the first photo, and 21 months old in the second. Looking back at the first photo from the perspective of the second is when I first realized how much he had changed from being a baby!

September Fun Fact
I can’t believe I am saying this but I am actually looking forward to cooler autumn days. Not winter though, never winter!

 

 

Little House | Katie Ehmann

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Echo Park, My Mind's Eye, Tim & Beck for Studio Calico, Simple Stories) + embellishments (My Mind's Eye, Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn) + stickers (American Crafts, October Afternoon)

A Note from Katie
I took this photo of my grandparent's old house a few months before it was demolished. I spent much of my childhood visiting this house, and am so grateful that I have these memories documented. I hand cut the big patterned paper heart with pinking shears and then cut it again, flipping the outer heart to make the contrasting border. I used wood veneer hearts as embellishments to tie the theme together.

September Fun Fact
I love September because it is the start of the college football season and I get to watch my alma mater, the University of Michigan Wolverines play in The Big House! There is nothing like cheering them on with over 107,501 screaming fans! Go Blue!

 

 

Looking Back | Diane Payne


12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (October Afternoon, Pebbles Inc.) + embellishments (October Afternoon, A Flair for Buttons, Studio Calico, My Paper Shop, Milky Way Jewelry, Whisker Graphics) + stickers (October Afternoon, Basic Grey)



A Note from Diane

With the theme this month I thought it would be fun to reflect on where I've been since I was a little girl and what I wish I would have done a little differently along the way. I hope this layout will give future generations a better idea of what I find important.


September Fun Fact

When I was a little girl, my parents took us on two week long summer vacations by car. It brings back fond memories for me and is probably why I love road trips so much!

 

 

Remember | Emily Spahn



8.5 x 11 | materials {Gossamer Blue kit}: patterned paper (Echo Park, Pebbles, My Mind’s Eye) + cardstock (Stampin’ Up!) + buttons (October Afternoon) + resin flowers (Prima) + chipboard buttons (My Mind’s Eye) + chipboard alphabet (American Crafts) + twine (October Afternoon) + die cut (October Afternoon) + metal flower (EK Success) + journaling sticker (My Mind’s Eye)>



A Note from Emily

A long time ago I printed out a bunch of 5x7 photos. I don’t know why I love this one so much…something about the “everyday-ness” of it all. It’s even more special now, as our dog in the photo passed away earlier this year. I love recording these simple ordinary memories.






September Fun Fact

September is my favorite month. It’s my birthday month, but I especially love it because it signals the beginning of fall! I can’t wait for sweater weather, football games, changing leaves, and all of the other amazing parts of fall.

 

 

First Father's Day | Valerie O'Neall

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (Sassafras, My Mind's Eye, and Crate Paper) + circle tags (Elle's Studio) + mask and mist (Studio Calico) + alpha stickers (October Afternoon) + stamp (American Crafts Dear Lizzy) + other (buttons, shipping tags, twine, and date stamp)

A Note from Valerie
I don't have a school-age child yet, so I decided on this photo to look back on from my hubby's first Father's Day. I started with a very neutral black and grey color scheme, but a little color ended up finding it's way onto the layout.

September Fun Fact
I'm canning for the first time ever this year. I've had a garden for four(?) years now, but this is the first time I've had enough excess for canning and been brave enough to try it.

 

 

Then - Now | Lisa Ottosson

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (Amy Tangerine) + embellishments (Sweet Shoppe.com Kristin Cronin-Barrow, iloveitall on etsy)

A Note from Lisa
Late August always makes me look back on the year and several years as my daughters birthday is August 31st. This year she turns 13…

I wanted to quickly add that the now and then circles are from a digital kit that is called For the love of: conversation. It was bought at Sweet Shoppe.com.

Also, when I went to look for older photos of Myrra (the dog) and Stina (my daughter) I couldn´t find any although I know we have several. I really wanted to include some of them on this page, so I dug out our old home videos and took screen shots! The photos are terrible of course, but the memories are surely not! The older photos are held in the glassine bag.

September Fun Fact
Right now I am freaking out about officially being a mom of a teenager!

 

 

A Day to Remember | Vivian Masket

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + patterned paper (October Afternoon) + mini-album pages (October Afternoon) + die cuts (October Afternoon) + stickers (October Afternoon) + chipboard (October Afternoon) + pen (Sakura) + font (Typenoksidi) 




A Note from Vivian

Mini-album pages, used as both a journaling spot and patterned paper, helped me to pull this layout together quickly.

September Fun Fact

I created this layout while on vacation at my parents’ house, not far from the beach where this photo was taken.

 

 

Third Grade 2012 | Jennifer Larson

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned paper (Pebbles, October Afternoon) + tags (Elle’s Studio, Studio Calico) + stickers (Pebbles) + floss (DMC) + templates (Bazzill) + pen (Zig)

A Note from Jennifer Larson
I am terribly behind on school photos. Rather than going back over a year to create layouts for each milestone event, I put them all on one page, using a circle ( and many more circles!) to symbolize the year.

September Fun Fact
I teach high school English, and let me tell you, the teachers are just as nervous and excited on day one as the kids are!

 

 

here's the story | Celeste Smith

12 x 12 | materials kit (One Little Bird & Sahlin Studio Worn at The Lilypad) + masks(Robyn Meierotto Cut It Out at Design House Digital) + stitching(Robyn Meierotto In Stitches Neutrals at Design House Digital) + frame (Kitschy Digitals Vintage Photo Frames at Kitschy Digitals)

A Note from Celeste
This is the last photo I have to my mom and dad with me. We weren't much of a photo taking family. I wish I had more! Unfortunately, this story is a little sad. My father is now having chemotherapy and has a long road to travel. We are hoping for the best!

September Fun Fact
My oldest started middle school this year. It's amazing I'm excited and nervous for him all at the same time. Let's hope he catches on to it quickly - he's my forgetful one!

 

 

8 Years | Kathy Martin

12 x 12 | < b>materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + patterned paper (Little Yellow Bicycle) + embellishments (American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, May Arts, Bella Blvd)

A Note from Kathy
This October marks eight years since we moved cross country from Hollister, California to North Carolina. It’s amazing to think back through these years and how much has changed and how we’ve grown as a family.

September Fun Fact
There’s actually a Hollister, California, but it’s not a beach community like the famous Hollister clothing company. We lived in Hollister for six years. It’s a small town between San Jose and the Monterey Bay surrounded by world famous farms. Most notorious are the strawberries from Watsonville, but there’s also Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world and Castroville which is the artichoke capital of the world.

 

 

Looking Back | Monika Wright

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Pebbles) + embellishments, letter stickers, border (Pebbles) + flapper, flair button (Ormolu) + sewing machine (Singer) + punch, die cut (Stampin’ Up) + shipping tag, chipboard (craft supply)

 

A Note from Monika 
Looking Back...this month’s theme. So I literally went looking back to a stack of photos that have been calling out for some attention and pulled this photo of my now 20-year old son. This photo was printed 3 years ago at which time I sat down and wrote some journaling about the photo. How’s that for looking back on a photo taken 17 years ago and journaling written 3 years ago finally coming to life on a layout.

September Fun Fact 
I haven’t ridden a bike since I was in my teens. My husband earned incentive points through his company and chose a bike for me, which I am guessing means I need to get my little tooshie on and actually now ride. Watch out girls, Mama’s on two wheels!

 

 

My Fish School Bag | Deb Duty

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (Studio Calico, American Crafts, October Afternoon) + embellishments (Studio Calico, October Afternoon, Prima, My Paper Shop) + letter stickers (October Afternoon) + stamps (Studio Calico)

A Note from Deb
With the theme this month, I decided to go way back. I've been scanning old photos from my mother's house. This was the first day of preschool when I was about to be four. I have such a bad memory so it's really nice to have old photos to help remind me of things I had forgotten.

September Fun Fact
When I was little I so wanted hair like Marcia Brady. I was very happy when I got my first Chi flat iron about ten years ago. Finally I can have straight hair! I've been flat ironing it ever since. I wear it curly (which is better described as frizzy) very rarely.

 

 

Looking Back | Paula Gilarde

12 x 12 | materials template (Meant to Be Layered Template (Katie Pertiet)) + metallics (Lynn Grieveson) + labels (Banner Labels No. 1 (Katie Pertiet)) + title stickers (Wooden Alpha No. 8 (Katie Pertiet))

A Note from Paula
I can't believe I've know these girls for almost 20 years. It makes me feel old! We got together recently and it made me think about all the fun times we had over the years.

 

 

Blessed Love Happy | Teka

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (Jillibean Soup) + embellishments (My Minds Eye) + Bling (Recollections) + Twine (Jillibean Soup)

A Note from Teka
I love using products on a page that are leftovers from other projects. Makes me feel "green". The kraft banner is actually a page left over from a mini I did for Jillibean Soup.

September Fun Fact
I always feel the most creative in the morning after a fresh cup of coffee.

 

 

Little Red Tricycle | Erin Sweeney

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye, Studio Calico, American Crafts) + embellishments (K & Company) + letter stickers (American Crafts) 

A Note from Erin
I printed these pictures 2 years ago, yet somehow they never got scrapbooked. As Mackenzie will be turning five soon, it’s fun to look back at her as a toddler.

September Fun Fact
I lose things. Often. I’ve lost two sets of keys with the remote keyless entry – both after driving home. How does that happen?

 

 

& Time Flies I Christa Paustenbaugh

12 X 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts, Crate Paper, Echo Park) + patterned papers (Studio Calico) + stickers (Crate Paper) + wood veneer (Studio Calico, Studio Calico) + brads (My Mind’s eye) + chipboard (American Crafts, Studio Calico) + flair (A Flair for Buttons Etsy Shop) + wood veneer (Studio Calico) + twine (Ormolu) + die cut machine (Silhouette SD)

A Note from Christa
The theme for this month came at just the right time for me, but also broke my heart in half too. My oldest is getting ready to start her final year of elementary school so I dug up an old photo from when she was starting her elementary school journey at the ripe old age of 5. I see the physical changes in her, but also remember all the emotional and mental changes too. She’s starting her 4th different school this year and I couldn’t be more proud of how resilient she is!

September Fun Fact
I love September: the crisp air, football get togethers and a regular routine in our house. This year is a bit different though: no crisp air in September in a tropical climate and those football parties will be during the week after the games are already played in the States! It’ll be a new normal for us!

 

 

1976 | Sarah Pendergrast

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Studio Calico, Basic Grey, Jillibean Soup, My Minds Eye) + embellishments (October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Banana Fish Studio, K & Co) + stickers (American Crafts. October Afternoon) + tools (QuicKutz, Silhouette, Martha Stewart)

A Note from Sarah
My design was inspired by a Hambly overlay. I used butterfly punches and die cuts to replicate the design using a yellow gradient.

September Fun Fact
I’m the youngest of five kids, and the closest to me in age is seven years older. It was a happy mix of being a bit spoiled as the “baby” and an only child at the same time!

 

 

Looking Back | Alexandra Sirigue-McLeod

 

Still Here | Amy Sorensen

12 x 12 | materials paisley stamps (Close to My Heart) + round swirly stamp (Hero Arts) + fleur-de-lis and bird on a stem stamps (unknown) + StazOn ink (Tsukineko) + markers (Copic) + clock hands (Silhouette) + ribbon + Samo Sans and Janda Stylish Script fonts

A Note from Amy
For the stamped border, I wanted a colorful swirl of pattern and bright hues.To make it, I stamped with big stamps, letting the images come out a little messy and soft so they could blend into each other. Then I just had fun coloring in all the blank spaces. I wrote the journaling in a similar way, with run-on sentences and ampersands and a stream-of-consciousness feel.

September Fun Fact
My September goal is to finally finish the quilt I've been working on for my seven-year-old. Since he was four. The only good thing about my procrastination is that now I know to make it bigger than I had originally planned. Someone should check up on me!

 

 

Two Years Later | Marnie Flores

8.5 x 8.5 | materials patterned paper (Creativity by Crystal, Crystal Wilkerson) + fonts (Josefin Sans Std, Bebas)

A Note from Marnie
I thought for this month's gallery, I would be putting together a layout comparing all three kids on their first day of kindergarten. But when I opened the folder for Poppy's first day, I saw this picture. And knew that this was the story that needed to be told.

September Fun Fact
I have something every single day this month. And on a couple of days, we have three places to be at the same time!! It's going to be a fun month!

 

Bike | Kelly Jeppson

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (American Crafts) + letter cut-outs (BasicGrey) + circle punch + white gel pen

A Note From Kelly
My parents gave all the kids in my family a cd of "vintage" family photos, and this is one of my favorites from the collection. It's a photo of me and my cousins with my grandpa, who passed away when I was pretty young. We used to all go on bike rides together, with me on the back of Grandpa's bike because I was too young to keep up with the big kids. I know that the photo is grainy - it was probably taken circa 1980.

September Fun Fact
My husband just bought me a road bike - I'm still trying to figure out how to shift! And I think she needs an Italian name, as she's a Specialized "Dolce" model. Any suggestions?

 

Thank you, write. click. scrapbook. team for creating a most beautiful gallery! And thank you, dear readers, for spending your precious time with us! We hope you feel inspired to create some fun today!

write.

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

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

1.  Combine memories.

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

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

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

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

2. Document your food feelings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I also wrote about one of my food affections:

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

3. Focus on the deepest connections.

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

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

Marnie shared this gorgeous journaling:

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

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

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

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

In Review

July is finishing, the Olympics beginning, and school is just around the corner. With so much going on, this month's theme, Five is Fun! is perfect as we take our limited items and create some simpler works of art to help us complete some summer pages and document those memories before they fade away into a summer sunset.

Let's put on our fanciest flip flops, and our most comfy summer whites, and stroll through our gallery one last time. Together. The way we like it best, no?

 

Before we begin our prompt lists, let's do a bit of trend spotting. There are many multiple photos layouts this month; 12 in fact. 5 use grids. 6 use linear stacks. If you copied each of these 12 layouts, you would be scrapbooking 57 photos. Imagine how freeing it would seem to have 57 photos properly preserved?

For a mid-summer gallery, the colors are also light and bright. Lots of pastels and muted brights here. Right on trend according to Project Runway this week!

Let's get to our lists! First up, journaling prompts.

1. have you a dream? (Francine)
2. thoughts on the gender of your children (Deb)
3. the personality of your pet (Lisa)
4. a way that your child is changing (Emily)
5. a Fourth of July tradition (Celeste)
6. documenting something you have been waiting for (Diane)
7. look deeper at a field trip detail (Vivian)
8. a current creative stage of you or your child (Kathy)
9. document how a tradition began (Paula)
10. a treat and why you love it (Teka)
11. different aspects of your child (Valerie)
12. capture a moment of zaniness (Emily)
13. look at your child. what do you see? (Sarah)
14. party details. bare bones. (Donna)
15. journal the start of a conversation. the photos will be the end. (Erin)
16. record a gratitude to your child (Marnie)
17. document a special relationship (Christa)
18. a summer delight (Amy)
19. something that makes life good (Monika)
20. a list of a few goods and bads from a day of vacation (Marie)
21. record some details from a touristy day (Kelly)
22. your thoughts as you look back at an old photo (Alexandra)

 

And your photography prompts:

1. stand by a window for a selfie (Francine)
2. take a portrait shot of each of your kids with the same background on the same day (Deb)
3. take a series of photos to help better tell the story (Lisa)
4. be higher than your subject (Emily)
5. have your subjects lay down and stand over them (Celeste)
6. use a fun filter (Diane)
7. take two: one up close, one far away (Vivian)
8. use a white background for a detail shot (Kathy)
9. get a series that help tell the story (Paula)
10. foodie photos. yum! (Teka)
11. block a chunk of time, patiently sit and capture expression changes (Valerie)
12. before you clean, click! (Emily)
13. take an everyday shot of someone you love (Sarah)
14. the birthday candle, before and after (Donna)
15. look back through your photos and match them up for a page (Erin)
16. same subject, front and back (Marnie)
17. look for a moment that you can capture the essence of relationship in a photo (Christa)
18. summer food eating action shot (Amy)
19. set your scene with near, far, up, down, left and right (Marie)
20. tourist day: remember the people pictures, too (Kelly)
21. remember to add in the background for an additional bit of preservation (Alexandra)

 

And lastly, 22 things to try when you scrapbook this month:

1. use an unlikely thread for a banner (Francine)
2. rounded corners on your photos, squared corners on the mattes (Deb)
3. use the negatives of a punch (Lisa)
4. create a photo strip by reusing the same photo 3 or more times (Emily)
5. keep your layout in the upper half of the page, with lots of breathing room below (Celeste)
6. try a black photo matte to help your colorful photo pop (Diane)
7. emulate a graphic on your photo with paper (Vivian)
8. enlarge a photo with unusual proportions (Kathy)
9. have a perfectly centered and symmetrical layout (Paula)
10. use patterned tape on top of patterned paper. i dare you! (Teka)
11. jump the gender gap with products (Valerie)
12. tip your photo away from the lines of your layout (Emily)
13. use a reference point in your photo in the background decor (Sarah)
14. keep an uniform margin in a block of photos (Donna)
15. let an embellishment aid in your storytelling (Erin)
16. use a ribbon in lieu of a patterned paper (Marnie)
17. journal round your photo (Christa)
18. use a graphic element three times (Amy)
19. place your title over a strip of washi tape (Monika)
20. place your photo grid on the lower left hand corner and then use your journaling and embellishments to create a visual triangle (Marie)
21. journal on our photos (Kelly)
22. use those old decorative scissors! (Alexandra)

 That's it! 66 ideas to keep your juices flowing and pages coming!

 

As a thank you for the time you have spent with us this month, our lovely Monika created this printable for you and our Five is Fun! theme.

You may download it here.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a terrific weekend!

In Review

What a fun week we had with Amy! Thank you, Amy, for helping us realize what amazing inspiration is all around us and how it can directly or indirectly translate onto a page, and best part yet, get those pages done!!

May has been a good month here at write. click. scrapbook. This month we made crafty goodies for our teachers to help with Teacher Appreciation and school's end. Then Lisa inspired us to help incorporate our social media into our scrapbooking. (Curiously, I think that many many many scrapbookers have let social media take the place of their scrapbooks. Which makes sense for the record keeping and daily noticing part of life, but worries me in the sense that there is no hard copy of all that note taking.) Our third week was spent preparing for Father's Day. And then this past week, we had Amy's help buying chocolate and finding inspiration. 

Our Saturday workshops were delightful. Marie encouraged us to journal about a change that we have been through. Lisa encouraged us to take some food related photographs, and provided some fabulous tips on how to make those photos better. And then last week, we had a great scrapbook challenge week with a new sketch, printable, and design challenge.

And we still have more May next week with Erin!! You know you're excited about that!! I am. I love how very authentic and approachable Erin and her layouts are. She captures her spirit so well in her layouts. I love that and can't wait to see what she brings.

But before we look ahead, lets' also take one long last longing look back at our EveryDaily Gallery.

This month we are going to look back a little differently. This month I am going to use the 20 layouts to make lists. Ready?

Here are 20 photos you should take to help preserve your everyday life:

1. a photo of your child learning something new (Donna)
2. what you are having for lunch today (Celeste)
3. a bit of nature from your garden or your life (Alexandra)
4. art (or music or literature) that is meaningful to you right now (Alexandra)
5. a change in your routine (Diane)
6. something that represents an activity/responsibility/action that you do every single day (Karen)
7. your morning environment (LisaO)
8. someone copying/emulating someone else (Francine)
9. the wild side of someone in your home (Aly)
10. someone in the midst of just being (Amy)
11. the tech in your life (Diane)
12. entertainment being enjoyed (Vivian)
13. the mess someone makes in your house (Erin)
14. the worst part of your morning routine (EmilyS)
15. someone you want to see every day (Monika)
16. a lingering moment in bed in the morning (Paula)
17. the view through your peep hole (EmilyP)
18. what's on your lap (Marie)
19. something that repeats itself in your day (Keshet)
20. what is outside your window right now (Marnie)

 

And how about twenty stories/snippets you an tell to help preserve your everyday life:

1. how you feel about your children growing up (Donna)
2. your eating habits (Celeste)
3. your favorite flower (Alexandra)
4. why the arts (or something else impactful) moves you (Alexandra)
5. how you adapt to change (Diane)
6. a commitment you made (Karen)
7. how you begin (or end) your day (LisaO)
8. traits/habits that you spy  (Francine)
9. love, in spite (Aly)
10. something you miss (Amy)
11. a little addiction (Diane)
12. list your current media favorites (Vivian)
13. toddlers are busy. discuss. (Erin)
14. a recurring struggle you face (EmilyS)
15. record a disappointment (Monika)
16. how you mentally prepare for a task (Paula)
17. an event (big or small) that you monitored (EmilyP)
18. something that isn't going to last (Marie)
19. the disposition of your children (Keshet)
20. your neighbors (Marnie)

 

Lastly, twenty bits of design inspiration:

1. replace the dot in an "i" with a bit of flair (Donna)
2. add 5 buttons (Celeste)
3. use a frame but not for a photo (Alexandra)
4. add a bicycle icon to a tag or page (Alexandra)
5. incorporate 5 trends on one page (Diane)
6. blow up a photo, big! (Karen)
7. layer a repeating element in your patterned paper (LisaO)
8. stitch around the edges of your layout  (Francine)
9. two pager (good luck!) (Aly)
10. incorporate a second font into your journaling for emphasis (Amy)
11. edit a photo to better tell the story (Diane)
12. use some potty people (is that really what they are called?) (Vivian)
13. create a photo strip to use more photos (Erin)
14. staple down some twine (EmilyS)
15. try a different size (Monika)
16. paint (real or digi) on your background paper (Paula)
17. trim your main photo into a circle (EmilyP)
18. use a repeating graphic element (Marie)
19. use two fonts in your title (Keshet)
20. journal around the edge of your page (Marnie)

 

There you have it! One little gallery providing you with 60 assignments. Think of all the pages you would make!! Those lists make me hungry to scrapbook! Why do housework when there are 60 pages that need to be done!!

Thank you, to our lovely ladies for a month well done!! In just 5 more days we will be celebrating our fourth birthday! Can you believe another year has nearly passed?

Thank you for stopping! Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Social Media Week - Day Two

Are you on Facebook?

Did you resist joining Facebook at first? I know I did. I wasn't going to follow the crowd. I wasn't going to give in.

Then I did.

Just like most things in life, you can find positives and negatives with Facebook. However, as an actor who meets a new group of fabulous colleagues with every show I start-- it's become a great way to keep up on what everyone is doing. On top of that, it allows me to remember what I was doing in February 2009, or April 2010--- when I would otherwise have no clue what I was up to. (I have a terrible memory. It's why I scrapbook.) I have found Facebook to be so useful in memory keeping-- and here is how some others have used it, too:

WCS member, Celeste Smith, created a grid of profile pictures to document all her Facebook friends:  Celeste says: "You can easily create a grid of all of your facebook friends profile photos by installing the application called Gridview. Unfortunately, the mosaic maker wasn’t working for me so I created a PDF of the screen the mosaic was on and then reworked it in Photoshop. In Photoshop, I lowered the opacity of the layer with the photos on it so that it dulled it a bit and my title, journaling and embellishments would pop more. You could also just lay a piece of vellum over the top. I found a font similar to the facebook font to create my title and use for my journaling as well. I only adhered the top of my journal block so I can lift it up and look at the photos underneath."

 

WCS member, Lisa Ottoson, did a layout about all the Facebook birthday greetings she received. I can relate. My birthday was last week, and I got teary at all the people who came out of the woodwork to wish me a happy birthday. Here is Lisa's take:

I love this colourful Facebook layout that Danielle Flanders created using her status updates. Her use of polaroid frames reminds us of what status updates are-- "snapshots":

 

If you are a Project Lifer then you have to check out Christine Newman's blog! Great tutorials and details of how to stylishly put things together. It makes me want to start a project life album right now! Below is an example of how she worked Facebook statuses into her album:

 

Lastly, I have two gift ideas using Facebook. I made a card for friends of mine who had a new baby. They hadn't sent out photos yet, but I was able to download some from Facebook and turn them into a photostrip for the card:

Similarly, I made a wedding gift for dear friends of mine who didn't yet have their photos back from the photographer. I downloaded photos from Facebook, edited them a bit, then used them for this canvas:

I know that wedding photographers hate having people taking photos on the side-- but in this case it really worked in my favour! Thanks to Facebook, I was able to make this gift a surprise, rather than asking the bride and groom for wedding photos.

I'll be back tomorrow with more social media fun!

Since we are being so SOCIAL, why don't you join in? Link me up to your favourite projects using social media, and I will feature some this friday!