Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Welcome, April!

As spring blooms, and nature's green unfolds, the magnificence of earth's splendor often gives us pause, causing us to slow, breathe deeply, and marvel at the beauty of nature. Suddenly inside us awakes a deep sense of gratitude for what we are seeing and what we have. Not since Thanksgiving have we felt so connected to our lives and so thankful for all we have. Please join us in creating a page or two to honor our lives and note those things for which we are feeling thankful!

In Review

First, thank you, dear readers, for your kind excitement and comments for our month of mini albums. We appreciate your patience with our trying new things and hope that you have enjoyed the monthly theme.

Second, we could not have made this month work without our kit sponsors. Thank you Cocoa Daisy, JBS Mercantile, and Studio Calico for your generosity in not only providing kits for our giveaways, but also for our designers. Please stop by and visit them and leave them a big thank you!!

Did you know that this month you have had the pleasure of 37 mini albums? Did you have a favorite theme? topic? design? As our last hurrah, let's take our monthly stroll through our gallery. A last lingering look before we move on to another weekly and monthly topic.

 

I enlisted Amy's help and together we have compiled a summary of the gallery and some prompts for your creativity.

Aly’s mini focuses on some of her beliefs and values. Try journaling about a belief you are passionate about, a value you hope your child implements throughout his life, or a concept that you think will help your child become a stronger person. Or try journaling about a time when your child showed she’d really learned one of your values or beliefs.

Amy's album is a collection of photos that tell their own story. Have you begun a pattern of taking a particular photo? If so, go back and find them, and put them together as Amy has in a book that highlights them and allows them to shine.

Celeste’s mini is a vacation album. On one page, she wrote about her son seeing whales and how that was one of his bucket-list items. Try journaling about one of your children’s or your own experiences with crossing an item off of your bucket list.

In her Summer 2011 album, Christa journals about her family’s affection for Myrtle Beach. Try writing some journaling about why you go to a specific place for your vacations.

In Diane’s year-in-review album, there is a page about making pizza. Try journaling about your family’s pizza traditions. Do you make yours or buy them? Which brand is everyone’s favorite and how do you conquer the great topping debate?

Donna’s album documents her favorite season, fall. Try journaling about your favorite season. What do you love about it? And why? What is your favorite seasonal tradition? What do you remember about this season from your childhood? How does your affection for the season influence your family?

EmilyS made a mini with space for writing the funny and cute things her daughter says. Try journaling about your child’s own funny conversations or way with words. If you can’t think of any, spend a day or two just listening for the funny things; jot them down and you’ve made a great start on your journaling!

Erin dedicated an entire page in her mini to journaling about one month in her son’s life. Try journaling about a single month in your children's lives. What kinds of activities and learning are they focused on? What were the highlights? What were the hard parts? What changes were made in those 30-odd days?

Francine's sweet mini shows how we can celebrate the mini in a literal way. Maybe set a two hour window for yourself and create a mini mini that can be at the ready for adding in photos as they are ready.

Karen’s album gives an overview of her current goals. Try journaling about one of your children’s goals. How is she going about accomplishing it? What setbacks has she had? How has she pushed forward? How does seeing your children achieve their goals make you feel?

Katrina’s mini gave an overview of her affection for her iPhone. Try journaling about how a specific piece of technology affects you, your children, or your entire family. Or, write a contrast piece: how has technology changed since you were a kid?

Do you ever take photos with a particular purpose in mind? Kelly's album has this potential. Knowing you wanted to collect your photos in a vertical album, you could concentrate your efforts on snapping vertical photos at a particular event or occasion. We are scrapbookers. We do plan these things!!

Keshet’s mini focuses on her daughter’s first week of life. One of the little layouts has a photo of her daughter and her husband together. Try journaling about your children’s relationship with their father. What sort of relationship do they have? How are they similar and what do they butt heads over? Is there a specific moment that encapsulates their relationship?

LisaK put together a mini with all of her favorite photos. Try journaling about one of your favorite pictures. Why do you love it? What are the details behind the pic—who took it, where was it taken? What does the photo capture that no other pictures do?

LisaO's album is a collection of her favorite photos. Try assembling an album such as this little by little as the year goes by so that it is less intimidating. Perhaps keep your ever growing album nearby so that it is easy to add pages.

Marie's happily ever after album is a quick summary of her 12 on the 12th project. Have you a scrapbook page that would also make a fun album that could sit out for easy reference, and show? Sometimes having others see our albums can be just the push we need to finish our projects.

Marnie’s entire mini focuses on her reading choices. Trying journaling about your reading habits. (Your kids’ book opinions aren’t the only ones that count!) What kind of books do you like to read and why? How do you fit reading into your busy life? What’s your opinion on eBooks? Or get even more specific and write about the book you are reading right now.

Monika's Easter album shows how you can use a mini to house event photos. Have you considered making a mini to display photos that deserve more than just a page in a photo album?

Paula’s Q&A album asks the big question: what are your favorites? One of the questions asks about favorite books. Try journaling about what your children are reading right now. Do they love it or are they just sort of “ehh” about it? What is their relationship with the book? (Is it part of a series, or by a favorite author, or one a good friend couldn’t stop raving about?)

And lastly, Vivian's honesty about not loving mini's is sweet. And we love the page she made using up minialbum materials. Clever.

 

This month, there was so much that moved me. I have made a file of some great ideas and hope you have, too! I wondered if you could let us know if you enjoyed the month and would like to see it again next year. If you could please leave us a comment and let us know if you liked it, we would appreciate it! Thank you!

Celebrate Music: The Finale

Happy Friday! Emily here with our final day of Celebrate Music week here at write.click.scrapbook. Today as our finale, I have a plethora of different layouts and musical ideas...things that didn't quite fit into the other three days of this week.  Music is something that is present in so many facets of life....here are just a few more to round out our week of inspiration!

Celebrate Music Teachers

Did you know that March is Music in Our Schools month?  I am so happy to be in a profession where I can witness the joys of music firsthand on a daily basis.  Unfortuantely many schools are being forced to cut arts programs due to lack of funding. This breaks my heart.  Without music in our schools children will miss out on so many special and important experiences.  Take, for example, the joy of learning to play the recorder!   

Christa Paustenbaugh's daughter must have an amazing and inspiring music teacher. This layout documents her daughter's desire to some day be a music teacher when she grows up. She's a girl after my own heart!

Celebrate Wedding Music

One moment in your life in which music takes center stage is at your wedding.  I'm sure those of you who are married fondly remember your first dance with your spouse, your father-daughter dance, and maybe even some special songs from your reception. I loved every minute of my wedding and reception. Here are a few layouts I created to remember these special times.

Celebrate Special Times

Music can create special bonds between people, especially parents and children. Wcs team member Lisa Kisch created this layout telling the story of a special song she sang to her daughter as a baby. I love the heartfelt journaling and the beautiful photo.

The one piece of "advice" I always give at baby showers when they ask every mother to share something is to sing to your child every day. He or she will undoubtedly think your voice is beautiful and perfect, even if you disagree.  Keshet Starr and I must think alike!  She had not yet had her baby, but in this layout was was already preparing for the special bond that music would build between them. Thinking of them together now makes me smile. I hope she has been singing to her every day!

My husband and my daughter have a special song that they listen to every night before they go bed.  She knows it is "Daddy's Song" and asks for it even when he is not home. I am sure that someday it will be the song that plays at her wedding as she dances with her father.

Finally, Karen Grünberg shares a sweet layout of her songs with a perfect title: "The music of your laughter brings so much joy into my life." 

It has a been a pleasure being your blog hostess this week! I hope you have enjoyed all of the musical creations our team has created. I would love to see any other music layouts that you have made.  I will leave you with one final thought, one that rings true in my life every day:

"Without music, life would be a mistake."
 -Freidrich Nietzsche

Go enjoy some music, and hava great weekend!

Welcome, March!

It's up! Our new gallery, Mini Madness, is filled with lovely mini albums. With as much content as a full-size special edition, there is going to be a little something for everyone! Enjoy! and please leave a comment telling our designers how much you appreciate all their hard work!

In Review

I loved this month's theme. Music moves my heart in ways I can hardly explain. A song from the past can drag me back to a memory long since faded and make it as radiant as the day it happened. I can turn on any Air Supply song and instantly begin to sing every. single. word. I can't seem to remember my grocery list longer than 5 minutes but I have a whole vault of 1980s lyrics forever seared into my brain!

How does music affect you and your life? Do you love it? Have you a favorite song? or genre? Is there a song that swings you back to your childhood? or your wedding day? Is there an artist that got you through a particularly rough time? Or do you prefer a silence? Either way, have you scrapbooked it?

If you haven't had a chance to be inspired by the gallery yet, let's take once last long lingering look at the loveliness it contains.

 

Aly First, look closely at Lexie's face. Can you see the excitement and the thrill of the stage? Such a terrific photo. I love how Aly didn't shy away from color on this layout. The costumes were vibrant and bright. I think many of us would have tried to go very neutral on this page, but Aly shows us we need not.  And because the star of the photo is in white, she isn't any bit lost as we take in the layout.

LisaK I hope you took a minute to read Lisa's journaling. It is honest and raw and made me miss the stage, too, and it isn't even my place! Moving journaling gets me! I love, too, that she handwrote her journaling. Quite a task to undertake, but it makes the heart of it shine so much more brightly.

Karen When I read Karen's title, I could immediately hear the trilling laughter of my own sweet Poppy. Her laugh climbs a scale and is every bit musical. I am going to have to steal Karen's idea and journal the music of the laughter. I think Karen's layout is a good reminder, too, that when you sit down to scrapbook a challenge, there is a way to make a page that fits the theme even if it isn't the straightforward option.

Francine When I first saw Francine's layout, I giggled at the terrific photos. Not only did she capture the action of the drumming, she also memorialized the delight on both his face and that of his uncle. Speaking of great photos, don't you find it is so easy to journal on layouts when your photograph so perfectly aligns with the story? Photos like these make for my favorite layouts to create (read: easiest to create, therefore favorite to create!!).

Christa Speaking of layouts that are creative takes on a theme, I love this! Christa cleverly wrapped her title up the side and across the top, providing a strong structural element within which she tucked the other elements of her layout. By starting her title treatment at the same horizontal level as her photos, Christa has created a focal point for her layout. She also has repeating elements with the circles (the "o" in to, the sunburst, and the circle behind the heart), the three tags and flags, and the repeated bit of red. All of which serve to create an incredibly cohesive layout.

LisaO Did you notice how many references to current culture Lisa has added to her layout? Not only does she list her current playlist, she also used a current photo. And not only are the colors are at the height of fashion, so, too, are the patterns and the little  iconic elements--the bird, the tape. All these elements combine to further tell the story of right now, not just the music.

EmilyS I consider myself quite well rounded when it comes to music, but I must admit Emily's layout had me rushing to my computer to listen to these songs. A few are also favorites of mine, so I figured I might just like them all. So hooray to Emily's layout for helping me expand my playlist!!! Now, onto the design, might I just say how much I adore white on white? And the little tiny graph lines in red did me in. Love love. I thought putting the songs on individual strips was genius, as was not worrying whether or not the lines matched up with those below!

EmilyS in case you haven't yet read Emily's journaling, go get a tissue, and now go read. I'll wait...  What a sweet moment captured. To me, this is the very heart of scrapbooking. Pure love.

Celeste I would love to have a photo of my music lessons. I spent years with my favorite teachers and yet, not a photo exists. If your children take lessons, or you do, be inspired by Celeste, and get a photograph of it!!

Kelly What a fun memory to record! Watching your child discover a new skill/talent is special which makes it scrap worthy by definition, right? I love how Kelly printed Crystal's label. It makes the journaling fit so well. Perfect!

Katrina Hooray! Katrina is back! Oh, Katrina! We have missed you so!! Welcome home! My favorite part of Katrina's layout is how she used the single covers as the "photographs." And could the flair be any more perfect?

Marnie I love the juxtaposition of Nigel's beautiful skill with his ratty athletic clothes. Sometimes we scrapbook photos that aren't perfect, and then realize that the layout is better for its little sprinkles of reality.

Marnie This list and layout is so overdue. Please, sit down right now and make a layout about your favorite music. Don't put it off any longer!

Diane Do you know what I love most about Diane's layout? The little letter stickers for s-h-i-n-e. And you do you know why? Usually, when we are going to emphasize a word, we think to put it in a bigger font/sticker. But here, Diane made it smaller. And it works! So well!

Keshet This sweet layout makes me swoon. And makes me want to put together a layout about how it felt to sing to my firstborn. Do you like, too, how Keshet's photo and journaling are taped onto the wood paper? It sort of makes it look like it was taped to a wooden wall, no?

Marie How much fun is this layout? Do you like how Marie used a record and tape on her layout? Cute!

Paula I love that Paula scanned her music in for her background paper! It makes such a statement and it adds to the story so well! I love, too, how she put her journaling in a column right in the middle of her page. Center stage. Not a usual placement, but it works so well, don't you think?

Marie The whiny song! How awesome is that? I can hear one of our three as I type!! I think Marie wonderful for catching a photo of a whiny child. I rarely think to grab my camera when the whine is on. But it is what it is, yes?

Alexandra I love the size on this layout. Long and thin. I also love how Alexandra juxtaposed the modern "get down" with the gold doily. And then she tied the tag with a neutral string is so simple and yet, the perfect last addition. It's those details that Alexandra gets to right!

Francine This layout is a wonderful example of using 5 photos on one layout. By including all 5 photos, we get a much better sense of the occasion than if Francine had chosen just one. And because she grouped them as she did, the layout stays clean and polished.

Amy Having loved Amy's teen week, I am now wondering if this is one of the photos from the "I just had my hair done" collection. (Such a fun photo idea, by the way!) Sometimes lyrics are the perfect accent. And sometimes the perfect title. Also, did you read in Amy's notes how her lyrics block came from the negatives of a Silhouette cutout? That's what I call a two for one!

Donna I love the colors on this layout! The blue and clouds, the green, the little bit of pink, the pop of orange. And then the butterflies! Don't you love how Karen and Donna sneak items traditionally considered "girly" on their pages about their sons? Woohoo!

Erin Like Katrina, Erin let the album covers stand tall as an element of design and story. I love how she recorded her children's favorites, and not just her own playlist. A good idea, for certain! It would be interesting to make a layout like this every couple of years and then compare and see the changes! Oh, the inevitable changes!

EmilyP Do you like how the entire center of Emily's layout is just numbers? No photo, no journaling. But so much fun! And then as you look around, and I mean around, you see her top ten list.

 

The theme this month, Music, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my musical tastes, and the design challenge of using a list, and added in some inspiration from Emily's layout, and put this one together.

My new favorite layout.

I hope you felt inspired to make a new favorite as well!

CHA Armchair Attendee Week: Write. Click. Scrapbook. Team Members' "Must Haves"

Welcome to the last day of CHA Armchair Attendee Week! I hope you've enjoyed our week this week - I had a lot of fun checking out all of the sneak peeks, pics and video from the CHA show floor, and sorting through all of that to find the key trends I shared earlier this week.

For today's post, I (Vivian) asked Write. Click. Scrapbook. team members to tell me what their top "must have" is from this set of CHA releases. The only parameter I set was that they had to choose a product from a manufacturer whose design team they are not on. Some team members had an easy time doing this and were able to instantly name a favorite. Others took some time to think it over. Some of us had a really hard time and listed more than one product since our top "must have" was, in fact, a tie amongst several "must haves." Some are still thinking about it. Some lines were pretty popular amongst the team, as you will see below.

Without further ado, here, in alphabetical order by team members' last names, are our "must have" products:

Francine Clouden: Studio Calico Abroad Thickers and Alpha Stickers

Paula Gilarde: Crate Paper Storyteller Collection (especially the chipboard)

Donna Januzzi: Simple Stories Documented Mix & Match 6" X 8" Album

Vivian Masket: Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Date Stamp and Echo Park This & That Charming Collection

Lisa Ottosson: Pink Paislee Prairie Hill Collection (12 x 12 papers)

Christa Paustenbaugh: Crate Paper Storyteller Collection and Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection

  
Diane Payne: American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Collection, in particular, the Remarks Pigment Stickers (the set at the far right)

Katrina Simeck: Lily Bee Double Dutch Collection

Celeste Smith: Studio Calico Abroad Collection (the papers, in particular)

Amy Sorensen: Bella Blvd Sopisticates Collection High Five Alphas

Emily Spahn: Heidi Swapp Instaframes and Bella Blvd Designer Tape

Keshet Starr: October Afternoon 9 to 5 Collection and Studio Calico Take Note Collection

Erin Sweeney: Studio Calico Classic Calico Vol 2 (especially the chevron mask and the washi tape) and Take Note Collections and the Crate Paper Storyteller Collection

 

Feel free to share your "must haves" in the comments below - we want to know what's caught your eye, particularly if we've missed seeing it!

I hope you've enjoyed CHA Armchair Attendee Week here at Write. Click. Scrapbook. this week! I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait until some of this new product hits stores!

Welcome, February!

Our new gallery is live! The theme this month is Music. Please enjoy the layouts. And we would love to hear from you if you love them!

 

Sadly, we say goodbye to Clouds. Her clean and simple, yet artistic style will be missed. Thank you for all the technique tips, Clouds! We wish you the best.

Happily, we have two new members of the family! The adoption papers are in and it is official! Please put your hands together and welcome, Diane Payne and Emily Spahn.

We are so very excited to have them in our write. click. scrapbook. family and are thrilled for you to get to know them more. Their pages are happy, colorful, thoughtful, and incredibly well-designed. We feel very lucky to have them!! Please leave them a quick hello and then race off to check out their bio pages and to see their work in our gallery!

Thank you for stopping by! February may only have 29 days but it will be jam-packed with love and inspiration so please stop by each and every day!!

In Review

What a great month we have had! Join me as we take our final stroll through the January gallery and then put it all together for one last layout!

Francine: I love this layout for its groupings. Francine is a master of the collection. I love, too, how the photos seem perfectly placed. Like a well set table.

Karen:  I love how her layouts make me feel. She made use of my happy colors which tells me immediately that the title is not a mournful one, but cheerful. This layout reminds me to take pictures of things (and not just people and food) that make me happy. I have notes that have touched my heart that truly belong in my scrapbook. You, too?

Aly: The first time I saw this layout, I immediately wanted to rewind time to a time a few years' back when we were loaded in the car off to somewhere. Nigel, my oldest, never went in the car, unless we had a big destination. He had the luxury of staying inside. My littlest? She has been hauled about since she was small. At three weeks we started out to tennis in the cold midwestern winter, and we have not stopped since. Aly's layout made me realize I haven't take pictures of some of the more mundane activities. Add it to the checklist!

Celeste: I remember a winter as a child where the snow went halfway up our back door. We had to shove and shove to get the screen door open. But of course, there are no pictures. Celeste's layout is a reminder to me to keep my camera handy and take photos of those weather-related memories.

Marnie: Do you know that I purposefully took my camera along one day on our adventures knowing that I had this layout due? Do you that I am so glad that I did? I love to be a good student, and scrapbooking assignments help me to stretch just like school ones used to.

Erin: I love Erin's honesty. Sharing with us that her photos were taken for the Week in the Life album that never was. And how she didn't let them go to waste. Have you photos leftover from a particular purpose that might fit on a page of a different kind? Let Erin's example be your permission to get them on a layout!

Christa: Military wives are such an amazing lot to me. I am always impressed by how they roll with the punches, even when the changes are huge. And moving around the globe seems pretty huge to me. Wow.

Alexandra: Alexandra can take the simplest things and make them look beautiful. Have you taken a minute to finish up your December daily album? It's nearly February. Perhaps this weekend you could get it out and finish it up before the memories run cold?

Lisa: I love the linear beauty of Lisa's layout. And the little grouping of three at the bottom? Awesome! You know that our eye loves threes and fives best right?

Lisa: If you were to sit down and create a layout about today, what would a recounting of your schedule tell you? The changes in my own schedule over the past few years have been significant and annual. Join me in a pact to promise to record this before the memory of the madness fades?

Amy: For the past few years, Costco has offered free calendars with their holiday cards. I recognized this one, and think this is a magnificent use of one! Amy is so clever.

Marnie: I used to be so good at taking headshot pictures of my kids. Now we all seem too busy. So I was happy to find this one amidst my white balance practice photos. Plain headshots like these are permission to journal whatever I want. I love that.

Vivian: Do you ever read people's journaling and realize just how amazing they are? I loved reading Vivian's journaling. And I love how she introduced her daughter to this opportunity to serve our world. And you know what? It taught me that Vivian is a thoughtful person who is aware of others. And now I love her even more, not just for her great pages. Scrapbooking. It is so much more than paper and glue.

Ann: This photo will be a family treasure forever. When I used to teach at CKCs we would take polls on how many photos people took over a Disney vacation. 5000 was not unheard of. How does one begin to scrapbook that many? One at a time. Choose a favorite, just like Ann did. And what a favorite this one is.

Paula: This is your reminder. Get your family together and take a picture of all of you and then create a layout about today. I love how Paula's journaling becomes the vertical column. Clean and easy and purposeful. Perfect.

Celeste: One of my favorite features of Celeste's layout is the thick'ish black borders around the photos. It really helps ground them. And then I seem to notice each of them, rather than just a group of photos. Celeste's pages have such a definitive style, too. Don't you agree?

Celeste: Did you notice how Celeste makes use of a visual triangle on this page? But there is a bit more magic than just the triangle. The photo cluster on the left is the same width as the journaling space on the right. This makes it look like a missing puzzle piece, thereby adding an additional sense of cohesion. It is subtle design elements like these that can transform your pages.

Kelly: Kelly is becoming a hybrid master! With her date doing double duty as the title, the scene is already set for the photos and story. 12.26 conjures a sense of calm and laze for many of us. Choosing to have so much subtext in a title helps to strengthen the message of a page.

Marie: Speaking of dates, how does one not love the date 1.1.11? and to have a baby born on that date? Well, that is pretty special. As a design tip, study Marie's choice of placement for her photos. When you are creating mosaics, make sure you don't have lopped off limbs leading into other limbs, and other such follies. Keep moving things around until they look right. You will know it when you see it.

Donna: I love the celebration of the everyday in Donna's layout. When I saw this, I wanted to run around my whole house and snap photos of all the clutter piles. And then I realized I didn't have hard space enough to record them all!! Teasing. Though I am not teasing about how much you will look back on photos like these and love how transported you will feel into times' past. Please remember to add these pictures to your list!

Celeste: Do you have a lazy day at your house? Or perhaps you have a day that has a regular routine? Have you captured it? Your photos don't need to be display worthy, remember you just want them to remind you of these days that are passing us by. If you do go on a photo field trip, perhaps keep your camera the same angle (up or sideways) for all the pictures as a means of linear bliss.

Keshet: I remember when Nigel was little and I wanted a photo to tell the whole story. And I couldn't figure out how. Well, silly, just add a blackboard! This is such a clever idea. If you check our Pinterest board you will see other examples of blackboards being put to good use, too.

Emily: Favorite part of this layout? The armchairs. Don't they just tell us a little bit about the story? Do you try to reach for embellishments that are purposeful? Don't you find when you do that you love them on your page? Me, too.

Marnie: This silly layout could have not been done and my children's lives would have been perfectly represented. But this page represents my love of learning and my efforts to continue to learn and grow and become every day better at something. And that is a page worth having.

 

The theme this month, Today, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my right now with a new kid photo, stretched the journaling theme of everyday messes to include a messy photo, and added in one of the pieces of the printables page. Putting it all together, I came up with this. My new favorite layout.

I hope you felt inspired to make a new favorite as well!

Welcome, January!

Our new gallery is up! Our topic this month is, Today. We hope you enjoy our layouts and are inspired by them to create your own!

2011 Highlights!

As the year draws to a close, we are grateful for a year filled with new additions, a new look, and new features. We hope that you have loved everything we have created for you! As a finale for the year, we brought back a few fan favorites!

What a terrific year it has been. We can only imagine what next year will bring... Thank you, dear readers, for being here every step of the way!