« Back to Eye on Design (October 2009)
12 x 12 | materials patterned paper, tab sticker, border sticker (KI Memories) + border punch (Fiskars) + brads (Karen Foster, The Happy Hammer) + chipboard photo corners (Imagination Project) + corner rounder (EK Success) + paper flower (Prima) + fabric flower + chipboard accent + wood letters
A Note From Carolyn
When figuring out how to create this page, I relied heavily on perusing old scrapbook magazines that I’ve saved for ideas. The original idea came from a page by Angie Lucas (thanks Ang!) that was published in Scrapbook Play with Photos published this last spring by Simple Scrapbooks [page 58 if you happen to own a copy or find one]. My motto is “Why reinvent the wheel when you can ‘borrow’ it from someone else and tweak it to fit your needs?”
My page actually turned out quite a bit different than Angie’s page because I couldn’t figure out how to get all of the journaling that I ended up with in the column next to the photos (and I wasn’t willing to edit). So I redesigned the page keeping in mind a few simple design rules such as creating a visual triangle for your eye to follow. See how your eye begins at the “happy” coaster next to the photos which, for my pages, are always the focal point? Then your eye is drawn down to “Memories” and over to the green flower and finally up towards “The Details” tab on the pull-out journaling. This creates a route for your eye to follow in a way that helps the page make sense to your brain. I fixed the problem of being long-winded and not having a 12 x 12 printer by mounting my already-mounted photos onto a sheet of patterned paper. Then I printed my journaling onto an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to fit behind the matted photos. Voila!
Journaling (on cardstock behind photo)
During the first five years of my life I lived in a little house in Provo, Utah with my parents and five older siblings. These two photos were taken in front of that house. The pink dress in the top photo reminds me of a beautiful Sunday morning – I think it was Easter – walking to church with my sisters and wearing a new Easter dress and pretty pink hat. I was in love with that hat. I believe this was the only time in my life that I had something new to wear on Easter!
The window behind me was in the living room. I remember those curtains. I thought they were so pretty. One day my sister Kathleen showed me how to whistle and I sat in front of that window watching the wind blow the leaves while I tried to whistle. The excitement was definitely there as I successfully found and practiced a new talent.
I also remember watching from that window one morning as Kathleen left for school. I cried and cried because I couldn’t find my mom or dad and didn’t know what to do. I called my best friend’s house and they told me to go and sleep in my brother’s room until my mom or dad came back. I spent what seemed like an eternity on the cold floor until my brothers awoke. I’ve since told that story to Kathleen. She had no idea I had awakened and seen her leave and says that if she’d known she would have stayed with me.
I remember the blue coat in the bottom photo. How I loved it! I have no idea why, but that’s the truth, it was a favorite item. I think I was in kindergarten or close to it.
We had a “D” shaped sidewalk in front of the house and I remember riding my trike around and around. I also remember playing in the irrigation ditch out front, falling and skinning my knees really bad, picking peas from our garden with my dad, finding an Easter basket in the back yard, catching my foot in Kathleen’s bike tire even after she warned me to keep my feet away from the spokes, swinging and picking green apples off of our apple tree, admiring the pretty irises that my parents grew en masse out front, the nice neighbors (the Coopers) who lived next door, sharing a room with Kathleen, potty-training, a wonderful Christmas, throwing up after my mom made me eat carrot salad and orange Jell-o (to this day, I can’t eat either), standing on my dad’s feet while he danced and sang “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof, making an egg all by myself because I was hungry, and watching out the kitchen window as my dad walked away from the house while I cried. My mom and dad were getting a divorce and Dad had come to visit with me and give me a birthday present. Lots of memories in that house…