Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Goodbye September

Is it pointless to have a blog post on photography that doesn’t include any photos?

Maybe, but I’m going to try it anyway!

This is Amy Sorensen, and the reason I’m not sharing a photo today is because I haven’t taken it yet. You’ll see why after I share my idea instead.

 

Every month on my blog, I try to write a monthly summary. I include everyday details from all of my family members’ lives…what we did and saw, sometimes what we ate, what we read and watched and argued over and loved. (Here is August’s monthly review so you know what I’m talking about.) Sometimes I include photos, sometimes I don’t.

I like doing this for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it makes going back to scrapbook the past easier. It gives me some details to work with when I can’t remember exactly what was happening. It also helps me feel like I am stopping to appreciate this time right now. To observe and remember and even sometimes celebrate a little bit.

 

I say that I “try to” write a monthly summary because I don’t always get it done. Sometimes I forget altogether. Sometimes it is a week (or, yes…two) into the next month before I sum up the previous months. But I’m trying to be more proactive and regularly-scheduled on my blog, and a few weeks ago I came up with an idea to help me get this post done on the first day of every month.

Every month, on the last day, I’m going to take some “goodbye ___________” photos. (So this month would be, yes, “goodbye September.”) A few images that visually represent that month’s emotional “feel.” I might never scrapbook these pictures—but I will use them on my blog post.

I don’t have a picture to share with you because I already know the image I want to say goodbye to this September with. And I can’t take it until this afternoon when school’s over. Every day, one of my 9-year-old’s responsibilities is to pick up the apples that have fallen from our tree. Homework, snack, then apples before he can play with friends. Sometimes he’s happy with this chore, sometimes not so much, but it’s a thing he does almost every day in September. That’s the photo I want: taken at a low angle, so I get the grass and some of the fallen apples, and maybe his hand picking one up, all in that glowy, late-afternoon light that only happens in the fall.

You’ll have to imagine it.

 

Then, tomorrow, I’ll have an image to go with my September summary!

I’m posting this without that picture, though, to encourage you to watch today for your “goodbye September” image. To challenge you to take some photos that summarize how the end of this month feels for you. Maybe share them on your blog, maybe make a layout with them. Maybe just write some details about them in your journal. But watch for them!

Happy snapping!

A Writing Challenge

 

Welcome to this week's Write post. This is Amy Sorensen, and I have to tell you something: This month, I've been working on making a spreadsheet that has information about every single layout I've ever made.

I know, that sounds insane, right?  But I wanted a quick and simple way I could know exactly what I've scrapbooked, at a glance, and a spreadsheet worked the best. And while it might sound like a huge project, what it's really been is fun. It's given me the chance to revisit so many memories I would've forgotten without scrapbooking, as well as so many layouts. Lots and lots of layouts over nearly two decades of scrapbooking!

I've also learned something important (actually, quite a few important things, so this is just one): I almost never scrapbook about myself. I mean, sure. I make sure to get photos of me with my kids and put them on their layouts. But for every forty or so layouts I make for my kids, I make one for myself.

One!

So, my challenge to you is a simple one, and it's the one I've challenged myself to do more often as well: make a layout about yourself. Write some journaling that focuses on who you are right now, and then create something fun with it. Here's mine:

In the journaling, I wrote some things about myself right now. What I'm loving, what I'm worrying about, what I'm reading. None of the details are life changing. But it made me so happy to get them down. So happy that I am going to ignore the one word I misspelled and the usage error I made!  

The photo was a selfie I took on the first day of fall, because I always wear orange on that day and I wanted to document it. It's a little goofy but if you look close it has a lot of right-now details.

I purposefully used products that I adore. Some of them are new-ish, some are pretty old, and the stamp is fairly ancient. I don't care because it felt like the products I picked were also saying something about who I am right now. (Specifically, I love & adore & can't get enough of orange and grey.) I just had fun digging through my grey and orange drawers.

If you accept the challenge, will you leave me a link in the comments? I promise I'll look at and comment on every single one. Because our kids aren't the only ones who deserve a scrapbook. We do too! We're important too!

Sunday Photo + Words

In Review

This month we celebrated the return to schedules, and homework, and school. We said farewell to summer and hello to autumn. Before we get lost in all things October and Halloween, let's take one last look at our September gallery:

 

 

Let's start with finding some journaling ideas!

I Remember | Lisa Borbély

:: write about your childhood school or your memories of school ::

 

 

Walking Tall | Amy Sorensen

:: write about a past teacher that your child loved ::

 

 

Hello Senior Year | Diane Payne

:: make a list of classes that your student is taking ::

 

 

Visit the Old Teacher at Meet the Teacher | Marnie Flores

:: write about the unexpected in the usual. such as seeing old teachers as you meet new ones::

 

 

Now let's move onto some photography ideas! 

Grade School Years | Sue Althouse

:: pull out those old school photos and use them on a layout ::

 

 

First Day Back To School | Jennifer Hignite

:: if you missed photos like these on the first day of school, it's not too late to stage some ::

 

 

School Days | Lisa Borbély

:: school beginnings aren't the only photos worthy of comparing ::

 

 

Year 1 | Cristina C. Scrap

:: celebrate your success and growth by capturing yourself often ::

 

 

Currently Loving | Amy Kingsford

:: don't forget to look down to describe your children. footwear tells a lovely story ::

 

 

And lastly, some ideas for making well designed pages.

Goodbye Summer | Aliza Deutsch

:: design in 3s. Aliza used three hearts. small yet significant ::

 

 

Kindergarten | Jennifer Larson

:: Jenny's write up discussed how she (finally) put these pages together to
celebrate her OLW, do. Try it yourself. See what doing can do ::

 

 

First Day | Valerie O'Neall

:: grids don't need equal treatment in every quadrant ::

 

 

4th | Celeste Smith

:: themed pages do not need themed papers ::

 

 

First Day of 5th Grade | Jennifer Hignite

:: look for clever ways to further your story. Like the stamp under the five for fifth grade ::

 

We hope you have enjoyed the month, both the gallery and the posts! Only four more days until our new gallery!!

Remembering How I Used to Scrapbook

Hello! Valerie here and I'm revisiting the days when my scrapbooks consisted of construction paper and shaped photos. I started scrapbooking in junior high back in the 90's. I used to take a ton of (really bad) photos with a cheap 35mm film camera. When scrapbooking these not so great photos, I used to trim them down and cut out the subject(s). Anyone else admit to doing this? I used to make a lot of collages with pages from magazines. I think that's why I thought this technique would be really cool with my own photos, but my photography wasn't good enough to really make it work and the supplies definitely weren't so awesome.

So flash forward to now. Hooray for digital cameras and amazing supplies! As I was uploading photos from a recent trip to a hot air balloon festival, I was thinking about how I would scrapbook them. I remembered that awful cutting thing I used to do to my photos and thought it actually might work for these hot air balloons.

It helps that my photography has improved and my photos are bright, colorful, and sharp. My process is a lot more advanced as well. I picked the balloon photos I would use and opened them all in Photoshop. I made the colors pop and then just completely got rid of the background. Next I opened a new 12 x 12 document. I brought all the balloons in—each balloon had it's own layer. I resized and moved around the balloons until I ended up with the placement you see above. Then I marked-off an 8.5 x 11" area with guides and arranged all the images so they would print on one page since I was printing at home using my Epson printer. Here's what my sheet looked like before it was cut.

 I used foam dots to raise three of the balloons off the page a little. White paint was splattered and cloud shapes were cut from vellum and sewed on. Patterned paper and chipboard title are by My Mind's Eye.

My style has definitely changed and evolved a lot since the 90's. So many trends have come and gone (and have come back again). It was fun to take a technique from my past and make it new. What used to be your go-to technique when you first started scrapbooking?

 

A Silhouette Technique: Offset for Text

Hello! Welcome to the first Thursday of fall. OK, that's probably a strange welcome, but oh, my. It is just getting glorious here in Utah, and Thursdays are my favorite day, and I have a picnic to go to today. A picnic in the mountains—in the mountains where the trees are changing colors.

Pure happiness.

Anyway, on to some scrapbooking goodness! This is Amy Sorensen, and ever since I got my Silhouette, it has been my constant go-to tool. I use it all the time. And while I cut out my fair share of shapes, what I really love it for is letters. But I started bumping into a little complication: it didn't seem like I really could use all of my fonts, because some of them were just too thin to cut. Making the font size bigger doesn't always help, because if the font starts out thin, parts of it will stay too thin (unless you increased the font size until the letters were too big for a layout). And sometimes you just don't have enough real estate on your layout to make your title so big.

Then I figured out how to use the Offset feature to make my letters thicker...just thick enough that I can peel them off from the cutting sheet and stick them down to my layout without all sorts of frustration. Take the white words from this layout as an example:

 

The font I used, arsenale white, is pretty thin. I widened the letters up a bit and then, when I glued the words down on the layout, there were no glue accidents! Just for comparison, here is the text as I first typed it, and how it looked after I made it thicker:

 

Not a HUGE difference, right? But just enough to make the sticking-down much more pleasant!

The Offset feature in the Silhouette Studio software is the key. Here's how to use it to make your letters just a little bit thicker:

1. Type the text. At this point, size doesn’t matter, just the words.

2. Click on the text box, then adjust the character spacing.

The exact amount you space things doesn’t matter, because you’ll line the letters back up in awhile. Just make sure there’s some space around each letter. Otherwise they’ll touch each other. Mine looked like this:

(It also doesn’t matter that the text extends beyond the cutting mat. We’ll fix that later too.)

3. Click on Object, Offset. The Offset button makes an outline around the object you’ve selected.

4. In the Offset window, click on Offset. You’ll see the outline appear around your text. It starts of with a pretty big outline—at this point, the offset hardly looks like text anymore:

Next we’ll adjust it. That is what the Offset Distance box is for. The number is how big or small the outline is. You can either slide the slider or type in a number. I go with typing, because you only need a ridiculously small amount of offset. I use anywhere between .015 and .025, depending on the font. The outline that the Offset button creates also outlines the inside spaces of the letters, so as you adjust the Distance, look at the way the letters change.

Once you’re pleased with the size of the offset, click on the Corner button. This gives the outline sharp corners and keeps the shape of the letters much closer to the original. Then click Apply.

5. Once you have used the Offset feature, you now have a duplicate of your original text. The Offset button automatically ungroups the copy, while the original stays as one piece. This makes it much easier to get rid of the first (smaller) text. Just drag it down a bit, and then delete.

6. Now you can adjust, size, and weld your text as you desire. My image looked like this before I cut it:

(For some other Silhoutte software tricks, click HERE and HERE.)

Here's the layout I made with the letters from the instructions:

And, just for fun, another one I made with letters that I offset:

Now that you've learned something new, I hope you get outside and enjoy the day, where ever you are! I'll be at my picnic!

Making the Most of Kits

Whether you are a paper scrapper or a digital scrapper, kits are a great way to scrap faster. They give you a variety of embellishments and papers that match; basically removing some choices from the scrapbooking process. However, in order for kits to be a good deal you have to USE them and for more than one page! My focus as a digital scrapper will be on digital kits for this post, but paper scrappers can apply some of the same principals. Oh and make your way through this post, it's sponsored by Amber LaBau of Stolen Moments Designs at the Lilypad. She is amazing! There might be a goodie and a coupon - just saying!

BEFORE HITTING THAT BUY BUTTON

Complete digital kits range in price from $5-8. If you only make one page with a kit and print the page, the cost per page can be really high, almost ten dollars in some cases. When you buy a kit, you should try and maximize its use to get the most bang for your buck.

Here are some things to think about before you hit the purchase button:

1. Is the kit your style? After all these years scrapping I know what styles of kits I enjoy scrapping with. I tend to like full colorful kits with great patterns, buttons, ephemera, and interesting embellishments. i don't buy a lot of artsy kits as I have a hard time working with them. You have to buy kits that match your style!

2. Do the colors speak to you? Maybe you aren't a neon person or maybe like me there are fewer opportunities to scrap pink. Maybe you just never can get purple to work. Take these color preferences into account when you are thinking of hitting the buy button. Chances are if you struggled with neon before, it will not be easy the next time you try!

3. Consider generic instead of themed. You can always take a generic kit and add themed elements to it. A lot of times themed kits are so themed that it is hard to scrap any stories except for their intended purpose. Just something to consider if you are trying to stretch your dollar. Another way to save is to buy the themed embellishments and shop your stash for generic papers to go with them!

4. Can you think of three pages you could make with the kit? Make a quick mental list. If you can't think of three pages you could make with the kit. You might seriously want to consider passing.

SHOPPER'S REMORSE NO MORE!

The first thing I do when I open a kit is give it a quick scan to see if there are any basics in it that I may want to reuse. No one says you have to use the whole kit more than once. Some of you might tag using Lightroom, ACDSee or some other system. Tag those basics right up! As for me, I keep a folder called Basics with subfolders like buttons, flair, stitching, etc. I copy elements I think I might reuse into those folders. It makes finding things later easier and I spend the time I would be tagging scrapbooking instead.

Next, make a bigger list of pages you think you can use the kit for. Type up that list and save the list in the kit folder. You could even go one step further and put photos with the kit OR if you tag your photos you could tag them with the name of the kit! This will ensure that when you go to scrap, you will remember that you have the kit to work with and what you were thinking when you bought it.

The last step is the hardest! Challenge yourself to make as many pages as you can with the kit. If you don't want the pages close together in your book, then jump around through time and then the pages will be further apart in your books.

STOLEN MOMENTS DESIGNS

The lovely Amber LaBau of Stolen Moments Designs is offering all of you a coupon for 20% off in her store! Amber is an amazing designer and a digital scrapbooker too. I always find the best designers are scrapbookers themselves. They get it, they know what to include in their kits, and they tend to innovate since they know how we all love new products!

Here's a quote from Amber: "I love bold colors and patterns, full pages with lots of (and sometimes just a little) journaling. I love paints and mess, stitches, strings and pocket cards. As a mom of two young boys I don’t use too many “soft and pretty” products, but that doesn’t mean I love them any less."

Her products really reflect her love of color and pattern. A gal after my own heart! Swoon!

Another treat! One lucky person will win a $10 gift certificate to her store. Read on for more information about how to enter to win!

CHALLENGING MYSELF

I figured I should challenge myself since that was the advice I was giving you. I asked Amber to sponsor because I love that her kits are so full, colorful and versatile. I knew I'd get some great patterns, a little ephemera and some interesting embellishments. I then proceeded to break my own rules and bought this very themed kit from Stolen Moments Designs called O Captain. Isn't it lovely? I couldn't help it she had me at the sequined ahoy! This kit cost $7. If I only do one page with this kit, that’s my cost per page! Yikes!

  The first thing I thought of when I saw this kit was pages about our Cape Cod excursions. Then I remembered that I also had a photo of my niece driving a boat for the first time. I knew I could eke out a couple boat and water themed photos from this kit easily. I set a goal of creating four pages. I knew I wanted to do a couple pages on theme, mix the kit with another kit, and then try for one more page!

My first page used this photo from my niece. This kit couldn't be any more perfect for this photo. I really love that sparkly ahoy and the banner here! It came together quickly.

Here the only additions are that I clipped one of the ephemera in the kit to my title, then used a style to create the fun epoxy effect. The background is a real map of the area they were fishing in. I thought it added a little authenticity to the page.

I could have stayed on theme a lot longer. I have loads of fishing, beach and lake photos that I need to get in my books, but I wanted to take the challenge one step further. I thought maybe I could stretch the kit by mixing it with another. I chose to mix it with Amber’s collaboration with Little Butterfly Wings called From Scratch. I knew the reds and teal blues would play nicely together! I also thought of all that great seafood we ate on the Cape this summer!

Lobster! Perfect! The red of the lobster with this kit is just fabulous. The nautical elements go with the lobster and that pot reminds me of a lobster pot. Voila!

Then with the anchors in the kit, I thought I could do a page about my husband. He truly anchors me and I just don’t know how I’d do it all without him! The tongue photo was a gag photo for my niece, he's always willing to ham for the camera that guy.

Now my cost per page before printing is only $1.75 much more reasonable, don't you think? I will most likely break out this kit again and use it for some other pages. I think the kit will mix nicely with other nuatical themed kits in my stash as well. I need to dig in and see what I can find.

YOUR TURN

Now I challenge you to break out a kit that you've bought and haven't used. Then make a list of pages you could create using it. Then challenge yourself to make at least three pages with the kit. It's an interesting way to scrap for sure!

HOW TO WIN

Okay, so you want to win a gift certificate? Simply head on over to Amber’s store Stolen Moments Designs at the Lilypad and look around. Let me know what kit you can not live without. We’ll draw a lucky winner for a ten dollar gift certificate on Saturday. Be sure to leave your name and a way to contact you! We'll post the winner right in this thread!

Keep on scrappin',

 

EDITED TO ADD...

We have a winner!

Shoot me an email at celestefsmith AT gmail DOT com to claim your prize!

 

 

 

What Have you Learned?

 

Hello. It's Aliza here with you today for Write Monday. As this month's theme is about learning, I was thinking and thinking about what I could share about the topic. And then it occured to me that I have some recent layouts that fit this theme just fine. 

While recording some of our summer outings, I allowed myself to get a little preachy about the importance of of our trips. Really, whenever you are the one recording the story, your message and your perspective is always there, based on the details you choose to capture. But here, I'd like to suggest ways to be a bit more explicit in your journaling about why these events matter. In that way, you share a little bit more about yourself, and I think it adds to the message you are holding for the future.

 

Including Lessons 

This past summer, we got a car, we were finally able to do some hiking, and get some more beach time than we usually do. Of course, I wanted to scrap the lovely photos, to record where we went, and what we did. But there was a little bit more  that I needed to capture. And that is, simply, the point of it all. Yes, we did those things because they were fun (and inexpensive), and refreshing. But, also, I had some lessons that I wanted my children to learn. 

I wanted them to experience the joy that you can get from doing nothing much at all. That you can have fun without the sights and sounds of the city. And, more importantly, without the use of a screen. (I kind of need that lesson too, truth be told.) Nature provides its own entertainment, but you do have to slow down and look around a little to let nature do its work.

In this layout, I spelled out the lesson pretty loud and clear. Here is what I want you to know...

 

In the layout below, I tried to summarize some of the highlights of what we saw, but with the title and its repetition in the journaling, there is some pretty strong instruction going on there too.  

 

These life lessons can be included in layouts about the everyday, big events, or everything in between. 

 

Sunday Photo + Words

Sketchbook Saturday

Have you been to a football game yet this season? Have you picked apples yet? Put up any decor for autumn or Halloween? I am marveling in the beauty of all things seasonal. We have had a series of blue sky days and lovely crisp air. My scheduled life is falling into routine and I am grateful to find time to scrapbook. Love that.

This week's sketch is from Jennifer's gallery layout, First Day Back to School. I was intrigued by how she fit on five photos while still maintaining a chunk of white space. Which we all know I love so much.

 

Here is the accompanying sketch.

 

Sue made a terrific layout which removed one of the bottom photos, nipped in one of the patterned paper strips, and added some journaling above the title. She is always so good with her mixed patterns. I like how she balanced them this time with a cardstock section for her white space area. It really balances the patterns.

And did you notice the crocodile (alligator?) in that photo? I might be picking a new golf course, t'were it me...

 

Next up is Amy. With a page that makes me want to drink some cider with all its warm tones. Do you like all the adjustments she made to the sketch? Her photos are slid over to the paper's edges, and their mattes have been removed. The bottom row is leveled and made into rectangles. She found room for her journaling at the top of her focal photo, while her title treatment takes left stage by storm. It has a totally different feel with its newly discovered asymmetry.

 

 

Lisa also created a lovely layout, soothing in its whites and blues. Her focal photo became two, her lower photos (just three) were lined up with even margins. And one of her strips became her place of journaling. With her rectangular page shape, she lost her title space, but found the perfect place for it at the top. Oh how I want to visit her one day and see her island and all its rocky beach glory.

 

 

In my looking-for-a-good-grade way, I stuck true to the sketch, mostly. My created the layout with tipped photos and then decided I wanted to the string them up, so straight across they became. I had to scooch my focal photo over a bit to the right to fit my title on, and then I moved my title up a smidgen so that I could fit the journaling underneath. I'm sorry for the repeat performance of this paper. I really do love it.

 

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy the sketch and that it helps inspire you to create your own layout!