Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Sketchbook Saturday

Hello and welcome to the middle of October! I hope you are having a colorful fall. I did pictures for a friend yesterday and had a moment alone in a grove of tall trees. The wind was blowing, the leaves were rustling, and the golden yellow of the leaves was matched only by the gold of the falling sun. It had been a hectic day, and as I stood I breathed deeply and felt my soul finding peace. I let the wind carry away my chaos and opened my eyes to a quieter me. I turned on my manual focus and took a series of out of focus shots that let the bokeh shine through. Suddenly everythng felt a little more doable. A little less mad. And a lot more lovely. A stop and smell the roses moment for certain. Coupled with a moment of creativity. Free therapy. :)

I hope you, too, can find a few minutes this weekend to enjoy the colors, smells, and sights of autumn. 

To help you also have a few moments of productive creativity, I put together a sketch based upon Diane's layout, Juicy Juice, from our October gallery, .

I loved so much about this layout. First, Diane's use of color is second to none. And her handdrawn lines around the boxes is genius! So let's get to work making our own recreations!

 

Here is our sketch.

I didn't know when I first looked at her layout that each box was evenly sized--but they are! Now I am completely in love.

 

Here is my first use of the sketch.

 

I put this entire layout together with other patterned paper. Halloween papers, actually. And love them though I do, they were not right. I was very disappointed in how the layout turned out. The photos disappeared into the background. So I tried again with these softer hues. And was very pleased (and relieved!) with how it turned out. I added a pumpkin and a bat for a bit of Halloween. Sometimes you don't need to be hit over the head with the holiday, right? 

 

The next one was super fun to put together. I started with a blue to bring out the blue accents on the shoes. And then the greys, yellows, and greens, just naturally appeared! Oh, it was almost summer again...

I did move the journaling down one square--it was fighting with the photo a little bit in its original location.

I want to let you know, too, that my son didn't give me one bit of trouble for scrapbooking his shoes!! Note to other parents of teens: document the wardrobe!! 

 

Goodness, what a versatile sketch. I am looking forward to making a third layout with this, joining sets of square into some rectangles. I am curious to see how it would balance out with the squares. I will post you a link when I get it done!

As always, a pleasure having you stop by. I hope you have a lovely weekend! See you Monday!

Just One Sheet of Patterned Paper: Using Both Sides

Hello! Welcome back! This is Amy Sorensen. Yesterday I challenged you to do some patterned paper, and today I’m sharing a different technique for using your papers.

I’ve been scrapbooking long enough that I remember when double-sided patterned paper was an innovative product. So, I confess: it still makes me just a little bit happy to have a paper with two awesome patterns. It doubles the possibilities!

But what happens when you want to use both sides of a patterned paper—and you only have one sheet?

(Ahhh, the conundrums of scrapbookers!)

I use a technique I think of as gutting, which is simply cutting some scraps from a spot that will eventually be behind something else.

Let’s start with this patterned paper:

 

(Again, I nabbed the image from scrapbook.com. This time not because I forgot to take a picture before I started scrapping, but because I wanted you to see both sides.)

I am consistently drawn to papers that have a print on one side and a solid on the other. They are useful in so many ways! Especially since they’re already perfectly matched, it saves me the time of digging through a cardstock pile looking for exactly the right shade.

I found this piece in my “boyish” drawer, and I thought it would work perfectly for a back-to-school layout. I wanted to use the striped side as the layout’s background, but I also wanted to use some of the solid red from the back. Here are the cuts I made:

First, I decided about where I wanted to put the picture, and then I cut a 5.5” x 7.5” piece to mat my photo with.

You can see in the photo, but before adhering my photo, I cut another chunk out of the middle of the photo mat. That way I’d also have some of the red for the title.

Even though the chunk I cut was only about 3" x 5", it was exactly enough to cut what I needed for the title and embellishments. My cutting mat looked like this before I sent it through the Silhouette:

(I use washi tape all the time to stick smaller pieces to the cutting mat. It adds just enough stability if your mat is starting to lose its stickiness.)

And, here is the layout I made with these supplies:

(The algebra formulas are from an old Basic Grey rub-on olio. I used up almost all of the bits I had left on this layout—isn't it satisfying to finish off all of something?)

I use this gutting technique quite often to stretch the usefulness of my patterned papers. It makes the backs of layouts interesting, but it all stays together just fine. 

Do you ever gut your papers?

 

Just One Sheet of Patterned Paper: How Far Can You Stretch It?

Welcome to Write. Click. Scrapbook! This is Amy Sorensen, and today and tomorrow I’m going to be looking at using (really, really using!) a single piece of patterned paper.

I save my bigger scraps of patterned paper with the goal of using them again, one day, somehow. Unlike all of my other supplies, I don’t store my scraps with any sort of organization—I just toss them into the scrap basket. And sometimes I do dig through it and use some scraps. But I also sort of tend to forget what’s in there.

So I set myself a goal to pick one piece of patterned paper and then see how far I could stretch it. How many layouts could I make with just one sheet, without putting anything back into my scrap basket?

In keeping with our monthly theme of using up our stuff, I dug around in my “multi-colored paper” drawer until I found this sheet:

 

It’s from My Mind’s Eye and is called Classic. (I grabbed the image from scrapbook.com because I spaced taking a picture of it before I started cutting.) I chose it because I thought it would work for both boy and girl layouts, I liked the warm shades, and a good, diagonal stripe is just so, well…classic. (Well done on the naming front, My Mind’s Eye!) Plus, I thought the B side might prove to be useful (I didn't actually end up ever using the B side, but it did influence my choice.)

For my first layout, I backed the negative title shapes with some of the paper, then cut randomly-sized squares and rectangles as accents. Then I had a little bit of fun with some gold paint. I also added some extra (gold) lines and a few polka dots with a pen. I tried to lay out the squares so that the stripes almost matched up, but not quite:

I suppose I could’ve cut the title words themselves out of the striped paper, but I use the negative like this quite often. It makes a different sort of shadow that I like!

I still had a good-sized chunk left, so next I started on a double-page spread. The paper’s warm hues felt a little bit autumnal to me, so I paired it with some photos of an early-fall hike we took a few years ago. I used my Silhouette out for this layout, too:

This time, I totally intended for the stripes to match up, in that patch of arrows. They didn’t, in the end, but that’s OK.  The layout’s background is white cardstock painted with green Mister Huey’s mist. I like the texture of this quite a bit! And, again trying to use up supplies, I dug out an old-ish sheet of Bella Blvd alphabet stickers for the title. (I still have quite a few of these left. Maybe I’ll do a “stretch an alphabet sticker sheet as far as possible” challenge next!)

I liked the left-over scrap with the arrows cut out of it, so I used as a mask to make this card:

Maybe I didn't exactly "use" that scrap, in the sense that it's not on the card. But at least it got a second use before being sent to the recycle bin.

The pieces I had left were all fairly odd-shaped, so I decided to change the feel of the paper pretty thoroughly: I cut some of the scraps into strips, but I straigtened them out, with the lines of the stripes running straight instead of diagonal. Then I cut the scraps with only the green/brown/yellow hues. Can you spot the four places I used the paper in on this layout?

 

I had so much fun making this layout! I used scraps and pieces & parts from a bunch of different sticker sheets, just trying to unify everything by how the disparate elements “felt” to me. (Incidentally, I also used up the very last bits of the yellow daisy scrap I used from this layout!)

When I was done, I had these scraps left:

They felt small enough for me to sweep into my recycle bin without feeling much guilt. (Except the selvage...I kept that.) Three layouts and a card is a good use of one piece of patterned paper I think!

So, here’s a challenge to you: Pick a piece of patterned paper you’ve had sitting around for a while, and then use it! See how many layouts you can stretch it across. I’m certain that three is nowhere near the limit of possibilities!

Tune in tomorrow for a different way of using up an entire sheet of patterned paper. Happy scrapping!

Recycle a good design

Hi there! Lisa here today to talk about one of my favorite personal projects; recycle a good design!

For two years (2012 and 2013) I had a personal scrapbooking challenge I called Re-Scrap. I wanted to make sure I did more layouts since I was in a rut. I decided to look back into my finsihed albums and pick out three older pages that I liked and use them as inspiration for three new ones each month. That way I knew I would atleast have 3 new pages done every month! I really like the challenge and as I said, did this for two straight years. That gave me 72 new scrapbook pages.

This project also made me more conscious of which stories I wanted to scrapbook. I don´t know why, maybe because I already had the design and could focus more on the actual stories.

We all have layouts we love a little extra, right? Well, here is an example:

 

This is one of my very favorite layout I have done. It maybe because it is a story about my late grandparents, but also becuase I love the design/layout of the page. I used this one to make these two next pages.

 

You can see that I used the overall design for this new page. But the design also let me to change things up a little too. I usually sketch the older layout out so that I can use that to make the new one. 

 

This second layout was done just this month. Which means I recycled that old layout atleast 2 times! I mean that must be a good thing!

I am sure that you have a project that you can recycle!

 

Sunday Photo + Words

Sketchbook Saturday

Hello one and all! I hope that your week has been filled with apples, falling leaves, blue skies, and crispy air. I haev enjoyed the posts this week and have felt so inspired to make some layouts, and Halloween decor. Thank you, Aliza, Lisa, Valerie, and Amy for a fabulous week.

 

Today we have a new sketch from our October gallery. This week, we looked to Valerie's layout. 

I was intrigued by her "quilting" on the top of the layout. The missing pieces. The patterns. Mmm. It was just so intricate and innovative. And an interesting way to incorporate the season!

 

Here is the sketch.

(There are mattes on the bottom photos if you look closely!)

 

I was so excited to get to work with the sketch. Picking and adding the photos was fast and easy. But then, boom! stuck. I tried a million papers with the triangles and colors and background papers, and then nearly gave up. But then, I remembered that the sketch police are on vacation and that I don't need to build it the same. And then I just knew exactly what to do.

 

I used stars to emulate the triangles, skipping one here and there to keep the part that I found so wonderfully whimsical. Then I took off the background paper and tada! I was in love. Hooray! It went from a struggle to a favorite. Just like that. 

 

I hope you will try this sketch and see what you can do to make it your own and make it something you love. Thank you for coming by!!

A Yellow Challenge

Hello there, and welcome to Friday! It’s a gorgeous fall day here in Utah, and in just a little while I’m going to lace up my running shoes and hit the river trail for a nice long run. But before I go I need to both share something with you and give you a challenge. Ready?

First, the share: I hate the word monochromatic. It’s just so…blah. It doesn’t conjure up the vibrancy a monochromatic layout has. I mean, one of its synonyms is achromatic. I think we need to invent a new word. Solochrome? Focalchrome? Colorchrome? (Maybe that one’s redundant.)

Anyway.

Enough of my word issues, because despite the visual blandness monochromatic might suggest, it’s one of my favorite kind of layouts to make. For me, the spark for a monochromatic layout is usually a sort of color craving… “I really want to use _______ (insert craveable color) right now.” So I find a story or some photos that work well with that color, and then I pull out my color drawer.

And I use up a ton of supplies!

That’s the other thing I like about making monochromatic layouts: they inspire me to use products based not on newness or coolness or trendiness, but on the emotional tug of the color. It’s a chance to reacquaint myself with some scraps of favorite products and to get a bunch of them out of my stash and onto a layout.

Consider this page:

 

I made it because I had a fairly-large chunk of that yellow daisy paper and I wanted to use it before I forgot about it. So I hunted for yellow tones that matched. I picked the photos based on how happy they make me—yellow is usually happy, yes? Even though I took them on a grey and cloudy day, and there’s not a spec of yellow in them, they are emotionally bright and sunny to me. Then I just had fun with my supplies. (Oh my, those script font alphas! I only have a few left but they are some of my favorite alphas ever!)

One other thing I love about monochromatic layouts is how quickly they come together. Limiting yourself to one main color means looking through fewer supplies to find what you need.

A tip for a monochromatic layout: a few little accents of a contrasting color (in this case, light blue) helps both to break up the potential for monotony and make the main color feel more vibrant.

Here’s my challenge to you: Make a monochromatic layout using only scraps. It doesn't have to be yellow—just whatever color you are craving. Don’t worry about anything other than using some supplies you love.

Make sure to link us up if you play along.

I’m off to hit the trail. Happy scrapping!

Scrap Plywood Transformation

 Do you all have your homes decked out for Halloween and/or fall yet? I don't do much seasonal home decorating with the exception of Christmas. My Mind's Eye has a super great new Halloween collection this year: Frightful. I never get excited about Halloween collections, but I honestly love this one! I decided to make a display piece with the fun chipboard elements from Frightful.

 I might have a craft supply problem—I have accrued quite the assortment of supplies of the years. I'll blame it on my high school art teacher for doing such an amazing job teaching and introducing me to such a wide range of substrates, mediums, and techniques. Now that the days of school deadlines are long gone, I can freely experiment and play. I have a lot of items that get abandoned and set aside to be finished later, or projects that just failed. This project started out as an 8 x 8 inch scrap of plywood. I attempted to gold leaf a design on it and it was a complete fail, so I tossed the scrap aside to be repurposed later. I have a whole of pile of items like this—mostly canvases, but there's some scraps of wood in there too. 

 Gold leaf doesn't photograph well, but it is on there. I messily painted around the gold leaf with some black acrylic paint. Then I grabbed some of the MME chipboard elements and played around with the grouping until I was happy with it. The elements are self-adhesive, but I used hot glue to adhere them to the rough plywood surface.

 And there you have it—super easy Halloween decor! I don't think your significant other will mind if you go raid the garage or basement in search of a really great piece of scrap wood. 

Use up your random letterstickers

Hi there!

Lisa here today and first I must say that this months theme of re-using, re-cycling is one of my very favorite! I do tons of this in various ways all the time. This time I wanted to talk a little bit about those odd, left-over letter stickers...

If you have been a scrapbooker for a while you are sure to have them; left-over letter stickers. Right?! I have a big stash of odd letter stickers that are not being used mainly because they are out of vowls. But also because I don´t like the style or color. I have a few tips on how to use them anyway!

 

Odd letters

 

 I created this page on how I miss my Sadie dog like crazy. For this I made a cluster with odd letters (still from the same set) and to make the title I used a different color letter stickers to make it stand out. 

 Another example is to use number stickers on a birthday card like I did above.

 

Color

 

 

I used chipboard letters for this art journal page. The letters were all white and I painted over them to create unity.

I had several older sticker sheets with colors I wasn´t so keen on anymore. I didn´t want to just toss them since there were still quite a few letters still. So, I simply painted the whole sheet with black craft paint. Suddenly I had a whole lot of “new” black letters that I find easier to use! 

 

And here is a layout where I have used one of my "new" letterstickers!

I hope that I could give you some inspiration for using those unused letterstickers!

Lisa

click | leftover photos

Good morning! I'm so happy to be with you today discussing using what we have.

Yesterday Aliza talked about making use of a photo that you had taken and printed but not yet used. (It was a wonderful post--you should read it if you haven't!) Today I would like to talk about a different kind of leftover photo: the moments photo trapped in the event folder. 

I am way more of a moments scrapper than an event scrapper. That said, however, I take (hundreds of) photos at every event. I know, I know. Why? Because I realize that my childhood memories often are tied to events. And I want my kids to have that same foundation. I want them to remember their childhoods fondly. 

So I come home, unload my photos into a folder, and scrapbook the event. And then I go back into the folder and look for "leftovers." You know, the ones that don't fit into the event, but that capture a moment of something that matters. Or the one that tells a bit of a different story. Really any photo that you want to scrapbook. Because if you want to scrapbook it, there is a reason. It is really only a "leftover" insofar as it doesn't belong on the event layout. But nothing else about it is leftover.

 

Birthday party event:

 

Birthday party folder leftover:

 

I especially love this last one. My introvert peters out every year before the party ends. I am glad to have a photo and a chance to write about it.

 

I hope you, too, will have fun looking through your event photo folders for leftover photos! Happy day!