Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Hi, Everyone! Passover is now just a few days away, which means I have not had much time for  scrapbooking lately. Not scrapbooking always makes me a little antsy and agitated. But, when I can't scrapbook, I still try to collect some stories and inspiration so that I am ready to go as soon as I get the chance.

Since my older son is a junior in high school, every holiday, every routine, every tradition feels like "it's almost the last time." That right there is a story waiting for a page. 

The other story I am gearing up to tell, is how every year, right before Passover, my husband takes the boys to visit Coney Island on the opening day of its amusement park. I stay home and clean. (Lucky me!) I've been looking through old photos from over the years, and my oh my, this tugs on the heart a bit. Because somehow this,

and this,

has turned to this:

If you are low on time for scrapbooking, keep collecting those stories, because time is moving fast. Very fast indeed.

Sunday Photo + Words

Gallery Walking

Today is that fabulous day where we get to go tip toe'ing through our gallery of lovely layouts. Let's go!

Are you as ready for spring as we all seemed to be? The gallery was a welcome relief to a winter that would not die. Seems like spring has sprung for many of us this month. All due to the inspiration of the gallery, no doubt? ☺ 

What inspiration did you draw from each layout? Taking time to make notes helps to solidify our ideas, so let's do it together. And please, if you have other ideas for pages that sparked from ours, leave your ideas in the comments. Or better yet, make a page and leave us a link!!

 

 

My Spring | Ewa Wesołowska

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper Shimelle Dowdy ( American Crafts ) + stickers ( American Crafts ) + others embellishments

WRITE Ewa didn't just discuss that she keeps a garden but also how it makes her feel to be in the spring air. Writing about your reasons and reactions for your hobbies offers more insight that just saying you have one.

 

 

Spring...You Are My Happy | Tracie Claiborne

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (Bazzill) + patterned paper (American Crafts) + stickers (American Crafts) + fonts (Universal 57 Condensed)

WRITE Capturing the details of the transition of spring will inclusively and automatically include some of your favorite seasonal delights.

 

 

Spring, Actually | Marnie Flores

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (American Crafts, Glitz) + journaling cards (Glitz) + hearts (Glitz) + fonts (1942 Report, Letter Gothic) 

CLICK Remember that in spring with it bright sun and harsh shadows that it you need to keep a close eye on your lighting. It's hard to edit out the stark contrast without blowing out other portions of your photo.

 

 

bball | Celeste Smith

12 x 12 | materials kit (Just Jaimee & Mommyish Real Life in Pockets Love You Harder), font (Underwood Champion)

SCRAPBOOK  Celeste's use of Scrabble tiles to spell out "cute" is a clever way of creating an embellishment and sneaking pink onto a boy layout! Go Celeste!

 

 

Miss Mohawk | Valerie O'Neall

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (My Mind's Eye) + chipboard (My Mind's Eye) + thickers (American Crafts) + pen (Copic)

SCRAPBOOK Valerie's use of feathers helps to tell the story of her wacky little chicken. ☺ Let your embellishments help as much as you can. 

 

 

September | Cari Orellana

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (American Craft white) + patterned paper (Maggie Holmes Open Book) + embellishments (Maggie Holmes, Studio Calico) + mist (Studio Calico)

SCRAPBOOK Cari's use of stitching creates a repeating element in her layout that ties all the little bits and pieces together despite their differences in colors, shapes, sizes, and designs. And because the thread it white, it is a subtle element. Brilliant.

 

 

Hello Spring | Cristina C. Scrap

12 x 12 | materials Bloom and Grow papers, Bloom and Grow elements, Spring Fling stamps, Bloom and Grow journaling cards (Mari Koegelenberg and Mommyish)

CLICK  Cristina's photo captured not just the blossoms but the twigs. Not just the light. But the shadows. The contrasts provide depth and highlight the light and the blooms more than if they were the entire frame.

 

 

Enjoy The Ride | Jennifer Hignite

12 x 12 | materials Andiamo digital kit, Andiamo Journaling Cards, stitched-grid-templates-vol-2 (Scotty Girl Design)+ fonts (Myriad Pro)

WRITE Jennifer's journaling is tender and tells of her son's tentative ways. Notice as she encourages him to be brave that she uses cycling icons and terms. Unity of message and photo. Clever.

 

 

Signs of Spring | Lisa Borbély

8.5 x 11 | materials patterned paper (Studio Calico) + stamp (Becky Higgins) + font (Arial Bold, Arial) + washi tape (Cocoa Daisy)

SCRAPBOOK  The embellishments on Lisa's layouts are all found on the top. It balances her lovely square photo. And tells us to look for the green. Your uppermost embellishment can serve as a table of contents if you want it to.

 

 

Welcome Back | Jenny Larson

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (October Afternoon) + stickers (October Afternoon) + acrylic letters (Heidi Swapp) + epoxy stickers (October Afternoon) + die cuts (October Afternoon) + pen (Copic) + metal charm (Webster’s Pages)

SCRAPBOOK  Did you see how Jenny used stitching to be the shelf for the bottom two photos and the clothesline for the top three? In so doing, Jenny also made it a frame for all her photos, providing them weight and importance.

 

 

Our Little Spring | Becca Dickson

12 x 12 | materials kit (February 2015 Storyteller-Quinn by Just Jaimee ) + fonts (Lavandaria Sturdy, Traveling Typewriter)

SCRAPBOOK Becca cleverly interpreted our spring theme with its alternate definition of a resilient device used chiefly to exert constant tension or absorb movement. Never forget to look for the pun and the fun!

 

 

I Can’t Remember | Aliza Deutsch

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics Paper) + patterned paper (BasicGrey, We R Memory Keepers, Cocoa Daisy) + wood veneer (Cocoa Daisy) + stickers (October Afternoon, Evalicious, 7 gypsies) + fonts (Frente)

WRITE Honesty is always allowed. Encouraged even. And when teamed with some humor? well, it just doesn't get better.

 

 

In Like A Lion | Marnie Flores

12 x 12 | materials tag (American Crafts) + thickers (American Crafts) + flower (American Crafts) + fonts (KG Penmanship, Eller)

CLICK  Zooming in and then allowing the sky to create white space created a photo where the snow takes center stage as it ends right in the center. The central element doesn't need to spread from edge to edge in order to be the focal point.

 

 

Handstands & Cartwheels | Amy Sorensen

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Pebbles, Inc and Echo Park) + foam alphabet stickers (American Crafts) + small and script alphabet stickers (October Afternoon) + flower stickers (Echo Park) + font (Ainsley)

CLICK  Action shots are often a matter of having your camera in hand at the right time and then taking lots of pictures. But look how perfectly it helps to tell the story!

 

We hope you have enjoyed the gallery and we look forward to a new one shortly!!

Scrapbook: Inspiration Chain

Hello scrappy friends! It’s Amy. Today I’m going to share one of my favorite ways to get into a scrapbooking “flow,” so that one layout follows the previous one quickly and with less struggle. I think of it as an inspiration chain, and I challenge myself to do this every once in a while, instead of being very regimented in what layout I do next. (Which I sometimes am!)

First off, I start with something that inspires me.

Then, as I’m making that layout, I pay attention to my feelings (thoughts, ideas, connections to other stories, random memories) and to how I’m using my supplies, with the goal of using something from the first layout on my next layout. Here’s how it works:

I was reading blogs one night and I came across this image from Shimelle Laine’s blog:

 The quote from Alice in Wonderland made me think about how it felt when my youngest was little, and always up before everyone else or, once my Bigs had gone to school, at home alone with me. So I decided that quote would form the basis of my next layout, even though I don’t have any of those wood veneer strips. (Little known scrapbooking fact: You don’t always have to own a scrapbooking product to “use” it!) This is the layout I made:

 

I always start my layouts by writing my journaling, and this little bit of text starts with the words “you & me.” So I was delighted, in that serendipitous way, when I turned over the green polka-dot paper I used to cut out the word “six” with, and found it had journaling cards, one of which had the same words. The "You & Me" card didn’t fit with the feel I wanted for this layout, though (one doesn’t need two titles, yes?), so then I knew I had the spark for my next layout.

Except then I struggled a little bit, because I nearly always start my layouts based on a story, not a supply. And my Inner English Teacher wouldn’t let me use it for a “things we do together” sort of list (because that would be “you & I,” not “you & me”). So I turned to my journal for a story, and I found a bit I’d written about my parent’s back yard, which made me think of a photo of me with my son Nathan…and I was ready to go:

 

I didn’t use the words straight from my journal. I wrote something new based on the original spark, but made it connect with Nathan.

Part of why I wanted to use the “you & me” card on a layout about Nathan is those orange letters. Orange is his favorite color! As I worked, I thought about our family’s connection with orange. I had never, in my entire life, owned something orange until I met the boy who would become my husband. He had an orange t-shirt and it was like a little, tiny epiphany for me—ah! People wear orange!—and I’ve been fond of orange ever since. (I should turn that memory into a layout!) So I followed that little spark of inspiration and, for my next layout, went looking for some photos I could use with orange supplies. I opened up my 2006 photo folder, did a search for “Jake,” and started browsing. (I try to label most of my photo folders with the names of the people in them, to make finding images of one specific kid easier.) The orange stripes on his shirt in these photos were just right for some orange embellishments:

For this layout, I dug deep into the bottom of my color drawers, to find some products I haven’t used for quite a while. Which means none of these supplies are particularly new, but I’m OK with that. I am working on thinking of my supplies as a source rather than a stash and it is helping me to use more!

I like this taking this “inspiration chain” approach to layouts because it forces me to think in new ways. I nearly always begin my layouts with a story to build on, which of course makes me happy, but following sparks instead of stories tends to lead me to stories I might not tell otherwise. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go make that layout about our family history with orange!

How do you decide which layout to work on next?

scrapbook | favorite music

Hello lovies!! It's Tracie Claiborne here to talk to you about something that's my favorite. I love that this month is all about favorites because favorites are my favorite! For reals. When I heard the topic for this month, I knew it would be hard for me to decide what story I wanted to tell because the list is endless! I could document my favorite foods, television shows, movies, childhood memories, people, places, scrapbooking products....the list goes on and on! I decided to focus on my favorite music because music makes me so happy.

Recently I made a photo collage of all my favorite singers so I could share it on Instagram. I saved the images from the interwebs, cropped each of them to a square and then put them all together in a Picasa collage. I wasn't sure the collage would print well at a large size but I'm happy to report it did! I wanted my layout to have a vintage vibe so I chose a floral paper from the September Skies collection by Heidi Swapp and grabbed a sheet of my trusty white Bazzill for the journaling. I found a card that said "favorites" that matched perfectly so I added that at the top and used a sticker popped on foam dots for the title. Here's the finished layout...

See how great these little images came out? I printed the collage 5.5" x 5.5". 

Here's the story I wanted to tell...

So what story about your favorites do you want to tell? Today would be a great day to tell it! 

Scrapbook: ALL the favorites!

It's Jennifer Larson, and I have a confession to make: I love scrapbooking, so I have a lot of favorite things. On this page I did pretty much all of them. Even though I try to create pages with new ideas, it gives me a lot of satisfaction to go back to those favorite ideas and products and techniques. Here they are:

First, I used a kit, my March Scrapbook Circle kit. Using kits makes my product selection easier.

Next, I picked my favorite colors--yellow, orange, blue, and green.

I journaled in strips.

I sewed on the page.

I clustered embellishments.

And then some details:

Another favorite! I love mixing fonts/products for titles.

And layering embellishments.

Thank you for sharing my page! I know that sometimes we pressure ourselves to create something original each time, but why not just surround yourself with your favorites?

Click. My favorite Click post

I have written a lot of Click. posts over the years as a WCS team member. I have enjoyed it very much! For this post I went back and looked to see if I have one I liked more than the others. Below you can find my favorite Click. post! It was first posted in October of 2012. Enjoy!

Earlier this week I listened to the latest episode of The digi show (a podcast that shares thoughts and inspiration on digital scrapbooking) and they talked a little about what to do when you are scrapbooking and don´t have photos to go with the story. It got me thinking about which circumstances this can happen and this is what I came up with:

1. If you are scrapbooking older memories for example from your childhood or a trip you took a long time ago.

2. When you just didn´t have the camera around to capture the moment.

3. If you have an assignment to scrapbook something specific, but don´t have a photo to go with it.

I realize that there are many more, but let´s just go with these for now!

In the podcast they talked about using Stock photos, which is basically photos that are licenced for everyone to use. There are online sites that have thousands of free photos, just Google search it. Ok, so Stock photos are not your photos, but can very much help out when you need something for your project. 

Celeste Smith tells me that she uses stock photos all the time in her digital scrapbooking. Here she has scrapped about her beloved TV shows. And when I saw this page, I remembered that I actually did this too in my Project Life album earlier this year!

I also have a layout that I made a few years ago where I journaled about infertility. But I didn´t have digital photos from when my daughter was a baby (and not as cute as this!) so I searched and used a stock photo. 

What do you think about that? I really have no problem with using others photos, but if you really do want to use your own photos you can easily build up your own portfolio of stock photos. What kinds of photos would you put in that folder? Well, go back and see what you have scrapbooked before. Perhaps you journal alot about your feelings, then pictures of nature often suits the page. Here is an example from my albums.

The title of this page is "If I was in charge..." and has nothing to do with that flower photo really. But I think it can be nice and natural to use nature photos on layouts about anything. 

Another tip to build up and use stock photos of your own, is to take photos of everyday kind of things. It can be things around the house or photos of a great pattern etc. So to start with just snap random photos in nature and stuff around your house to just have in your archives.

Ok, that was one way to solve the no-photo "problem". The exact opposite might be to just go with it and make a page without a photo. We did a whole gallery where No photos were requiredin the summer of 2011. 

Before I made my page for this gallery I had always envisioned a no-photo layout to be more artsy/artjournal-ish, but boy was I wrong! I loved every layout in that gallery and got a lot of inspiration from them!

You can also take a photo later. For this layout, I really would have wanted to take a photo of the Waterlily in the lake as my journling talks about how magical that nightswim was, alas I didn´t bring my camera. So, I made sure I picked a flower and took a photo of that when I got home. This is also something you might be able to do when you don´t find the right photo from your childhood perhaps. Maybe you have a photo of something else from that time? 

Ps. I created a set of photos on Flickr that is filled with my own stock photos. Because sharing is caring!

Write: Start with a Story

The strangest thing happened to me during January and February: I found myself in a scrapbooking slump. Likely this was caused by a variety of things—drought anxiety and worrying over teenagers and my mysteriously unhappy hamstrings and taking care of my mom, who had her spine fused. It was a long a dreary (but, alas, dry) winter for me, and it left me feeling sort of blah about everything—even scrapbooking!

Strange because usually scrapbooking pulls me right out of my doldrums.

This time it took spring. Daffodils and blue skies and a couple of rain storms. At any rate, I was ready to scrapbook again a couple of weeks ago. Except, I sort of didn’t know where to start. That weekend, I was listening to my kids tell stories to each other—my daughter was home from college, and they were all hanging out together, laughing and talking and teasing. “Remember that time,” Haley laughed, “when Kaleb hit Jake in the head with a rock at the beach?”

Five years later, that’s finally a funny (instead of painful) memory. And a story I hadn’t told! Which made me remember: my favorite way to start a scrapbook layout is with a story. And since I hadn’t scrapped that story yet, I went ahead and (finally!) made a layout:

 

Simple and colorful and straightforward; heavy on the words. Totally my style of layout. I didn’t take a photo of Jake’s injury. In fact, I didn’t even have a very good photo of him that day at the beach. So I used a scenery photo and told the story, and somewhere in between writing the story and gluing down those letters, I found my scrapping mojo again!

So here’s a little journaling challenge for you. Think of a story you’ve never told on a scrapbook layout—and then tell it. If you don’t have a picture of the people involved, find some other image that relates somehow to the story. And just enjoy the process of writing it!

Sunday Photo + Words

Saturday Sketch

It is Saturday! And it is time for a new sketch. Are you as excited as we are?

This month, we are drawing from our August 2009 gallery. We have had Kim and Erin and now this week, may we bring you (drum roll.........) ......Jody Wenke.

 

Her graphic layouts make such easy to use sketches.

Did you notice where it says clever title? Haha. That is because Jody is the QUEEN of the clever title. Truly. Sits on a clever title throne of gilded gold mod podged with clever quips and puns and word play. Oh, we miss our Jody.

 

Here are a few our team put together to help inspire you to create your own.

First up is Cari, with one with which you are certain to fall in love. That big sharp edged title draws you in and then the bits of stitching with their loose cut strings softens leads you to the outlined letters. Ah! Fabulous!

 

Marnie stayed true to the sketch doing her best to emulate Jody's wit and play by adding a rabbit to her title.

 

 

Amy found the roundest brown eyes we have seen in a long time and made a layout around them. Seriously, look at those eyes? How on earth will anyone say no to them? ever? She channeled Jody as well on her title adding little hearts to the i's. But back to those eyes for a minute...

 

Marnie made a second layout that stayed true to the original size, though she did use rectangular photos rather than square.

That's it! We hope that this gives you a start with the sketch! Enjoy the sketch and your weekend. See you Monday!