Write. Click. Scrapbook.

"Impossible" Papers

Hello everyone,Cari here! On today post I want to talk about those "impossible" papers. Have you ever seen a paper and you think "I love it, but I have no idea how to use it", that always happens to me! So Today I'm going to show you how I solved this problem with two papers that has big letters on in.

The first one come in a last year Studio Calico kit but I got it late with a grab bag. It was full pink and it has big letter what say: Who, What, When, Where and How. As far as I saw this paper I LOVE it so much, but didn't know who to use it at all. 

God bless Pinterest that always come to save us and one day when I was looking for nothing specific I found this pin from Anna Maria Wolniak and I got the inspiration I need it. I love her idea of to cover some part of the title to create a new one and give priority to the photo. 

Something I love about scrapbooking it that somehow copying is ok under the name of scraplift, if you give the credit to the person you inspire on, there is no problem then! I love scraplifting because there are so many good ideas out there that would be SO BAD not to be able to use them =P.

 

My second layout is also with a paper from Studio Calico, this is for June's kit and in the whole page it says "The beginning" . This paper has basically only one space where to place the photo - and if you look for more expamples on how people use this paper, you will find out that everyone use it like this - so the best idea is to use those empty spaces the paper leaves you to place your photo. Sometime the most evident thing to do is the best option!

I also painted a cut some photos from a paper from Crate Paper that I LOVE, I would buy it one thousand times and would keep cutting and painting all those flowers. This paper is from Craft Market collection.

I hope you have enjoyed my post and find some useful tips here, and tell me what do you do when you see some of those "impossible" papers?

Scrapbook: Designing a vacation album

It's Jennifer Larson again with one final day to show you how to design a simple, classic vacation album quickly and easily.

Monday I shared how I would organize the "chapters" or layouts of the album. Tuesday I showed my photo secret--using templates to fit many photos on a page. Today I begin to assemble the album.

The first thing I do is select products. To make it easily, I use one scrapbooking collection for the whole album. I often pick the collection right after I return from vacation and keep it in the same Iris container I use for memorabilia. I don't pick themed paper per se--no Disney paper in this album--but I go for colors and patterns that remind me of our vacation. For the Disney album I picked October Afternoon's Boarding Pass.

Next I make the title page, which serves as a template for the whole album.

 

Here's the easiest part for me, which I've blogged about before: I use the same album design every year, and I use the same layout design on every page. Here's a basic sketch (You'll see there's a spot for three photos on the first page; you could also replace it with an embellishment cluster or more journaling.):

 

And here's the inside layout I've been working on this week:

 

I had originally planned separate pool and water pages, but I realized I didn't have enough photos for two spreads and instead combined them on the same spread. To do the journaling, I measure the space I have on the page, open a Word document, and create a text box (Insert-TextBox) that will fit. (Note: when I am working on the whole album, I usually put all the text boxes on the same document to save paper.)

On the layout, you'll see that I use a little patterned paper, a few embellishments, and a lot of photos and story. I may switch it up when I change layouts--put the title at the bottom and not the top, or put the title page on the right and the photo collage on the left--or I might rotate the patterned paper every few pages.. Still, it's the same design, which makes assembling this album quick, but with a classic design that highlights the story and photos.

I haven't yet affixed the journaling because I may ink the edges. (I actually planned the journaling first and printed it on my printer for one album I made, but that kind of attention to detail sort of sucked out a bit of my soul, so I prefer printing and affixing it on the page, even if it's tone-on-tone.) And I may pull out my sewing machine to stitch in between each photo on the collage. I am willing for some odd reason to torture myself in that way.

One final note for the back of the album:

 

On the inside cover of the back I glue a big envelope with a lot of strong adhesive, and I put the memorabilia that I want to keep in there. I satisfy my need to keep mementos without worrying about archival quality of the products or how to fit them in the design. 

Thank you for spending the week with me! I hope this gave you ideas for how to tackle a big project like a vacation album and spend less time creating something you'll treasure for years.

Click: Using photo templates for a vacation album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson again, continuing to share with you how I build a vacation album. Today I'd like to share how I select photos for the layouts and fit many photos on the page.

Yesterday I determined the subject for each layout in the album. Next I open up my photos in Photoshop Elements Organizer, scrolling through my vacation photos and opening every photo that fits that category:

Once I do, I select 2 of the best photos that I will print 4x6, though I will probably trim them to fit the page. The rest I will use to create a photo collage. Side comment here: I usually make my vacation albums 8.5x11, so the photo collage I usually make that size with a white border. I then trim it and affix it to cardstock.

I used to make photo collages to keep on hand forever year's vacation, but it's easier for me to size the template to the photos I select for each page. Here's a video showing how to create a collage (ignore the part where I forget if I should use control, option, or command. Gah.):

   

And here's the finished collage:

As I mentioned on the video, I like leaving a spot or two empty for patterned paper and embellishments after I print the photo. I have also found that with an 8.5x11 template, I can comfortably fit about 6-9 photos. More than that, the photos are so small they lose all details. If I want to fit one or two more, I might print it in a 4x6 format and then circle punch the subject out and add it on top of a corner of the collage with dimensional stickers, plus some embellishments.

Thank you for visiting today! I hope you now have ideas to easily fit many photos on a page. Come back tomorrow so that I can show you how to finish up the album with a very simple design.

Write: Planning a vacation album

Hello! It's Jennifer Larson with you for the next few days to show you how I try to create a simple vacation album. Today I'll focus on the initial writing that organizes the album.

When we think of writing, we think about the journaling, but writing involves much more, including the initial planning. Scrapbooking a whole album requires another kind of planning: determining the subject of each "chapter" or layout in the album. I'd like to share some planning for a vacation album today.

Side note: I am VERY behind in scrapbooking vacations. The album I'll be planning with you is our Disney trip from 2010. (I'm now putting on the cone of shame.) It's on my bucket list this summer to finish it, so I'm using the next few days to get a jump start on it.

When I am on vacation I tend to journal on scraps of paper. After vacation, I put them in an Iris container along with supplies and memorabilia I am planning on using with the album:

 

Once I am ready to start the album, I look through the photos and this journaling and plan the "chapters" for the album. Here's what I did for this album:

In case it's hard to read in the photo, here are the chapters:

1. Title page
2. Journey and Hotel
3. MGM/Hollywood (4 pgs?)
4. Epcot
5. Pool?
6. Downtown Disney
7. Animal Kingdom
8. Date Night
9. Late Night Disney
10. Luau
11. Waterpark
12. Trip back? Last page

Please note that while it is generally chronological and organized by place or event, I also break that chronology in an album when needed. For example, sometimes I'll make pages about something we did the whole trip, or I'll put together a special page to focus on one detail. In this year's vacation album, for example, I may focus on cribbage, places we ate, and our dog as a major hiker when I finally scrapbook this vacation, hopefully before the year 2021.

Thank you for letting me share some ideas for scrapbooking your vacation! Tomorrow I'll be back to show how I put a lot of photos on the page in a clean and simple fashion.

Sunday Photo + Words

Where Can You Go?

Hi, Everyone! It's Aliza here. I hope you are all enjoying your summer. For my family, the real fun will begin in August. So far, our 2015 summer memories mostly revolve around going to work. But I do have a layout to share today, that is all about NOT traveling very far, and all the fun you can have relatively close to home.

I wrote a lot last year about how we were new owners of a car. Being city dwellers, we got around on public transportation for years and years (and years). So last summer, we had a blast traveling around close to the city, but gloriously outside the urban jungle. 

I recently pulled together a bunch of those photos from the places we visited, and joined them into one layout with the simple title of "One and a Half Hours."

It occurred to me that this could be a great prompt for others too. What are some of the places that you travel to that are relatively close to home? What do you do there? What do those places mean to you? what do those places say about you and your family, and what you like to do in your free time?

Whether you are traveling near or far, I hope you are enjoying your summer!

 

Sunday Photo + Words

Saturday Sketch

Happy Saturday! July is skipping on by--here we are with our third sketch for the month! This week we found inspiration from our December 2009 gallery from a layout by Cheryl. She showed us two options for her layout 

and now we have a sketch to help you find even more ways to put a layout together. 

 

Here is the 8.5x11 sketch

and the 12x12.

 

Marnie used the square sketch to create a layout.

She stayed very true to the sketch, with the exception of needing more room to journal. And gratefully it was digital, lest it be stained with tears. ♥☺

We hope you find this sketch useful and helpful as it can take just a few photos, or quite a few if need by. Happy weekend!

 

Scrapbook. Project Life inserts and extras

Hi! Today I wanted to share a few of my recent Pocket Pages with you. Even if I do Scrapbook layouts aswell, the Project Life style of memory keeping has become my favorite way of recording our lives. Enjoy and I hope you can find some inspiration! This was the last week before summer vacation for me. My mom came to visit and we celebrated the graduation of my daughter. I added in a big journaling card by Big City Quiet to add stories from her last week at school. This is the blank card, there are several others with titles like currently, everyday life etc. Adding in 6x4" cards to journal on is my new favorite!

To the back of the journaling card insert, I added photos of her and her friends from that week.

I got a pretty rose from a few kids at work with a note, so I took a photo of it and added the note to the back of it. Washi tape on the top and it became a flip photo.

First week of vacation! I added fun and happy stuff from the week.

To be able to add a few more photos I added that Currently card I got in a Studio Calico PL kit. You can see how I added a strip of washi tape to the edge of it to make it a flip card. I love how these types of addings bring so much dimension to a spread!

For the weekend, I opted to make 2 3x4" photo collages. Such a fun and easy way to add many photos. I added journaling to a tag I made to tuck behind the photo.

For this week I worked with the moodboard from the Swedish PL blog I write for.

My daughter went to a One Direction concert and send several photos, and I made a 4x4" insert even before she came home :)

We went on a roadtrip to friends on Saturday and I added a fold out map of the city we visited.

And on the back of the map I just trimmed patterned paper and added to it.

A big photo hides journaling and many more photos of our first days.

The first part of the week we were still on vacation and the photos are from there. I also added in a fun text message from my daughter to the back of...

...this photo. I cut a bigger photo in half, punched holes and added it right in there.

And on the back of the second part of the photo, I added the text about my daughter getting in to the high school of her choice!

And the second page of the spread holds photos that represent how fun it was to come home again! I printed an Ali E digital brush on plastic and added that in one of the pockets. I am going to keep that clear for next week´s spread also. Photo collages and a watercolor tag to hold the journaling. Lisa

click | editing out unwanted things

Happy Tuesday and welcome to this week's edition of Click. Today we are going to talk about editing out unwanted portions of a photograph. 

 

As I was trying to complete the layouts for last year's beach trip, I found this photo. 

 

I liked the picture and the moment it captured, but didn't really want the bare back and I did want to crop the photo tighter so the girls' faces are more visible.

 

 

I did like seeing the girls more clearly, but I felt like the extra bodies still cluttered things up. I added some elements on either side of the photo and the a strip of ribbon across the top. There were still some bit of the kids in the background that were visible so I used the cloning tool (in Photoshop) to get rid of them.

I am so much happier now and feel like the photograph better suits the layout and story now. How about you? Have you thoughts about taking out superfluous items from your photos? Tell me what you think!