South Dakota Traffic Jam

A New Layout

I have really been wanting to get back into making layouts.  I have SO MUCH stuff that I really need to start putting it to use!!  Of course having all this scrapbook stuff hasn't stopped me from buying more!  I recently purchased the April Studio Calico Kit.  I have never purchased from a kit club before but I love Studio Calico products and their kits seem really well put together so I took a chance.  And I actually sat down yesterday and created a couple of layouts.  Here is the first one.  Come back later this week to see what else I did with the rest of the kit!

Such A Lovely Day Mini Layout

I have been playing around with 6x6 mini layouts lately.  For some reason I find it difficult to scrap in 12x12 and am rarely really happy with the results.  I think I work better in smaller spaces (like tags!) so I have been working on 6x6 layouts to try to translate that to scrapbook pages.  I love using smaller photos (made with the collage function in Picasa) that way it has a similar scale to what you would see on a 12x12 (with multiple photos). 

 I love the little tags/titles that My Mind's Eye makes - and I love how it looks on this layout - if only they would make them larger so you could do the same layout but 12x12!

Farmer's Market Layout

If you "like" my facebook page then you know yesterday I decided to lock myself in my craft room until I got something done.  I figured I would force myself out of this rut!  Well 3 hours later and I finished two layouts!   Which isn't really all that much but its a start.  Today I am going to share with you a layout I made to document our Saturday mornings at the Farmer's Market:

 

Come back later this week to see the other layout I created!



This post is linked here:

Scrapbook 101 - Creating your First Scrapbook Part 3

Make sure to check out:

Part 1 - Supplies

Part 2 - Organize your Photos

Part 3 – The sketch – putting it all together

Ok so you have your supplies and you have your photos now you are ready to start making pages!

I won't be telling you the "rules" for creating a page - because I don't believe in rules!  I think scrapbooking is like any other craft/hobby/art form - it is about fun, experimentation,  and about creating something that you are happy with.  So here is my biggest piece of advice when starting - don’t reinvent the wheel!! Look around the internet and find people whose work you really like and let that inspire you to create.  It is okay to copy them – you are creating pages for your family and you want to be happy with what you have created – if you see something you like recreate it! Over time you will start to develop your own style and won’t need to rely on others as much.  Scraplifting is absolutely okay! (With that said it is never okay to copy someone’s work and submit it for publication or to put it on the internet without properly giving credit  -just a friendly reminder!) 

When I was getting back into scrapbooking a few years ago (after taking some time away from it – but funny enough NOT taking time away from purchasing supplies!) I would keep a notebook of sketches of layouts that I liked the style of.  Sketches are sort of maps/recipes for how to create a layout. I sorted them by number of photos to make it easier to find a sketch that would work for the photos I had on hand.  To sketch a layout I would copy down the basic outline of the layout – where the embellishments would go, what sizes the photos were, where the patterned paper was – keeping it basic so that I could put my own twist on it later. Then when I sat down I found that I usually ended up moving stuff around and the layout would turn out different and would look more like something I had created.  The more pages I created the less I found myself relying on sketches and the more I found I was developing my own style.

If you are creating a scrapbook for a special occasion (like a birthday gift or a wedding guest book) and you have limited time I recommend considering coming up with a couple of similar sketches and repeating it throughout the entire book.  This will make things easier for you as well as tie the whole thing together and give it a “professional” look.  Here are a couple of similar sketches that may work for you.  Notice how they are all similar but a slightly different spin – see if you can come up with more based on these (click on the photos to make them larger):

So that's my advice for creating your first scrapbook - the most important thing to remember is there are no rules.  This is supposed to be fun!  Hopefully this series has been helpful!  If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments and I will try to answer them.  I will leave you with a few links to sites that offer sketches and/or inspiration:

My favorite layouts on Pinterest

Page Maps – great site for page sketches

Two Peas in a Bucket Gallery – lots of inspiration

Pencil Lines - sketch challenge blog

Got Sketch? - sketch blog 

This post is linked at Passionately Artistic and here:

Scrapbook 101 - Creating your First Scrapbook Part 2

Make sure to check out:

Part 1 - Supplies

Part 3 - Creating Pages

Part 2 - Organize your photos:

 ** Please note this is not going to tell you how to organize/store your photos – I need help there too! I recommend Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom if you are interested in organizing photos **

Regardless of the reason you are scrapbooking you are going to want to gather some photos to use.   The project you are working on will probably dictate how you collect your photos:

One time project:  If you are creating this scrapbook as a gift for a birthday/wedding/special event and have no intention of making this a hobby – you want to gather enough photos to span the period of time you are scrapping (a person’s life/ a family history/a couple’s history)  I recommend starting with enough photos to do 20-40 pages (if your scrapbook came with 20 pages – 40 would be doublesided) To do double sided layouts I would recommend photos from 10-20 “events” you want to scrap.  Events can be anything – birthdays, holidays, important days in your life, or they can be important everyday rituals or traditions (example – if every Saturday you and your family have a picnic in the local park you may want to do a layout about this special tradition). 

Beginner Scrapbook:  If you are scrapbooking for the first time and want to start this as a hobby but are not making this book for anything specific – you may want to collect a few groups of photos to start with.  I recommend not getting caught up in scrapping chronologically.  Start with whatever event or photos you are most excited about starting with.  You can always rearrange your layouts later.  Again think about the types of pages you are going to want in your scrapbooks – will you only be scrapbooking big events and holidays? Birthdays? Or will you be scrapping everyday life as well?  Gather photos to get you started on a few pages. 

Here's an idea: I take some time to sit down and sort photos into groups I want to make layouts with and store them in envelopes.  Then I do a short write up of what I might want the journaling to say.  If you aren’t the best at journaling it will probably really help you to have a rough draft.  I also include a sketch in my envelope with photos and journaling (we will talk about sketches later).  I might not immediately scrap these memories but next time I’m feeling inspired to create I will have the basics of my layouts ready and I won’t waste time looking for photos! 

Getting back in the swing of things...

One of the great things about buying a new house is all the SPACE you get! We were living in a tiny one bedroom apartment and have probably tripled the amount of space when we bought this place. One of the perks is finally having a space of my own for my scrapbooking. No more taking over the dining room and living room with all my supplies! Well...not so much....I do have a new space and it is all set up and clean and organized. However, currently my dining room is covered in my supplies and my living room...well the coffee table looks like this: Now I admit this is not AS BAD as it used to be in the apartment but still... maybe a bit unnecessary... In my defense I was cutting kits for my class tonight!

I have been trying to scrapbook more now that I'm all organized. And really I know I need to start using some of the stuff I have before all the new stuff being released at CHA right now hits our store shelves and I have to buy all that too!

Here is a layout I've been working on. I'm a little stuck at the moment: I know it needs something but I'm just not sure what. I have been thinking about printing out some journaling on white paper strips and laid on the page sort of like this: Any thoughts?

Getting ready for class on Monday....

This past week just flew by and I never made it back to the blog as I intended to. Lately I have been working hard to get everything ready for class kickoff on November 21st. Expect my new classes to be really heavy on this: The slice... man I LOVE this thing! If you are taking any of my classes next quarter expect to have lots of cute little slice die cuts. Speaking of which I spent tonight cutting out snowflakes for my Holiday ATC class on Monday in the West End:
cute huh? I cut them out of a book I bought at Goodwill. They aren't acid free but they are cool and vintagy and perfect for ATCs. And then as I was cutting I thought. HEY! I could cut these in 4 inches and string them up somehow and use them for decoration.... so that is an idea I'm going to try to store in my head for when Christmas comes closer. And then I also want to play around with the piece of paper leftover:How cool would these be if you sprayed them with glimmer mist and put them on a scrapbook page? Another idea to try....

And finally I've been slowly packing for the big move to our new house. We close next Friday!
I hope to make it back to the blog sometime this week. But next week expect sneak peeks of the new classes. And if you live in Richmond mark your calendars for class kick off on Saturday November 21st!!

Scrapbooking Fun!

Yesterday I went over to Melissa's house to scrapbook. And yes Melissa is an actual person.... another person... I'm not just talking about myself in third person. No really! I can prove it. I have pictures! See she does exist and she has a cool new camera (which oddly enough is the same one I have ... except hers is black and new)

We made paperbag albums together. She made a Halloween one that she is now selling in her etsy shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6488713 ). I made one with some American Crafts paper that I've had for a while and wasn't really sure what to do with.

And then we worked on layouts. Mine isn't anywhere near done. But the other Melissa did finish a layout and I have to admit it's pretty awesome...even if it is covered in flowers...

Check out Melissa's blog : http://melissasamuels.typepad.com/