making cookies with Mom

I remember how I coveted these letter stamps for some time before I finally asked to get them for Christmas a few years ago. Since they came as unmounted rubber stamps on a single sheet I also asked for the EZ Mount starter kit. When the stamps came I mounted them on stamping foam and very carefully cut around each letter with my new special Kai scissors. It was a lot of work, but I finally had my Steelfish Outline letter stamps! A couple of months later I was in a scrapbook store and came across a set of clear Steelfish Outline letter stamps, meaning they didn't have to be mounted on foam, they didn't have to be cut out, and they would be easier to line up. Well, crap.

I couldn't find letter stickers in the right color/size for this layout, so letter stamps with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder were the perfect solution. I didn't have any letter stamps small enough for the "making" and "with," so I wrote out the words with my Quickie Glue Pen (after 4 attempts each of writing them in pencil, of course) and embossed with clear embossing powder. Worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Bazzill Basics cardstock; Scenic Route patterned paper (stripe and dot); Autumn Leaves patterned paper (pink); Making Memories tag stickers; Paper Studio brad ("C"); Recollections tiny brad; Fontwerks alpha stamps; Versamark ink; Sakura Quickie Glue pen; Stampendous! embossing powder; Fiskars apron lace border punch

going simple with die cut paper

Did you notice that the last layout had nothing but cardstock, photos, die cut paper, letter stickers and journaling?  I find I often reach for my die cut paper when I'm wanting to create a quick and simple layout. Here's another one using the same formula.

Hasn't Keith gotten quite good at the dual self-portrait? Pretty handy when no one's around and you're too lazy (or cold) to bust out the tripod. It's important for me to have lots of photos of us together.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; KI Memories die cut paper; American Crafts velvet letter stickers; Fiskars corner rounder

making the most of bad photos

Sometimes I take photos at an event and when I get home there's not a single shot that I would be proud to show someone. It happens. Therefore, I deal with it (but I don't have to like it!)

When the Dallas Mavericks had their training camp at UNT, staff and students were able to attend and bring a guest. Keith and I took lots of photos, but a combination of a dim coliseum, fast action, and people who kept sticking their stupid camera phones in the way (but I'm not bitter) resulted in a stack of disappointing photos. The overall experience was neat, though, so I decided to make a layout with a collage of photos. I feel like this focuses on the photos as a whole and not on any one particular (stinky) photo. And as much as the photos are busy and cluttered, the clean and streamlined layout design makes me totally happy with the final result. That, my friends, is considered a victory.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; KI Memories die cut paper; American Crafts foam letter stickers; Delicious font

No Waste Wednesday: reusing the rejects

If you're like me, then sometimes when you're working on a project you have an element cut out and ready to go, but then it just doesn't work. Wrong color. Wrong size. Sometimes you don't even know why, but you know you're not happy with it. Instead of recycling the rejected piece, challenge yourself to put it to good use on a card!

The blue frame on this card was originally created for a journaling block on a layout. I ended up doing something else on the layout, but instead of tossing the frame, I used it as the perfect starting point for a card. All the other supplies are also ones I had sitting out after finishing my layout, so the card came together very quickly.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; American Crafts patterned paper (brown) and felt flower; Rhonna Farrer for Autumn Leaves patterned paper (pink); Prima paper flower; Making Memories brad; Glue Dots International vellum adhesive; vellum; MigraineSerif font

Interested in seeing the layout the blue frame was originally supposed to go on?

I had planned for the cardstock frame to go around the journaling (see how it was going to complete the visual triangle with the blue title and blue felt flower?). However, once I actually cut it out and laid it on the layout, I felt that it was too visually weighty and threw off the design of the layout. I still wanted to repeat some blue there for design purposes, and I already had my journaling printed on vellum, so I used a blue Prismacolor pencil and drew a border around the journaling. Perfect!

fairy godmother

I started this page during last week's Super Secret Crafting Club and finished it on Saturday, but I had to excavate my scanner before I could post it. In fact, I had to take a few days off of crafting just to get some important things done around here. You know...laundry, cleaning the house, cooking dinner. Things I forget about when I'm in a creative groove.

We call our Cinderella Project volunteers fairy godmothers, so when scrapbooking photos of my boss and I in CP dresses, it felt a little like I was scrapping a Disney page. I mean, Belle yellow and Sleeping Beauty pink just begged to be paired with Cinderella blue, don't you think? Add in some sparkle and it's even more fitting. The white strips on the page have glitter polka dots on them, and the scrolly patterned paper is a subtle metallic silver. The fairy "sprinkles" are pink and yellow gemstone brads and some clear smooth adhesive gemstones. I love the letter stickers and how they connect to form a seamless script word.

KI Memories patterned paper (blue dot); American Crafts patterned paper (silver and white scroll) and puffy letter stickers; K&Co. glitter paper; Making Memories rhinestone brads; Hero Arts smooth gemstones; Fontin font; vellum; Glue Dots vellum adhesive

SC Squared layouts

Here are the finished layouts that I started on Friday during Super Secret Crafting Club (see previous post).

Can I just say that UNT green shirts are just about the hardest thing to scrap ever? I understandably have a ton of photos of us in Mean Green, but all of the green scrapbook papers and accents I have are in a lovely bright green that has more yellow in it. I wonder if our marketing department would be receptive to me asking them to change the school color? I mean, I totally have a good reason.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; American Crafts patterned paper, foam letter stickers, and brads; Autumn Leaves journaling stamp; Creative Imaginations rubon ("Game Day"); Versafine by Tsukineko stamping ink

This isn't really what I had in my head, but those tickets threw a wrench in things. Having memorabilia on the page (instead of behind it, which I sometimes do) makes Keith happy, so I try to do it as often as possible.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; American Crafts patterned paper and felt letter stickers

I also created a card with some of the patterned paper scraps leftover from the Muse layout. The tiny green scallops are actually from my loop punch, but I only let the very tip of them peek out from behind the patterned paper. The small flower is adhered with one layer of dimensional adhesive, and the "Hi" circle is adhered with a double layer. I like how the varying heights make the card even more interesting.

Bazzill Basics cardstock; American Crafts patterned paper and felt flowers; Making Memories mini brad; Recollections tiny brad; KI Memories rubon word; Martha Stewart loop punch

Hey, I scrapbooked!

Sometimes, the best way for me to get back in the groove of scrapping is to make cards. I got to spend Labor Day playing with my scrapbook supplies and now I feel inspired to go create!

one layout and 9 cards. I call that a pretty good day!

My desire and inspiration for scrapbooking goes in cycles, and is usually inversely related to the amount of time I spend at work. This July and August I worked the hardest (and most hours) I think I ever have. Subsequently, no scrapbooking. By the time I got home, I was practically brain dead and certainly didn't have any inclination to pull out my scrapping stuff. (To be honest, I was so tired I didn't even talk much in the evenings. I am so grateful that Keith not only understood, but put up with me making him late for work because I was chattering away in the mornings trying to tell him all the things I didn't have the energy to say the night before. I was a completely different person after my batteries had recharged!)

Labor Day weekend was great, and not just because of my return to scrapbooking. On Saturday we had our third quarterly (get that?) family game day. A full day of family (including some friends we've "adopted"), games, and lots of food. Sunday we met up with some friends at church and were able to worship side by side with them and then spent dinner and dessert connecting with them in a way that filled a little bit of my heart. They are such encouraging, inspiring people. Monday was dedicated to scrapping and football--the perfect bumming day! Basically, a fabulous weekend.

my creative process

I thought I would share my process when it comes to creating a layout. It's so interesting to me to see how other scrapbookers do things, so I thought someone might find this interesting, too.

Step 1: Start with photos and a story

Sometimes I have a story I want to scrap and I will go look for photos to go with the story. Other times I have some photos I want to scrap and will decide which story I want to tell with them.

I specifically took the photo on this layout so I could scrap the story of the tests I was going through at the time. Thankfully, my husband doesn't even hesitate when I ask him to take photos of things like wires coming out of my shirt!


Step 2: Select papers that go with the photos/story














Notice I didn't say I pick papers that match the photo. Rather, I pull out papers that complement the photo and convey the overall feeling that I want the layout to have. Typically, I pull papers for 3-4 layouts at a time to maximize efficiency.

In this photo I'm wearing a green work polo, but there's no green anywhere in the papers. Instead, I chose cool colors with more angular and graphic patterns. The grid and number papers especially lend themselves to a layout about doctor's visits and medical tests.


Step 3: Choose coordinating embellishments














After I have a good selection of papers, I pick out title options (stickers, rubons or stamps) and embellishments that coordinate with the papers and continue to contribute to the feeling I want to convey. I may or may not actually have an idea of how I want to use these items. It doesn't matter, since the point is only to narrow my options so that I don't get sidetracked shuffling through my stuff over and over again while I'm creating my layout.

Here I pulled out title options that were black and white, a black rick rack trim (kind of like an EKG?) , silver accents which evoke the cold metallic feel of a doctor's office, and a blue items to bring in the blue from the patterned paper. At this point I had no idea how I wanted to use any of them.


Step 4: Journaling














Figuring out my journaling at this point in the process is important so that I have enough room for it on the layout. Have you ever gotten to the end of making a layout and then realized that the amount of journaling you want to include is way more than you have space for? Yeah...um...me neither. Obviously, typed journaling takes up less space, so I prefer it when I need to journal a lot. I like handwritten journaling (especially on my cute journaling notebook pages or journaling spot stamps) for when I have less to say.

Once I wrote the story for this layout and picked a font I liked, I started playing with formatting. I reduced the margin to leave enough room for my photo along the side and then made minor adjustments to the margin and leading (the amount of space between the lines of text) until I was happy with how it looked.


Step 5: Testing the journaling














I use scrap paper to print out my journaling before I make the commitment to print it on cardstock or patterned paper. I'll lay my photos out on it to make sure they fit, make more adjustments if needed and then print another test page to be sure it's right. (You know I'm a little OCD by now, right?) When I handwrite my journaling I almost always write it out on scratch paper first so I can see how much space it will take up. When I'm using a journaling stamp it's even better--I just stamp it on scrap paper and rewrite until it looks good.

By this point I'd chosen "Vasovagal Syncope" as my title, and the length helped me decide on the small KI Memories alpha rubons. I made sure I had enough room at the top for two rows of title letters (and a common margin on all sides of the journaling/title block).


Step 6: Assembling the layout














Once the journaling is printed (or prewritten, in the case of handwritten journaling) I start to move things around on the page until I'm happy. Often, I'm inspired by how papers looked when I laid them all out in Step 2. This step is also where I pay attention to design principles like balance, contrast and visual weight. I'm a frugal decision-impaired perfectionistic scrapper (which means this step probably take me longer than it does almost anyone else), so I don't cut anything until I'm absolutely sure it's what I'm going with.

With the journaling/title block completed you would think finishing the other 2/5ths of the layout would be quick, right? Not so much for me. Even after I decided where I wanted the KI Memories black number lace paper, I moved it around until I found just the right piece of it to show (See how the left side shows the curves of the numbers instead of a straight cut? It helps to break up all the straight lines in the layout.) I wanted to use the silver Hambly overlay at the bottom, but it didn't look right with the blue background showing through. I decided to put it over black cardstock (see also, how it appeared in Step 2), which also balanced out the black on the layout and gave the bottom of the page some visual weight.


Step 7: Take a step back














At this point the layout isn't missing anything important (story? check. photo? check. title? check. pretty papers? check). I can either stop here or take it to the next level.

I liked this layout so far, but it felt like it was missing something. It needed a little bit of texture. It also had what looked like four separate "compartments," so I wanted to add something that would overlap two to help break up all of the lines.


Step 8: Add details














I typically keep my my embellishments simple. In addition to adding interest to my pages, I like to use them to further the design of the page. Here is where I like to incorporate concepts like repetition and the rule of threes.

Here a silver Making Memories stitched tin and a blue felt heart (cut from an American Crafts felt flower) repeat the blue and silver already appearing on the layout. I placed it so that it overlapped two areas of the page to help break up all of the horizontal lines. While it doesn't always work out this way, on this page the accent also represents the theme of the page--a soft, felt heart (my vasovagal syncope deals in part with my heart) on a cold metal square. You might also notice I added two very thin strips of silver cardstock framing out the photo.


Step 9: Final changes














Before I make the commitment to adhere things down, I look over the page to see if I'm happy. Sometimes I'll try out a different option to see if I like it better. This is where I usually stand on my chair and look down at the layout on my desk. It helps me to get a different perspective. I've heard of other scrappers taking a digital photo of their work in progress or looking at it in a mirror to achieve the same effect. I'm sure Keith wishes I did that instead; he's always warning me to be careful.

I felt like the original heart and metal square were too large, so I created a smaller version (made me glad I have the stitched tins and felt flowers in multiple sizes!) and tested it out. Perfect! At this size it doesn't draw away attention from the photo and journaling.


Step 10: Admire my work














Once everything is adhered, the layout is finally complete! I do my best not to second guess any design decisions (or find a type-o), because I draw the line at redoing a layout.

Thankfully, I'm completely satisfied with this layout! I won't read the journaling again, lest I discover a mistake (I'll let my Mom do that for me when she looks at the album. And you wonder where I get it.)


Step 11: Housekeeping














You thought we were done? Almost. Once a layout is complete I flip it over and record the important details: a supply list in the bottom left hand corner and the date completed and my signature in the bottom right hand corner. I actually started including a supply list long before I even thought about submitting (overachiever, remember?), but now that I do submit my work for publication it comes in very handy. I also scan my pages so I can post them online and submit them, but wait until I have a few layouts to hook up the scanner.

Yes, that's the back of my layout. It's actually the main design (kind of like an "a side") to a double-sided KI Memories patterned cardstock. I love the subtle prints they have on the back of their papers--I use those just as often as the front of the papers.


Step 12: Clean up














I clean up my desk after every layout. It's our computer desk, too, so chances are I'm going to need a clear surface to pay bills or cut coupons. Even if I'm going to start right in on another layout I clean things up, though, because I like to have things in order.

You can see here my stack of supplies that were set to the side as I either rejected them or finished using them. This is about as disheveled as my desk gets. Notice that there are things in the stack, like the Making Memories epoxy brads, that weren't pulled out in Step 3. I must have thought I was going to use them at some point. Just because I pull my supplies out at the beginning of my process doesn't mean that I refuse to allow myself to pull something else out later. I just don't spend time rifling through everything again.
























That's my process! It involves a lot of moving things around and tweaking things, but I learned from experience that if I just "get it done" I'm usually not happy with the result. I scrap for the enjoyment of it and to share my stories and photos. Since I'm not obsessed with "catching up," it doesn't bother me that it takes me a little longer to complete a layout.

Here's a challenge for you: the next time you sit down to create layout, card, or other project, take some photos along the way. Post the photos on a blog or in a gallery along with a description of your "steps." Not only will it be interesting for others to see (send me a link if you do this, I'd love to see it.), but you may also learn a little more about your own creative process that will help you create more effectively in the future.

displaying memorabilia on a layout

I like to save things, and when those things are relatively flat I like to put them in my scrapbooks so I can actually look at them. I'm a pro at the fake pocket pages (see the July layout a few posts back) where larger pieces of memorabilia are sandwiched between a full sheet of paper in the back and a half sheet of paper in front. Sometimes, though, I want something different. With a simple and streamlined end result in mind, I wanted to find a way to display all of our brochures, maps, tickets and other items from our road trip a few summers back. Since we had a few different stops I sorted the items by city (I love sorting!--stop judging me now) and then formatted my journaling for each city to go on the vellum overlay. It's not really a pocket, since there's no bottom, but it is still designed to keep the memorabilia in place. The two sections on the right hand side are separated at the top of the "pocket" by a tiny white brad through the ribbon. I'll admit, I felt pretty clever when I used a brad that was the exact same size as the dots on the ribbon. The end result is a layout with two photos, lots of journaling, even more memorabilia, and yet it still looks clean and simple. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

since we're on the topic of my orderly nature...

I consider myself a semi-chronological scrapbooker. Most of the time I scrap whatever inspires me and don't worry about scrapping the photos that are "next." However, I do arrange my albums in chronological order. I like it that way; it makes me happy.

To further give order to my albums I do a calendar page for each month. These calendar layouts serve multiple purposes.
1.) They are an introduction to that section of the album.
2.) The calendars are a good representation of what when on in our lives for that month. (at least, when I fill them out in a timely manner and don't try to do 7 months at a time) I end up preserving lots of information and tidbits that would get lost otherwise. I might not do a page about how crazy busy I was this past April (and every April, for that matter!), but it will be quite obvious after one glance at the April calendar.
3.) Doing these gives me permission to leave things out of the rest of my album. It's recorded. I don't have to do a layout about it if I don't want to.
4.) The left page can be about a specific topic (like the July layout which focuses on my work at UNT), can be some photos I liked but didn't want to create a whole page for (like the June layout with some photos of me on my birthday), or can contain little bits and pieces of our life that month (like the March layout). It's extremely versatile and helps me get everything I want to include into my albums.

I created a calendar template in Microsoft Excel and just "save as" for each new month and fill in the info. It stays stored in my files until I'm ready to scrap it, which is good because I would never be able to fill these out if I waited. I'm all about simplicity in my scrapbooking, so I haven't altered the format much over the past years. I've seen other people do calendars on their layouts with individual cardstock squares for each day and it looked really cute, but it's just a little too time consuming for me. Plus, I like consistency. I'm just like that.

Even if you only do one, consider trying out a calendar page layout to get a lot of info into a single layout.





BTW, my original blog title was going to be "since we're on the topic of my Type A-ness," but after reading it I reconsidered. I'm a lady, after all. (Just not enough of one to make it stop me from sharing my inadvertent potty humor with the world.)

list maker extraordinaire

If you haven't figured it out by now, I have a rather type-A personality. I over analyze just about everything, I like things lined up and in order, and I like lists. Lots of lists. Surprisingly, I haven't created a list of things to blog about...yet.

breaking the habit

...my Making Memories kraft patterned paper habit, that is. Look! I actually did some layouts without my security blanket, I mean, go-to patterned paper!

we're so cute together

Aren't we so cute together? Thanks to my friend Michelle for capturing these fun photos of us, especially since I made her stand on a 12-foot ladder to take them! (and yes, there's that Making Memories kraft patterned paper again. I think I need an intervention.)

I think I'm addicted

I have a scrapbooking-related addiction. You see, Making Memories made a Kraft line of patterned papers that are all designs on a kraft-colored background. I loved them when I bought them, so much so that I bought multiple sheets of several of the patterns. I never buy more than one sheet of each design, since I only use small portions of patterned paper per layout and therefore can stretch a sheet across several layouts. This time, however, not only did I buy more than one sheet of these kraft patterns, a week later I went back and stocked up on even more. I guess I must have known how well they would go with just about everything. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that almost every single layout I've done lately uses at least a small piece of Making Memories kraft patterned paper. It might not be so odd if it weren't for the fact that I bought these papers about a year and a half ago. That's forever in the scrapbook world. I love the pages, though, so let me share my addiction with you.

scrapbook share

I don't often get to share my scrapbooks with friends and family, especially since my in-progress album is just a stack of layouts! I also don't like to shove a 30 pound album in someone's lap, watching expectantly as they turn the pages. Putting them here on my blog seems like a good compromise, since you can look at them as you please. I hope you like them, and if you don't at least you don't have to say nice things because I'm sitting right there next to you!

as seen in Simple Scrapbooks January/Feburary 08