Yesterday, I almost forgot to make a page for Layout a Day. Silly snowdays, throwing off the schedule!
At 9:15pm I remembered that I needed to make a page for the day. I had the page finished and added to Flickr by 10pm. Yep, you read that right. Under 45 minutes to create a page. You can do this!
I ignored the prompt for the day and began by looking through photos I had ready and waiting to be used. (I wanted to do a page about my grandmother’s house that would have fit the prompt, but I need to snag some photos from my mother to do that.)
After deciding on photos, my next step was to choose paper. I started going through some of my more recent acquisitions, and found a gorgeous argyle pattern three sheets from the top of the pile that would work great with the theme of the photos. (Socks!)
I knew I didn’t want to write a lot, since the photos were so self-explanatory, so I cut the paper down to 8 1/2 by 11. Then I searched my scrap bin for paper I could use to mat the photos so they wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the patterned paper. After matting the photos and adhering them to the patterned paper, I grabbed one of the alphabet sticker sets still sitting on my desk, and added a title, and outlined it with white pen to help the letters stand out more.
A quick browse through my embellishment stash yielded some surprisingly apt foot and heart eyelets and clips, and some label stickers made a quick spot for journaling. (I wrote my journaling, and then added the strips to the page, rather than the other way around.)
The longest part? The journaling, because my husband was trying to talk to me while I was writing, and I was trying to listen. And I wanted input into describing the bottom photo. That kid does love his socks.
Why did it take so little time to create this page? The main reason is because experience has given me the confidence to choose my supplies and design quickly. I can make pages that are more complex and artsy, but I don’t have to reinvent the scrapbook page every time I sit down to make a layout. Nor do I have to find the perfect paper or embellishment. If the supplies work, I’m good to go. No second guessing around here.
Making a scrapbook page is a very simple process. Photos, plus words, on paper. It really is that simple. You can do it! Just take one step at a time.