Category Archives: process

LOAD Day 2 || No Second Guessing!

LOAD Day 2 || No Second Guessing!

Today’s page was first on the agenda, since we’re going to a Super Bowl party this evening. When I have busy days, I like to squeeze a page in first thing, before I get sidetracked by all the other chores and events of the day.

The prompt for today was to scrapbook something small. (When you first started scrapbooking, didn’t you think you needed to scrapbook all the major events? Don’t you wish you had saved more of the little moments? I know I do!)

LOAD Day 2 Homework || NoExcuseScrapbooking.com

 

This was very fast to put together. A piece of off white cardstock, a few scraps of paper in related colors, and some embellishments that have been staring at me from across the desk, and the page was done.

When you’ve got a lot planned for your day, don’t second guess yourself. The alpha stickers were the first set I came across that looked like they would work for the page. I almost kept looking for alternatives, but then decided they were good enough. I don’t have time to waste on trying for perfect. I prefer to just get things done.

Have you made anything today? Feel free to share!

LOAD Proof

LOAD Proof

While getting ready to make my page for today’s first prompt for LOAD, I thought it might be useful to talk about what, if any, excuses that might pop up during LOAD, and how to talk yourself out of letting those excuses control how much and what you scrap.

In other words, what’s the process for scrapbooking every day? What kind of self talk goes on? How does a prompt turn into a page? What kind of excuses pop up, and how do you recognize a valid reason vs. a  lazy or fearful excuse?

Let’s see what happens this month, shall we?

2 Wild and Crazy Girls || NoExcuseScrapbooking.comToday’s prompt was to scrap an imperfect photo. Since I’m an imperfect photographer, finding one wasn’t that hard. I flipped through the pile of photos I still need to put away, and pulled imperfect ones, until I can across one from college.

It was exposed during a party, so is partially orange, and is filled with the mess from the dorm I used to share freshman year. (I hereby claim all said mess as my own. My poor roommate!)

Anyhoo…

From the photo, I moved to paper selection, and chose papers that helped illustrate the theme. I thought originally that I was going to do an 8.5×11 page, but then realized I had a lot to say, so went 12×12 so I’d have room for lots of journaling. A simple design (One of my go-to’s. I should do a post about my go-to design structures for you), some journaling, and a few embellishments, and it was done.

Today, I didn’t have any issues to deal with. The only problems I ran into were ones I made for myself. For example, I really want to make a point of using up scraps from my scrap bin this month, but when I first started putting the page together, I was pulling fresh pages from my shelf. So I paused, and took a second look at how the page design was shaping up , and pulled out a few scraps to use as well. The purple and orange are from the scrap bin, the blue and lined paper were full sheets.

And then, because I’m spastic like that, I managed to get stickles all over the place while coloring the grungeboard camera icon up top.

So that’s my quick little page for the day. Did you make a page today?

Daily Documenting Resources!

Daily Documenting Resources!

I bet many of you have been bitten by the Project Life/Pocket Page/Daily Life Documenting bug. You love all those pages you see online, and you want to make your own, but you have no idea where to start.

Or maybe you have no idea what all these pocket pages are all about.

Well, there are a few things that can help you get started.

If the idea of taking a photo everyday scares you, check out Katrina Kennedy’s class. She’s got some great ideas that take the intimidation out of the whole daily photography challenge.

If you have time today, you should also check out Traci Reed’s PL planning class. You can participate live today, or watch the replays later. Traci will be sure to have lots of ways to help keep yourself organized in order to be successful with the whole daily documenting project. Traci’s also got a planner you can purchase  to get your daily documenting organized so you can tell deeper and more meaningful stories.

If you’ve already got a ton of pocket page supplies, and want to learn some new ways to decorate them for your  daily documenting, or to use them in other projects, you will want to check out True Scrap: Pocket Pages. That is a full day of classes with live instructors, pre-recorded video, and tons of inspiration. I’m really looking forward to taking those classes at the end of the month.

Last but not least, if you’re running out of ideas, or are painting yourself into the “My life in uninteresting” corner, I have a list of topics to document for you.

Microsoft Word - Photos to take.docx

Photos to take & stories to tell

I originally published this when I did my Week in the Life album last May, but the topics are useful for any kind of daily documenting. You can even print off the PDF if you want: Downloadable Photos to Take Printable

After you get these classes under your belt, you should be more than ready to tackle a daily documenting challenge. You can do it. Really you can.

LOAD-ivated!

LOAD-ivated!

Chugging along with the first full week of LOAD. I love dedicating myself to creating every day, regardless of how busy the day is, or how much energy I have. This past week has been one of those weeks that started out busy and just got more hectic as the week went on. But there’s always time to squeeze in a  little creative play.

This first page started with 1920s design, which led me to fiesta ware, which led me to concentric circles, which led me here:

Fashion Queen

Since my niece is into fluffy, fuzzy and soft, the various ribbons seemed like the perfect addition to the page.

The next prompt was all about the lean years in the 1930s, which made me think of my father who was born during the 30s, and then to my grandfather, who I never met because he died when my father was 16. The amount of info I have about him is very lean, so that led to this page:

Mysterious chap

Love that I used the tear strip (including the name of the line!) on the page!

Another day, another prompt, this one about innovation. (Zippers people! Only since the 1930s. Can you imagine?)

The idea of innovation led me to how cities are finding ways to add beauty and interest and history to their streets, and the huge silly and fun clogs my local city recently commissioned.

You know you're in Albany when

The design is really simple on this, so the clogs take center stage.

Mend, Stitch and Patch was the next prompt. That was an easy story to come up with, since last fall we were inundated with repair projects.

when it rains it pours

The journaling is on the  tag in the bag. The clouds are rub-ons, and the raindrops are stickles.

I went off prompt the next day, because, while looking for photos, this one jumped out at me.  This is how messy my craft room is on a regular basis. Thought you might like to see it in use. 😉

working

The color schemes of the 1940s was the following day’s prompt. The teal and pink on the list just screamed my niece’s name, and I had the circles left over from making the fiesta ware inspired page, so created this:

daddy's little angel

You don’t need to journal a lot on every page, and in this case, the title is the journaling.

I read the last day of the week’s prompt super early in the day, and then went down a rabbit hole trying to find a favorite song of my father’s. When I discovered that it was actually from the 60s, I had to stop and go spend hours doing other errands, and by the time I was able to sit down to scrap I couldn’t remember what the prompt was, and I was so tired, I just scrapped the first story that appealed to me.

using an overlay

Once again I made use of the name strip to add some coordinating pattern. The acetate chevron is supposed to mimic the up and down of falling while learning, as well as the energy and motion of skating. Think it worked?

This week was super busy, filled with an overnight trip to Boston, a birthday party, birthday shopping for two of the most important people in my life (including finding 70 things to wrap for my mother’s 70th birthday!), yard work, hospital visit for tests, and a very painful dentist’s visit, proving it is possible to scrapbook, if it’s something you want to do.

Go make something. You won’t regret taking the time to feel and be creative.

 

Solutions for the Chronological Scrapbooker

Solutions for the Chronological Scrapbooker

Let’s switch gears a little bit, and talk to those scrapbookers who are stuck because they’ve wandered into the land of chronological guilt.

There are a lot of scrapbookers who feel they MUST scrapbook in order. Baby years must be done before school age years, and graduation after that. Never mind that the stories that keep popping up in their head have nothing to do with chronological events, but rather something like how much their child reminds them of another loved one, or of memories of their own childhood.

They’ve decided they must scrapbook chronologically, and forget about the stories that occur to them during their daily life. And then it happens. They see how much they have to do to get “caught up” to today’s stories that they loose their joy and enthusiasm for the hobby. They stop scrapbooking. And then the guilt really sets in.

We can solve this problem. And we don’t have to stop scrapbooking chronologically to do that.

I bet, by now, if you’ve been wandering around the world of scrapbooking for any length of time, you’ve heard of Project Life, by Becky Higgins. This, believe it or not, is how you can get “caught up.”

Project Life was originally designed so that people could take a photo a day, write a little something each day, and then just slip the photos and journaling cards into pockets. Quick, easy and done. It has since evolved and spread, and most people are using it weekly, and documenting the details of their lives.

I started a Project Life album in 2011, but never finished it. Here, take a look:

All very nice you say, but how does that apply to the pile of photos you have from 10, 15,  or even 20 years ago that you have to scrapbook before you can even think about today’s stories?

Well, as you saw, the Project Life I started two years ago is still incomplete. I’ll break down the process for you in easily digestible chunks, and show you how to pull an album together.

You should be able to apply that process to any time frame you want to document, whether it’s last week, or ten years ago.

I’ll have that ready for you next week. While I’m working on that, why don’t you pull together the photos you want to use, and pick out some Project Life pocket pages and cards you like? You’ll need them to make your own album!

Check out the Project Life supplies at Amazon. (affiliate link) There are a LOT of choices!