Color Me Done!

Color Me Done!

Yesterday’s color inspiration from Design Seeds was just what the doctor ordered. The colors and the composition were so inspiring they helped me use some not very good photos in a fun way. Just in case you didn’t see yesterday’s post, this is the color palette I started with.

And this is what I made:

recipe for disaster||noexcusescrapbooking.com

The ferns from the photo inspired the green spoons and whisks along the bottom. One of my goals for the year is to use my silhouette portrait more. I love how easy it is to use. Another goal I have for the year is to use up more of my stash, and to get rid of things that are mostly used up. Like letter stickers.

I think the title came out really well. And it made my husband snort-laugh when he saw it this morning. Since that’s the kind of reaction I was aiming for, I’m calling this layout a win.

How about you? Are you inspired by this photo or color palette at all? What are you going to do with it?

Color Me Inspired

Color Me Inspired

If you are ever in need of a color boost, you have to check out Design Seeds. They take gorgeous photos and create color palettes based on them. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

It is but it isn’t. The owner goes through a fairly involved process which requires a lot more skills than using the color picker in Photoshop. She ends up creating some very lovely palettes that are super useful for any kind of design project, including scrapbooking.

Case in point: I’ve got a series of photos I want to use to make a layout. I wasn’t sure about how I wanted to start it. Enter a quick browse through Design Seeds.

design seeds || color served

This palette is perfect. It’s got the browns from my photos, and the greens and whites will make for some great contrast. Plus, green is the favorite color of the kid involved. I can even use the composition of the photo to inspire the form of the page design.

Excuse me, I’m going to go make a page now. I’ll be back tomorrow with the result!

A Quotable Life: Catching Your Family in the Act

A Quotable Life: Catching Your Family in the Act

One of the things that I have always loved is the way people say things. If you’re paying attention, you’ll find the people around you saying things that are funny or profound or just wonderfully phrased all the time. As a writer, I’ve been saving these quotes for a long time, since they’re wonderful windows into character creation.

As a documenter, aka a scrapbooker, saving these quotes are a great way to capture the personality and interactions of your family. (And friends too, but we’ll talk about them at a later point.)The things people say show you how they look at the world, how they think, and how they interact with others.

However, you can’t always immediately stop what you’re doing to go create a scrapbook page when one of your family members says something memorable. What am I saying? You almost never can do that! So what do you do?

You take notes.

There are a bunch of ways you can take notes, depending on your circumstances. A scrap of paper and pencil will work in a pinch. Having a notebook in your purse or stashed around the house for just such moments is handy. Your smart phone is helpful too, since you can jot notes or even dictate them there. I’ve found Facebook and Twitter helpful for capturing moments too, and screen shots of text messages and chats are great as well.

If  you’re not careful, though, those notes will just sit there. If you’re like me at all, you may even forget to date them, so you don’t even remember how old someone was when they made that memorable quote. Try to remember to date them when you jot them down. Don’t be like me!

Do try to turn those quotes into pages though.

ethan in his own words||noexcusescrapbooking.com

You’ll be glad you did.

What is a Sketch Master?

What is a Sketch Master?

Since I released my first book on scrapbooking a year and a half ago, I’ve been planning a whole series of books about scrapbooking. I’ve got about ten different book topics planned that cover scrapbooking everything from vacations to family history.

The one that’s closest to completion is one about how to use sketches. The first draft is done. Now I’m going back through it to try to make sure it clearly says what needs to be said. Once that’s done, I’ll need beta readers. If anyone is interested in being a beta reader, please drop me a line at heather@noexcusescrapbooking.com. I’d love to have the input.

sketches || noexcusescrapbooking.com

The sketch book is going to be called The Scrapbooker’s Guide to Mastering Sketches, and the idea of being a Sketch Master is introduced there.

A Sketch Master is someone who’s able to read and understand sketches (or blueprints, pagemaps, or templates) and turn them into lovely pages of their own. They can adapt and change a sketch to fit their own needs. Additionally, they can take outside inspiration, and turn those things they find into sketches as well. They are even able to create their own sketches from scratch. Finally, they really start to grasp the underlying structure of most well-designed pages, which gives them a real sense of freedom, and they start creating pages without a sketch safety net.

Sound interesting at all? Hopefully it’ll be ready to go next month. Wish me luck!

Inspired by Alcohol

Inspired by Alcohol

Many scrapbookers out there love to unwind at the end of the day with a glass of wine or a beer and their scrapbook supplies. I’ve been known to do that myself on occasion. Somehow that seems to make a relaxing hobby even more relaxing.

But that’s not what “Inspired by Alcohol” means.

Have you ever really looked closely at a bottle of alcohol? Have you ever noticed the design and said to yourself, “that will make a great page?” Maybe it’s just me.

My husband likes to have a drink after work every night, and he likes variety. Sometimes he’s drinking a gin and tonic, sometimes it’s his current favorite beer, sometimes it’s something else. As a result, theres always an interesting bottle in the house.

Take, for example, this bottle of Vesica vodka:

vesica vodka

It’s an odd shaped bottle, with its fused two cylinder shape, but what really appeals to me is the label design. If you can’t tell from the picture, it has a circular flowere-like pattern that’s very faint, behind the brand name. Above the brand name is another circular flower-like element that calls to mind both the shape of the bottle, and the background image.

Personally, I think it’s lovely, and definitely scrap-liftable.

What would you make based on this?

I’ve made a few layouts for my next scrapbooking book on how to master sketches based on this bottle. (More about that later!) My favorite has to be this one:

camerashy

So, the next time you have a drink, take a look at the bottle. Maybe you’ll find it scrap-worthy. I’ll be doing the same, and sharing the results. And maybe even joining my husband in a glass or two.