Monthly Archives: August 2013

Aug29

Solutions for the Chronological Scrapbooker

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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!

Aug24

Using a Color Prompt

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Using a Color Prompt

How about a small step by step showing you how I used the color prompt from Design Seeds?

I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at keeping my desk clean. So the first order of business, before I can create anything, is to:

 Clear off my desk:

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Can anyone tell me why I have a bottle of nail polish on my desk? Oh, right! Entertained a niece the other day. 😉

Alrighty then. Let’s have a prompt check, shall we?

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Such gorgeous, rich colors, let’s see what’s in the stash.

Pull papers:

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Using some 8×8 papers from the days when I sold The Angel Company products? Excellent!

Let’s pull some photos now:

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The boys have discovered the joys of playing Magic: the Gathering. Did you notice the design starting to come together as well? As I shuffled papers and photos around I realized the monthly sketch from the ScrapHappy Community would work wonderfully. (If you’ve never heard of ScrapHappy you should definitely check it out. Friendliest scrapbook community on the interwebs!)

 Finalize photo placement:

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Organized photos so everyone was looking towards the center of the layout, and added photo mats to help the photos stand out from the patterned paper, rather than blend in.

Add titles and journaling:

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A bit journaling about how the Magic bug has bit the boys, and it’s done!

Did any of you make anything? I’d love to see what you create!

Aug21

For the Color Challenged

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For the Color Challenged

Do you have trouble choosing colors for your scrapbook pages? It doesn’t have to be hard. There are some tried and true methods for picking colors for your layouts.

You can start by choosing your colors based on the colors in your photos. Another option is to choose your colors based on a theme (ie. orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas.) You could use a monochromatic theme, with different shades and tones of a single color. You can even dig out a color wheel, and use a color scheme based on the relationships diagrammed on it. (Just follow the arrows. They won’t steer you wrong!)

Another fun way to choose colors for a page? Visit a site like Design Seeds, where they create color palettes based on gorgeous photos.

In fact, you know what would be fun? How about a little challenge? Can you make a page based on the colors from a Design Seeds color palette? I think I’ll use this one:

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That’s a bit outside of my usual comfort zone, so should be a challenge. This is going to be fun! Why don’t you pick a color palette from Design Seeds, and make a page, and share it either with a link here in the comments, or in my Flickr group. I’ll share what I make a bit later this week. Any suggestions on topic?

If you are wanting more direction and instruction in color, check out this FREE (yes I said free!) class on color hosted by Lain Ehmann, and taught by color expert Lori Sawaya.

Color Aug free Sawaya

 

I’ll be there, chatting away, and expanding my scrappy knowledge base. Check it out with me! Lain’s classes are usually lots of fun and very useful.

Don’t forget to check back to see what I make with the Design Seeds color palette, and to share what you make!

Aug15

Fishing for Inspiration

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Fishing for Inspiration

One of the coolest things about Pinterest is that it is so very, very random. If you wander through the main pin board, that shows you what everyone else is pinning, you’ll find so much variety.

There are gorgeous photos of beautiful places and faces. There are close ups of crafts and art and architecture. Clothing and makeup and the latest meme making the internet rounds. It’s all there.

And you can use Pinterest in so many different ways. An easy way to re-find projects you want to attempt. A mood board to base a room remodel or an outfit around. A source for amazing and funny words to remember and share. Its uses are practically endless.

Can you tell I really, truly love Pinterest?

Anyhoo…

How about a couple more pin-spired pieces for you?

quilt from we shall sew\

Love this quilt from We Shall Sew. The colors. The structure. And hexagons! Hello you gorgeous thing!

With such a lovely and graphic piece, it was easy to see how to turn it into a page. And then, a friend of mine brought her Creative Memories hexagon punch to a crop and let me play with it. And another friend dared me to use all the washi tape I had brought with me to the crop on one page. Challenge accepted! My favorite part? How easily the patterns on the washi tape lined up! The seams were almost invisible!

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This week the challenge was to turn this mosaic by Natalie Warne into something scrappy.

mosaic by Natalie Warne

Don’t you just love the colors, and all those little pieces? Looks like a stash busting piece to me. The thing is, I’m not good at using lots of little bits and bobs on a page. I don’t think that way regularly, so using something like this to kickstart the creative process is so helpful.

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Is it sad that I used up a lot of little bits and pieces, and didn’t make a dent in my stash? Sigh. Must use more — so I can make room for new stuff! 😉

Have you made anything inspired by what you’ve found on PInterest? Share it! I’d love to see it!

Aug12

Pin-spired!

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Pin-spired!

Pinterest is a great source for inspiration. If you’ve already discovered it, you know what I mean.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pinterest, it’s an online, visual pinboard that you can sort into categories, and use to catalog and curate online images and their sources. You can find me there as Heather Dubarry on Pinterest.

One of the things I love to gather on Pinterest are non-scrapbook related images that could possibly be used as starting points for scrapbook pages. I find a lot of the images to be scraptastic: fantastic scrapbooking inspiration sources.

Let me show you what I mean:

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This is a gorgeous print of an oil painting done by Siiso that I found on Pinterest ages and ages ago. I loved the textures and the colors and the huge amounts of white space, so I pinned it. A few months later I made this page based on it.

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As you can see, I tried to mimic the structure and color and textures. I love how this turned out because, while it is clearly inspired by Siiso’s painting, it’s still very clearly my own creation.

Another photo I found in my early days of wandering the wilds of Pinterest was this gorgeous wedding dress photographed by Gia Canali. The color combination and texture was simply gorgeous, and it immediately made me think of some diecut lace paper I had sitting in my stash.

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Some green cardstock to back the lace paper, a few pieces of shimmery pink cardstock to mimic the shoes, and voila!, a page clearly inspired by the clothes, but entirely my own.

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Think you can manage some out of the box inspiration to creation? I’ve got lots of ideas on my scraptastic Pinterest board. Browse through it. Find something that makes you smile, and then make something based on it. I’ll do the same, and show you what I came up with later this week. Can’t wait to see what you create!