For many scrapbookers, the hardest part of creating a scrapbook page is the act of getting started. Just sitting down with paper and pen and photos can be very daunting at times. One of the easiest ways to give yourself the tiny push you need when you’re stuck looking at a pile of paper and photos and no idea what to do, is to start with a bit of inspiration.
The most obvious place to start looking for inspiration for scrapbooking is in the online galleries of stores like Scrapbook.com or Two Peas in a Bucket or Studio Calico. Browsing through an online gallery will give you tons of ideas to scraplift, from design and product use, to story and title ideas.
However, there’s a lot more out there than just scrapbook pages that can inspire you and get you scrapping.
As far as design goes, there’s tons of good design surrounding us every day. Magazine layouts, product labeling, beautiful websites–they’re full of strong structure that you can adapt to a scrapbook page.
Color inspirations are everywhere you look as well, from the front yard to your refrigerator, and every place in between. Have a favorite shirt? Use its colors and patterns to inspire a page. Love the mix of patterns and colors you see in an ad? You can totally turn that into a layout.
This vignette from Better Homes and Gardens’ Color Made Easy 2014 magazine makes me want to create something with wonderful texture and color!
How about texture? Love the way texture makes you want to touch a page? Use the textures you find on your pillows and walls and clothes to inspire your product choices and design.
Those are all visual or tactile ways of finding inspiration. You can also get your ears involved.
Yes, scrapbooking is a very visual hobby, but you don’t have to use your eyes to find inspiration.
Listen to the world around you. The things your family and friends say, the noises surrounding you while at home or work, the songs you hear while out shopping or driving or just hanging around, those are all great starting points for scrapbook pages.
Finally, don’t decide where you’re going to start. Let someone else tell you where to start. Participate in a prompt driven challenge, where someone else gives you an idea or a product or a technique to start with, and create your pages from there. Layout a Day is a great prompt driven challenge (Lain’s even got a free iPhone app for that!) but there are a ton of others out there. Rather than me listing them all here, why don’t you all add your favorite prompts/ challenge sites in the comments below? That way maybe we’ll all find something fun and new to us!
Today, I’m going to keep an eye (and ear) out for things that inspire me to create, and make a page based on that inspiration this week. Why don’t you try to do that too! We can share our creations on Flickr in the No Excuse Scrapbooking group.
(And if you’re looking for some non-standard inspiration, I love to collect things I find on the web on my Scraptastic pinterest board. Feel free to follow me there!)
I used the new Green paper stack from DCWV for the ones I sent my relatives, with dotted swiss bazzill paper as the inside page. The final one you’ll see here I made with scraps when I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures of the finished product. I’ll think of someone to send it to, I’m sure.
Just as an illustration, the above items are a bone folder, stylus, and scoring blade for the fiskar’s trimmer I was using. Any of these will work to score folding lines in your paper. You want to score three lines across your paper strip, one in the middle, at 6 inches, and one at 2 15/16 inches from each end.
Just run your bone folder, stylus or scoring blade down the center channel of your trimmer. I prefer my bone folder because I can be rather heavy handed, and have been known to break through the paper when using the scoring cartridge.
I hope that helped 😀
The next step may require a little help. Stamp, sticker, or otherwise embellish a 4X6 piece of solid colored cardstock, and score a line down the center (at the 3 inch mark if you need specifics). This is where my little helper came in. For any family reading this, each of your pages tells a complete story. I have no idea what the story was; you’d have to ask Simon.
Then run a piece of double sided adhesive along the edge of the flap, and tape down. Voila! You’ve got a little two pocket folder. It’s not quite big enough for school work, however. I put a piece of candy and a bookmark in each pocket after I finished assembling the card, but gift cards or love notes might work too.
I hope you’ll try to make one. It would make a great holder for a gift card or cash for a graduation or wedding present as well. Have fun creating!
