Category Archives: beginning scrapbooking

Jan20

What’s inspiring you today?

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Heather

The other day I was feeling out of sorts, if you will. Like I hadn’t made a page in years. Like if I didn’t get inky soon, I was going to implode.

When I have days like that, it means I need to switch gears, and move from the writing side of creativity to the messy side of creativity. Luckily, that day Noell Hyman from Paperclipping started posting her videos from CHA, which included demos from Julie Fei Fan Balzer, Dina Wakley and Dyan Reaveley.

If you’ve never seen any of their work, you really need to. Their art is messy and free and gorgeous. I love their philosophy of more is more, at least when it comes to layering on inks and paints. Every time Julie Fei Fan Balzer says, “But wait, there’s more!” my heart just gets happier and happier.

So, inspired by those lovely ladies, I created this. Three different brands of spray inks. (Dylusions, Mister Huey, and Fireworks). A stencil from Martha Stewart crafts, and a barely visible one from Julie’s Crafter’s Workshop line. Ranger dauber paints dry brushed on. Some of my favorite stamps. A few distress inks. Faber Castell india ink markers. Lots of alphas. (Thickers, Tim Holtz, Scenic Route, and Making Memories.) And a felt silhouette I got from a scrapbooking kit club years ago.

Do you like it? It really satisfied my need to create.

So what’s inspiring you now? Are you letting your inspiration motivate you to create? Give yourself permission to make something today. The dishes can wait. You need time to make messes too!

Jan13

Finding Color Confidence

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Heather

Finding Color Confidence

For those who want to become more confident scrapbookers, especially when it comes to design, a good grasp of color relation principles can really help you feel more confident about your color choices.

You can see how colors relate to each other by looking at a color wheel.

Color wheel (from the color wheel company)

You can find this color wheel on Amazon (affiliate link)

If you notice, in the center of this color wheel, there are four shapes superimposed over each other: an isosceles triangle, an equilateral triangle, a rectangle, and a square.

Basically, if you turn the wheel so one corner of a shape rests on a color family, the color families at the other corners of the SAME SHAPE will work well together.

For example, if you have one corner on the blue color family, you can create pages that are blue, red and yellow; blue, red-orange, and yellow-orange; blue, violet, and yellow-orange; blue, red-orange, and green; blue, red-violet, yellow-green, and orange; blue, violet, orange, and yellow; or blue, red, orange, and green. As long as all the colors have similar amounts of white and/or black in them (their color value) they will work together.

You don’t have to use all the colors in each group when you’re combining colors, but I don’t recommend using colors from different groups.

The most important thing to remember about a color wheel? Don’t try to match the colors on a color wheel with the colors on your photos or in your papers. The number of times the colors will actually MATCH? Infinitesimal. This is more about thinking about how colors are related than matching specific colors.

Don’t believe me? Try making a page, and choosing your products based on a color wheel. I think you’ll really like how your colors all work together.

This may be my favorite page made using a color wheel to choose products. What do you think?

Jan9

Looking Back to Find Your Voice

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Heather

Looking Back to Find Your Voice

One of the things people say when they claim to have trouble journaling, is “I don’t know what to write about,” or “My life is boring.”

Facebook and Twitter heartily disagree with you.

What do you post to Facebook and Twitter? If you post anything, you can use it as journaling on a scrapbook page.

A quote you love? A recipe you want to try? A ridiculous news story? Those are all things you can use to illustrate your interests on your scrapbook pages.

And your tweets and status updates? Those are journaling goldmines!

They’re pretty easy to find after the fact, too.

For Facebook, go to your wall, and then click Activity Log. That will bring up a much easier to read list of your activity on Facebook, without all the clutter you normally see on your wall. You can even narrow the search down to a particular year or month by clicking the one you want in the list on the upper right hand side of the page.

On Twitter, just click your name so your personal twitter feed comes up. To narrow down what you see in the future, star/favorite the posts that you really like. Then you’ll be able to pull up just those particular tweets at a later date, when you go looking for journaling material again. You can even request an archive of all your old tweets that you can download and search. (To do that, just click on the gear on the Twitter menu bar and choose settings. The last option on the settings screen is to request your Twitter archive.)

Here’s a challenge for you:

Go through some of your old social media posts, and find something that makes you laugh or smile, and document it. You may think that you’ll always be able to find old info on the internet, but you and I have been through enough technological changes to realize that EVERYTHING changes. What’s new and amazing quickly becomes old and obsolete. Document your stories in multiple ways, so that the things that matter to you have a greater chance of surviving, and being remembered.

If you make a page based on this challenge, feel free to share a link to it in the comments below, or over on Flickr in the No Excuse Scrapbooking group. I’d love to see what inspires you!

Jan8

Daily Documenting Resources!

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Heather

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.

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.

Dec28

Happy Birthday Hoot Loot!

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Heather

Happy Birthday Hoot Loot!

***ETA: the giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly! Thanks for playing along!***

How would you like to wear a little bling that declares your love of scrapbooking for all to see?

I’ve got one Origami Owl scrapbook themed locket for one lucky reader. It includes one medium sized silver locket, a silver 24-26″ 2mm rolo chain, and camera, palette, scissors, and april heart birthstone charms.

Just leave a comment below by January first. I’ll pick a winner on the second.

For all those wonderful people out there who may like a necklace of their own, but don’t win this one, I have a discount for you. Just browse my Origami Owl website, and email a list of the items you want to heather@noexcusescrapbooking.com and I’ll give you 10% off the retail price. Just make sure you email me first. If you don’t email me, I won’t be able to give you a discount.

Thank you so much for visiting me on my birthday!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of this week’s giveaways:

Scrappy Sticker Inspiration

How to use pearl powders video tutorial

Mini digi-kit