Thursday’s prompt was to start with color; red, black, white, and pink to be specific. With that in mind I started thumbing thru some recently printed pictures, and came across this one:

This is one of my favorite photos of my eldest. I could scrap tons of pages with this photo. I think I’ve already used it at least once. There’s no reason I can’t use it again, so I did.

When I saw this picture, the first thing that popped into my head was “Sharp Dressed Man” but I’ve already used this photo for that story. However, I hadn’t talked at all yet about my son’s attempt to grow a mustache, and this may be one of the first pictures where the dusting of hair on his lip is starting to show. I knew I had mustache paper in red and black, so that was the story I chose.

Rather than use a full page of mustaches, I had my son choose the ones he thought were the best, and then cut them out of the paper to use as embellishments. The black and white grid paper made it easy to journal in straight lines.

When I was done, it felt like it needed a bit more embellishment, so after a bit of thought, I used the brackets from the alphabet sticker set and turned them on their side so they resembled mustaches.

Ta-da! How’s that for a quick and simple page? And how often do you actually get to use mustache paper for stories ABOUT mustaches? So fun when that happens!

Today’s prompt was based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s a great kids story that builds up a sequence throughout the book.

The most famous building sequence that I can think of, that has meaning to me? The Twelve Days of Christmas as performed by Straight No Chaser.

Sorry for the Christmas in February link, but this song just makes me happy!

So for today’s page I went with this:

One piece of patterned paper, a few alphabet stickers, one themed sticker, and a whole bunch of writing. Memory recorded. Now to ask my more digitally inclined friends about how to add sound or video to this page. Because that would just make this perfect, don’t you think?

Is scrapbooking seeming any simpler to you with these examples, or am I making this more complicated than you’re comfortable with?

Have you made any pages yet? You can do it!

PS I am going to skip posting tomorrow, and start posting pages the day after I make them. This staying up late is exhausting me!

Today’s prompt was to use different size fonts, as inspired by children’s book design. Since there wasn’t a topic suggested, I went with a topic I’d thought about based on one of the earlier prompts: the books that made me a reader.

Between knowing this month’s Layout a Day challenge was about children’s books, and the fundraiser for the library in my childhood hometown, this story has been at the top of my head for weeks. Perhaps even months, since I also got the Oz themed paper from Graphic 45 with this story in mind.

The title consists of letters from three different sticker sets. They’re anchored on the washi border strips and outlined with black pen to help them be a little less overwhelmed by the patterns.

For those of you wondering which ideas for making this page can be found in The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking, how about the design, a basic horizontal layout, with a bit of tilt to add some fun. Also, the stickers along the left hand side of the photo are not Oz related, or book related, or even childhood related. They’re from a set about collections and antiquing. That shows the idea of adapting specific themes to other topics.

PS If anyone wants to donate the library fundraiser (they need a new microfilm reader) you can find that here.

Ideas are flying fast and furiously here, with the prompts Lain has been supplying. Today’s prompt was based on the children’s book, Goodnight Moon.

The first thought that occurred to me was that there are a few specific children’s books I will not read. It may surprise you to know that Goodnight Moon is one of them. I just find it so banal and repetitive, it makes me go “bleh.” Purely personal opinion here.

So the first option for creating a page today could be a page about the short list of children’s books I won’t be reading any time soon.

Second option? Books that I love that are spoofs and homages to Goodnight Moon: Goodnight Gorilla, and Goodnight Opus.

Thinking about Goodnight Opus led me further down the rabbit trail, to a particular quote that I simply love, “…he departed the text.”

That led me to muse about creative and fanciful thinking and finally to the word “innovate.” That’s when I knew what the page for today was going to be about.

What tools from The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking did I use? Repetition, the T style layout, and the rule of thirds.

A few quick tips for you:

To create the tone on tone of the red background I stamped text stamps with versamark ink. And the shield was part of the patterned paper design. Since it had a nice smooth edge and a symmetrical shape, it was easy to turn it into impromptu photo corners with a craft knife.

For the month of February, we’re going to be doing some intensive scrapbooking. I’m participating in this month’s Layout a Day Challenge, and I thought I could use this month’s challenges to show you how to use the basic principles from The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking that help you get pages done.

Let’s start with the prompt, which was to scrapbook about a book you wanted to live in or a character you wanted to be. As I was listening to the prompt, I remembered a realization I learned when in college.

We are all the heroes of our own stories.

Immediately, I knew that was where I wanted to take today’s prompt. However, I wasn’t sure about which photo to use, if any. How do you illustrate the idea of being the hero of your own story? And then I remembered the photo I took of my niece this past summer of her running with a scarf/cape streaming out behind her. Perfect! I printed out a copy on my home printer. Love when that is working!

Next, I needed to decide how I was going to tell this story, so I wrote out a rough draft on some notepaper.

Then I started pulling supplies. I kept thinking I needed some orange paper for the background, and then I came across this Studio Calico piece of paper with the circle and rays coming off of it. It vaguely reminded me of superhero imagery, and the colors worked with the photo, so that got put on the desk.

I then pulled a couple of scraps from my scrap bin in orange and a darker teal to mat the photo on.

Now, how to add the journaling? Handwritten or computer generated?

I decided I wanted to use the computer. I had a lot to say, and I wanted it legible. Some days, my handwriting is atrocious. I printed on vellum for two reasons. One, my wide-format printer died an ugly death, and two, I wanted to be able to see the patterned paper underneath.

I left a big space for alpha stickers, or die cut letters. I ended up using the Silhouette portrait to cut letters. I got tired of trying to figure out how I could adapt my existing alphabet letters to the letters I needed.

After taping everything down (commitment is the most important part) I decided it looked a little incomplete. Too much whitespace. I knew I didn’t want to add some superhero themed embellishments (I may not even have any!) but the space above the photo was too stark to leave alone.

That’s when I let the paper talk to me, and decided to emphasize the rays coming off the circular element with a few drops of pearl pen gold paint. Totally helps expand on the superhero theme.

A few dots on the title, and the page was complete.

Now, how does this show some of the tips and tricks from the Beginner’s Guide?
First of all, the basic process is the story first process explained in the book. It also uses a bit of the color and design theory to create a page that’s unified and visually complete.

If you’re having trouble creating a scrapbook page, you should definitely try The Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking. You have a story to tell, and should tell it!