Category Archives: how to scrapbook

Jan13

Finding Color Confidence

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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?

Growing Up // NoExcuseScrapbooking.com

 

Jan8

Daily Documenting Resources!

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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.

Microsoft Word - Photos to take.docx

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.

Dec27

Doing a Digi Dance

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Doing a Digi Dance

Today’s giveaway is for all you folks who like to play with digi pages.

This past fall, I took a design class from the fabulous Traci Reed at Scrapaneers. In it, we learned the whole process of how to create a digi kit, from inspiration to finished product.

This is my first digi kit, ever! I hope you enjoy it.

preview first digi kit

If you click this link, you’ll be able to download the entire kit from dropbox.  Let me know what you think of it. I’d love the input!

See you tomorrow with my last giveaway!

Dec26

Sharing Some Sparkle

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Sharing Some Sparkle

Today’s giveaway is a video tutorial about pearl powders. There are two major sources for pearl powders: Ranger Industries, and Jaquard. I use both in the video, although I do use more of the Pearl Ex powders from Jaquard, simply because that’s what I have more of. The major difference in the two brands is the formulation. Ranger’s Perfect Pearls has a binder mixed in that allows you to just use water to adhere your pearl powder. If you use Pearl Ex you need a binder, like Ranger’s Perfect Medium, or a liquid glue, or gum arabic.

I hope you find the video fun and useful! There are four ways you can add shimmer to your pages in this tutorial. It’s slightly less than 15 minutes, and, since it is on Vimeo, you can download it for later viewing if you so desire.

Pearl ex powder page from Heather Dubarry on Vimeo.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another giveaway for you!

Oct12

LOAD-ivated!

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LOAD-ivated!

Chugging along with the first full week of LOAD. I love dedicating myself to creating every day, regardless of how busy the day is, or how much energy I have. This past week has been one of those weeks that started out busy and just got more hectic as the week went on. But there’s always time to squeeze in a  little creative play.

This first page started with 1920s design, which led me to fiesta ware, which led me to concentric circles, which led me here:

Fashion Queen

Since my niece is into fluffy, fuzzy and soft, the various ribbons seemed like the perfect addition to the page.

The next prompt was all about the lean years in the 1930s, which made me think of my father who was born during the 30s, and then to my grandfather, who I never met because he died when my father was 16. The amount of info I have about him is very lean, so that led to this page:

Mysterious chap

Love that I used the tear strip (including the name of the line!) on the page!

Another day, another prompt, this one about innovation. (Zippers people! Only since the 1930s. Can you imagine?)

The idea of innovation led me to how cities are finding ways to add beauty and interest and history to their streets, and the huge silly and fun clogs my local city recently commissioned.

You know you're in Albany when

The design is really simple on this, so the clogs take center stage.

Mend, Stitch and Patch was the next prompt. That was an easy story to come up with, since last fall we were inundated with repair projects.

when it rains it pours

The journaling is on the  tag in the bag. The clouds are rub-ons, and the raindrops are stickles.

I went off prompt the next day, because, while looking for photos, this one jumped out at me.  This is how messy my craft room is on a regular basis. Thought you might like to see it in use. 😉

working

The color schemes of the 1940s was the following day’s prompt. The teal and pink on the list just screamed my niece’s name, and I had the circles left over from making the fiesta ware inspired page, so created this:

daddy's little angel

You don’t need to journal a lot on every page, and in this case, the title is the journaling.

I read the last day of the week’s prompt super early in the day, and then went down a rabbit hole trying to find a favorite song of my father’s. When I discovered that it was actually from the 60s, I had to stop and go spend hours doing other errands, and by the time I was able to sit down to scrap I couldn’t remember what the prompt was, and I was so tired, I just scrapped the first story that appealed to me.

using an overlay

Once again I made use of the name strip to add some coordinating pattern. The acetate chevron is supposed to mimic the up and down of falling while learning, as well as the energy and motion of skating. Think it worked?

This week was super busy, filled with an overnight trip to Boston, a birthday party, birthday shopping for two of the most important people in my life (including finding 70 things to wrap for my mother’s 70th birthday!), yard work, hospital visit for tests, and a very painful dentist’s visit, proving it is possible to scrapbook, if it’s something you want to do.

Go make something. You won’t regret taking the time to feel and be creative.