5 posts tagged “scrapbook inspiration”
As a Scrapbook Evangalist, one of my passions is finding new ways to present scrapbook layouts as valid works of art. And as I was decorating my new house, I decided to take that concept and create a scrapbook gallery in the circulation hall. I wanted to make the scrapbook layouts blend in architecturally with the rest of the elements in our rambler cottage style house.
So, I went to my local Michael's, and found unfinished shadow box style memory frames, and got to work creating my gallery. I painted the inside panels black to create depth, and because Black is the New Black, as I have discussed before! And then I painted the frames white, using the same Super Hide white that all of the trim and baseboards are painted throughout the house.
Once the frames were dry and ready, I mounted a piece of store bought 12 x 12 scrapbook paper into each frame. I used the same background paper in each frame to give the gallery a consistent feel. And then I took some of my favorite digital scrapbook layouts, and had them printed at 11 x 11 at a local Kinko's type print shop. If you have your digital layouts printed at your local print shop, ask them to use a cardstock, and to print it on a Fiery or better printer. I prefer non-glossy. But that's a personal choice. The prints you'll get will look darker than they do on your computer monitor, so choose layouts that naturally have high contrast to print at a local printer. If you want prints that look EXACTLY like your layouts on your screen, then order from a PHOTO printer, such as Printroom.com.
I cut the 11 x 11 layouts so that there were no white borders, and then mounted them into the memory frames on top of the 12 x 12 background paper. Then, I measured, and hung the frames on the wall, gallery style.
I think it looks great, and it was an easy and inexpensive way to instantly increase my art collection!
With all of the doodling, handwriting, and inking going on in the scrapbook world right now, I'm happy to report that Black is the New Black! I have found myself jumping aboard, and embracing the style with much enthusiasm. When my grandchildren look back at my 2006 scrapbook, they'll refer to it as "Grandamme's Dark Ages".
Last year, I went through my "Pink Period", and perhaps next year will be "The Year of the Earth Tone". But for now, I'm cranking up the AC/DC and freestylin' with the Sharpie. I outlined every single damn element in the K & Company mini book in black, and today as I was working on my new upcoming collections for autumn, I found myself tuning the Lightness on my Hue/Saturation dial down to nearly nothing.
If these layouts get any darker, we'll have to bust out the black light, and call it a party!
How have you been using black in your layouts or designs these days?
I continued to torture the glitter glue pen today, and forged ahead with the creation of the K & Company Mini Book. I have to say that after this experience, I am a big fan of the mini book, and let me tell you why.
First of all, I've always felt like paper scrapbooking limited my style. The alphabet sets were always slightly or extremely smaller than I would have liked, and having done a lot of digital scrapbooking, I am extremely spoiled by being able to resize letters to their proper HUGE status in my layouts. I strongly use what I call my Wonky Letters (TM) style, which consists of me taking gigantic letters, and aligning them on my layouts like a set of crooked teeth. "First letter tilts to the left, next letter tilts to the right, third letter tilts to the left and drops down an eigth of an inch...", etc. My Wonky Letters (TM) style works wonders in the mini book format. This was a pleasant surprise.
Creating a mini book has also forced me to do something that I've always been terrified to do. I have been stretched creatively, and forced to cut photographs with scissors. Cutting up my photographs was probably the number one barrier of entry between me and the wonderful world of scrapbooking, and definitely the reason I chose to dive into digital instead of paper scrapping. When you're creating a digital scrapbook, you simply crop, resize, and save the original version of your photo on a nice hard drive that gets back up nightly to an external back up drive. Cutting a photo? It's like asking me to cut the fingernails of a two day old baby. What if I screw up? Somebody might get seriously injured! I might chop off an arm, or a head!
I had to throw caution to the wind and cut those photos because they were too big to fit on the mini book format. I feel like I've been liberated! I even cut one of the pictures in HALF, and used it in the center of a two page layout. It was like walking on the moon!

Something that I have noticed about the mini book is that my pages are warping. I am not sure if it is the glue stick I'm using, or because the paper is thicker than normal, but the pages are buckling inside. It must be the glue stick. I'm using Scotch Scrapbooker's glue with 2 Way Applicator. Fancy, I know! I don't think I'll be able to do my normal "Three Days with Shakespeare" scrapbook pressing routine where I place the book underneath my college edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare for 3 days, in which anything under its crusing weight comes out flatter than a flapjack. I have a good many 3D elements in the book. But I'll give The Bard a shot, and see if it flattens up before I give it away on Friday.

When I am shooting pictures at a birthday party I try to think ahead about the creation of a future digital scrapbook layout. I use the following easy to remember formula to make sure I get all of the shots I'll need to create a compelling double page spread that documents the celebration.
It's as easy as spelling B I R T H D A Y
B- Birthday Child
I like to take a few individual shots of the birthday child, and always use these as the central photos in the birthday party layouts.
I- Ice Cream & Cake
Include a picture of the cake, and if you can capture it, it's always nice to have a shot of the birthday child blowing out the candles.
R- Recreation
While the kids are playing party games, or jumping in the inflatable jump castle, walk around and shoot action shots! Even if some of them turn out blurry or slightly out of focus, you're bound to capture a handful of great shots.
T- Theme
Focus on the theme of the party. If it is a cowboy themed party, make sure you take pictures of all of the guests in their cowboy hats, or take pictures of the cowboy hankerchief goodie bags. Take a few shots that help document the theme of the party.
H- Happy Kids!
Don't be afraid to ask groups of kids to gather together and say CHEESE! Most of the time, the kids love to ham it up in front of the camera (especially if you let them see the photos on your camera screen after you take the shot!). So, round them up in small groups and get some close ups of their happy smiling party faces.
D- Dad & Mom
Try to get a picture of dad and mom together. And if you can manage to get one of Dad, mom, and the birthday child...even better! Often mom and dad are running around the party and when they get the photos back from the party, you'd never know they were even there! The child will appreciate the scrapbook later in life even more if mom and dad are included in the layout.
A- Attendees
When the kids sit down to eat cake, go around the table and ask each one of them to smile while you take their picture. I try to include a picture of every child at the party in all of my birthday party layouts. Using different conventions, such as a photo contact sheet or a stacked polaroid effect can pack a lot of pictures into a small space on a layout.
Y- Yourself
Don't forget to have someone at the party take a picture of YOU to include in the layout. So often, we find ourselves behind the camera, and it's nice to see the artist make a cameo appearance in their own scrapbook every now and then.

The September 2006 edition of Memory Makers Magazine was a dog ears delight. In fact, I didn't get past the Chatterbox ad inside the front cover without making my first dog ear.
Page 1- Chatterbox has introduced Chatterbox Fonts Volume 3: Fonts, Dingbats, & Doodles. The ad cleverly displays the fonts included on the CD, and I think this one is going to be a must have for my growing font collection.
There are a handful of nice handwritten journaling fonts, as well as a couple of nice fat title style fonts, with both grungy and elegant varieties. The doodles and dingbats included on the CD are creative and fresh, and I can see myself using them not only to embellish pages, but also to potentially create patterns for papers and tags for my personal stash of homemade digitals.
The ad says look for it in your favorite scrapbooking/craft store today, so I complied. As soon as I had finished the magazine, I drove to my local Michael's to try to find the collection. But of course they didn't have it. Neither did my Hobby Lobby. The craft stores in this town need to get with it, and PRONTO!
But never fear, that's why the Internet is here, right? Well, actually, I looked all over the Internet too, and could not find this CD volume in any online stores yet. Oh, Chatterbox, why do you tease us so? The collection is not even available on the Chatterbox site as far as I could tell.
The font CD is now available on the Chatterbox site: Click here to go to the product page.
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Page 13- Deja Views Plum, Blue, and Blue Raspberry and Chocolate Brown Fresh Print (R) grouping is an irresistable scrapbook layout color combination. I love it! They have complete instructions for creating this scrapbook page, and a list of all of the scrapbook materials you'll need on their Projects Page.
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She said it took her over 6 months to be able to even create scrapbook layouts again after the loss, and the page she created is just simple and precious. You'll just have to flip to page 18 to see it. So sweet. And again, I'm verklempt.
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Page 22: Dog earred to remind me to check out the Penelope's Potpourri scrapbook collection from s-e-i. The collection uses large tulips in combinations of hot pink, blues, and greens to create a very feminine and playful aesthetic.
I think this would be perfect for my niece's birthday party scrapbook.
I'm also on the hunt for a digital kit that has similar tones. So, if you know of one, please comment on this post! Or design one, pretty please.
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Page 26: Michelle Minken's layout honoring her parent's 35th wedding anniversary, and inspired by a vintage handkerchief is just lovely lovely. It is a great little article about finding inspiration in your immediate surroundings.
I think we should all challenge ourselves as artists to create beautiful surroundings that inspire us daily.
I think I have figured out what my New Year's Resolution is going to be this year!
