We will return on Tuesday will more practical ideas for memory keeping. 

Recently I came across a patterned paper from the Studio Calico October 2011 Field Guide kit that I didn’t have any idea on how to use when I received my kit. The sun-ray paper, an exclusive paper made by Sassafras for Studio Calico, screamed for a summer, outdoor layout, but with the gray fall weather in the Pacific Northwest at the time, I just wasn’t thinking about sunny outings.

Sassafras for Studio Calico paper
from the Studio Calico Field Guide Kit

Starting Point

I hardly ever start a scrapbook layout with a paper choice. I’m more likely to see a set of photos and then look for an appropriate template to use, or for my creative team assignments, I start with the template and find photos. Since I was starting with the paper this time, I could have chosen either path–starting with photos or a template–and decided that it made most sense to find photos.

Finding Photos

Digging through my photos, I found two from a summer outing at which my sons had eaten ice cream cones. I would have preferred working with three photos, but these photos were from pre-digital days when I took far fewer photos. I’ve learned to work with what I’ve got!

Choosing a Template

I browsed through the Simple Scrapper Premium Membership Library of sketch templates, evaluating those designed for two photos. I ultimately chose a single-page one from the February 2012 collection.

Simple Scrapper February 2012 Sketch #3

Starting the Layout–Digitally

I scanned my photos, made necessary color corrections, and brought them into the template in Photoshop. I made the background a shade of yellow to simulate the patterned paper and removed the stitching.

Wanting to see what the layout would look like with portrait, rather than landscape, photos, I rotated the template 90 degrees clockwise. My original photos had a lot of elements on the sides that distracted from the focus. I turned off the monogram element and the journaling, since I was still at the brainstorming stage.

I definitely preferred the portrait photos, but decided that I wanted my title in the lower-left corner, so I vertically rearranged the photos, title, and journaling spot.

Having settled on the portrait orientation for the photos, I began to think about the page’s overall color scheme. I realized that the colors in the photos didn’t really go with the yellows and oranges in my patterned paper. I converted the photos to black and white in Photoshop. At the same time I added white borders, and shortened them to be 4” x 5” rather than 4” x 6”. I settled on a split-complimentary color scheme, so I changed the title color to be teal.

I decided that I would put the sun center in the upper-right hand corner of the layout and changed the journaling card to be more vertical than horizontal. Finally, I layered the close-up photo of my youngest son on top of the photo of my oldest son at an angle for a more informal feel to the page.

Finishing the Layout–Traditionally

It was finally time to print out the photos and begin to work with the paper and other embellishments. Before I could lay down my title, I had to choose one, which is a task that I struggle with. I turned to Peppermint Creative’s Title + Phrase Guide. Choosing the Summer category I found A Little Taste of Summer, which seemed perfect for the photos. I didn’t have any teal dimensional alpha stickers, and I was determined to complete the layout without purchasing additional supplies. I decided to dye Vanilla Doll Thickers by American Crafts with Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Broken China. I applied the stain several times to get the desired color.

I adhered my title to the lower left-hand corner before adhering anything else. Once those were down, I added the photos and the journaling card, which I created in Photoshop to achieve the reverse-type look. At this point, I shopped my stash for embellishments to finish the page. I covered the point where the sun rays came together with a pinked-edge paper that had been included in the Studio Calico Glee Club kit.

Supply List

Where are you most likely to start a layout? With a sketch or template, with a set of products in mind, with photos, …?

Today I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Swap. You’ll find me posting over at The Country Chic Cottage about ways to try out scrapbooking, and I’m excited to welcome Karri from My Life’s a Treasure to Simple Scrapper:

I’ve been scrapbooking on and off for about 12 years. I was first introduced to scrapbooking through Creative Memories. I have lots of albums created using their products and techniques. 12 years ago Creative Memories was the way to go. At least in my area it was.

Then the entire industry just exploded and everywhere I looked shops were opening up, weekend expo’s where planned to local convention centers, Creating Keepsakes magazine was the go to magazine for tips and inspiration. Scrapbooking has really become more then just background paper, adhesive, stickers and journaling. Scrapbook pages have become works of art that not only preserve the memory of the photos but also the memory of the artist who created it.

Earlier this year I did a major purging of many of my scrapbook supplies and tools. I ended up with two large boxes and 2 paper bags full of paper, stickers, die cuts and tools I no longer need anymore. From now on I’m working simple. I don’t need every scrapbook tool on the market to make beautiful pages, today I’m sharing the scrapbook tools I can’t and won’t live without.

1. Mini Paint Tote by Ranger – As you can see it has great little pockets to hold my paint brushes and misters. The best part about this bag is that it’s waterproof so the main compartment is used to hold water for cleaning your brushes. No more worrying about tipping over your water cup on your beautiful creation.

2. Glue Dots – Now that scrapbook embellishments are big, bulky and sometimes heavy regular adhesive just doesn’t work. Glue Dots sticks to everything and is perfect for any project.

3. Xyron Create-A-Sticker - I have had this for years and I love it for putting adhesive on small items like die cut letters. I really dislike liquid glue because I always make a mess with it. My Create-A-Sticker maker allows me to add adhesive to the whole die cut without all the mess.

4. We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile - I’ve had many paper punches and brad fasteners over the years. I got rid of all of them once I got this. I can punch holes in anything now – plastic, cardboard you name it.

5. Close to My Heart Distressing Kit – I love to distress every project I make. This kit which I purchased several years ago has everything I need, sponges, sandpaper, files, scrappers, ink and it comes in it’s own case which is perfect for storage.

6. Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists – I was introduced to this products about two years ago and I Love it with a capital L. The best way from me to describe it is like adding colored raindrops to your project. You can mix colors to make a tie die type effect and each color has a bit of sparkle which this girl can never get enough of.

7. Paint – I love any kind of paint. Since scrapbooking pages can now be canvas, cardboard and plastic paint is a beautiful addition.

8. Stamping Ink - I have lots of rubber stamps but I tend to use my ink more for distressing paper, stickers, die cuts. My favorite ink is from Close to My Heart because it coordinates best with their paper packages which I also use a lot of.

If you could only keep 8 tools, what would you keep?

I’m Karri Reiser from My Life’s a Treasure. I would love to have you come and visit sometime. I share with you my adventures and misadventures while working full time and raising my family. I’ve been happily married for 18 years to a fabulous man named Jim and we have two children, 12 year old Jacob and 18 month old Alexa. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Visit Life Your Way to see all of the Ultimate Blog Swap participants!

There is a question I get asked from time to time, in one form or another, that I haven’t yet answered here in a post. With so many supplies and classes available for scrapbooking – paper and digital – what makes the Simple Scrapper Premium Membership different?

There is a touch of irony in the question itself, as it partially answers the question. The #1 challenge the Premium Membership addresses is the too-much-ness of our industry. By providing you with the skills and tools to scrapbook with ease, you don’t have to feel lost or overwhelmed.

I’m just a regular scrapbooker like you in most ways. I can get distracted looking for inspiration in galleries and on Pinterest. I want to know the habits and time-tested processes that memory keepers use to get pages done and stay excited about scrapbooking.

Most importantly, I want to feel like I belong.

With a dwindling number of local scrapbook stores, so many of us are turning to the Internet to find like-minded people and forge real friendships as we learn and explore this hobby.

The Premium Membership honors our mission of simplicity, sharing essential tools and wisdom so that you can make the most of your limited time to scrapbook in a warm and friendly environment.

What You Get

• Private community to share and learn together
• New clean & simple sketch templates monthly plus 65+ in our library (plus layered PSD files for digital scrapbookers!)
• A downloadable prompt sheet each month with journaling and page ideas so you always know where to start
• A new creativity-boosting project every other month
• Short, intensive experiences to build your scrapbook habits
• Planning sheets to take the guesswork out of scrapping
• Our 41 page guide and workbook to simple scrapbook organizing (PDF and Kindle formats!)
• Full access to our entire library of hundreds of past features

One more thing! The price of the membership will be increasing very soon. If you’ve wanted to be a part of this, now is the time to jump on board. 

(photo credit)

“One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

Weekly Recap

This was definitely a quiet, time-for-rest sort of week. I puttered around the house, cleaning things that were annoying me. I worked, a lot, and then some more. Memory keeping took a back seat to just general living and catching up on things I’ve put off for too long. Oh, and I got an iPad to celebrate the success of Everyday Storyteller. More on that soon!

I’m intentionally trying to invite more space into my life – physical, mental, emotional space. I find that when I give myself this space I am better able to tune my attention to the present. In turn, I become far more content (and more productive).

What did you do this week? Share your recap in the comments.

Weekend Reading

• Walking as a retreat from Katie Clemons for Simple Mom
• Establish a summer routine from Simplify 101
• Start here to simplify from Small Notebook
• Invest your time vs. spending it from Abundance Blog
• 7 reasons your [workspace] is cluttered from Home Your Way

Every weekend at Simple Scrapper you are invited to join us for reflection on our memory keeping activities as well as our ongoing tradition of  sharing simple tips, tutorials and inspiring ideas from around the web.

I‘ve been finding it hard to find time to scrapbook lately. During the week, my nights seem to be taken up by everything other than scrapbooking, and then I’m left to do a flurry of layouts in just a few days.

Sometimes, I don’t even find time to scrapbook during a week.

It wasn’t working like this, and I needed to figure out how to change it quick. The answer came to me like magic, as I was listening to the This Is Your Life podcast by Michael Hyatt, and I knew it would work.

In his podcast, Michael talks about scheduling time in the Alone Zone. The idea of the Alone Zone is actually from a book called Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Basically, it means that when you are busy creating your schedule, you purposely schedule time in the Alone Zone, time for you and you only.

It’s easy to set aside time for yourself, but we often are so quick to let that time go when something else comes up. Actually scheduling time in the Alone Zone makes that time an appointment that you must keep.

No longer do you have to feel guilty about turning down other commitments because you legitimally have an appointment that you have to keep. Simple, sure, but just enough to trick your mind into thinking that this time is unavoidable.

So I thought, if I scheduled some time in the Alone Zone, what would I do? Immediately I knew that I would want to spend that time scrapbooking. Rather than scheduling time in the Alone Zone, I needed to schedule some time in the Scrapbook Zone.

If I made this time an appointment, and put it on my beloved Google Calendar, I would for sure keep it. I would commit myself to keeping this appointment, viewing it as important as a meeting for school or a doctor’s appointment.

So that’s what I did. On Sunday night, I sat down and worked out my calendar for the week. Once I had all my “must do” appointments on the calendar, I went ahead and scheduled some time in the Scrapbook Zone.

What’s great, is that I’m actually looking forward to these times, already starting to plan what I want to work on. Usually I just start working with the first thing that jumps up at me from my screen, so putting some thought into it is a nice change.

I’m excited for my little dates with Photoshop and happy they will keep scrapbooking a major part of my week.

What types of things do you do to make sure that you are scrapbooking?

Aaron Morris contributes to Simple Scrapper each month, sharing his expertise and life experiences on time management.

Last Friday I mentioned that I’m working on my daughter’s first year album. I’m not quite ready to share how I’m putting it together, but I can relay some wisdom from my process thus far.

She is nine months old today and just yesterday I sent a huge batch of photos from her first 4.5 months off to Persnickety. I culled through over 1000 photos to select less than 100 for her album. Did it take some time? A little, yes. Was it hard? Not at all – and I’ve figured out why.

I had already chosen a few favorite photos to print and frame, but had not selected this large batch for the album. When I sat down to browse the photos, often 10-20 from a given “session” of time, I found myself surprised.

Instead of trying to pick the most technically perfect image with the best smile and glimmering catchlights in her eyes, I simply wanted to print the photo that made me smile the most. I wanted to print the image that flooded me with the best memories of sitting down with my little girl and trying to get her to look at the camera.

One of the wonderful benefits of digital photography is that our images are available, effectively, forever. The freedom to choose this emotionally best image came from the fact that if I like another photo at a later date, I can just print it out. Choosing one image for this album does not lock it in as the only image allowed to represent that moment.

In allowing myself to use gut instinct to select photos and move on, I was able to turn what could have been a challenging process into one I could enjoy and feel good about. By simply making a choice, I made the best choice for me.

This is a guest post from Michele Holcomb, who challenged the team to creatively source page titles and journaling.

More often than I’d like to admit, I reach a point in my creativity where nothing is going right. Most of the time it starts or ends with the title of my layout. I’m stuck and can’t move forward.

So what do I do to get over this stumbling block?

I have my self a little dance party. I put on my favorite songs and just sing to my hearts content. It helps me get a new perspective; then I’m ready to tackle my layout.

This trick I use got me thinking about using music or quotes in memory keeping. These words can help stir the soul. These words can bring about healing. And these words are sometimes…just plain fun!

This month, I asked the Simple Scrapper Design Team to use music lyrics or quotes as an embellishment to tell their story.

1. Use a Quote to Tell your Story

Jean Manis‘s double page spread tells a story of outdoor adventures. The title “The Call of The Wild” just emphasizes her journaling of a sweet summer day outside.

Supplies

Not only do Krista Wells and her husband like to travel, but they are huge foodies too. Her title is fabulous reflection of how they love and live their lives.

Supplies

2. Use Children’s Songs or Nursery Rhymes

Mandy Ross took a literal approach to a beloved nursery rhyme. Her title and photo tell the story of her sweet little ones imagination.

Supplies

I love the way Aimee Maddern used her title and the sun flare design for  her sweet pup.

Supplies

The soft colors of Amy Kingsford‘s layout and the use of the poem “Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes”  is such an amazing tie-in to her little one’s story.

Supplies

3. Use a Song Title or Lyrics

Doesn’t Celeste Smith‘s layout make you want to get up and dance? Her choice of colors and song title paired with an awesome photo of her son make this a stand-out layout.

Supplies

Jennie McGarvey‘s photos of her son exercising and the lyrics to LMFAO’s “I Work Out” are simply a perfect compliment.

Supplies

Margrethe Aas Johnsen chose the song title “I will tell your story” to pay homage to her husband’s amazing grandmother.

Supplies

In this layout Ronnie Crowley also takes a literal approach to her title “The View From The Top” and pairs it with beautiful scenic photos of Point Supreme.

Supplies

Briana Marshall took the lyrics to her favorite song “Brighter Than The Sun” by Colbie Caillat and coupled it with an older photo her & husband. Using lyrics as a background can give your page a lot of dimension.

Supplies

Michele Holcomb (that’s me!) also used lyrics to one of her daughter’s favorite songs as her main background patterned paper to tell the story of standing up for yourself and what you believe in.

Supplies

Jess Forster wanted to tell an amazing story about her wonderful husband. She used the title song from Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars from the movie The Hunger Games.

Supplies

Julie Aldridge‘s title comes from the chorus of one her favorite songs called “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. It’s a great choice to showcase the love of her life.

Supplies

Using music lyrics or quotes can help jump start your memory keeping. Now it’s your turn to show us how you use music, lyrics, poems and rhymes.

To participate in the challenge, create a new layout that uses song titles, lyrics, quotes or poetry for the page title or the journaling. Upload your digital or paper layout to any public gallery and use the linky embedded in this post to enter the challenge.

One random challenge participant who enters by 9:59pm CDT on Sunday, May 20 will be selected to win a $15 print credit from Persnickety Prints.

Weekly Recap

I’ve been thinking a lot about Emily’s first year album. I have a sorta-plan and think I know what I am doing. Big projects like these are often so much a moving target until you sit down to do it.

I constantly tell myself not to over-think it. I’ve been organizing cards and other memorabilia, just sort of tinkering. I am to the point where I actually need to print a whole lot more photos.

I’ve been pacing myself, working just a short bit at a time in Lightroom. I’m excited though, because in my (over)thinking and consistent tinkering I can see it coming together!

What did you do this week? Share your recap in the comments.

Weekend Reading

• The road to simplicity from Jamie Martin for Simple Mom
• Five reasons I scrapbook from Amy Kingsford
• Get organized for summer from Simplify 101
• Living with our mistakes from Scoutie Girl

Take Twelve Today

Don’t forget to join up with Ella Publishing and friends for the Take Twelve photo challenge. Document your everyday life with twelve photos on the twelfth of the month. This month, I’m sponsoring the challenge with a giveaway of two print versions of Everyday Storyteller.

Every weekend at Simple Scrapper you are invited to join us for reflection on our memory keeping activities as well as our ongoing tradition of  sharing simple tips, tutorials and inspiring ideas from around the web.

There’s something near and dear to my heart that I’d like to discuss with you. Something you’ve heard before, no doubt. Something you already know. I’m here to urge you, push you, prompt you to get into the photo. To remind yourself, you are part of the story.

I know what you’re thinking. I don’t look good, I don’t feel good, I hate my hair. Well, stop. Stop making excuses and start making opportunities. Did you wake up today and feel pretty in the new shirt you’re wearing? Take a self photo with your cell phone camera. Were you happy with the way your hair curled under just right? Grab your son/daughter/cat and take a self timer photo.

I don’t need to remind you that you are part of the stories you’re telling. As a memory keeper you’re not making pages of someone else’s storie; they are your own. You should, at least occasionally, make it onto the pages. Not just your memories, words and creativity, images of you should also be present. You were there on that trip to the Grand Canyon, Walt Disney World or the Wisconsin Dells. Your family (or the others that are part of your stories) remembers it. They see you as a piece of the equation. Don’t you want your scrapbook pages to reflect the true stories?

Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself that was taken a few years before and say I looked so thin/happy/young? I have totally had this happen. Time and time again. I realize I didn’t look as bad as I thought I did and I wish I looked that way now. I think that the same will more than likely be true in 5 more years. Get in the photo, even if it’s not how you want to look it is how you look and that is part of your story.

It all sounds great, right?  You want your memories to reflect the story and you are part of the story. There are many ways to actually do it.

1. Hand the phone or camera off to someone else. It could be a friend, child or spouse but it could also be a perfect stranger. Ask someone to take your photo! I am always happy to help someone, aren’t you?

2. No one around? Use the self timer on your camera. Most cameras have a timer that is simple to use. You can keep taking them until you are happy with the results.

3. If all else fails, take a self-portrait. Turn the camera/phone around, stick your arm out as far as it’ll reach and snap the shot! Take as many as you need to find a flattering angle.

I encourage you to not only get out there and take those photos but get at least one photo of yourself into each album you make. Make it a challenge and soon enough it’ll become routine and your stories will start to be told the way they really happened, with you in them.