Paperclipping 48 - Summer Elements from izzyvideo on Vimeo.
Today’s episode is short and sweet, perfect for what we’re enjoying right now–summer time! If you’re already taking photos at the pool or beach, you might get a few ideas for your next layout.

As always, we have a higher-quality version for you to enjoy, as well as show notes for this episode.

This is the story of my daughter’s dance growth this past school year.

I found this photo book, brand new and wrapped in plastic, at Goodwill. It had a big, ugly blue ribbon on it and was covered with a very un-trendy looking label that disguised its potential. I removed the white paper inserts that filled each page so that I could use it as a transparent album.

I love the canvas cover and the fact that I can protect my photos behind the plastic while still getting the dimensionality of a regular mini-book by placing embellishments on the outside of the plastic pages.

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Ballet & You Now

Products used: Patterned paper (Close To My Heart, Creative Imaginations); Gaffer tape (7 Gypsies); Flower (unknown source); Stickers (Creative Memories, Creative Imaginations, 7 Gypsies): Transparencies (Hambly, Creative Imaginations, My Mind’s Eye); Word stickers (K.I. Memories, Ali Edwards for Lisa Bearnson’s KOTM); Brads (Making Memories, Creative Imaginations); Stamp (Ali Edwards for Lisa Bearnson’s KOTM); Ink (Staz-on); Rhinestones (Heidi Swapp); Rub-on’s (Art Warehouse, Anna Griffin); Glittery embellishment frames and flowers (Making Memories); Ribbon, buttons, and tulle from own stash.

Are you interested in using more acrylic and transparent products? Have you been curious to try an entire transparent mini-book but felt intimidated? This video for Premium Subscribers will give you some tips and tricks for dealing with all of those transparent issues.

If you’d like to learn more about the premium membership so you can have access to all of the videos, click here.

Last Week

It was a fun change of pace to have Liz and Jackie as call-in guests on Paperclipping Live last week. I know it was hard for you to see their projects in that little tiny corner window, but fortunately, they posted them on their own website, IllustratingStories.com and you can see them here.

Both techniques came from the book, Lifelines. They look really cool and really fun, so I’m excited to try them some time.

This Week

This coming Tuesday night I’ll be working on an acrylic album. The album will feature all those pictures I took when Liz and Jackie challenged their readers to take a photo an hour for a whole day.

If you’re interested in making a similar album, read about the challenge here so you can have your photos ready to work on during the show. I’m using a semi-clear album by Maya Road and I printed my photos in wallet-size.

Don’t forget: Paperclipping Live is Tuesday night at 6:30pm, PST.

If you’re unsure of the time zone difference, look for your city on this website and then compare it to my city, which is Phoenix.

Remember to register for Skype (it’s free) if you’d like to call into the show to ask a question or share something cool.

I wanted to answer some questions from Toni about this layout from Episode 46.

Questions

Is the subtle hue on the paper (visible in the top right quarter) painted on, or was it already present in the paper pattern? The hue change was already present on the paper. It is made by Daisy Bucket and is from their Garden Gate collection. It’s the backside of the red patterned paper called, Summer Sweet.

How long did it take you to plan, layout and complete this page? I am a slow scrapbooker (I force myself to work faster on Paperclipping Live, but I really prefer to take my time, enjoy the moment, and allow my brain to wander and think about things) but this was a very fast layout for me. One of my easier ones. I completed it in three different short sittings. As for time, my best guess is maybe 5 minutes; 45 minutes, and 30 minutes.

My Process

Making the grid: I first laid my photos on the Basic Grey mat (this took me 5 minutes at the most), then put it away for a week while I worked on other projects. When I pulled my mat out again, I quickly saw that there was one spot that looked predictable because it formed a sort of checkerboard formation (if you don’t know me yet, I don’t like my art to be predictable–something I discovered as a child when I used to choreograph my own dances for fun) so I moved two of the photos and then I was happy with it.

Transferring the photos to my paper and adhering it was the longest part of putting this layout together, but was so easy because of having had the photos on the mat first. I used a ruler, not to measure, but to make sure the photos were straight. As I transferred each photo to my paper, I sanded the edges.

Adding the details: Next, I knew I wanted to add a happy color so I grabbed a scrap of orange patterned paper (Basic Grey), cut two squares, and placed them fairly randomly. I also felt I needed some circles for variety and found two different circle stamps and a piece of Scenic Route chipboard and put them in a triangular formation.

As I was looking around my room at my stuff I noticed my acrylic letters and pulled out the “a.” It was perfect for adding something into the bottom left corner because it added some detail down there without making that corner too heavy–I wanted the most weight to be at the bottom right corner.

At this point it was all about balancing my color by adding second and third points of a visual triangle for each color. I knew I wanted my title in the empty rectangular space and green would finish one triangle. Adding a swipe of orange paint underneath the title would help it to stand out and complete the triangle of orange. I ran out of green letters so I was happy to add yet another color to my palette (red), and then found two red buttons to balance it. I continued this until it had a nice balance of color and empty spaces to filled spaces.

A magnetic mat is not necessary.

I do recommend you use a grid of some kind because it makes it so easy, but you don’t need a magnetic one. I used the magnets on the video because my mat was upright for you to see. When I did this with my actual photos, though, I didn’t use the magnets, even while I was storing it away for a week.

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Self-Expression
12×12 layout

Products: Adhesive (Diamond Glaze, Creative Memories Tape Runner, Foam 3-D Dots by EK Success); Patterned paper (Daisy Bucket, Basic Grey, My Mind’s Eye-for circle stamp, K.I. Memories lace paper); Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp, Making Memories); Stamps (7 Gypsies, Catslife Press); Ink (7 Gypsies, Stazon); Acrylic letter (Heidi Swapp); Chipboard (Scenic Route); Brads (Making Memories); Buttons (Creative Cafe); Sticker (7 Gypsies); Rub-on letters (for Mama–Heidi Swapp); Ribbon (We R Memory Keepers); Flower Charm Buckle (from own stash).

We’ve been talking about personal style a lot over the last two weeks. Part of our focus was an exchange of products between Dedra Long and myself. We have two very different styles and my hope was that we could try elements of each other’s style and make them our own. This is an interesting exercise to do because it can help you hone in on, not only what you are, but what you are not. It also gives you an opportunity to try something new, while learning to stay within the parameters of your own personal style.

My Layout

Here is the layout that I made using a combination of my products with the ones Dedra gave me. Almost everything in her kit was stuff that I like. The parts that weren’t me were the pink and white heart paper, and the abundance of pink in general as a main color. I added cream lace, lavender tuille, and additional patterned paper to make it my own.

Another way that I dealt with the difficult items was to add a second, warmer shade of pink (which is more of a “me” pink) and to turn the heart paper into an embellishment (I cut out a bunch of hearts and had them bubbling over the top of the lace and paper. In fact, my idea for dealing with the hearts came when I was going through my older layouts for the series on the evolution of my personal style. I found a cluster of hearts on one of my earliest layouts (not shown in my posts) that I loved then and still like now. I like the bubbliness of the circular tops of hearts so that is what I focused on.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to play with more happy colors so it was a good time to work with more pink than usual and to play with more three-dimensionality than I normally do on a layout. I do feel like I’ve expanded my scrapbook repertoire from this experiment.

Dedra’s Layout

Dedra cheated on her project. =)

I had to put that in there. Actually, it’s okay. She really tried to fit all my pieces in but ultimately, it just wasn’t her to have so many patterns, especially in the colors I chose for her, so she left some things out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dedra work with these golden browns and I think it’s gorgeous. The layout still screams Dedra, but in a new color.

The beads were also new for Dedra and I love how she added them as an accessory to a very Dedra-esque wire frame in a very playful and whimsical way. I’m curious to know if she plans to use more beads in the future and if she learned anything about herself in this process.

I’m so excited for Paperclipping Live tonight because we’ll have Liz Ness and Jackie Wood from Illustrating Stories calling in from Skype as our long-distance guests. They’ll be experimenting with techniques in some collage books they bought. I’m excited to see what they’ll be trying and how it’ll turn out. These are some of the ideas they’re considering:

Image transfers with inkjet photos
Create watercolor images using watercolor crayons and photos printed on watercolor paper
Paint unwanted backgrounds out of a picture
Try some resist techniques for journaling
Make some paper dolls inspired by the art of Claudine Hellmuth

Let’s hope UStream works for us. Apologies to those of you who tried to watch the last couple recordings. There were technical difficulties with UStream and the shows didn’t record.

Meet us tonight at 6:30pm, PST.

If you’re unsure of the time zone difference, look for your city on this website and then compare it to my city, which is Phoenix.

Note: If you’re waiting for Part 3 of my style journey and scrapbook history, it will be up this week, along with the final layouts that Dedra and I completed for the Style Exchange Challenge.

Paperclipping 46 - Invisible Grids from izzyvideo on Vimeo.

I think you’re going to love today’s episode. In it I share a layout idea with a tip on how to make it easy to put together, as well as design concepts so you can make it your own.

Click here for the high-quality version. Show notes are also available.

A lot of you said after reading Part 1 that you feel better about yourselves having seen my first pages. I was a late bloomer. And just so you know, many of the layouts I’ll be showing you in in this post were the best of their time, or layouts that mark a next-step for me.

Getting It Done Layouts

The next phase of my scrapbooking was a long stagnation. I was busier with a second child and it seems a lot of what I did was an effort to just get it done. Because I didn’t have many supplies I was spending more time hand-writing and hand-cutting designs or letters and most of my pages look like the one above but with even less to them. They were 2-page layouts with lots of photos spread around.

Having a second child spurred me toward more journaling. With two young children developing quickly I realized I had to get those memories recorded. Now you see more stories and pictures on each page, but less decorating.

Time wasn’t the only factor, though. We moved into a house much farther away from the local scrapbook store, we no longer had extra money to spend, and for a long while we shared one car, which Israel took to work. There were a number of years when I was using only leftovers and was missing out on all the changing and development that I would have seen in the stores and magazines if had looked.

Maybe this is why I began to have some moments of rebellion, when I decided to use some of the actual pieces of our lives in place of acid-free industry products…

I love this page, even if I would lay it out differently now and add more colors. Seeing these Einstein images reminds me of a great time when we were going to Einstein Bagels every Sunday morning and then off to the Scottsdale Civic Center to visit the library, read books on the grass, and play by the fountains.

Experimenting With Lumpy Products

One year I got some birthday money and decided to spend it all on scrapbooking products at two of our local stores. Not having been in a scrapbook store in a while, I remember being shocked that the industry had undergone a huge change while I was gone.

I didn’t dare spend my birthday money on magazines so I was ignorant about who initiated the changes and what other people were doing with these new products. And still had no clue about design concepts.

You can see that with after that shopping trip I was back to experimenting with design, colors, and products again, but I had a distinct feeling of dissatisfaction at this time. I wondered if my products were a distraction to the pictures. Understanding design principles would have really helped me.

Learning Through Trial And Error

This surge of new products inspired me to spend more time on my layouts again and I can see where this new attention to details helped me improve my design instinctively. Notice the new use of lines in the last three layouts, including the anchoring line I added to the bottom row of photos in this Thanksgiving layout. They’re still not great but I was learning from my experiences. It’s interesting to see the that I was starting to get an idea of some design elements, even if I didn’t fully get it or know that’s what I was doing.

Scapbooking more sophisticated topics also allowed me to play more with the types of products and colors I like (as opposed to child-themed ones). I can’t help giggling at my tiny dolphins compared to the giant shells and the glue dots visible through the velum. What I do like is that I was starting to find and identify colors I love.

My CM Phase

Most scrapbookers say they started out with Creative Memories and then moved away from it. I didn’t touch CM until I’d already been scrapbooking for six or seven years. I met a consultant who had a fireball personality and she inspired me to start journaling a lot more. For a short time I stopped buying other industry products and purchased mainly from CM.

While I have a lot pages with the older CM look (solid white background with triangles in the corner and from the sides), I usually tried hard for an aesthetically pleasing look. While working on the layout above about Aiden, I distinctly remember my excitement of discovering compartmentalized spaces, using lines, eye direction, and carrying a circular theme from one side to the other.

How Making Cards Made Me Aware of Myself

I also started making cards with my friends using Stampin’ Up products. I wanted to send a homemade card to a friend from high school but none of the cards I’d been making were really me. I couldn’t get myself to send any of them to her. That’s when I first became aware that I was rarely scrapbooking in a way that really reflected me. I wondered if that even was possible. I think you can see that new thought reflected in the last layout and the next few below.

I had so much fun mixing these unlikely pattens together (three different sizes of squares from punched scraps)–something I continue to love doing today.

These muted colors and patterns were so me back then, and still are now.

It was around this time in 2005 that Israel asked me to do something which led to the next big jump in my journey toward personal style. Stay tuned…(But go ahead and leave your observations by commenting).

My First Scrapbook Layout: 1996

This was my very first layout, which I did eleven and a half years ago in 1996. My cousin had showed me a few pages of her scrapbook and I had never seen anything like that before. My husband took me to Michael’s on my birthday soon after that. We picked out a heart punch, a couple packages of patterned paper, a package of cardstock, and some stickers.

Having only seen a few scrapbooking pages ever, it took me hours to complete this simple layout!

Decorating The Page, My Only Goal

Self-expression and story-telling never occurred to me back then. It was all about decorating the page, finding a theme (like apples for school), and using acid-free products.

These styles had nothing to do with the kind of art and visuals I actually loved. It seemed so very important to buy acid-free products and these were the types of products that came acid-free. They were the only products that I ever saw scrapbookers use. It just didn’t occur to me to do anything different. When I look at these older pages now, I don’t see “me” from back then at all. I see the products that were available at the time.

I rarely journaled on my layouts because, as I said, it all about the decorations for me. This is so bizarre because I’ve always been one to journal and preserve my stories. But I saw scrapbooking as totally separate from keeping a personal history. My scrapbooks preserved photos, not stories. The rare journaling I did do on my pages fascinates me now because I’ve forgotten these thoughts and feelings. Here is an example from the layout above:

“I loved being pregnant and enjoyed every minute of it. Some time around the 5th or 6th months I decided I would be happy being consistently pregnant with one baby after another for the next so many years.”

And another example where I share my first memories of having a new baby:

“I was so excited and so in love with him I did not even sleep for two days. I stayed up all night staring at Blake.”

I wish I had journaled more like this. So much of who is really me is totally lost in most of those old layouts.

My Mirst Move Toward Style: 1998

At some point my mother sent me a Mary Engelbreit book that I read to my son a lot. Her artwork influenced me to do a lot more frame-layering, bordering, and bright-color-mixing. I did a lot of layouts with these characteristics and was really excited about it. I wasn’t reading any scrapbook magazines at this point, so I have no idea what other scrapbookers were doing at the time, but this was my first inkling of having a style of my own, or a specific style at all.

It was also unusual for me to decorate more on design and less on theme. It wasn’t a hundred percent changeover. Just a new option I enjoyed choosing off-and-on.

This is the first part of My Own Scrapbook History. What do you think? Do these look like me to you? I will come back tomorrow to share more from 1998 to 2008.