If you’ve devoured all the books by Ali Edwards (like I have), then you may have noticed her most recent book, Life Artist, is different from her first two. In this interview you’ll get to hear Ali’s thoughts on why she made this one different.
You’ll also be the first to hear about Ali’s next book. Yes, you read that correctly. She is already writing her fourth book, and the Paperclipping audience is the first to hear her talk about it.
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Both of these layouts from the last video all started with the same concept, to lay the photos side by side. I love the ability to repeat a structure for a layout but use my creativity to do something different from what I’ve done before.
I think this is a key way to scrapbook: First choose an overall structure that works for your photos, and then embellish around that structure. I showed an example of how I do this in Paperclipping 14 (Clustering Your Embellishments) but will work on this more in a future episode.
I’m not a fan of posed studio photos. I buy the kids’ school pictures, but other than that, I never pay for studio shots.
Even though the pictures of my husband and I have a a lot of shine on our faces they show the real us. We’re posing, but we’re with friends and we’re being ourselves. We’re not anxious to get a perfect picture. We’re just having fun. Well, maybe the drinks help, too.
Three of the four pictures of my husband and I were originally pictures of us with our friends. I had extras and I loved the connection my husband is making with me in these, so I used a square punch so that I could make a grouping of the two of us enjoying each other.
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School Pictures
12×12 2-Page Layout
Journaling reads: All of you in school this year. Trin is all day now like Blake. Aiden is just mornings, 3 days a week. It’s good for us all.
Products used: Cardstock (Bazzill) * Patterned paper (Creative Imaginations, Rhonna Farrer) * Gaffer tape (7 Gypsies) * Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Chipboard circles (Scenic Route, Imagination Project) Pen (American Crafts) * Other (buttons, tag, from own stash or from clothing).
What You Do To Me
8.5×11 Layout
Products used: Cardstock (Stampin’ Up) * Patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye) * Gaffer tape (7 Gypsies) * Transparency (My Mind’s Eye) * Bling (My Mind’s Eye) * Stickers (Creative Imaginations) * Ribbon (from own stash) * Rub-on’s (Art Warehouse) * Font (American Typewriter).
I’m Israel, Noell’s husband, and I’m hijacking her website for a minute to ask all of you to help me wish her a happy birthday. No offense to anyone, but I’m totally convinced that she’s the most wonderful person in the world.
If you feel like you want to comment, please take a moment to wish her a happy birthday in the comments.
Now back to your normal programming… 
After the last tutorial on leading the eye, which showed two ways to do it, I received a request to cover this subject with more depth. In this episode I show a number of characteristics that attract the eye and how you can be sure you are making the focal point exactly what you want it to be.
This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.
Those of in the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am reposting an article I wrote on capturing relationships, since many of will have that opportunity during the holiday meal. I am taking the next four days off to relax and prepare for a new week of Paperclipping articles and videos starting Monday. Happy Thanksgiving!
What would you do if you realized you didn’t have any photos of yourself holding one of your children? This was my own discovery last week!
Of course, I have the required hospitals photos of me holding my youngest son, Aiden. But beyond that, it’s mainly the older kids holding him, or my husband holding him. I am only there in spirit; in other words, behind the camera.
Last week I was ready to scrap the “Hold-You” story I shared in a previous post. My four-year-old is small and I still hold him a lot. How could I not have any pictures to match my story?
It’s a dramatic example of something I already wanted to write about: photographing the relationships between different members of your family.
Following are 6 tips to help you capture and document each paired relationship within your own family.
In high school I took a lot of drama classes. I wasn’t a very good actress, but I did learn some things. One was that any time a character entered the stage, there should be some sort of subtle demeanor-change in the characters that are already on.
This is because different people bring out different parts of our personalities.
Who I am with my son Blake is slightly different than who I am with my daughter Trinity. Trinity is slightly different when she is with Aiden than she is when she is with Blake.
Each pair is a unique dynamic to capture and celebrate.
Someday when you are gone, your children have photos to remind them of their special relationship with you?
While we’re at it, make sure you photograph your spouse with each child as well. And not just once, but periodically as your child grows.
I am fortunate to have in-laws who devote a day every year to each of their 14 grandchildren, to spend time with them one-on-one. My desire to document those days in our scrapbooks made me realize I need one-on-one photos with the grandparents and each of my children.
Even if I never scrapbooked those “dates” they have together, my children will treasure a photo of themselves with Nana and Grandpa.
And by the way, don’t forget about photos of yourself and your spouse with each of your parents!
Think beyond the event or the holiday. For many years, when our family got together I only photographed my kids taking part in the festivities. Now I try harder to capture relationships, as well.
These photos tell their own story, separate from the event in which they take place. You don’t have to include these pictures with all the other ones from that specific event. Separate them. Let them tell their own stories.
The photo in the layout at the top is from one of our geo-caching adventures. I will not be putting that layout with the others from that event, though. It is going into an album about us and who we are.
Sometimes I want to scrapbook a topic about two members of our family, and to my shock and horror, I cannot find a photo of those two people together at the age that I want. Of course, that is always a wake up to pull out my camera.
But when scrapbook page is calling and I don’t want to wait until I can print up new photos, I have a Plan B. I find a picture where those two people are together in a group, I make a duplicate version of that photo, and then I crop a new photo of just the two people I need.
The result is two completely different photographs!
Look through your pictures. Have you taken photos of each pair within your family? Writing this article, I realized that I definitely have not. I’ll be making use of my camera over the next little while with the particular goal of capturing more of the one-on-one relationships that make up who we are as a family.
Would you like to join me?
If you follow the affairs of Creating Keepsakes Magazine then you’ll recognize this cute face as Noel Culbertson, one of the 9 runners-up for CK’s Scrapbooker Of The Year.
Last week in a challenge thread I host on the CK message board, Noel posted a minibook made out of such a unique item that I had to feature it on Paperclipping. The book is made out of self-laminating luggage tags!
Noel explains, “I wanted to make a sturdy water resistant mini album for my husband to keep in his flight suit during his upcoming deployment. The self laminating luggage tags did the trick.”
I asked Noel to explain the method of her pages and how she put it together.
“I had several pictures developed in wallet size, which fit the luggage tags perfectly. I then found some double dipped patterned paper, that I thought would work both with the pictures, and would be “manly†enough for my husband to carry around on a daily basis!”
“I had my daughters write little notes for my husband to add a little something extra special. Both the front and the back of the mini page went into the luggage tag at the same time, so I had to be sure that both sides were upright and aligned before I placed them in the luggage tag.”
“You should put any rub-ons on the papers before you seal the page. The outside of the tags are too smooth for the rub-ons to adhere.
“When the pages were ready to be laminated I placed them on the nonstick side of the luggage tag and sealed the sticky side down. I used a bone folder to burnish the tag and get any tiny air pockets out. I did add a couple of letter stickers and some We R Memory Keepers Foil, Glitter, Flock rub-on letters.
“The luggage tags have a pre-punched hole at the end, and I used one rung from 3/8†Bind It All wire binding, then closed it with the Bind It All. A great little mini album in under an hour!”
If you’re interested in getting these tags for yourself, you can get them online from C-Line Products.
Thanks for joining us at Paperclipping, Noel!
Do you have a lot of Prima, Bazzill, or other similar flowers? Did you use them for a while and end up with extras?
If you need a new way to get excited about using them again, you’ll love today’s episode. In fact, I bet you’ll use up all the rest. Enjoy the show.
This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.
The photos you see in the layout above look better on that page than they did on their own. For a while I didn’t even want to scrap them because they had such a busy background and the colors under the library’s florescent lighting were harsh and uninspiring.
Setting the busy, imperfect photos on solid blue cardstock brought out their better parts. The solid spaces between each photo grounds them so they don’t feel chaotic. The cool dark blue enhances the coloring, bringing out the contrast and countering the yellow tint. They no longer feel like the “bad photos” I once considered them.
I asked members of a 2 Peas In A Bucket forum to share layouts with me that started with imperfect photos and became pages they loved. There were so many responses. Below are nine problems many of us have, along with the scrapbookers’ design solutions. Each sub-title is a link to a layout with the problematic photo it describes. Click on the link to see the layout.
Stephanie chose to focus on the emotion of the photo. You see that in her journaling, but she also did it by eliminating all other details of the photo. She turned it black-and-white and brought her title all the way across to the very place where the emotions show; on the face.
Jessie’s solution was to use her picture for a layout that is introspective. Jessie said that in addition to the photo being tilted, it was also blurry. She took a more artistic approach with the photo to capitalize on its problems. She tore it down the side, “adding more imperfection,” Jessie said. Sometimes an imperfect photo is the perfect story-teller for our unique and imperfect lives.
Christmas photos, in particular, often have this problem. Lara’s situation was worse because she was stuck with a disposable camera one year. She cropped her photos down to their most important parts, allowing her to use a lot of photos without too much busyness.
Aly ran into the same problem with her daughter’s birthday photos. Not only did she crop her pictures down, she also cropped around the birthday girl herself for the focal point photo.
Rachael came in close with embellishments to focus in on the main subject. She also chose colors that went with the journaling of her layout, rather than the location of where her husband was. She used the yellow in his shirt and the blue in the hat and background to tie in the other colors she wanted to use on the layout. The gold-yellow was a great way to work with his clothes without committing to the exact shade of yellow he’s wearing.
Emily’s picture is from her husband’s childhood. It has an orange cast. To compensate for a photo that is too warm, you can usually put it against a cool color to compensate. In this case, Emily’s photo was about pumpkins, so orange was an important color in the layout. Putting the photo against orange would have caused it to practically disappear. Instead of doing that, Emily’s orange lies around the edges of the layout, where as the photo is surrounded by white and a cool shade of blue.
For photos that are too cool, try using a warm tone to counteract it. For a bland photo, use high contrast colors on your layout to bring out contrasting tones in the photo.
Marieke put the emphasis on the child that was in focus and he became the subject of the layout, rather than both him and his sister. She embellished the corner of the photo where the shirt of the blurry child is so that most of the empty space is around the in-focus child, drawing attention to him. Marieke also journaled about the child in-focus. As a result , the blurry part of the photo is incidental to the layout.
Jessie’s picture originally had a beach background, but the most important part of it, her husband, was too dark. She increased the exposure to brighten the her husband’s face and blow-out the background. The now-white background became a place for part of the title and embellishments (but could be used for journaling, as well). She lost the beach background, but gained a great picture of her husband and was free to scrapbook on any subject she wanted.
Whether the picture was damaged or the subject in the photo hid from the camera, no picture is beyond scrapbooking if you love it or if it tells a story you love. Sometimes the problem with the picture itself is that story. Here are three examples:
Janet’s layout has a photo where her child had drawn on himself and then held his hand up to the camera as she took his picture.
Theresa told a great story of how her husband kept her photo in his billfold for years before she laid the damaged picture to paper.
Helen’s layout illustrates exactly what her daughter does every time helen pulls out the camera anymore. She ducks.
Every photo that has meaning to you is worth scrapbooking. My layout above is simple and the photos are not my favorite, but I adore the page because it captures a part of my family life that I value and love.
Related Articles And Podcasts:
Can You Make A Layout With Not-So-Great Photos?
Crop A Good Photo Out Of A Bad One
How To Draw Out Color
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Our Comfort Zone
12×12 Layout
Journaling: Library Jan. 2007. One of our family favorite regular hangouts.
Products: Cardstock (Bazzill) * Patterned paper (Scenic Route, Daisy D’s, My Mind’s Eye) * Journal spot (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Metal tab (7 Gyspies) Word sticker (7 Gypsies) * Pen (American Crafts) * Other (“comfort zone” cut out of a magazine ad and library book list).
There have been some questions regarding how long the Schoolwork Scrapbook Premium Tutorial will be available. I realize we launched it at the beginning of the holiday season and I did so because I knew there were a number of people waiting for it.
Those of you who need to to get through the holidays before digging into your children’s schoolwork don’t have to worry. We will continue to offer the tutorial indefinitely. And, once you’ve bought it, the download is yours. You can watch it as many times as you like (just don’t share it with others, please). If you get it now and find you don’t have time to complete it until the new year, the download will still be on your computer waiting for you.
I think that’s a pretty good deal for only $7.99, don’t you?
Follow this link to learn more about this tutorial. And if you need to come back to it in the future, you can find the link in the upper left column where it says, “Purchase Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial.”
Are you unhappy with your cutting tools? In today’s show I review two different cutting systems. When you’re done watching the video, you’ll know what I use and recommend to others.
This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.
Do you have a topic you’d like me to cover in an upcoming episode? We are preparing the next round of Paperclipping shows. Leave a comment with your request, or email me at noellhyman (at) gmail (dot) com.
I don’t care how amazing you are with your SLR, we all have sub-par photos. And the truth is, most of us have a lot of them. They’re dark, they’re out of focus, they’re grainy, bland, have too much contrast, or not enough; they’re yellow or orange, they have distracting items in the background, they’re poorly composed…but we love them. They’re often the ones that captured the perfect facial expression. Or they’re the only ones you have available to tell that important story.
Rarely do we see layouts with these imperfect photos in the scrapbooking magazines. It’s easy to make a fabulous layout when you have a fabulous photo. Scrapbookers need help making layouts they love with the not-so-fabulous ones.
In the layout above, I used a group of photos I took with the camera in my computer using Apple’s Photo Booth. It’s awful resolution. The low amount of color you see in the focal point photo was the most I could get after cranking the saturation way up. But I had to scrap these photos. They are the only ones I have that really demonstrate how I feel about my relationship with my little boy.
My first solution to this poor-photo dilemma was to increase the saturation of the main photo and turn all the others black and white. Black and white coloring will hide a multitude of sins.
Next, because the photos were so bland, I used products with bright colors to help to bring out the colors in the photo. It’s good to experiment and lay your main photo over different colors to see how they effect your pictures.
The pictures don’t look perfect, but they look better on the layout than they did by themselves.
The next Paperclipping article will be full of tips on how to solve various photo problems so that you can make a layout you love, regardless of the photo quality. If this is something you struggle with, make sure you come back soon.
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Initiating Intimacy
12×12 Layout
Journaling reads:
6-28-06 Aiden, age 3.
Your numerous attempts at initiating intimacy with me today:
9:27 am. I saw you approaching so I greeted you. “Aiden, my three-year-old boy who is so big.” And you just said, “Hold you,” as you walked straight into my legs like a magnet to a fridge.
9:34am.You approached me again while I was enjoying my tea. “Will you snuggle with me on the couch?”
9:40am. You returned to me and climbed onto my lap. I held you sideways in my right arm like a baby. We played a fame where we each closed one eye and looked at each others’ open on every close-up. I commented on your great eye; your great nose. And then I said I didn’t want to look at your dierty mouth, which had crusted milk all over it.
9:52am. Just now, you approached me again. I told you that I am writing down all the sweet things you say to me.”Hold me. Snuggle me on the couch.” And your response was, “Let’s do that!” Then you laid down on my bed and waited for me to join you.
Rub-on’s are probably one of my favorite types of scrapbooking products and I have picked up a few tips from other rub-on lovers who understand the frustrations that can come with cutting them apart.
Don’t you hate it when you’re cutting a rub-on off the sheet and the lower sheet moves away from the top one? I’m pretty sure it is impossible to keep the two sheets together…unless you staple them first. I got this tip a long time ago from Ali Edwards when I took a class she had online.
When I’ve cut the sheet up enough that there are multiple loose pieces, I staple the two sheets of each piece, which not only helps for future cutting, but also keeps everything together when I slip them back into their packages for storing.
Sometimes I cut rub-on pieces out and then decide not to use them on a layout. Often, by the time I put everything away, the rub-on has lost its waxy sheet that keeps it from sticking to other things. Or worse, the rub-on came in one of those books by American Crafts or Art Warehouse and there is no way to “slip” it back in.
My friend, Dedra, suggested I tape my rub-on’s to wax paper. The wax paper will keep the rub-on from sticking to something, and the tape holding it is on the non-printed side, so it won’t hurt it..
I used to have loose rub-on’s sitting on my table because I didn’t know what to do with them. These two simple tips have solved all of my rub-on problems…unless you’d consider my obsession with them a problem?
I’ve been asking that we all gather “found items,” that we look for potential scrapbooking jewels in the piles of stuff we trash or recycle. But how exactly do you use them?
Organize them like you do your embellishments…organize them with your embellishments. If you keep them separate in their own place, you won’t remember to use them.
If it makes you feel better, spray them with Archival Mist before storing them away.
I started organizing my embellishments by color a number of weeks ago and I put my collection of found items right in with them.
Design with them like you do with your regular embellishments. The only significant difference between them and what you get at your scrapbook store is the cost!
I know that some of you are saying, “But I struggle with the regular embellishments already! If that is the case, Paperclipping Episode 14 will give you some help with clustering your embellishments around a title or a photo.
I use bits and pieces on a lot of my pages. But the layout above uses them almost exclusively. The Juicy Couture pieces were from an ad in a magazine and were the inspiration for the layout. The use of the word, “juicy,” as an adjective for clothing reminded me of my creative daughter and how she loves to experiment with clothes and accessories.
I had saved the clothing tags and they happened to be perfect for the fashion theme of the layout. Tags are great because they usually have a hole already in place for a brad or ribbon. The Guess tag even had an eyelet and a decorative stamp image.
Tags usually have trendy designs, colors, and phrases on them. But sometimes I keep a clothing tag with the idea that I will cover or alter it in some way.
Are you having a hard time seeing how to use these items on layouts that have nothing to do with clothing? Here are some more examples:
On Stage-Use clothing tags that have words applicable to the layout or colors that enhance it.
Inside Your Head-Use words, titles, and subtitles from magazines. “Reclaim Your Own Way Of Living,” was a power statement that appeals to me and I cut it out.
New Schedules Use calendars and other papers from your life for journaling, or background pieces. On this layout, one of the calendars is almost like patterned paper.
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Juicy Couture
12×12 Layout
Journaling around the photo reads: I love that you attached this flower from my scrap supplies to your headband. You’re always so creative this way.
Letter #1 reads: Dear Trinity Fashionista, Your couture is always so juicy. How do you juice it up in that amazing way that you do? Signed, Hopelessly Unjuicy
Letter #2 reads: Dear Hopelessly Unjuicy, To juice it up you must be confident, creative, risky, and super juicy like me. There is hope!! I know you can do it. Signed, Trinity Fashionista.
Products used: Carstock (Stampin’ Up) * Patterned paper (Basic Grey, Scenic Route, Creative Imaginations) * Rub-on (7 Gypsies, American Crafts) * Brads (Making Memories) * Pen (Creative Imaginations, American Crafts) * Letter sticker (Creative Memories) * Ribbon, tags, magazine tearings from own stash.
