This is my rainbow-after-the-storm layout, which describes my birthday that began pitifully, but ended well.

Blocks Of Color

I decided to punch old unloved papers into shapes to create the curved strips of color for my rainbow. I found old papers that I can’t believe I still have. Since the papers are chopped up, it doesn’t matter that I don’t love them anymore because what you see is mainly the color. The patterns that don’t excite me barely show.

For the green, I used leftovers from letter stickers. You know all those extra X’s and Z’s that you just can’t get rid of? The next time you need to create a block of color, consider punching your older patterned paper into shapes and using old extra letters to fill up the space.

Anchoring The Memorabilia

When I started working on the layout, the rainbow was not part of the concept. I began by writing out my journaling. Then I picked pieces that I had saved from that day and cropped them down. I also made a clock to show what time my day started (2am).

As I moved all the stuff around the paper, it occurred to me to arrange some of it in an arch at the top. Lately I have been thinking about the rainbow trend from my childhood in the 70’s. With rainbows floating at the forefront of my mind, it was an easy solution to my need for something to anchor my memorabilia to the page, add color, and also provide a bit of symbolism that demonstrates how I feel about my 35th birthday.

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My Birthday 2007
2-page 12×12 Layout

The funnest birthday surprise happened when Israel put a birthday post on my website and then “twittered” a host of people, inviting them to wish me a happy birthday. We came home from dinner and I found this fun surprise! (the surprise is shown in the lower right picture of my website entry page).

We’re live tonight at 6:30pm MST! Join us and chat by clicking here.

Update: I think we partied a little too hard last night and broke the recording! I’m just kidding, but it was pretty wild with tons of people, wasn’t it? Thanks to all of you who were there! Something did go wrong with the video at the end, though, and it wouldn’t allow me to save the recording. I’ll get in touch with the UStream tech crew to see if there is any way to salvage the video or to avoid that happening again. I’m sorry to those of you who have already tried to watch the recording.

Someone has requested that I schedule a morning Live Show. I can’t do a regular weekly one right now, but I can schedule some here and there. The next morning show will be in Wednesday, February 13th at 9:30am MST (8:30am PST). I know that is far away, so I’ll post a reminder as we get closer.

I’m so excited for my friend, Ron, who I quoted in an article about using “found items,” because he is debuting his 75 foot long mural, which he painted as a commissioned project for his local library. I know this isn’t directly related to scrapbooking, but there is so much in art to inspire and I want to show off what he’s done.

You can watch a video that shows his artwork and tells the inspiration for it: Ron Schiding’s Folktale Mural for Martin Library.

If you’ve been unsure how to design a layout with an 8×12 photo, you’ll be ready after watching today’s episode. It’s easier than you might think!

This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.

Show notes are available here.

This graph shows the growth of the Paperclipping audience, from its beginning in October 2006 to this month. We are so excited about it, and we think the growth is a result of our uniquenesses.

Here’s what we’re trying to do:

1. Quality : We want to create high-quality professional video.
2. Simplicity : We aim to give you small bite-size techniques that you can take to your scrapbooking table immediately.
3. Valuable Content : We supplement the videos with articles on the website, a resource I update almost daily.
4. Community : One of the newest and already very popular features is Paperclipping Live. I love chatting with you in real-time. And I love watching the community develop in the chat room. I love hearing your ideas. Some of you have told me that watching my process gives you faith in yourself. That is what Paperclipping is all about: empowering you with design principles and techniques, to unleash your own creativity.
5. Innovation : You may have noticed our newest feature. You can now leave a video comment! I am so excited about this because I want to see you.

The Road Ahead

We have many more ideas which we will add gradually. Our goal is to make this a great experience for you. If there’s something we’re missing, please let me know at noellhyman (at) gmail (dot) com. We love to get your feedback.

Also, if you have enjoyed the articles, videos, or live-stream scrapbooking, please share us with others. Many of you have written about Paperclipping on your blogs and posted links. You are a major factor in our growth and I appreciate it!

I’ve been asking myself this questions for a long time because all the talk about freestyle in scrapbooking just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t.

Is it “fun, artsy, and totally your own style?”

Is it anything with lots of doodling and handwriting with a look similar to Elsie’s? I have looked at layouts in magazines that the editor labels “freestyle,” seemingly because of one element that reminds them of the queen of freestyle, like the funky-fresh handwriting.

Is it scrapbooking without rules? Which rules? Archival rules? Design rules?

Is it expressive scrapbooking? Scrapbooking where we do more to express ourselves, to communicate who we are?

I’m not the only one who has scratched her head, trying to figure out why some label certain layouts freestyle but not others. Debb Cozzi put this question to work over a period of a few weeks a couple years ago and discovered what I have long believed. In a forum on Digital Scrapbook Place, she began a thread on Freestyle and said, “After studying this style I can tell you what it is NOT….it is not a style where you throw design principles out the window and just ‘go with the flow.’ (Although that is what many of the articles and books will tell you!)”

Study any excellent freestyle layout long enough and you will find underlying design principles. It’s just usually less obvious.

The layout above is what I would consider Freestyle/Noell-Style. It’s my freest-form layout ever…and yet the design principles are there, holding it together. You see the black rub-on line that stretches across the top? That is an anchoring line. It makes you feel that all the “stuff” on the page, the receipts and photos, are in place, although haphazardly.

What about the three green elements? They form a triangle, giving balance to the layout and keeping your eye from straying. There is also a balance of black and a pretty equal amount of empty space at the top and the bottom of the layout.

But my handwriting? Nothing like that of the amazing and trendy Elsie Flannigan writing.

Not quite putting her finger on what Freestyle is, Debb listed some common elements in many freestyle layouts. Mixed media or collage, unique and fresh uses of open space; doodles or hand-drawn/written elements; heavy emphasis on type and print, especially when used as a design element; photos used in fresh new ways, like journaling in the open space, or the edges of the rectangular photo painted away; an emphasis of line and motion and organic shape.

If an inclusion of some of those elements distinguishes a layout as being freestyle, then I guess many of my pages fit. But I don’t see myself as a freestyle scrapbooker and I doubt anyone else does, either. In fact, I don’t equate any style label with my own scrapbooking. The closest label that I can come up with for myself is “eclectic.”

Frankly, I’d prefer it if we didn’t label styles at all, but I know sometimes it just helps communication to have a label. My style has more to do with my method of scrapbooking and less to do with an overall consistent look from page to page.

So what light have I shed on the definition of Freestyle scrapbooking? Probably none. And the more I think about it, the more I feel that freestyle has less to do with a certain “look” and more to do with a breaking out of norms and trying something new and risky. Maybe it is always evolving, because what is new now will eventually become old. But then again, maybe not.

Update: If you missed last night’s Paperclipping Live, you can watch there recording here.

Don’t forget next Tuesday night at 6:30pm MST. I’m working on a morning time for those who need it. Stay tuned!

You see thousands of layouts online and inside magazines. But you really want to take a peek into someone’s actual album, don’t you? Come on, admit it. In today’s episode, I take you through one of mine.

If you had problems downloading some of the most recent episodes, please try them again. We made some changes so they should be more easily accessible to anyone.

This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page.

And I have provided show notes for the deaf members of the Paperclipping audience.

Identifying The Little Everyday Things

Today at breakfast the kids started reminiscing about a time when I used to take them to “the gym.” I realized immediately that they must have been referring to the exercise room of our old apartment. That was so long ago and I only have a very vague memory of taking them with me.

I said, “I wonder why I can’t really remember that.”

And Israel answered, “It’s because you didn’t scrapbook it.”

What’s missing from your scrapbooks? Lately I have been trying to identify those little things that are so much a part of our daily lives that I don’t even really think about them. One that I thought of recently was the fact that Fridays are Aiden’s and my favorite day right now. He gets to take a toy for Show-and-Tell and then stay an extra hour at school for Lunch Bunch. And that’s the reason it’s my favorite day, too!

Today’s Everyday Observation

This morning I made biscuits. We love homemade biscuits that are so fat they almost split in the middle. Israel encouraged me to start making biscuits a long time ago because it was one of his regular breakfasts he enjoyed while growing up. Weekend mornings seem to feel a little happier when I make biscuits.

What are some of the little things you haven’t thought much about before? What are those things that don’t seem significant at first thought, but in actuality bring little bits of joy into your everyday life?

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Pals
2-Page 12z12 Layout

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill) * Patterned paper (Daisy D’s, other unknown) * Wordstrip, metal tab (7 Gypsies) * Chipboard (Scenic Route) * Brads (Making Memories) * Pen (American Crafts) * “Pals” clothing tag and ccircular running icon (re-purposed “found” item).

Some of you have been ordering the Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial this month as part of your New Year’s resolution to finish your projects. So to make it easy to find, I thought I’d put up a little post about it. And I want to remind you that if you hope to get it later instead of sooner, there is a link in the left column (at least as long as the site looks the way it does now) that says “Purchase Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial.” You can always go there to learn all about it or to purchase it.

It’s a great tutorial, affordable for anyone, and once it’s yours you have unlimited access to watch it as many times as you want. Click here to learn more about it and for links to see all of the pages for the two I’ve made so far.

Have a fun weekend!