Have you tried Glimmer Mist? It’s gorgeous, fun, artistic, and easy to use. In this episode I show you a number of examples of masking techniques with Glimmer Mist.
Show notes for this episode are also available.
Below are the projects you from the video…
To see enlarged images, click on each image, and then click the All Sizes button at the top of the photo.
Are some of you still struggling with the idea of scrapbooking about yourself? If so, I have an easy topic to start you off: make an account of your day. Here are three very different versions of this concept…
Over-Inflated
12×12
I took my camera around with me one day and snapped just a few pictures. I also recorded all of my activities and their times.
A grid-type layout is a simple solution for this type of page, but if you’re feeling artsy, consider a free-style approach. I gave a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this background to the Premium Subscribers.
Main journaling reads: I must have an over-inflated sense of how much I can accomplish in 24 hours. My to-do list is always too long and I never come close to checking all the items off, even though I really pack it all in as tight as I can.
Journaling in the cloud-like spots: (a schedule of everything I did one day–same day as the pictures).
***A note on acidity: I am pretty sure tissue paper is highly acidic. I would never use it on a layout with old photos, or any I can’t reprint. On the other hand, I have no problem using modern photos, such as the ones on this layout. Since there are so many pictures of myself and my children that are on safer papers, and since I back up my digital photos, I won’t mind if photos like these reach an early demise.
5am To 5pm
12×12
Whether you work full time or stay at home, some of us have a typical schedule. This was my regular Monday schedule last year. Instead of listing the schedule with words and times, I placed pictures (and a few words) onto the clock according to the time I did them.
The day starts at 5am and circles all the way around and ends at 5pm.
Note: I elevated some of the circles with foam dots and some with a double layer of foam dots. This is great for dimension.
Semi-Transparent Acrylic Mini-book
2-28-08
Some of you may remember when I took the challenge from Illustrating Stories to take a photo every hour for one day. I decided to turn this project into a minibook. Each hour and it’s picture gets their own page. The tabs tell what time it was when I snapped the photo. I will share the entire minibook soon. This is a sneak peek.
There are so many ways to document an average or typical (or even an atypical) day: lots of words, lots of photos, on a layout or in a mini-book. If you struggle to get comfortable scrapbooking about yourself, this concept is an easy non-threatening one. What are you waiting for?
I posted the recording of last Tuesday’s Paperclipping Live show. You can view it in the Paperclipping Live Archives.
Thank you for all of the wonderful comments, emails, and blog postings in response to the big announcement! I was finally able to respond to some of your comments in the last post, so please head over there if you posted something I might have responded to.
You’re all the best!
I will have the next blog article ready soon–hopefully by the end of the day today. Talk to you then.
The video is here.
Most of you know my husband, Izzy, the producer of Paperclipping and a few other tutorial podcasts. What you may not have known is that he has been producing our videos in the little time he has at nights and on the weekends when he is home from his full-time job. He usually leaves for his long commute between 5 and 6 am, before the kids wake up. And he gets home around 6:15 and gets right to work on video. We spend most of our weekends shooting and editing video.
On Friday, Izzy gave his two week notice so that he and I can put full-time effort into our shows. It is a risk, but we’re excited. We’re excited to be able to give our full effort to something we both love so much. We’re excited to see if we can make it work. We knew that we could not sustain the amount of work we were doing indefinitely without making a major change. So this is the change we’re making.
Because I need to maximize cash flow to help ease the transition
from my day job’s steady weekly paycheck — to zero guarantee, I’m
enclosing a coupon code for 20% off a Paperclipping Premium
Subscription. If you’re not currently a Premium Subscriber, you can
use this coupon code to get a nice discount. If you are already a
premium subscriber, then you have a couple options: You can use it
to get a discount off a renewal, or you can forward this information to a
friend with an interest in scrapbooking, and they’ll immediately have an
additional way in which they will benefit from knowing you. 
Here’s the coupon code for 20% off a Paperclipping Premium
Subscription:
New Subscribers: Here’s where you go to use it, http://www.paperclipping.com/membership/
Current Premium Subscribers: Renew with a discount here, http://members.izzyvideo.com
Thanks for the support as always, and please wish us good luck as
we pursue this exciting direction!
All the best,
Izzy
*By the way, the coupon is only good through the 28th, so please act
fast if you’re interested!
Thanks to all of you who actively participate on the blog, in the forum, in the gallery, and during the live show.
Thanks to those of you who have recommended Paperclipping to others. Growth is vital to our being able to continue.
Huge appreciation to those of you who have put your trust in us and have already purchased the Premium Subscription. You make the entire endeavor possible.
I look forward to working full time with my best friend and being able to improve on what we feel is the best resource for scrapbookers.
Sincerely,
Noell
Host, Paperclipping
A few weeks ago we had a digital, Photoshop-based tutorial. So for this week’s tutorial for the Premium Subscribers, I thought it was time to do something artsy and carefree. I hope you enjoy this step-by-step tutorial with items from your home.
You can learn more about the Premium Subscription, and how to get access to videos like this one, by visiting the Membership Information Page.
The following article is the first of a series titled, Reclaim Yourself.
How do you feel about your age and your life right now? Do you feel young or old? Are you what you’d always hoped you’d grow up to be? Do you like the direction your life has taken you–the decisions that brought you to where you are?
I challenge you to make a layout answering one or more of these questions. It can be light and fluffy like mine, or heavy, deep and introspective.
Let me tell you about my own layout…
The journaling reads: I may be over 30, a stay-at-home mom with 3 kids, but I can still pull out that rock star attitude like I was only 21.
This type of journaling may be a little on the shallow side for what I typically like to write, but combined with my design, I’m not just showing some attitude, I’m also revealing something deeper about myself. I feel young. I live young. And I am exactly who I want to be.
My biggest wish was always to be a stay-at-home mom, just like my own mother. But I also had those other secret dreams from childhood that many of us have, one of which was to be a rock star. I still rock out in my car and in my shower and in my living room–at the club on rare occasions. I got my greater wish to be a mom, and I get to enjoy the fantasy of rocking out, even if I’m the only one it entertains.
Remember the leather and lace days of the 80’s? It was the unique combination of the hard and the feminine that characterized that style. I went with a similar concept, but in my own current style (not the style of the 80’s). I began with lace.
I have some fabulous lace in a gorgeous cream color. Its hem is pulled into a ruffly edge. This was my inspiration for much of the layout. I decided to use a “hard lace” look to enhance the rock-theme. Aside from the actual piece of lace that I used to anchor the photo, I found other elements that combine something “hard” with something lace-like.
In the shot above you see the black lace-paper. The black is the “hard” element. In the photo below is a hard metal lace flower. There is also a second lace flower anchoring the photo to the page.
So, back to you, my fellow scrapbookers. How do you feel about you, right now? Begin by writing down your thoughts. Find or take a picture that exemplifies you in your state, and then let that be the inspiration for the design of your layout.
* * *
Respect (Baby, I Got It)
12×12 Layout
Additional Journaling: Kansas City * Christmas time at the farm, Dec. 2006 * Little Noell showing spunk.
Song lines: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. find out what it means to me * Just a little bit
Adhesive (3-D Dots by E.K. Success, Creative Memories, Glossy Accents) * Epoxy sticker (s.e.i.) Game Spinner (Tim Holtz) * Letter stickers (Creative Memories, Thickers by American Crafts) Metal flower brads (Creative Imaginations) * Patterned paper (Basic Grey, K.I. Memories die cut paper, My Mind’s Eye) * Pen (American Crafts) * Rhinestones (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Transparent flourish (My Mind’s Eye ) * Misc. (Lace from own stash).
As promised, the video tutorial for this week is up. In this episode I share a couple ideas for how you can take products in your stash that don’t work for you, and turn them into items that do.
My latest Schoolwork Scrapbook–photos of the inside pages still to come.
Many of you have the Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial and have already used it to make your children a book that displays some of their work and art. Others of you are planning to make your first books at the end of this school year. But do you know what to do with all that stuff your child is bringing home now?
Originally, I had a high-quality file folder for each of my children to keep their work in while the year is progressing. I found that not only did everything not fit into my folders, but they were too much trouble to deal with when I was in a hurry cleaning up, and instead of putting stuff in them, I ended up stacking all three of my kids’ work together in the cabinet on top of the fie folders. This was much easier for me, throughout the year. But when the school year was over there was a little confusion sometimes as to whose work was whose.
At the end of the summer I held a live event for those who own the tutorial, and one of the geniuses in the audience shared a wonderful idea. (Terri, was that you???). She suggested using those giant zip-lock bags that many scrapbooking kits come in.
I started doing it this year and it’s working out perfectly for me. They’re easy to open, easy to label, and a great size. If you’re swimming in school and art work already, you might want to try this.
For those who are unfamiliar with my Schoolwork Scrapbook and the special edition tutorial that gives you step-by-step instructions, you can find out about it and see detailed pictures by following this link.
Apparently, last night’s show didn’t record. I realize many of you prepared your stories and photos with the plan to watch the recording today. So, I’m going to make it up to you. Next week we’ll cover the same subject, but let’s take it a little further. Let’s plan for even more participation.
If you are willing to call into the show to share your story and photo next week, please email me. I would love to talk with two or three people more thoroughly about how you feel about your story, and which colors, patterns, and symbols/embellishments might help you communicate.
Whether you are one of those that shared with us in the chat last night or not, you are welcome to call in through Skype next week. I would love to have at least two people call in, so if you are interested and can be prepared with at least one photo and a story in mind, please email me…
noell(at)paperclipping(dot)com
We have a free episode that is almost ready to post and it will be up soon!
Is there anyone else that still hasn’t started or finished their back-to-school layouts? We’ll end the series this week after a few more posts. I hope this series has helped you identify how to make pages repeating events more meaningful and more enjoyable.
I am someone who loves, adores–thrives on–having lots of time alone. Yes, I am very social, but I have also always needed to have a lot of time to myself and my attention-demanding thoughts.
When I was younger I could shut away the world and go to my room for hours at a time. When I got my first car I loved to take long rides down winding Kansas roads and fed off the eerie feeling of being totally isolated with a horizon that seemed to stretch to eternity.
Then I had kids.
Almost eleven years later, all three of my children are in full-day school, and I am once again enjoying long stretches of quiet, wonderful, alone time. Last week I took advantage of the chance to tell some of my own stories and explore my more artistic side. And that will be the focus of the next series.
Toward the end of the week, we will begin a “Reclaim Yourself” series. Not only will we scrapbooking layouts about ourselves, but we’ll dig into some art, as well. I am so excited for this and I have enough content that we could take it way into October, so I’ll probably have to save some of it for a different focus-on-the-self week.
Are you ready to pay attention to you?
Even though we are technically still in the Back-To-School series, we’re going to kick off the Reclaim Yourself series on Tuesday night for Paperclipping Live. I will lead you through the beginning of a layout about YOU. To participate with me, you need to identify a story about yourself that you want to scrap. Be ready with a picture or a set of pictures. The photo(s) does not necessarily have to have you in it.
If you don’t already have any photos to work with, you might want to try one of the following:
1. Take a picture of yourself in your bathroom mirror.
2. Take a picture of your {insert modest body part here}.
3. Crop yourself out of a group photo.
4. If your story is about something you typically do or enjoy, take a picture of an object with which you do that activity.
5. Set your camera up with the timer and take a picture of yourself in action. This involves some trial and error, but it’s fun.
Here is an example of each of those (in the same order)…
For our live event, you do not need to choose paper ahead of time because choosing will be part of our process during the show. Just have your papers and products easily accessible, if possible. You will probably also need scratch paper and a pencil or pen to make notes.
We will not take a layout to completion. The point of this Paperclipping Live is to get you to go inside yourself and analyze what colors, patterns, or other visuals, will help you create the feeling you have about your story or layout theme. We’ll be focusing on the process of preparing the layout, but won’t necessarily finish it during the show.
We’ll also be depending a lot on chat-participation, so please register and be ready to share! The show starts at 6:30 pm, PST, on Tuesday night. Click here at that time to participate.
Don’t forget that we now have monthly challenges to help you use the principles and techniques we discussed the month before. Some of you have uploaded your layouts and projects to our Flickr gallery. Others of you are still working. If you haven’t started anything, there is still time. You must post your layout by the end of the day on September 23. That’s a whole week away.
I will choose one person who I think most exemplified their chosen topic and highlight them on the Paperclipping blog. Maybe that will be you? =)
You can read the details of the challenge by clicking here.
12×12 Layout
This layout’s journaling quotes a conversation with my children and includes my own thought-responses. It reads:
Trinity: “I feel good now that Aiden is at school with Blake and me. Everyday I’m always so excited to see him at the front afterward.” (warms my heart)
Blake: “Me, too!”–Sweet! And no wonder I always find you two with him and his kindergarten class. You 3 are such great friends. Aug. 2008.
When I saw the first photo of Trinity and Aiden that you see above, I immediately saw a big sister who watches over her little brother. Her arm leaning against the post almost feels like she’s got her arm around Aiden.
And do you see the slight difference between the picture of the three of them, compared with the one I used for the Daddy Documents layout? In this one, Aiden’s head is leaning on Blake’s side. These may be small details, but they’re details that communicate.
This layout is very different in style from the previous two I’ve posted this week. It’s not because I suddenly changed moods or because I got inspiration from a page in a magazine. It’s because the story is about love, support, closeness, and friendship. The older two siblings are expressing maternal-like feelings toward their baby brother. And that calls for a more feminine design than the other layouts I’ve posted for the Back-To-School series.
Let’s talk about the specific elements that reflect the mood for this story. The red and pink polka dot flower peeks out from the children, bubbling over with joy (don’t the three embellishments look like they’re bubbling up from the flower?).
The loops of ribbon that cradle the golden flower a little lower on the page suggest ties of friendship– lives intertwined.
The colors keep it lively and energetic (these are kids…we can’t get too serious here!).
The birds, both on the background paper and in the epoxy sticker, suggest a bigger bird looking after a baby.
Dedra and I found this white strip of school-lined, scalloped edge paper when we were shopping together last week. We both bought one. But I’m going back to get more.
It’s wonderful! Creative Cafe, by Creative Imaginations, manufactures it. It is 12 inches long. You probably can’t see it in my photos, but it has the elementary notebook paper lines with the dotted line in the middle. It’s perfect for a school-related layout, but will work for any other subject, as well.
So far, I have four layouts related to the kids starting school this year. I have one other I want to do. Can you imagine me trying to fit all those different thoughts and experiences into just one layout? Or, can you imagine me not even telling those stories because all I could think of was, “Your first day of school this year?”
How many of our stories will disappear forever because we don’t notice their uniqueness? Scrapbooking can be so much more than decorating around photos. For me, it has become a reminder to be more aware and to show myself and my children who we are.
The journaling to Aiden reads: You wanted to go to the “big school” with Blake and Trinity last year but I told you you have to be 5. You talked about it all the time. And in March, on the day you turned 5, you were ecstatic because you thought you would go to kindergarten that day. I tried to explain it, but you asked me almost every day if it was time, from March 23 until your first day in Aug. And wow, were you ready! You had no problems adjusting to the full day, everyday, schedule.
And here you are…learning about your playground, learning where to put your backpack while you play, learning to get in line and stand in line when the bell rings. You also had a spy activity where you found all the places in your school.
You loved this spy activity! You found so many cool places and people and things in your school. And what a very, very cool school you go to! How many other schools have a tortoise habitat? You’re a lucky dude!
The picture I chose for the focal point on this layout is not a perfectly posed first-day photo. It’s an almost natural, caught-in-the-moment photo. Trinity looks like she’s just walked out the door, a few steps behind Aiden, her book bag pulling on her hair.
There is movement in the picture, as if Trinity and Aiden were just doing their thing, heading off to school, when Dad suddenly told them to smile. With Aiden closer to the camera than Trinity, and with the cocky little smirk on his face, I felt that this was the perfect photo to tell Aiden’s story about being so ready for the big time.
In the United States, no other number has as much significance with regard to school as the number, 5. 5 is when we start kindergarten. 5 is a big deal. So when I was pulling and tossing tags from Aiden’s new school clothes, it occurred to me to save this “size 5″ tag for Aiden’s back-to-school scrapbook page. Even though it isn’t a dominant part of the layout, it is one of my favorite parts.
There’s a funny story about how this layout came together. When I started working on it, I had placed the photos as you see them, using the magnets on the FRED. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to keep it this way or not, but Aiden made that decision for me. He climbed up on my chair, gazed at all the photos, including the color copies from his school “spy” activity, and finally exhaled, “Wow!” To him, this is an epic story.
I had no other paper or products in place at that point–just the pictures on the white background–and he began spouting his own ideas. “I want to draw a picture in that white spot! I’m going to go get my crayons and draw something there!”
At first I panicked. I didn’t want him touching my layout. But he was so excited about making a contribution to the story, I couldn’t disappoint him, either. I told him he could draw on a separate piece of paper that we would add to the page. Pretty soon he was adding paper scraps and insisted on drawing, not a school-related picture, but a drawing of himself with me at the movie theater.
Do you see all the seats? And the trash can? Pure five-year-old adorable randomness.
What stories are you discovering about yourself or your kids going back to school? Toni realized she had her own story to tell as she was commenting the previous blog post…
We homeschool and I did take pictures of the table and supplies for our first day. I also took some fun photos, like 6yo ds doing his Spanish lesson on the computer while 1yo watched with curiosity.
I have to put on a show on the first day to get them in the “switch gears” mode after having their house and mom back for the summer without school overtones. I do silly things like take roll call, point out who “ended up in the same class with whom”, etc. They giggle and think their mom is silly, but that’s the point. And now I’m thinking I have my story for journaling. ;D
As someone who doesn’t home school, Toni’s process of photographing school at home and helping her kids switch to a school mindset after the summer break fascinated me. We all have stories to tell. And they are interesting. We just have to recognize what they are.
I just added last night’s recording to the Paperclipping Live archive. If you’re one who likes to watch them, you can see it and its description by clicking here.
The next Back-To-School article will post this evening, so make sure you come back later.
