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Archive for September, 2008

The Story Of Sibling Friendship

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Dream Team

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.

How The Photos Tell The Story

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.

How The Design Visuals Tell The Story

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.

Paperclipping Pick: A Current School-Related Product

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.

Posted in Journaling, School, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking | View Comments

The Story Of A New Kindergartener

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

So Totally Ready For The Big Time

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 Focal Point Photo Tells The Story

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.

Size 5 Tag: A Great Story-telling Item

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.

Aiden’s Contribution And The Power Of Photos

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.

Posted in Embellishments, Ephemera/Memorabilia, Journaling, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking | View Comments

Last Night’s Paperclipping Live

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

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.

Posted in Updates | View Comments

Beyond the “First Day Of School” Layout Duldrums

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Are You happy with your Back-To-School Layouts?

Do your first day of school layouts look basically the same, but with updated products? Or perhaps, you’re still using the bounty of school-related stuff you bought three years ago? Are you tired of attaching the same title, “First Day,” every time?

Do your layouts reflect the pride you felt at your kids’ good looks in their brand new outfits? Or your dismay at how big they’ve grown? Or the chaos of trying to take their first-day photos and get them to school on time? Do you relive feelings again when you look at your back-to-school layouts?

Daddy Documents

The journaling reads: This year’s first day of school felt extra-special. Not only did all three of you start at the same school for the first time ever, but Daddy got to join us–again, for the first time ever…which led to the very best first day of school photos ever. And, he brought his great video camera to conduct first-day interviews with each of you. We loved sharing the excitement-including the music and balloons and energy.

Identifying The Stories

I knew I had accomplished my goal when Israel looked over this page for the new school year and said, “Oh my gosh, this totally makes me remember being there and what it felt like.” He got to see the kids off with me for the very first time. This year we have lots of good pictures and lots of good stories.

I took note of the different stories I wanted to tell, and then I looked through my photo manager to view and choose photos. Rather than trying to fit all of the good pictures on one back-to-school page, or choose just my favorite one or two, I identified which photos best told which stories, and allowed the number of stories I held in my heart to dictate the number of layouts I would make, and the number of photos on each one.

Last week you saw one of those layouts–the story of my oldest child, Blake, growing into a young man. This week you will see the rest of the stories, as well as one from last year. Today I’m sharing the one that celebrates Izzy’s being able to join us, and the overall excitement we enjoyed as we all entered the school grounds together.

Choosing The Photos

Notice how the photos in my layout each show a part of the story in the journaling: the three children posing for Dad; the kids entering the school, balloons in the background, Aiden receiving a high-five from a teacher; Izzy interviewing the kids; and of course, the focal-point photo and the focus of the story: Izzy with his camera.

The Products

I didn’t have a good experience the last time I purchased school-themed products. They didn’t reflect my actual stories and I couldn’t work them into my layouts. I decided this year and last year to only get things that I could easily use for other topics as well. So you won’t see many school-specific items on Paperclipping this week. What you will see are elements that reflect my own view of my stories:

1) Energy: Energetic red.
2) Time: The face of an old vintage watch alongside other time-related symbols.
3) Elementary School: The “D is for” prefix to my title, evoking an elementary alphabet lesson.
4) Feelings of Stability With Dad’s Presence: Strong, clean lines between the reds and cream plus strong shapes around the photos.

Note: I did not consciously think, “Dad brings feelings of stability, therefore I will use strong lines and shapes for this layout.” If you will get in touch with the emotional and personal aspects of your story, and focus on trying to reflect them visually, you will often choose design elements that reflect those ideas in a sub-conscious way.

Self-Reflection

Ask yourself, what is different about this year’s first day of school? What stories, incidents, feelings, or reflections dominated the day?

Journaling
How can you translate that into words? Be specific. Talk directly to your kids, or the subject of your layout, in your journaling. If you have more to say than one or two simple sentences, write it out ahead of time so you can make adjustments before you commit pen to paper.

Photos
Which photos best tell your story visually?

Products and Design
How can you translate the ideas on which you reflected into your design? What colors, papers, and embellishments will help support that story and those feelings? Don’t be bound to your school-themed products. If they support your story, use them. If they don’t, then leave them off.

Creating A Visual Memoir

Relax and tell your stories. That’s all this is. Someday you’ll have a collection of back-to-school stories that, as a whole, are a colorful memoir of a parent who watched her kids grow from year to year–of her children as they experience the excitement of walking into the unknown and entering a new phase of relationship, challenges, joys, and learning.

Posted in Design, Embellishments, Journaling, Photography, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, color | View Comments

Paperclipping 55 – Designing With Words

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Paperclipping 55

Words are one of my favorite design tools. In this video for the Premium Subscribers, we’ll explore how words can contribute, not just to the journaling, but to the design itself.

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

Posted in Design, Journaling, Lesson, Podcast, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast | View Comments

Two Styles, One Set Of Products

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I am lucky to be friends with a scrapbooker I admire so much. Most of you know Dedra Long. While there are some similarities between us, our styles are quite distinct. There is much we agree on in scrapbooking, yet our personal preferences and natural way of seeing and creating makes it obvious that we are two different people. It’s easy to distinguish whose layouts are whose.

Even when we purchased the same groups of products last Monday, and then scrapbooked together on Paperclipping Live, there is no mistaking our two different styles. You can see the layouts below.

Dedra’s Layout

My Layout

I see Dedra’s style as elegant and classy, contemporary, yet classic. I see my own style as organic and a bit earthy, but quite eclectic.

Doing The Same Thing In Our Very Own Way

Dedra and I both are very conscious of placing visual triangles on our layouts. Note her triangle of black and cream circles with crystal buttons, and my three circles of layered paper. But while I like to make at least one point of the triangle different from the others (and especially love to make my triangles subtle altogether), she likes her pieces to all be the same–her embellishment triangles are a distinct characteristic of her layouts.

Definite Color Preferences

Dedra gravitates toward cooler tones while I reach for warm ones. But you’ll find us both looking for cream. We both love cream. She loves pink. I love orange. We chose colors of neutral territory for this project, but during the shopping, I found myself wanting to add more green while Dedra was needing more blue.

Similarities

It was striking to realize at the end of the show on Tuesday, when we compared our layouts, that Dedra and I made so many of the same choices without knowing the each other’s plans.

1) There were 8 possible patterns between the four double-side papers we chose. We both used the same honey comb as our background (perhaps because it was the closest to cream?). We also used the black and cream patterns and the organic branches, although in different ways.

2) Another similarity is that we both added bling to the organic pattern, even though bling was not a part of the kit we purchased together. We’re both fans of bling and glitter and we’re similar in the ways we place them.

3) The same is true of foam dots and our love for raising certain elements off the page. Dedra’s photo area (what I think of as a present–another common feature of her layouts) is triple layered. She loves to raise each element a little higher than the previous. For example, she raised the white matte with foam dots, then raised the photos and patterned paper on another layer above that, and then her chipboard title area on top of a third level of foam dots.

I used them in my own way–I taped the top of the branch down directly on to paper, then raised the middle of that branch with one layer of dots. Gradually, the piece continues to raise as the ends of the branches have two layers of foam dots.

Claiming Your Style And Branching Out

It’s fun to identify our distinct differences and similarities. If our scrapbooking projects were jewelry, Dedra wears pearls and diamonds, while I wear beads. Comparing your everyday artistic choices to another scrapbooker you admire helps you to pin-point your own natural style, and at the same time, discover new things to try.

Note: I created a new page area for the recordings of Paperclipping Live. Every week I will place them at the following page with their corresponding dates:

www.paperclipping.com/paperclipping-live-archives

If you missed our show on Tuesday and would like to see how we made our layouts, click here.

* * *

12×12 Layouts

Joint Products: Patterned paper (Collage Press, Graphic 45, Scenic Route) * Journaling cards (Collage Press) * Ribbon (American Crafts???, Bazzill) * Chipboard Letters (American Crafts).

Products I added to my layout: Cardstock as a circle layer (Bazzill) * Stickers and word strips (7 Gypsies) * Bling (Me and My Big Ideas) * Letter stickers (Creative Memories).

Dedra’s journaling to her daughters reads: The two of you crack me up….From a different room in the house I will hear: “Mom, come look at me and Shelby!” When I walk in the room I see Shelby on the floor and you up in the air….You love that sister can put you in the air like an airplane….When the ride is over you always have smiles on your faces and the laughter is contagious….Just one of the many great reasons to have a sister….Seeing you both have so much fun together makes my heart happy….Love Mom….8*2008.

My Journaling to my son reads: Your first day of 5th grade. A handsome gentleman readyt o be a leader in your school. You seemed to have found your thing last year–computer graphics design, working on the school news crew, playing the viola, and leaving the campus weekly for the gifted program. You like those responsibilities and the change of pace and environment.

I am so happy you have a teacher who understands you and believes in you. You’ve decided to repeat your activities and between that and this teacher, you’re in for an exciting year! Dad and I are so proud of you!

Posted in Uncategorized | View Comments

Paperclipping 54 – Ink Your Own Frames

Monday, September 1st, 2008

This is a simple technique that anyone with an ink pad can do, but the effect is really cool and unique.

Posted in Instructions, Lesson, Podcast, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast | View Comments

This Week At Paperclipping

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Back To School

The are only a few things I remember about my first days of school –the larger than usual, special breakfast my mom always made, and the nervous/excited stomach that prevented me from ever being able to eat it! I also remember lining up with my siblings, as well as our neighborhood friends, on the curb of our street for our back to school pictures. I remember the matching pink overalls my sister and I wore one year, and the velvety melon-pink top with rainbows and stars on another.

I don’t remember any actual first days of class!

How do you document the first day school for your kids, or yourself if you’re still going? Do you have a template you follow year to year? Do you identify the unique experience of each year as the focus? Do you find the latest school-related products at your local store? Or do you avoid scrapbooking this subject because it feels like the same thing every time?

Whatever you do, I hope the upcoming Back To School Series on Paperclipping will inspire you, so that you enjoy the process of telling these stories.

New Paperclipping Challenges!

Many of you have been asking and waiting and Lesley (aka, Hungry Heffy) has stepped up and volunteered to lead monthly challenges. We are so excited to provide an extra incentive to use the skills we share on Paperclipping and to show off your creations. The challenge instructions, as well as this month’s challenge, will go up in the forums some time today or tomorrow. I will come back and update this post with a link once it’s up.

{Update} The challenges have started! Here’s where you can learn more and participate…

Challenge Information and Questions
The September Challenge

Paperclipping Live

Dedra Long will be joining me as my guest on Paperclipping Live Tuesday night. Today we are going shopping for a handful of products. Then for the show, we’ll both make a layout using those products. Since she and I have two distinct styles, it will be fun to see how we both go about it.

To join us, be at the Paperclipping Live page at 6:30pm PST tomorrow night. If you are unsure of the time 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 in to the show.

This Week’s Paperclipping Video Tutorial

Yes, your free tutorial is ready! I will post it as soon as I am done writing this. So if you’re here before the video shows up, stick around a few more minutes!

Posted in Scrapbooking, Updates | View Comments

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