No matter how good we are at using our scraps, if we do a lot of layouts, we’ll still end up with too many of them. Periodic purging is a good thing. One way to purge is to collect a pile to share with our children or grandchildren.

For The Artistically Inclined Child

My plan last week was to find some coloring book pages and teach my kids how to do mosaic art, using a coloring book drawing as the template. Since I was running low on time, I gave Trinity a bag of scraps and said, “You can have these. Why don’t you go do some art with them?”

No direction whatsoever.

Trinity came back a while later with the lovely picture above. How creative is that? I had no idea she’d make something so wonderful. This give-and-let-go method is perfect for artistic children who can get creative with almost anything. If your child is not so inclined, you may need to offer a little more guidance, like my mosaic idea.

For The Child Who Needs Direction

For the mosaic, have the child tear the scraps into small pieces. You may want to do it with him or her if that task seems tedious. Draw or choose a lined picture, and then fill in the empty spaces with the torn patterned pieces. Provide the child with some glue and a paint brush for adhering.

For Those With No Kids

You can still share your scraps with children, even if there aren’t any shorties in your own life. Offer your scraps to an elementary or preschool teacher. My son’s preschool artwork last year was often made with scraps of paper.

Yesterday I commented on all those wonderful forgotten patterns we find while looking through our scraps. Aren’t there also other patterns in there that turn you off? Negative vibes during creative time are not a good thing.

If you find yourself cringing at certain scraps in your stash, turn them over to a little person who may have something really cool to do with them. If your pile is so big that it’s hard to look through, share the abundance with your child or grandchild and watch their imagination go to work.

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.

As a follow-up from yesterday’s video tutorial, we’re going to look at some more examples using Tim Holtz’s Distress Embossing Powder with products that need a color adjustment or new life.

Felt

First let’s start with a closeup of the felt you saw in the video yesterday.

In the photo above you can see both the original felt piece, along with the altered piece. Click on the photo, then “all sizes” to get a good look at the color variation.

Coasters

I have these coasters that I bought a few years ago; you can see them on the left of the picture below. If we can alter unloved books and bare albums, we can alter a scrapbook coaster, right?

To do this you need:
coaster
paper bag
PVA glue
Sandpaper
a smaller circular design (I used a Maya Road rub-on)
letters (I used Heidi Swapp’s Rub-on letters)
Tim Holt’s Distress Embossing Powder
Versamark Ink
Heat Tool

1) Brush the coaster with PVA. 2) Adhere a piece of the paperbag to coaster and let dry. 3) Cut away excess paper bag and sand edges. 3) Press edges into Versamark Ink and dip into Distress Embossing Powder. 4) Heat with heat tool and then rub with your finger. The powder contains release crystals that will aid in the distressing look. You don’t need to do this on the felt. 5) Add rub-ons after embossing (or you’ll burn away your rub-on’s).

Wings

This is a fun technique where we get to combine the Distress Embossing Powder with another of our favorite products, Stickles, for a magical look.

I had a scrap of paper from My Mind’s Eye with these wings chopped off of a dragon fly. I cut it out, added a dark brown shade of Distress Embossing Powder around the edges for some three-dimensionality. Then added a sparse amount of Diamond Stickles for an iridescent-look you often see in real insect wings.

What can you do with some of your leftover scrapbook pieces? Unless you’ve only just begun scrapbooking, there are probably all kinds of things you can do with your stash to meet all your needs.

A layout doesn’t have to look like you did it quickly in order for it to actually be a quick one. Below are a couple strategies for interesting layouts that aren’t actually as involved as you’d think.

Choose paper that designs for you.

The one piece of paper I used for the layout above has pattern (the visual texture in the background color and the repetition of stems) and embellishments (flowers) built in for you.

The white space above the flowers is the obvious place to put your photos and journaling. The manufacturer has already made most of the decisions for you and it’s up to you how much more detail you want to add.

Enhance With Stickles

Is it obvious that Stickles by Ranger are on my current favorites list? After two different podcast episodes I still can’t stop telling you the numerous virtues of Stickles. Below are two more I haven’t mentioned yet.

1. Stickles add a lot of pizzaz with little effort.
The glitter glue is so easy to apply that you can zip around the layout, quickly covering all the areas you want. The real trick is telling yourself when it’s time to stop.

It’s also very forgivable if you go out of the lines which means you don’t have to be slow and cautious.

2. Stickles requires no clean up!
That’s my favorite part, since I’m horrible when it comes to cleaning up after using paint, stamps, loose glitter, or embossing. You get the amazing look and pleasure of something you’d expect to be messy without doing any more than to replace the cap.

When there’s no time for labor-intensive layouts, don’t feel you have to sacrifice intricacy for speed. Scrapbook designers can do much of your work for you, while Stickles glitter glue will make a flashy impact with little effort.

Paperclipping 42 - More on Stickles from izzyvideo on Vimeo.
One final gift from National Scrapbook Day…a second free episode in a row. Next week will be a Member’s Only one.

As usual, we have a high-quality version and show notes.

Below are seven different challenges for National Scrapbook Day. You do not have to do all of them. I wanted to offer a variety of options so you can choose the ones that best suit you. The more you do, the better your chances of winning. You may repeat the same challenge.

You do not have to be present at the live event to participate in the challenges. I will give out some prizes during the live event to those who are present in the chat. I will award other prizes on the blog on Sunday based on the challenges below.

For each layout or project you upload to flickr, which you must base on one of the following challenges, you will be entered in a drawing for prizes. You have until the end of Saturday to upload your layouts. In the description, please tell us which challenge you used. I will choose randomly from these layouts for the final drawings.

Please do not enter layouts you completed before reading this entry. It’s okay to finish a layout or project you already started as long as you implement one of these challenges.

Challenges:

1. Create a layout or other project using a principle from any one of the Paperclipping Video Tutorials (links are at the right). Upload your layout to flickr. In the description, please share which video you used and how.

2. Recycle an item from your life by incorporating it into the design of your layout. Upload your layout to flickr and tell us what the item is in your description.

3. Begin a mini-book. Choose the photos and a theme. Gather papers, then embellishments, that reflect the theme. Put it all in a pile and photograph it. Upload your photo to flickr and in the description tell us how the products reflect the theme of the mini-book you will be putting together.

4. Words aren’t the only way to tell a story. Make a layout that uses something visual to help tell your story on a layout. Upload your layout to flickr and share with us what visual element you used on your page to communicate an idea or emotion.

5. Use your wonderful scraps. Make a layout that uses at least 3 different scraps of patterned paper. Upload the layout to flickr.

6. Design a layout in this order:
a. Choose the photos.
b. Write journaling on some scrap paper or make notes of the emotion or tone.
c. If you have more than one photo, choose a focal point photo (unless it’s a collage where all photos are equal).
d. Decide approximate photo placement. (Don’t freak out here…you’re free to change your mind at any time).
e. Based on where you think you’ll place your photo, choose paper size and pick your background paper.
f. Choose other papers with colors and/or patterns that remind you of the tone of your layout’s story.
g. Design your layout with the photos, papers, journaling, title. Tape everything down.
h. Add your embellishments last.

7. Design a layout where you cluster at least three embellishments around a title, a photo, or a line.

I will come back tomorrow with a link to the new Paperclipping Flickr Group. You can see the schedule for the three different live events here.

Dina Wakley is an organic, artistic scrapbooker and she recently designed a project for a very unique challenge blog called, Inspired By Amelie. I adore Dina’s project and knew I had to highlight it and Dina as the featured artist and project this week. It is one of the more unique scrapbooking projects I’ve seen in a while.

What I love about Dina’s “Memory Box:”

1. The balance between strong design (the lined up boxes) and free-flowing art (the imperfect stamping and stitching, the dash of red in the backround, the fact that she stitched right over some of the memorabilia as they stick out from their perfect spaces).

2. The gathering of REAL everyday items.

3. The bold, passionate colors.

4. The childhood song, which instantly sent me back to the 1970’s and my childhood.

5. The fact that some of the items overlap, especially how part of the ephemera is hiding behind the page protector.

I had some questions for Dina regarding her project and I figured you would, too. Continue reading to learn more about it.

Interview

You are on the design team for the Inspired By Amelie blog and that’s what inspired this project. Will you tell us about that blog and what it is?
My friend Fauve started the Amelie blog out of a love for the film Amelie. She saw lots of potential for scrapping inspiration in the movie, and she invited a bunch of us to contribute to a challenge blog about it. The idea is to be inspired by the film…its spirit, its colors, its themes.

We have a challenge every month, and every month Fauve lines up a great sponsor for the prize.

What was the challenge that led to your “Memories” project?
In the film, Amelie finds a memory box behind the wall in her bathroom. The box belonged to a boy who had lived in her apartment in the 1950s. Amelie sets out to return the box to its rightful owner.

The scrapping challenge for the blog was to create a memory box of some sort.

How did you decide on the items you put in the page protector?
First I sent my kids on a hunt throughout the house…they brought me a few things (the Legos!). So those things represent my kids. The pieces of film are mine and represent my love for photography and pictures. There are a few coins there from our trip to England last year, and there’s a bit of a map from our China trip two years ago. The mini photographs are from the England trip, too.

The other elements all come from my stash of collage treasures–things that I like and that I tend to hoard, like old stamps and keys and clock faces. The verse that I stamped is from an old playground song that we used to sing as kids.

What were the general steps for putting it together?
Well, at first this challenge to create a memory box stumped me, because I’m really not good at altering 3-D things. Then I got the idea to collect elements together in a scrapbook page format instead of a box format.

I started with the sheet protector–it’s a sheet protector that holds slides, so it’s already divided up into little compartments. I found elements to go in the compartments and then I sewed around them so they wouldn’t fall out. Then I inked & stamped the cardstock, and combined it all together.

How did you attach the plastic page protector to the cardstock?
You can’t see it in the picture, but I stapled it.

What is the technique for getting that red paint look?
I laid down some metal mesh, and I sprayed over it with Terracotta Color Wash Spray Ink by Tim Holtz.

The page protector looks like it was already divided into square compartments and then you stitched more squares through it. Is that right? What size is it and who makes it?
Yep, it’s a protector to hold slides. I got it from Light Impressions.

Will you be putting this into another page protector and then into an album, or did you make it to display on its own?
Good question…I’m really not sure! I will likely find a way to incorporate it into an album.

Inspiration

I can think of so many ways to apply this. Just off the top of my head, you could use it to gather and showcase items from:
1. Vacation
2. Childhood
3. Wedding
4. Birth (yours or your children’s)
5. An ancestor or relative who has died
6. A day’s worth of errands
7. Your current hobby or passion

What could you use this idea for?

To see more of Dina’s scrapbooking and art journaling, visit her blog, Ponderings.
Thank you, Dina, for sharing your unique project with us!

Here are photos of the stunning mini-albums that Dedra made, which I showed in the most recent episode of Paperclipping. I’ve thrown in a few extra pages that you didn’t get to see in the video. I just can’t resist.

Dedra was recently the guest designer for a cool new challenge blog called, Creative Therapy. Since we’re all fans, I thought I’d send you over there to tell them how fabulous we think she is.

I’ll post my own layouts from the video episode a little later.

Yes, we do have a video podcast that is just about ready for release. It is a free episode available to everyone–and it’s a good one. We hope to post it tonight, so be sure to come back.

Don’t forget Paperclipping Live tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6:30pm PST. I will be taking calls through Skype, so be sure to register at skype.com (it’s free) if you’ve had a question you wanted me to answer or have something cool to share with the Paperclipping audience. Calls may be video or audio. Contact me during the live show with my skype username, “noellhyman.”

I will also cover the front of the board book we worked on last week.

I have a backlog of emails with questions I have not answered. I’ll look through those today and will answer them either tomorrow night during Paperclipping Live, or in a blog posting later this week. If you have been waiting for a response from me, be sure to attend tomorrow night’s event or watch the recording later, just in case.

Whether your family is artistic by nature, or you want to showcase the developmental art of your young children, I have four tips I’ve used recently to display or incorporate our family art into my scrapbooking.

1. Photograph the artist in action when the work is almost complete.

This way you document the activity as well as the art itself.

2. Duplicate the style of the art on the scrapbook page.

i did this on both the above layout and the one below. For Something New, I wanted to recreate the fantasy feel of my son’s painting, so I created a smoky circular haze around the photos with three shades of paint on a dry brush. I added flowing-shaped rub-on’s, streaks of Platinum Stickles (glitter), and bits of bling for a magical style.

On Artsy Girl, I used my daughter’s doodling as inspiration for the doodled look on the layout.

3. Take a square or circular punch to the art and use it as embellishments for a layout about your child being artistic.

I noticed my daughter using a lot of hearts and rainbows lately, both to doodle and in larger drawings. I punched some doodles to use for the layout above.

4. Crop the art to a size similar to a photo and then scrap it as if it were one.

Just like I did in the above 6×6 layout, treat it like a photo and journal your thoughts about the developmental progress you’re observing in your artist.

5. Put the art piece straight into a page protector as-is.

You see an example of this on the right side of the above album. I put Aiden’s picture into an 8.5xll page protector. I especially like this next to a page that displays art on a layout with explanatory journaling.

6. Use art to journal about an another subject altogether.

This was my second attempt at painting an actual picture and I thought it was pretty good for a beginner. Since dancing is one of my lifetime favorites, I decided to tear the painting out of my practice journal and use it for a layout about how much I love Modern Dance.

Note: I used pop dots behind the cloud-like paper to give dimension, further highlighting the art.

With so many options for showcasing family art in your scrapbooks, you can display a lot of different pieces without overshadowing your own scrapbooking style. Put the layouts in albums about the people who created the art. Or, if your family is particularly artistic, dedicate an album or album section to layouts that are about your family’s creative endeavors.