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 Story

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.

The Story Is In The Design: Rock ‘N Roll, Leather & Lace

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

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).

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

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.

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.

8.5×11 Two-page Layout. Embellished area at the right side inspired by 2 Peas’ Garden Girl, Lisa McGarvey.

Paperclipping has been focused on scrapbooks for a big vacation, such as my family’s recent Disneyland trip. I’m working on my own album, as you work on yours.

Because many scrapbookers feel this project is overwhelming, I’ve broken up the process into a series of steps. But these steps won’t just make it easier on you. They’ll help you identify the rich stories you want to tell about your trip. If you missed the previous steps, here they are:

Step 1
Steps 2&3
Step 4

Step 5: Assess Your Needs

I know the temptation. The temptation is to find that super cute album you saw last week and to buy it for your vacation, without any idea how much space you actually need. That is a symptom of the number of products and projects in the magazines and online. But what do you really need to tell your story? If we are going to center our scrapbooking around the stories we have to tell, we need to start with the story and let that dictate the products.

How Many Pages Do You Need?

You’ve separated your pictures into individual stories. While you may end up changing this around a little (I have already), you should be able to count the piles for an approximation of how many pages you’ll need. Each story will normally equal one page, or one two-page spread.

What Size Of Pages Do You Need?

Approximately how many photos do you have for each story? The answer will be a major indicator for whether you need a 12×12 album, an 8.5×11 or something smaller, or if you can even use a more traditional photo album.

It will help to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Can you reprint some photos into smaller or larger sizes to better tell your stories?
2. Can you crop your photos manually in order to fit more into a smaller space?
3. How much journaling do you have for each story? Will you want to type and print it or do it by hand?

How did I decide on the size of my album? I had a varied number of photos for each of my stories. This meant I’d need some flexibility, making a traditional photo album more difficult (although, I was tempted to do this). I also wanted to type my journaling (for simplicity), and if I were to use 8.5×11 paper, I’d be able to type if right on my background pages.

I have a lot of experience re-sizing my original photos, so I decided 8.5×11 would be my best solution.

What Colors Will Highlight Your Pictures & Reproduce the Emotions Of Your Event?

If you were on top of Steps 1-3, then you should have a good idea in your mind of what the tone of the overall story is, and what colors will help you express that tone.

Originally, I skipped through this step and decided to go with white, just to make the project easier. But as I began working on my first page, I realized white wasn’t connecting with me, nor my story. I decided to find a collection of muted hues with subtle patterns that would give me the choice of warmth (browns and cream tones) or fun (light blue or red).

What Embellishments Can You Add To Support The Story?

Again, with so many wonderful products available to us, it’s easy let some popular or cute embellishments dictate our design, rather than the actual story we want to tell. I’m not saying we shouldn’t use all those embellishments. Just make sure you know what your stories are, and ask whether the embellishments support them or not.

Reuniting with some of my siblings and our parents to relive a regular childhood memory together and with our children was greater for me than the actual Disney park, itself. I decided to use minimal embellishments and instead, make the bounty of photos the real highlight of the pages.

I also wanted a very classic representative of Disney–one that I relate to all the way back to my childhood, since the story of this album is bringing together the past and the present at Disneyland. I decided to make a Mickey Mouse silhouette the main embellishment (and usually the only one) for each page.

Your Assignment

Are you still on track with me on this? If so, your assignment is to…

1. Count your stories (each pile of pictures and their story topics on notecards) to determine the approximate number of pages you need.

4. Choose embellishments that will help to tell your story.

You are now ready to play!

By the way, although I am now working on the third page for my scrapbook, I have yet to choose an album cover. It’s the least of my concerns because I know the cover will come eventually. It’s the story I’m most interested in.

Would you like to save money by making your own embellishments? Today’s episode for Premium Subscribers should give you some ideas.

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

Since so many of you like to watch the recorded videos of Paperclipping Live, I decided to embed them right into the Paperclipping blog so you don’t have to go hunting for them.

Here is last night’s show, where we used a previous scrapbook page that was great for using scraps as a template for a new one.

Most of my scrapbooking inspiration comes from the mood or feelings I associate with the subject of my layout. I try create a visual expression of how I feel. When I think of the outdoors, I often think of relaxation, play, and whimsy. Below are two techniques for adding details that evoke those three characteristics.

Enhance A Floral Pattern with Beads

What you need: Floral patterned paper, a transparent glue like Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents, two different colors of beads.

1. Working in small stretches at a time, apply a line of glue about half an inch long along the inside of a petal. Using a pen, pencil, or other pointed tip, pick up one bead at a time and place them in the glue, just inside the outline of the petal.
2. As you place each bead, press it into place with your fingernail. If you use your fingertip it will get sticky and the beads will stick to it.
3. Continue alternating between glue and beads until you’ve outlined the petal.
4. Fill the bud in with a small amount of glue and add beads until they fill the bud.

If you feel like you have some weak spots (perhaps the glue was almost dry when you added a couple of the beads), you can add some glue to the sides of the beads to make them stable.

Add Whimsy To A Colorful Tag With Wire

What you need: A decorative tag, two colors of wire, glue dots, wire tool (optional).

1. Cut two pieces of wire to about 4 inches each.
2. Feed wire through hole of tag and bend wires in half so they straight out from the top of the tag. You’ll have 4 ends.
3. Twist the wires around themselves a couple of times at the top of the tag.
4. Working with one end at a time, twist the wire with a tool or with your finger so that you get a fun spiral. For a playful look, don’t try to make the spirals perfect.
5. Place a glue dot on the bottom side of the top of the tag so it holds the wire in place.
6. After adding the tag to your page, arrange the wire so they stick up in different directions for a totally fun and carefree look.

Combining The Details

Here is another example of the same two techniques together. Don’t they feel happy?

Spin & Be Merry
Two-page 12×12 Layout

Below are two sets of instructions for layering embellishments the way they are on the layout above. You don’t need to have the same products. Look through your own stash to find items with similar characteristics. If you don’t have a lot of embellishments, look for designs you can cut out of patterned paper.

Top Left Cluster

I used this pair of birds on a branch as a way to pull attention to my focal point photo.

1. Nestle the bird duo with a word that supports the layouts’ story.
2. Highlight the word with a circular embellishment.
3. Apply foam dots to the back of your bird embellishment to raise it on the page.
4. Place the entire set on top of an area of patterned paper that you’ve lined with a ribbon (like rik-rak).

Lower Right Cluster

I cut this trio of flowers from the K.I. Memory Lace Cardstock.

1. Highlight your “bouquet” with half of a circular shape, like this screen-printed transparency by Hambly.
2. Add three-dimensional buds to your flowers with brads or epoxy stickers.
3. You can extend the plant-life on your page by adding a subtle transparent grouping of leaves. Mine are a soft orange and come from My Mind’s Eye.

When layering embellishments, start with a focal point piece, like the birds or the flowers. This doesn’t mean the embellishment will be the focal point of the page–just the focal point of that cluster. Find smaller pieces like words or buttons to gather around the focal point, and a shape, such as a circle, to act as a frame.