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Archive for the ‘Journaling’ Category

Paperclipping 62 – Make Your Items Work Together

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Paperclipping 62 - Make Items Work Together
This episode, for the Premium Subscribers, ends the series on color and will give you some ideas on how you can make unlikely items work together for you. Below is the final layout from the episode…

Somebody Come & Play
12×12 layout

The journaling reads:

A regular day-to-day activity for Erin and I growing up was to write and perform our own plays. She was the dominant writer, I was the dominant dancer. We were both singers and actors. She was usually the director and I was often the star.

This photo is from a show she wrote called, Somebody Come and Play.” We gathered neighborhood friends to take some parts. I played the lead and sang a song from Sesame Street with the same title as our show. We invited neighborhood parents and charged for tickets. Erin dressed up in her most directorly attire. The House For Sale sign was a prop that she made.

These childhood games were formative in my love for theatre, which dominated my spare time and passions through high school and into college.

Do you wish you could watch all of the Paperclipping videos? Click here to find out how you can.

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

Papercliping 61 QT – The Color Black

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Paperclipping 61 QT - The Color Black
I hope you enjoy the second Quick Tip in the current series on color. Below is the layout I showed from today’s tip for the Premium Subscribers…

A Minute Before
12×12 Layout

The picture on this layout is of Trinity and her brothers, just outside the dentist’s office after an appointment. The journaling to my daughter reads:

I snapped this shot with my phone just before you had a seizure. I missed the warning signs: you weren’t skipping rocks with the boys. You complained of feeling hot and wanted to go home. I said that was fine, looked down to grab my stuff, and when I looked up again, you were on the ground in a bizarre position. You had fallen down and scraped the shoulder on which you landed. You also scraped your elbow and your knee, but your shoulder? That’s not a normal way to fall.

I still didn’t get that you had had an aura and were in the middle of a seizure. I asked why you fell. You said you weren’t able to control your body. I thought you were reacting to the anesthesia. I helped you up. We went back to the dentist office where you had just gotten three cavities filled.

That’s when you fell again. You were standing right next to me, my arm around you, and you dropped straight down. I grabbed you, saw your eyes–those glazed over hollow eyes–and knew you weren’t totally with me now. That’s when I recognized it for what it was. You still have Epilepsy.

We thought you had grown out of it. One and a half years seizure free is a good amount of time and we were looking forward to taking you off your medication in October. I guess that won’t be happening now. Not this year, anyway.

Supplies: Patterned paper (Basic Grey) * Cardstock (Bazzill) * Glitter (Stickles) * Bling (Me & My Big Ideas) * Transparent journal block (Hambly) * Sticker (Creative Imaginations) * Acrylic Stamp (Autumn Leaves) * Ink (Staz On) * Rub-on word “minute” (Art Warehouse) * Beads.

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

Announcing the Winner Of The September Challenge…

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

Congratulations to Sandy Quail!

Otherwise known as Aussie Q.

Challenge Topic: Use Your Scraps

Here is what the judges had to say about Sandy’s layout:

Judge #1: The bubble wrap is a great way to reinforce the theme of water and the circle of pattern papers gives lovely subtle colour. Everything is well anchored. I like that there is no matte to the central photo.

Judge #2: Lots of bubbly elements here, and the circular piece of bubble wrap is original. I love that she didn’t spread all the colors out in the circle, but allowed them to graduate, like a rainbow. It’s unique. Plus, there is a lot of size and texture variation.

She also set up the photos to give direction–in the main photo, her eyes look toward the top of the vertical photo stream, so you naturally go there. Then, because the stream is vertical, you look down.

Highlighting Sandy Quail

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I became interested in scrapbooking just after I got married, 7 years ago, but really didn’t know where to start. All I knew is that I wanted to do an album for our wedding. It was very overwhelming. I collected A LOT of patterned paper along the way, that I never used, and was intimidated by it. I generally stuck to cardstock or very plain patterned paper.

It wasn’t until maybe 2 years later, when I discovered that some of my friends who had moved closer to me were scrapbookers! I found cropping with them helpful to bounce ideas off them learn together etc. Magazines also helped. I have probably moved forward in my scrapbooking the most in the last 2 years. I had begun to step out of my comfort zone (a little), but couldn’t figure out the reason why my LO’s didn’t finish up looking the way they originally did in my head. I credit most of my new found style to Noell! It was the design principles I was lacking.

How would you describe your style?
I’m still evolving into a ’style’ as such, but think I might sit somewhere between the ‘Classic and Clean look’ and ‘Shabby Chic’.

What are your favorite colors to scrap with?
I am currently finishing my daughters baby album, so I do have a definite preference towards scrapping with pink. Although, looking through her album, there is a lot of colour in there which surprises me as I was worried her album was going to be a huge sea of pink.

What are your favorite types of products?
My favourite product (if you’re making me choose LOL) would probably be flowers. I use them on most of my LO’s. Next would be ribbon, then chipboard…..oh I could be here all day! I am a new convert to stamps, and I can see me using them alot on my future layouts.

Where can we see more of your layouts?
I have just posted my most recent layouts in my flickr gallery.

And one last thought from our September winner…
One other thing Noell helped inspire me to do is handwrite on my layouts. I have ALWAYS been a computer/printer journaler. Its still a little foreign looking to see my handwriting on there, but I cant remember who it was, but someone said that in years to come whoever looks back at your scrapbooks won’t care about the neatness of the writing, but care that you actually have your handwriting on there. Its a part of who you were. That converted me. Plus I find layouts are completed much quicker.

October’s Challenge

Lesley and I had a great time looking through and discussing (through email) all the entries last week. We can’t wait to see what you submit for October. Lesley has already posted the challenge topics, which she pulled from the past 30’s worth of Paperclipping video tutorials and articles. You can see the new challenge by clicking here. Lesley also posted a fantastic example of a layout that would work for the challenge topic to Focus On You. You can see her gorgeous layout here.

Posted in Design, Interviews, Journaling, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Style | Comments

An Unsual Approach To Art And Visual Journals

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

My parents gave me my first journal (for writing in) for Christmas just after I turned 8. Below on the left is my first entry. Feel free to click on the photo, then hit “All Sizes” so you can enjoy the random thoughts of an 8-year-old Noell. The second one is the first entry of my 9th journal, just before turning 15, at a time when I prefaced most adjectives with the word, “like.”

My Childhood Journals

I continued exploring my thoughts in journals through college. I have something like 25 separate books. Now I scrapbook and enjoy a more flexible and artistic approach to recording my thoughts and experiences.

Last year, I took a class from Dina Wakley on Visual Journals. I’ve said before that I never learned anything in any of the scrapbooking classes I’ve taken. Dina’s class isn’t a scrapbooking class. It’s more like an art-experimentation class, and I did learn from her. She gave me some great inspiration to expand on my scrapbooking and explore something more artistic in nature. It is because of her that I started my art and visual journals.

What are Art Journals and Visual Journals?

They’re whatever you want them to be.

The Show

Personally, I see my spiral art books as my “art journals.” They are my place to play with artistic methods–drawing, painting, collaging, etc. I think of my visual journal pages as any visual piece I complete (that is different from a standard scrapbook page) that expresses something I think about. If I made something in one of my art journals that is self-expressive, or that can be used on a self-expressive page, I tear/cut it out to put into my visual journal, or to add it to a visual journaling page. I also add some of my art journal pieces to scrapbooking pages.

Mushrooms

Above is a piece in my art journal. Because there is something personal behind the two mushrooms, there is a possibility that, once I finish it, I may choose to put it in my visual journal. If I don’t go in that more personal direction, I will either keep it in my art journal, or put it with a series of artistic pieces about mushrooms.

I like to use a variety of bases for my visual journal pages. Sometimes they come from my small art journal, like the piece above called, The Show. Other times they come from a piece in my larger art journal, like this one I showed in this week’s video tutorial:

You Learn

After experimenting with some Glimmer Mist and some mesh as a mask on a couple pages of my larger art journal, I decided to use this one as the foundation for an introspective piece with lyrics from Alanis Morissette’s song, You Learn. This song has always thrilled me because it so expresses my view of life.

As opposed to playing the artist, there are times that I just want to capture my thoughts or feelings with a photo and my words. Here is one I did the day I pulled my bicycle out of the garage for the first time after a hot summer:

Dear Bicycle

Obviously, this didn’t come from my art journal. I could turn it into a scrapbook page. But for now, I think I might want to leave it as is as and include it with my other visual journal pieces.

Sometimes I just want to do some art, and then partway through I find myself personalizing it. Here’s another example of that…

Modern Dance

While making this piece, I was aware of how even photographs of modern dance thrill me beyond almost anything else. I decided to pull it out of my large art journal and make it into something about my love for the dance.

At some point I will bind these journal pages together into a home-made book, which makes my approach to visual journaling a little different. I like the flexibility of that idea.

Meet Dina Live

Are you interested in learning more about Art and Visual Journals? Join me on Tuesday at 6:30pm PST for Paperclipping Live because Dina Wakley will be my guest–not a call-in guest, but a real live guest with me in my scraproom. She’ll share some of her journals, tell how she got started doing it herself, and how it has influenced her scrapbooking. She’ll also tell you about the online class she will be teaching later in the month.

I am so glad I took her class. I love being able to explore my psyche and my art all at the same time, with no obligation to make something perfect. Plus, it’s an exercise that reminds us that storytelling doesn’t only happen through words.

Posted in Altered Projects, Art, Books, Creativity, Journaling, Scrapbooking | Comments

3 Ways To Scrap Your Daily Life

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

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…

1) Record Your Activities For The Day

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.

2) Summarize A Typical Day

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.

3) Take A Photo An Hour

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?

Posted in Album Covers, Art, Journaling, Minibooks, Photography, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking | Comments

Layout Topic Challenge: How Are You–Right Now?

Friday, September 19th, 2008

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

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 MindÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Eye) * Pen (American Crafts) * Rhinestones (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Transparent flourish (My MindÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Eye ) * Misc. (Lace from own stash).

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

Apologies For Last Night’s Paperclipping Live

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

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

Posted in Embellishments, Journaling, Live Show, Live Streaming, Scrapbooking, Updates, color | Comments

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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | Comments

How To Make A Vacation Scrapbook: Steps 2 & 3

Friday, August 15th, 2008

This week and next we are turning photos and memories of one of our trips into a visual memoir using my step-by-step process to keep it meaningful and prevent overwhelm. If you missed Step 1, be sure to go back and read that first.

Step 2: Get Your Photos Out Onto The Table

This step is not about organizing. It is about connecting and catching the vision.
Take this time to go through each photo so you can put yourself back into the vacation frame of mind. What did it feel like to be there?

Your photos are probably already in the chronological order of the trip and grouped by smaller events and activities. As you do go through the photos to lay them on your table, proceed with these steps:

1. Keep groups of photos together in loose piles so you can still see at least a part of each photo.

2. Lay piles close together so that you have a choice of seeing them in their various groupings or seeing them as a part of a whole.

Doing it this way allows you to keep the artistic, story-connecting part of your brain working, as opposed to the linear, organizing part. By seeing all the pictures together, you will be able to identify stories that go beyond the events.

For example, seeing pictures of my sister with her family and different points in the trip led me to the idea of telling the story of being at Disneyland with my big sister and little brother again. Had I kept my photos in a linear and organized manner, I might never have thought of that angle, which is part of the most important aspect of this trip for me.

Step 3: Organize the stories with their supporting photos and separate them into piles.

1. While looking at your photos scattered all over the table, identify the stories that pop into your head and begin writing the dominant idea of each story onto a note card. My note cards say things like, “Family & Faces–who we were with,” “Enjoying the scenery–just as enjoyable as the rides,” “Mom & Me,” “Splash Mountain-The big people and tiny little Sidney.”

Make sure you jot down a note for all the stories that come to mind, even if you have no photos to support them.

2. Match stories to photos. Sometimes this means pulling photos out of their event grouping to use it for a different subject.

At this point, we are only partially turning ourselves over to the organizational parts of our brains. There is no need to put these into a fixed order yet. You can still leave the piles in a haphazard manner on the table, allowing your mind to stay within it’s artistic play area of the brain. Or if you need to put them away, you can stack them in any order with your story note cards in between each stack of supporting photos.

What Is The Story?

You’ve now written down the individual stories. You’ve connected with your memories and made connections between photos you might have separated before. Is there an overall story or theme that is starting to creep out?

If there are any words or ideas running through your mind, begin writing them down. You can brainstorm or make a word map. However you do it, have a place to collect these thoughts so you don’t lose them. If you’re able to solidify a theme at this point, that is great! If you’re still trying to work it out, that’s okay, too. The next step might help you out…

Stay tuned for Step 4 as we proceed to turn our memories into memoirs.

* * *

Your assignment for today is to complete the two bolded instructions under each of the steps above.

Tags: vacations
Posted in Art, Creativity, Holidays, Instructions, Journaling, Lesson, Organization, Scrapbooking, Tutorial | Comments

How To Make A Vacation Scrapbook: Step 1

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

You’ve come back from vacation and you’re thrilled at the pictures you got from your exciting adventure. You can’t wait to scrapbook them, but when you pull out those photos, a haze of confusion and overwhelm takes over. What should be a pleasurable visit with your memories is becoming a dreaded “obligation.”

Do you feel this way? I’m working on an album right now for our Disney vacation and I have a method for assembling this type of project that coincides with my philosophy of scrapbookers as story-tellers and scrapbooks as visual memoirs. It will also simplify the process and keep your mind clear.

Over the next week and a half I’ll share my step-by-step process with you, using my Disney vacation as the example. If you have a stack of photos and memories from a vacation that you need to scrap, I hope you’ll pull them out and follow along with each step. You can even give us a report of your progress by leaving a comment.

Step 1: Begin with 2 Fundamental Questions In Mind

1. What are the stories I want to remember from my vacation?
The funny things someone said * The thoughts and feelings you had at various times * The way a relationship developed * The things you did you did, saw, or experienced.

2. What is the overall story or underlying theme that encapsulates all of the smaller individual stories?
This is a deeper question that requires some thought. Each vacation has its own meaning. If you take some time to identify this early in the process, you’ll be able to create a complete and cohesive story out of the many pages, pictures, and smaller stories.

You don’t have to answer all of these questions now before moving onto step number two. Having the questions on your mind while you proceed to the next step is just fine. Have a pencil and some note cards next to you on the table so you can jot down each thought, story, or theme idea as they come. Having each story on its own note card will allow you to place them with their coinciding photos.

The Theme Of My Disney Vacation

While I’ve been working on the next steps, I’ve been thinking about the word, “present,” in all of its senses, for my Disney album. Here is what I mean:

1. One of our days at Disneyland was a present from my parents. The other day and the rest of the trip was Izzy’s and my own Christmas present to our kids.

2. It was an awesome experience to be present with my parents and the two siblings closest to me in age, at a place that holds so many childhood memories with them. I had such pleasurable moments, enjoying my sister and brother as if we were kids again.

3. Together we relived some wonderful times from our past, while mixing them with the present. It is such a joy to give to my children the happy experiences that my parents gave to me.

How Will Step One Benefit you?

1. Sometimes having a theme will provide you some visual images, icons, embellishment ideas, or colors. The story of Disney as a part of my childhood that I am gifting to my children gave me the idea to capitalize on a classic Disney icon that identifies Disney from any time period: the Mickey Mouse ears silhouette. I decided to use that icon as the major embellishment throughout my album, rather than buy new Disney products.

I may also use some clock and time images, and perhaps classic gift images.

2. Sometimes having a theme will provide you with title ideas. Titles of different pages in my album could be…

A present to us.
A present to you.
Present And In The Moment.
Present Again With You.

Step number one isn’t a step you can easily do when you’re cropping with friends. For most every project, I like to take some quiet time to dig deep and relive moments–to gain from those times all over again. I do it best with a pencil in my hand so I can solidify my thoughts and give them some life. My notes tend to be organic and unstructured, just like my thoughts.

Prepare For The Next Step

Tomorrow we’ll cover the next couple of steps, having to do with sorting the photos. You’ll want to print up your photos if you’re following along and you haven’t done so already.

Don’t worry about whether you’ll want enlargements unless you already know which ones you’ll enlarge and in what size. I printed all my photos to 4×6, knowing that I will later want to enlarge some of them. Since I don’t know which ones I want larger yet, it’s easier to just print them all up front so I have something physical to work with in my hands while I plan the structure and size of my album.

Your assignments:

1. Get some note cards, a pencil, and write down the following questions:

*What are the stories I want to remember from my vacation?
*What is the overall story or underlying theme that encapsulates all of the smaller individual stories?

2. Print up all of the photos you might put in your vacation scrapbook. Don’t worry about sizes or whether you have an album or not. That’ll come later.

I’m looking forward to following these steps with you.

* * *

This is part one of a series, Stories From Our Vacations.

Posted in Holidays, Instructions, Journaling, Lesson, Scrapbooking | Comments

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