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.

Today we have an awesome video for the Premium Subscribers. In this tutorial I take inspiration from a very old layout, but make key changes on my new one using my understanding of design.

Make sure you stick around for the outtakes at the end of the video!

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

I wanted to answer some questions from Toni about this layout from Episode 46.

Questions

Is the subtle hue on the paper (visible in the top right quarter) painted on, or was it already present in the paper pattern? The hue change was already present on the paper. It is made by Daisy Bucket and is from their Garden Gate collection. It’s the backside of the red patterned paper called, Summer Sweet.

How long did it take you to plan, layout and complete this page? I am a slow scrapbooker (I force myself to work faster on Paperclipping Live, but I really prefer to take my time, enjoy the moment, and allow my brain to wander and think about things) but this was a very fast layout for me. One of my easier ones. I completed it in three different short sittings. As for time, my best guess is maybe 5 minutes; 45 minutes, and 30 minutes.

My Process

Making the grid: I first laid my photos on the Basic Grey mat (this took me 5 minutes at the most), then put it away for a week while I worked on other projects. When I pulled my mat out again, I quickly saw that there was one spot that looked predictable because it formed a sort of checkerboard formation (if you don’t know me yet, I don’t like my art to be predictable–something I discovered as a child when I used to choreograph my own dances for fun) so I moved two of the photos and then I was happy with it.

Transferring the photos to my paper and adhering it was the longest part of putting this layout together, but was so easy because of having had the photos on the mat first. I used a ruler, not to measure, but to make sure the photos were straight. As I transferred each photo to my paper, I sanded the edges.

Adding the details: Next, I knew I wanted to add a happy color so I grabbed a scrap of orange patterned paper (Basic Grey), cut two squares, and placed them fairly randomly. I also felt I needed some circles for variety and found two different circle stamps and a piece of Scenic Route chipboard and put them in a triangular formation.

As I was looking around my room at my stuff I noticed my acrylic letters and pulled out the “a.” It was perfect for adding something into the bottom left corner because it added some detail down there without making that corner too heavy–I wanted the most weight to be at the bottom right corner.

At this point it was all about balancing my color by adding second and third points of a visual triangle for each color. I knew I wanted my title in the empty rectangular space and green would finish one triangle. Adding a swipe of orange paint underneath the title would help it to stand out and complete the triangle of orange. I ran out of green letters so I was happy to add yet another color to my palette (red), and then found two red buttons to balance it. I continued this until it had a nice balance of color and empty spaces to filled spaces.

A magnetic mat is not necessary.

I do recommend you use a grid of some kind because it makes it so easy, but you don’t need a magnetic one. I used the magnets on the video because my mat was upright for you to see. When I did this with my actual photos, though, I didn’t use the magnets, even while I was storing it away for a week.

* * *

Self-Expression
12×12 layout

Products: Adhesive (Diamond Glaze, Creative Memories Tape Runner, Foam 3-D Dots by EK Success); Patterned paper (Daisy Bucket, Basic Grey, My Mind’s Eye-for circle stamp, K.I. Memories lace paper); Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp, Making Memories); Stamps (7 Gypsies, Catslife Press); Ink (7 Gypsies, Stazon); Acrylic letter (Heidi Swapp); Chipboard (Scenic Route); Brads (Making Memories); Buttons (Creative Cafe); Sticker (7 Gypsies); Rub-on letters (for Mama–Heidi Swapp); Ribbon (We R Memory Keepers); Flower Charm Buckle (from own stash).

We’ve been talking about personal style a lot over the last two weeks. Part of our focus was an exchange of products between Dedra Long and myself. We have two very different styles and my hope was that we could try elements of each other’s style and make them our own. This is an interesting exercise to do because it can help you hone in on, not only what you are, but what you are not. It also gives you an opportunity to try something new, while learning to stay within the parameters of your own personal style.

My Layout

Here is the layout that I made using a combination of my products with the ones Dedra gave me. Almost everything in her kit was stuff that I like. The parts that weren’t me were the pink and white heart paper, and the abundance of pink in general as a main color. I added cream lace, lavender tuille, and additional patterned paper to make it my own.

Another way that I dealt with the difficult items was to add a second, warmer shade of pink (which is more of a “me” pink) and to turn the heart paper into an embellishment (I cut out a bunch of hearts and had them bubbling over the top of the lace and paper. In fact, my idea for dealing with the hearts came when I was going through my older layouts for the series on the evolution of my personal style. I found a cluster of hearts on one of my earliest layouts (not shown in my posts) that I loved then and still like now. I like the bubbliness of the circular tops of hearts so that is what I focused on.

Lately, I’ve been wanting to play with more happy colors so it was a good time to work with more pink than usual and to play with more three-dimensionality than I normally do on a layout. I do feel like I’ve expanded my scrapbook repertoire from this experiment.

Dedra’s Layout

Dedra cheated on her project. =)

I had to put that in there. Actually, it’s okay. She really tried to fit all my pieces in but ultimately, it just wasn’t her to have so many patterns, especially in the colors I chose for her, so she left some things out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dedra work with these golden browns and I think it’s gorgeous. The layout still screams Dedra, but in a new color.

The beads were also new for Dedra and I love how she added them as an accessory to a very Dedra-esque wire frame in a very playful and whimsical way. I’m curious to know if she plans to use more beads in the future and if she learned anything about herself in this process.

A lot of you said after reading Part 1 that you feel better about yourselves having seen my first pages. I was a late bloomer. And just so you know, many of the layouts I’ll be showing you in in this post were the best of their time, or layouts that mark a next-step for me.

Getting It Done Layouts

The next phase of my scrapbooking was a long stagnation. I was busier with a second child and it seems a lot of what I did was an effort to just get it done. Because I didn’t have many supplies I was spending more time hand-writing and hand-cutting designs or letters and most of my pages look like the one above but with even less to them. They were 2-page layouts with lots of photos spread around.

Having a second child spurred me toward more journaling. With two young children developing quickly I realized I had to get those memories recorded. Now you see more stories and pictures on each page, but less decorating.

Time wasn’t the only factor, though. We moved into a house much farther away from the local scrapbook store, we no longer had extra money to spend, and for a long while we shared one car, which Israel took to work. There were a number of years when I was using only leftovers and was missing out on all the changing and development that I would have seen in the stores and magazines if had looked.

Maybe this is why I began to have some moments of rebellion, when I decided to use some of the actual pieces of our lives in place of acid-free industry products…

I love this page, even if I would lay it out differently now and add more colors. Seeing these Einstein images reminds me of a great time when we were going to Einstein Bagels every Sunday morning and then off to the Scottsdale Civic Center to visit the library, read books on the grass, and play by the fountains.

Experimenting With Lumpy Products

One year I got some birthday money and decided to spend it all on scrapbooking products at two of our local stores. Not having been in a scrapbook store in a while, I remember being shocked that the industry had undergone a huge change while I was gone.

I didn’t dare spend my birthday money on magazines so I was ignorant about who initiated the changes and what other people were doing with these new products. And still had no clue about design concepts.

You can see that with after that shopping trip I was back to experimenting with design, colors, and products again, but I had a distinct feeling of dissatisfaction at this time. I wondered if my products were a distraction to the pictures. Understanding design principles would have really helped me.

Learning Through Trial And Error

This surge of new products inspired me to spend more time on my layouts again and I can see where this new attention to details helped me improve my design instinctively. Notice the new use of lines in the last three layouts, including the anchoring line I added to the bottom row of photos in this Thanksgiving layout. They’re still not great but I was learning from my experiences. It’s interesting to see the that I was starting to get an idea of some design elements, even if I didn’t fully get it or know that’s what I was doing.

Scapbooking more sophisticated topics also allowed me to play more with the types of products and colors I like (as opposed to child-themed ones). I can’t help giggling at my tiny dolphins compared to the giant shells and the glue dots visible through the velum. What I do like is that I was starting to find and identify colors I love.

My CM Phase

Most scrapbookers say they started out with Creative Memories and then moved away from it. I didn’t touch CM until I’d already been scrapbooking for six or seven years. I met a consultant who had a fireball personality and she inspired me to start journaling a lot more. For a short time I stopped buying other industry products and purchased mainly from CM.

While I have a lot pages with the older CM look (solid white background with triangles in the corner and from the sides), I usually tried hard for an aesthetically pleasing look. While working on the layout above about Aiden, I distinctly remember my excitement of discovering compartmentalized spaces, using lines, eye direction, and carrying a circular theme from one side to the other.

How Making Cards Made Me Aware of Myself

I also started making cards with my friends using Stampin’ Up products. I wanted to send a homemade card to a friend from high school but none of the cards I’d been making were really me. I couldn’t get myself to send any of them to her. That’s when I first became aware that I was rarely scrapbooking in a way that really reflected me. I wondered if that even was possible. I think you can see that new thought reflected in the last layout and the next few below.

I had so much fun mixing these unlikely pattens together (three different sizes of squares from punched scraps)–something I continue to love doing today.

These muted colors and patterns were so me back then, and still are now.

It was around this time in 2005 that Israel asked me to do something which led to the next big jump in my journey toward personal style. Stay tuned…(But go ahead and leave your observations by commenting).

My First Scrapbook Layout: 1996

This was my very first layout, which I did eleven and a half years ago in 1996. My cousin had showed me a few pages of her scrapbook and I had never seen anything like that before. My husband took me to Michael’s on my birthday soon after that. We picked out a heart punch, a couple packages of patterned paper, a package of cardstock, and some stickers.

Having only seen a few scrapbooking pages ever, it took me hours to complete this simple layout!

Decorating The Page, My Only Goal

Self-expression and story-telling never occurred to me back then. It was all about decorating the page, finding a theme (like apples for school), and using acid-free products.

These styles had nothing to do with the kind of art and visuals I actually loved. It seemed so very important to buy acid-free products and these were the types of products that came acid-free. They were the only products that I ever saw scrapbookers use. It just didn’t occur to me to do anything different. When I look at these older pages now, I don’t see “me” from back then at all. I see the products that were available at the time.

I rarely journaled on my layouts because, as I said, it all about the decorations for me. This is so bizarre because I’ve always been one to journal and preserve my stories. But I saw scrapbooking as totally separate from keeping a personal history. My scrapbooks preserved photos, not stories. The rare journaling I did do on my pages fascinates me now because I’ve forgotten these thoughts and feelings. Here is an example from the layout above:

“I loved being pregnant and enjoyed every minute of it. Some time around the 5th or 6th months I decided I would be happy being consistently pregnant with one baby after another for the next so many years.”

And another example where I share my first memories of having a new baby:

“I was so excited and so in love with him I did not even sleep for two days. I stayed up all night staring at Blake.”

I wish I had journaled more like this. So much of who is really me is totally lost in most of those old layouts.

My Mirst Move Toward Style: 1998

At some point my mother sent me a Mary Engelbreit book that I read to my son a lot. Her artwork influenced me to do a lot more frame-layering, bordering, and bright-color-mixing. I did a lot of layouts with these characteristics and was really excited about it. I wasn’t reading any scrapbook magazines at this point, so I have no idea what other scrapbookers were doing at the time, but this was my first inkling of having a style of my own, or a specific style at all.

It was also unusual for me to decorate more on design and less on theme. It wasn’t a hundred percent changeover. Just a new option I enjoyed choosing off-and-on.

This is the first part of My Own Scrapbook History. What do you think? Do these look like me to you? I will come back tomorrow to share more from 1998 to 2008.

It’s a wonderful experience to find your own style (more on that to come, I promise!). Shopping for product gets easier because you have a better idea of what you like and use well, and what you don’t. But if we don’t continue to expand and evolve in small ways, the way our lives do, we may find ourselves in a rut. The same things no longer excite us and we don’t feel challenged.

This is why there needs to be some give-and-take. As you come to know what is totally you-you-you, allow yourself to really delve into that you-ness. But periodically, notice what someone else is doing differently and see if you can adopt a little bit of that them-ness, infusing it into your own style.

Last week on Paperclipping Live, Dedra and I took inspiration from another layout, taking just a couple of the elements we liked and making them our own. For Paperclipping Live this week, Dedra and I will do a Style Exchange, Part Two. But this time, we’re taking inspiration from each other.

The Challenge

I picked out some products that are totally me–earthy, bohemian, full of patterns and color variation–and that I think are totally not Dedra (for the most part):

And Dedra did the same for me:

The challenge is to take these products, perhaps mix them with a few more from our own stashes (Dedra promised me she wouldn’t paint over my patterned paper!), and try to make them into a layout that is truly our own.

Curious to see how it turns out? Join us for Paperclipping Live on Tuesday, June 3 at 6:30pm PST and watch us go to work.

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.