I went away with my family on a short vacation and when I got back, after the unpacking and laundry and after getting back to our home routine, I got a chance to do some scrapbooking and I made seven scrapbook layouts in 3 hours!
I started on Pintrest while catching up on my soap (Young and the Restless btw - can't believe Victor married Sharon). I was noticing that there are a lot of hexagons in the scrapbook paperlines for CHA Winter 2012 and I noticed that there were lots of aqua, yellow and coral/pink and neutrals. I wanted to combine these colors with the hexagon shape; I have long wondered why scrapbooking hasn't embraced quilting shapes like hexagons, diamonds, etc. - seems like scrapbooking and quilting are having a mash up this CHA. Since I am not on any design teams, I do not have access to any of the new hexagon papers but I wanted to start using this concept now since I have been waiting for this as a trend for a long time.
I googled "how to make a hexagon" and found a template on a children's math site and printed it out onto regular paper. Then I made a hexagon template and gathered a bunch of 4x6 scraps in the colors that looked to me like the trends of CHA 2012. I hand cut the hexagons and if you look carefully you can see that they are not all perfect - because of the template with the black lines - I think it is ok that the scraps are not perfectly cut, but without the background hexagon grid, I think you'd need to be more careful to get the shapes more precise. I think a hexagon nesting die cut would be a great thing to have. I didn't plan to make seven layouts, but I had the scraps and the die cutter out, so I just kept on cutting shapes:
I will post the layouts over the next seven days with instructions and tips on how to make scrapbook layouts rapid fire like I did in this session. My biggest tip is to limit supplies, techniques and theme. In my case I used a handful of scraps (very old scraps but in current colors); a die cutting machine; and my theme was Places I Love. I took an improvisational comedy class last summer and noticed that when the instructor just said "go" we had trouble coming up with a scene but when he said "4 players - pile it on - restaurant" we could come up with a very funny sketch easily. I think that limitations are useful in improvisational comedy and in scrapbooking and probably any creative endeavor - I think that more creativity comes when there are limitations.
Here is the first layout I made with the hexagon shapes:
1. I printed out the hexagon shape template and then hand cut the hexagons to fit in the spots.
2. Be careful when machine stitching down chipboard letter - I almost broke the needle on this layout.
3. I journaled random memories as well as details about the location of this place which was a big part of my childhood but which my kids will probably never see.
4. The quilt effect of the hexagons was a sentimental reminder to me about my great-aunt Mabel who did quilting and how this place is part of the "fabric of my life".
5. I don't normally make layouts with only one photo but I don't have many photos of this important place so I wanted it to stand alone on the layout to signify that it is a special and important place to me.
6. As I was just reviewing this post, I realized that the hard blue line was a nod to the Border between the US and Canada which is where this place is located - I made the page base before choosing the theme but I think because of the border and the quilting effect, this place was the perfect subject for this page since the quilting designates a history for me and the blue line reminds me - at least unconsiously - of the border that we had to cross through Customs when going across the river into Canada.
7. I think this photo was taken either from St. Croix island or from a boat; I didn't take it, I inherited this photo from my father's things and I am guessing either he or my grandfather took it.
I'll have the second of seven layouts up tomorrow. In the meantime, hexagon die cutters or even cookie cutters are so on my "want to buy" list.
