Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

Hey Twelvers: DOZEN DAY Scrapbook Layouts Videos *** PLUS A Winner for the 200,000+ Blog Page Views!

SCRAPBOOKING LAYOUTS VIDEOS - PALOOOZA!

I got a comment from Rhonda who is a scrapbooker who is in the Big Picture Class with Stacy Julian. 

Kate, Your presence is requested on the TWELVE CHIT CHAT board to help us learn how to produce our own videos for class!!! Thx, Rhonda

Stacy makes videos called "Dozen Day" in which she shares the last 12 layouts she made and explains them, so the students in class want to do some too.  Here was my answer to Rhonda:

Hi Rhonda! OH Funny :) Ok.  I have videos on ustream which I film with a Microsoft web cam and I film the 10 minute videos for you tube on my husband's ipad. I have also used my iphone on the fly - like when I was skiing - to film and upload. I am not technically awesome by any stretch so when I have glitches I call in the computer man (aka my husband) to fix things. I'll check in to class now. P.S. I'm in my scrapbook room now and am torn between making a scrapbook page or an art journal page. I would love to combine those two worlds more.

And then I made my own Dozen Day Scrapbook Videos (scroll down or head over to You Tube through one of those links below).

PLEASE NOTE:  That I really tried to keep the videos under 10 minutes because my iPad condenses them to under 10 but I went over a bit so when I uploaded them I labeled them as  #1, #3, #5, #7, and #9 in case I had to add in supplements - I didn't - so they are labeled with ODD numbers only on You Tube but there is 5 (five) of them.

Video #1 (#1 on Youtube): {video link}

 

{video link for the tail end of #1 - start around 1:15 I think}

 

Video #2 (#3 on Youtube): {video link}

  

Video #3 (#5 on Youtube): { video link}

 

Video #4 (#7 on Youtube): { video link }

 

Video #5 (#9 on youtube): {video link}

 

 Want to make videos of your own and support this blog?  Click through to the affiliate link here - once you over at Amazon, if you make any purchases (so you don't have to buy the stuff below)  you can buy anything and means I'll get 4-6% and that goes to support this blog (which costs about $150.00 /yearr to typad - so it would be cool to have the blog at least support itself :)

  

This is the one I use fpr  ustream videos - and I thinkI paid $100+ at Best Buy, so it looks like Amazon is less expensive. I used the iPad for the videos up top.

And NOW FOR THE BIG (or 6x6 inch) PRIZE - dun daaa naaa naaah!  The WINNER OF THE POST for the 200,000 blog hits is

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Laura T. said...

Laura - please email me your address at katiescottscrapbooking@gmail.com and I'll send you some papers from the 6x6 kits I bought last weekend from Heidi Swapp / Sugar Chic; Heidi Swapp / No Limits; Amy Tangerine / Sketchbook; Crate Paper / Story Teller;  and some older Basic Grey / Basics White and Infuse and Offbeat and probably some other stuff too!

P.S. I don't work for any scrapbook companies so this is just stuff from my stash - but that I think you'll like. 

P.S. Hey scrapbooking companies - if you ever want to provide me some free stuff to give away on the blog... just email me or leave a comment!

Thanks for visiting my little space on the internet :)

Katie.

Scrapbook File: May 2012 / May 2008 {using Project Life Journaling Cards}

Scrapbook File:  The Month of May 2008 & May 2012:

I took an old chipboard folder from some photo paper and covered it with patterned paper to create a folder to compare a collage of photos from May 2008 with one from May 2012.

I used journaling cards from the Clementine Core Kit from Becky Higgins' Project Life Line.

 

 

Today I'm off to the Whim So Doodle Scrapbooking Garage Sale - I'll be sure to show and tell my bargains very soon!

Meantime, if you'd like to support this blog and check out groovy scrapbooking supplies, then please click through to one of the following affiliate links:

 

How To Use Monochromatic Color Schemes to Pile on Embellishments in Scrapbooking

How to Use Monochromatic Color Schemes to Pile On Embellishments in Scrapbooking:

Do you have trouble figuring out how to use lots of embellishments on your page?  I do and often times I skip using embellishments on scrapbooking pages altogether. 

One technique I use to get lots of embellishments on a page is to go monochromatic.  These three pages use this trick.  Notice that the embellishments are actually snow flakes and stars, which have little to do with the themes of these pages;  but that doesn't seem to matter since the color of the embellishments match the color of the backgrounds so that the type or the theme of  the embellishment becomes less important than the color of the embellishment.

1. This page started as an October Afternoon Sketch - full disclosure here, I made the base of this page a while back and I thought it was October Afternoon but maybe it was Studio Calico, I can't seem to find it on Pinterest now - if anyone has the link, please leave a comment!  Anyway, the page was made of all sorts of random blue paper strips in a sunburst pattern.  This seemed to be perfect for the excitement and the pride that my daughter had about her first BIG rollercoaster ride.  I used the blue snowflake brads to replicate all the gears on the rollercoaster, what do you think - does it work?

I also adapted a brown picket fence embellishment to a white embellishment that looks to me like a rollercoaster track, here's how I made it:

Fun right?  I don't think I would have made this but for the monochromatic theme.  Removing lots of color choices helps me to focus on using embellishments in more creative ways.  And that's fun from time to time.

2. This page was inspired by Challenge #6 by Elizabeth Dillow in the Big Picture Class "Twelve Design Challenges".  The challenge was to make a monochromatic page that had an absence of color - to use black, white, grey, or another neutral.  I liked the main photo since it faded to white so the main color on this page comes from the phto of my daughter and the tiny photos in the strip at the bottom include a lot of grey from the road, so grey worked well for this page.

 

This was Allison's first time around the block on the rollerblades she got for Christmas.  I was on rollerblades too but we didn't get any pictures of me this time (I'll have to remember for next time).

3.  The third page was probably inspired by a Lisa Day rainbow page that I saw on Pinterest and I had it in mind when I was making the page, but didn't reference it specifically; I've seen some other layouts recently in this same theme - stripes of color with embellishments in each stripe with that color.   There was another layout like this on the Two Peas Gallery recently and it had something to do with instagram or something like that.  Anyway, if you think of a rainbow of colors as stripes of monochromatic places to put like colored embellishments, its easy to put together a page with lots of embellishments.  Rather than using embellishments on this page, however, I used my Quickutz star in a cirlce die cut to make the paper embellishments. 

 

These three monochromatic layouts that came together in two hours total.  That's an average of 40 minutes per page.  I usually scrap a bit faster but I took my time and had fun with these pages, and my kids were scrapbooking with me so I think I was a bit slower than normal, which is totally fine.

Have you made monochromatic pages?  Try a few with like colored embellishments, it is fun and easy.

If you wish to support this blog and pick up some colorful embellishments, click through to one of these affiliate links:

   

 

5 Common Reasons for Scrapbooker's Block and 5 Easy Ways to Solve It and Get Scrapping!

 

Scrapbookers, Imagine This:  You just received your print order, several envelopes of your latest and greatest pictures, and you now have a new and exciting stack of awesome photos just waiting to be scrapbooked!  There's the birthday party photos, photos from your last vacation, and some really adorable photos of your 8 year old.   You are all excited to scrapbook them!  You rearrange some things on your to do list and you somehow find 3 hours of uninteruppted scrapbooking time.  You put your photos in your photo organization system.   You get out your adhesives, scalloped edged scissors  and that new pack of embellishments shown at the last CHA.   Ready!  Set!  And Nothing.  Instead of "Go!" you are at at dead end STOP!  You stare at the dreaded blank page and then it hits you:  The Dreaded Scrapbooker's Block.  

Have you ever been hit with scrapbooker's block?  If you are a kid, chances are you haven't and you can stop reading and go play now!  But if you are a scrapbooker who is over the age of 18, then you might know what I'm talking about.  If you haven't experienced scrapbooker's block or perhaps you just need a definition for this frustrating condition, here's how wikipedia defines this common scrapbooker's ailment {please note I took some liberties with the "writer's block" definition and adapted it for our concern "scrapbooker's block"}:  

    "Scrapbooker's Block is a condition, primarily associated with scrapbooking as a hobby in     which the creative goddess loses the ability to produce new layouts.  The condition varies widely     in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in choosing how many photos should go onto     a particular layout or which embellishments to use for a visual triangle on the page to tie it all     together.  At the other extreme, some "blocked" scrapbookers have been unable to work for years     on end, and have been known to continue to buy supplies despite the complete stop of production     of scrapbooking layouts or mini books.  It can manifest as the affected scrapbooker viewing her     work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite. Scrapbooker's block is a     common affliction that most memory keepers will experience at one time or another, it is "an     inability to begin or continue scrapbooking for reasons other than lack of basic skill or     commitment".  

Who's been there?  I know I have, more than once.  Can I get an "Amen" scrapbooking sisters?

Scrapbooker's block can be caused by these five common problems:

1. Lack of Inspriation:  Oh sure there are dozens of inspiring projects on Pinterest and over at Two Peas, but nothing really "speaks" to you and your creativity just isn't sparked by anything - not even a glittery fire lit with hot-off-the-CHA-floor-patterned-paper by scrapbooking LOAD Coach Lain Ehmann herself.;

2. Over Awareness of the Audience:  Whether your audience is your own family or your online scrapbooking friends, you cant' seem to make anything because you keep thinking about what so-and-so will think of your completed scrapbook project so you just don't start or complete anything.;

3. External Circumstances like stress or health issues of the scrapbooker.  This will happen to all of us at one time or another.;

4. Sophmore Syndrome: Intimidation from a previous success.  Maybe you had a layout published in a magazine or recognized on an online scrapbooking gallery and now you are afraid to make another layout because you don't think it will be as awesome as the last layout.; or

5.  Perhaps the most dreaded of all "Trying to be Perfect":  You can't seem to do anything at all for fear that it might not be perfect and you'll ruin your photos, your supplies, or your own ego.

 Let's check in with wikipedia again and see what they say about the brain on scrapbooker's block {again I'll take some liberties and re-phrase to make it crafty}:

    "Scrapbooker's Block is more than just a mentality. Under stress, a human brain will "shift     control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system". The limbic system is associated with the     instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response. Because the person is primarily thinking     in instinctual (learned) behaviors, creative processes are hindered. The person is often unaware     of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked"."

So enough of the problem, chances are you are just as familiar as I am with the causes or stresses of scrapbooker's block; what you really want to know is just how do you cure scrapbooker's block?

1. Take a Scrapbooking Class or Listen in on a Scrapbooking Group Discussion.

A few years ago I took Lain Ehmann's LayOut A Day (LOAD) Challenge and the exercise of making a scrapbook layout everyday for a month helped me get to a place where I could scrapbook no matter what; I think the key factor in this system is the short deadline. 

While I have been scrapbooking for well over a decade, I still take an occasional scrapbooking class to keep things fresh.  My favorite place to take online scrapbooking classes is Big Picture Classes.  I'm currently taking Stacy Julian's Twelve Class and Elizabeth Dillow's Twelve Challenges Class.

My favorite "Scrapbooking Discussion Group" otherwise known as a "podcast" is The Paperclipping Roundtable Podcast.   The Paperclipping Roundtable "airs" on itunes every week and is about an hour, topics include scrapbook organization, the process of scrapbooking, and scrapbooking tools and tricks.  Listening in always gets me in the mood to do some scrapbooking.

2. Keep a Scrapbooking Ideas Journal.

Whether you keep your ideas in a plain notebook, a fancy and embellished journal, or on your iphone; writing things down helps.  Even if you never go back to the list, the act of having written down an idea helps to keep it and grow it in your mind.  Depending on your personality, you may love or hate lists; but either way, try writing down ideas for a month and see if your ability to overcome scrapbooker's block improves.  My bet is that it will.

Pinterest is also a great place to keep ideas.  Major warning:  Pinterest is also a major time waster and can result in feelings of insecurity and inferiority since there are amazing ideas and photos there; so use Pinterest with caution.

3. Do some Free-Scrapbooking.

My husband often tells the story about how he was a bad student until he learned the trick of "getting ready" to do homework.  He'd tell himself that he was just "getting ready" to do some homework, he'd get his books and pencils, a snack, and sit at the desk; he didn't pressure himself to actually do anything, but, he says, once he was all set up and sitting there he'd do the homework.  Try that with your scrapbooking, get some photos out; get out some paper; don't pressure yourself to make anything but if you get even an inkling of inspiration, jump on it and go with whatever gave you that spark. 

Another idea is to make a card,  or a page in an ongoing mini book with a standard structure, or just to start doodling or punching or free hand cutting some patterened paper.  Just start moving and your brain will follow.

4. Just Do It.  Make a Page even if it is Not Perfect, especially if it is not perfect!  In fact, make an Imperfect Page! 

Take your worst, blurriest photo and the ugliest piece of paper you can find.  Make a page.  Just do it.  Once that's out of your system, you'll at least have done something.  The fact that its not awesome will give you the confidence to make the next one a bit better because it couldn't be any worse.  Just try it. 

In the alternative, set your kitchen timer for 15 mintues, and don't spend any time thinking, just do this:  1. Open your photo file and pick one without looking (1 minute).   2. Then pick a neutral colored cardstock, don't spend more than (30 seconds) picking.  3. Pick some letters, give yourself a minute.  4. Paste all that together (2 minutes).  5. Write something on the page - draw four or five lines and just start writing.  (5 minutes tops) .  6.  You are 8.5 minutes in and you can call it done if you like, but if you wish, pick a few embellishments and stick them down in a visual triangle (5 minutes tops). 

5. Find a Positive Place to Share Your Scrapbooking Work.

If you've been scrapbooking for any length of time, chances are your family has lost the level of excitement for your scrapbooking layouts that maybe they had in the beginning.  You need scrapbooking friends for this job my friend.

Feedback can be awesome, find a place where you can find some friendly scrapbookers who are at a similar scrapbooking skill level and share your work.  You can set up a flickr group or join in a variety of many, many scrapbooking communities online.  Or pick a few friends to be your viewing buddies. 

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Want to hear me read this essay?  Check this out:

 

 I hope that this article has been helpful or at least a bit entertaining.  Please leave a comment to share your most common cause of scrapbookers' block and your favorite solution.

If you'd like to learn more about "scrapbooker's block" or even "writer's block", check out these affiliate links:

 

 

 

 

Quotes I Love Layout using Project Life Journal Cards - Another page for the Two Peas in a Bucket National Scrapbooking Day 2012 Challenges

 

This page was inspired by Challenge #2 at the Two Peas in a Bucket 2012 National Scrapbooking Day Challenge.

This was fun to put together and I used Project Life grid cards that started out naked.

 I added strips of scrap paper, photos, and quotes I love. 

So easy and I love this page.

P.S. I hear that the Project Life supplies are back in stock at Amazon - check out these affiliate links - hurry before they are gone again (really - they really sell out - so if you want them - get them now) go hurry!

 

DCWV Layout #7: Spring Break

I've been working my way through one Die Cuts With a View Stack called "The Snapshot Stack" and I've challenged myself to create 24 layouts.  Here is #7 completed:

I didn't journal on this one because it seemed kind of self explanatory.  The embellishments are from the muffin tin I created for the  Stacy Julian  Twelve Class I am taking at Big Picture Classes so I just pulled some orange and yellow random embellishments to create a visual triangle.  So Simple.

To support this blog, please click through to one of the affiliate links for products used in making this page:

DCWV The Snapshot Stack Layout #1: Snapping in the Girl's Room

Hello and Welcome to Paper #1 / Layout #1 of "The Snapshot Stack" / 24 Layouts.  I'm challenging myself to use each sheet of this 48 page stack from DCWV from the craft store to make 24 layouts. 

I used the three Polaroids on the left side of the patterened paper as embellishments for my page, they also served as the theme inspiration which I interpreted literally as taking photos:

This layout is all about how I took photos of myself in the girl's room mirror during my recent trip to Colorado.  The Journaling reads: "Confessions of a Scrapbooker:  While in Colorado I did my fair share of snapping pictures of myself while in the bathroom.  I was having so much fun and felt weird asking people to take pictures of me, so every time I went to the girl’s room, I’d snap a photo of myself in the mirror after washing my hands and before heading back out onto the slopes.  Just a little secret and not nearly as bad as that old Motley Crue song that was popular when I was in high school "Smoking in the Boy’s Room"  - just a little innocent picture taking, that’s all.  Katie March 2012"

 I also added some "hidden journaling" on the back of the layout about the song "Smoking in the Boy's Room" By Motley Crue which was the inspiration for the title of this page and about my thoughts on smoking and words of advice to my kids should they ever happen upon the back of this layout, its ok if they never do, but if they are the super curious sort, then its there for them to read sometime in the future:

  Here are some more details on how I used two 12x12 sheets, cut them in half and then stitched them together to make this double page layout  and about how the page went together:
I really like using old scraps to create letters with my quickutz Studio alphabet dies, they seem trendy even though the papers I'm using are well over ten years old.

Stacy Julian

I've been a fan of Stacy Julian's since I bought the book The Big Picture and read it on the airplane ride to visit my Grandma Grace, I think it was the summer of 2005.  It is now 2012 and I'm still a fan and I'm enrolled in her Twelve Class at Big Picture Classes and it is as awesome as I expected.

That's my screen on February 12th - Stacy does an online Chat with the Twelve students on the 12th day of each month.

I had been a fan of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine but wasn't very familiar with Stacy until I read her book.  I fell instantly in love with Stacy Julian and her philosophy.  I'm not alone, thousands of scrapbookers across the world share my love of Stacy.  I've been a fan and a follower of hers for seven years now, I've taken several classes with her at Big Picture Classes, and although we've never met in person, I can tell you, she is pure awesomeness in every way.

 

So when I wanted to get the word out on "Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (March 21)", I knew that one blog post from Stacy would make a huge difference in the number of people "going" to this celebration of life created by my friend Julie "Rosenstud's"  late husband Bruce C. Rosenberg.  At this time we are at 2,900 "going" and I have the goal of having 10,000 going by tomorrow - is it possible?  I think so! Here is the Link to Stacy Julian's Blog. 

Chances are if you are reading my blog, you are a scrapbooker and chances are you are a fan of Stacy too.  Here are twelve links to my blog posts all about Stacy Julian and Big Picture Classes and Library of Memories:

1. Stacy Julian's Twelve Class in 2012 at Big Picture Classes

2. 12 Scrapbook Layouts about "You" meaning "Me" for Stacy Julian's Twelve Class 

3. How I Organized 60 Layouts Using Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Album System

4. Custom Made Storage System for My Library of Memories Albums

5. Library of Memories Storage System "After"

6. What Makes a Scrapbook a "Simple Scrapbook"

7. Stacy Julian's Creative Crop Challenge 10+10+10

8. Stacy Julian Appreciation Week Layout

9. Stacy Julian's Freedom Friday Challenge

10. Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Community: 1st Challenge: Red, White & You

11. Stacy Julian's Have More Fun Class: "No Toe Dipper"

12. Stacy Julian's Free BPC Class "Cocoa, Daisies and Stacy"

So Thank You Stacy for the blog post to get the word out about "Ice Cream for Breakfast (March 21)" Day and thank you for years and years of inspiration and scrapbooking fun!

If you'd like to support this blog and get Stacy Julian scrapbooking goodies, please check out these affiliate links:

 

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series (Day 12): District 2 Masonry

Welcome Scrapbookers to District 2 of Panem: Land of Masonry and Peacekeepers in what would have been the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Hey.  Psst.  I got a comment recently from a scrapbooker who said she "couldn't figure out" what I was trying to do with The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series.  So I guess I should explain a bit:  I find that when I start with a theme for scrapbooking, I can translate the theme into all sorts of different scrapbooking pages and projects.  The theme gives me a starting point.  I recently discovered The Hunger Games and read through the triology in less than  a week and I am highly anticipating the movie.  Since the imaginary dystopian  world includes many districts and themes and characters, I thought it would be fun to use The Hunger Games as a theme or a jumping off point for scrapbooking inspiration.  You are welcome to join in and translate the themes as closely or as loosely as you wish.  There is a Flickr Group for this challenge if you wish to play along - here is the link to The Hunger Games Flickr Group. 

District 2 of Panem is the place where Peacekeepers are trained, and where the weapons are manufactured, but originally specialized only in mining and stone cutting. Publicly it's presented as the nation's stone quarries, just like District 13 was known for graphite mining. District 2 children are raised with a warrior mind-set and most of the Peacekeepers are from District 2. This district was the only one not on the side of the first rebellion, and after the attempt failed, were rewarded by better treatment from the Capitol, and better living conditions for their citizens. District 2 is in the Rocky Mountains, near the Capitol itself. The district is made up of many small villages, each based around a mine. Although the district is allied with the Capitol, due to their preferential treatment, the quarry workers suffer as much as any other district, not being excluded from the annual Hunger Games that take place. (source Wikia). 

Since I just returned from beautiful and amazing Durango, Colorado and that is the location of District 2, I'll be taking my inspiration from the location of this district in Panem. 

I made a photo collage in Picasa and typed in this journaling:  "Now I Know What John Denver Meant when he sang Rocky Mountain High.  I found myself singing the lyrics "coming home to a place {s}he's never seen before."  I was so moved by the beauty of these mountains and the solitude I found in the snowy trails.  I had visions of uprooting our family and transplanting us in Durango, Colorado.  I fell completely in love with this place. Charlie was not as convinced, he liked the vacation and made a lot progress in his ski lessons, but made it clear that he's a Florida Boy.  I do still hold out hopes for a vacation rental property."

I printed the photo collage on an 8.5 x 11 sheet and trimmed it just a bit and backed it with patterned paper.  No embellishments.  Just words and photos and a bit of background.  I did add a zig zag stitch for a little visual interest.   Simple.  And Done.

P.S. I know there's a misspelling in my scrapbook page and the print quality is not the most awesome; but I'm still calling it done!

If you wish to support this blog, check out these affiliate links for The Hunger Games books and related products:

 

 

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series #2: District 12 & Taking It the Wrong Way

Welcome to Day #2 of The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Series!

Part 1 of The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge Day 2:

 

(Psst - Hey Scrapbookers:  The videos overlap a bit so you can fast forward a bit through the second one.  Improv and scrapbooking and making videos about these concepts are not perfect - and that is OK!  I'm not letting technical difficulties keep me from having a bit of fun.)

Part 2 of the video:

 

 SCRAPBOOKING IMPROV TIP:  TAKING IT THE WRONG WAY:  Think of a word and use it in the wrong way.  For example, if some one is talking about dinner reservations you could misinterpret them to mean the kind of reservations or hesitation you might have about bungee jumping.  This improvisational comedy technique is known as "taking it the wrong way" and it is a fun exercise to try especially with your kids. 

The improv principle of "taking it the wrong way" was the inspiration for today's Hunger Games Challenge.  The improv principle of listening and reacting to what your scene partners are saying and the principle of staying in the present moment were also at play when I created this page, as was the improv principle that you don't keep your own ideas "too precious" you go with the flow of the group:

For example: I had a "precious" idea.  This morning, I thought I'd start each day with one of the Districts starting with #12 descending down to #1.  Each District in The Hunger Games had an industry and I thought I could take inspiration from those industries like fishing, textiles, war, lumber etc.  The main character, Katniss Everdeen's home district is #12 and the industry is coal since, in this dystopian post apocalyptic world, it is located in what was once Appalachia in North America.  I was sort of deciding about whether to start in at District #1 and work out to #12 or vice versa so I asked my family at breakfast "Should I scrapbook about Lumber or Coal? " just to see if they had any thoughts.  {Here's where I went "improv" and discarded my "precious idea" and listened to what my "scene partners" were saying and I reacted to that instead.} To my surprise, they did.  They each had different thoughts - my son thought I was talking about Lego's Ninjago named Cole and he brought out the minifig to show me; my daugther thought I was talking about our friend's daughter Nicole; and Charlie, playing along I think, suggested I might be talking about his cousin, Penni Cole.  Then I suggested that maybe I was talking about the kind of coal that Santa brings when children are naughty.  Here is the collage with text I made in Picasa demonstrating this morning's conversation:

STEP 1: Think of a word you can "take the wrong way" and use it in a layout.  You can use a word in its incorrect form.  Yesterday I talked about high school English Class with Mrs. Rideout and she did this exercise with us, we had vocabulary words each week and we'd have to write definition appropriate sentences for all of them except one; we'd each have to take a word and use it incorrectly in a sentence.  I remember a couple of the sentences quite specificially: 

"Hey! Stop that!  European all over my shoe."

"The figure skater finished her routine and looked at the judges and whispered to herself hopefully: Benign!  Benign!"

It is a fun and silly exercise that is easily applied to scrapbooking.    Seriously, try it. 

STEP 2: Find Photos that Support Your Wrong Way Word.  I think that you are most likely not going to have a photo displaying a word used in the wrong context - although if you do - then kudos to you - use that.  More likely, you'll have to get a bit creative with your photo interpretation of how you are using a word incorrectly.  This is the time to play, think out side of the box of what you originally took the photo about and use it in a different way.  So improv.  So fun.

 

I used all the different definitions of the word coal and found a head shot of each member of my family and created a grid photo collage and then wrote each family member's definition over the photo.  Otherwise, all these photos would never had ended up on the same page.  To add some consistency, I converted most of the photo collage to black and white but kept a pop of color on a photo of my family at Appalachian Ski Mountain - the original thought behind the word of the day: Coal.

STEP 3: Put your Page Together and Try to Use Embellishments that Support Your Theme.  I used a map from our trip to Appalachian Ski Mountain.  I also used a bit of patterned paper with a picture of a bird since that refers to the Mockingjays in The Hunger Games books.

STEP 4:   SHARE!  Post a comment with a link to your page, I would love to see it and hear about how you used a word incorrectly!  There is a flickr group called "The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenges" so you can post your layout there if you don't have a blog.  Can't wait to see what you make!

If you wish to support this blog and learn more about scrapbooking and improvisational comedy and how they can work together and/or catch up on The Hunger Games, then check out these affiliate links: 

 

 

The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge #1: Main Characters

Welcome Scrapbookers to The Hunger Games Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking Challenge #1:   Main Characters.  Let the Games Begin!

Over the past week, I've been fully immersed into the dystopian world of Katniss Everdeen and The Hunger Games.  I couldn't help but notice that there were so many similarities between the main character, Katniss Everdeen, and myself.  Our nuclear family units growing up were identical, even the personalities of the family members, like our late fathers were hunters, our mothers worked in healthcare, and our little sisters had a fondness for stray cats.  The similarities didn't stop there, we went from a small town to the big city all by ourselves, we are claustrophobic, and we both love scrapbooking.  Yes, scrapbooking.  Apparently there is a little hope in dystopian District 12 in the form of some post traumatic scrapbooking and gratitude journaling.  I had to create something that showed the commonalities I noticed while I was engrossed in this trilogy.   Then I started thinking of all sorts of scrapbooking themes and ideas related to The Hunger Games and I thought it might be fun to host some scrapbooking challenges.  I don't have any prizes to offer but I do think you will have a lot of fun playing along with me.  {Pssst. If you know of any scrapbooking companies that might like to sponsor some prize give-aways on my blog for this series, please leave a comment and send them my way.}  With or without prizes, I can't wait to get started.

Let me explain my dystopian-scrapbooking concept, first watch The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge #1 Video:

 

Want to play along?  Here's how:

Step 1.  CHOOSE A FICTIONAL CHARACTER AND COMPARE WITH A REAL LIFE PERSON.  I chose myself and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.  You could choose yourself or another person you love and pair them up with a fictional character,it doesn't have to be from The Hunger Games.  For example, if I were to do this for members of my family, I might compare my son Mac with the No, David books by David Shannon; I might compare my daughter Allison with the ever creative and social Olivia; and I might compare my husband Charlie to (hmmmmm) I'm not sure, maybe Jimmy Buffet or Alec Baldwin or I'm not sure; I know those aren't fictional characters - but I think celebrity personalities could count. If you are having a hard time figuring out who to choose, probably start with yourself - you know yourself best and think back to a character from a book, movie, or tv show, or even celebritiy personality, with whom you really identified with or felt a connection to, or even someone you aspire to be like.

STEP 2.  CHOOSE COMPARISON PHOTOS:  I found some photos of The Hunger Games' main character, Katniss Everdeen, on the internet and some photos of myself at about her age from the 80s.  I picked one full body shot with weapons and one head shot with a more serious face for each of us.   I scanned in my old photos.  Then I created a photo collage in Picasa.  I would have put Katniss all on the left and me all on the right except that I wanted our faces to be facing in and I don't think Picasa has the mirror flip feature so I mixed them up, I actually think it is a bit more interesting this way.   If you are playing along, find some photos of yourself or the real life person you are using for this comparison challenge and then do a google search for the fictional character you are comparing with your real life person.

Step 3:  COMPARE AND CONTRAST: This part of the process sort of reminds me of high school English class when we had to write an essay comparing and contrasting something, anything, my senior English teacher Mrs. Rideout was always giving us these types of assignments.  I remember creating a yearbook where we used characters from the stories we'd read and fit them into senior superlatives like "most likely to succeed" and "most popular" etc.  I created a table in word perfect listing the similarities between the main character of The Hunger Games and myself, it really was funny to see our common threads.  If you have a computer available, create a table to compare your real life and your fictional character; if you don't have a computer handy, just hand draw a table and handwrite in the blanks; in the alternative, you could go the high school "compare and contrast" essay route,but trust me, making a table with bullet points is much quicker and easier {and you are less likely to get all those red marks on the page when some persnicketly grammar policeman sees it} .   

STEP 4:  CHOOSE SCRAPBOOKING PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT YOUR THEME. 
Once I had my table and photos printed, I knew I wanted to create a 8.5x11 page rather than a 12x12 page.  Because my table and photos were 7x7.75, I knew I didn't have a lot of space for embellishments or even the title.  I wanted the photos and the table to shine and for the rest to support my theme.  I looked through my black patterened paper and found some patterns that I otherwise thought were ugly but seemed to work for these theme.  Then I went about finding letters to create a title with, the main focus there was that I needed smaller letters.  I couldn't find my white or black smaller letters, so I used bright blue and green mostly because they fit, but also because they were a bit discordant with the rest of the layout, which in this case supports the theme, and I used alternating colors mainly because that's all I had left, but I think that the use of two colors also supports my comparison of two people.  I didn't want to use a big flower or arrow or butterfly or other typical scrapbooking embellishment, so instead I chose to "jazz up" my page with some machine stitching.  That game me the idea for the title:  "Common Threads" so I stitched over my title letters as well and along the bottom of the photos with the zig zag stitch under the head shot photos.  Not every scrapbooking paper, embellishment, or letters have to have a meaning, but it is sort of awesome when they can support your theme visually.  Don't over-think this process, use what you have.  Often times, the real meaning of the embellishments or design of the page that I have used doesn't really hit me until after I have made the page;  That's OK, because I really believe that at some gut level, my subconscious was making connections that my thinking brain hadn't caught up with yet.  Just go with it.  Don't fret over the embellishment part of the page, if you've already done the thinking about the story of the comparison, the rest of the page is going to come together easily.  Remember, this part is supposed to be the fun part, so have fun!

STEP 5:  SHARE YOUR WORK!  I would love to see what you create with this challenge, please leave a comment with a link to your page.  I have set up a Flickr Group called The Hunger Games Scrapbooking Challenge.  Please feel free to join and upload your project and/or leave a link in the comments to your blog or online gallery.

If you wish to support this blog, then please click on one of the following links for cool scrapbooking and The Hunger Games related products at Amazon:

 

Improv Scrapbooking & How I Keep My Creative Flow in Scrapbooking

A scrapbook layout and a video:

I actually made this layout while making the video.

If you've visited my blog before, you might know that I've been developing a concept of applying the concepts of improvisational comedy to the creative process in scrapbooking.  Here's a video of my process (you might want to do something while you are watching and think of it more of as a podcast with video attached).

 

Bear with me, I'll have better videos up this week, stay tuned OK?

Here is the Sunshine Snow Days layout:

The Story:  Improv Scrapbooking + The story of a disappointing snow day and then two awesome ski trips.

Journaling: "Sunshine Snow Days.  Back in December, Allison and I went to downtown St. Pete for the snow fest, but got there just as the bulldozer was getting rid of all that exciting snow.  It could have ruined the day, but instead we found a small pile of white stuff and had a snow ball fight.  Then, in January we all went up to Ober Gatlinburg and even though there was no actual snow, Allison was thrilled to experience the man made stuff and learned to ski and we even made a snow man. "  Journaling stickers: "Happiness is not having what you want, its wanting what you have." and "Life Is Good.  Today was ... the best.  Ally got a 2nd trip to see snow & go skiing in Boone, NC."

Scrapbooking Supplies:  DCWV, Echo Park, Fiskars Border Punch & stickers.

Want to learn more about Improvisational Comedy Concepts?  Check out these books:

 

CHA WINTER 2012: The Knock-Offs - #7 of the Bella Blvd. Scraplifts & Thoughts on the Creative Process & Middle Aged Mommy Sappiness & Scrapbooking as Therapy

Bella Blvd. Layout by Janna Wilson from Pinterest & The Scraplift:

 

Thoughts on the CREATIVE PROCESS:  Sometimes I like to switch up my creative process by using scraplifting, it provides boundaries and gives me a place to go so I can get layouts accomplished quickly and it provides a means of getting a little something done everyday.  Without this technique, I think that when I'm going through a creativity rut, I'd just stop scrapbooking, and the creativity muscle is like any other - it needs daily exercise.  So scraplifting gives me a way to "call it in" while I'm experiencing a creative low.  Sometimes, however, I do take a total break from scrapbooking when I'm feeling uninspired; but the scraplifting method seems more productive and gives me something to do and think about in the meantime.  My Grandfather was a painter and he'd so his own original art, but sometimes he'd copy the masters just to switch it up.  Scraplifting gives me that same sort of creative stretching.  Seeing all the new products and layouts from CHA 2012 provided some really great eye candy for this purpose.  I've been taking inspiration from CHA 2012 - specifically 7 Gypsies, Dear Lizzy and this week Bella Blvd.  I think I'm about done with my scraplifting series.  I'm ready to start fresh on something else, I'm not sure what yet, but I'll start something new starting tomorrow. 

In the meantime, here is #7 and the final layout in the "Scraplifting Bella Blvd." series:

The Scraplift:  I made the base part of the page a week or so ago and did the photos, embellishments and journaling this morning.  The original layout caught my eye since the girl in the photo looks like one of my best friends from elementary school (Katie Yerrid) and I liked the colors and it looked easy enough to scraplift.  This is a nice layout for highlighting one photo and having some creative time with your patterned papers.

The Story: It is Saturday Morning and I'm feeling a bit lonely.  My son is playing wii and wanting to go to Toys R Us (I so don't want to go there).  My husband is engrossed in the paper and HGTV.  And my daughter is off with her BFF.  I have the urge to go downtown to the Saturday Morning Market but no one wants to come.  I don't really want to go alone today.  So I find myself in my scrapbook room trying to occupy myself, knowing I could be working out or cleaning out closets or doing something more productive, but I think my daily creative time is important.  So I started out not feeling very creative but I took the base page and started anyway.  I came across this three year old photo of my daughter which was taken on a Saturday Morning on our way to to a craft fair on Corey Avenue, St. Pete Beach; back then she was only too happy to come hang out with me; now she's got her own plans many Saturday Mornings.  I know that's the natural process of things.  But still, I wish my kids thought I was more fun to hang out with - now they've always got their own ideas about what they want to do.  Gone are the days when I could just say "get in the car - lets go on wild adventure" and leave the house without a plan but end up having a day full of fun with my kids at the park or craft fair or beach or whereever.  So I'm feeling a bit middle aged - like my kids are half way through and I miss their little selves  and  all the snuggling that used to be part of my daily routine, now I have to practically beg them for a hug and never mind on the kisses, so not happening.  I guess all mothers go through this sort of feeling at one time or another but I'm feeling particularly sappy today, I'm going to indulge this feeling a bit but just for a day, tomorrow I WILL embrace a more hopeful, forward moving, productive attitude, but today, I'll lament the fact that my kids are growing up and needing me less and that I'm getting older.

SAPPINESS:  One summer while I was in college, I took summer classes at Eckerd and my roommate that summer was Yoko Yokohama, she was from Japan; Eckerd prides itself on being a very small liberal arts school and having students from all 50 states and many countries so the student body was very diverse which was really cool since there were only about 1500 students there when I was there (its my 20th year reunion coming up this spring - ahhh just one more reason to feel really like I'm getting older and time is passing more quickly than I'd like).  Anyway, Yoko was the most delightful person, she was like a puppy - all playful and fun and full of energy one minute and sleeping like a baby the next.  She was always so happy to see me (and anyone else) and she was sweet and nice and welcoming and had a excitement that was contagious.  I could really use a visit from Yoko today, I'm sure she's get me out of think funk I'm in today.  Whereever you are now Yoko, I miss you.  Ok, back to my original point.  One day, Yoko was in a funk, which was very unusual for her, and the conversation went like this:

"Ohhhh, Katie,  I'm so SAPPY today."  Yoko declared letting out a long sigh.

"Sappy?"  I asked, thinking maybe she needed to look up that word again for the correct usage, I'd never heard anyone describing themselves as feeling sappy before. 

"Yes, SAPPY.  You know, I'm feeling sad and happy all at the same time."  She answered.  

That made perfect sense, I thought.  I remember thinking that I was pretty sure that wasn't the dictionary definition of that word, but that was the best definition of it that I had ever heard.  That moment somehow burned itself into my brain and I can remember it quite perfectly, where she was sitting, our dorm room, the entire place in time, even though I have no photos of that summer or of Yoko or our rooom, I remember the whole thing perfectly.  Some moments are like that, twenty years later, that seemingly regular moment is still burned into my brain and it is a conversation I go back to when I'm feeling SAPPY, and the memory of Yoko and how happy she made me feel and how profound her words were to me that day, often times the memory helps to get me feeling more on the happy than the sad side of things.  Thank you Yoko, you definately left a forever imprint on me.

P.S. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defintion of SAPPINESS is 1. the state of being full of or smelling of sap, 2. the quality or state of being sappy: foolishness.  I like that foolish word because of Steve Jobs's speech, so I'm cool with being a bit sappy from time to time - and my Dad used to tap our maple trees for sap and used to make maple syrup and sugar candy, so I'm pretty sure we were in the state of sappiness back then; plus I miss him and all of his sappiness.

Journaling: Main journaling block:  "Saturday Morning.  2009 /2012.  These photos are from when you used to happily agree to going to the art fair with me.  Fast forward 3 years and you've got play dates with your BFF.  Missing you today.  Love Mommy."   Side tab: "Can we rewind a little?"

Supplies: Patterened Paper from American Crafts and DCWV; Fiskars Border Punch; K&Company Tag (at top and side) and other random bits of ribbon, buttons and brads.

 

Blogging:  The act of making this page helped me work out the feelings that I was feeling this morning, but the page doesn't really tell the whole story does it?  Thats ok, sometimes my feelings come out better in blog form.  When that happens and I really tell the story better in the blog entry than on the page, I just print out my blog entry and either slip it into a 8x11 page proector opposite the 12x12 layout in my 3 ringed album; or I just slip it in behind the layout; either way - the whole story is there for anyone who is interested (or not) in the future.  And I feel like I've gotten then feelings out and can clear my emotional slate and move forward.  Scrapbooking as self therapy is a good thing because it feels like play and because the process gets recorded so that when I look back at the page I can remember the process and when I write down the process on the blog and print it out, then maybe sometime in the future, it will help my daughter or hers when she's going through a SAPPY time.  Or maybe it will help a blog reader who's going through the same type of thing.  Any which way, it makes me feel better.  And I do.  Ahhh.  Maybe I'll go to that Saturday Morning Market thing on my own and enjoy a Gyro and being amongst people on this fine day.

Want to read more on the creative process?  Check out these books:

 

P.S. Thinking I'll incorporate some of my One Little Word Class (Ali Edwards / Big Picture Classes) into my weekend and take a photo safari for my word "HOPE" and probably my last year's word "AWESOME" too - I could use a little more of both of those words in my head and heart today.

 

 

 

Winter 2012 CHA Bella Blvd. Scraplifts

Last week, I posted that I'd have my CHA Bella Blvd. inspired scrapbook knock-offs up on Sunday {here's a link to that blog post}; we got back from a ski vacation and I've been busy getting back to my daily routine and haven't had a chance to blog until now.  So here are three pages inspired by the Winter 2012 CHA layouts from Bella Blvd.:

1. Button Heart Layout. 

Scraplift: I have tons of buttons but don't often use them on my scrapbook layouts so it was fun to have a purpose for some of these mismatched buttons. 

The Story:  Since many of the CHA layouts have only one photo, I picked a photo that was very meaningful even though it is not a perfect photo; it is the first photo taken of our whole family - it was taken in the garage - actually here in my home office / scrapbooking room since we had a little crib set up in here- on the day we brought Allison home from the hospital.  Allison is now 8 years old and I didn't do a lot of scrapbooking when she was a baby since I was very busy, so its fun to take out these old photos and scrap them now.

Supplies: I used some DCWV baby themed patterened paper, random buttons fastened to the page with adhesive dots; the red polka dot paper is from Echo Park's basics pack, and the letters were from a dollar bin at Target - they didn't stick particularly well so I machine stitched them to the page.

2. Paper Strips and Buttons Layout.

Scraplift:  I loved the design of this page since it uses a big square of patterened paper and lots of patterened strips to give the page a solid base and the diagonal random buttons were a fun addition but don't feel too random, the design of this layouts allows for a lot of stuff on the page, but also allows for photos and jouranling space.

The Story:  "The school photo process - what a detail ordeal - not only did they get the orders wrong both times, but we had to do re-takes of both kids - but both kids were picture perfect cuties."  The back story is that Mac's hair was so long in the first photo that we got him a hair-cut and had a retake done and Allison's photo pose was weird so that while the photo was cute, the amount of space her head took up in the photo was so small you could barely see her face.  So both had to get re-takes and both times the processor got everything wrong about the  photo packages - and there were about a zillion photo package options, it was seriously confusing and even though the pictures were done in October, we still don't have Mac's package straightened out so that's still on my to do list!

Supplies:  KI Memories patterned paper and Bazzill cardstock, random buttons and epoxy stickers and brads, Sassafrass adhesive border stips. 

3. Horizontal Thirds Layout.

Scraplift:  The original page used a dark blue patterened paper base with a tight design, I didn't have something that worked exactly so I used two different Echo Park papers and stitched them together with the middle strip.

The Story:  "CHA 2009:  As a scrapbooker, it was a total delight to take an entire week off work and go get totall immersed in the world of my hobby and to learn about the industry and all the players.  So total interesting to get an upclose peek into this subculture that I spend so many hours in."  In the photo are Tina Cockburn (Simple Scrapbooks & Write.Click.Scrapbook.); me; Angie Lucas (Simple Scrapbooks & Ella Publishing); Diva Danielle (she had a podcast which I'm not sure is still around or not); Lain Ehmann (Simple Scrapbooks & Layout A Day); & Tami Morrison (Funnest Ever Scrapbooker from Simple Scrapbooks & teacher at Big Picture Classes).

Supplies:  Echo Park patterened paper, QuicKutz die cut letters, sharpie marker, and random other odds and ends.

That's all for now and now that I'm back to my regularly scheduled blog programming, I'll have the rest of the seven Bella Blvd. inspired scrapbook layouts up one per day for the rest of the week.

Plus I'll have my Project Life Album pages up soon and the travel scrapbook I made during our recent ski trip; and I'll be participating in Ali Edward's Day in the Life tomorrow - which also happens to be my son's 10th birthday - but I'm under strict order that we are not to celebrate (not sure what to do about that command). 

Cheers.

 

Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts: #7 Coming Home

I used the postal stripes theme from the new 7 gypsies collection coming out this Winter 2012 CHA.  In this Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts, I actually used very few supplies from 7 gypsies, but I used their new collections as my inspiration and then hunted through my own supplies for similar looking items so that my old supplies felt new again.  Also, I stuck to travel themed layouts which helped me decide what to scrapbook more quickly.  This last page is about our favorite travel place - coming home after the trip - that is the best part of travel for me, but I do need to go away from time to time to appreciate how awesome it is to come home.