I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked “Can you just whip up a insert incredibly time consuming creative craft item here”. You know. The friend that has pics that would be fabulous in a mini album or a bunch of tags or other crafty stuff for whatever reasons. And I understand. It’s just coloured pieces of paper stuck to other coloured pieces of paper. That’s what it looks like, right? It can’t take long to throw together.
Wrong.
Some of us scrapbook to get stories on pages, and those that have followed me for the past 12 years know I am a huge believer in getting true and real stories on pages. Like the time my (then) 9 year old son asked me to wash his lollipop so he could still eat it – it didn’t matter that it was the urinal he had dropped it in, right? Or the time my (then) 2 year old daughter bought me a piece of cotton in her cute itty bitty little fingers. Well. It was cute until I looked past her and realised the cotton trailed all the way to the sewing machine 3 rooms away.
Some of us scrapbook for the stories, and some of us scrapbook to play. I do both. And playing is Ok too. Creativity is awesome. It’s a reflection of our inner child. Scrapbooking is playdough for grown-ups. Right?
It’s not always easy to be creative though. Anyone with me on this?
Sometimes I struggle incredibly with how to start a page. Unless I’m doing a page specifically for a manufacturer and have to start with my products first, it is the photos that I start with. What I do next is the hardest thing for me and I think many people are the same, which is why I’m showing you this page today.
A double page layout created for Big Picture Classes “Double Take” which I have just finished teaching online. This layout was made with a sketch created by May Flaum.
Close up of the first page
And the second page.
I’m happy with it. In fact, I did a crazy kinda arm-pumping YESSSSSSS and jumped around a little when it was done. Because it caused me grief for about 3 months. See those photos? How many times do you think I had those out and on paper, trying to make them work? Oh. My. Goodness. About 1800 is the answer. Because they were high contrast photos I was trying to put them on lighter coloured paper to make them stand out. I didn’t want to busy them up by putting them on busy or high contrast papers.
I was being driven freakin crazy.
And then one day I was browsing LG’s blog. This woman has some clever kinda colour sense. She used similar coloured photos on dark papers like this. I realised the trick was to make the photos blend with the papers somewhat, make the pinks in the photos the brightest on the page and use other pinks that helped Abby stand out.
And so I scrapped.
And I succeeded.
And I did so with help of inspiration on another blog.
And I LOVE that.
Which is my reason for taking time each day – just a little – to browse other blogs in the scrapbooking community. I love this craft and I love how much we can inspire each other.
‘Cos that’s all part of this crazy little craft, right?
Laters.
Supplies: Papers, borders and cut-outs by BasicGrey. Chipboard flourishes by ScrapWare. Small pink lettering by Sassafras Lass. Larger foam letters by Queen & Co. Machine sewing. Page created for Big Picture Classes, Double Take by Nic Howard and May Flaum.
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