Sharing a Sketch

Cindy here!  The contributors at Ideas for Scrapbookers had such a great time working with Pam's sketch two weeks ago that we're at it again! This time, I designed the sketch.

I actually made the sketch by working backwards from this layout:

As you can see, I made a Then & Now layout featuring photos of my son next to our stuffed snowman in 2009 and again in 2013.  What a difference four years makes!

Check out the amazing creations the rest of the designers made from my sketch.  I was absolutely blown away by the beautiful pages each person sent me.  You're going to love them too.

First up is Cathy.  By coincidence, she also did a Then & Now page featuring her sons!  She followed the sketch closely, but by rotating it 90 degrees she was able to make it work beautifully with horizontal photos.  I love her use of pattern and color.

Next is Gael.  She followed the sketch almost exactly, so it is amazing how different her layout is from mine!  The page is so feminine and beautiful and suits her photos perfectly.

Here is Tanya's page. Tanya almost always scraps two-page layouts, so I was eager to see what she would do with this sketch. I love that she turned the two vertical photos on the sketch into one horizontal picture.  She also changed the 12x12 sketch into an 8.5x11 layout.  I love the happy colors and patterns she used, as well as how much journaling she fit in!

Next, here is Sharon's layout.  Like Tanya, Sharon used one photo instead of two like in the sketch, but she chose to split the photo to add visual interest. The whole layout is so powerful.  Each time I look at it, I see new things to love.

Finally, here is Lesley's two-page version of my sketch.

If you look closely, you'll notice that each half of the two-page layout follows the sketch!  Here's the left side.  It uses the sketch as is.

For the right side, Lesley rotated the sketch 90 degrees, but still used two vertical photos.  She used the same die-cut on each side (horizontal on the left and vertical on the right) to tie the two sides together.  I love that she created two different (yet totally cohesive) pages from the same sketch.

So there you have it... six artists' interpretations of the same sketch.  If you use the sketch, please let us know!  We'd love to feature your work.

 VISIT THE CONTRIBUTORS' BLOGS/GALLERIES

Cathy Dippolito

Dolores Schaeffer

Cindy deRosier

Lesley Walker

Gael Spence

Sharon Fritchman

Tanya Ham

Pam Callaghan

Ready for a NEW Sketch?

Hi all. Pam with you today sharing a new sketch and a few takes of it. I am totally BLOWN AWAY by the pages that the contributors created for the sketch. Each of their takes on sketch are so different and really inspire to me create new pages! First let me share with you the sketch!  It is pretty simple with three photos and a few extra embellishments to accent the page.

Lesley is up first with a breathtaking layout using the sketch. This has to be my all time favorite layout by Lesley. I just adore everything about it from the sweet film strips of her granddaughter to the accents of pink, blue and cream. This could not be any sweeter! You can see she stuck to the original sketch except added photos and paper to the middle strip. Amazing!

Gael's page is up next! Her page is one word: strikingly beautiful. There are many things to notice and love about this page such as the collage of embellishments on the top and the unique color scheme which matches the photo to a T! For her take on the sketch she kept the original design, but took away the top photos and added embellishments instead. I couldn't imagine this photo scrapped better!

Cindy is up next with her page! Again, this is probably my new favorite page by Cindy! I just love how she documented so many things in this page having to with their life. The photo coming off the side just looks great and I love the border of pink around the photo blocks. Her style is so clean it all comes together so well. You will notice she flipped the sketch to the right 90 degrees, added two more photos, and adjusted the embellishments to work for her page! :)

Sharon created our last page today. Again I am totally wowed! The colors, patterns and design work are designed so well I just can't stop staring at the details like the vintage photos, bright pops of colors, and the beautiful die cut title. I just love how she made it her own!! Looking at her page compared the sketch, you will notice she flipped this 180 degrees. She has her one big photo on the bottom accented by the other photos (she used three). The three photos on the top really bring your eyes downward to that great castle photo. Love this!

Whatcha think? Do you like these as much as me :D . If you use the sketch and want to share with the readers here, please send it to me at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com .

 

Scrapping Bad Photos

It's a common problem: What do you do when you want to scrapbook an event, but the pictures are terrible?

Last fall, my son Trevor and I participated in a fitness event called SoFitCity, a friendly competition amongst the cities in our county to see who would win the title for having the most participants do one of the runs.  Trevor and I did the Family Fun Run.  Obviously, running and photography don't go together all that well.  We bumped into a friend right before the start and had her take a picture of us together wearing our race numbers.  During the race, I zoomed ahead of Trevor at one point to take a picture of him running.  Then I stopped running near the end so I could fall back and take a picture of him about to cross the finish line.  None of the pictures turned out great and I only had the three, but I really did want to document the event. My solution was to print them small, group them together, and keep the layout really, really simple.

It's not the greatest layout ever, but it's in the album and the memory is recorded, despite the mediocre photos.

What do you do when the only photos you have of an event are lousy?

A Year of Memories

Cindy here!  Today I'm sharing a 2-page layout that represents a year of memories.  My son Trevor started Cub Scouts last year as a first grader.  We joined the small Pack that was getting started at his school, hoping to be able to help grow it into a larger, active group.  To make a long story short, that isn't what happened and we ended up leaving that Pack mid-year, spending the rest of his Tiger (first grade) year with a variety of other Packs who kindly and graciously let us join them for meetings, activities, field trips, and events.

For a long time, I struggled with how to scrap Trevor's Tiger Year.  I wasn't sure how to put a year's worth of memories onto a page when the pictures were from activities we did with so many different Packs. Then I realized that I needed to treat the photos as if they were from one event... that event being Trevor's Tiger Year.  Once I did, everything came together.

I kept the layout and journaling really simple.  Instead of trying to tell a story from my point of view, I thought about what Trevor would want to see in his scrapbook.  He didn't need to hear about the agonizing his parents did over whether to leave the original Pack, or the effort we put into making sure Trevor didn't miss out on any of the things a Cub Scout in an active Pack would do.  He would want to see pictures of the cool things he did, with an explanation of where each picture was taken.  So that's what I did.  Simple, colorful, and a great visual reminder of his Tiger Year.

Cindy's CHA Picks

Cindy here!  This is such a fun time of year, seeing all the new products debuted at the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) tradeshow.  I've pinned all of my favorites on a dedicated Pinterest board.  Here are just a few of the items that have caught my eye.

• Fancy Pants 'Nautical'

If I only get one new paper collection this year, it's probably going to be Nautical from Fancy Pants.  I love the colors (perfect for boy pages) and the fact that they're double-sided with non-themed B-sides makes them really versatile.   

• Simple Stories Letter Stickers

I'm already obsessed with Simple Stories letter stickers and typeset stickers and use them all the time.  Eight new colors?  A must-have.  I will probably get at least three sets each of the letter stickers and the typeset stickers.

• Doodlebug Sprinkles Vellum

I'm intrigued.  I never really stopped using vellum after its heyday years ago and I'm always a sucker for polka dots.  This seems like a really great basic. I'd like to see it in person to check out how translucent it is.

• Jillibean Soup Beanboard

Jillibean Soup is introducing Beanboard, described as thin chipboard that's colored on both sides. I love the look and ease of chipboard but hate the bulk, so this is ideal for me.  It comes in eight colors. I'm definitely getting the green, grey, yellow, red and navy.

• Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool

I have the standard ink blending tool and love it.  This mini would be great for covering smaller areas.  I'm not sure I can justify getting this one since I already have a ton of Tsukeniko sponge daubers that I love.  I'm definitely thinking about it though.

• Glue Dots Desktop Dispenser

I use a lot of Glue Dots and this dispenser would be handy.  I'm not sure if I want another thing that sits on my desk though.  Now, my Glue Dots hang from my pegboard, off my work surface. Something to think about...

Cindy's Favorite Layouts of 2013

Cindy here!  Each year, I set a goal for myself to complete an average of one scrapbook layout a week.  It's a good number for me: enough to hit the highlights of our year, but not so many that we're drowning in albums.  In 2013, I made 55 layouts.  I like most of them, dislike a few, and love the rest. Amongst the ones I love, these stood out to me for one reason or another. 

Feel free to visit my blog at cindyderosier.com for more information about any of these layouts!

Storing Washi Tape

Cindy here!  Are you into washi tape?  I absolutely love it.  My first six rolls of washi tape hung on one of the two pegboards in my scraproom (which you can see here).  It was really convenient... until my collection of washi tape grew.  Soon I had washi tape cluttering up my desktop, balanced on paper trays, and on the floor under the desk.  Totally unacceptable.  

I've seen dozens of different ways to store washi tape, including vertically on a paper towel holder, lined up in drawers, thrown into baskets, organized in pencil boxes, and even displayed on a window shutter.  I wanted my washi tape to be out in the open but off the flat surfaces.  I wanted a storage system that was flexible in size and easily accessible.  

I happened to have a length of dowel that was just long enough to hold all my washi tape rolls. I bought some 3M wall hooks and stuck them above my bulletin board.

 

I organized my washi tape by color and threaded it on the dowel.  I balanced the dowel on the hook and that's all there was to it!

Here's a closer look:

 

I absolutely love it!  The best part is that I can leave the tapes in place and tear off whatever I need.  As I collect more rolls, I can either replace the dowel with a longer one and move the sticky-back hangers outward or I can put a second washi tape hanger just like this one directly above it.

How do you store your washi tape?

Cindy's CHA-Summer Picks

Cindy here!  Ever since the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) summer tradeshow, I've been stalking my favorite online store waiting to buy my must-haves.  Here's what's on my list:

• Simple Stories' Smarty Pants Simple Basics

Smarty Pants is my favorite of the many school-themed collections I've seen so far, but it's the Simple Basics pack that I absolutely love.  The A-sides all have composition book pattern, and the B-sides feature different types of papers, like binder paper, grid paper, and ledger paper.  The colors are fantastic.  I'm getting multiples of these for sure, as they are so incredibly versatile.

• Queen & Co. Trendy Tape

Since I don't have any Christmas washi yet, these are particularly excellent to add to my collection.  I definitely want to wrap my Christmas gifts with washi tape this year.

• Fancy Pants' Happy Go Lucky

They claim this line is "perfect for fall, summer, spring, camping, outdoors, indoors, boys, girls, ladies and gentleman."  You can't get much more versatile than that!  I can definitely see using it for a wide variety of subjects.  I love the color palette.

• Pebbles' Thirty One

I need more Halloween supplies like I need a hole in my head, but I really like this collection.  With the exception of the spiderwebs, the B-sides are not themed, so it's pretty easy to justify getting this since I can use it for non-Halloween occasions.

• Simple Stories December Documented

If I don't need Halloween paper, then I REALLY don't need Christmas paper.  But I can justify getting the Simple Basics and the Fundamental and Expression Cardstock Stickers from this collection.  This is my favorite of this year's Christmas collections.

• Simple Stories Say Cheese

This is my #1 must-have.  I love the colors, love the patterns, and I especially love the dots/stripe Simple Basics.  While this collection is obviously Disney-inspired, it isn't heavily themed and can be used for all sorts of other topics.  

There you have it, my CHA-Summer must-haves!

Winners and Designer Showcase: Projects using Favorite Color Combos

Hi Pam here. The winners are listed at the bottom of the post from the class giveaway.

Onto this week's designer showcase! I asked the contributors to send me projects using their favorite color schemes.  I will start...

My favorite color combos change a lot. But right now I am totally into these colors. I included two color schemes b/c I couldn't choose which one I liked better. For the first page my favorite color scheme is kraft, navy blue, teal, yellow, tangerine, red, and white. The second page has the following colors I love: teal, red, tangerine, yellow and kraft!!

Up next is Cindy's project with her favorite color combo. Cindy's favorite color combination and ones she uses a lot is blur, green, and brown. This goes great with nature photos and lots of other pages! I like this combo too!

Here is Tanya's project and her favorite color scheme: orange, lime green, teal, navy blue, and white. This is what she said about her page,"I made this card for my nephew's birthday, and loved the color scheme.  I used Doodlebug's Boys Only collection for the inspiration and background paper.  I used Stampin' UP! stamps, ink and punch to finish the card."

Sharon's favorite color combo is hot pink and orange. Her page looks great in this scheme. Take a peek!

Cathy is sharing her favorite color combinations on this page. She loves teal and orange together. The journaling reads, "All my life, I’ve always dreamed of getting to Wyoming.  Actually the dream is to one day have a cabin on a ranch there. But at the very least, to vacation there. Finally made it there for a week of vacation in 2012. We had the best time. We spent time in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I fell in love. I can’t wait until we can go back there again. The dream of having a cabin on a ranch there may not be realistic, but my mind knows that my heart will always long for the open spaces and mountains of Wyoming. It’s a dream I’ll always hold on to."

Lesley is sharing her favorite color scheme. This is what she says about the favorite colors on her page and such, "My favorite colours are blue and pink, I love these colours in all aspects of my life and have done since I was very young, so it naturally came out in my scrapbooking layouts especially when my granddaughter Sofia was born and my love of pretty and fancy girlie layouts was born as well.  I also love yellow combined with blue, so in this layout I managed to include that with both blue and pink to showcase all my favorite colours together.

I've used mixed media on this layout, the lines of dots down the sides were created by using moulding paste and a Crafters Workshop template.  When dry I covered this and the centre of the page with Gesso, then rubbed it back with a 'baby wipe' to soften the impact of the white.  I then used white Pan Pastel around the dots to emphasise them.

Another one of my loves can be seen extensively in this layout, dies, I used 5 different ones on this page."

___________________

Here are the two winners from Heidi's class giveaway. Winners please send your emails to me at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com .

Dawn MinerJune 29, 2013 at 7:51 AM

thanks would love to take a class

Kayla WJune 29, 2013 at 3:22 PM

Wowzers!!! What a neat opportunity to win Heidi's classes. Love all that she creates!

VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S BLOGS/GALLERIES
Cathy Dippolito
Dolores Schaeffer
Cindy deRosier
Marlene Murphy
Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
Sarah Routledge
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham
Sheila Burns
Pam Callaghan