#58 Inspired by the Roaring Twenties

I thought this was such a cool prompt I really wanted to do it justice. I wanted to find an aspect of this era that spoke to me. I searched art deco on google and pinterest. The results were heavy with fonts and photos of buildings in NYC. 

For a little bit I considered making a page about Rockerfeller Center and the Empire State Building. I even had the title. But today, I decided to focus my attention to the other aspect of this prompt - the roaring twenties and the great Gatsby.

And thus my layout was born.



Even as I typed the words "roaring twenties" I knew I would have to make a page about this decade of my life which is coming to an end.  

 
I searched easily on my memory drive for photos of me every year since 2003 and cropped them all to the same size and added the same action to them.

Tip: when scrapping multiple photos from different times, add the same action or filter to all the photos for a more cohesive effect. I did this easily by adding all my photos to the same document in PSE and then applying the effect to the document.

 
My internet search also turned up many great fonts reminiscent of that era. This one is called Andes and can be downloaded for free {:http://www.dafont.com/andes.font}. I also thought it'd be a nice touch to add a Fitzgerald quote, so I searched brainyquotes.com and found a fitting one. 

 
I felt with all the busyness of the page I needed to add elements that made it feel like me, so although I asked an art deco background paper, the embellishments were pretty current and in my style. 

How did you do this week?

Would love to see your creations uploaded and tagged WM#58.

I'll be back Monday with a new prompt.

xo,
Pamage

#55 inspired by summer 2012

Once again I'm keeping it easy this time around. Summer 2012 seems to have passed me by and I didn't think I'd done all that much. No holidays, no days out, no weekends away. But then Pam gently reminded my that there were several things I had shared with her that were good summer memories.

Of course she's right. I was just feeling sorry for myself!

Every summer since 2008, my baby brother Ted has come to visit or rather he's come to work and earn some summer money, but when he's not working, we have a lot of fun. He usually stays about four weeks and that can add up to a lot of photos.

This year was definitely our quietest yet but we still managed a company summer party, an art trip, a football match, several BBQs, more than a few beers outside on warm summer evenings, a few restaurant trips with and without girlfriend who came to stay a weekend, shopping, finally visiting a local attraction we've been trying to get to for the third summer in a row, the yearly fun fair event and plenty of cross-country rivalry while feeling emotionally British watching the Olympics! Not bad considering we were all working more than full-time Monday to Friday!

So that was the focus of my layout. And I'm still in the grid groove which is a design I always turn to when I have a lot of photos to feature. I limited myself to 18 small Instagram or Hipstamatic shots and went for a simple double page spread which I haven't done for ages.

I also turned to my CKC September kit, Packing and included some of my CHA summer counterfeited elements!

I want to thank Pam for not letting me wallow and for pointing out that I had a lot of fun with Ted. I always do! Over the last few years, his trips to visit have always been high points for me and I'm so glad I was nudged to get this year's down on paper :-)

Hope you join in this week! Don't forget to share {here} with the tag WM#55

Challenge # 55 week of September 3, 2012

Today in the States we celebrate Labor Day. Traditionally, this marks the end of summer. It being my favorite season of the year, this makes me a little blue.

And nothing makes me less blue than reliving good memories and putting them on a scrapbook page.

Take this layout for example...

To me this is the perfect summary layout.

I know many of you have been quite busy this season with kids, grandkids, visitors, travels, etc. I am sure you have collected a decent number of photos. I want to challenge you, or really just help you, to create a summary layout of Summer 2012. You can go back and create as many different pages as you want to document this summer. Or you can finish that mini-book you wanted to create over the next few months when things slow down. But instead of overwhelming yourself with all the many photos not yet scrapped, create ONE layout that sums it all up and throw away the guilt.

Some helpful tips on how to accomplish this layout:

* use many of your favorite photos in a grid pattern under the title "best of Summer 2012"

* create a pie-chart like layout with a photo representing each of the activities you spent time doing - example {here}

* select one photo you feel completely embodies the essence of your summer and sum up the rest with journaling

* create a layout with no photos and a list of all the things you did or that made it great. You can alternatively use a post-card or other collected memorabilia instead of a photo

Most importantly, don't stress. You can always go back and really catch all the details of your summer later. But having this page in your albums will make you feel "caught up" and will remind you of all the happy times you enjoyed this summer. So indulge in the process and forget the rest!

If you join us in this adventure, please remember to post your layouts to our flick'r gallery with the tag WM#55.

xo,

Pamage

ps: we will be back shortly with our giveaway winner.

#53 Inspired by Grids

Another week is over. Does it seem to anyone else like this year is picking up it's pace? Time seems to be flying.

Anyway, I have two layouts to share with you, so I will get right to it.

Being that this blog is meant to bring you scrapbooking challenges with a twist, I tried to look for ways to change up the typical grid of 3x3 square photos. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that grid, in fact it is my fall-back option when I have a lot of photos. But with this challenge I wanted to show you how you can spice it up to make it interesting.

This first layout was completely lifted from this album cover {here}. Even the colors were inspired by it. I am a music lover so often I find inspiration in album covers and I have been keeping my eyes out for grids all week, so I was delighted when this popped up on my Pandora.

I was brave on this layout in that I used really old stickers left in my stash from the days I used to use themed product. Admittedly, the thought of theme product now makes me cringe, so I tried to find ways to use these stickers in a natural way to my current style and I think I pulled it off. I didn't use all the stickers on the sheet, but by adding small elements here and there I reinforced the story being told here.

This next layout is all about the ribbons. Aside from a few punched butterflies, this layout uses no patterned-paper whatsoever! I finally found a way to make a dent in my ribbon collection.

Again, I wanted to find a way to "twist" the concept of a grid... and that's exactly what I did here. I tilted the grid. I did this before even having pictures to scrapbook, so I didn't know how I was going to finish it off. I thought about tucking in the photos behind the ribbons, like those tufted fabric boards they sell for room decor, but in the end I found this printed instagram photo that perfectly fit into four of the squares. I added the smaller pictures from the photo strip because I wanted to tell a more general story and not just talk about the one photo.

How did you use this concept of grids?

xo,
Pamage

#53 inspired by grids

Happy end of the week everyone!

I'm keeping this really short and sweet today. I'm being a bad scrapper and a bad blogger right now but there just doesn't seem any time to do anything. :-(

Pam asked us to look at grids for our creations and she knows just how much I love them so this was great for me.

I turn to grids when I have a lot of photos to use and if I want to keep things simple and easy. They are so effective whether you make them symmetrical and structured or more fluid and abstract.

I've been doing the 12 on 12 project since way back in 2007 and I love to look back over those layouts to see how my months have changed. But I'm pretty way behind on creating the layouts even if I have all the photos taken. So this was the ideal opportunity for me to get one done. I'm a bit all over the place with them and will have to collate them all together to see which months are missing or I'll end up doing what I did recently and making two for the same month! he he!

But I went with this month's 12th to keep it simple and turned to my CKC June kit, Subtlety to make things even easier.

I actually love how this has turned out. Now if I could just get around to filling the gaps in this album.... ;-)

Challenge # 53 - Week of August 20, 2012

Well, we are off to a late start, but a start nonetheless to our second year.

And to give you a chance to catch up with some of those older prompts (remember our drawing for a prize at the end of the month) I am keeping this week fairly simple.

What do these layouts have in common?

So have you guessed what it is? The challenge is to use a grid. You can really fit a lot of pictures this way and you can keep a clean look or embellish as much as you'd like. Lisa and I have very different styles, yet both of us make use of this tool to make layouts that pack a punch in terms of pictures. 

and in case you think all grids have to be square, you can visit this page by Lisa {here}. For that extra whimsical touch, try to come up with a grid that is not square - either in the shape of the photos or the resulting shape. Twist it a little and make it fit your story and needs. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

... so go on and give it a try. The gallery is already brimming with plenty of examples, but if you have one you always default to share it with us on the boards. Remember to share your layouts with us and tag them WM#53.

Have a great week.

xo,

Pamage