1 Photo Scrapbook Layouts

The consensus seems to be mixed on whether a complete story can be told when using only 1 photograph to document it.  I am on the yes side of the pond.  Not only can the story be told, but it can be made more in depth when a single picture is used to represent the entire tale.  For me, using one picture forces me to be more detailed.  I may know exactly why the photo tells the story but someone just looking at the scrapbook page may not.  For example, in the layout below the photo is just a photo of my daughter.  A nice photo but why is it special enough to be enlarged, printed and than have a whole story told about it?  

Those are the questions that have to be answered in the title, the embellishments and most importantly in the journaling.  

 The biggest reason that I normally choose to use only one photo is availability.  Often I only have one photo to work with.  I'm a terrible photographer!  If I take 10 photos chances are only one will be good enough to scrap.  If we are at an event and want to have a good time sometimes no photos get taken or a couple at the beginning and none after that.  Availability is a big deal:)  Even though I didn't take the photo in the page below, it is the perfect example of only one being available.  

We did take hundreds of photo booth photos that night but they are all very, very different and each seems to be able to tell a micro story about what was happening. 

There is no in-depth story to be told here but I love this photo and really want it to shine.  The title and embellishments along with a short blurb to name who, what, when, where & why.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great weekend!

Sometimes Black & White Really Pops

I promise it's true.  Just take a look at the pages below.  They are really able to hold their own and stand-out against their backgrounds.  The photobooth photo came black & white but the other was converted in photoshop.  

My inspiration for the photo booth page came from the March/April 2013 issue of CK magazine.  "The Running Child" by Amy Martin was the perfect inspiration for the photo because I knew that I wanted to do a lot of background work & embellishment clusters. 

 I only had the one photo of them and it had a lot of white space.  Some of the letters are popped up (R,A,Y) and others are flat on the photo.  There are lots of layers, torn edges and extras on this page to help direct the focus to the tiny little boys.  

My youngest sister is an amazing mom.  I've probably mentioned that a couple of hundred times before but watching her with her children is beautiful.  My daughter snapped the photo below while they were at the park in NYC.  I used a youtube tutorial by Kelly Barron as my inspiration and followed it pretty closely.  

Even though the page is colorful and the color photo would have worked, it did not have the impact that the black & white one has.  The color photo blended into the background and all I could see when I looked at the page was how pretty it was.  I want to focus on how amazing the photo is than look at how pretty the layout is:)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!

Scrapbooking Large Photos

Everyone has them.  Large, odd-shaped or awkward photos.  Everyone loves at least one of this type of photo that they have and really wants to find a way to showcase it/them.  At least I like to think that "everyone" shares my feelings on this subject.  

Lately I've been doing my best to come up with ways to creatively scrapbook photos in a larger size.  I print at home and don't own a large format printer so my options are limited.  Scrap 8 1/2 X 11.  No.  Not happening.   

But a photo that is printed large, cropped in photoshop and than printed again much smaller.  Love the result!  

I'm also digging it printed large and highlighted with pretty paper and a couple of bright embellishments.  So, so quick and easy.  Much in love with what I ended up with.  The layout was created using a Stuck Sketches challenge sketch.  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Humpday!!

A Sketch is A Terrible Thing to Waste

See what I did there?  You have to be in the old head category to "get" it lol but I bet some picked up on it right away:)

Everything being shared today started with a sketch.  Sketches are a wonderful starting place and are so, so versatile!  I won't be talking as much as I normally do today, I just wanted to pop in quickly with a share.  Thanks so much for stopping by (as always) and if you would like to share a great sketch site or sketch that you created yourself leave a comment.  I'm always looking for new inspiration to fall in love with...

This page really is inspired by the sketch above.  I promise pinky swear.  Just goes to show that you can travel in any direction with a great sketch...

  The page below is about my nephew and based on a Studio Calico April 2013 sketch.  Yes.  I do live the hoarder life lol but sketches are a lot easier to hoard than paper.  Just sayin'.  I only changed this up a little bit in order to balance the stuff that I wanted to use.  I plan to put a little journaling in the top right corner before the page goes into my album.  I love this little guys sweet face & smile.  He makes my heart happy.  The sketch is here on my pinterest boards.

Don't Touch My Stuff

I know that I am not the only crafter out there that is a little possessive (okay a lot possessive) about my things.  I will give you the shirt off my back and the shoes off my feet but please don't ask to use my fabric scissors to trim the long edges off your paper.  Don't ask me to share the last roll of my atg before I get my new order in and for the love of cheese, don't even look at using my copic markers for your science project.  That is all.

Except for the 2 pages that I want to share.  Both feature "vintage" photos that are from our pre-digital days.  Which translates into "bad" pictures that are loved nonetheless.  

My niece loves animals.  Loves them.  So this photo of her, besides being amazing because of the gorilla, reminds me of how happy and smiley she was all day long.  

This page documents the first time my daughter bamboozled us into going to DC Cupcakes.  Yeah.  We waited in line for like 45 minutes to pay 45 dollars for a box of those things!  They were worth it and we have been back many times since:)

That is all for reals:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Thickers Have My Heart.

They may not stick worth a crap most of the time and they may only have 2 e's and 4 a's in per package of 500 but I would not give them up for all the tea in China.  The idea of having to bust out my silhouette or vagabond to cut every single title gives me cramps.  

So whenever I feel like pouring me a glass of haterade and toasting AC Thickers with it, I will come and look at this post.   

Thanks for sharing my angst.  

Sincerely
Shere

P.S.  To show my dedication to you AC Thickers I made these 2 pages using some of my favorite fonts...

The above layout is a pretty straightforward lift of this page by yevascrapbook.  I loved her design and stuck to it closely.  The only thing that I did different was that I placed the z's in color order.

Keeping It Moving

In my last post, I mentioned that I listen to podcast when I am scrapping.  One of the reasons for this is that I find myself being able to create more than I would if I were watching TV or youtube videos.  Other ways that I keep myself productive, scrappy rituals if you will are by...

• Limiting the supplies that available for me to choose from.  I have a huge stash and when everything is game it takes me a long time to go through it all before the creating begins.  So counter productive!
• Clearing my work space after every project.  I cannot think if there is a lot of stuff surrounding me. 
• Having a jumping off point.  A plan if you will.  Whether it be a favorite photo, kit, class or inspiration piece.  Not starting with a blank page gets me going right away and helps to guide me when I get stuck.
• Taking a break.  If I've been at it for days and days I don't give myself a hard time for just stopping.  

I love it when a good photo and great inspiration come together to produce a page that I just love.  My daughter got a great shot of my nephew after he had finished his heat.  Love, love, love it!  I had created it for the Studio Calico Sunday sketch challenge but never submitted it.  Oh well, at least it is a page that's complete for my album.  I used a small amount of mixed media (gloss medium with a Prima stencil) behind the photo to resemble the water.  

My sister and my niece in the photo booth at my surprise wedding:)  I am so in love with the photos that came out of that booth.  They really showcase the closeness we share, fun we had that night and our crazy sense of humor.  Fun!

That's all for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!  If you want to share your secrets to staying productive, please feel free to leave a comment.  

Favorite Podcast

How many podcast do you listen to a day?  I listen to 3 and they are all scrapbook related. 

1.  The Scrapgals
2. Live Inspired and
3. Paperclipping Roundtable

Not quite sure why I love to listen to these people chew the fat.  I don't even know them and probably will never them IRL but I enjoy your chatter and will often "talk" back to them:)  I also find that I am much more able to focus on my crafty stuff during a podcast much better than I am when watching a TV show.  It also helps me keep track of the time. Something that there is not much of these days.  

During a 1 hour show, I can get at least one layout completely finished and a 2nd one prepped.  Which is what happened with the pages below.  There is rarely a time when I have a whole day of time to devote to crafting outside of the weekends.  Even on Saturdays and Sundays there are commitments that can't be put off.  Football season is coming up and I am looking waaay forward to it and snowy, cold days.  I actually had to turn my heater on last night!  

This page was made using this pin from my board.  The page is from Studio Calico but I am not sure who made it.  I just love the design but went in a completely different direction.  
My pretty little niece a few years ago...

I adore how this page came out and can't wait till she sees it.  The kids like looking at their pages when they visit...

This one with the absolute terrible photo that I love anyway.  The kids were watching a show at Disney and it looks like they were enjoying it:)

Loving using brand new stuff with really old stuff.  The AC brads in the lower right corner are brand new but the Trick or Treat title is really old K&Co.  They go well together don't you think?

Thanks for dropping in.  If you have a favorite podcast to share, I would love to hear about it in the comments!  

I Threw Away Some Pages...

I threw them straight into the trash.  There have got to be some questions being yelled at the screen right now!  Why?  How did you let them go?  Why?  To name just a few of the questions that I think you are screaming right now.  It really wasn't an easy decision and I had held onto the pages for waaaay longer than I should have before just biting the bullet and tossing them.  I don't miss them at all.  As a matter of fact, it is a relief to not have to look at them when I go through my albums. What was my criteria you might be asking.  It was all of this:

• I hated the pages.
• They did not tell a story.
• The photos were terrible.
• I had rescrapped the photos already and on a much better page with a much clearer story.
• I hated the pages!  They were not me at all.  

Will I do it again in the future?  Who knows.  I wish that I had taken photos of the pages but I didn't so you are going to have to trust me when I say that you would have done the same thing;)

While the layouts that were tossed (maybe 20 or so) did not give me any pleasure, these 2 pages sure do.  They are everything that I want my pages to be.  

• They tell stories that are important to me & my family.  
• The colors are so classically me.
• I love the page design and feel that it is classic to me as well and will not go out of style for me.
• The pictures tell the story so I don't have to use a lot of words to say why the photos are important.
• The photos are clear and bright.  Not perfect, just attractive to me:).

My Dad is a really, really good Dad.  He has a special, individual relationship with each of his kids and always goes out of his way to let us know how much he loves us.  This is him with my youngest sister.  Whenever he sees her, he will yell out "my baby" and just love and hug on her.  Just like this.  Honestly, he greets all of us that way but when this photo was snapped they had just met up in the parking lot for the first time that day (we were on family vacation).  

The page is a scraplift from Creating Keepsakes March/April 2013 page 82.  Kim Watson was the designer and the page was called "Skater".  My page looks nothing like hers which is okay.  I liked how she had opposing photos and that is what I went with.

My next page has a photo from that same vacation.  It is about this fantastic, favorite of all time mug that I found in the animal kingdom...

My daughter snapped the pic and yes I was super excited about a mug that looks like the tree of life:)  I based the page on this sketch from March's PageMaps...

Thanks for stopping by everyone and happy Monday!  Hope you had a great one!!

Homeschool Is In Session

for the very last time and I have very mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, my daily work load will be significantly reduced.  On the other hand my little guy is not so little anymore and these will be the last days that I have his undivided attention and time.  He has great plans for his future and it is rewarding to see him be able to move into adulthood.  

The sharing of this story along with the beginning of a new chapter in mine & hubby's life has not been as simple a task as I thought it would be.  Honestly, my feelings are all over the place, changing from excited to mournful in the blink of an eye.  

Some of the feelings the past week may be because I am still reeling from the emotions of my wedding.  For the first time since I started scrapbooking, I'm using photos that are new.  Normally my photos are several months or more old before they make it to a page.  Chronological is not my thing and I don't put any pressure on myself to create pages in a specific order.  It's what I like, when I like for sure.  

This page is a scraplift of this page by Stacey Cohen.  It is a much simpler version of what she created.  The column and the floral clusters were really what I was after and I am very happy with the page.  

Sketch Time!

I do not scrap 8 1/2 X 11 but that doesn't stop me from using sketches that are sized for 8 1/2 X 11.  Simply making everything a bit bigger or doubling the quantity makes it so easy to translate it to a larger sized page.  

Another of my daughters selfies from our Disney vacation.  My nieces smile is so, so sweet...

Thanks for stopping by the blog and have a great Wednesday everyone!  Off to water aerobics with my new husband:)

And This Happened...

My husband and mine's amazing family threw us a surprise wedding to renew our vows!!!!!  They have been planning it for 2 years!  We thought that we were taking part in my Dad's retirement/birthday celebration but when we walked in to help set up, there was our family waiting for us with a decorated venue, wedding dress, tux, the whole nine yards!  To say that we were surprised is an understatement.  I mean who does that?!  We were absolutely blown away by the love and generosity.  It was and still is unbelievable!    When we married the first time it was just us, my BIL and the officiant.  No fuss, no muss, no planning.  I really thought that it would be left at that and that I would never wear a white dress or walk down the aisle to my husband waiting for me.  I guess a part of me had always wanted a wedding but was keeping it secret, even from myself.  Walking down the aisle on my Father's arm and seeing my husband waiting for me at the end....  I have no words for what it felt like.  My husband later said that he felt the exact same way.  Wedding was not on his mind but it was magical for him too.  

That is us still not quite understanding what was happening.  Just happy to see everyone.  We were quite clueless and had to be told repeatedly, for several minutes what was going on:)  It was dawning on us exactly what was happening at this point.....

Up to this point I really believed that a wedding celebration was not necessary or essential but man was I wrong.  My girls must have them.  They must.  And a photo booth will be from now to forever a must at all of our celebrations!  I have been scrapping the photos for the last week and fall in love with them all over again every day.  I'm so excited to share some of the pages next week.  

A couple of layouts to share before I start crying again lol.  

A really lovely photo of one of my little misses.....

It was a total scraplift of Geralyn Sy whose style is amazing.  I have her original page pinned here.  I stuck really close to her design because it was just perfect for me and what I wanted to do.  

And this one of my son experiencing his first exposure to "art".  It was hilarious and we still talk about it 10 years later.  See for yourself...

See?  Funny.  This was also a scraplift from a page that I saw in CK Magazines March/April 2012 issue.  The page was "This Boy Melts My Heart" by Cassandra Cyr.  Again, I stuck pretty close to the design.  I am really crunched for time lately and have zero imagination when it comes to creating lately.  Thank goodness for scraplifting!  

That's all for me folks.  Thanks for stopping by!!!!