Scrapropos

While shopping at a local scrapbook store in Wisconsin, I saw a layout on the wall that caught my eye and made me say, “I wanna CASE that!” Back at the retreat center, Sue helped me figure out how it was done. After we completed our layouts using this technique, several of our fellow retreaters copied US. And that’s part of what I love about this community of scrapbookers. We all share freely, and don’t mind being CASEd. In fact, we take it as a high compliment when we are!

What I loved about the layout was the technique the artist used when laying out the paper: the diagonal swath of pattern that unites the two pages. Here’s how it’s done:

Choose two coordinating papers. One will be your “base paper”, and the other will be your “swath paper”. I think it looks best if the swath paper is a random pattern as opposed to a symmetrical one. Cut both sheets of paper diagonally from one corner to the other, creating large triangles. Take your two base triangles and separate them into their far corners… upper left and lower right. Do not turn or flip these papers - just pull the original square of paper apart into two triangles.

Next, look at your swath paper, and switch the two triangles, placing them “back to back”. The bottom right swath triangle should join the upper left base triangle to form a square. Likewise, the upper left swath triangle should form a square with the bottom right base triangle.

When you look at this layout as a two-page spread, it should appear that there is a swath of patterened paper running diagonally from the left, up to the right.

Hint: I used three sheets of paper. The two base sheets are intact - uncut. I cut the swath piece and adhered it TO the base sheets. This wastes a sheet of paper, but it makes the technique easier, and I didn’t have to worry about my cut edges lining up perfectly.

Click to enlarge:

Last week, I scrapped a client layout that totally inspired me. Amy, my client, had written an essay about her husband’s hands, and then took photos of his hands. I always tell my clients that I will NOT journal for them, and this is a perfect example of why not. Amy’s journaling is personal and heartfelt. What I loved the most, though, is that she wrote about a non-event. I think that so often in our scrapbooks, we get stuck in the rut of writing about events and days and memories, and while that’s all good and we SHOULD record those things, I love that Amy is preserving something that might be even MORE important: the essense of who she is -and who her husband is. She wrote about his hands, and in writing about them, she was able to give a history of their relationship, explain how much he means to her, and convey how deeply in love she is with him.

I used a free font called “Courtney Dorkling”. I love that it looks handwritten and is still easy to read. Click to enlarge:

Here’s your challenge: I want you to do something similar! Write about a feature of someone you love. It’s a hard challenge, I’ll admit. I did it Saturday for myself, and even though writing usually comes easily for me, this one was tough. (I think it has to do with that bad mood I’ve been in!) This advice is true, though: just start writing and pretty soon, you’ll be on a roll. Don’t shy away. Embrace this assignment. You’ll thank me later.

Here’s mine (click to enlarge):

paper: Cosmo Cricket Wonderland
tag: FancyPants Dapper titles and tags (I inked the edges with Dark Moss fluid chalk by ColorBox)

txboys asks: How do you make journaling come alive? (I get stuck in the rut of labeling who is in the picture, their ages, date, and a 4 word description of what they’re doing….boring!) I really struggle with this, especially when scrapping pictures that are several years old.

Who-What-When-Where-Why-How. This old standby high school composition guide still works when you journal, and sometimes, that’s enough. The fact is, not all layouts need extra journaling. I don’t write flowery, emotional, descriptive prose on every page. But your most important stories and memories will be lost if you approach every page with the simple who-what-when strategy. How do you know when to add more? How do you know WHAT to add? Here are a few tips for approaching the journaling portion of your layout:

1. Determine who you’re writing for.Who is your intended audience? This will help determine what, and how much, you decide to write. In the layout above, I decided that I was writing for my kids. That helped me decide to focus on who Grandma is to them, rather than what the occassion was for her being there. Sometimes, I write as if talking to my husband. Sometimes I write for myself. Other times, I write for a general audience or for future decendants. You don’t have to address the audience in your journaling, but thinking this way helps focus your journaling on what’s important to tell. When you approach a layout from this angle, it also helps you choose and cull your photos. There were a lot of photos in this batch of Aidan opening his presents from Grandma, but they didn’t help tell the story and emotions I ultimately wanted to convey.

2. Look beyond the obvious.Decide what you want that audience to know. It would’ve been easy for me to journal the following: “Grandma Nancy came over on Aidan’s birthday. She gave him a MagnaDoodle and a Knight in Shining Armor costume. He loved his presents. We had lots of fun.” But really, what does that TELL the reader? What do they know about the people in the photos that they didn’t know before? Is there a behavior that’s being exhibited that you can focus on? Maybe there’s a conversation that took place that needs to be remembered. Train yourself to look at the deeper STORY the pictures tell rather than the obvious pictures themselves.

3. Focus on relationships.Whether you’re scrapping photos of your cat napping in the windowsill, or your kids building a snowman, or your parents at their 50th wedding anniversary, or your grandkids opening gifts at Christmas… consider focusing on the relationships between you and the subjects, or between the subjects themselves. Too often, we journal about stuff that really doesn’t matter. “For his birthday, Aidan got a MagnaDoodle and an armor costume from Grandma.” Who cares? Why is that important? Tell about the relationship instead.

4. Elaborate.Use colorful descriptors. Use a thesaurus and replace standard verbs and adjectives with words that bring your journaling alive. (You’ll find that after a while, you won’t even need a thesaurus anymore!) Ask yourself questions to further your thoughts, and then answer the questions in your journaling.
“The boys love it when Grandma comes over.”
WHY?
“Because she plays with them.”
HOW?
“She plays hard with them - tickling, wrestling, sword-fighting.”

“The kids are happy when Grandma comes over.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
“They laugh.”
HOW MUCH DO THEY LAUGH?
“Enough that the sound fills my entire house.”
HOW DOES THAT MAKE ME FEEL?
“I am blessed.”

5. Journal about moments instead of events.
I love the quote in this layout: “We do not remember days; we remember moments.” Isn’t that true? What do you want to remember about the photos you’re getting ready to journal about? What MOMENTS can you elaborate on? What EMOTIONS can you convey in your journaling? In the end, it hardly matters that this was a birthday. It hardly matters that Grandma brought presents. The MOMENT I wanted to capture was that this woman PLAYS with her grandkids, and they adore her for that. She brings happiness to our household. That’s what I want my kids to remember about her. That’s what I journal about.

Here are a few more layouts that feature journaling that feels “alive”. Thanks for the great question, txboys! Go - journal your life!

(click to enlarge)

Last week, I sketched out a layout plan that included a letter I’d written to my son and a 5×7 photo. When I sat down to scrap it, I deviated from my plan a little, but ultimately, I love the way it turned out.

As the photo sat in front of me, I realized that I didn’t want it to be placed at an angle. Aidan’s expression is so straight-forward and intense that I wanted the photo placement to echo that. Angling it almost seemed to add whimsy, and it just didn’t work.

Printed paper - Die Cuts with a View
alphabet tiles - L’il Davis
alphabet clip - The Paper Studio

(click in image to enlarge)

You know you have a sickness when, at 2 o’clock in the morning, you get out of bed and head downstairs because you can’t clear your mind of scrapbook layouts.

I’ve been thinking about this layout with Aidan (the one mentioned in the previous post). It’s a letter to him, so I don’t want to print it straight from the blog in blog format. And I don’t really wanna handwrite it, either, because it’s a lot of writing to cram onto a page. I know that I want to use a 5×7 since it’ll be the only photo on the layout.

So for the first time ever, I’ve done a sketch of my own. It’s simple simple simple. I’m allowing space for a title and for some fun accents, but those aren’t sketched in. Mostly, I wanted to see how much space I’d have after the journaling was added.

Then, I remembered my font. I created it a couple of years ago at www.fontifier.com for a mere $9. I had a little trouble getting the resolution to look good when printed, but the guys at Fontifier were extremely helpful and customer-friendly. Try it! Make your own font!

So, issue resolved. I’ll print the letter and it’ll still be in my own handwriting. PERFECT! Even better, I’ll print it to wrap around the photo. When I get ready to scrap this page, all I’ll have to do is stick everything down and embellish it. The “work” of the layout is done.

I sketched my layout using Microsoft Publisher, but you can do it with almost any software. In MS Publisher, here are the steps:

1. Go to Page Setup (under “File”) and choose a custom size. Make it 12×12 (or whatever size scrapbook page you’re using).
2. Create a text box and enter your journaling.
3. Create another text box (or paste in the actual photo) and make it the size you want the photo to be. Place it where you want the photo to be placed on the page.
4. Go to Text Wrapping (under “Arrange”) and choose “wrap through”. Adjust the line spacing and font size until you make all the text fit.

Simple simple simple!
Now maybe I can sleep.

The very first client album I did was for a woman whose son was graduating high school. He lived with his Dad in Hawaii, and had for his 4 years of high school. She wanted to give him a “this is your life” type of album, chronicalling all the years he’d spent living with her in Texas.

We sat down together and sorted through years and years of photos, and ended up dividing the album into three categories, for the three houses they’d lived in while he grew up. She began telling me stories. And more stories. Every photo brought back sweet memories for her. Finally, she said, “Aren’t you going to write this stuff down?”

I reminded her that I don’t do the journaling for clients.

“Oh, but you HAVE to,” she protested. “I don’t have time. And besides, I don’t know what to say!”

I encouraged her to write it exactly as she was telling me. “Just put it on paper, exactly what you’d tell someone you were showing these pictures to. You know what to say - you’re saying it beautifully to me!”

“Oh, but I can’t. I just can’t write it in a scrapbook! My handwriting is horrible.”

“You’re handwriting is invaluable,” I argued.

“But I just can’t. I don’t have time.”

“We’ll figure out a way to MAKE time.”

“But what if I just tell YOU what I want it to say. You could write it for me.” She wasn’t giving up easily. But neither was I.

“Because,” I smiled, “then the stories will be in MY voice, and in MY handwriting. Your son doesn’t want to hear about his childhood in my voice. He wants to hear it in yours. He won’t care about my handwriting, but he’ll cherish every word written in yours.”

“I’ll pay you extra,” she said. “Just tell me how much.”

“There’s something magical that happens when you put your pen to paper,” I explained. “Once you start writing, you’ll find that memories come flooding back. More memories than if you just TELL the story. When you WRITE it, the emotions and the smells and the sounds… it all comes back. You end up with a story that’s ALIVE with memories.”

She wasn’t happy with me, and when I delivered the album, she tried to coax me into journaling again. My final words to her were, “Do it on the plane. It’s a long flight to Hawaii.” I gave her a black journaling pen and wondered if she’d actually do it.

Several weeks later, she came to me and said, “He loved it. He cried.” I was ecstatic. She was my first client, and I’d been second guessing myself the whole time, wondering if I’d lost a customer because of my passion about journaling.

Then SHE began to cry. “I didn’t want to give it to him,” she said softly. “After I’d written in it, I didn’t want to part with it! You were right. I needed to write those stories. I became part of that book, and it was the hardest thing to part with when I came home.”

I had tears too. She got it. She GOT it!
The value of journaling…. it’s priceless.
You can tell me the stories, and the places. You can describe them in great detail, with deep emotion. You can offer me big money to do it for you, but I won’t.
Because I want you to GET it. I want you to experience the magic that happens when you get over your fear and worry and self-doubt and BUSYness… and put the pen to paper. You may not be a writer. But you are your only family historian. It’s YOUR life.

Journal it.