We're starting a new Wednesday series to roll over the next two months. Christmas and New Year is often a time to reflect on why we do what we do, and in the spirit of this we've chosen a series of journalling prompts, to remind us that our scrapbooks are the better for it, if they contain our words, reflections and observations as well as our pretty pictures and embellishments.
Our design team have worked hard to make these layouts honest, open and meaningful (as well as beautiful!) and we hope you enjoy getting to know them all a bit better.
Jaimie wanted to create a page that was straight to the point regarding the 'real why' behind her total obsession with this craft. Choosing the Cosmo Haunted range kept the feel of the little dark secret that Jaimie has when it comes to scrapping - its all about ME ME ME - my thoughts, feelings, views. Of course Jaimie creates page after page, album after album as a keepsake for her family and beyond but first and foremost its all for her.
It took Nic a while to decide on the real reason she scrapbooks. There is many facets of scrapbooking she loves - the paper and glue, the creativity, the time out and especially the social aspects. When it really came down to it though, Nic knew that it was the need to capture the things she was sad to see slip away - the little stuff, the moments and the fun times. Nic's layout is quite complex, with layers of papers and photos made from Scenic Route, BasicGrey and Sassafras lass papers.
The details are important to Nic, and this is reflected in this layout. Notice the tiny SEI epoxy stickers cut in half and used as a border with the adhesive Queen & Co pearls. The journaling is printed in a circle and Nic's favourite new alphas - BasicGrey Micro Alphas - are used for the title.
When faced with the question, "Why Do I Scrapbook?", Nicole found herself re-assessing her motivation. Creating this layout forced her to really think about the true drive behind the volume of layouts she produces and realised it is about a whole lot of her personally as well as the preserving the stories of her children's existence which was what started her in the first place! It was a great opportunity to reflect on her scrapbooking journey and a great way of sorting out where she's headed with it all.
When Suz found this quote by Brian Andreas, it struck a loud chord and she salted it away for this particular time. Truth is, she has a pretty lousy memory, and details of the recent past are as likely to disappear from her sieve-like brain as those of the distant future. It's only one of the reasons why she scrapbooks, but it's an important one.
For her "I do this because" substance layout, Caz has chosen to explain to her children why she takes so many photos of them. The journaling on the back reads in part...
"You sometimes complain that I take too many photos of you. I do this because I want to help you remember. When you are older, when you have children of your own, I want you to be able to reminisce with each other about the birthdays, the outings and just the plain old everyday stuff that you did.
Because of financial reasons and the fact that people just didn't take many photos back then, I have very few photos of when I was growing up. But the ones that I do have are precious.
No matter how grainy, no matter how far away the person taking the photograph was, no matter how many people had heads, arms or legs chopped off. I still love looking at them and thinking "Hey, that was the Christmas I got a new desk. There is Rinty, the german shepherd that adopted us for a few years. That was the year that my younger brother got a bike and I only got a scooter" . Memories. lol.
When we found this on Alison Shearer's blog, we were thrilled and immediately asked her if we could salt it away for this post. We love that she has dedicated nearly half a 12x12 page just to journalling the reasons behind her motivation for scrapbooking, as well as her beautiful use of Crate Paper's Sweet Branch papers.
As you may know, our Carole is a woman of few words, preferring to express herself in her three-dimensional art. It made this series a challenge for her, but how precious will these words be for her daughter in years to come.
The reason for this layout was for Carole's daughter Sarah who just loves to play the flute, and has been loving it ever since she started, so of course the focus is on the journaling, but Carole still had to add some type of embellishing, so she created pockets of embellishments, where it would not cover up the most important part of this layout the journaling or interfere with the photo.
Carole used Pink Paislee Spring Fling papers and diecuts as well as some Basic Grey Chipboard Sugard and Urban Priarie and a cute Jenni Bowlin Bingo Card. Also if you look closely you will also see other cute embellishment pieces, such as rubons, chipboard and buttons.
And finally, the lovely Miss Mel Goodsell. For this challenge, Mel went with a Christmas theme, journaling about their tradition at home on Dec 1st which includes putting up the Christmas tree, decorating the lounge room, turning up the carols and wearing Santa hats and aprons to complete the occasion. She used the new line by We R Memory Keepers - White Out Christmas, which includes a beautiful range of sparkly and pretty coloured papers plus embellishments perfect for any Christmas theme.
The title for Mel's page was completed with the Christmas Alphabet box, which contains a very generous 150 numbers/letters/tags. The letters are sprinkled lightly with glitter which adds the perfect touch to any scrapbook page or project.
