Aussie Scrap Source

upcycled and altered: vintage book

 

 

While researching a scrapbooking project recently, Kathie stumbled across the quotes of Brian Andreas. She found them so delightful and they conjured up wonderful imagery that she decided to make an illustrated book featuring them.

Kathie’s up cycled a discarded vintage book to form the base of her album. By adhering layers of pages together she formed sturdy sets of text backgrounds on which to create mixed media illustrations.

Inspired by the mixed media artistry of Christy Tomlinson, Kathie’s used paints, mists, masks, stamps, rub-ons and doodling to create fun backgrounds for her illustrations. Diluted paints and mists allow the beautiful vintage text to show through. The illustrations have been created using pieces of patterned paper from her scrapbooking stash.

upcycled and altered: cupcake tin

 

 

Upcycling for Carole was so much fun, she dug through her pot draw and pulled out an old cupcake tin and started painting. She sanded and crackled the cupcake tin with white/cream paint to give it a fresh feel, and then used Pink Paislee Sweetness Collection papers, embellishments and wood pieces, and added a photo of her children.

She layered paper flowers in the corners of the cupcake tin and a border top and bottom, and added the cute embellishments to the inside of the cupcake holders.

upcycled and altered: turkish delight box

Inspired by the make it yourself readers challenge, we’re bringing you a project a day from our design team who have taken up the challenge to upcycyle household items and use their scrapbooking stash to alter them into something new, useful or just plain beautiful!

 

 

 

Janine just loved the hexagonal shape of the turkish delight box she was given. (yes it did have Turkish Delight in it at the time, but she ate all of those! :) In fact she loved the shape so much she went out and purchased another box of them (and yes she did eat them all) and stuck them one on top of the other before covering them with Prima papers, Prima flowers, Prima crystals and Prima embellishments!  We love how she has combined smaller flowers to make a stunning larger flower.

upcycled and altered: paint tin

Inspired by the make it yourself readers challenge, we’re bringing you a project a day from our design team who have taken up the challenge to upcycyle household items and use their scrapbooking stash to alter them into something new, useful or just plain beautiful!

 

 

 

Whether you clean out and recycle old paint tins that you already have, or ask down at the local paint store for some new ones, these tins make great packaging for presents. Plus they are reusable. Fill one with chocolate eggs ready for easter, make-up and hair scrunchies for a young girls birthday, or even army men for boys. The options are endless.

One sheet of patterned paper is enough to cover each tin. Simply cut it in half and then trim down to fit. It can be a little tricky getting it to fit around the handles but once you have made one every other one will be simple. Caz raided the fabric scrap box and found 5 different fabrics that matched the WeR Memory Keepers Nonsense paper range she was using. Cutting them into strips she then tied them roughly around the handle. The more frayed looking the better effect. Add any little dangly tags that you can find to once side of the handle.

If you are worried that the paper doesn't quite sit around the tin as neatly as you would like, add strips of co-ordinating patterned paper or cardstock.

design team challenge: comparisons

 

 

 

 

 

ris chose to use the new BasicGrey "Sweet Threads" line for this layout about motherhood. She says that the paper has the look of soft beautiful fabrics that reminds her of the linens that her mother used to cherish so much during her childhood.

Iris reflects in her journaling her surprise at how she has turned out to me so much like her mother when it comes to disciplining her children... something that she swore before she would not do. But more than saying the same things as her mother, she hopes to be so much more like her mom in more important aspects like for example how her mother placed her children above all else, and how her mom created a life that is enriching both for herself and her children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Janine is always amazed at how similar her Grandmother and her lives have been. She wanted to jot a few things down, to remind herself of the similarities for years to come. She shares such a close bond with her Grandmother and what better way to pay tribute to this, in the form of a layout! Janine finds the new Madeline Collection by Prima so appealing with it's wonderful palette of colours for a modern vintage feel for her layout. Helping the juxtaposition between old and new.

design team challenge: comparisons

 

This week the design team are looking at motherhood, and some of the differences between their own experiences and that of generations past.

 

Sue scanned an old photo of herself as a baby with her parents at the beach. The quality of the photo wasn't great so she converted it to black and white and teamed it with a current photo of herself and her children Bailey and Lily. As the photos were black and white they could really be scrapped with any colour scheme or paper collection. Sue chose to use papers from the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology collection and coloured them with Cornflower Glimmer Mist Chalkboard.

The resist papers make it so easy to achieve stunning looks with Glimmer Mist. You simply spray it on and then wipe off the excess with tissues or paper-towel to reveal the gorgeous resist pattern such as the doilies in this layout. Sue layered ribbons and paper strips that have been glimmer misted and punched with Martha Stewart border punches, underneath her main photo to add detail to the layout. A mixture of Prima flowers and corrugated embellishments were also added.

As Sue was designing the layout, she realised that she was running out of room for the amount of journaling she wanted to include. Instead of printing it in a block on the layout as she first intended, Sue printed it onto cream cardstock and rounded the top two corners to form a tag. She then stamped a title using stamps from the Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday range. Sue decided to not stick down the tag to her layout and instead she made a little pocket for it to sit in behind the smaller photo.

The smaller photo has been stitched in place down the left side to secure it but this also leaves the area underneath free of adhesive so that the tag can be positioned there. Sue was also careful when she adhered her embellishments that no adhesive was placed where the tag needed to go. This way the tag can easily be removed to read.

 

 

 

Louise wanted to show how similar her family is to the family she grew up in, and that despite the changes that each new generation faces, things really don't change that much. The journalling reads "Another generation. Another family sitting for a photograph and loving each other.”

She chose to use the Basic Grey Curio range with a touch of Prima for this layout, and chose very similar photos from her as a child, to her with her partner and son to accentuate the similarities. The papers have a modern twist on a vintage style to suit any aged photograph, and the Prima flowers are a timeless touch.

 

Nic has been thinking about the difference between her experience of motherhood compared to that of her own mother quite a bit lately. This is mostly due to the fact that Nic has reached the age that her mother was when she left the family nest to start her adult life. Given that Nic still has primary-school aged children, it shows just how different her motherhood experience is compared to the generation before her.

Here she used a combination of the lush "Restoration" range by Crate Paper, paper doilies by Martha Stewart and a combination of letters by Basic Grey and Studio Calico.

design team challenge: comparisons

 

 

Kathie often reflects how different her childhood home was to the house in which she is raising her five year old son, Jamie. Kathie is one of two girls and their childhood home was predominantly a girl zone: Barbie dolls, princesses and fairies, toy ovens, ballet slippers and tulle. These days Kathie lives within a house full of colour, well every colour except pink it would seem.

She muses how she has become so accustomed to being the mum of a boy that she found it a challenge recently to navigate the pink aisle at Target. She was in search of a birthday present for a three year old girl and realised she was completely clueless as she scanned rows of pink Barbies, Dora the Explorers and Pretty Ponies. Who would have thought she’d now be more at home in the boy aisle with its superheroes, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine?!

Kathie’s created a colourful vintage page incorporating imagery of the style found in the books she grew up with. She’s paired Crate Paper’s new Toy Box line (delightfully vintage and boyish) with bits and bobs from Cosmo Cricket’s Material Girl collection (sweetly girly). A bright red background and ledger paper to write on kept the whole vintage vibe while injecting happy colour into the project.

 

Louise wanted a retro feel to this 70's themed layout, and the Basic Grey Marjolaine range was just perfect. In the journalling she wanted to reflect with fond memories that while the world has changed, the things that keep childhood innocent didn't have to. Louise created floral clusters by hand and combined them with the Marjolaine stickers that were adhered to black cardstock and then trimmed leaving a border to make them pop off the page.

design team challenge: comparisons

 

When Sue looked back through her albums, this layout was one of her favourites. Sue loves the photo of her daughter Lily. This was three years ago before Lily started prep and they had many days just hanging out at home together. The layout is about Sue feeling wistful about Lily starting school the following year and how much she will love it but how Sue will miss her.

The design was a lot of fun. Sue used a Jenni Bowlin artisan shaped paper as the base for the page and a mixture of Sassafras and Basic Grey to create the little forest scene.

 

Sue found the process of scraplifting herself a lot of fun! If you already have a design that you like, it makes the creating part of things a whole lot more enjoyable! Sue decided to scrap a photo of her son Bailey and use the Basic Grey Curio collection. As there isn't an artisan shaped paper in the range, Sue traced a Jenni Bowlin paper onto one of the Basic Grey papers and cut it out. They make great templates to keep in your stash!

The Curio collection is nice and versatile and can be used for both girl and boy pages, even with the flowers, birds and butterflies as Sue shows here. The embellishments in the range are really beautiful and were perfect for the look Sue was hoping to achieve. Sue has kept the design of the page fairly similar to the original but by using different products she has given the page a different look.

 

 

Nic created this layout several years ago and it has remained a favourite layout of hers ever since. This layout embodies everything that matters to Nic about scrapbooking - meaningful images, simple design and heartfelt journalling that captures a really important moment in her life.

 

Using the same simple design principles as her original layout, Nic created this page again recording an important moment in the life of her family. Nic didn't change much from her original design, however the colour palette she chose is much brighter. She also has negative space here which isn't present on her original layout.

 

 

Although Nic created this special layout over a decade ago, she still remembers how pleased with it she was once she was finished.  Typical of Nic Howard style is the love for blues, greens and neutral colours, including a lengthy story and the fussy cutting of elements such as the branch across the top of the page.

 

Nic decided she would concentrate on those things whilst creating a more updated version of the layout.  She found an updated photo with her son Jacob, she wrote lengthy journaling and this time she even has a title!  Nic continues to love blues and greens in her work, this time adding a splash of orange for contrast and though she tried to emulate the design of the original layout, she didn’t quite manage it (we think she could at least have slipped a bee in there somewhere, surely!). 

Details in Nic's layouts these days often come in the form of layers or dimensional clusters, this time in a the form of layered Prima and Tattered Angels products - and there it is - the branch, just a little updated from the version Nic created 10 years ago!

 

Next week we look at comparing childhoods -  “when i was a kid….”

make it yourself: patterned papers

 

 

Last week it was background papers, but this week our challenge to our design team – and to you, our readers! – is making your own patterned papers.  So not just the shy retiring papers that form the backdrop to our photos and patterns, but the patterns themselves.  Stamping, drawing, templates and masks and  more lend themselves to creating custom patterned papers to work with your photos, themes and colour schemes.

We’d love to see what you come up with this week for this patterned paper challenge.  Email your projects to [email protected] by midday next Wednesday and we’ll include them in the blog post for a chance to win a prize pack!

Congratulations to Heidi Barclay for winning last week’s challenge.  We loved the innovative way she brushed ink all around the Crafter’s Workshop template as well as the inking and misting.  Our best wishes go to her and her fellow New Zealanders following the devastating events of this week as well.

 

 

 

It’s been one of Kathie’s goals recently to use more paint and stamping on her layouts. On this gorgeous non-photo page, she’s used text papers, paint, ink, stamps and templates to create a custom background.

To begin, Kathie took a sheet of text paper and washed it with a diluted mix of blue acrylic paint. She then stamped the blue background with a variety of stamps and found objects to create further visual interest. She’s used glasses and laundry rolls to create rings, bubble wrap and a Tim Holtz Dots stamp to create dots, and a Fontwerks Paintlines stamp to create lines.

Swirly vines in dark green paint begin to build up the scene. Kathie created these by sponging dark green paint through a Crafters Workshop template. She also added some fine detail brick pen work, by tracing through another Crafters template with her journaling pen. To finish she added some butterfly and bee rub-ons onto the page.

She now had a perfect garden background to add her floral paper images. Some further fine detail paintwork and pen outlining blend the images into the background.

 

 

Nic wanted to create some perfectly grungy looking paper for this layout of her son Alex. While there are some paper ranges out right now that suit the "tween to teen" boy theme, Nic figured she'd get a better match to her vision by creating her own.
She started with the brick wall template from The Crafter's Workshop, lightly colouring the white base using watercolour paints. They weren't particularly fancy paints, just the type that come in a cake palette.

She then created the wonderful variegated coloured, textured and layered patterns by applying these same paints to Stamper's Anonymous stamps by Tim Holtz and stamping them over the painted base. The trick to achieve this look is to avoid being careful. Apply the paints in varying colours and dilution quickly and then stamp. You will never achieve the exact same effect twice and that is the beauty of scrapping this way.

To create the patterns on the kraft background, Nic used stamps and masks by Prima with more watercolours, this time painting the colour directly onto the masks, then quickly flipping them over and using as a stamp.

 

Jane Clark said that this little BasicGrey 'stamp set was begging to be used for a random patterned background, with the smaller designs fill in the gaps perfectly. Now she has a card suitable for her tea drinking friends!!

Jane picked out co-ordinating inks, in this case she used Tim Holtz Distress Inks. She started with the largest stamp - the teapot, and stamped the cup second. Jane placed the teaspoons in between these images then stamped the small flower and the word 'yum!' where it was needed.  A handy hint is to turn the design of the stamp each time you stamp it and make sure the images go off the edges.

 

 

 

For this final card, Jane needed a paper that was colourful but didn't overwhelm her embellishment tag, so she grabbed a Hero Arts woodgrain design stamp and choose colours that complement the tag.

First Jane stamped the woodgrain image four times using different ink pads. The flower is a We R Memory Keepers 2step Flower Stamp with which she first stamped the outlined image over the background in a random pattern, and then stamped the solid matching image over it using a light coloured ink, so it was visible but not dominating.

design team challenge: comparisons

We’ve got the design team thinking this ‘term’ and one of the themes we’re exploring is comparisons.  Comparing old layouts to new ones, one generation to another, one years' photo to the next.  We’re starting with one of the easier concepts – taking an old layout and seeing how you would use elements from it in your scrapbooking now. 

It never hurts to go through some of your older albums, and even if some of the design elements might be a bit dodgy by todays’ standards, there’s bound to be ideas in there that you still love, that you could incorporate again in a page without having to reinvent the wheel.  It’s great to learn the lessons of your earlier albums - to see what you would never do again, what you wish you would do more of, to perhaps note that there are some things that you’ve never changed, or just take to a trip down memory lane and lose yourself in the photographs.

Here are a few of the design teams efforts – let’s see how they fared!

 

This particular layout is perhaps Louise's all time fave! At the time Louise created this layout she had only just started scrapbooking in 2005 and is about her tenth layout that she had made. Whilst she appreciates that in retrospect it no longer has the same wow factor LOL, she still loves it, as she felt so very proud of herself when she had made it, at the time she thought it looked really good.

 

With time Louise has developed a style that is far removed from when she first started scrapbooking. Whilst she still has a passion for patterned paper [and still buys and hoards it] she tends to use a lot more mixed media and upcycled products mixed in with traditional scrapbooking products. Her style is a lot simpler with a bigger use of 'white space'
To create this particular layout Louise has lifted elements of the design of her earlier favourite layout and used them as masks for her background.

To create this layout Louise has used some packing board that came with her DT order from Aussie Scrap Source, its like the back you find on a patterned paper pad. Using two different masks Louise has scrapped white gesso over them and the back board in a random thin layer. Whilst the gesso was still wet she then sprayed the entire board with dazzling diamonds glimmer mist and then chalk chalk board mist.

To finish off the background she has used peacock chalk board mist to highlight the bird and flourish patterns left by the mask.

 

This was one of Carole’s favourite layouts about 4 years ago now and a lot has changed since then, styles, placement of photos and embellishments and design -  this is a very full on layout. Carole recalls that  when she created this, she was so excited when she finished.  She can still look at this layout and realise the time and effort that went into it, and what it meant to her back then.

 

The changes in this layout are in the frame around the photo instead of the transparency, and the depth of layering, this is more delicate with a little more finer detailing, and Carole also some added misting and masking thrown in. The older layout was one of her favourites at the time, but looking back on this layout she acknowledges there are elements she would change today

 

.

Iris created this colorful whimsical layout using the new BG Lauderdale papers and canvas tags. When she was asked to lift from one of her older pages, Iris decided to lift the style and look she created with the "15 Months" layout. According to Iris, there are many ways to lift a page. You can lift the entire design or you can lift the style and techniques you used on a previous page that you love. In this layout, Iris duplicated the misting, the bottom border design and the use of hand-cut elements.

Next Monday: we bring you ‘then and now’ layouts from  Suzanne Tonga, Nic Finlayson and Nic Howard

summer holidays… travel pages

 

Nic Howard had some pretty special photos after her recent trip to South Africa.  Choosing to make the most of the real estate that a double layout offers, Nic enlarged her favourite photo to 8 x 12" and spanned it across her page.  Three smaller photos create a visual triangle across the page while bordering each side of some lengthy journaling.  Nic chose Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 as her main source of papers and embellishments, although if you look closely you will also see touches of Webster's Wonderfall and some older Pink Paislee and Sassafras Lass as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Sue thinks of travel pages, she often thinks of the colour scheme of orange, green and blue. For some reason, travel photos always seem to work well with this palette. Although Sue and her family don't do a lot of traveling, they do fly home to Mackay occasionally to see their families. On this occasion, Sue and her husband Jade, surprised their kids by not telling them where they were going until they were in the airport.

It was the first time they had flown together as a family. Luckily Sue has a few photos to remember the occasion. Sue used papers and embellishments from Little Yellow Bicycle for her layout and added in the beautiful gold rub-ons from Hambly and the cute tags from 7 Gypsies.

 

 

Kathie and her husband spent a week in Paris at the end of a European vacation in 2002. The memories are still fresh, even though it was almost ten years ago. In this layout Kathie’s showcased some of the photos from that week and accompanied them with Parisian style page elements.

Kathie set out with a different plan for this layout, but then a piece of Webster’s Pages Life Portrait ribbon fell out of her stash and set the design on a whole new path. The Twiddleybitz Nero Flourish reminds Kathie of the wrought iron window and fence treatments that are so predominant on Parisian architecture. The 7gypsies Avignon stamps were perfect for the introduction of some French text and embellishments.

Kathie kept the page design simple and made sure to leave loads of room to journal about her Parisian stay.

summer holidays… travel pages

 

 

 

Despite it being 8 years since Janine went to Fiji, she has not scrapped her Fiji trip! She didnt wish to create a whole album of pages, so chose to do a double LO to briefly capture some of the main highlights of the trip, from the good to the bad! As can be seen by the photos, Fiji was stunning, but her youngest son at the time broke his arm at the airport when they arrived.

Janine chose to use the gorgeous Websters Pages Seaside Retreat range for these pictures as she knew the colours were perfect and the images on the papers were perfect for handcutting to embellish her page. The suitcases were a perfect reminder that her son fell of their luggage when he broke his arm and the boats were a wonderful reminder of the highlight of the trip, going by boat out to a glorious little island.

Janine also adored the matching Websters lettering, with both the larger and smaller size letters, which was the perfect thing for her long title.

 

 

Recently Louise attended the Papercraft and Stamping Convention in Brisbane. Afterwards she spent time being a tourist and catching up with her arty/crafty friends. This brief was just perfect for recording the day she spent as a tourist on Southbank. Louise has created a collection of postcards using the fabulous new Teresa Collins Travel Ledger range.

This particular range lends itself perfectly to all types of projects; mini books and albums, layouts etc. For her postcards Louise has bundled them all together and tied them up with string. However if you much prefer to 'display' your postcards you cant go past the WeR Memory Keepers Album Sleeves which come in an assortment of configurations. Louise has also popped her postcards into a photo sleeve to show you how this can be done.

 

 

 

 

 

Louise went away from her normal style to create this vibrant, fun layout that is instantly recognisable as Disney. As the photos were all taken before the advent of digital cameras, she was limited to a few prints but managed to incorporate the best parts of them on a single page while keeping the focus very much on the heading.

focus on journalling: suz

 

Journalling doesn’t have to be long, heartfelt, or detailed to be important, as Suz shows in this first layout.  She is showcasing her nearly 80y ear old mother and 77 year old aunt who are kind of determined to never stop playing, travelling and having adventures, whether it be in a gondola in Venice or on the back of a motorbike this pair are determined to make the most of their long and precious lives.

Suz has used an eclectic ‘granny’ mix of Websters fabric ribbon and embellies and Prima and Sassafras papers.

 

 

 

A few months ago Suz took her kids to the Pancake Parlour for lunch as a treat.  From the minute they walked in she realised her son was in a particularly chatty mood, and as they waited for their lunch to come she tried to record everything he was saying, in this stream of consciousness style.  So often we lose the essence of our kids because although the photographs can be amazing, details, inflections in their speech, and just all the totally unimportant stuff they can go on about is lost.  In this layout the photo isn’t great because it’s taken at the table with her phone, but the words are priceless.

Suz used a fun mix of Cosmo Cricket and Sassafras in this layout where she attempted to evoke the look of the Pancake Parlour with its painted walls and quirky details.

focus on journalling: nic finlayson

Nic had a whole lot of journalling to get down about this photo, but didn't want it to take over the whole layout. This is a photograph that Nic took of her grandmother's house when she was moved into a nursing home. This home held a lot of personal memories of Nic's childhood and she wanted to just write some of these memories down as they came to her in a free manner.

By writing freehand over the background of the layout, the writing has become part of the design, part of the patterned background.
To create resting space for the viewer's eye, Nic has accented areas with Hambly doily rub-ons and added Hambly rub-on stitches, and also some carefully placed buttons. These also add to the homely feel that Nic was going for. Further to adding these, she has printed her photo onto calico. The fabric texture again adds homeliness and texture.

It was imperative that Nic get these memories down quickly as she recently discovered that after her grandmother's passing, the house that she lived in for so long has now been demolished and a new one has been built in it's place. Without photos and details such as these, it's as if the house was never there. It's important for us all to preserve this sort of information for our future generations to look back upon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within a few months of the passing of Nic's grandmother, Nic's grandfather passed away as well.  With the loss of them both so close together, Nic found herself re-assessing what was such a huge part of not only her extended family, but of her sense of security, family and identity.  With this in mind, she was able to express some of her most painful emotion through this layout.  While the information on this layout isn't particularly profound or in-depth, Nic found it said exactly how she was feeling and allowed her to purge some of her sad emotions.

Scrapbooking grief and other hardships can be exceptionally cathartic for not only the creator but also for anyone who reads the page and relates to even a small part of what is written.  A scrapbook page gives us the permission to share feelings that we might have otherwise kept secret.

focus on journalling: louise

 

 

 

 

Louise wanted to showcase this cheeky photo of her four year old son, as well as include the story behind an eventful year. By doing the journalling in a strip, she was able to keep it clearly readable without interfering with the busy details of the photo spread.

 

 

 

 

 

A personal letter to her son is included in this intricately cut layout by Louise. By rotating the flowers and title the letter is revealed, allowing space for the journalling without cluttering the page as well as adding privacy to her thoughts. This easy technique can be achieved by simply cutting a circle and adhering it to the page with a brad, then cutting slots though both so that the circle section can slot into and be hidden by the background paper.

 

 

This cheeky layout by Shanna Vineyard caught Louise's eye and she just had to read the journalling. She loved the simplicity of the story of a short but funny conversation, that if it hadn't been scrapped, would have otherwise been forgotten.

focus on journalling: suzanne tonga

Sue usually journals in some form, on all of her layouts but she doesn’t typically begin the layout with the story in mind. So this is a different approach to what Sue normally takes. She was inspired by Ali Edward’s blog to create the journaling on this layout of her beautiful daughter Lily. She wanted to remember things that she feels like she always will, but knows in reality perhaps her mind might fail. Now Sue’s thoughts are forever recorded for Lily to read in years to come.

One of the great things about scrapbooking is that it encourages you to record the everyday details about your life and your family. Sue chose to record three things about her son Bailey at this time in his life. She loves the fact that Bailey can look back on this when he is older and have a little insight into what he was like at the age of 8.

Amy has not only told her story in photographs on this page but also in words. She has created a balanced design by having the text and the pictures run vertically down the page, with both broken by a strip of paper and bloomers. Just a gentle smattering of Glimmer Mist and a few pieces of paper add colour and contrast to this design without taking your eye away from the story.

focus on journalling: caz

 

The animals in Caz's household are important members of the family. Inspired by the cute BasicGrey Max and Whiskers range she decided to write about bringing them home for the first time and the antics they get up to. This is particularly important to her as Jemima the families German Shepherd is getting old and probably wont be with them for much longer.

focus on journalling: janine

Janine was feeling like her youngest son has been a bit neglected in the recording of some of his milestones, so she wanted to dedicate a page to recording a few things. As she wanted to include a large amount of text, she typed it up on the computer and then cut a piece of cardstock to A4 to fit through her printer, making sure the dimensions of the text would fit in with her page design.

Despite the fact that the page is very "full" the text acts as the negative space and allows the LO to breathe. The story is supported by a lot of handcut paper elements and the artisan label paper all by Anna Griffin. Janine has added a touch of texture with Prima flowers and leaves as well as a BasicGrey

 

Janine often finds that she spends so much time on the details of her layouts that she is left with very little room for her journaling. On this layout, Janine decided to cluster her patterned papers around her photo, stick to one simple embellishment and give herself some room for strip journaling.

Rather than trying to journal in one big block, Janine has broken it up into paragraphs and spaced them across the page in an ordered but random fashion. Your eye is still drawn through the journaling, but it adds interest to the design of the layout at the same time.

In this wonderful page Lydell has placed all the focus on the photographs and story. The simple succession of photos gives pictorial evidence of the story below. I love the way the entire page has been designed around the story, and Lydell has used her beautiful handwriting directly on the page.

focus on journalling: lou nelson

 

If you are familiar with Louise's scrapping and style you will soon realise that she is a scrapper of 'few words', often letting her layout design and the elements tell the story. For this has gone out of her comfort zone so to speak, LOL. Whilst she still hasn't journalled a lot of information straight onto her layouts, she has been able to share the emotion and love she feels for her young friend Jessica, who is featured in both layouts.

For this particular layout Louise thought it would be novel to use the Heidi Swapp alphabet mask and journal in the centre of the actual letters. Glimmer Mist is the perfect medium to use with the masks, and can be used to cover all or part of your background cardstock.

For this particular layout Louise has used the Hambly Studios Journaling Bits rub-ons to record her journaling. To highlight the the photo, title, and some of the journaling Louise has used a painted and glimmer misted background to the journal square rub-on.

 

These amazing layouts were created by Julie Fei- Fan Balzer who is a mixed media artist and 'avid Scrapbooker' who lives in the heart of New York city.  Julie quotes herself as 'a sentimental fool and my writing totally reflects my romantic nature'.  As you can see from these layouts Julie has a wonderful artistic free style of journaling, and isn’t afraid to make it bold and meaningful!  She keeps it 'Real!'

focus on journalling: kathie

Kathie uses scrapbooking as a way to record her stories, so her layouts nearly always include journaling. Furthermore, thanks to a zealous grade 3 teacher, she has beautiful handwriting and happily includes it on her pages. Jamie will rarely pose for the camera, so much of what Kathie captures in her photos is candid. This, together with her stories makes for real and meaningful pages that will be wonderful to look back on in years to come.

This layout tells the story of a new kindy song. Jamie was so sweet singing it and doing all the hand movements. He was happy to sing away while she snapped off some photos. Kathie’s captured the lyrics of the song alongside each photo. Song lyrics are a wonderful way to add journaling to a page if you are lost for words. Kathie’s supplemented the lyrics with some further journaling that reads:

“These are such fun days – these days with a four year old in the house. You’re at kindy now and between that and my work, you and I only get to spend two afternoons together during the week. Ah, how I treasure our time together. The other day you taught me a new song. I so loved it; I had to photograph you as you were singing and doing the hand movements. I just wish I had thought to video you too, so I would have your sweet singing recorded.”

This photo is one of Kathie’s most precious. Not for its technical brilliance, but because it’s the first photo of her son, Jamie, just a few seconds after he was born. Kathie has been unable to scrap this photo. She’s tried, but the pages just never seemed to work out right. However, she fell in love with Webster’s Pages Lullaby Lane collection and decided she would try again.

The journaling down the side of the layout is from Kathie’s journal on the day that Jamie was born. Kathie has kept regular letters to her son, since this one. They are a wonderful resource to look back on now, some four years later.

“I heard your dad gasp and then I heard you cry. I looked down and they were lifting you up to me. You were here! They placed you on my chest and you snuggled into me, all sweet and warm. Oh! I gazed down at you, drinking you in. You were so tiny and so very very perfect. I was smitten. I was overwhelmed with emotion. Do you know, I loved you so very much from that first moment I met you. You were with us. Finally! You were real!"

"I held you close and the midwife wrapped us both in a big, warm blanket. All warm – you and me. Your dad and I looked at you in wonder. Our little baby! “Look at him!” I said. “Do you think he looks like a Jamie? I think he looks just like a little James.” Your dad agreed and so you became our Jamie."

"Now, several hours later, I look at you in your crib and I can’t believe it. You’re mine. So perfect. My baby. My son. I can’t get my head around it yet. After so many years of longing and yearning, I have a perfect baby boy. It still seems surreal, like I have someone else’s child at my breast. But you came from us. You are our flesh and blood. A part of us. I blink back tears. Who would have known I could feel such overwhelming love for you!"

"I hear your little noises as you lie sleeping and look across at you. My baby son. So adorable all wrapped up in your striped blanket. You begin to stir, to wake and fuss. I call out to you softly. You stop, listening. You know me already! My heart swells. I love you so much. So very much more than I ever imagined possible.”

This next layout is by Melanie Harris. Kathie was drawn in by the photos on this layout at first - the gorgeous blue eyes of Melanie's daughter and the sweet Humpty fella. But then she read the journaling and was just sucked right into the emotion that Melanie captures in her words. Journaling is powerful on pages, and this is a perfect example. What a beautiful moment to have recorded. It's one of those moments that probably would have been forgotten in ten years, if it were not for this page.

Kathie is a huge fan of the work of Ronda Palazzari, from Denver USA. Her work is so full of wonderful details. But it’s more than that – Ronda is also one of those scrapbookers who records her story on her pages. It makes her pages that much more captivating. It’s like reading a book. Each time Ronda shares a new page with her blog audience, it’s like she’s revealing a new chapter. A new story is told.

This layout is a great example of that fact that sometimes it only takes a few words to convey a powerful story. Sometimes it can be just a few well chosen words.... like “I am just missing the verb”.