Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Happy Birthday to you!

And Happy Anniversary too! That's right, today we're scrapbooking birthdays and anniversaries.  With these being annual events and all, it can be hard to come up with new ideas for scrapbooking them. I hope the pages we're sharing today can spark some inspiration!

 

Focus on one great picture, like this of the birthday boy and his cake, and then add in a other smaller pictures to support it.

[By Diane Payne]

 

You can never go wrong with a photo strip!

[By Donna Jannuzzi]

 

Record what made the party special.

[By Marnie Flores]

 

Any memorable events around a birthday?

 

[By Monika Wright]

 

Is there a special story behind the cake?

[By Marnie Flores]

 

What were the birthday highlights? You can stick to just the highlights, or record their entire day.

[By Amy Sorensen]

 

Nothing like a baby eating their first cake! It can be hard to narrow it down to one photo though, at least it was for me, so you can always use a photo strip of additional photos if needed.

[By Celeste Smith]

 

Spending a birthday in an unusual or non-traditional way? 

[By Celeste Smith]

 

And from birthdays to anniversaries...

How did you celebrate your anniversary? Travel somewhere new or visit someplace meaningful to the two of you?

 

When your anniversary rolls around, document your feelings at that time. It doesn't have to be specifically about your actual anniversary, but can be your thoughts on your marriage or on your spouse. 

 

Document how many years you've been married and what you've learned during that time. Or where you've traveled. Or where you've lived. Or things you've accomplished. Or things that have changed. Or things that have stayed the same.

[By Emily Spahn]

 

Hope these ideas will help you scrapbook the birthdays and anniversaries you celebrate!

Happy Memorial Day. And Merry Christmas and Happy Halloween, too!

 Today is the start of my oh-so-cleverly-named Theme Week.  I'm getting back to basics with the pages that likely got you in to scrapbooking in the first place. When I first started, I covered all the big events - birthdays, weddings, holidays and the like. As time has gone on, I've transitioned to scrapbooking life's little moments, my kids personalities and now, Project Life. 

But I still want to capture the holidays, birthdays and sporting events that go on throughout the year. It can get repetitive though, scrapbooking the same thing over and over.  So here are some ideas to help you get motivated, get creative and get scrapbooking. 

We're starting the week off by focusing on holidays.   

First up is this Christmas layout by Diane.

[By Diane Payne]

 

Do your children write letters to Santa? 

[By Donna Jannuzzi]

 

Is there something that occurs each year that lets you know the holiday season is upon us? (For me, it's Russell Stover caramel pumpkins. Yum. They're followed by caramel santas and caramel hearts. They're like my own personal holiday calendar at Walgreens. I must do a page about this. Thanks Celeste!)

[By Celeste Smith]

 

Be sure to capture some favorite presents and document them.

[By Celeste Smith]

 

Celeste captured the fun of stockings on this Christmas layout. (I love stockings. I made some for my girls a couple years ago but I'm not a great sewer, and I'm terrible at hems and my older daughter's is half the size of the younger one's. It barely holds anything. I see another layout in my future!)

[By Celeste Smith]

 

Here's a Hanukkah page by Celeste. 

[By Celeste Smith]

 

You can share some Valentine's Day love, like Amy did here.

[By Amy Sorensen]

 

The Fourth of July will be here before we know it! 

[By Monika Wright]

 

Capture your children's Halloween costumes, like Diane did here.

[By Donna Jannuzzi]

 

I know this is only a few of the holidays we can scrapbook throughout the year, there are too many for just one post! I hope these inspire you to get some holiday layouts in your albums.

Sunday Photo + Words

[photo by: Amy Sorensen]

In Review

What a fun week we had with Amy! Thank you, Amy, for helping us realize what amazing inspiration is all around us and how it can directly or indirectly translate onto a page, and best part yet, get those pages done!!

May has been a good month here at write. click. scrapbook. This month we made crafty goodies for our teachers to help with Teacher Appreciation and school's end. Then Lisa inspired us to help incorporate our social media into our scrapbooking. (Curiously, I think that many many many scrapbookers have let social media take the place of their scrapbooks. Which makes sense for the record keeping and daily noticing part of life, but worries me in the sense that there is no hard copy of all that note taking.) Our third week was spent preparing for Father's Day. And then this past week, we had Amy's help buying chocolate and finding inspiration. 

Our Saturday workshops were delightful. Marie encouraged us to journal about a change that we have been through. Lisa encouraged us to take some food related photographs, and provided some fabulous tips on how to make those photos better. And then last week, we had a great scrapbook challenge week with a new sketch, printable, and design challenge.

And we still have more May next week with Erin!! You know you're excited about that!! I am. I love how very authentic and approachable Erin and her layouts are. She captures her spirit so well in her layouts. I love that and can't wait to see what she brings.

But before we look ahead, lets' also take one long last longing look back at our EveryDaily Gallery.

This month we are going to look back a little differently. This month I am going to use the 20 layouts to make lists. Ready?

Here are 20 photos you should take to help preserve your everyday life:

1. a photo of your child learning something new (Donna)
2. what you are having for lunch today (Celeste)
3. a bit of nature from your garden or your life (Alexandra)
4. art (or music or literature) that is meaningful to you right now (Alexandra)
5. a change in your routine (Diane)
6. something that represents an activity/responsibility/action that you do every single day (Karen)
7. your morning environment (LisaO)
8. someone copying/emulating someone else (Francine)
9. the wild side of someone in your home (Aly)
10. someone in the midst of just being (Amy)
11. the tech in your life (Diane)
12. entertainment being enjoyed (Vivian)
13. the mess someone makes in your house (Erin)
14. the worst part of your morning routine (EmilyS)
15. someone you want to see every day (Monika)
16. a lingering moment in bed in the morning (Paula)
17. the view through your peep hole (EmilyP)
18. what's on your lap (Marie)
19. something that repeats itself in your day (Keshet)
20. what is outside your window right now (Marnie)

 

And how about twenty stories/snippets you an tell to help preserve your everyday life:

1. how you feel about your children growing up (Donna)
2. your eating habits (Celeste)
3. your favorite flower (Alexandra)
4. why the arts (or something else impactful) moves you (Alexandra)
5. how you adapt to change (Diane)
6. a commitment you made (Karen)
7. how you begin (or end) your day (LisaO)
8. traits/habits that you spy  (Francine)
9. love, in spite (Aly)
10. something you miss (Amy)
11. a little addiction (Diane)
12. list your current media favorites (Vivian)
13. toddlers are busy. discuss. (Erin)
14. a recurring struggle you face (EmilyS)
15. record a disappointment (Monika)
16. how you mentally prepare for a task (Paula)
17. an event (big or small) that you monitored (EmilyP)
18. something that isn't going to last (Marie)
19. the disposition of your children (Keshet)
20. your neighbors (Marnie)

 

Lastly, twenty bits of design inspiration:

1. replace the dot in an "i" with a bit of flair (Donna)
2. add 5 buttons (Celeste)
3. use a frame but not for a photo (Alexandra)
4. add a bicycle icon to a tag or page (Alexandra)
5. incorporate 5 trends on one page (Diane)
6. blow up a photo, big! (Karen)
7. layer a repeating element in your patterned paper (LisaO)
8. stitch around the edges of your layout  (Francine)
9. two pager (good luck!) (Aly)
10. incorporate a second font into your journaling for emphasis (Amy)
11. edit a photo to better tell the story (Diane)
12. use some potty people (is that really what they are called?) (Vivian)
13. create a photo strip to use more photos (Erin)
14. staple down some twine (EmilyS)
15. try a different size (Monika)
16. paint (real or digi) on your background paper (Paula)
17. trim your main photo into a circle (EmilyP)
18. use a repeating graphic element (Marie)
19. use two fonts in your title (Keshet)
20. journal around the edge of your page (Marnie)

 

There you have it! One little gallery providing you with 60 assignments. Think of all the pages you would make!! Those lists make me hungry to scrapbook! Why do housework when there are 60 pages that need to be done!!

Thank you, to our lovely ladies for a month well done!! In just 5 more days we will be celebrating our fourth birthday! Can you believe another year has nearly passed?

Thank you for stopping! Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Inspiration Field Trip no5: Unexpected Connections

I know that most of you have felt this feeling, the one you get when you're standing in the middle of a scrapbook store. Maybe it's a few weeks after a CHA and the new stuff has shown up on the shelves, and you're surrounded by _________ (insert your favorite scrapping supply there; my personal weakness is for alphabet stickers), and your creative side is sparking all over the place. You're filled with inspiration from being surrounded by scrapping supplies.

But today's field trip isn't to your LSS. Because that feeling doesn't have to be limited to just the scrapbook store; you can also find it in other crafty places. So! Today's field trip is to a non-scrapbook craft store. The choices are many: you could visit an art-supply store, a needlepoint store, or maybe even a model-airplane store. A music store would be a good bet, or a bead store if you can find one. Is there a ceramics-supply shop anywhere near you? or even just a general craft store?

That rush of creativity you feel in a scrapbook store is fed by the possibility of what you could make with all those raw materials. Visiting a non-scrappy store accomplishes almost the same thing—but with a twist. Since the products on the shelves probably won't make it directly onto a layout (although some of them definitely could!), your mind will start making unexpected links.

It's very invigorating!

Celeste Smith visited her local yarn shop. Yarn shops are just bursting with ideas and interesting color palettes. Celeste was inspired by the shelving unit that the yarn was display in:

and she created this interesting chevron pattern out of triangles of solid cardstock:

I love how the chevrons draw your eye right to the ice cream ball, which seems like such a cool invention I think I just might need one!

I decided to visit my favorite fabric store, where I fell in love with this quilt:

I love everything about it, from the color palette to the pattern to the quilting itself. As I am dismal when it comes to piecing with triangles, however, this is not a quilt I'd probably ever make. Translating it to a layout was much easier! I dug into my orange, yellow, teal, and grey scrap bins and hand-cut a bunch of single chevrons and then just stacked them up:

Notice that Celeste and I both ended up making chevrons? This was totally not on purpose! It just illustrates how different craft types are influenced by each other—chevrons aren't just popular for scrapbooks.

Today is my kids' last day of school. On Tuesday when I was driving the carpool, I told all my little passengers, "hey! Today is your last Tuesday of school until the fall." My first grader, Kaleb, sighed a little sadly. "I'm glad school's over, but I will miss the field trips," he said. (He will also miss recess and art and second recess!) Today also marks the end of this week of inspiration field trips—but it doesn't have to bethe end. Next time you're feeling inspirationless, take a little field trip somewhere and search out some new ideas. You're sure to come home loaded up with creativity!

Until next time, happy scrapping!