I have put this off lately but its one of my biggest hobby’s. It has its own room in my house. And it needs it. If your into scrapbooking you know its an all in effort. And first you start in the I want to buy everything I see stage. So today I’m going to share a couple little tips and some older and still favorite pages! This is a long post so lets get started
1. Simplify.
You do not want to spend 3 days on one page. I like to think 2 hours is my limit. That’s what I can usually handle. And even that sounds super long when I type it. Your pages don’t have to be masterpieces every time. Sometimes its the really simple ones that are the favorites. And besides its all about the pictures anyways!
Here’s some examples
On this one I wanted it to be a fast and easy page so I added my three favorites stacked on some cute paper. With a sticker caption spot and an easy title it was fast easy and simple.
This one though it may seem not as simple is just the same. Add a picture a contrasting stripe and a few random embellishments, these are just a few different shapes cut out of scrap paper. And then a strip of transparency makes this page pop!
2. Find inspiration everywhere.
Sometimes I walk through target (or any other store for that matter) and just look at artwork and staged designs. You can pull inspiration from a page from anything. Whether it be just the color combination or a way to make a cool title pop, or a whole page concept.
Example 1.
There was a beautiful wooden frame I saw at a store I could not afford to buy. It was wooden with a small indent cut into the middle to frame a picture. Then it had a quote painted around it. So I went home and made my own out of paper. I used pop dots to give it the dimension and that way my picture in the middle is just like the wooden one! I love this layout because now I have the frame I want but I made it. Plus you can use your own favorite quote and colors!
This one came from seeing a bulletin board of pictures and mementos on a friends wall. I thought how cute to just show a whole life of mismatched pictures to share a story. I popped some up, I stitched some down each one is special in its own way but is all connected.
3. If you cant find inspiration around you take it from a scrapbook.
That’s right I am telling you to copy. Everyone does it. I do too. Sometimes you hit a funk and just need a push. I’m not saying buy the paper take the same photo lay it out the exact same but sometimes idea’s are so great they are meant to be everywhere. And come on if your telling me you have an original scrapbook idea well then your probably Tim Holtz otherwise its been done before and it will be done again.
This came from a wedding layout in a magazine I saw. Strips of paper behind a square photo. Everything on theirs was black and white. I used colors to pop my color photo. Their titles was much smaller over a flower and I decided to stretch my title over my picture to give a bit more dimension.
This one also came from a magazine. They are the best inspiration. I loved the over sized accent, you can use any shape I’ve also done a similar layout with a giant & as the focus. In their layout it was a whole bunch of small photo’s I choose to use one 5×7 and one 4×6. Because their photo’s were small they had them higher on the page with not such a big pattern strip. I also added a strip on the bottom to pull it all together.
Lastly for this point I saw a page I loved as a single page layout. I decided to stretch it into a two page layout. And changed the text to an edging highlight rather than a text box. So stretch a single page into 2 or squish a two page layout you like into a single layout!
4. Last point would be to have fun!
Don’t follow scrapbook rules or whatever someone tells you too. Add stuff to pages someone normally wouldn’t add. Its your pages make them your own. I love to add non traditional embellishments or make titles out of something other than paper. You can even make mini albums out of non traditional fun objects. Like my spool album or a mini canvas album. Just remember these are your memories scrapbook them in a way that makes it special to you!
I love to read so I wanted to really make a page around that. So I grabbed an old book that was on its way out ripped out a few pages and layered them into the pictures. Added a clever title “Get Lost in a Book” And voila a unique page all about reading!
And lastly I wanted to make a page with a unique title so instead of using paper or stamps or stickers, so I decided to hand stitch my title across half of the page. Spending that extra time on it made me really love the page. Plus no one else has this exact look, because its all my handwriting. So its my own unique page!
So I hope that inspires you to be creative with something this week! Maybe I can actually finish some of my on the go projects I’ve been ignoring for the last 3 months! Good Luck everyone and of course as always if you make anything share it with me I love to see what you come up with!
