Unexpected Destination

Tips for scrapbooking 5 kinds of travel & vacation trips

The Get It Scrapped! home page is being transformed this month to offer resources for beginning and advanced scrapbookers, journalers--memory keepers in general. Here's one of the first posts -- I'm putting it here but won't always -- so if you're interested in these kinds of articles, you should come on over to the Get It Scrapped! home page and click on the link to subscribe to our feed --- and get us in your reader. Thanks.

SCRAPBOOKING 5 KINDS OF TRAVEL & VACATIONS

Chronicling your travels on scrapbook pages allows you to relive the trip even when you’re back home. Photos, memorabilia, facts and journaling impressions are all part of this.

Helpful links:
Uniting multi-page events
Scrapbook page planner for trips
6 coordinated page sketches
6 coordianted page templates (layered psd files)

While some travels are best looked at chronologically, others benefit from a “subject” approach. Consider the following types of travels

scrapbooking the Weekend Getaway

A weekend getaway can be as much about the company as the destination. It might be a short trip to hang out with friends, find some romance, see an exhibit, or just take a break from your typical weekend routines. With fewer photos from fewer activities (than you’d have with bigger trips), the scrapping of weekend getaways can focus on impressions, stories, companions, and moments.

layout from a weekend in boston

Try this: find a strong opening photo and a strong closing photo. Put each of them on their own pages and then make several pages for the middle that show the key stories/moments on this short getaway. Get the stories written down as soon as you can, in a diary or on a blog, if you’re not scrapping the pages immediately.

scrapbooking the Road Trip

A “road-trip” type vacation is not necessarily a literal trip in a car on a road or highway. The “road-trip” vacation is one that takes you to a series of what may be quite different locales over the course of one trip. The road-trip is a story that’s well-suited to being told in chronological order (more or less).

Try this: Use the Travel Page Planner to start detailing the different stops on the trip. After you’ve listed them all, go back through and think about whether they all really need to be included. Think, also, about whether there are some stories that merit their own pages and how best to get the pages and stories in order.

Traveling from LA to Vegas with cousins

scrapbooking a trip that’s about Being There

Some trips take you to one locale. There’s limited sightseeing on this type of vacation, and it’s more about enjoying place, people, and activities. Examples of this kind of vacation include:

• visiting family
• staying at a lakehouse/beachhouse
• going camping
• the ski slopes

Try this: It’s often more efficient and makes a better presentation when “Being There” trips are by categories or logical groupings. These groupings (which translate into pages) might be:

• the people
• the place
• the spots at the place
• the constants
• the hightlights
• the activities

The things that make a trip to my parents' home so lovely.

scrapbooking a vacation when you go On Tour

The “On Tour” travel experience is one in which many of the details are decided ahead of time–and, in fact, taken care of for you–so that you can relax as well as experience new sights and experiences. There are many ways to go “on tour” from taking a cruise to going on guided hike and camping adventure. You might take a bus tour through Europe or go on safari in Africa.

The photos you take while on tour will include those of the sights you visit as well of those of the aspects of the tour experience (i.e., lodging, people, routines). A combination approach that mixes chronological telling of the trip with select subject pages would work well for this kind of travel.

Try this: Make two lists: one of the trip chronology and one of the aspects/subjects you want to feature. Use a chronological flow with the featured aspects inserted where they flow best.

Photos from one outing on an Alaskan cruise.

scrapbooking the Themed Vacation

The “themed” vacation is one that takes you into a created world where you are doing more than viewing, where you’re entering into and experiencing a manufactured reality. You may have gone on a Disney vacation, visited a historic settlement where you’re re-enacting the way things were done in the past, travelled to Santa’s Village, or many other variations on the themed destination. The photos from a themed vacation can cover a lot of territory, and they don’t usually require a chronological telling. Aspects of a large theme/amusement park may include: characters, rides, performances, events, posed portraits, sights and more.
Try this:Begin with your “stack” of photos (prints or digitals). Select the keepers AND select the photos that are spectacular and that should be featured. Use the page planner to start defining the pages your photos demand of you. Once you’ve made a first pass at this, you might need to cut the planner up and play with order and arrangement of pages.

The highlight of a 5 year old's first Disney experience.

Looking for more help getting your Travel and Vacations scrapbooked?

Be sure you’re on our mailing list so that you receive notice when my self-paced class, “Scrap Your Travel & Vacations,” is available in the Get It Scrapped! store. It should be available before Thanksgiving.



Add digital punch to your photos

Fun Photo Effects with Lynn Weber starts September 22nd

It's easier than you think to get looks ranging from "graphic-text" to "worn-vintage." With Lynn's help you can even create a blended montage. All you need to add these new techniques to your repertoire is some basic experience with Photoshop Elements 4 through 7 or Photoshop CS through CS4. (If you don't have this basic experience, check out Lynn's self-paced Beginning Photo Editing class today!).

In addition to 6 lessons packed with step-by-step instructions, Lynn's will give you several digital products made by the designers at DesignerDigitals and show you how to combine them with your photos for extra oomph.



Join Lynn Weber at Get It Scrapped for six fun-packed lessons. Your scrapbook pages will thank you!

Register by September 15th and be entered in a drawing for an 8” x 8” hardcover photobook from Shutterfly (a $29.99 value).

September classes at Get It Scrapped! and a coupon for you

Check out our website changes
and take $5 off any class this weekend

We've tweaked the Get It Scrapped! website to make it easier to deliver both live and self-paced classes to you. Come on by and see for yourself. Use coupon code "AugustOpening" when you check out to receive $5 off your entire purchase. This coupon can be combined with the August specials listed below.

Registration open for September classes
The new September offerings are up--click on any of the thumbnails here for specifics.

August specials

Looking for something to work on right now?

If you missed Still More Mad Digital Skillz with Pattie Knox in July, you can grab it in self-paced format at $5 off. And don't worry -- Pattie is still hanging around in the forums and available to answer questions and check out your creations.

Are you ready to do a little digital editing of your summer photos? Lynn Weber's Beginning Photo Editing and Intermediate Photo Editing are available in a discounted bundle. These self-paced classes include access to a private class forum and the opportunity to ask Lynn questions.

Designing with dots and stripes on your scrapbook pages

{please excuse the odd bulleting in few spots -- i'm trying out the new typepad}

When I first started scrapbooking and shopping for papers, I gravitated to eye-catching patterns with motifs like flourishes, stars, paisleys, and florals. The dots and stripes weren’t as interesting to me, I didn’t see why I needed them, and I rarely bought them unless they were on a double-sided piece.

Somewhere along the way, I started realizing that the dots and stripes were essential to the kind of pages I really love – pages with multiple photos and multiple pattered papers and layers. I've come to appreciate the way dots and stripes can do the following:

• add design interest,
• create movement, and
• set tone
  ---------WITHOUT detracting from my photos or creating too much busy-ness on my usually full pages. On this 2-page layout, I've got 10 photos, a pocketful of memorabilia, and three different patterned papers. But it's not cluttered. Note that two of those patterns are sedate and linear dot arrangements.
  
  

Take a look at these paper collections by American Crafts (Tea Party) and Crate Paper (Little Sprout). See how the strong motifs are balanced by stripes and dots. See also the different tones that are set by color, pattern regularity, and dot/stripe size--more about that below.

American Crafts Tea Party

Crate Paper Little Sprout

ABOUT STRIPES

There are millions of ways to create and vary striped (and dotted) patterns, including:

• stripes ranging from strong lines or bars to motifs arranged in rows (i.e., a row of flowers or stars)
• stripes with regular widths or varied widths; these widths may vary in an obvious pattern or they may seem more haphazard
  
  
• they may be arranged in a pattern of colors or more randomly
  
  
• they may use many colors or just a few; a tone on tone pattern is usually more formal and elegant
• mixing stripes:
  
  • with prints: the key is balance; stripes go well with botanicals and florals; avoid geometric and swirled patterns as they may be overwhelming
  • with other stripes: use stripes of differing colors and sizes; like ticking with a bold pattern

• 

ABOUT DOTS

• dots respond to a wide range of color treatments, each of which conveys mood; for example:
  - multi-colored=funky
  - pastel shades=formal
  - bold, monochromatic colors = retro
  
  
• dots can be styled in several ways; which, again, affects mood small or large
  - random or arranged in evenly spaced rows
  - mono, two-tone or multiple colors
  - small repetitions – timeless (like dotted Swiss)
• 
  

USE STRIPES & DOTS TO

• convey mood and tone (colors, pattern variations, and size can all affect the tone you set).
• with dots:
  - pale clearcolors on white = clean, cool, fresh, transparent quality, playful cheerful
  - black dots on bright clear colors = slick, stylish mood
  - white dots on vivid brights = clean vital sporty
  - black dots = aggressive, urban

• add movement (with both stripes AND with dot patterns that have strong linear arrangements)vertical = more energy; horizontal is restful

In "Doing It" horizontal strips of paper contain vertical stripes that add energy. What's more the eye will move straight down the column of photos with the help of these strips. In Seder Anticipation, again, there are horizontal strips but these contain horizontally running stripes. The result is a calming and more formal page.
 

 

• use as a border; use to define a space

See the vertical strips of paper that act as borders in "Bulkhead Watch" (striped) and "At Grandma's Table" (dots).

• create a background or mat

The background design in "Inferred Beach Conversation" using bold paper and a diagonal line for placement gives the page a lot of energy.

• provide subtle design interest; i.e., smaller, two-color or two-tone, regular pattern

The dotted background on the right side of Celebrate is subtle and lets the photos shine.

• make a bold statement; i.e., large, irregular, multi-color dots or stripes
• make the perfect accent; incorporate into:
• • backgrounds
  • tags, strips, covering for other embellishments (i.e., bare chipboard)
  • patterned paper blocks that "fill in the grid"
  • borders and edging strips
  • "throw pillows:" small perfectly placed accents.

scrapbooking EVENTS -- uniting multiple pages from one event (sketch bundle included)

{open pdf of printable bundle of 6 coordinated sketches}
{download layered psd templates of 6 coordinated sketches}

There are events I’ve scrapped with several pages that each stood on their own. Lately, though, as it’s become easier and more affordable to make photo books, I’ve found myself preferring to make a series of layouts that are unified.

I unite pages with story OR design OR both story and design

Unite with story

To me, story is synonymous with narrative flow -- a logical movement from one page to the next. Thus, I make:

• A strong opening page
• Pages in the middle that flow logically
• A strong closing page

 

A strong opening page will:

• Identify the event. You could do this with an obvious title and/or a focal photo that signifies the subject.
• Convey the tone of the event. Do this with color, motif, design (i.e., linear vs freestyle).
• Invite the viewer in and make them want to see more.

 My openers usually have minimal journaling and rely on photos, title, color, and motif to signal the topic and set mood.

"Labor Day," shown here, has an obvious title, an engaging enlargement with my subjects looking straight into the camera, and motifs that support the riverside party setting.

When I was scrapbooking a weekend trip to Boston, I was faced with the problem of not having a really good opening photo. SO . . . I contrived one (which you can see below) by purchasing an inexpensive stock photo of Boston Commons in the winter from IStockPhoto.com. And then . . . I grabbed photos of each of my family members that winter and "stickerized" them. You can do this digitally or with your scissors. (How'd They Do That? No 11: Sticker Art -- digital tutorial by Cassie Jones)


pages in the middle (the story!)

Getting a good flow in the following pages is like determining whether the layout of a scrapbook page is well balanced: you play around with it until you know. You could put them in chronological order. OR, you might make pages that cover the event by subject: the people, the food, the activities. OR perhaps you have a mix. Play with the order so that it feels right.

I've included several pages from a Boston trip below and the order is not chronological--primarily because I needed to get one-pagers on spreads and so I looked for what worked. "Riding the T" made sense to start out with, since that's how we got around the city. And "Quincy Market" is a well-known must-see destination for us whenever we go to Boston. From there "Fanieul Hall" is the next page --- since it's part of Quincy Market. Once the subject and flow was established, it didn't seem to matter which museum page I put next - Science or Art. And then finally is my closing page.



      

a strong closing page

Good closing pages will give the viewer a sense of closure and signal that the series of pages are complete (this is especially good to do if these pages are integrated into a larger annual album). Try to find a photo that represents the event -- and if it represents the end of an event that's even better. Photos like doing the dishes, hugs goodbye, and loading the car all do this.

From the moment, I began going through the photos, I knew I wanted to use the photo of my sons next to the hotel Christmas tree on the final page. I love how Joshua has his hand on Iz's head. I loved how Iz was holding (and presenting) his stuffed animals.  love how it signaled season and place. Notice I "stickerized" the boys again --- This time I didn't have to do that since I had the actual photo, but I wanted to for a sense of coming full circle with the first page.

Unite with design

In addition to creating pages that create a strong flow in order to unite an event album, you may also use design.


unite with layout/composition

• use coordinated sketches. I'm including a link here to a "sketch bundle" that I used to make these Boston Weekend layout.
  

  {download printable bundle of 6 coordinated sketches}
  {download layered psd templates of 6 coordinated sketches}

  
  Take a look at the template sets at Designer Digitals, also. Katie Pertiet and Anna Aspnes have many products that include multiple coordinated templates/sketches, like Katie'sBlocked and Framed Layered Template Book and Anna's MultiFoto Layered Template Album
  
  
• create your own layout and repeat design elements throughout. These include: title style, borders, rounded corners, margins. Take a look at the pages from my Boston Weekend album and you'll see many of these elements repeated.

unite with product

use: coordinated paper and embellishment lines, the same title stickers throughout, a common product type (i.e. buttons, ribbon tabs, overlays, paint, stitching)


unite with color

You could use the same color scheme throughout your pages. Use the gallon-quart-pint principle, but vary which color is the gallon, etc. Select one color to be present on every page. Select a common background color. I'll cover more options in a future post.

Are you interested in more scrapbooking lessons and sketch bundles? My online class, "Scrapbooking Your Everyday Life," has just begun and is full of prompts, journaling and photography lessons, and 3-sketch bundles.

running hot and cold - seasonal routines (win a pass to a July class)

comment here with a link to your weather-related page by midnight edt 7/12/09 for a chance to win a pass to a July class at Get It Scrapped!

Today's lesson for "Scrapbooking Everyday Life" is full of prompts and suggestions for scrapbooking your everyday life at home--including routines. What routines do you have that are driven by seasonal/weather changes? Have you scrapbooked any of them? Here are two that I've done - one hot and one cold.

And . . . the hot one is not from this (chilly & wet) New England summer, but from one a couple of years ago. The photo isn't especially artful or eye-catching, but it's FULL of context. I wrote the notes for the journaling back when I took this photo--which is a good thing, because I wouldn't remember some of these details now. We only have air conditioning in the master bedroom, and when it gets REALLY hot for a few days, the boys end up camping on our floor. This layout is a shot of the bed they make out of sleeping bags and blankets AND all the paraphernalia that ends up in here. (See supplies & journaling for "Evidence of a Heat Wave.")

My cold page is from this past VERY SNOWY winter. We live on a cul-de-sac, and the circle where we wait for the bus gets plowed high when there's lots of snow. One morning, the kids starting rolling snow boulders out into the road to block the school bus . . . which plowed right on through to their happy yells. That they could never actually stop the bus didn't deter the gang from building these walls almost every morning --and while it was never a problem for the bus, it was sometimes a problem for the parents' cars. See supplies and journaling for "Stop the Bus."

Show me your routines around different seasons -- comment here and include a link to a layout by midnight edt Sunday 7/12 and I will draw a name to win a pass to a July class at Get It Scrapped! 

All of these classes are awesome -- Cards & Still More Mad Digi start next week. Masterful Art Journaling & Scrapbooking Everyday Life still run for two more weeks & the materials are resources you'll refer back to. Click on class thumbnail for more info  . . . AND SHOW ME YOUR PAGES! Someone's got to win!
 

Scrapbooking Your Everyday Places

This is a preview lesson for “Scrapbooking Everyday Life.” For details on the complete class and registration, click here. To read and print this lesson in pdf form, click here.

Note: the journaling for the layouts here is at the bottom of this post.

Your Everyday Places

• prompts & approaches for: everyday places
• focus on journaling: meaning without schmaltz
• sketches for scrapbooking everyday life

“I want to go home to the dull old town, with the shaded street, and the open square, and the hill, and the flats, and the house I love, and the paths I know -- I want to go home.” -- Paul Kester

The places we come from, the places we’ve traveled through, and the places we long to visit  all inform who we are. How many of you have had the very longing described in the opening quote here? When you experience this kind of longing for a place, the place itself takes on associations and triggers feelings.  

Writers and filmmakers understand this connection between place and character, often creating a story setting with such power it becomes a character itself. Think of 1920s Long Island in The Great Gatsby. Its geography and society inform the characters’ actions--both those who’ve lived there all their lives and the newcomer Gatsby.

When I want to plumb my own thoughts on the places in my life, past and present, I often turn to the poem “First Year” by Irish poet Eavan Boland that begins:

It was in our first home--
our damp, upstairs, one-year eyrie--
above a tree-lined area
nearer the city.

That first stanza can carry me immediately to a “garden” apartment in Silver Springs, MD, and from there I’m recalling the furniture, the deck, the view of the parking lot below it, and even the stories. The ending to this poem drives home this poet's belief in the impact place has on character (and even the relationships that a character is capable of)

Where is the soul of a marriage?

Because I am writing this
not to recall our lives,
but to imagine them,
I will say it is
in the first gifts of place:

the steep inclines
and country silences
of your boyhood,
the orange-faced narcissi
and the whole length of the
        Blackwater

strengthening our embrace.

Against Love Poetry 
by Eavan Boland

Many of my favorite scrapbook pages are those I’ve created as my own nod to the places in my life. “Been There” (above) and “Its Charm” (below) are both about my childhood home--a topic I scrapbook again and again.

prompts & approaches: YOUR EVERYDAY PLACES

To figure out and decide which places of your life to scrapbook:

Pull out a piece of paper and begin making lists that answer the following:

• What are the “MACRO” places in which you live your everyday life? (These would be places like: home, town, work, school, errand destinations, fun destinations, etc.)

• Within each of these “MACRO” spots, what are the “MICRO SPOTS?” (i.e., for the macro spot “home” the micro spots might include: kitchen, porch, desk, garage, garden, driveway, foyer . . .)

• Now go through your lists and check off the spots that compel you. To decide just how you’ll approach documenting a particular place, ask yourself these questions --and make notes as you do. The answers will help you get at the place’s significance in your life, the tone you want to take in your journaling, and even details to include in the journaling:

- is this spot a part of your daily routine?
- is it a place you like to go to? what feelings do you have about it?
- does it have a strong influence on your character (or on that of those living with you)?
- will you remember it in 10 years? do you want to remember it in 10 years?
- what makes it interesting or compelling?
- what do you usually do at this spot?
- who else is with you at this spot?
- what is/are the lighting, the temperature, the smells at this spot?
- what are the most important concrete details about this spot?

• With your lists and answers in front of you, pick a place and decide upon an approach for making your page. In other words, decide upon the scope and angle you’ll take. Will it be thoughtful, documentary, snapshot, or contextual?

 thoughtful
Create a thoughtful (perhaps even reverent) celebration of an important place that helps the viewer understand your feelings about the place and the role it plays (or has played) in your life. “Been There” (above) is this kind of page for me. I firmly believe that the place I was raised has left an indelible (and good) mark on my character, and this is one of the many pages I’ve made in homage to it. “Trestle” (at the end of this post) records how the train tracks and trestle near our home have fit into our life over the years.

documentary
Make a document or record of your personal world. “Your Room” (below) includes several photos of my son’s room last year. I wanted a record (for him and for me) of the things that he surrounded himself with and the style in which he did this.

“Sweet Dreams” (below) is another bedroom page. The bedroom documented here is the one my sons share when they’re at their grandparents’ home.

snapshot
Take a (perhaps fun) peek at a very localized spot in your life captured at one moment in time. “Like a River to the Sea” is this kind of a page for me-- I took a photo of the odd items that accumulated on my dresser top recently and then journaling a list and some of the reasons these things are there.

context
Scrap a page that’s not specifically about a place, but that uses photos of place to provide context. In “See Why” (below) the farmland in the photos sets the context for my Dad’s story and allows me to make a record of what his land looked like at this time.

 

focus on journaling: MEANING WITHOUT SCHMALTZ

Purple prose, sentimentality, schmaltz: all of these are ways of describing writing that uses exaggerated or affected emotion. Sentimental writing relies on cliches (“heaven on earth,” “a feast for the eyes”) and abstracts (peace, despair, joy) to grab at a reader’s heartstrings rather than taking the time to render a subject with complexities and specifics. The result is writing that we don’t quite believe and definitely don’t feel.

Try these techniques for pages that have meaning without being “schmaltzy.”

• Pay attention to concrete details.  

In both your writing and your photos, focus on conveying how you experienced something concretely (as opposed to naming your feelings) including any of the five senses for which you have relevant information. Relevant is key -- detail for detail’s sake can weigh things down and make it hard for the reader to figure out what’s important.

Photos can show lighting, colors, and specific sights. In your writing, you can include smell, sound, touch, and taste.

The best way to do this writing is to allow yourself to initially free write and then revise with a checklist:
* Use no more than 20% abstract concepts and 80% concrete description. (See sidebar here.)
* Avoid “pretty prose” by eliminating streams of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors.
* Avoid clichés, simplistic expressions, and “Hallmark”-isms.
* Be clear. Revise language that’s “fuzzy,” i.e., sweet and abstract, and replace it with concrete details.

Concrete details are those of images that can be sensed (seen, heard, touched, smelled, even tasted). Including details gives your image specificity. “Creature” is a vague word. “Animal” is more specific but still leaves a lot to the imagination. “ But tell us about your “long-haired Persian cat with a wide face” and you’re getting specific.

Significant details are those that matter to the story. You don’t need filler. A significant detail suggests an abstraction or feeling like beauty or stress or joy without using that abstract word. When you write the detail rather than the abstraction you’ve got a more compelling piece.

The journaling in “See Why” opens with a listing of the constants of a farmer’s life and a brief history of how my father got there, then moves on to recount a specific outing. This outing provides a few concrete details that supplement the photos -- and that build up to provide the basis for my new understanding of where he’s coming from. The photos work with the journaling to establish the concrete details. Views of land with lots of green grass, blue sky, bits of water and trees all give a sense of the natural world in which my father has moved about his entire life.

 

• Evoke an emotional response with color, image, motif, and design choices.

On a scrapbook page, you have more than your journaling available for conveying a feeling. It’s possible to use a combination of images, color, and motif to convey the joy or disappointment of a moment, place, or subject. In writing about art (specifically about Hamlet), T.S. Eliot talked about the “objective correlative,” a set of objects, or a situation, or a chain of events that evoke an emotion in the audience. Rather than writing “He felt sad,” in a story, the author can use weather, gestures, and even the things the character observes to the same purpose. On many of the pages you scrapbook, you will absolutely have a feeling or attitude about the subject you’re scrapping. Consciously think about every choice you make to create a whole that’s evocative of a mood or emotion.

Specifically, you can work with:
* color associations
* pattern (oversized, stylized florals convey a different tone than bright dots on white background)
*photo cropping and editing
* image and motif

 The layered papers along with curled and worn edges and warm colors in “Sweet Dreams” convey a cozy tone that goes with how I feel about this room. A bedtime motif of the cow jumping over the moon and a gingham bow complete this feeling and support the subjects

• Show don’t tell

Hold back from telling the reader what they should think about your subject (or at least save it for the end). Trust that if you report an experience as truly and accurately as possible that it will speak for itself. Do not try to shape a response, but, rather, seek to present the kind of clear picture that lets readers come to their own understanding of meaning. The journaling on “Its Charm” above accumulates details that work to earn the abstract “charm” in the page’s title, listing the many aspects of life at my parents’ home that are both different than those at my home and that my family loves.

The journaling and photos in “Trestle” also accumulate details. The photos were taken in different seasons and from different angles. The details accumulated in the journaling are of incidents relating to this place. Together they sum to show just how this spot fits into our lives now and in the past.

sketches: FOR SCRAPBOOKING EVERYDAY LIFE

Click here to download layered psd files of these three sketches.

LAYOUT JOURNALING

free DOODLING lesson--it's awesome!

Doodling, painting, hand-cutting, and stitching: great ways to get personal art on your scrapbook and art journal pages

In her online class, “Oodles of Doodles,” beginning Monday, June 15th, Michelle Houghton will teach you these "personal-art" techniques, and then show you how to use them as backgrounds, embellishments, lettering, and journaling blocks for your journals and pages. 

Early-registered participants have already had a chance to get doodling with Michelle’s free “Warm Up” lesson—and now you can check it out, too. This introductory class prompted a lot of chatter and resulted in Michelle posting impromptu lessons in the welcome forum on drawing eyes and puzzle pieces. It’s looking like several of the participants will be sharing Michelle’s how-tos with their kids this summer.

Check out Michelle’s preview lesson, "Warm Up Your Fingers," to learn the patterns shown here and more. Sign up for class now so that you can join in the conversation already happening in the “Oodles of Doodles” welcome forum.

Latest sketch bundle at Get It Scrapped!

We're posting sketches every Friday now -- free to all. I was up to make the sketch this past Friday. Here's a peek. A link. And a page made with one of the sketch variations. Layered psds for digi scrappers are included with the sketch.

New hybrid lesson, inspiration chat, & sketch bundle this week at Get It Scrapped!

Click for linked newsletter.

Around the House -- May 1 (and a sketch bundle)

I did this layout quickly this morning to fit a challenge in Tami's Mother May I class AND to use the new sketch bundle I posted in the Get It Scrapped forums --- a look at the day.

putting a zoom lens on your point of view: The Night Hank Williams Came to Town

Driving with my oldest son on Saturday morning, we were listening to some Johnny Cash. "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town" played, and I commented that I thought it was a perfect piece of writing, and Josh asked me why I thought that and listened while I told him. And then we talked about really important moments in our own lives and how we'd tell those stories.

Here are the lyrics and below I talk about the zooming aspect of the point of view here---and you can click on the you-tube link to hear Johnny Cash sing this.

The Night Hank Williams Came To Town"
written by  Bobby Braddock and Charlie Williams

Harry Truman was our president
A coke and burger cost you thirty cents
I was still in love with Mavis Brown
On the night Hank Williams came to town.

"I Love Lucy" debuted on TV
That was one big event we didn't see
'Cause no one stayed at home for miles around
It was the night Hank Williams came to town.

Mama ironed my shirt and daddy let me take the truck
I drove on out to Grapevine and picked old Mavis up
We hit that county line for one quick round
On the night HANK WILLIAMS came to town.

A thousand people sweltered in the gym
Then I heard someone whisper; "Hey, that's him"
That's when the crowd let out this deafening sound
It was the night Hank Williams came to town.

On and on he sang into the night
'Jambalaya', 'Cheatin' heart', 'I saw the light'
How'd they get Miss Audrey in that gown
On the night Hank Williams came to town.

Mavis had her picture made with Hank outside his car
She said; "He sure is humble for a Grand Ole Opry Star."
Mavis said: "Why don't we hang around
It ain't often that Hank Williams comes to town."

While Hank signed his autograph on Beaulah Rice's fan
Mavis got acquainted with the Driftin' Cowboys Band
The effect on all our lives was quite profound
On the night Hank Williams came to town.

I think there are three things the writers of this song do superbly and that contribute to the song's effectiveness: 1) their writing is simple, clear, and unadorned; 2) their pacing and movement between narrative and scene is awesome; and 3) they've got a zoom lens on the 3rd person point of view they're using to tell the story<---and that's what I want to write about here.

The 3rd person point of view in this song zooms in and out to reveal a country, a community, this man's companions and this man himself--all on the night that something exceptional happened to him.

Look at the first stanza. It begins by stating who the president of the country was--we get a sense of an entire nation; the next line states what you'd pay for a coke and burger, and then the third line tells you that the narrator was in love with Mavis Brown--not a woman, but a very specific woman: Mavis Brown. We're zooming in. The fourth and final line of the stanza tells you what happened at this very moment (in the life of a nation, a community, and a man) that Hank Williams came to town.

This deft use of zooming in and out with point of view continues throughout the song. The result (for me) is that I feel a part of the times AND of the strong feelings that narrator has on this night.

WIDE ANGLE: Harry Truman was our president, "I Love Lucy" debuted on TV
SLIGHTLY CLOSER IN: a coke & burger cost *you* 30 cents, a thousand people sweltered in the gym, we hit that county line for one last round
ZOOMED IN: Mama ironed my shirt; Mavis said why don't we hang around; Hank signed his autograph on Beaulah Rice's fan
MACRO/IN THE NARRATOR'S THOUGHT STREAM: How'd they get Miss Audrey in that dress? (I've got to say that this is the point that seals it for me --- that totally captures me in the story's stream).

And NOW . . . take a look at those last two lines . . . on their own they'd seem unremarkable --- "profound" is an abstract; "quite" is a weak modifier; and, ok, that's great he came to town. . . . BUT all the writing that has come before makes these very simple statements RESONATE. Yes! we not only see that the effect on all of their lives really was quite profound---we believe and feel it.

Get It Scrapped!: Organizing Everyday Life Photos

The chapters in my book, Get It Scrapped!, are organized around 6 basic page types: Events, Everyday Life, Moments, Collections, About Yourself, and Leaving a Record.

Everyday life photos are those that aren't necessarily associated with an event or holiday. They can be broad in scope and don't always lend themselves to chronological organization.This post is about how I decide which everyday life photos to scrap and how to scrap them.

At the end of each month (or sometimes at the end of a quarter) I look through my photos and identify and file or flag or tag:

1) photos from  "mini-events" that I want to scrapbook on a single layout or spread. This could be making a snowman, having a squirt-gun fight, or working on a school project. Hobos in March is an example of this kind of page.

2) photos that are revelatory of more than the moment photographed--photos that show "how we do it around here" -- for example, in the book, I have a page called "Garbage Night" that includes photos from one Sunday night and taking the garbage cans to the top of the driveway. The journaling talks about more than this one instance and describes a Sunday evening. The page above"Sweet Dreams," records the room where my sons sleep when they're visiting grandparents in NY.

3) photos that will be grouped with others from other months to go onto collection pages. The kinds of tags/categories I keep track of include: with Grandpa, brothers together, Neil & Josh . . . The layout here, "All Told," gathers both event and everyday life photos from my oldest son's 6th grade school year.

 

In addition to the chapter in my book that covers scrapping Everyday Life photos, "Scrap Your Everyday Life" is a 10-lesson archived online class available immediately. Check out a full sample lesson.

meaningful pages don't have to be about epiphanies

background

To me, meaningful scrapbook pages are those that:
1) combine everyday life and event photos with journaling and images that combine to create a message that goes beyond the obvious; and
2) tell truths that matter.
I've written about this HERE

So how, specifically, do you accomplish these goals? Here's one way, and I'll be sharing others in future posts.

USE CONCRETE & SIGNIFICANT DETAILS

Meaning doesn’t have to be a grand epiphany. In “Puzzling” I scrapbooked an activity that’s a regular part of my life: doing number and logic puzzles. I began my journaling by listing the physical items --books, pencils, erasers-- and then moved on to my behavior and preferences. The result is a page that shows I’m a little obsessive and unmoderated about this -- without ever using the word “obsessive.”

Concrete details are those of images that can be sensed (seen, heard, touched, smelled, even tasted). Including details gives your image specificity. “Creature” is a vague word. “Animal” is more specific but still leaves a lot to the imagination. “ But tell us about your “long-haired Persian cat with a wide face” and you’re getting specific.

Significant details are those that matter to the story--they should matter to the story and do more than fill space. A significant detail can suggest an abstraction or feeling like beauty or stress or joy without using that abstract word. When you write the detail rather than the abstraction you’ve got a more compelling piece.

How I used concrete & significant details in scrapbooking a simple thing in my life in “Puzzling:”

• with photos.
  I took photos of the items that are a part of my “puzzling” activity: the books, the pencils, those all-important cap erasers that I buy in bulk, and some individual puzzles.
• with design.
  The focal point here is the enlarged photo of my puzzle books, pencils, and erasers on my bedside stand. Photos and strips and blocks of paper are blocked in a way that mimics the grid layout of many of my puzzles.
• with journaling.
  The journaling begins with the details of the items I use and where I keep them. It moves on to describe how and when I do puzzles. The accumulation of concrete and significant detail conveys that I’m a little extreme about this activity without saying “obsessive” or “extreme.” With this much evidence, you can draw your own conclusions.
  
  JOURNALING on “Puzzling:” I keep my bedside drawer full of pencils and cap erasers. I keep the puzzle books on shelves in my office, in messy piles in my office, under my bed, in the basket next to my chair, in my messenger bag--and there are many I can’t always find but that do turn up eventually. I do puzzles on and waiting for public transportation. I do puzzles when I’m waiting for my kids and can’t do other work. I go through intense puzzling phases where I do them upon waking and before going to sleep.
  
  Sometimes I do easy puzzles and time myself. Sometimes I do hard puzzles that take hours. When I’m learning a new puzzle and get stuck, I go to a fresh one and another fresh one and then eventually (when I’ve learned a bit) I come back and do the ones I couldn’t do. I come up with coding systems. If I mess up a puzzle badly, I might erase and start over or I might write “ugh” or a frowny face and turn to a fresh page. I like to have good quality erasers and books that erase cleanly. The minute I finish a puzzle, I have the urge to start a new one, and a lot of time can go by.
  
  I do the puzzles because I enjoy solving them. I enjoy the slow progress from the easy section of the book to the medium section and sometimes even to the hard. I do the puzzles because they keep my mind and hands busy and I’m not wasting time. I do the puzzles to avoid talking on airplanes. I do the puzzles to avoid other work. I do the puzzles to solve them. January 2009.

all layout supplies from Designer Digitals.

why online classes?

Since the beginning of the year, there have been many class participants at Get It Scrapped! who are new to online classes. At first, many are curious about how exactly online classes work and apologetic that they might not “get” it. We offer a full refund to anyone who decides after the first two or three lessons that the format (or even the content) doesn’t work for them---but no one has taken us up on it yet.

about Get it Scrapped! online classes:

• Classes include a minimum of 6 formal (written) lessons (you can read these on your screen, print them, and/or save them to your hard drive)
  -> which makes this experience closer to that of reading a longer book than to that of a live afternoon workshop. You get to revisit the materials—for both reference and for inspiration.
  


• The written lessons are complemented by conversations on the class message board and by the opportunity to share creations and receive feedback in the class gallery
  -> which provide the opportunity for extended and personal interaction and feedback that a book and one-time workshop do not.


• The lessons are presented over an extended period of time (two- to five- weeks)
  -> which gives you time to let ideas to germinate and make use of the lessons in your own way.

The development of every class we teach at Get It Scrapped! begins us (the teachers and myself) considering how can we provide value.
Current and soon-to-begin classes are:

• Mad Digital Skillz with Pattie Knox
• Garlands & Banners with Trish Turay
• Scraproom with a View with Doris Sander
• In Loving Memory with Tania Willis
• Intermediate Photo Editing with Lynn Weber

Still have questions? Email me or post a question in our forums.

Be Real starts tomorrow --- and what do I mean by "Being Real?"

The focus of “Be Real” (my class starting tomorrow) is making scrapbook pages from your everyday life and events photos that have meaning. Specifically, we’ll be making pages that:

 1.Take your everyday life and event photos beyond the obvious—we know that apples can be sweet and crunchy, and if we see a photo of someone at the orchard biting into one, we make that connection without being told. What we don’t know is that the high-schooler in the photos had to be begged to come along on the outing. Let your photos show the obvious. Use your journaling to tell us what we don’t know. Use your design choices to create a mood that supports and expands upon the tone of your subject and stories.

 2.Tell truths that matter. A huge part of scrapbooking has to do with managing memories—with adding to the narrative that is your life. We tell ourselves our stories, and then we tell other people our stories, often with changes. These stories can be entertaining, self-serving, inspired. They can change depending upon when in your life you tell them. But somewhere behind these stories is something called the truth. Scrapbook pages that matter are working to get at and record some pieces of that truth—with an understanding of where the diarist-archiver-storyteller behind the message (you!) is in life right now.

"They're Here" is a page that takes a moment from an event (when everyone starts arriving) and uses the the concrete details as a path to revealing feeling and behaviors that are not only happening right then, but that are common to my family any time we entertain.

Be Real is one of three workshops that make up the Sense & Sensibility Scrapbooking Symposium and it starts tomorrow. On Wednesday, Janet Ohlson's "Lighten Up" begins and on Friday, Sharyn Tormanen's "Get With the Times" becomes. Each workshop is $20 on its own or you can take all three for $45 (a 25% savings). These class materials, printed and bound, will make a great reference after the class is over.

IdeaBooks4U is doing a challenge from my book this week

And my book is on sale for 20% off. Jill used my "About Dinner" layout and Betsy Veldman's "These Hands" as the challenge starters--with the challenge being to scrap yourself (a favorite subject of mine & I even have an archived class on this topic).

There are challenge pages on the IdeaBooks4U blog and more in the gallery. Check them out --- it's always fun reading "About Me" pages ---- a pictorial memoir. (And I love memoir--and biography. Right now I'm reading Carol Shields' bio of Jane Austen and Susan Sonnenberg's memoir "Her Last Death.")

I'm into a "series" groove

I scrapped these four pages this weekend. They're all from a recent school party. I used the same products and general "look/mood/tone" for all of them. It was really fun to find ways to make variations using the same product over and over AND it was really satisfying to get all of these scrapped relatively quickly. All supplies are from Designer Digitals (links here).

Loving sketch bundles

My "Scrap Your Travel" class takes a different approach than others I've taught. Each week I cover a different kind of vacation (Weekend Getaway, Road Trip, Being There, On Tour, and Theme). Rather than looking at and working on individual pages in this class, we're working on entire vacations.

Each week, the lesson includes a "sketch bundle" which is 6 sketches that share design aspects and yet accommodate different numbers and types of photos and memorabilia. Usually there are 2 2-pagers and 4 1-pagers, though one week there were even more.

I've never approached scrapbooking a bunch of pages all at once this way and the sketch bundles are really speeding things up AND giving me pages I really like -- actually albums I really like.

Last week I decided to use a sketch bundle for a corn-maze outing from last year that I hadn't yet scrapped, and I got these three pages done in two days.

The design aspects repeated in the bundle include three 1/2" horzontal strips, a curve cut-out framing a photo (or in the last one the whole page) and rounded corners at top and bottom on one side of the layout (though I omitted them on corn and horror here).

We're in the 3rd week of class right now and you can still join or just purchase the materials and use them on their own quite well.

All of these layouts are in my Designer Digitals gallery with links to product.

Sketch bundles

For my online class "Scrap Your Travel" starting next Monday, I've taken a different approach to sketches. Included with each of the 5 sessions, is a 6-sketch bundle. The sketches within a bundle are one page and two page in 12"x12" format, but, more importantly all of the sketches in a bundle share design commonalities that will let you make many pages that work as a whole. Additionally each bundle's look is quite different from the others. Here's a peek at the sketches from the sample class (click here for the FREE SAMPLE CLASS with 6-SKETCH BUNDLE) and the sketches from the class that will go up on Monday. I'm covering five types of trips: Weekend Getaway (sample class), Road Trip, Being There, On Tour, and Themed Destination. Check out the full class description and think about joining us! If you're wondering just how our online classes work, check out my "Cliff's Notes."

From class 1: Weekend Getaway

From class 2: RoadTrip