Sketch to Scrapbook Page :: Scrapbooking with both square and standard photos
Time to return to Disneyland photos! And still not a Mickey Mouse embellishment in sight. I know some of you may be smashing your head against the desk for that, but my train of thought is that I don’t own any licensed products like that and I would really like to scrapbook these photos without adding products to my pages that are so far removed from what I use on most of my layouts – so just like I haven’t used Harry Potter products on my Harry Potter scrapbook pages, I’m not planning to use Disney products on my Disney scrapbook pages. I hope that seems sensible – to use what I have and love – and if you love patterned papers and embellishments with the Disney characters, then I would be right there cheering for you to use them! (Which leads me a bit to a recent treatise I wrote on scrapbook storytelling here, which leads to what is often my overwhelming cheer to the scrapbooking world: All hail variety!)
This page sketch was originally designed with a panoramic portrait photo in mind – a 4×12 inch column taken from a single image. But the truth is I always have grand ideas for prints like that but actually have thousands of 4×6 prints to hand and little motivation to print special sizes like 4×12! So I used two portrait photos stacked to create that column, then three smaller square photos. On the sketch they are more like two inches square, and I imagined this as a good way to mix ‘proper’ photos with phone photos, but in truth I didn’t take any phone pictures at Disneyland and instead cropped the squares from standard prints, choosing a few nice details from photos that I didn’t feel fabulous enough to warrant their own pages in my album.
This page uses mostly supplies taken from my March Best of Both Worlds product picks, but I added a sheet of pink chevron by Crate Paper for the 12×12 background and some pink baker’s twine.
If you’re just reading and not watching the video, I can tell you I already know that embellishment grouping in the middle of the photos is going to be a love/hate choice. On the sketch, it’s a much simpler, smaller embellishment, and I think it would be less jarring that way, but I chose to make it almost as heavy in weight as the other two embellishment groupings, and it is a little unexpected in the middle of the page. I decided to go with it anyway and lightened it by using a small bit of text cut from a larger sticker instead of the same size rectangle as the other two clusters. I’m also okay with it because I looked carefully at what I was covering up on the photos and there is nothing covered that I really wanted to be visible. This is a prime example of when I decide to just try something on camera and see what I think. Is it my favourite embellishment of all time? No. But it didn’t upset me either: I’m quite happy with how it gives the page quite a whimsical look, like it’s not taking Disney too seriously. And now you know exactly how much I over-analyse my design choices!
Today’s guest artist, Sophie Crespy, has a less literal interpretation of the sketch, and a beautiful page to share with you. I hope it sparks your creativity!
I love this sketch because of its simple lines and multiple photos: typically my type of design! I changed the square photos for a rectangle one and turned the sketch around into a horizontal layout: that way the vertical photos are balanced by the horizontal pieces of patterned papers. I love the visual triangle created by the stars on the sketch: it brings balance to the page. A visual triangle is a design tactic I use often: you can find a visual triangle on my layout created by the colours? I placed three yellow elements on my page: can you spot them? The two pieces of doily and the piece of yellow paper on the bottom left. It helps the eyes to travel on the page, from the photos to the journaling. I also replaced the stars by some stitched elements on my page, created with the new Amy Tangerine Embroidery Stencil kits. It matches the theme of my photos: my son helping me to sew a costume for his sister. I like to mix textures on my layouts: here and there is hand and machine stitching, rub-ons and buttons. The kraft envelope adds interest and creates a frame for the first photo. The photos are mounted on dimensional adhesive and the peg also adds depth to the overall design.
| Sophie is a part-time teacher from France. She lives in the Alps with her husband and two children. She started scrapbooking five years ago in order to document her daily life. During those years, her style changed tremendously until she found her own style: fresh, bold and colorful, clean with a whimsical twist! She is currently a member of American Crafts and Crate Paper design teams. She also writes articles for French and International magazines such as Entreartistes magazine. She writes about her creative adventures on her blog. |  |
And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!
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9 April 2013, 12:09
Shimelle – I followed the link to your “treatise on journaling” and had to thank you for it. I had read that thread (apparently before you got to it), and at the time just couldn’t think of a way to put my thoughts down in order on the subject. Like you, however, I have trouble wrapping my head around not telling stories in my scrapbooks. Journaling and story-telling are the things that make scrapbooks different from sticking pictures in photo albums. They provide the reason why these pictures at this time are important.
Much of my journaling is written to my children (sometimes explicitly, and sometimes just with them as the audience I have in mind). I often write to tell them what we did or where we went. I’ll tell them about the things we saw and the people we saw them with. But I also tell them about who they are. And who I am. I try to tell them stories about the people who love them, and those little moments that define those relationships. I write to them telling them about the funny things they say, the reasons they make me smile, and sometimes the worries I cry about at night. I have an album that I’m trying to fill up with the stories that make up my life before and apart from them, too… so that someday they can see me in a different context, as someone other than Mommy.
But though I write these stories to them, I have another purpose. I lived next door to my grandmother for nearly the last decade of her life. And I saw my beautiful, happy Abuela slowly disappear with each memory that slipped away – stolen by a heartless disease. We are the sum of our memories, and with each one she lost, I lost a bit of her. She became sad and angry… she forgot so much of the happiness she’d had in her life and would re-live some of the darkest moments, instead. Over and over she experienced the anger of her father, the day her mother died, or the fear of having to leave the only country she ever knew to start over with nothing.
She loved looking at my albums, though. Even when she called me her “neighbor” and believed she was a twenty-something school teacher that needed to be chaperoned with the strange man who would not stop calling on her (my grandfather) she loved looking at those pictures. And for a while, she could even remember me – the picture of me – even when she couldn’t recognize me standing right beside her. So I would flip through the books and I would tell her the stories.
I write to my children, but the books will stay with me. I want to fill them up with the stories of my life. I want to look through these pages and laugh at the stories behind the pictures. I want to remember what a good, full life it’s been. I want to remember it, to remember that I was happy.
Please forgive the “treatise” I’m now leaving on your blog. I just really wanted to share my agreement with you. The stories are everything.
9 April 2013, 18:56
okay, after reading this post, your treatise on journaling, and Katrina’s comment, I am totally tearing up, here, and need a tissue! I think you need to make a badge that says ‘all hail variety’ with a picture of a pencil, or a big fluffy quill pen, or something!! And I now feel the need to go home and journal a LOT on the SB layout I have in progress right now on my desk. Thank you, SHimelle! (and you too, Katrina, for your very touching story.)
12 May 2013, 14:01
Katrina, thank you for sharing your story! We’re going through this with my abuela as well. It’s tough.
Shimelle, loved the sketch! I miniaturized it a bit. Here’s my take: http://paperheartproject.blogspot.com/2013/05/nsd-small-photos_12.html