Going to Work

I was meant to do Ali Edwards “A week in your Life” earlier on in the year. I took the photos but have never got around to actually doing anything with them!

As I leave working at the college soon I thought this classes sketch was ideal to use some of these photos to document my routing to work. A daily routine which will soon stop and then be forgotten I am was pleased to be given this prompt to document this part of my daily life here and now.

Class 10 - Goodbye

The bright green is not a colour I would normally use but I liked how it picked up the lime colour in the glasses. I had picked a load of brads for this class (as per pre-class instructions) and added to as I had gone along. Using the classes guide on how many brads Darci had used I modified the number to fit into the space I had left after taking into account the size of the photo. My compiled brad collection was spread out over the desk and I tried not to look at the brad I picked up and just added it to the layout.

Looking at the three layouts - "Mum and I", "How Many Christophers" and "Goodbye" I have learnt that though I like the effect of using brads/buttons to make patterned paper I think that they detract from the photo. And the amount of journaling space available, without taking away the balance of the layout, is very small. These two facts means this sketch has to be one of my least favourites.

Class 10 - How Many Christopher’s

Taking the idea from the layout sketch I thought some small blue brads on the page would look good. However I went a bit over the top with the number of brads I used and now I think they distract from the photo and title.

I liked the title and the way it looked on the page leading to the photo but the plain blue card stock did not look right. The journaling under the photo looks OK.

I did think about redoing the brad/photo section but decided I had no brain waves on how I wanted to improve it so moved on.

Class 10 - Mum and I

This layout is about creating a layout with just one photo. Though the sketch has some space for journaling it was not that large. What I mean is that on the sketch it was just a short line. I ended up doing three different version of this sketch.

This layout is exactly as sketch – the placement of items is the same. The only difference being I have used heart shaped buttons instead of brads and my journaling is more than one line.

As the journaling is more than one line it means (I think) that the layout is no longer balanced.

State Capitol

Another sketch from Becky Higgins sketch from “Creative Sketches Volume 2”. I liked this as it enabled me to use several photos to illustrate what the inside of State Capitol was like along with allowing me to include journaling.

The title of the layout “State Capitol” is actually on a tag which includes additional journaling.

  

Lessons Learnt:

1. Using stitching and buttons to make corners to frame your layout (or photos or journaling) works for me and is an idea I will be using again.
2. Where the journaling plays such a heavy visual place in a layout I think typed journaling may be better.
3. I do not like to use dark colours or browns to do my layouts on. (I do not like this layout mainly due to the colours I used rather than design or journaling)

Sand

I used Becky Higgins sketch from “creative Sketches Volume 2”, Page 47.
I followed the sketch really closely and only used patterned paper and the title (letter stickers similar to thickers) as my only embellishment.

Like the way it enables me to incorporate journaling to tell the story and the patterned paper shows of the photos. But it does cry out to me to add some embellishments to it.

Lesson Learnt: Use a sketch as a basis and make it your own.

Sketch Library Challenge

I have done loads of Big Picture Classes over the years and have several lever arch files with the classes handouts. It is a huge resource of ideas, new techniques and inspiration that I do not really use.

So after compiling them all together in folders (well apart from the really recent ones) I have decided that I should now go through them all and make sketches on the layouts from the classes.

I decorated ages ago a box for putting sketches on white postcards and printed some off. But after the inital spurge of activity it is not something I have continued to do.

So I am now making sure that I copy all of the layouts from the Decorate Life class onto postcards. And i am currently working through one of Becky Higgins books doing exactly the same thing. (OK I know that’s not going through my Big Picture classes but its still using a source of inspiration and making the sketches more accessible.)

I know it is a big job but I thought doing a few every night while watching TV will help to get them done quicker.

Inspiration

I have signed up for another class in Big Picture – not going to crops for classes this is really the only way I can take classes and its nice every so often to be able to post on the message board.

This class is a scrapbooking retreat and for a month you get emails with ideas and inspiration.

One of the preclass projects is to make something to record inspirational layouts and other items.

This is something I already started when I was given a whole load of craft magazines – mainly of cards but with a few scrapbooking articles too. I went through all the magazines, ripping out any articles I thought sounded/looked good, and any photos of layouts or cards which inspired me.

These I all stuck into what I call a “child’s scrapbook”. You know a big A3 book with lots of different bad quality coloured “card” in it.

The other thing I am starting up again is the compiling and using my sketch library.

Play Time

I messed around with the tags on this layout.

I was amazed that for this layout I actually used some patterned paper as my background paper rather than my normal plain cardstock. Though I picked the background paper relatively quickly the rest of the layout took some playing around with.

When I first laid the photos down their crisp edges directly onto the paper did not look right. The photos got distressed with my Making Memories distress tool and nail file before being mounted onto cardstock, the mount and photos being further distressed.

The number and orientation of photos was different than the class layout, that and the wish to include journaling, meant that some playing around with where the tags went was required. And I actually used some metal word brads from my stash – bought when I first started scrapbooking!

I am pleased with the layout, and the “grunge” look this clean and simple girl normally does not go for.

Decorate Life Class

I can not believe it has been so long since I last added things to my blog! And its not because I have not done any scrapbooking, just not taken photos of the layouts I have done. Must try to change that this year.

At the moment I am doing “Decorate Life” by Big Picture Scrapbooking Classes. The first week you get told to gather certain embellishments and photos for different “themes”. And then the following weeks, every other day, you get a class layout with a sketch telling you which combination of embellishments and photos to select.

The idea of this class is so that you can quickly make layouts and scrapbook that mountain of photos we all have. Am not very good at fully sticking to using only the embellishments I have selected from the instructions but I certainly do more layouts in a much shorter space of time.

The next few entries will have photos of the layouts I have done to date.

Vegetable Display and Prize Produce

I did two layouts using this No. 7 class layout. The class layout had all the photos grouped on one side of the 12x12 paper with the two columns of the 2”x2” squares down the other side. I

The first layout “Vegetable Display” I followed the class layout closely, only moving the squares around to get all of the colourful photos I wanted to scrap on the display of vegetables at the Malvern Show, put on by a seed company. This is the layout I did,

 Lessons Learnt:

1. There is nothing more satisfying than cutting 2”x2” of your scrap patterned paper with your punch!
2.  Cutting up leftover patterned paper into 2 x 2 squares is a good way of using it up and allowing you to utilise it on another layout.
3. Using patterned paper in squares like this made me able to mix colours and patterns of paper Id normally never put together.

The second layout “Prize Produce” I used the idea of arranging all the photos together. I used 8.5 x 11 paper and grouped the photos so that there were no spaces between them with the journaling on the right hand side. This is the layout I did 

Lessons Learnt:

1. I would not journal on dark paper again as it really does not show up well
2. If I did this layout again I would type the journaling up instead of hand writing as I think that this would visually be better.
3. This style of layout, on this size of paper is great when you have several photos you want to scrap together with only a short story to tell.

Makeover - Birthday Present

A perfect layout to quickly document the story of the makeover that Josh gave me last year for my birthday. Not brilliant I know but the main thing is the story is told and its one of those which probably would never of got scrapbooked otherwise.

Library of Memories

I did the class last year and found it brilliant. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it really helped me sort out my photos and has made it so much easier to a) find the photos I want on a topic b) flick through the albums for photos to scrapbook – and these are photos which preciously I may not have used.

This system has certainly helped me compile my photos together for the classes I take on Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Anyway Stacey Julian (whom runs the class) announced that this is the last year that she will be teaching the class on-line. It will only be taught in live lessons. The format is going to change slightly now that she has the rights to her book “photo freedom”

As a 2010 student I can do this new modified class for FREE!!!
Now how cool is that!

Christmas Tree Recipe

Well I really deviated from the layout done in class and added loads more photos. This caused me no end of problems moving photos around. Then I couldn’t make up my mind on the title. Not a brilliant layout but it tells the story of the Christmas Tree Recipe - how I put the tree up each year.

Max and Autumn Layouts

The design of this layout I can see me using lots of times as its perfect for those single vertical photos with a short story to.

The first one I did was of my cat Max. I came across this paper purely be chance and think it’s just perfect for this photo.

The other layout I did was on autumn, a subject which I had wanted to scrapbook on for some time but just could not figure out the best way of doing it.

Although I do not like it as much as my layout on Max it’s not too bad, and not only has it told the story but it’s also used some of those leaf buttons I have had in my stash for years!

Missing Layouts

If you do not see the “Decorate Life” classes in order, or some are missing it’s because they have not fully “grabbed” me and I would rather come back and do them at a latter stage.

I say this as though I know the photos and journaling I want to do for Decorate Life No. 1 I have yet to do it – this is a layout I do plan to get back to but just not yet. Am sure that this is not going to be the only one I do this for, but at least I know I can come back to it.

Embellishment Tray

As part of the class you had to make a tray with 14 pockets to hold your embellishments in. Darci used a Christmas bauble tray but they are really difficult to find over here.

Instead I used the lid of two paper ream boxes, joining them together. And the cardboard of the actual boxes were used to make the inserts. All of this was then covered with Beano comic pages – I still have a pile from doing my chest of drawers. Finishing off with a PVA varnish.

To hold embellishments I cut down some picnic plastic cups to various heights (used dependant on the number of embellishments I was meant to collect.

And where there were only a few brads or other small embellishments I cut up the plastic tray holding chocolates up making small pots.

Am pleased with the results and I think I may keep it out on my desk to rummage around in as it has things in there like flowers which I always forget to use.