What exactly are you looking for when you look at a scrapbook magazine?
Do you admire layouts and think, “I’ll never be that good” or “I could never do that.”
Or do you carefully check out each layout, dissecting them and picking out the parts you like so that you can use them to inspire your own future layouts?
That’s exactly what I did with the Spring issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine. I subscribe to the print edition but you can view the full magazine online here.
Take a look at what inspired me and how I used it.
First up was this layout (found on page 31):
The thing I liked most was the application of the horizontal strips along the bottom. I also like the little clusters of items – the flowers and words under the title – and the word strips up on the right. I do also like the yellow background paper. I don’t have a lot of yellow but it’s appealing to me these days so watch for “yellow” at the upcoming Spring Crop!
Here’s the second layout that inspired me. It’s on page 46:
I particularly liked the use of a black marker for the title and the line across the bottom of the photo mats. I also find the pale blue and red combination striking and will want to use that faux stitching at some point (also made WITH the marker).
I’ve found if I really want to enjoy scrapbooking, I need to NOT spend hours going through my over-abundant collection of supplies so I do it quickly and grab only what is within reach of my workspace. In less than five minutes I found the following items:
I quickly found these two photos of my daughters looking at my scrapbooks one night last summer. It made me so happy to see them actually enjoying the layouts, remembering the events, and yes, laughing at my journalling on occasion. It just made me happy to see them enjoying, not only the albums, but also time together, something they don’t often get to do these days, living thousands of miles apart and not always getting home at the same time.
For papers, the pale blue and yellow background had a pattern but it wasn’t so bold that it look garish. I knew it could also handle some red accent colours. I threw in the beige for matting, knowing it would help the photos to stand out from the background. While I really liked that piece of journalling paper with the typewriter, it didn’t quite work for me in the end. Not to worry–I’ll use it some other time.
And so:
First off, I’m NOT 100% happy with my writing in that title. I may end up redoing it but I left it for now because I do want to point out that it really doesn’t matter. That’s right. YOUR HANDWRITING doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s yours. When my girls look at this down the road, they’ll recognize my handwriting. All I know is when I see handwriting that I recognize as my mother’s–or my grandmother’s–I feel good. So never worry about your handwriting. Just let it be.
As for the rest of the layout, I managed to put some touches of red in those angled strips at the bottom. The black and white is actually washi tape. When you place these strips, don’t worry about going off the edge of the paper. You can simply trim it with scissors or your trimmer after.
To finish off the layout, I clustered some little pre-cut diecuts from a package of “ephemera” that I found close at hand. The tiny word strips were also in that package though I did a bit of doctoring to trim them up. A punched heart and some buttons and there it is.
It’s not the most amazing layout in the world but I’m happy.
In scrapbooking, that’s all that counts.
Please yourself. Your layouts will be just fine.
(Be sure to tell me what layouts from the spring issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today inspired you!)