I know that no matter how hard we try to "keep up" with our scrapbooking, there are so many things in life that "get in the way". Actually, it's all the amazing things we strive to record that "get in the way". I willingly admit that I am YEARS behind in scrapbooking, if keeping up is measured chronologically.... I'm not sure when this "being behind" started. Over the years, I have gotten less and less concerned with "keeping up". The very first time I remember realizing that being "current" with my scrapbooking is not important was reading about the scrapbooking philosophy of Cathy Zielske. Cathy was a big part of Simple Scrapbooking magazine and has a great philosophy of keeping things simple and following your own path as far as scrapbooking is concerned. Read some of Cathy's idea's in a blog post about "Taking the 'Crap' Out of Scrapbooking". After you read it, you'll see some of the reasons why I'm not concerned with "keeping up" any more.
I love creating and scrapbooking is a way for me to create and working in a scrapbook store, doing this blog, teaching classes and giving advice are all parts of the creative process for me. So, if you have always stressed about "keeping up" with your scrapbooking, take this opportunity to think about what it might be like to let go and concentrate more on being creative and telling the important stories.
But, as a nod to my family who loves to browse through their photos, I've found a way to combine my simple, non-chronological style with a new-to-me way to create a very simple, chronological albums. I plan to continue using Cathy's philosophy of telling my family's stories when I create layouts. I love the idea of choosing which stories I create whole page layouts for. As far as regular, everyday life and creating albums that my family can sit and flip through, I plan to create a 2013 album using the Project Life system by Becky Higgins when it arrives in our store. I love the idea of sticking my photos into divided page protectors, journaling on a card and having that be it...unless I decide to get creative with it, which I'm sure I'll do from time to time. I love how I can stick a layout or two in between the divided page protectors whenever I feel like it. Using the idea of combining both types of scrapbooking, I can cater to my philosophy of creating whole page layouts whenever I choose and also, please my husband and kids by providing actual books of their photos for them to look through and share. (Yes, my husband has been known to comment "If you spend so much time scrapbooking, where are the scrapbooks? I'd like to SEE our photos!")
I'm really excited about creating an album that combines the philosophies of both Cathy & Becky! I think this will be perfect for me and my family. They will have something to look at filled with their memories and I will be able to create a fun, story telling layout whenever I find the perfect paper or embellishment...or inspiration strikes!
As far as those of you who really are keeping up :), I thought I'd share a layout I created a couple of weeks ago. It's an Easter layout, so it's perfect, since you'll be working with this most recent holiday now.... ;) And for those of us who are not so caught up, feel free to be inspired to create a layout for any Easter you have photos for! That's what I did. I used photos from a couple of Easters ago, since that's when Delaney created her "Peep Army." Seeing this cut on the Silhouette Online store inspired me on this one. I remembered taking photos of Delaney dipping tons of Peeps in chocolate and lining them up on a plate. We all know there are times when a product or memory inspires us to create a page. So, when I have time to go back & create a Project Life album for 2011, I can slip this layout in the Easter section. Until then, I'll happily slide it into my family's album of miscellaneous memories...after it comes down off the wall at the store, anyway!
Here's some Easter inspiration for you...
For this layout, I used a bright, "Spring-y" paper with a pattern for my background. The glazed & glittered paper from Best Creations gave a pop to my simple layout and perfectly matched my Peeps die cut. When I saw the "Me & My Peeps" cut in the Sihouette store, I knew just which photos I had to go with it. I cut the title out of some deep dark chocolate paper from American Crafts and found some super bright, non-textured cardstock in my stash to match the colors of actual Peeps. I added an outline to the cut in order to have a place to mount the peeps and cut it from non-textured white cardstock. After cutting the cute little Peeps, I inked the entire surface of each one with Versamark watermark ink and embossed with an old jar of embossing powder that says "turquoise sparkle" on the label. I'm not going to lie, embossing the entire surface of the little guys was a challenge...I ended up with a couple burned fingers...but the overall look was worth my pain...cute little sparkly, sugared Peeps!
With such a large embellishment and four large photos, I decided on a step by step sort of layout, I put the photos on my layout in a clockwise fashion after mounting them on white non-textured cardstock, to help them stand out. At this point, I thought my layout needed a little extra something...so I used one of my favorite stamps right now, the arrow from Technique Tuesday's "Awesome" stamp set to help guide the eye through my sequence of photos.
I ended up with a little extra space on the right side and decided to add a turquoise vellum tag stamped with the date of my photos as a finishing touch.
So, whether this layout inspires you to create pages for Easter 2013 or another holiday entirely, remember that however you choose to scrapbook your memories is the "right" way! Really, the choices are endless...chronological albums, albums for each member of your family, digital albums, photobooks, Project Life, mini albums for special events...they are all ways of recording our memories to share with others!!!
Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog! Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day! You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before! Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!
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