Entries for the 'Scrapbooking' Category

by Julie Jones

One of my favorite things about taking my daughter’s photo is the moment that she lets go of the fake smile and gives me the genuine giggle. I wanted to document that on a page, so I started with a series of photos that took her from fake smile to laughing out loud.

 

Supplies Used:

Patterned paper: October Afternoon (orange polka dot), Basic Grey (brown), Autumn Leaves (cream)

Decorative Tape: Heidi Swapp

Pen: Staedtler

Letter Stickers: American Crafts

Adhesive: Herma Tabs

Paper trimmer: Cutterpede by EK Success

 

Step 1:  Beginning with the background of the polka dot paper, lay your photos out in the pattern you would like them to be for the finished project.

 

Step 2: Go through your scrap stash, or use a new piece of patterned paper, and cut blocks and strips from the paper. Randomly add them behind your photos until you achieve the desired look. Adhere blocks and strips of paper and photos to the page with your favorite adhesive.

 

Step 3: Add decorative tape around the border of the photos where you’d like. For embellishments like this, I try to use the “triangle” rule and add embellishments so that they form a triangle around the focus of my layout. In this case, her giggly photo is the focus, so I added tape in three different areas to highlight that.

 

Step 4: Add your title with colorful stickers. Add the date and any journaling you wish. For this layout, the photos and title were self explanatory, so I just added the date and a small sentence about the giggle being my favorite.

 

This is a four-photo layout, but you could easily substitute more photos by cropping them down smaller. You could also use fewer photos, by filling up the space with blocks of patterned paper instead of a photo.

I love making mini books because they are quick and easy and use up extra photos. I made this one in about 30 minutes. Here’s how. (Photos below!)
 
Step 1: Gather your supplies. This will be the most time consuming part of the project, I promise. I found it easy to grab only a few things so that I wasn’t paralyzed by too many options. This mini book is 4x4 in size. I could have used just one sheet of patterned paper (a 12x12 sheet will yield 9 4x4 sheets of paper), but I had four patterns that I liked, so I just used pieces of that. Tip: Using patterned papers from the same manufacturer is an easy way to insure that your papers will go well together.  I grabbed the photos I wanted to use, the paper, some stickers, some chipboard accents and some rubons. 

Step 2: Decide the scheme of your book. For small albums like this, I find it easy to use the same scheme throughout. It saves time and takes out the guess work of whether or not your album will flow together. I decided to use a photo on one page (it is so easy to crop a 4x6 photo down to 4x4) and a piece of patterned paper and some embellishments on the next page. 

Step 3: Crop your photos. I quickly cut my photos from 4x6 (standard print size) to 4x4 (to fit this small album).

Step 4: Cut your paper. I cut two, 4x4 pieces from each of my 4 sheets of paper. Like I said, for this mini book, you could easily just use one sheet of patterned paper and still have a little bit left over. This would be a good project to use your scrap paper on too.

Step 5: Put your photos and paper in order. Lay them out on the table in the order they will go.

Step 6: Embellish each page with the accents you’ve chosen. Just go fast. Don’t think too hard about this part. Enjoy it!

Step 7: Insert pages and photos into the mini book.

Step 8: Decorate the cover. In this case, I just used a strip of decorative tape and a chipboard heart. 

Supply List:
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Gypsy collection)
Rubons: Making Memories and 7 Gypsies
Decorative Tape: Heidi Swapp
Chipboard Hearts: Heidi Swapp
Stickers: 7 Gypsies
Journaling cards: 7 Gypsies
Photos: LeAnne Bull Photography

Tools Used:
Paper Trimmer: Fiskars, Glue Dots and Glue Tabs: HermaFix, Emery Board (used to sand the chip board hearts), Pen: Zig, Bone Folder (used to apply rub ons).

by Julie Jones

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you are taking photos of your children.

- As much as possible, try not to use a flash. Natural light is much more flattering to skin tones.

- Don’t be afraid to zoom in and fill the camera frame with your subject. This saves time and cropping of images later.

- Use the rule of thirds. Divide your frame up into thirds (think 9 boxes: 3 up and down and 3 across). Position your subject at one of the intersections of these boxes instead of the middle of the frame.

- Get down on their level. If you are photographing young children, get down on the floor. Look directly into their eyes instead of having them look up at you. 

- Pay attention to distracting things in the background. Take a few seconds before snapping a photo to see if there are big distracting things in the background. Can they be moved? If so, move them. This will keep your focus on the subject, not the people/things in the background.

- Try to capture catch lights. Catch lights are “catching light” in a person’s eyes. Try this trick: When you are outside (or inside in a well lit environment) playing with your children, or having a conversation with someone, look into their eyes. Can you see yourself? Can you see reflections of a light source in their eyes? Those are called “catch lights” and they really make a photo come to life. My favorite catch lights are when I can actually see myself in someone’s eyes.

- Look for good light sources in your house for indoor photographs. Pay attention to the way the light is falling on someone’s face. Is it too bright? Are they squinting? Is it too dark? Are there harsh shadows on the face? Try to move them into a position that is comfortable and flattering.

- Don’t forget to take photos of the details. Especially if you are a scrapbooker, don’t forget to take images of the birthday cake or the balloons, or the guests at the next birthday party. Think of things that will help you tell your story.

- If you have a digital camera, don’t be afraid to take lots and lots of photos. Especially with tiny children, you may only have a split second where you actually get that smile you are looking for.

-Try to capture the candid moments too. As much as we would like our children to be perfectly still and perfectly smile and stay perfectly clean…they are children and well, they aren’t perfect. Embrace those sticky candy fingers and messed up hair. Those things are what make your kids who they are. Get that goofy smile, the dirty shirt, and the untied shoes. Maybe, I’m sentimental (okay, I am), but those are some of my favorite photos.

Journaling Kit.  Give someone the tools they need to write their life story, including a journal and a pen and questions or prompts to help them get started.  Consider providing 365 questions or prompts to help them write a little something everyday.  This very thoughtful gift may help a loved one do what they would never do on their own--think back through their life and write it down.  Get more ideas for this creative gift by going to the Debt-Proof Living web site. 

 When you are taking photos of an event that you want to scrapbook later, don’t forget the details. To a five year old, the most important detail of Halloween would most likely be the candy. Take an extra second or two and snap a photo that can serve as a focal point for one of your pages about Halloween.

I had a lot of pictures of my daughter this past Halloween and wanted to document the cute way she’d hold up her princess bucket and say, “trick – o – treat” at every door. Yes, you read that right…she’d say trick “o” treat, not trick or treat. Personally, I thought it was one of the cutest things ever. When we got back home, after about an hour of “trick – o – treating” her bucket was overflowing with candy. I asked her to stop at the door and show me how she asked for her treats. Being the scrapbooking, paparazzi mom that I am, I just snapped away of course. Blinding her temporarily from my camera flash, I’m sure. As she went to her room to change out of her costume, I snapped a quick photo of her stash…after I snuck a few chocolates out for myself.
What? You don’t do that too?

I wanted this layout to be quick and simple. Actually, I’d like all of my layouts to be quick and simple, but that is beside the point here. After trimming just a little bit off of each photo, I was able to fit five photos onto a single page. Score! I love it when I can fit lots of photos on to a page. The focus of this layout was the candy, of course, and I wanted to mat that photo with a separate patterned paper. The problem – I didn’t have a separate paper that looked good with my background paper. What is a girl to do? Well, I’ll tell you what I did. I trimmed the background sheet of my stickers and used that. Oh yes, I used the packaging. Why not? We mostly throw it all in the trash anyway and it was the perfect compliment to the busy background paper I was using. I added a few stickers to help tell the story, journaled about how cute she was; and then I was done. Easy, easy!

Supplies used:
Patterned paper: Basic Grey (background), Making Memories stickers packaging (spider webs)
Stickers: Making Memories, Deja Views (candy)
Pen: Staedtler

Submitted by Julie Jones