Scrapbooking – Page 3 – Those Missing Pieces

October 4, 2017October 2, 2017

100 Days of All About Me

When I heard about the 100 Days of All About Me project hosted by rukristin at The Awesome Ladies Project, I knew I wanted to participate. A daily prompt is sent out in order to get you writing down the answer. So much of what we scrap about contains stories of our kids or loved ones and often does not contain our story, so I figured this was a good way to get some of that started. I decided to follow the inspiration of @shannanpages who was creating a super simple 4×4 album with journaling on one side and a photo on the facing page. Keeping it simple and easy has really helped me get stuff accomplished recently. Here are a few pages that I have completed. I added some digital stamped word art at a low opacity for a little bit of flair, but otherwise, I am keeping it simple.

I kept up and have everything printed through about Day 30. I have a log where I am keeping the prompts and try to keep up with the writing, and then site down after a week or two and fill it into a template I created or printing. I am having trouble finding photos that fit a few of the prompts, but I am thankful to still have the words printed, even I never do find a photo to go with it.

I love projects like this. It not only challenges me to actually create, but to get MY story told as well. I am so excited to see how this project comes together once it is done and have it as a lovely edition to my growing album collection.

October 2, 2017October 7, 2017

Telling My Stories

There is a local group that is run by a friend of mine at a hotel conference room. She runs monthly one day crops and quarterly three-day retreats. Back in July, I went to a weekend crop retreat as a birthday present to myself! This is the weekend I decided to give 6×8 a try. I had a whole bunch of stories written down and needed a medium that wasn’t as overwhelming as 12×12 seemed for the size of the stories, so I wanted to give this size a shot.

I prep most of my stuff digitally. Lay it out in Photoshop, choose sizes and a general layout, then print, including journaling right on the page if I can, and then pull paper to take with me to put it all together. This retreat was the first time I decided to simplify. I limited what I brought with me with Felicity Jane papers and embellies, Ali Edwards Story Kits™ supplies, and a handful of alpha sets. And I SOOOO happy with the outcome! Limiting my choices really helped me get more done. I was using my time creating instead being indecisive about the plethora or choices.

This is the first layout I created that weekend using Felicity Jane papers, Ali Edwards Brave Story Kit™ and some misc Ali Edwards stickers from other kits.

I knew when I saw this photo that I wanted to make something with it. It just makes me smile every time I look at it. My brave little man and a roller coaster at Disneyland. No fear. Just excitement. And I totally fell in love with 6×8 after I made this. I was hooked! I made a few more that weekend that I will share later. But you know when you make that one layout that starts some spark in you and every time you think about it, you remember that spark. This is the one for me. And I can’t wait to make more!

September 28, 2017September 25, 2017

A Very Productive Weekend

For months and months and months, I get excited about the happy mail waiting for me around the 18th of the month when my Story Kit arrives. I pull everything out and ogle it and drool…. and then proceed to put it away and possibly not look it again for months and month and months. I decided this month to change that. I still anxiously awaited the happy mail, pulled out the package and ogled everything. But this time, I opened up every single piece and laid it all out on my little work table next to our kitchen table. I sat and looked at each piece spread out before me and played with them, feeling their texture and looking closely at some of the details. And I found myself totally inspired to create. I saw one 3×4 card that said Hindsight = 20/20 and thought ” I love that card, I want to make something with it.” And here is what came of it:

Lynne Ashcraft Hindsight is 2020

As a subscriber to the Story Kit and Story Stamp, I get the digital kit for free as well, so I made that 3×4 card that came with the kit into a 6×8 and did this all digitally. I ended up printing it on white paper and printing the photo on photo paper and adhering it for a more dimensional hybrid look. It actually took me longer to figure out how to get the text on the circular path around the circle element then the rest of the layout took me to put all together in total! Here is the final printed layout.

Lynne Ashcraft Hindsight is 2020 done

My original inspiration came from the plastic word and the little circle elements. I had sen the circles in the kit preview and knew I wanted to do something with them and already had something in my head about a timeline of different photos of David through the years. This one came together really quickly and I absolutely love it!!!!

Lynne Ashcraft Time 12x12 Detail Lynne Ashcraft Time 12x12 Full

I ended up using the digital “time” stamp by Ali Edwards from the digital time kit because I ended up liking the pop of the black a lot better than the white on white that the plastic word would have created. But I still stuck with the word and the circle element that I had in in my head since the preview.

I also used some Felicity Jane papers for the solid blue strip and the blue outer pattern and the hearts are from Gossamer Blue when I picked up some of their going out of business deals.

I need to get better at my layout photos. I have horrible light everywhere in my house so it isn’t easy! But practice makes progress so I am going to keep at it!

September 26, 2017October 6, 2017

My Creative Re-Inspiration using the Time Kit

I am reconsidering the whole way I scrapbook and my approach Project Life lately. I started scrapbooking because of the photos and mainly scrapped event based only. Around 2008, I started scrapping the everyday but still treated it like an event. And then in 2011, I started Project Life full time but still approached it all from a photo-centric perspective. But these last fews months I felt a shift. Instead of looking at photos first, I am realizing I am looking at stories first and trying to find a photo to fit. Sure there are still times I can look at the photos and say – oh I want to tell this story or this photo reminds me of… (fill in the blank). But now I find myself looking for stories in my everyday and taking a photo because I know I want tell that story. It’s a refreshing perspective and I think it’s what I really needed to inspire me in creative hobby.

As part of that, I decided I wanted to start looking at Project Life in a more theme based process. I knew the Time kit by Ali Edwards would be coming in the mail during the week, so my first theme was time. I took photos throughout the week and then took screenshots of the time on my phone right after so I would know what time of day it was taken and could add it to my layout for the week. I found that keeping the theme in mind kept me more inspired to take photos throughout the week and even consider what stories I wanted to tell. Like my son getting up in the morning and even though it’s really early, he can still brighten my day with a snuggle and a smile. Or how lovely the afternoon sunlight is coming through my window at work. I am not sure I would have thought about taking those photos on any other week if I had not had the theme in mind.

And on top of that, I was so inspired and excited about my theme week that I actually sat down on Sunday and completed the full week’s layout before the week was even over!!!!

I am so thankful for this new inspiration.

And here is the full layout. It has been a long time since I have done a physical/traditional Project Life page and boy did this feel good! I think a good mix of both app, digital, and traditional pages are in my near future!