Creating Keepsakes The Scrapbooker's Handbook

GETTING STARTED: MUST HAVE TOOLS & SUPPLIES

Scrapbooker’ s HANDBOOK 150+ The

SPECIAL ISSUE

LAYOUT TIPS USING Photos Supplies Journaling Design Titles & more

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 7

EDITOR’S NOTE

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THE HOW AND WHY OF SCRAPBOOKING Discover your scrapbooking style and motivation

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES Study the elements of composition, flow, and balance in your layouts

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COLOR CHARACTER Learn how to create the perfect theme and mood through color.

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SKETCHES Plan ahead with a blueprint design for your layout.

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SUPPLY SAVVY Explore ways to create with commonly used supplies.

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TITLE TREATMENTS Draw interest with an inspiring title or title treatment

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JOURNALING Share stories through creative journaling options

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FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY See beyond the ordinary and capture the unexpected

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QUICK LOOK

ON THE COVER Best Day Ever by Jodi Sanford for Fancy Pants Design (p.75)

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THE HOW AND WHY OF SCRAPBOOKING Understanding your scrapbooking motivation is an important part of enjoying the hobby and making the most of your efforts.

Do you capture those everyday moments and track your life in chronological order? Or maybe it’s the trigger of a special occasion or major event that gets you into your scrappy space.

Along with why you scrapbook, equally important is how you find your creative inspiration—is it the photos you’ve taken? Are you formulating the journaling in your head the minute you click the shutter? New product can also light your fire, and the excitement of a new paper collection may be all it takes to get you sifting through your stash. Pull it all together with the right tools for the task and you’re ready to rise to the next level, so turn the page and get right to it!

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES The foundation to building a great layout.

From architecture and ads to sculpture and scrapbooking, design principles are in every art form and key to creating a well-rounded masterpiece. Flow, balance, and visual triangles all come into play in good design. The trick is learning how to put them all together.

Chances are you’re already incorporating many of these principles without even knowing it, and with this quick guide by your side you’re sure to be a pro in no time at all.

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Balance A well-balanced layout means that your project has an equal distribution of visual weight. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your page is symmetrical, rather it means that the size of your photos and title, weight of embellishments, and colors don’t overwhelm one another.

The balance eachh other but h asymmetricall grids d in this h llayout not only l b l h b also successfully create just the right amount of upper and lower white space (see p. 28 for lessons in white space and p. 33 for more on grids). The photos are the key players in this design and work well with medium-sized letter stickers for the title and an embellishment cluster of similar visual weight.

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Soccer Season by Stacy Cohen. Supplies: l Cardstock: American Crafts and Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned paper, buttons, and stickers: October Afternoon; Chipboard: Advantus, BasicGrey, and October Afternoon; Tags: Maya Road and Ranger Industries; Stamp: Lawn Fawn; Ink: Tsukineko; Paint: DecoArt; Hemp: Darice; Pen: American Crafts; Font: Verdana; Adhesive: Beacon Adhesives, EK Success, and Tombow; Other: Baker’s twine and thread.

COLOR CHARACTER Add sophistication and personality to your layout.

The colors you choose in your layout speak to the theme and feeling you want to convey. Knowing how to combine different hues can ensure you’ve created the perfect mood for your layout. That doesn’t mean you have to go with safe or expected colors; on the contrary, this is your opportunity to try new and daring ideas on your projects.

Learn from the color terms and layouts in this chapter and see what combinations inspire you.

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Monochromatic

The ombre look is a great demonstration of monochromatic color. You can show gradual change on an accent or utilize an entire background.

Find a preprinted ombre page or cut strips from a variety of papers.

Adhere these directly on your layout or use stitching for more texture.

Place translucent supplies—acrylic or vellum—over your colors for a dash of visual interest without changing the monochromatic color scheme.

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You Shine by Andrea Friebus. Supplies: Cardstock: American Crafts; Patterned paper and staples: Advantus; Banners: Heidi Swapp; Stickers: American Crafts, BasicGrey, and Echo Park Paper Co.; Chipboard and spray ink: Studio Calico; Die cut: Glitz Design; Brad: Fancy Pants Designs; Paint: Tattered Angels; Pen: Newell Rubbermaid; Adhesive: Michaels, Ranger Industries, and Tombow; Other: Vellum.

SKETCHES Use these approachable designs to jump-start your layout Even when you know good design principles it can be hard to fill an entire layout. That’s where CK Sketches come in. Think of sketches as a jumping-off point to help guide your photo placement, amount of journaling, and overall design. Take a literal approach and follow the exact placement and sizing of items (photos, journaling, accents, etc.) featured on the sketch, or put a spin on the ideas provided by the sketch and rearrange or substitute elements. Wanting to show you just how versatile a sketch can be as a scrapbooking tool, we’ve asked three designers to create pages from a single sketch. With three complementary sketches provided here, that’s nine original ideas to get you inspired.

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Literal A great place to start on your sketch is with 4� x 6� photos; look for options that allow you to use your uncropped shots as well as one or two places for smaller detail shots.

Remember that even literal interpretations leave you creative license with embellishments, like the addition of flowers on the banner.

Basil by Jing-Jing Nickel. Supplies: Patterned paper: Echo Park Paper Co. and Little Yellow Bicycle; Chipboard: Little Yellow Bicycle; Stickers: We R Memory Keepers; Die-cutting machine: Silhouette America; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L; Other: Marker.

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SUPPLY SAVVY Inventive Ways to Use Your Go-To Products There’s more to making a layout than just cutting and pasting. It’s being able to see the artistic potential in everything around you—to not only know what the go-to products are, but to actually know how to use them. But with all the options out there, do you ever feel like you get boggled by buttons or disheartened by doilies? The following pages will explore ways to create with commonly used supplies—both traditionally and creatively—to make the most of your vision.

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Buttons: Mixy-matchy is the new thing.

Anyone who works with buttons knows there’s always the “odd man out”—the oversized or odd-colored piece that usually ends up in the back corner of a drawer. Use all shapes and sizes in a cluster that shows off just how cool quirky can be.

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DESIGN TIP: For a bit of consistency, spray paint your buttons to match the color scheme of your layout.

You Did It by Kim Watson. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper; Patterned paper: Elle’s Studio and Fancy Pants Designs; Chipboard and stickers: Heidi Swapp and Simple Stories; Buttons: Fancy Pants Designs; Tags: Chic Tags; Wood veneer: Freckled Fawn; Dies, ink, and stamps: My Favorite Things; Die-cutting machine: Fiskars Americas; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, Therm O Web, and Tombow.

TITLE TREATMENTS Easy ways to draw attention to your layout.

Just like the first few pages of a stellar book can ignite your interest, a great title or title treatment on a scrapbook layout can entice someone to take a closer look at the photos and journaling on your page. This all-important headline is an often overlooked element that is sometimes placed on the page as an afterthought.

With a little bit of attention and inspiration, your title can be the first thing that jumps off the page!

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Leading & Kerning: The spacing of titles, both between lines (leading) and between characters (kerning)

Choose your leading and kerning based on the theme of your layout. In this layout it seemed only fitting to bring the point home by adding a squeezed-together title. The spacing between the letters and lines is so minimal, you can feel the love from the squished poses in the photos.

Just as small kerning can make a title feel squished, large kerning gives each letter room to breathe and also demands attention from the viewer.

Here, the different colors in the word COLOR each stand out because of the added spacing.

Color Everywhere by Teri Anderson.

Supplies: Cardstock: Neenah Paper; Patterned paper and stickers: Simple Stories; Rhinestones: Queen & Co.; Chipboard stars: American Crafts and Studio Calico; Marker: Copic; Stamp: OfďŹ ce Depot; Ink: Tsukineko; Font: Century Gothic; Adhesive: 3M and Tombow.

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Squeeze Together by Terri Davenport. Photo by Theresa Board (center on right-hand page).

Digital Supplies: Software: Adobe; Patterned paper, brads, frames, and safety pin: Katie Pertiet; Font: League Gothic.

JOURNALING Start your journey today.

Photos, products, and design all play an important part of telling your story, but don’t leave out the journaling that can tie it all together—whether in capturing a feeling, jotting down important details, or simply giving a name to the faces that mean so much to us.

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FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY See beyond the ordinary and capture the unexpected Find yourself taking the same photos of holidays, birthday parties, and back-to-school outfits year after year? In this chapter, we’ll teach you new ways to photograph the events and activities that make up your life by highlighting photo opportunities you may have missed before. Learn to document the things that matter most in more innovative and interesting ways. Through detail shots, different camera angles, and a new perspective, you’ll find ways to tell your story in new, exciting ways!

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