Are you sick of the layouts yet? lol. I am on a mission to make three this week. Practice makes perfect, right?..
Today I have a layout to share featuring my oldest daughter, Autumn. I actually got a little sad making this one. She’s been living with her dad and step mom since last summer and I sure miss her face around here every day. She is a very dramatic and ’unique’ child who can be more than a handful at times and she may make me wanna jump on the crazy train within an hour of her being here, but it drives me nuts when she’s away! I feel so guilty that she’s always missing so much around here.. I mentioned in a post recently that I postponed our little ‘love party’ for the kids since hubby was sick and she wasn’t here.. well now she won’t be here THIS weekend either and we will have to do it without her. Her dad and step mom are going to visit some family that she doesn’t see too often, so I sucked it up and gave her permission to go along with them. *sigh*. I usually don’t share too much ‘personal’ stuff here.. but this split family stuff is for the birds! Seriously. I TRY not to be selfish when it comes to my feelings, but it hurts to be pushed aside for another weekend so she can do something else… especially when I really wanted her here for our little party. It bums me out to think that I might do a Photo Freedom page or layout about our little party and her cute little face won’t be in the photos. *pouts*
Now I see why they say scrapbooking is an emotional hobby. I eat my emotions.. and I felt like shoving a box of thin mints down my throat. Thankfully, I don’t have any crap food laying around… so I did the next best thing… drank coffee and made a cute little layout.
I used Echo Park Paper ‘For the Record 2′. I used a mix of brads and a little touch of flair. This layout was suppose to have journaling… journaling that was to be printed.. and welp, wouldn’t ya know my wonderful luck.. my printer won’t ‘feed’ the paper in anymore. I JUST bought this printer. This is the same thing that happened to my last printer. Grrr.. so irritating! Guess I will be calling Canon tomorrow. I do like it without journaling though!
I LOVE these photos of my daughter. She still has some baby face chub going on here.. which is now long gone.
THE DESIGN:
I notice I like to be ‘matchy matchy’ as much as possible. If the photos do not match the paper a bit, then I process them to black and white. The FTR2 collection had the PERFECT shades of blue with touches of black to match her dress and denim jacket. I toned down the colors of everything but the clothing to bring in the softer creams and browns in the other papers. She’s very pale so I think this all pulled together nicely. I used several brads, stickers, and chipboard to pull it all together. I created a sense of ‘movement’ with the flowers and doilies going down the right side of the layout. I then balanced that out on the left side of the layout. I added a simple title to the top and that’s it!
So… talk to me, peeps! If you make layouts are you a heavy journaler? I don’t think I could be. For one.. I hate, hate, haaate my writing. I feel the ugly writing would take away from the beauty of the layouts (for me). I wish I had that pretty loopy writing everyone else seems to have! Yes, I am jealous of others handwriting. lol. One of the EP DT members said it adds to the layout to have ‘your’ writing on it. I dunno.. while I agree, I know MY eyes would just go to the 5 year old looking writing. Hmmm. Then with my latest ‘fish face boy’ layout I printed my journaling.. LOVED IT.. buuuuut, I very rarely know what to say. I can’t say “I love you.. you make me smile.. you’re so cute” on every.single.layout. I can easily have things to say if it were a layout about a Disneyland trip or something.. a birthday party, etc. But what about those layouts where you just use the photos because you like them.. Nothing going on, just a cute kid. I know these are for ‘me’ and I can do whatever the heck I want, but I really am curious to what others do and how their mind works when designing.
Alrighty.. I’m off! Thanks for stopping by!
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About Happy Life, Crafty Wife
Gorgeous daughter and gorgeous page!!! I am sorry about your love party and her not being there. It is for the birds. But hang in there.
Tamara! You are becoming quite a pro at this layout thing! Way to rock it, girl. Can I share your adorable layout on my blog? It’s beautiful! Love what you did with FTR2. Hugs! ~Lori
Pro?… You’re too sweet! I dunno about that though, lol. But yes my dear.. share away!
This is a beautiful layout – I adore the colors and the embellishments you used – perfect.
As far as journaling goes – I am in the same boat – I just know my handwriting will detract from my layout (speaking from experience – sooo frustrating) so I usually just do my journaling on the computer, but then somewhere in a small corner I will handwrite the date and age of whoever is in the picture – that way the little personal touch is there – without there being so much of my handwriting on there to junk it up! Love the layouts you do – keep ‘em coming -
Hmmm, I do like the idea of just a date, name, etc.
Sometimes I journal….and usually my writing isn’t perfect or its best when I want it to be. Sometimes to remember the moment you just have to write something. Other times the words and stuff that come in a kit do just fine.
AND…your layout is great. Beautiful daughter…looks like her mommy!
Hi Tamara, I just love this layout, the colors in the photo do look great with that paper. I’m sorry to hear that your daughter won’t be able to join you at you love party : ( It’s funny what you say about journaling…I’m a scrapper part of the time, and when I do a layout I too find it hard to figure out what to say unless there is an actual story there. But as I was reading your post, I thought how perfect that would go as journaling on this layout. It may not relate to exactly what went on in the photo, but with you relishing your time with your daughter, it really makes the pictures in the layout that much more touching. Plus you’ll always remember what you were thinking about when you scrapped this layout.
Hmmm.. that’s interesting. That would add a little different aspect to it. never thought to write what I was thinking/feeling while creating the layout…. Love that idea too!
Your layout and your daughter are beautiful. But, Tamara, use your handwriting! Whether you like it or not, that is what your kiddos will remember and they will cherish it always. I very seldom computer journal. And, I try to incorporate the kiddos’ handwriting into our albums [lately, it's been mostly in Project Life]. It is always neat to go back and look at how things have changed — photos, styles, handwriting.
Journaling/layout ideas for photos that you just love:
– things children love at that age
– funny things a kid says
– favorites of the moment
– nicknames children are called or names used for their parents
– bond between siblings
Darling layout! I adore these papers and your daughter is adorable. I too don’t like the look of hand journaling and resort to using the computer for a more unified look. Sometimes when I just have cute pictures I journal about something my child likes or is obsessed with at that particular age or something that we are working through, like what you described in your first paragraph (formed as sort of a letter to her from you). I think it’s raw and honest and something she will appreciate reading when she’s older.
Thanks for sharing.
Excellent layout!
My recommendation to you is not to stress over journaling. Scrapbooking is such a personal endeavor. Some layouts tell the story for you. And sometimes you will feel inspired to write. I personally love journaling…I love telling the story behind the pictures I scrapbook. To me, its like writing in a regular journal, only with pictures, cute paper, and embellies.
There are several resources available to help with journaling for scrapbookers. Here are some of my top picks:
“What about the words? Creative Journaling for Scrapbookers” by Memory Makers
“Scrapbook Journaling Made Simple, Tips for Telling the Stories Behind Your Photos” by Memory Makers
There are many, many more!
Happy journaling!
VC
Lots of great advice above! I definitely am all about the storytelling and used to do it all with the computer and printer, but then I used to do a lot more hybrid scrapping, too, so that worked into the reasoning for me. I love the suggestion to use your blog post for journaling – I think that’s a fantastic idea! Also, I think that some layouts can just be : name, age, location, reason for photos, date and that’s it, especially when you’re just scrapping it because you love the pictures, but perhaps you can say that, too “I just loved these pictures because…”
One idea that sprung into my head was to journal small and with a subtle color and make it part of an embellishment cluster so that it might just look like lines on your LO, until you look closer and see that there are words…
Best of luck with your weekend without your daughter. I can kind of relate a little tiny bit and know that it hurts. ((((((hugs)))))) and lots of kisses for those who are there and for your daughter when you see her again!
I actually just did a layout where I used no journaling at all! It was super weird for me!