ormolu

Scrapping Where You Live

How often do we scrap an event, or the same layout about the one we love, or something we own?

Throughout the last few seasons, and a commute that encourages me to walk through my city daily, I've taken notice of how much I love my city. I love the landscape, the people, my job, my home....I've been really blessed to have decided on a whim to move here over 10 years ago. I decided to scrap a few Instagram photos and name my layout "CHA" which is the airport code for Chattanooga.

I love little bits and pieces and layering, so the Fact or Fiction Flair Buttons,   Fact or Fiction People, Places, Things Flair and the Fact or Fiction Flappers were perfect for surrounding my photos.

I love the shine you get from the flair, and the contrast of the texture next to the matte paper.

This layout came together really quickly---just a few Ormolu pieces and a couple of pretty photos!
Hope this inspires you to scrap where you live, whether it's your city, your state or your home.

xoxo,

Stephanie

InLinkz.com

Project Life: Getting Ready

I'm pretty bad at long, drawn out projects, like December Dailies, 365 photos, and other popular projects. I have a difficult time setting aside time every day, week or month for documentation. That's why it's March 6th and I have yet to finish my second page of Project Life.

Part of me is disappointed, bummed that most people are on week eight and I've barely stuck my toe into the water. Then I stop and realize that it's not my style to craft every day, or get a project done simply to check it off my list. For me, these projects are how I feel about scrapbooking in general---quality, not quantity.

So this post isn't about my fifth, sixth or seventh week into Project Life, it's about my beginning.

I hoarded the silhouette tag from the Vignette line, and used it on my cover page:

And I'm sprinkling in a few Fact or Fiction Flappers, and Fact or Fiction Dots n' Spots:

And I think this is a great opportunity to throw in a few Fact or Fiction Flair Buttons:

And I'm fully planning on using a few Fact or Fiction Storytellers from the digital downloads section of the shop. This will make it easier to have a cohesive look and be able to print off as many tags as I want.

So don't get discouraged when it comes to project timelines. Take it easy and enjoy the process!

xoxo,
Stephanie

InLinkz.com

Journaling with a grid

I'm a very linear sort...in pretty much all aspects of my life. ;) I like clean lines and right angles and everything in its place. It comes as no surprise, then, that when I'm stumped on inspiration, I turn to grids.  In fact, when I initially posted about this field trip on my blog, I used a simple grid to include more photos. Because I dislike reinventing the wheel, I took that blog post and made it directly into a layout (using the exact same photos and journaling). Here's what I ended up with:

Starting from my grid of photos, I turned to Ormolu's awesome digital journaling tags. I mimicked the grid set up and used that for my journaling...coordinating the journaling for each picture on the corresponding tag. I like how it allowed me to include more specifics from my story and also appreciate how it keeps the journaling clear, leaving the viewer without confusion about which journaling goes with which picture. Fun!

(I created this layout, by the way, as a digital one and intend to print it out and include it in my album. I can already see spots, though, where I may actually add a few three-dimensional Ormolu products (like a flair button or fabric swatch) and make this into more of a hybrid layout. You could also just print out these journaling tags and include them directly on a paper layout.) 

So, have you done any journaling with a grid lately? ;)

- Amanda

InLinkz.com

Scrapping Outside Your Comfort Zone

I tend to scrap the same colors over and over again. Blacks, greys, greens, blues, teals, oranges and yellows.

For this layout, I decided to take some inspirationfrom this photo and the Ormolu Vignette Dots n' Spots and go with a sherbert/brown color scheme.

I used lots of layering with this one, making flags out of stickers, adding on wooden buttons, cork and using foam dots for dimension.

 

I love how the simple tag brought me full-circle (pun intended!) with this layout. I simply needed to step outside of what I normally do!

Hope this inspires you to try something new on your layouts!

xoxo,

Stephanie

Love Letters

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you've had a little bit of chocolate with your morning coffee and are feeling an extra bit of love today. :)

For my post this morning,  I decided to make a layout that included a love letter to my firstborn son. I am SO proud of him- he's a great student, active in Scouting &  fundraising, and is an accomplished clarinetist at the age of 14. It hasn't always been an easy road, as he was a very strongwilled child growing up!  I used a favourite photo of him from that time, and in my letter, I wrote about how far we've come, how proud we are of him, and some words of encouragement for his future. I mounted my photo onto a 4x6 card that I stamped and embossed with Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamps, ( unused from another project)  and then used the inside of the card to write my letter, as I chose to keep the journaling hidden. For my title, I used the left over punch out letters from the 'Fact or Fiction' Negative Package Tags, and substitued the 'love' button  for the 'o' to complete my word.  I'll add in a photo of the inside of the card a little later, since my husband stole my camera this morning for a work related project. ;)

I hope this will inspire you to write a letter to someone you love, whether it's today on Valentine's Day, or any day. 

Enjoy!

~ Melanie

InLinkz.com

December Journal

So I hemmed and hawed for many days about doing a December Daily.  Last year I was a huge failure and it still sits in a heaping mess and probably will never be finished.  I do well with deadlines, but do horribly with a week or month long deadline!  Crazy, right?!

So I decided to take a different approach to a December Daily this year and instead of a daily entry I'm simply journaling about the holiday season.  We have a lot of fun once Thanksgiving hits so I'm just highlighting those fun things and traditions that we do during that time. 

I used one of the binders from the shop and just painted it off white on the front and the spine.   Then I lightly sprayed some Mister Huey Shine over the top of the dried paint.  A bit of paper, washi tape and Ormolu Merrymaker/Fact or Fiction goodies and I was happy with it!

I started my December Journal actually in November-go figure!  We start our holiday season of family and fun during the Thanksgiving holiday so I thought it was a great place to start!

Decor is becoming a big part of our holiday prep too.  After many years of collecting and after holiday sales I finally have a nice snowman collection to display each year.

Finally, although not holiday inspired, but definitely spirit inspired, a gathering of friends for a holiday run.  Love these ladies and had to document some time well spent with them!

I'm having such a better time this year with a no pressure holiday book.  Just journaling about our holiday season and adding beautiful Ormolu products to the mix!

For page protectors in this album I just went to Staples and bought these 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 page protectors and interspersed with trimmed trading card page protectors.

Thanks for letting me share!

 

InLinkz.com

Challenge | Thankful

Hi everyone!  Happy day-before-Thanksgiving! Today I wanted to share something a little different with you. It's not a layout. It's not a home decor project. I don't know exactly what it is.  I will be honest...my love of scrapbooking is often more about the process and the product than it is about the memory keeping. It sounds silly, but I really like paper and glue. It's like an art to me. I can't paint. I can't  I can't even draw a stick person to save my life.  I guess this is where I'm meant to be creative! So when I sat down with my plan to create this "project" about being thankful I didn't have a photo in mind. I didn't even have a specific story in mind. I just wanted to cut, and paste, and record.  So that's what I did. 

As you can see...no photos, no journaling (in the traditional sense)...just my "creativity" and my thoughts down on the page. It's a way for me to someday look back at some of the things I was thankful for at this time of the year. I had originally planned on using the 2-Day Hooray Number Button Embellishments for each item, but I soon realized that they would take up my entire page!  So instead I opted for a few here and there to add some dimension and color!  I love how it turned out and I plan to keep it displayed in my scraproom to enjoy.

So I challenge you to make something this week about being thankful.  It could be a layout, a project, or something in between. :)  Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends!

Scrapping Photos from Your Phone

One of the things I dislike about scrapbooking is that I have trained myself to not want to use any photo that hasn't been edited. Enter my handy-dandy new iPhone. I love that I can take photos, no matter where I am, email them to myself, edited and ready to go.

I took this photo outside the window of the break room at work a few weeks ago:

And turned it into a layout, using the Here and Now button from the Fact or Fiction line and the now discontinued (and much hoarded by me) Soft Petals tags:

So take that photo you randomly took on your way to work, or at home and scrap it!

InLinkz.com

-Stephanie

They Call it the Porter

In the middle of October, my husband and I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Atlanta to do some shopping, visiting and relaxing. While we were there, we met some of our friends at The Porter, in Little Five Points.

The Porter was probably one of the coolest restaurants I've visited in the city, and it also had one of the best menus I've seen lately. I was blown away by the choice of fare–salt and vinegar popcorn, goat cheese fritters with honey, pork belly cheesesteak....the list went on and on.

I find myself constantly taking photos of food, and this meal was no exception. I snapped a few Instagram photos, and was already planning the layout in my head:

 I layered the Ormolu Dots n' Spots with some paper scraps and the People, Places, Things Flair. I did a little stitching, misting and viola! A super-simple layout that will always help me remember our special weekend trip to Atlanta.

I even hid a little journaling inside the tie-string envelope.

I hope this inspires you to not only take photos of your food, but scrap them too! Remember, there are no little things...every day is worth noting.

-Stephanie

 

Ormolu products used:

Fact or Fiction Dots n' Spots

Fact or Fiction People, Places, Things Flair

Tip & Technique Tuesday | Planning Layouts & Titles using Tags

He Goes by Kaitlin Sheaffer

Ormolu supplies used: Go Dots n Spots, Excellence of Love Flapper, Line & Letter Scallop Tags in kraft, white flecked cardstock

Welcome to our very first Tip & Technique Tuesday! 

I have a few little tips and techniques to share that I used while creating this layout.

This layout came about while I was in the car (husband driving) on a mini trip this weekend. I managed to sketch out the basics of how I wanted the layout to form, the journaling and nailed down what type of photo I would be looking for when creating the layout. All in all- it took me less than thirty minutes to make the layout when I got home. Perfect! I always keep a pen and paper on hand with me while I am out and I even tend to carry it around with me at home.

 My favorite notebook as of recently is this wire bound notebook by Whitelines. It has a light grey background and white grid lines so it works great when I want to sketch out layouts or product design ideas. Looking at their website I see they have a new organizational notebook which I think will be the next one I pick up. Love these notebooks- I also see they have hardbound versions and different sizes...definitely will be picking more of these up. 

 

To make the layout I started a new document in InDesign (but this could also be done in Photoshop or even Microsoft Word). I knew I wanted an opening beside the photo for journaling and I also wanted to use a circle tag in place of the letter 'O'. In my document I drew a circle that was the same size of the tag I wanted to use and used that to judge the size of the title. Then I changed the coloring of the 'O' to white so that i would not print out or effect the spacing of the other letters. 

I also knew I where I wanted the photo so I drew a 4x6 rectangle to see how it would look on the page. I quickly realized I would not be able to use the remaining space how I wanted so I resized the rectangle to a 4x4 square to see how that would look. 

Once I saw the 4x4 photo space would leave enough room for journaling and allow me to place a 2x4 piece of patterned paper I started typing up my journaling. 

I also added a yellow rectangle at the top to see how the Line & Letter 'He' tag would fit.

Since it all looked like it would fit just great I went ahead and deleted everything but the journaling and title (making sure I deleted the placeholder for the 'o' which I would use a circle tag in place of). 

 After adhering everything to the layout as planned I decided I needed a bit of texture. I headed to my sewing machine to stitch over the Line & Letter Negative Scallop Tag. Instead of squeezing in the stitch above the word 'He' I decided to stitch over the word to give a bit more interest. 

Then I decided to add the date in the bottom corner of the photo. I cut a piece of a flapper from the Excellence of Love Flappers that complemented Jude's shirt  and stitched it on leaving a bit of an overhang on the photo, which I later used my fingernail to curl the edge a bit. 

Whenever I do stitching I like to use a liquid glue to seal it. I use this little glue pen and just dab the ends before I cut. I love this glue pen and use it on little things all the time! I also use some acid free tape on the back of the layout to tape down extra thread and to 'seal' the stitch. This way the thread doesn't creep into the hole and come undone or get messed up when I slip the page into a protector. 

Another thing I payed attention to while creating the layout were the visual lines. I used the pointy end of the Line & Letter scallop tag to draw a line down to the journaling. Originally I had planned to make the journaling directly below the 'letter o' (aka tag) but when I lined it up that way it lacked interest and threw off the sizing of the photo. Shifting it just a bit and using the scallop tag created more impact and allowed me to make the photo square so I went that route. 

I also chose to use hollow lettering in place of solid lettering for the title since the tag was going to 'fill' the letter 'o'. 

All in all this is one of my favorite layouts I have done lately. It seems to me my favorite ideas come to me when I don't necessarily have time to sit down and scrapbook- but rather I plan it while I am going about day to day tasks and create it when I have that time. My time seems less wasted and I have time to worry about the fun parts of creating a layout like what types of embellishments I will use :) 

- Kaitlin