Saturday, February 9, 2008

Work in progress

I've been wanting to scrapbook a trip for a while. In 1990, my grandmother and I took a bus trip through the British Isles. When she passed away in November of 2006, I asked that her pictures of the trip be sent to me, and my mother made sure I got them.

I wanted to do this project to really organize it, and to save the photos. The ones I have are stuck in a magnetic album, and only some can be removed. And some of them are fading. I used up three rolls of film, and I can only find the negatives for one of the sets.

So I bought lots of stickers and organized the photos (thank goodness both of us wrote details on the back of the photos!)

Stickers

Photos

And I bought an album just for this project - my first themed album.

The album

And everything just sat there on my coffee table. Eventually, I realized that my perfectionism was preventing me from starting. So I started last night. I decided to layout the photos, and then go back and add more details.

This is our first stop on the tour - Hampton Court Palace in London, England.

Hampton Court page

Hampton Court page

It feels good to have started!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Two challenges for one person

There were two challenges I wanted to try, and I ended up using both, to scrapbook pages dedicated to my favourite dancer, Vera-Ellen.
(If you're thinking "Who?", she is best known for appearing in White Christmas. I have a website dedicated to her if you want to know more.

The first challenge was, " Fill the entire background of your layout." I borrowed the idea I used for the banner on the Vera-Ellen website, and filled the background with black & white photos, to back a stunning colour photo I had from White Christmas.

Vera-Ellen scrapbook page

Vera-Ellen scrapbook page

Click here for largest version.

The second challenge came from Sisterhood of Scrap: "Create a layout-any size, or a card, with at least 3 different patterned papers and at least 3 hearts"

Vera-Ellen actually collected heart shaped items, so it was an easy decision to use this challenge to create a page to go with the other.

Vera-Ellen scrapbook page

Vera-Ellen scrapbook page

Click here for largest version.

There is a lot more scrapbooking I can do on Vera-Ellen - pages dedicated to my favourite of her movies for example. I wonder which challenge will inspire me next?

Figuring this out

I was working with teeny tiny stickers today - dots. I tried using tweezers to pick them up and move them, but I just ended up wearing the dots.

stickers1



It took some thinking of how to resolve this. "What if I cut the paper right next to the dots?"

stickers2



"And then I can slide the sticker off the paper and onto the page!"

stickers3


It worked! And I felt smart! :-)

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Newest project



Thanks to a bad cold and a brief foray into dating, I haven't been scrapping much. But I'm healthier and definitely solo (he broke way too many dates) so it's time to scrap again!

I decided to try this sketch that I discovered at Sisterhood of Scrap. This was a learning experience!

I've never had a problem before, transforming a 12"x12" layout to 8.5"x11". But the circle of flowers turned into a square. So I got out my brads and created a circle out of them.

I think some of the paper flowers crowd out the photo, which is what I wanted to be the centerpiece. And I was too sick to go buy chipboard letters for the title. But overall, I am satisfied with this page.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Mamma Mia layout

















Ever since I saw a performance of Mamma Mia this summer, my ticket from the show sat on my computer desk, asking to be scrapbooked.

There was one problem - photography wasn't permitted, so I didn't take any pictures. (I would have needed a serious zoom lens considering where I was seated even if I had felt like a rebel). So how do I scrapbook something when all I have is a battered ticket?

With all the recent excitement of the trailers for the movie version (coming next summer) (squee!) I decided to start at the official website, where I knew there were pictures of the actors.

Lo and behold, I filled three pages with bounty from the Internet.

First challenge - the performance I saw had an understudy (Whitney Claire Kaufman) in the part of Sophie. I wanted to scrapbook the cast I saw, so any press photos featuring the regular actress couldn't be used.

Second challenge - there have been cast changes since I saw the show, and one of the actresses no longer had her headshot on the official site. Fortunately, she has a personal website, so I could grab a photo of her from there (same photo as used in the programme - I would have scanned it as a last resort).

By Googling several reviews, I was able to find several press photos which I could use, including some outstanding high resolution ones. I also found some photos on Flickr, from a rebel who did take pictures of the show, and stole used part of one.







The "Mamma Mia" lettering was done on my Cricut. This was the first time that I used brads, and I really like them. It took a lot of research to create these pages, and I'm proud of them.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Why Solo Scrapbooking?

Welcome to my new blog! In which I shall document the world of a solo scrapbooker.

So what is solo scrapbooking? To me, it means scrapbooking from the single person's point of view. Or a person who doesn't have a lot of scrapbooking friends locally, and tends to use the Internet.

To me, it mostly means scrapbooking outside the box - scrapbooking about something other than one's family. Because if you look at scrapbooking magazines and websites, 99% of the layouts include a spouse and/or children.

My layouts are part of the 1% not including a spouse or kids. I'm a little tired of walking into Michael's and being confronted with all the wedding or baby stickers. I'm hungry to chat with others.

It's not that I hate married people or children. It's not that I think I am lacking something or that something is wrong with me. It's just that it sometimes feels that the scrapbooking industry doesn't know what to do with me. So I'm speaking up.

I am a single woman, with cats. I went to a crop once, and nobody knew what to chat with me about, because I was the one person who didn't have pictures of my children with me. They were relieved when I pulled out pictures of my niece and nephew. :-)
So I don't go to a lot of events. I prefer to chat online. And I am living a solo life. I am a solo scrapbooker.

It is my aim to share my layouts with you, that fit into that 1%. To challenge you to focus on you. To share resources. And to have fun. Because if scrapbooking isn't fun, what's the point?