by Debbie Hodge

What do you do when you want to get lots of photos onto your single-page layout AND you’ve got a good bit of journaling to add? Here are 4 ideas for pulling it off –even when you think there isn’t any room.

1. Use longer text lines

Longer text lines can be harder for your viewer to read — but if you’ve got limited space and a story to tell, go ahead and fill a “strip” on your page with journaling.

In keeping with the shaped cluster design of “As Evening Touched the Leaves,” I tucked a strip of paper with journaling beneath the left edge of the cluster.

As Evening Touched the Leaves by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Contessa Paper Pack by Jesse Edwards; Just Linens Paper Pack No. 01, Aaron Solids Paper Pack, Just Linens Paper Pack No. 02 by Maplebrook Studios; Filed Photo Frames No. 04, Nana’s Buttons No. 02 by Katie Pertiet; Today Mini Stitched Tags by Ali Edwards; Stitched by Anna White No. 01 by Anna Aspnes; Fasten Its! No. 03 by Pattie Knox; Worn Photo Edges. Worn Edges Mixed by Lynn Grieveson; Title is from poem by William Stafford

2. Use shorter text lines

Got a border but don’t want to use long text lines? Don’t want to turn things 90 degrees? Use shorter text lines and fit it in.

Since the border that could house my journaling on “Afternoon on the River” sat to the left on my photoblock, I decided to right-align the journaling. This strengthened the line along the left side of the photoblock, and it avoided a very jagged and long piece of white space between journaling and photo block.

Afternoon on the River by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Interlude, Westover by One Little Bird; Just Juicy by Lynn Grieveson; Treasured Moments by Krista Sahlin & Sugarplum Paperie; Brushed Alpha No 3, Collageables No 4 by Katie Pertiet; Storyteller by One Little Bird and K Wilson

3) Break it up and put it in multiple spots

Journaling doesn’t have to sit in just one spot on your scrapbook page–and multiple journaling spots aren’t just for list journaling.

The story on “Finding Your Way” starts in a right-aligned block within this “casually blocked” design. It continues to an oval journaler and finishes at bottom right of the grouping. The western reader is accustomed to moving from left to right and from top to bottom on a page, and the organization of the three spots is consistent with this expectation.

Finding Your Way by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Around the Corner Paper Pack by Jesse Edwards; Spiced Jewel Elements, Torn N Tattered Scallop Strips by Anna Aspnes; King Me Kit, Thankful Kit, Flossy Stitches Yellow, Cold Springs Element Pack, Double Decker Element Pack, Hung Up Journalers, Naturally Krafty, Art Time Elements, Basci Paper Alpha by Katie Pertiet; Oval Journal Spots by Ali Edwards

 4) Put your journaling on a photo

Think you don’t have room for your journaling? Look around — just maybe your photo has some empty space to accommodate that story.

The sky on my edge-to-edge photo provided that spot on “From Grandpa.”

From Grandpa by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Rimmed Framers No. 01 by Katie Pertiet; Awanui Kit, Backyard Expedition Kit by Lynn Grieveson; Memory Grunge Strips by Ali Edwards; Prelude,Century Schoolbook fonts

The story told in words is an important part of your scrapbook pages. At Masterful Scrapbook Design, we lay out the big picture of scrapbook page journaling from developing content to the actual writing. We cover the ways to render it and how to make sure it’s working to strengthen scrapbook page design. Click here for the Journaling Issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design.

Related posts:

1. 10 ideas for placing scrapbook journaling on your page
2. Scrapbook page parts: journaling
3. 3 Ways to Include Dialogue in your Scrapbook Page Journaling

Is your title adding value to the page? Content and design are the keys.

A successful scrapbook page captures the viewer’s attention, controls the eye’s movement, conveys information, and evokes emotion. The title is one of the tools you have for achieving these ends.

Just as every sentence in a story should either deepen character or advance the action, every item on your scrapbook page should be pulling its weight. Every element you add to a scrapbook page should either deepen meaning or advance visual design.

Are you using titles this way? Make sure you’re not just slapping a title on a page because you think you should. Not every page requires a title. Read on for 4 ways you can use titles to make your scrapbook pages better.

1. Use scrapbook page titles to cue subject

There are times when your focal point and or scrapbook page photos don’t immediately help the viewer understand what the page is about.

“10 Things in July” is a text-heavy page with a photo that represents just one part of the topic being covered. The title is what makes it clear from the get-go that this is a list of 10 things on my mind in July, 2011.

10 Things in July | Supplies: Just Linens No 1 by Maplebrook Studios; Flossy Stitches Yellow by Katie Pertiet; Shutterbug Collaboration by The Digi Chick Designers; Yesterday Alpha by Lynn Grieveson; Journey Back Collection, Apple of My Eye Collection by Vinnie Pearce; Artsy Fotoblendz No 1 by Anna Aspnes

2. Use scrapbook page titles to set tone

Both the content of your title as well as the materials and styling you use for rendering it can set page tone, which makes the page more immediately accessible to the viewer.

The title “Coconut Coalition” paired with photos of my sons and mom fooling around at the table and eating cake tells the viewer there’s a story here that goes beyond just eating cake. The brightly colored alphas and casual fonts help the viewer understand that the story is a fun one. The result? The viewer is more likely to enter into the page, its journaling, and photos to understand just what was going on.

Coconut Coalition by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Artistry de Blanco Element Pack, Rubber Alphabet No. 02, Flossy Stitches: Green, Photo Corner Colors No. 02, Notebook Paper Pack No. 03, Oiselet Rouge Element Pack, Scallop Strip Masks, Doodled Block Alpha Brushes and Stamps, Pick Me Up Rub Ons, Labelled Journalers No. 02 by Katie Pertiet; Brad Bonanza No. 03: Digital Fasteners by Pattie Knox; Everyday Sentiment Strips Brushes and Stamps by Ali Edwards

3. Use scrapbook page titles as a path to deeper meaning

Great fiction tells us two stories: the story of the incidents at the surface and the deeper story of why these characters and their situation matters. Scrapbook pages can also tell two stories, and your title is one of the tools you have for getting at the deeper story.

“Here” is the story of a Thanksgiving gathering and of finding out friends are planning to move. It is also the story of why these characters living HERE in this place matters so to the narrator (me!). “Here” as a title, rather than “Thanskgiving 2011,” emphasizes where the real meaning is.

Here by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: The Daily Details by The Digi Chick Collaboration; Restoration by Gina Cabrera; Speech by Paula Kesselring; Flossy Stitches Brown, Journaling Strip Masks, Art Time Elements, In Words Brushes by Katie Pertiet; A Very Small Alpha by Allyson Pennington; Traveling Typewriter font

4. Use scrapbook page titles to strengthen visual design

A well rendered scrapbook page title contributes to the goals of catching and guiding the viewer’s eye in order to convey information and evoke emotions. Consider each of the 6 basic principles of visual design and see how to apply them with your titlework.

The title on “Finally Snow” immediately tells the viewer that there has been a wait for the snow featured on the page. The “snow” part of the title stands out because I’ve used the principles of contrast and emphasis to make sure it catches the eye. Repetitions of white at two other spots create a visual triangle that includes the title and creates flow through the page.

Finally Snow by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: 11:30am, 11:00am by Amy Wolff; Vintage Tickets by Quirky Twerp; Woodgrain Alpha by Crystal Wilkerson; Oh Joy by Paislee Press; Messy Slab ALpha by Cathy Zielske; Handcut Snowflakes by Valerie Wibbins; In the Loop 4 by One Little Bird; Words and Pictures Paper Pack, Woodsy Trees by Katie Pertiet

Related posts:

1. 10 ways to make a scrapbook page title
2. Roundup of Ideas and Tutorials for Scrapbook Page Titles
3. Place embellishments to support scrapbook page flow

Find ideas and how-tos for coming up with and rendering titles on your digital and paper scrapbook pages.

10 Creative Techniques for Titling Your Layouts (Aaron Morris) 10 approaches to coming up with a title for your scrapbook pages.

14 Ideas for Scrapbook Page Titles (Jennifer Wilson / Simple Scrapper) 14 layouts that will get you out of a scrapbook titling rut.

Terrific Titles for Scrapbook Pages (The Daily Digi / Katie Nelson) Ten layouts and ten tips for making scrapbook page titles.

9 Surefire Ways to Create Dynamic Title Work (Aaron Morris/Sir Scrapalot) Ok, so you have your title. Now the question is: how do you make your title “work” on the page? Check out 9 approaches for dynamic title work.

5 Ways to Make Your Own Ransom Alpha (Amy Kingsford)  A “Ransom Alpha” is an alphabet that is made up of mismatched letters and fonts.  While there are several ready-made products available for purchase or even for free, including everything from fonts to stickers to digital alphas, here are few ideas for designing your very own at home!

How to Come Up with Scrapbook Page Titles from Quotes, Famous Saying and Lyrics (Debbie Hodge) Discovering a movie title, a line from a song, a well-known phrase, or a lesser-known and eloquent line of poetry that connects your photos to their story is always satisfying. The following are ideas (and even a technique) for coming up with scrapbook titles that give your layouts extra punch.

Five Ideas for Creative Titles Video (Mou Saha) Creating Keepsakes contributing writer Mou Saha shares five creative ideas for scrapbook-page titles using letter stickers.

Scrapbooking Title Design Video (Scrapbook.com) Learn to use catchy and beautiful titles on your scrapbook pages.

Scrapbook Page Titles (Debbie Hodge) The beginner’s introduction to scrapbook page titles.

Stamped Text & Title Ideas (Scrapbooks, Etc.) Use your word and letter stamps and cool stamping techniques to create unique titles and journaling on your scrapbook pages.

Frosted Titles for Your Scrapbook Pages (Creating Keepsakes Magazine) To give your scrapbook layout the chilly look of winter, create a frosted title. Here are several techniques you can use to create this look, using a variety of supplies. Discover which one works best for you!

4 Formulas for Generating Scrapbook Page Titles You’ll Love (Debbie Hodge) A good title connects your photos to their story. When one doesn’t come to mind immediately, try one of these approaches.

20 Awesome Ideas for Making Scrapbook Pages Inspired by Movie Titles (Tami Taylor) 20 movie titles and ideas for adapting each of them to your own pages.

Related posts:

1. How to come up with scrapbook page titles from sayings, quotes, titles, famous lines & lyrics
2. 10 Ideas for Quick Scrapbook Page Titles
3. Scrapbook page parts: titles

by Debbie Hodge

The canvas is the piece of paper (or digital background) upon which you build your page. It’s what holds all of your elements, and it defines the space within in which you’re working.

One of the first scrapbooking choices you’ll make is of canvas size and shape. This choice is primarily driven by how you want to print, store, and present your scrapbook pages. Read more about common scrapbook album formats.

Your canvas defines visual space

Putting together a visual design (and a scrapbook page is a visual design) means combining elements within space.  Space is where your page elements coexist. Your canvas shape and size are what define the space within which you create.

Canvas size

An 8″ square canvas (layout on left) presents a 3.5″ x 5″ photo with smaller accent photo well. For a page with more photos, though (the page on the right), a 12″ x 12″ canvas provides the space to get more elements onto the page harmoniously.

Layouts by Debbie Hodge | Supplies below.

Canvas Shape

Combining your page elements in a non-square rectangular shape offers different design opportunities and challenges than those that come with filling a square-shaped canvas. One is not necessarily better than the other — they are just different. The rectangle is a familiar visual format, and there’s lots of design inspiration to be found.

non-square portrait-oriented rectangle

Most books and magazines come in non-square, portrait-oriented rectangular formats.

non-square landscape-oriented rectangle

Movie, television, and computer screens are usually non-square, landscape-oriented rectangles.

square

While we are less likely to view print and electronic media in square formats, the square is, nonetheless, widely used by scrapbookers. Albums and papers for both paper and digital scrapbookers are widely available in 12″x12″ sizes.

Layouts by Debbie Hodge | Supplies below.

Who says a canvas has to have corners?

For eye-catching impact, use a full-size die-cut once in a while. Because Tami Taylor usually leaves generous white space on her pages, she approaches a shaped canvas understanding that she’s only filling a portion of it. Dina Wakley has more ideas for using die-cut papers on scrapbook pages.

Bonding and Books by Tami Taylor | Supplies below.

 The Two-page Canvas

When scrapbook pages are presented in physical albums, two pages sit along side one another — like pages in a book. Many scrapbookers like making two-page layouts in order accommodate their photos and story and, frequently, because they like the look of matching pages facing one another in their albums.

One approach to scrapbooking two-page layouts is to consider the two pages combined as your canvas and consciously create a design that works with this combined space as one. May Flaum took the approach on “Pumpkin Love.” The orange print that backs up most of her photos spaces the two pages and unites them.

Pumpkin Love by May Flaum | Supplies below.

Another approach is to consider each side its own “canvas” or space to be filled, but to coordinate product and design so that the two side-by-side canvases complement each other.

South Pacific by Debbie Hodge | Supplies below.

Tell me:

What’s your preferred canvas size and shape. And, most importantly: why?

Related posts:

1. Scrapbook page parts: canvas
2. Blurring the line between photo and canvas adds design oomph to your scrapbook pages
3. Finding Room for Journaling on Scrapbook Pages with Lots of Photos

Pieced backgrounds are great ways to incorporate more papers and add interest to your canvas.

by Debbie Hodge

Your scrapbook page canvas is the base upon which you build your page.

You might use solid cardstock, patterned paper, a die-cut shape, a base altered with mediums like paint and ink, or – how about a pieced background?

Here are 4 ideas for starting your next scrapbook page with a pieced-paper canvas.

1. Classic pieced background

This is a classic pieced background format.

One-quarter to one-third of the page is filled with one paper; the remainder is filled with another; a narrow strip tops the area where they meet. The bands may run horizontally or vertically and sit to either side, top, or bottom.

This simple base lets you use more papers and add interest, yet is clean enough to support a busy cluster of elements as on “Silent Auction.”

 

 

 

“Silent Auction” presents photos, title, and several pieces of ephemera in a haphazard cluster mounted on a backdrop of kraft and gold-on-white patterned paper topped with a bold red strip.

“Silent Auction” by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Holiday Cheer, Round Robin by Lynn Grieveson; In the Loop Frame, Making a List by One Little Bird; Kitschy Christmas by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studios; Another Very Small Alpha by Allison Pennington; Stitched by Anna Brown Borders No 1; Massana Script, Cardo fonts

2. Blocked background (OR “Crazy Quilt”)

This pieced background could be a sketch for a blocked page, with the individual blocks providing homes for photos, title, and journaling.

What if, though, instead of filling those blocks with your primary page elements, you filled them with papers, and then built a cluster of photos, title and journaling that you layered on top of this base?

Or . . . think of this design like a “crazy quilt,” and use it as an opportunity to use several patterned papers.

 

 

When making “Hodge,” I selected patterned papers with yellows (and I let in just a bit of pink). This unified the background and kept it from overwhelming the photos and foreground elements. If your elements are getting lost on the “quilt,” add a swath of paint or ink. I used a digital “fotoblendz” by Anna Aspnes and clipped white paper to it to give my cluster a subtle foundation and help it stand out.

“Hodge” by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: La Belle Vie, PageKraft by One Little Bird; French Summer by Lynn Grieveson; Artistry de Blanco Element Pack, Academic Sanded Alpha, Oiselet Rouge Element Pack, King Me by Katie Pertiet; Oak Tree by Sarah Gleason; Brad Bonanza 3 by Pattie Knox; Stitched by Anna Cream, Fotoblendz No 5 by Anna Aspnes; Treasured Moments by Sugarplum Paperie; Masanna Script font.

3. Big contrasts

Rather than blocky rectangles with height-to-width proportions much like those of your photos, try using longer (or taller) pieces. Here, an 8” wide piece spans most of the height of the page and is flanked by 1.5” and .5” vertical strips. A narrow horizontal band sits below the wide center piece and two of its flanking strips, allowing the narrowest strips to span the entire canvas.

It makes a great backdrop for a complex cluster of elements surrounded by generous white space. The pieced background is the white space, and it’s unexpected and interesting.

 

 

I mixed simple patterns with kraft for my background so that the foreground would remain the focus.

"Sick Day" by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Star On Top by Amy Martin and One Little Bird; Making a List, PageKraft by One Little Bird; Brown Paper Packages by Krista Sahlin, Very Small Alpha by Allison Pennington; Designer Mixed, Cardo fonts

4. As middleman

Take that simple background in the first example and do something unexpected. Leave a narrow gutter instead of abutting the two pieces or topping them with a strip. Allow a margin or even bleed the grouping off one edge of the canvas.

With this approach, the pieced grouping is no longer your canvas base, but, rather, a foundation that comes between your canvas and your page elements.

 

 

 

The radiating stripes on the narrow band of patterned paper on “The Double-Nickel Birthday”  lead the eye into the grouping mounted on top of the pieced foundation.

“The Double-Nickel Birthday” by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Lemonade Stand by Taylor Made; Artplay Palette Rockstar by Anna Aspnes; Fall Fun Kit, Vintage Photo Frames No 26 by Katie Pertiet; Epic Kit by One Little Bird, Biograffiti, Paislee Press; Warm October Kit by Lynn Grieveson; Messy Slab Alpha by Cathy Zielske; Kreased Transfers by Anna Aspnes; La Belle Vie Kit, Westover Kit by One Little Bird; Photobooth Kit by Paislee Press; Australian Flying Corps Stencil, Cardo fonts.

Has this inspired you to create a pieced background? Or are you already making pages with pieced backgrounds?

 

We’re studying the Scrapbook Page Canvas in detail at Masterful Scrapbook Design with paper and digital designers who have ideas and techniques to share.

Join today for ideas and techniques that will have you scrapbooking with a confident eye and a skilled hand. $12.50 gets you a 40-page pdf seminar, 5 live webinars (with recordings), 7 focused articles, and 2 annotated galleries. Click here for more information.

Related posts:

1. 7 Ideas for using ephemera on your scrapbook pages
2. 10 ideas for placing scrapbook journaling on your page
3. Details to lift: 5 ideas to try on your own scrapbook pages

by Amy Kingsford

The time is upon us to take special recognition of those things in our lives for which we are grateful.  I personally have so much to be thankful for, and I am especially thankful to be celebrating my son’s first Thanksgiving holiday this year.  Below are a collection of quotations and a printable to aid you in scrapbooking what you’re most thankful for this year.  Enjoy!

Gratitude Quotations

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks”.  ~Unknown

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~Epictetus

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  ~Albert Einstein

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”  ~William Arthur Ward

“Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.”  ~Unknown

“The thing I’m most thankful for right now is an elastic waistband.” ~Unknown

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  ~Melody Beattie

“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep I count my blessings instead of sheep.” ~Irving Berlin

Gratitude Wordart  

Download pdf for printing.

Download zipped png for use on your digital scrapbook pages.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah.  She teaches at Masterful Scrapbook Design, Creative Passion Classes and also shares ideas, inspiration and instruction on creative approaches to modern scrapbooking and papercrafting at her site AmyKingsford.com

Related posts:

1. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Autumn
2. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Graduation
3. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Summer Pages

by Anna Aspnes

We now have the freedom to take as many photos as we like, and probably more than we need, especially during the holidays when we tend to overindulge in capturing the magic of the season.
The task of choosing photos for any project can quickly become overwhelming without a system in place for anticipating, assessing, organizing, selecting and managing your holiday photos.

an alternative to daily December scrapbooking

I struggle to keep up with any sort of daily scrapbooking project but like the idea of capturing moments when inspiration strikes. This year I will be doing a simple holiday album which is less chronological than a “December Daily” approach and showcases my holiday photos grouped by theme as opposed to date. I anticipate this fresh approach will allow me to capture our memories and keep my interest throughout the season so I not only complete a meaningful project, but also have fun doing it.

With the help of Katrina Kennedy’s Capture Your Holidays Through the Lens workshop, I’m banking on taking better holiday photos and intend to showcase them sprinkled with all my favorite holiday memories for 2011 using a collection of templates, The Holiday Album No. 1.

Katrina Kennedy scrapbooked "the lights" of her Christmas with one of the templates from Anna's "The Holiday Album No 1."

The tags on each template suggest an aspect (or theme) of the holiday to scrapbook, including: the lights, the food, festivities, preparations, details, gifts, and people. You can add your own topics, too. Read on for my tips for taking, organizing and choosing the photos to scrapbook this December.

Tips for choosing the holiday photos to scrapbook

1. Anticipate

If you know you’re going to be doing a holiday project, then anticipate and plan ahead for the holiday activities, events, moments, and scenes that you want to capture. Make a list and have this on hand to keep you focused on your photography goals this holiday season. Use the title prompts in The Holiday Album to help you formulate your list.

2. Assess

Download your photos often and look at those photos one by one so that you can see exactly what photos you’ve taken. This allows you to keep track and plan for those shots that you’re missing. It also breaks down the task of going through the photos all at once at the end of the season. I like to use my Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to view my photos and I usually run through any given batch of photos a number of times to be able to give them the attention they deserve.

3. Organize

I use a folder system on my computer to begin grouping and organizing my photos. Create a new folder in convenient location on your hard drive and create 10 or more subfolders within that folder. I will name mine *Holiday album 2011* and rename the subfolders using the title prompts on each page of the The Holiday Album. You can also come up with your own list. Each subfolder co-ordinates with a double page spread in the album and will help me categorize and house my photos according to theme until I’m ready to populate the templates. You may also consider creating 2 more subfolders within these subfolders to accommodate the photos for each side of the double page spread.

4. Select

I copy my favorite images into these subfolders according to theme. It’s important to use a copy of any given image and leave the original photo your library of photos for safe keeping. The criteria used to select an image will depend on your personal preference. What constitutes a favorite or meaningful photo is completely in the eye of the beholder.

I personally like to ask myself the following question as I assess each image: a great quote by Julian Barnes:

Does it interest the eye, excite the brain, move the mind to reflection, and involve the heart?

These words always lead me to selecting the most meaningful photos for my pages.

Life gets a little crazy during the holidays and a little forward planning in your life can go a long way in making the holidays less stressful and more enjoyable. The same is true for your scrapbooking. Don’t let some of the best moments and interactions of the year pass you by. This time of year signals the end of a year, regardless of whether you even celebrate a Holiday. How you spend this time, the reflections you make, the relationships and interactions you have with the ones you love, are all core to this sport we call scrapbooking.

This is absolutely an opportunity not to be missed.

Related posts:

1. Scrapbooking Travel: how to organize an album for a “Being There” trip
2. 25 photos to take this December | Katrina Kennedy’s ideas for December Daily shots
3. Alternatives to the traditional scrapbook album

Scrapbook and art journal pages allow us to tell stories – of ourselves, the people in our lives, and sometimes even of characters we imagine.

The imagined stories fiction writer Caroline Preston has told in her novels have been heavily inspired by her love of the vintage scrapbooks in her own family and the manuscripts and ephemera she studied and preserved in her work as an archivist at at the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Peabody/Essex Museum and Harvard’s Houghton Library.

Caroline’s novel Jackie by Josie was drawn from her (brief) researching stint for a Jackie O. biography. Gatsby’s Girlchronicles F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first girlfriend who was the model for Daisy Buchanan. In The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt Caroline has drawn from her own collection of vintage ephemera to create a novel in the unique form of a scrapbook: a scrapbook novel.

In the webinar recording below, Caroline shares vintage scrapbook pages, a look at many pages from her new novel, and pictures of ephemera she collected for the book. She also answers a whole bunch of questions from our audience about the book’s making as well as tracking down and purchasing ephemera.

Caroline has agreed to come back soon for another webinar in which she’ll share more of the vintage scrapbooks she’s collected and talk about what we can learn from them that’s relevant for our own scrapbooks. Click here to get on our mailing list and receive notice of the event.

Check out Caroline Preston’s website for interviews, links, a blog with peeks at her favorite ephemera finds, and even a video trailer for the book by clicking here: scrapbook novel.

Want to make sure you’re collecting today’s ephemera and recording current times in your own pages? The October issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design covers this topic with ideas from paper and digital scrapbookers Kelly Purkey, Doris Sander, Paula Gilarde, Lynnette Penacho, and Keandra Willis. Seminar and article pdfs and 6 webinars in video, audio, and transcript formats. Cost $16. Click here and get “the times” in your own albums.

Related posts:

1. 7 Ideas for using ephemera on your scrapbook pages
2. Story Forms for Scrapbook Pages: Tell a Journey Story
3. Story Forms for Scrapbook Pages: Tell a Slice-of-life Story

by Amy Kingsford

Fall is my favorite time of year–the crunching of leaves under my feet, the smell of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies baking and the beautiful scenery that stretches across the mountain side.  Below are Autumn-inspired quotations and free printable word art to help you scrapbook the season!

Autumn Quotations

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the country slowly changes from their summer cottons into its winter wools.” ~Henry Beston

“October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came – The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band.” ~George Cooper

“Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is is change.” ~Edwin Teale

“By all these lovely tokens, September days are here. With summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” ~Unknown

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” ~Emily Bronte

“Autumn the year’s last and loveliest smile.”  ~William Cullen Bryant 

“Thoughts of love like falling leaves, swirling through the autumn breeze.” ~Unknown

“Oh Autumn how I have missed you.  Cool nights, sunny days, school starts and summer fades.” ~Caroline Glen

Autumn Wordart

Download pdf for printing.

Download zipped png for use on your digital scrapbook pages.

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah.  She teaches at Masterful Scrapbook Design, Creative Passion Classes and also shares ideas, inspiration and instruction on creative approaches to modern scrapbooking and papercrafting at her site AmyKingsford.com

Related posts:

1. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Summer Pages
2. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Gratitude and Thanksgiving
3. Quotations and Word Art for Scrapbooking Spring

by Doris Sander

The saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  And I could not agree more!

I often say that photos speak to me. I know this sounds a bit odd, but let me explain what I mean by that comment.

As a scrapbooker, one of the ultimate  joys in my life is capturing a great set of photos. I love loading them onto my computer so I can revel in their details and relive the happy moments.

“The Bug Hunter” celebrates a recent outing that my son and I shared. I’ve documented it by stringing my favorite photos from that day along a line of festive pennants.

The journaling reads, “One of your favorite activities each spring is to go bug hunting at the park. You are not concerned with your attire, only your gear, so boxers and black socks are ok.”

I could totally stop here with this whimsical multi-photo layout– after all, I’ve gotten the memory recorded. However, here is where the photo speak comes in.

I went back to these same photos for my layout “Biologist” because there was still more of this  memory I wanted to share.

Those black dress socks broadcasting my son’s lack of fashion sense reminded me of an old college friend who was a total science geek. I have many fond memories of walking in the park with him on Sunday afternoons and you guessed it . . . he’d leave his black church socks on with his shorts and simply could not understand what the big deal was. I was delighted by this memory and the thought of my boy growing up to be an awesome science geek too.

 

The journaling reads, “I was so amused by your attire when we went to the greenway after church this day. It reminded me of another guy . . . inside out tee, boxers, and black socks with your tennies . . . typical scientist. When I was in college, one of my friends was a biology major who bred poison dart frogs and kept a beehive in his apartment. We’d go walking in the park after church some days and he’d change into shorts and a t-shirt, but leave his black dress socks on with his tennis shoes. I thought it was so funny and he just didn’t get the point of the fashion faux pas. To him it was a waste of time and energy to change a perfectly good pair of socks just because of the color. His scientific brain couldn’t get the concept and his absent minded professor mentality contributed to the problem. I think you are the same.”

 

I know my son will really get a kick out of reading this some day and knowing the full meaning behind this page. This is actually one of my favorite type layouts to make too–because comparing the past and the present gives a very thought provoking spin on your journaling.

Now I really was done scrapbooking with this set of photos. I already had two layouts that I loved from an afternoon of chasing butterflies. But then I had a bad week. To get things back in perspective, I decided that I needed to remind myself of all the blessings in my life.

This started out on my blog, and since I can’t blog without a picture, I looked through my photo files for an appropriate photo to go with my journaling. The title of my blog post was, “In the Pursuit of Happiness,” and I found myself reaching for these same butterfly photos because they fit my thoughts so perfectly.

 

The journaling for this layout comes from my blog post about choosing happiness.

 

This layout is another one that I really want my son to read when he gets older as it shares my views on something I think is very important in life . . . positive thinking.

I hope my thoughts here have given you a new perspective on some of your own favorite photos.  The next time you’re stuck on your journaling, try letting your photos speak to you! Maybe they will trigger a sweet story from your past or an insight that you would like to pass along to future generations.

You have a story to tell . . . let your photos help you tell it!

Doris Sander is a mother and teacher who currently calls Tennessee home.  She is the Director of Marketing for Jenni Bowlin Studios and has been published in Scrapbook Trends, Creating Keepsakes, BHG Scrapbooks Etc., Memory Makers, and Cards. You can see more of Doris’ work and learn about her classes on page design at her blog  {me}anderings.

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3. Scrapbooking Stories on two-page layouts