• I cannot forget my mother. She is my bridge. When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely. -Renita Weems
• Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. -Gail Lumet Buckley
• The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. -Rajneesh
• There is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. – Jill Churchill
• Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. -Ambrose Bierce
• Making the decision to have a child-it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. -Elizabeth Stone
• My mother loved children – she would have given anything if I had been one. – Groucho Marx
• A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. -Emily Dickinson
• A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. -Victor Hugo
• A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review. -Robert Brault
• Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. -Erich Fromm
• Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed. -Linda Wooten

On the 1st Friday of each month, Tami Taylor gives you a sketch and shows you how she’s scrapbooked the past month. She’s also got  prompts for gathering memories in the upcoming month so that you can get your photos scrapbooked “one month at a time.”

This month was a roller coaster ride of emotions.  The highlight was an unexpected moment.  At the last minute I decided to go to my husband’s baseball game. It was so much fun seeing him out there playing well and enjoying the camaraderie of his team (my husband is by nature not social).  It was even more fun that he got the most amazing hit of the game and was just shy of hitting the ball out of the park by about 15 ft – and I captured the swing on film!

With a roller coaster there are both ups and downs, and my month did include upsetting events. When I’m ready to scrapbook about them, I’ll use this article for inspiration on approaching them: 20 Lessons on Scrapbook Page Journaling

I really love making one-month-at-a-time pages because it makes me take a moment at the end of the month to look back and think about what the month was like.

For this month I used a page from Emily Pitts to inspire my sketch.  You can find the original page, “Work It Baby,” at EasyScrapbookPages.com.

Here’s how my month looked:

Are you ready to get this past month scrapbooked?  Here’s the sketch and a few tips:

Click here to download the zipped psd file

Click here to download the pdf file

Get Ready for Next Month

Here the “By the numbers” sheet to help you keep track of the month:

Click here to download the By the Numbers pdf.

Want just the “Dozen Things” list?  Click here.

 

Love sketches and layered templates? We’ve collected 30 of our most popular sketches and layered templates for you to download for FREE along with an easy-to-reference (and hyperlinked) pdf that shows them all with sample finished pages. Click here to download today.

 

 

Hallmark Images for  Easter   |   Easter Sayings and Phrases   |   Fonts for Easter Pages

This series provides “starter” lists for making scrapbook pages on a particular subject. Each post includes a list of hallmark images and motifs associated with the theme as well as phrases and sayings, and fonts well-suited for the subject. Use these “starters” to jumpstart your creative process and come up with layout ideas. It’s all about the quickstart — check it out and see where it takes you.Click here for more themes.

Hallmark Images for Easter

Sources: Images from iClipart and background paper from ArtPlay Palette Blossom by Anna Aspnes

• Eggs
• Bunny
• Grass
• Cross
• Basket
• Jelly Beans
• Easter Lily
• Bible
• Chicks
• Lamb

Easter Sayings and Phrases

• Happy Easter
• Eggs-travaganza
• He is Risen
• Some “Bunny” Loves You
• Hip Hop Hooray!
• Easter Sunday
• For Peeps Sake!
• Got Eggs?
• A Basket Full of Blessings
• Dressed in Our Sunday Best

Fonts for Easter Pages

Carrington

Easter Fun by Tom

Jelly Bean 

Amadeus

Olde English

On the 1st Friday of each month, Tami Taylor gives you a sketch and shows you how she’s scrapbooked the past month. She’s also got  prompts for gathering memories in the upcoming month so that you can get your photos scrapbooked “one month at a time.”

I warned you this month was going to be packed for me.  As the sketch shows, I needed photo room.  I was inspired to create a ‘quilt’ themed sketch.  I can use this sketch later with less photos and just fill blocks with paper – but this month I used every square I could.  I wanted the layout to show how absolutely busy we were in March.

Here’s how my month looked:

Are you ready to get this past month scrapbooked?  Here’s the sketch and a few tips:

Click here to download the zipped psd file

Click here to download the pdf file

When you take too many photos, learn to pick and choose what photos best represent an event, every day life, or a month of life.  Here are some great resources to use when you are approaching pages and have many photos to choose from:

• Organize Your December Album by Theme This Year
• Scrapbooking travel and vacation
• 3 questions to ask yourself when you make a scrapbook page
• Scrapbooking Stories on two-page layouts
• Masterful Scrapbook Design’s June Seminar:  Photos

Get Ready for Next Month

Here the “By the numbers” sheet to help you keep track of the month:

Click here to download the By the Numbers pdf.

Want just the “Dozen Things” list?  Click here.

Once you understand layout design principles AND the basic parts of a scrapbook page, scrapbooking gets easier and more fun. 12 lessons cover this territory with hundreds of layouts to illustrate. Click here to get lesson 1 today -- and then new lessons every couple of days -- all at no cost.

• We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.–Native American Proverb

• Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.–Motto of the Baltimore Grotto

Word Art designed by Amy Kingsford

Download word art zip file with PDFs and PNGs in both color and b+w

• I wanna touch the earth, I wanna break it in my hands, I wanna grow something wild and unruly–Line from Dixie Chicks “Cowboy, Take Me Away”

• Earth is what we all have in common–Wendell Berry

• Every day is Earth Day!–author unknown

• Go forth under the open sky and listen to Nature’s teachings–William C. Bryant

• He that plants a tree loves others beside himself–Thomas Fuller 

• Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair.– Kahlil Gibran

• When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. – John Muir

• Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.–Joseph Conrad

Once you understand layout design principles AND the basic parts of a scrapbook page, scrapbooking gets easier and more fun. 12 lessons cover this territory with hundreds of layouts to illustrate. Click here to get lesson 1 today -- and then new lessons every couple of days -- all at no cost.

Hallmark Images of Spring   |   Spring Sayings and Phrases   |   Fonts for Spring Pages

This series provides “starter” lists for making scrapbook pages on a particular subject. Each post includes a list of hallmark images and motifs associated with the theme as well as phrases and sayings, and fonts well-suited for the subject. Use these “starters” to jumpstart your creative process and come up with layout ideas. It’s all about the quickstart — check it out and see where it takes you.Click here for more themes.

Hallmark Images of Spring

Source: images from iClipart; background paper from ArtPlay Palette Easter Bunny by Anna Aspnes

• chicks
• clover
• daffodils
• tulips
• umbrella
• butterflies
• birds
• ducks
• gardening tools
• bunny
• lamb
• iris

Spring Sayings and Phrases

• Hello spring flowers
• Spring fever
• Spring is in the air
• Feels like spring
• April showers
• Puddle jumper
• Spring has sprung
• Mud season
• Spring in my heart
• Daffodil time
• Fresh as a daisy

Fonts for Spring Pages

Lavanderia

Cumulus

Pacifio

Grutch Shaded

Chick

Once you understand layout design principles AND the basic parts of a scrapbook page, scrapbooking gets easier and more fun. 12 lessons cover this territory with hundreds of layouts to illustrate. Click here to get lesson 1 today -- and then new lessons every couple of days -- all at no cost.

Once your child is a teen, the photos you get, the stories you have to tell, and the permission you might just need to scrapbook those stories all change.

This week on Paperclipping Roundtable, I joined Noell and Izzy Hyman, Ana Cabrera, and Nancy Nally to talk about scrapbooking teens. Take a listen and check out these 7 ideas for scrapbooking teen boys from past teachers at Masterful Scrapbook Design.

 1. Scrapbook a “portrait” of your teen boy

Emily Pitts used this photo of her son with his chin up and looking off — as if in to the future — to create a portrait of him at 13, on his way to becoming a man. Emily used a  diagonal striped paper that keeps the eye moving in the same direction her son’s  looking. Her journaling notes the changes he’s going through, with his voice deepening, the peach fuzz on his upper lip, and his attitude about  new responsibilities.

Layout by Emily Pitts | Supplies: Patterned papers: Simple Stories and My Mind’s Eye. Alphabet: Girls’ Paperie. kraft envelope, wooden rulers, chipboard frame, wooden bingo number, kraft clock, star pin: Maya Road. Twine: The Twinery. Pen: Marvy. Thread: Coats and Clark. Adhesive: Xyron, Scotch.

2. Scrapbook his activities

Dina Wakley scrapbooked her oldest son in marching band. Dina says, “My oldest son plays the French Horn in the marching band, and we love marching season! It’s so fun to sit by the band in the stands and cheer on the football team. When I take photos at an event like this, I try to get a couple of close-up shots of my child, and I also try to get several shots of the action. For this layout I chose a photo of my son posing with his marching horn, a photo of him sitting by his friends in the stands, and a photo of him standing and dancing during one of the songs. Those photos helped give a glimpse of the event as a whole. When you take photos at an event, be sure to take close ups and action shots so you get a well-rounded record of what happened.”

Layout by Dina Wakley.

Photographing your teen at a sports event isn’t always easy. You don’t always get a shot you love. Keandra Willis had her football-playing teen run his moves in the backyard before the first scrimmage, and she got these great shots. Patterned paper with numbers styled like the numbers on a jersey, along with stars and a “Ready to Rumble” title all convey the football theme.

Layout by Keandra Willis

3. Scrapbook his position in the family

Betsy Sammarco’s son spent a long time reading to his cousin over vacation. Betsy says, “To convey the idea of him reading over and over, I used multiple photos. I chose one of the photos to be the primary focal point. Since I chose to keep all the photos in color and the same size, I had to do something different to draw the eye to the one focal point photo. In order to draw the eye to that one photo, I decreased the saturation of the other photos and matted the focal photo. The embellishments above the focal photo form a burst-like shape and frame the photo, drawing the viewer’s eye to it.”

Layout by Betsy Sammarco | Supplies: And She Wished by Betsy Sammarco | Supplies: Jenni Bowlin Studio Family Tree paper, Jenni Bowlin Studio journaling cards, Jenni Bowlin Banner Stickers, Jenni Bowlin Butterfly Banner Stickers, Jenni Bowlin Alpha Stickers, little red bling dots

Every time Melanie Grimes’ son is home from school, he must pose with his adoring little sisters. Melanie makes sure to capture this portrait each time.

Love Him So by Melanie Grimes | Supplies: Katie Pertiet -Paisley bouquets No 1, word strip lables No 3 - recoloured, Christmas village kit string, About the edge papers, taped together stacks No 01, Taped together stacks No 2, Vintage frames No 26, Maplebrook Studios - Jule Kit button.

 4. Scrapbook something he says

I’d been working nearby as my sons played cards. Finally I told Joshua to push back from the game and do his homework. He fought it, though, and when I got tough, he joked to lighten things up, asking, “Are you saying I’m some . . . Whimsical Procrastinator?” It took him a few seconds to come up with this silly label, and it was especially funny because I’d been poking fun at the names of the playing cards–things like “Mysterious Puppeteer.” He’s always quick to lighten things up with humor and this line is typical of the kinds of things he says.

Whimsical Procrastinator by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Lost World by ViVa Designs; Believe in Love by Cinzia; Air Time, La Belle Vie by One Little Bird; Flossy Stitches Brown by Katie Pertiet; Distressed Edge Overlays 9 by Anna Aspnes; GeoSlab703, Lavanderia, Grutch Shaded, Century Gothic fonts

5. Scrapbook something he’s made

Noell Hyman‘s son Blake wrote a screenplay based on “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and she used the actual screenplay to record the accomplishment. The screenplay is in side the page protector and the embellishment is adhered to the outside.

Layout by Noell Hyman

6. Scrapbook a fad he’s liking

Tami Taylor says, “Being friends with my sons and nephew on facebook is interesting, to say the least. In my newsfeed I see new photos on a daily basis. There are a lot of photo fads that come and go (think planking).”

None of these fads has stuck as long as the bathroom shot. There are at least four a week. My first thought is always to make sure the shots my son uploads do not show how dirty the bathroom really is. My second thought is that I would have taken a picture if he asked. But I realize it’s a moment to make silly faces, pose without being posed. This is them being themselves: carefree and silly.”

“To document this, I grabbed his photos from facebook. I think he’ll love this when he gets older. He can show his kids. I wonder if they’ll think it’s weird that boys took self portraits in the loo.”

Layout by Tami Taylor | Supplies: Supplies: Papers: Bazzill, Unknown. Alpha: American Crafts. Misc: Adirondack Spray Wash, Paint, Stabilo pencil.

7. Scrapbook him learning something new

When Isaac’s friend Lily had a dance party for her 13th birthday, he wanted to learn to tie a necktie himself, and so dug right in, trying over and over on his own until he finally came to his dad for help. I snapped a series of photos and love how they show Neil teaching him without actually touching the necktie. Chevron prints are great for guy pages.

Layout by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Artplay Chevron Crazy Life, Artplay Chevron Girl Craze, Artplay English Rose by Anna Aspnes; Red and Black, Butterfly Rubons by Jenni Bowlin; Rimmed Framers, Krafty Canvas by Katie Pertiet; Kingdoms Past by Tangie Baxter; Architectural by ArtyPants; Narrative by One Little Bird; Brad Bonanza No 3 by Pattie Knox; Kitschy Christmas by Sahlin Studio; Bebas Neue and Traveling Typewriter Fonts

Link us up to your boy and girl teen pages in the comments.

• The best mirror is an old friend. – George Herbert
• Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. – Jane Austen
• Friends have all things in common. – Plato
• A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• I get by with a little help from my friends – John Lennon
• It takes a long time to grow an old friend. – John Leonard
• One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. – George Santayana
• Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. – Aristotle
• You’ve got a friend in me – Randy Newman

On the 1st Friday of each month, Tami Taylor gives you a sketch and shows you how she’s scrapbooked the past month. She’s also got  prompts for gathering memories in the upcoming month so that you can get your photos scrapbooked “one month at a time.”

I know each month I comment on how quickly the month flew by. I’m never being dishonest, but I don’t think I have ever meant it like this past month. Yesterday was January, and now it’s March – and there was an extra day!

I wish I could say I spent a lot of time with family, but everyone in my family was busy this month. I’ve been busy getting new classes out at Creative Passion; my oldest is studying hard to pass his high school proficiency exams; my first grader took up piano lessons. The list goes on (and on).  When life gets so busy, it’s hard to be inspired to make art. I do a little each day in my five year journal and whine to my pal Pattie Knox.  She turned around and sent me a 2-page template to use this month to help ease my workload.  And I was reminded of how fantastic my friends are and what a lucky gal I am.

Here’s how my month looked:

Are you ready to get this past month scrapbooked?  Here’s the sketch and a few tips:

Click here to download the zipped psd file

Click here to download the pdf file

When you’re pressed for time, find ways to squeeze art in for yourself.  It will help you relax, refocus and keep the fun in life.   Cut corners if you need to:

• Use kits so you don’t spend time coordinating supplies.  You can purchase kits online or build your own.  Here’s an article on building your own paper kits but you can use many of the tips to build your own digital kits as well!
• Use sketches to kickstart your pages.  You can find sketches here at Get It Scrapped and Pattie Knox has several of her speed-byte templates (like the one she donated this month) available at Designer Digitals.
• Get details on how to speed things up in the areas of preparation, streamlining page elements, product choices, and process in the Fast Starts issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design.

Get Ready for Next Month

Here the “By the numbers” sheet to help you keep track of the month:

Click here to download the By the Numbers pdf.

Want just the “Dozen Things” list?  Click here.

Once you understand layout design principles AND the basic parts of a scrapbook page, scrapbooking gets easier and more fun. 12 lessons cover this territory with hundreds of layouts to illustrate. Click here to get lesson 1 today -- and then new lessons every couple of days -- all at no cost.

When you’re scrapbooking photos of people, you’ve got an opportunity to document and show more than is immediately obvious. The things the people in your photos are doing and how they’re doing them, what they say and how they say it, and even the items they’re holding or using or wearing may all point to more about their personality and contribute to a portrait that goes beyond the obvious.

Try these three approaches to scrapbooking portraits.

1. The Mug Shot

Scrapbook a “portrait” photo with details about your subject right now: age, date, interests, and preferences can all add up to one vivid in-the-moment portrait. Use colors, styling, and motifs that support your portrait.

On “Now You Are Six,” Melanie Grimes captures details about her daughter on her birthday: how she likes parties and jewelry and hairbands as well as what she likes to eat, how her friendships are, and even that her teachers adore her.

Now You are Six by Melanie Grimes | Supplies: Katie Pertiet - Watery Banners No 1, stamping strips love No. 01, Journal strips No. 01, polka dotty alpha, Black tab alpha, filed journaling labels neutral, aged strips alpha, Lynn Grieveson - Stormy weather Kit, font marydale.

 

Emily Pitts has used this photo of her son with his chin up and looking off — as into the future — to create a portrait of him at 13, on his way to becoming a man.

Boy at 13 by Emily Pitts | Supplies: Patterned papers: Simple Stories and My Mind’s Eye. Alphabet: Girls’ Paperie. kraft envelope, wooden rulers, chipboard frame, wooden bingo number, kraft clock, star pin: Maya Road. Twine: The Twinery. Pen: Marvy. Thread: Coats and Clark. Adhesive: Xyron, Scotch.

 

2. Action is Character

If Aristotle is right and “action is character,” then a look at what your subjects do and the choices they make is a great place to start to make pages that show who the people on your pages really are. When you’ve got photos from an outing, event, or everyday situation that you’d like to scrap, begin by asking what is/are your subject(s) doing. Connect this obvious action to what it says about the character or personality of your subject(s), including what it might say about attitudes, approaches, and just a general way of being.

Betsy Sammarco‘s “1 Reason” includes duplicates of the same photo: a photo of her husband with their dog. She used this photo of him and the way he is here as an opportunitiy to talk about how he had a dog when she met him, and that the way he took care of the dog was one of the reasons she began to love him.

One Reason by Betsy Sammarco | Supplies: Autumn Leaves Die Cut Daisy, Heidi Swapp Chipboard letters, Hamby Studios rub-ons, Jenni Bowlin Studio embellished butterfly, mini ric rac

 

My husband is so very disciplined and so very in love with riding his bike. Every year he sets a mileage goal, and when the good weather stretches into late fall, he’s especially happy. I made an effort to be out waiting for him on a November evening when he came home to get these shots that show his persistence.

Fall Riding by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Krafty Cuts Leaves No 1, Krafty Canvas No 1, Fall Fun Element Pack, Banner Saftey Tags No 1, Scallop Strip Masks, Lifted Leaves No 1 by Katie Pertiet; Folded Ribbon Bits by Pattie Knox; Autumn Moon Ephemera by Sahlin Studio; Journey Back Elements by Vinnie Pearce; Wild Weekend, To The Woods, Glitter Thread Stitches by Lynn Grieveson; Westover by One Little Bird; Fall and Halloween Handdrawn words by Ali Edwards

3. Curating Artifacts

Look to the items in your photos–clothes, toys, tools, trinkets–and think about what they reveal about your subject that may not be obvious from the photo alone. As in the allegorical paintings you might have studied in art history, these artifacts often function as a metaphor or symbol for something more, perhaps a preoccupation, a style, or a need.

I recently pulled up this old photo of my sons, and immediately noticed that Isaac had a stuffed animal in his arms and Joshua had . . . something that looked like a squirt gun. I asked him what it was, and even though it’s six years later, he immediately knew it was a cap gun. In the smaller photo, he’s holding a terra cotta warrior in his hands. He’s always done this — posed for photos with treasures presented, as if these treasures (which equate to his interests) are important to a portrait of him. And Isaac? Isaac has been a cuddly kid who loved soft and cute things from his earliest days.

What I Wouldn't Give by Debbie Hodge | Supplies: Darling Dear Kit by Creashens; File Box 3 by Paula Kesselring; Pull-out Journaling by Lynn Grieveson; The Daily Details by Digi Chick Collaborative; The Maple Origins, Nobile fonts.

 

When Betsy Sammarco saw her son’s prayer card so full of tic marks, she knew what he was praying for and what it meant. She used the actual prayer card with photos of her son to tell this powerful story of him, his faith, and his love for her.

He Prays by Betsy Sammarco

 

Go through your photos and find some portraits that you can take beyond what shows up in the photo.