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Monday, April 20, 2015

Scrapbooking Beach Vacation




 Yes, I did have to get my bro's permission to put this on here. He thinks its creepy, but I think it's the coolest picture. Anyhow, our second vacation trip to Ocean City, Maryland included a night of eating crabs, or at least trying to eat them (we had nothing to crack the outer skeletons with)! As I'm writing this, I'm thinking of how I could've recorded the story in words for my page like I'm doing right now. Unfortunately, I'm not one to record the stories behind the pictures when I'm scrapbooking. But I really would like to start doing that more often. I'll most likely forget though, because it takes me the longest time just to decide on the layout of the page. I suppose that's maybe a good thing though.

 It's funny sometimes, to think that there can be so many different ways to paste a few pictures and some paper together. That's the challenge for me, when it comes to scrapbooking. Trying to incorporate new patterns, making a new page look different than the one I just did, keeping it fresh. All without breaking the bank on a hobby that I don't even do very regularly. There are a lot of awesome gadgets out there that are really neat and that I'd love to get my hands on sometime. But to tell the truth, if you gave me a jumbo book of scrapbook paper and a few stickers, I'd actually be pretty content. I find it enjoyable to utilize the huge array of endless patterns and colors of paper for my pages. There are just so many things that you can do with paper.

 So as you've gathered already, I don't have a bunch of fancy tools, but I do still have fun with it. And, of course, the most satisfying part about scrapbooking is when I look back on my scrapbooks years later, where all those sweet, priceless memories are stored and where the highlight of a moment is displayed with a splash of colorful design. That, for me, is the reward of scrapbooking.

 For our 2014 vacation, I plan to make two pages: One crazy-fun, bright and sunny page, and one calm, mellow, reflective page. As you can guess, the crab page is the fun one. The awesome paper from Michael's made designing this a cinch. I don't know if it's a recent craze or if it's always subtly   been there, but I've discovered that I really like polka dots. I'm not what one might consider a girly girl, but there's something about polka dots that expresses my style quite well. So, as you can tell from the page, I like polka dots.

 Okay, so now some food for thought about my crab page.

Title

 One crucial element of a well done scrapbook page is it's title. A page can be beautifully designed and yet have an unfinished look if the title doesn't do it's job. The title of a page is what gives it character. The title can either be subtle or bold, melancholy or joyful, serious or funny. It can be small, large, fancy, swirly, rigid, diagonal, straight, and so on. The title, along with a few other factors, is what determines the mood of the page. For my crab page, I wanted to capture the fun that we were having that night at our condo eating these crabs (over which I lost my appetite and with which I wanted nothing to do with...yuck)! So I wanted the letters of my title to be big and bold. I wanted them to stand out. Also, I want them slanted. Anytime you want a hint of fun and excitement in your page, just slant your title and pictures. It always does the trick. Another thing I like to do sometimes to add some pizazz is to take some paper that is already in the page, like the red polka dot corners on this page, and cut out letters (either with stencils or just by writing them yourself) to use for the title. This really helps to establish a color theme too.


Stickers

 I don't use stickers a lot, but when I do, they're usually letters and or something neutral that will match with more than one page. The idea of getting specific stickers for a single scrapbook page is really awesome, but it can get pricey. So when I do buy stickers, I try to find ones that I can use for more than one page. Nonetheless, when you have a 50% off coupon for Michael's, why not get stickers for a specific page, right? I must say, I had a lot of fun in the sticker isle picking out these adorable crabs, and they added the perfect touch to my page! In fact, I might even do that more often when Katlynn gives me coupons.



 What is it about scrapbooking that you find satisfying? Do you have any hints or tricks you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

  Happy Monday, Everyone!




  
  

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