Sparkles and Sticks

.walking washington dc.

I faced two challenges while working on this layout:

Challenge One: The Color Conundrum

While I think America is a pretty cool country, the Red White and Blue color combo just doesn't inspire my creative juices.  Also, they just didn't mesh with the colors in my photos.

Solution One: Hint at Hues

Pink is sort of like red.  Silver is sort of like white.  And blue, well it is blue.  I played with these colors instead of red white and blue.  The result: Jaime Patriotism.  The use of these colors helped me express my personal exploration of my country/capital.  They also complimented the greys, taupes, and blues in my photos much better than red white and blue would have.

Another way I alluded to my patriotism with this layout was with my usage of stars.  Stars are definitely somethings that inspire me, so I used some chipboard stars and pink glimmer mist to add texture to my background paper.  Then I covererd the chipboard stars in some of my favorite Martha Stewart glitter and added them to my layout for dimension and well.... glitter.

Challenge Two: The Perpetual Pixels

I took about twelve bajillion bloody photos that day and I wanted to fit this whole story on one layout. 

Solution Two: Awesome Alone

Like so many of my scrappy heroes advise, I was ruthless with my selection of photos.  I started by trying to select just one photo to represent all the things I saw.  Everything made it in except the Holocaust Museum (pictures aren't allowed inside and I forgot to take a photo from the front of the museum).  Yes, Abe made it in twice, but I went ahead with it because Abe was probably my favorite monument.

Then I chose photos that I managed to timer or myspace myself into.  Too often I feel that I take photos of landscapes, views, interesting trees, a compelling line, something that is bright pink, my coffee cup, my feet, or other random things, but I don't take photos of myself or the people I am with.  So even though the flash makes me look like I superimposed myself into some of these shots... I am there.  And I look suprisingly ok considering my staticy hair and three hours of sleep. 

.and so began 2010- a scrapbook page.

This is one of my favorite pages that I have made this year. Though I used some really cool techniques in this project, I think the most remarkable thing about this page is the fact that my attention span lasted the four full scrapbooking sessions it took to finish it!

I made this page to commemorate my flight to see Ashley in January 2010.  It's such a great story- it involves a rediculous travel adventure, a snowstorm, international love, free champagne, and most importantly, a happy ending!  This layout also sets a sort of theme for all the events and issues I will be recording in my 2010 scrapbook with this journaling:

"Not everything worked out in 2010.  But the important things, like being one of the only planes that landed in the biggest snowstorm the UK has seen in decades, did."

In order to fully tell this story with all the words, pictures, and memrobilia I wanted to use but still keep it all on one layout, I decided to adhere a little mini book to the page.  I used the menu they gave me when I got upgraded to a fancy-pants bed seat as a base, and use masks, glimmer mist, and ink to give the pages a little more texture.  Then I added photos, journalling, and a few embellishments, and there it was!  My only regret with this page is that I didn't gauge my journalling better and I had to figure out how to pin an extra page in at the last minute.  I also wish that I had kept my handwriting a bit tidier, but overall I am just very happy that I got this story out.  2010 is full of great stories (not always happy, but great) and I can't wait to get them all down.  They will be so interesting to read years from now.

.a pink stardust calm.

My last two days off from work passed by in a absolute dream.  Pink starust danced around my head in galactic swirls, my coffee cup continued to refill itself with out my asking (I suspect houselves were behind it), some animated mice scrubbed the house shiney-shiney clean, and Jakob Dylan strummed and hummed outside my craft room window.

At least that's what it felt like.  What really happened is that I spent most of those days in my craft room, making beautiful layouts about all the crazy things that happened last year. 

The craft room is my new favorite place to be in our house.  Recent favorites have also included the the twinkly and cloudy bedroom, "sofia the sofa," and even the kitchen floor (when it is clean). 

The craft room is almost entirely organized.  Some pictures are still waiting to be hung and a few small boxes are homeless, but all my supplies and memorobilia have suprisingly functional homes.    There is plenty of table space.  Inspiration boards are hung and dappled with new images.  There are enough available plugs for my lights, laptop, scanner, and sewing machine to be convenienlty plugged in at the same time.

Let's face it.  This place is a stardust swirly, Jakob Dylan dream.

But the most awesome thing is how utterly calm I feel here.  It''s a calm that I used to feel all the time, but as I have gotten older it has managed to fall away.  Where it used to pop arund daily, it now feels like it has been months.  Years, to be truthful.  I'm not quite sure why or how this happened, but it has.

This is one of the fruits of my lovely weekend: a layout about how much fun you can have while contracting swimmers ear.  Awesome. 

(click on the photos to enlarge)

.you say goodbye i say hello.

A little scrapbook page about one of my favorite places in the world: Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Granted, the arrivals gate was always much happier than the departure lounge. : )

.scrapbooking the same old same old.

It was two years ago, but I can't bloody well seem to stop scrapbooking about the two months I spent in Swansea with Ashley in summer/fall 2008.  But, considering the following three prominent elements in that period of my life, it's no wonder I am still obsessed.

I adore Ashley.  No one in the world makes me feel more safe and comfortable in my own skin.

I adore Swansea.  I had so many important growing up experiences the first time I was there, and since I had so many of these experiences alone, I feel like that it is a place that is just mine.  Just mine and 228,100+ other people's, sure.  But none of those people are part of my life here.

I adore letting my spirit wander freely around the UK.  Nothing makes me feel more alive and independent than mapping my way through trains, tubes, roads, and buses in this area that is so familiar to my soul.

Here's the most recent page I made about that magical time of my life:

My three favorite things about this page:

1. Using a file folder as the base paper.

2.  Stitching "love" down the side.

3. The way I accidentally stamped "honeymoon" all wonky.

.scrap psychic (or something).

A few years ago, I told my then roommate that I was "Friends psychic."  That is, I would get some random line, or scene from an episode from my head and then later I would watch that episode.  Without even meaning to.

Incredible, right?

Well now, I am pleased to tell you all that I am scrap-psychic.  I made this page months ago, neglected to put a title or journaling on it, then created a handy little area to put pages that are "almost done."  I then promptly forgot about said area.  

Flash forward to last night.  I was working the closing shift at work, and thinking about how my urge to go to the UK cropped up every few months.  I wondered if it would come up with a cyclic pattern if I tried to track it on a calendar.

I got home around 11pm, and started rooting through my scrapbooking stuff.  I wanted to make something, but I just wasn't sure what.  Then, I came across the little "area" of half finished pages that I had created a few months ago.

Moral of the story? 

I repeat: I am psychic.

journaling:

every few months, or every half year or so, I get an urge.  An urge to rush out to the S.F. airport and jump on a plane to London Heathrow. (British Airways has a 7:50 PM flight.  I know this by heart.) 

I want to fly away and feel free on my own adventure.  Danskos plunking on the rainy cobblestones, tube map in hand, stomach nicely ravenous as I walk all over the country.

My home away from home feels just a heart beat away sometimes.

it's at my fingertips.

design note: I used a coaster from a pub on this page because it is one of my favorite drinks.  Bulmers hard cider!

.this is me.

My mom took this picture of me when we were visiting St. Fagans Museum in Wales.  I love it, not just because of the beautiful flowers and delicious archways, but because it is a picture that I feel really captures the essence of me.

I'm not posing.  I don't look super glam, but I don't look scruffy, or fat, or otherwise ugly.  I look like me.  I am wearing clothes that I love to wear (hoodies, beanies, ballet flats).  I am doing something I love to do (take photos) in a place I love (Wales).

This is me.  And I am so glad that my mom was able to capture the essence of my personailty so accurately.

.the science of "I love..." scrapbook pages.

I love making "I love..." scrapbook pages for two main reasons: they are a great outlet to experiment with new styles and techniques, and they are very good at capturing what my life is really like RIGHT NOW. 

When I am making a page based on an event or sentiments, I feel like the photos and the words that I am using tell me what kind of paper, embellishments, and style they need to tell their story.  But when I am making an "I love..." page, I feel like I have a little bit more of a say in what gets glued on the page and how.  I've been working on this "I love..." page over the past few evenings, and I have had a few new stylistic experiences with it. 

I used a combination of words and visuals to express the things "I Love" on this page.  Sometimes I used both, but it was a very fun challenge for me to let some of the visual representations speak for themselves.  I made sure that they weren't too abstract and that they were prominently placed on the page, then I left them wordless so they could explain themselves.

Can you tell which items I am talking about?

I also loved playing with background texture techniques on this page.  I used an old doily as a mask, then glimmer misted over it to create a meaningful, unique, and subtle background texture.

I also feel like I got a little bit closer to mastering the collage style of scrapbooking that I adore in other people's albums.

I think "I Love..." pages are really cool to make because they can capture the details of my life RIGHT NOW.  These are things that I think I'll remember, but totally don't.  I love looking back at these pages a few years later- they really remind me of who I was at that point in time.

I think that the key to pulling of a really successful "I Love..." page is to brainstorm.  Look around your room and look through your purse.  Be honest about the books you're reading, the music you're listening to, and the movies/tv shows you're watching (even if you think its embarrassing!).  Look through your "favorites" in flickr, etsy, etc.  What do you spend your time thinking about?  What are you naturally drawn to in stores? 

I recommend keeping these types of pages focused on things that you like RIGHT NOW.  For example, I could include coffee, lions, the color pink, rain, and the UK on every single "I Love..." page.  They are lifelong loves of mine.  But instead, I only include the lifelong loves that I feel are particularly relevant at the time.  Otherwise, my "I Love..." pages would seem really repetitive, and they wouldn't reveal as much about my life RIGHT NOW.  (Besides, a page dedicated to lifelong loves would be a great page on its own, no?)

So, what do you love RIGHT NOW?  Are you planing on scrapping it?