Catching up on Scrapbook Pages

Let me start by apologizing for the length of this post. I usually do not write this much but the subject at hand seems to warrant it this time. I promise there is some creative sharing at the end.

As some of you may know, my venture into paper crafting started a little over 18 years ago.
I've always been crafty. One of my favourite TV shows back in the 90's was Aleene's Creative Living (some of you may remember it). It was this show that first got me interested in Scrapbooking. I was expecting our second child and thought making scrapbooks for the kids would be a great idea. I order a kit and dove right in.

Back then we did not have all the nifty little tools we have now. We were limited to ugly printed paper (anyone remember Paper Pizzazz?), tracing/cutting templates and stickers.
Punches and decorative scissors slowly made it onto the scene and we all went crazy.
I admit to buying more than 20 decorative scissors (I still have them as I can't seem to part with them). And everyone knows how much I love punches.

We seemed to have this need to cut every picture into shapes and of course scrap every picture ever developed. It seemed impossible to only choose a few of the best shots and actually leave a photo in it's original shape.

This resulted in very awkward pages. Many photos cropped to circles and oval (or worse) stuck on a page. If the photos were matted then deco scissors had to be used. The accents would consist of a few punched shapes or stickers, or marker doodles and borders.
A few lucky pages actual had a title but most did not. Journaling was rare at best.

Looking back on these pages I release now that my biggest mistake was staring with baby pictures.  I cringe inwardly at the mess I made of some of my most precious photos.

I therefore decided a few years back to redo some of these ugly first attempts. The question that came up was can I salvage some of the photos or do I have to start from scratch.

The photos in question of course were before everyone went digital. I have a rather large box containing negatives covering more than 10 years. The organization went as far as sorting negative packets into larger envelopes by year. Still very difficult to locate any specific event one might be looking for. I did manage to have the last 2 years of my pre-digital photo times organized into a binder with negative sleeves. Each set of negatives has an index card in front of it. But of course it would be too easy if the baby picture negatives were this organized.

So, having new pictures developed is not really a viable option for most of these pages I'd like to re-do. This means I'll need to work with what I have, circles and all. A daunting task I ended up not really wanting to face. I therefore left these old pages and continued making much nicer pages with my new photos.

Then 8 years ago I went back to work full time. And honestly with 3 kids and full time work, who can scrapbook on a regular basis? I sure couldn't. I spent less and less time in my scrap room and eventually photos weren't even printed anymore. I swear the last 7-8 years not one photo has been scrapped let alone printed. They are all saved on nicely labelled discs and that is as far as I got.

I did manage to create about a dozen or so digital pages (much faster) but was never happy with this way of scrapping. I  need to touch and feel and create with my hands. Sitting at a PC just isn't the answer for me. So again my photos sat waiting.

A few years ago I finally decided to get back into paper crafting. Scrapbooking seemed to big a project so I turned to cards. After all one can finish a card in a much shorter time period.

Then 18 months ago I revisited scrapbooking and actually managed to take a week and scrap 6 pages during my vacation. Once my vacation as over, sow as my attempt at getting back into scrapbooking; until this past month.

A couple of weeks ago, after a colleague at work asked me about scrapbooking and wanted to take a look at one of my albums, I finally decided it was time to get back into my room and scrap again.

I started by finishing up an old vacation album. It only needed 6 pages to be complete and the pages are only 8.5 x 11" in size. Should be fast and easy, right?
I also pulled out those old albums with the ugly first pages (also 8.5 x 11- didn't switch to 12 x12 until the early 2000) and redid a few pages. I figured I would leave some pages as they are as these first pages are memories in themselves. But having every page covered in awful shapes and stickers really isn't the way I want to leave my albums.

I'm sharing some of these pages today and in my next few post as I thought they would represent a nice mix of old and new supplies and techniques. Some pages contain punch art, some use SU stamps... there is a great mix of styles, techniques and supplies. I am a strong believer that not everything we created has to make use of the latest and greatest. Mixing it up can result in some wonderful creations. And most of all, as long as we are happy with what we've created it doesn't really matter what anyone else may think.

I hope my pages will inspire at least a few of you to dig into your old supplies and make use of them instead of letting them collect dust, or worse end up in the garbage.

These are all 8.5 x 11". When the photos seem to need more vertical space I often scrap my alyouts side ways.

End of the Road

 

I inked the raised edge of my border embossing folder and used it like a stamp to create my background page. I pierced holes along severla paper edges (overlapping the edge) using my SU paper piercing template and then stitched the holes with embroidery floss. I also inked most of my paper edges for a more rustic look.

 

Supplies used (be forwarned I used a lot of old supplies):

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned paper: unknown scraps from my stash

Ink: Early Espresso - SU

Lettering: Stickers- Paper Adventure, Chip Board - Basic Grey Granola Collection Chip Board Alphabet

Embossing folder: tire tracks from Travel Signs 2 Borders - Sizzix - Tim Holtz

Punch: Chevron border - SU

Misc.: tow truck buttons, embroidery floss, yellow vellum emvelope - EK Sticko "Stuffed Ups", Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack - SU, needle.

Journaling was computer generated- font is called "Baloney"

 

Catching a Bug

 

 

These cute little punch art bugs were the predecessors of these bugs. I had created them using old punches that are retired and then re-did the design in new punches (yes, the basic idea for this layout was started 2 years ago, then put aside and never finished).

I stamped my background in the centre of the mounting page (twice, side x side) I also stamped white cardstock and then die cut it with my top note die. The journalling was done by hand.

 

Supplies used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Ink: Early Espresso - SU, Crushed Curry - SU

Lettering: Stickers: Provo Craft Alphabities, Chip board: K & Co

Border Strips: Julianne - K & CO

Background stamps: Cheesecloth- SU, Hardwood - SU

Die: Top Note - SU

Misc.: little tiny butterfly net (Dollar store find), Chip Board swirls - Basic Grey Granola Collection Chip Board Alphabet, foam mounting squares, glue dots, black Zig marker

 

Beyond beautiful

 

This is a very simple layout that keeps the focus on the scenic photos.  There aren't any special techniques to note.

 

Supplies used:

 

Cardstock: Bazzill

Border Strips: Julianne - K & CO

Title tags: Poetry Dog Tags

Misc.: skeleton leaves, cork circle, resign leaves (Dollarama), Faux wax seal - Creative Imaginations, Rhinestone leaf - Recollections, lots of glue dots.