I'm Opening the Vault

I peeked through my scrapbook database (and yes, I'm an über nerd, I have a filemaker database for keeping track of my work) and found a lot (about 188) layouts and projects from the last year or three that have never been seen on my blog.  So, I thought I'd share a few of my faves:

 

• This is a digital layout.
• Because I took a ton of rapid fire shots, each of the photos is only slightly different. So, I used photo actions to give them greater variety.
• I used a low-opacity layer of white between the content and the background to allow for more readability and a bit more “pop.”  It’s almost like laying vellum over it.

 

• I used a lace paper from Maya Road as a mask and sprayed two colors of Glimmer Mist on my patterned paper (one of my favorite EVER Jenni Bowlin papers, btw).
• I painted a light wash of white paint across the center of my layout.
• I inlined the sticker letters with a white pen.
• I inked the edges of the photo.
• After writing my journaling, I used a black and white pen to create a spray of doodle dots on the top and bottom of the layout.

• This layout is from way back in 2007.  I used to do two-pagers almost exclusively.
• The button was originally brown.  I used pigment ink and clear embossing powder to make it orange.
• There’s very little adhesive on this layout.  Most things are held together with machine stitching.
• I used white stickers for the location and date because I wanted the journaling to “pop” more than that information. 

 

• This is an digital layout.
• I typed each line of journaling separately so that I could stagger them and angle them individually.
• I took a photo of my iphone and then used the magnetic lasso tool to cut it out.
• I also used the magnetic lasso tool to lift all the little icons from the screen.  They were harder to lift than I thought and I ended up having to use the clone stamp and healing brush on them.
• The red border was created by using the “Wet Media Brushes” that come pre-loaded with Photoshop.
• I consider scrapbooking to be a form of cultural anthropology.  I therefore strive to capture the little bits and pieces of every day life (like technology) in my pages.  I want my scrapbook pages to be like time capsules.  I’m not looking for timeless topics or designs.  I want what’s hot now so that I can look back in 10, 20 or (hopefully) 50 years and giggle and remember.
• I like all of my work to have a hand made, organic feeling.  This can be tricky with digital layouts.  You can see here that I used paint and the herky-jerky typewritten journaling to capture that feeling.

• Another 2007 two-pager.
• The combination of paint and handwriting felt perfect for this event.  It was a very funky craft fair held in a pool covered in graffiti (see the third photo from the right on my layout for the graffiti). 
• Here’s a fun tip for printing photos (at home or sending them out to be printed).  Crop your photos into 2x6 strips and then combine two onto a 4x6 canvas.  Now you can get uniquely shaped photos from either your home 4x6 photo printer or any outside developer!

• I hand cut all the circular shapes from a piece of patterned paper and then randomly adhered them to my background paper.
• The title is painted and then outlined with a black pen.
• The edges of all the photos are inked.

So, that's all for this time!  Just a peek into "the vault."  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great Wednesday!