Hello Story - Week 3

This week, Ali Edwards presents the theme of navigation or direction in our storytelling.  She stressed the use of arrows in design and reflecting on journeys and going from one point to the next.  My layout, a 12 x 12 double-page spread that jumps the gutter (!!), uses one of her sketch suggestions for the week.  Please click on each image for a larger view.  Sorry about the lighting.  I always seem to snap these at night!

The main photo is an Instagram-ed shot of my car that I took for another class--The Phone Photography Project.  That day, we were to do a close-up of something, and we happened to be leaving in my new car to drive to Florida.  Then, when I read this week's assignment for Hello Story, and toyed with photos to use, this one jumped out at me.  It enlarged really well.  I cropped it to 12 x 12 at 300 dpi first.  

So, I'm sort of loving this page, especially the "navigation" title that I cut with my Silhouette (worth every penny, that machine!).  I also love being able to put my washi tape to good use, as well as some chevron patterned paper AND some older SU! patterned paper of which I bought a ton for Christmas cards one year.  

Project Life Week 15

The benefit to waking at 4:54 AM unable to get back to sleep due to sinuses?  I wrapped up Week 15!  It is four 12 x 12s, one of which I showed in a previous post.  (iPhone pic...fuzziness as I edit in the car!)

How cute are those arrows from the Honey edition?  Perfect embellishment for a busy week.

More on this layout can be read here.  I clearly took this pic with the Nikon. 

Back of the Bon Jovi timeline.

I took advice, yet again, from Ali Edwards, and drew my setlist lines with a Copic marker.  I used a Recollections clear alphabet set and SU! White craft ink  for the title.  I then used the ticket stub and a couple of tickets from Taste of Chicago on the page.  The set list is nice, as it covers up the brad backs and  stitching from the timeline.  The patterned paper is the flipside of what I used for the timeline.

I used a combination of cards for this page, some from Project Life (I think Honey edition), some from Simple Stories, and the Smile was from a gift packet of cards from a friend, so I am not sure who the manufacturer is.

And there you have it, from the 2G hotspot in my car.  Let's just say, I am having a dialup flashback. :)

Onward on our car quest!

How an Archivist Prepares to Travel

Tomorrow, we leave for a driving trip.  We will be in Florida for a bit, spending some wonderful time at Disney and with family.  It was unexpected, just recently planned, and, I must say, sorely needed.

It is also in the middle of a scrapbooking tsunami with me.  Can you believe my husband did not understand that I was upstairs printing these as part of my "packing?"

This week in Ali Edwards Hello, Story class, the story structure is using fill in the blank cards to get the journaling completed in a simple way.  So, I printed off several of these that Ali designed for Project Life, and I will have various family members fill them out throughout the trip.  My guess is Ignatius and I will probably fill out most of them.

Then, I remembered that Rebecca Cooper traveled with her family to Arizona from Canada.  She posted this cute card game that, of course, I thought would be fun for our 20 hour car ride (and might not cause the children to kill one another).

She offers this for free, as well as individual cards that I printed just to randomly find something to watch for.

I am also taking Ignatius' NY album (yeah, it's still not done), to determine where the pics need to go and do some planning for the layouts, etc.

So, that's how a crafter plans for a really, really long drive!

Hello Story - Timeline Story Structure

I began Ali Edwards' Hello Story class from (you guessed it) Big Picture Scrapbooking this week.  For the next 11 weeks, I am privileged to watch videos from one of my favorite creative minds in the industry...in the comfort of my own home.

Each week, Ali will focus on what she terms "story structures," or ways to tell the story that scrapbooking is about.  This week was focused on using a timeline to tell a story.  Ali presented several layout springboards, but we were not bound to them by any means.  My layout is inspired by a timeline she did of her own life.  I chose to do a timeline of Friday's happenings with some friends.

Ali provided the timeline .png file.  She also provided the "my life" file, which I cut with my Silhouette.  Let me express how IMPORTANT the paper was for this thin cut.  I tried Bazzill Orange Peel and it was not a good time.  I went back to Neenah Solar White cardstock.  I might not use anything else in that machine!  It was perfect!

As we went throughout our day on Friday, I noted on my iPhone what happened from the time I got up until the time I finally was back in bed.  When something came up, I just jotted it in my note.  Then I decided what the most important "story" part of the day was, and I created the time line events.

The biggest decision was to take the Nikon or not.  Scott insisted that I should not, as he feared it would be confiscated.  Hindsight: Heck ya, I should have taken it!  Thank goodness for my pal Lisa, as the concert pics were all taken off the "jumbotron" with her camera.  No, we were NOT that close to the stage!  Still, she got amazing pics.  It was hard to choose!  I took the pic of Taste of Chicago and the selfie of all of us in our seats with my iPhone.

I knew I needed to determine how to make this mesh with a timeline layout.  I created, at first, a 12 x 4 canvas in Photoshop, and quickly learned that would not work for the pics I chose.  I changed it to 12 x 8, so most of the pics are cropped at 4 x 4 with 300 dpi.  The top one could not be square... it was just too awesome of a shot of the enormous, car-themed stage surroundings with the silhouette of the band...gave me goosebumps!  I then layered Ali's provided blank timeline onto the side and printed on glossy paper.

I used a couple more ideas that were Ali-inspired: I adhered the image to a piece of patterned paper from Farm House Paper Company and then wrote each event with white gel pen. I used Stampin' Up! linen thread and SU! Hodgepodge Hardware brads for the event lines.  I literally just poked and threaded right through the paper.  I guesstimated (gasp!) where I wanted the events to go, trying to give more vertical space to things that took a while, but no real "measuring out."

I used my Silhouette to cut "my life," and used Dear Lizzy Thickers and AC Remarks Autumn alpha stickers for "it's."  Bon Jovi fans understand that is the name of a song of theirs, and it's one of my FAVORITE songs, so I thought that was perfect. 

You cannot see the date stamp, but I tried to use my Studio Calico rotary date stamp using the word "Epic."  Stamped it a few times with SU! white craft ink, but it just kind of faded, so I stamped the date by itself as well.  Almost looks like an intended part of the page.

I am pretty pleased, and this will be an addition to this week's Project Life.  On the "flipside," I will be adding some memorabilia from the event.

Project Life Weeks 13 and 14

I am finally finished with weeks 13 and 14.  The hold up?  Me and my bright ideas.  I purchased a We R Memory Keepers divided page protector that looked fabulous in theory.  In the center, it had a 6 x 12 (or so I thought) space, surrounded by 3 x 3 slots.  Enter the fact that I did not (note "did") have a wide format printer.  I found that printing larger prints is no small expense.  I have kicked around the idea of a wide format printer for years.  This inspired me to finally make the leap.  So, I am now the owner of an Epson Work Force wide format printer.  If only that were "enough" to print things out at the proper sizes.  I bought photo paper that I now know was WAY bigger than I need, so there was a lot of exacto knife cutting (my paper trimmers like 12 inches or less.

Then, I found that the middle slot is actually 6 x 12.5...AFTER I printed a 6 x 12...yeah.  I was thrilled.  Three prints later, I got something that worked.  I do, thank God, love these pages:

Week 13

Hexagon cards are from the Honey Edition of Project Life.  I loved the way they looked.  Also added some patterned paper (October Afternoon Travel Girl- Directions) and washi tape (Jenni Bowlin) on the lower left pic to mat the Instagram shot of Ignatius.

Here's the lovely page protector.  I went with LOTS of pics on this page.  Denny's was kind of a big deal with Max. :)

A close up of the larger pic of the July 4 DPS.  I loved this quote and thought it was perfect for the picture of the boys watching the fireworks.

Week 14 DPS

I printed the middle picture too short, so I added some of the patterned paper I had been using.

I used a lot of the same piece of 12 x 12 paper (We R Memory Keepers Red White & Blue- Patriot), which was totally cool.  I used almost the entire piece.  I also used some Studio Calico star stickers on the page.

New month means the monthly divider.  I also added some flyers from our crafting trip.