It all happened last Saturday in September. I had my mind set on finishing a few projects. I took out my papers, albums and all the rest. I spread everything out on my dining room table and filled with inspiration and hope I picked out my Christmas album that was in great need of a spine. I was not even working for a minute, when this happened:
I just opened this new glue and the wide end had a defect and started to drip down the side of the tube. I was using the small end and did not notice the defect until the clear glue reached my fingers holding the tube. It was a mess. I put the cap back on the small end and tried to open the tube at the other end. The whole thing came apart. In a moment of inspiration I wiped my sticky fingers on the cover that was about to be covered with the paper. Lucky for me it was not the fast drying kind and I managed to wash my hands and glue down the decorative paper. Problem solved.
A few more improvisations later and this album came together better than I thought. With the extra glue that I had to use, it is sure that will last for years to come.
The Christmas album finally has a cover. Even though I admire the richly embellished album covers I see other scrapbookers do, I like mine to be plain. I prefer the book look for my scrapbooks mostly for storage purpose. I envision them lined up nicely in a bookcase.
The true hero here was the linen paper. I discovered it on one of my trips to Michael's. The page stacking system I used for my Christmas album did not turned out that pretty, and anyway binding was kind of a new thing for me. I though of using plain fabric, but then I had to go to Jo-Ann's or some other fabric store, find the right fabric, and also get some special fabric glue. The linen paper turned out to be the perfect mix of paper and fabric: sturdy yet flexible, easy to work with, no special glue required. And on top of it all, it coordinated with the paper collection.
The inside covers were easy to put together. This one page of the paper collection had numbers from 1 to 31. I have not thought about it when I decided on the size of the pages and the covers, but it turned out that after I cut it down to 25 it was the perfect fit. I will use this page as a table of content for my book.
Quite and accomplishment so far for me. But the day was not even at noon, and the tube of glue was drying with more than half the content in it. So I picked my Year in Romania album and started gluing down everything.
This was an album I picked out at a Goodwill store in Richmond some time ago. It had a baby girl themed cover: all polka dot pink and a pink baby stroller. Not a bad looking cover, but not the right style for my year in Romania. The Wild Rose paper collection I got from Wall-mart some time ago proved to be the perfect fit for the photos and the theme of the album. Black, red, cream, roses, some geometric patterns and other florals was all the inspiration I needed.
To speed up my scrapbook process I decided to arrange the photos in this album in a random order. I started my album with a photo of Sebastian and I, just because we are in most of the photos.This is also one of my favorite photos. Thank you, Ioana. It has the colors and the mood that can be found throughout the book.
The only rule I had was to group photos from the same event on a double
spread, and that only if I had two or more photos from that time. These two photos are from a cousin's engagement party. Of course I had taken more than two photos at that event, but I decided to print only the ones that are necessary to tell the story of that moment.
Another decision I had to take was regarding portrait oriented photos.
To crop or not to crop to the page size. In most cases, losing a bit of a
sky or grass was no problem. In some cases though cropping was not an
option so I decided to build pockets.
For the above page, the paper motif was too pretty to be covered up so I made it into a pocket. For the page on the right, I made a pocket by gluing the landscape photo and its mat on three sides. I added a little tab to my portrait photo to remind me is underneath.
This photo was so colorful and happy that all it needed was a mat and a bright background paper.
See that half circle tab on the right of the photo? The photo mat has a hinge on the left side and under it there is room for two more photos, or one photo and one journal spot, or room for a really long story of that trip we took to Oradea and the cloud we drove through at Piatra Craiului. Fun times.
My dad and I sipping coffee at a cousin's wedding. Another example on how the colors of this paper collection work so well with the photos.
I got a little carried away with my photo gluedown marathon and I forgot to leave some room for writing down the story of these photos. I realized that just in time and created a pocket under the photo on the left. I used some black cardstock and some decorative paper and made a tag big enough for the pocket and for the journal.
The circles I used for embellish this photo come from the cover of the paper collection. I cut them out with the Recollection 1 in circle punch. They came in handy to draw attention to hidden tags and pages.
I have plenty of paper left. Three or four 12 by 12 pages are still whole, yet I choose to put together a background of bits and pieces of paper for this page. It was not a conscious thought but now it kind of makes sense. It tells the story of the scene: an old camper, a home-made brick oven inside, an original food truck.
The back inside cover of the book and also the last page of the album were the perfect spot for me to try out an idea I had for a while. Sebastian's guitar strings come in this cute envelopes that I started saving for scrapbook projects. A scrap of paper and a circle punched earlier and it made for a good place to keep the airplane tickets from our trip back to the US.
That was all the energy I had for my Romania album. I had more pages done, but this blog is getting too long already. I will post some more about it when it gets closer to the finish line.
But the Saturday of crafts was not yet over. I also finished reading this book:
I have seen it on line and it seemed interesting. I find my copy at the local library. It was an easy read, it had a lot of photos. The layouts and ideas were a little dated but some of them still very beautiful. It helped me figure out my scrapbook style: Journalistic. That means I like to have lots of writing, a photo or two and simple decorations in any style like classic, eclectic, old world, shabby, hip and trendy etc. I liked a few layouts and time-permitting will try my hand at scraplifting. (Google it if not sure what it means)
With a few more hours left in the day and a new paper collection bought on sale for a ridiculous low price at T.J. Maxx I started a new project. I know, another work in progress that may or may not be ever finished. But to my defense, the On Trend paper collection from Crate Paper looks like nothing I have played before.
And that was my Saturday of crazy crafting. Have you had a day like that? How did it start? How did it end? What happen in between? Anyway, happy crafting and see you soon.
