Eniko's Playhouse

Scrapbooking Friends at Play

I love little point-and-shoot cameras that tuck away neatly in a handbag...ready to snap a photo at a moment's notice. It enables us to capture moments such as these and saves them forever in our archive of fun activities.

As we await the arrival of spring here on chilly, windy Martha's Vineyard, I am reminded, as I scrap these fun-filled photos, of the abundant opportunities for play during the summer months here. Because we are mainly a destination for summer vacations on our 30-mile island, winters can be a bit bleak once the majority of businesses lock their doors for the season, so it is wonderful to relive summer memories, helping us to "hold on" just a little bit longer.

This particular playtime was at the Opening Night of Trio in Edgartown. In a truly brilliant concept...the newly opened Black Sheep gourmet cheese shop and charcuterie, transforms every summer evening into Trio, a wine and cheese-tasting, small-bites eatery. My friends Cassie and Robin joined me for a wonderfully memorable evening where we laughed and played and ate and drank and laughed and played some more.

-Just a little reminder to keep that camera with you and that spring is surely on its way.

Hugs, Enikö

(Just a little mention that this layout was inspired by a sketch challenge on a great scrapbooking site that I encourage you to join, called Let's Scrap...loads of scrapbooking fun!)

Scrapbooking a Friendship Album: Part 4

In my last several posts, I talked about the many aspects of friendship that were explored through my latest scrapbook design project. Topics such as "Joy", "Companionship", "Passion", "Spirit", "Nurture", and "Cultivate" have already been illustrated through various scrapbook layouts in the Friendship Album created for real estate agent Carol's milestone birthday. As I share a few more with you, notice how each friend is represented, not only by the poem, personal note, or photos they contributed, but by the title of each layout. I chose these words carefully, each meant to represent the personal connection the friend had to the "birthday girl".

This scrapbook layout represents "Gratitude" -using Webster's Pages beautiful papers and journaling blocks:                                         (click on images to enlarge)

The photos used in the layout below shows friends spending the early morning hours of New Year's Day with Carol on the glorious beaches of Martha's Vineyard...watching the sun rise as it brings with it new "Hope" for the coming year:

Another friend, sent me a trove of fabulous quotes that she said all reminded her of Carol, so I included as many of them as I could on these fabulous patterned scrapbook papers from Graphic 45's Fashionista Collection, and chose the title "Sisterhood":

Lastly, using papers from Webster's Pages again (Can you tell I love this company?), and the title "Splendor," I attempted to capture the sensuality described on the pages, represented by the rich colors, the quotes about seaside dwelling, and the photos of Carol's luscious soups, which she is famous for:

I hope you've enjoyed my Friendship Album series and that it inspired you to take a closer look at your own friendships and how you might describe them. How might you be described by your friends?

As always, I appreciate comments left on my blog, below -thank you.

Passing the torch of friendship, Enikö

 Visit my website -Enikö's Scrapbooks

Scrapbooking a Friendship Album: Part 3

What I loved the most about designing and scrapbooking this Friendship Album, was discovering how differently each contributing friend perceived Carol, the birthday recipient. It prompted me to contemplate how my friends might perceive me, and led me to reflect on the importance of friendship in general.
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Martha's double-page layout was titled "Passion." She created the lovely black & white artwork on the left and chose the gray background paper. Inspired by her work, I designed the companion page on the right, and added all the red embellishments to provoke the feeling of passion in the viewer. Here's a close-up of Martha's artwork:
I love Martha's words to her friend: "To Carol, whose diverse passions lift my spirits." Then she added verses that described the two aspects of Carol's personality that she admired most. On the dancing side of her drawing she added: "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme the honky-tonk life," and on the meditation side, she wrote, "In dwelling, live close to the ground, in thinking, keep to the simple..."

Another friend, Margot, loves the subtle, quiet way in which Carol nurtures and cultivates her friendships:
Margot's loving letter to Carol spoke about how much she admired that quality in her friend, and I added a lovely poem about the virtues of planting a tree to reinforce the message. The scrapbook layout was given a duel title: "Nurture" & "Cultivate" and the photos I used were (appropriately) of Carol's yard and garden. The background paper and flower embellishments support Margot's message and help tell the story.

What words do you think your friends would use to describe the best things about you? What qualities do you admire most about yourself?

Do leave some thoughts in the "comments" below...

Sharing the love, Enikö

Scrapbooking a Friendship Album: Part 2

Exploring the different aspects of friendship became the theme for a colorful Memory Book/ Friendship Album that a group of friends hired me to design for their girlfriend's milestone birthday. In my previous post, I shared two layouts titled "Friendship" and "Companionship" respectively.

These next two layout explore the joy and spirit of friendship and share a love-of-the-ocean theme and reflects the birthday-girl's joy of living on Martha's Vineyard Island...surrounded by water. This layout, contributed by Lowely, is titled "Joy" and her note reminisces about beach parties where Carol lead silly sing-a-longs to entertain the children:
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I always love using beach-themed scrapbooking paper for beach photographs, because I enjoy matching the horizon on the photos with the horizon on the background paper for a touch of whimsy.

The next layout celebrates friends sharing the joys of sailing. Louise displays a bowl in her kitchen that sports the verses of "The Owl and the Pussycat" which she says reminds her of Carol & her husband, George, so we worked that into her scrapbook pages:
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I titled the layout "Spirit" and made it fun and colorful. Webster's Pages makes some really beautiful patterned scrapbooking paper with different themes. These are from the "Seaside Retreat" collection and sport graphics of sea creatures and compasses among fruits and flowers...particularly appropriate since Louise owns a flower & party styling business, Flowers on the Vineyard. Louise's sentiment was slipped under a lovely printed sheet of vellum, also by Webster's Pages.

What is your favorite activity with friends? What word would you use to describe it as the title of a scrapbook layout?

Please comment below... Playing it forward, Enikö

 

Scrapbooking a Friendship Album

Scrapbooking for others has many different challenges than creating an album for ourselves. Even more challenging is when the client is not one, but a group of seven friends. After I was hired to design a Memory Book for a mile-stone birthday celebration, it was decided that it would be formatted like a photo-illustrated poetry book, with each friend contributing a song or a poem that reminded him/her of the birthday-girl, Carol. It was so interesting to discover what each friend contributed in the way of photos, memories, and verse and each contribution inspired me toward a different element of friendship.
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Some of Mary's favorite memories of Carol involved working together at the Agricultural Fair back-in-the-day. Her photos were colorful and reflected the joys of friendship, which I worked hard to capture on her layout. The 3-dimensional flowers mimicked the flowers that decorated their T-shirt stand, and inspired by the hand-made banner Mary is holding in the photo, I added a "Friendship" banner as a title. -It helped set the tone for the entire book. Mary's long, heartfelt letter to Carol was a little too personal for public viewing, so I tucked it into a bright envelope for Carol to read privately.

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Jaime has known Carol a very long time. They've worked together, traveled together and have been wonderfully supportive friends for many years. Jaime chose the Momma Rose song from "Gypsy" for her friend...you know, the one that goes, "Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna go through it together." -So perfect for their relationship...so I titled her layout "Companionship" and used the colorful papers from Webster's Pages to capture the fun these great friends have shared for so many years. Jaime is quite a romantic and loves flowers, so I was sure to include plenty of floral embellishments.

You're going to have to wait a bit to see the rest of this lovely Friendship Album, but I promise to post again soon. What words describe friendship best for you? What characteristics do you cherish most in your friends?

I hope you'll leave a comment below if you enjoyed this post...thanks!

Sharing the love, Enikö  

I invite you visit my website: Enikö's Scrapbooks