Eniko's Playhouse

Do Journal on Those Scrapbook Pages!!!

How many of you fabulous memory-keepers and scrapbooking enthusiasts journal on your scrapbook pages? Just as I thought...you don't like your own hand-writing...you don't know what to write...you don't know where to begin, so you just skip that part. Well, I'm here to convince you to mend your foolish ways!

The scrapbook layout above illustrates how journaling can be incorporated attractively into your layout. The red journaling block on the left, fits into the design in the same way another photo would, and it acts as a color accent, in addition to giving the viewer important information about when and where these photos were taken. The title simply states: Sweet: The Sweet Days of Summer, and leads into the journaling below the large photo on the right. It talks about the sweet days of summer becoming shorter and shorter, giving way to Autumn chill, and how my precious 2-year-old grandson, Rigel, was so mesmerized by my sister Ildi's colorful Zinnias that were taller than he. -It identifies the subject of the photographs, and also tells the story of why I found this moment so special that I wanted to capture it and preserve it forever.

In addition to the wonderful way the journaling contributes to the story telling, it also enhances the design of the layout. Stamping the first letter of each line helps bring the eye to it and also distracts from the possibly less-than-perfect hand-writing. (By the way, it definitely helps to lightly draw-in pencil lines to keep the writing straight...or hold a ruler in place to guide you as you write.) Extremely self-concious scrapbookers should type their journaling, as opposed to not including it at all!

In my Scrapbooking 101 series on Enikö's Playhouse, back in 2010, I wrote about the importance of journaling in scrapbooks:

I didn’t always journal, but when I heard that a friend tossed away her deceased mother’s old photo albums because she didn’t know who the people in the photos were, I went back and identified all the subjects of my photos and I began journaling my recollections of past events to include on my pages.

When journaling, think of the 5 “W”’s: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. It is important to jot down names, dates and locations, but don’t forget to personalize your scrapbooks by including your personal thoughts and feelings about a particular event or gathering. If you are shy about sharing your personal thoughts, you may include them in envelopes or pockets on your page to be read only upon invitation. Many scrappers prefer to use poems, captions or lyrics instead of their own words, but it is nice to use a mix. Also, no matter how you feel about your handwriting, know that it is a distinct part of you and your character and be sure to write at least some of your journaling in your own hand. You may write directly on the background paper, or work a journaling block into your layout using a tag or a piece of cardstock, or anything that will hold text.

I recently posted a challenge on Let's Scrap, using the layout above (inspired by a Let's Scrap sketch) as an example of good storytelling. -I thought I'd share bits of it with you here (-and do think about joining in on the challenge):

I've noticed that many of you here on Let's Scrap are quite accomplished storytellers, and others of you are shy about journaling on your scrapbook layouts. This challenge is designed to remind you that scrapbooking is first and foremost a form of storytelling. From the photos we choose, to the title we select, to the words we write on our journaling blocks, each element plays an equally important role in the telling of the story.

For this challenge, I want you to focus on storytelling. Choose your photos for your layout wisely, and as you make decisions about what to place on your pages, keep in mind the 5 W's...Who, What, Where, When, and Why...of the story. Each element that you add to your layout should contribute to the telling of the story. So here are the rules:

1.) WHO -Somewhere in your journaling, identify who the people in your photos are. (Future generations will want to know.)

2.) WHAT -Choose a Title that answers the "what" of your story ("What is this Layout about?") -in a minimum of words.  -It doesn't have to be literal, it can be whimsical, or even the title of a song, but it should give the viewer a snapshot of what you intend the focus of your layout to be, or at least pique the viewer’s interest.

3.) WHERE & WHEN -Record where and when the event, moment, outing or memory occurred.

4.) WHY -Most importantly, in your journaling, answer the question "why?"...this is crucial to story- telling. Your journaling should reveal why you selected this particular story to tell. Why is this story important to you? -It gives the viewer an insight into who you are and what you care about.

As you see in my example, I chose a catchy title that piques curiosity, I identified the people on the photos, I recorded the date and the location, and  I wrote about the interesting fact that in my native Hungary, the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday, is known as "Flower Sunday". Most importantly, I described why this day was so special to me...that it was one of the last outings of its kind that my dad and I enjoyed together, due to my father's increasingly debilitating Parkinson's Disease.

I've heard scrappers complain about "writer's block" and needing prompts to get ideas for their journaling. It's fine to use catch-phrases to get you started, such as: "I will never forget..." - "The last time I saw her..." - "On one sunny afternoon..." but I find that if you just think of it as story-telling, the words flow quite easily, most of the time. If you do get stuck, lyrics from songs, or lines from poems or movies often do the trick. I remember a layout I did for a client about their summer home on Martha's Vineyard and I used "Our House is Very, Very Fine House..." (by David Crosby) as the title, and I believe I used another couple of words from that great song somewhere in my journaling on the layout as a tie-in. -Perfectly legitimate, as long as you give proper credit to the author.

So that about covers it...I hope I've managed to convince you of the importance of including the written word in your memory-keeping and that perhaps I have inspired you to jot a few things down on your pages.

I hope you leave me a little "blog love" to let me know you've stopped by, and don't hesitate to ask me for help if you feel "stuck", or have questions, but do journal on those scrapbook pages!

Hugs, Enikö

The Versatility of Scrapbooking Sketches

This is my first blog post since being appointed Design Team Member at Let's Scrap, the wonderful international scrapbooking club that encourages member participation by posting weekly sketches and other challenges to spark creativity. So exciting! I thought it would be fun to illustrate the versatility of these sketches, just in case you had the false impression that it somehow cramped creativity. The sketch above, by the talented designer, Cheri O'Neil, was the one that we needed to use for our Design Team application submissions. So this is how I interpreted the design: As you can see, I used the sketch quite literally here, but the selection of papers and other elements made it completely mine. Also, I chose to tweak certain elements, such as using the sun image on the left instead of the suggested photo corner. I also opted to run the circular images across the entire strip, instead of stopping short of the edges, as the sketch suggested.

Being the over-achiever that I am, I submitted a second sketch...this time flipping the design around, and creating a soft, elegant tone, as opposed to the bright and lively mood of the layout above: If you pop over to take a peak on the main page of Let's Scrap, and scroll down, you can see the other submissions by the newly appointed Design Team. You'll notice that some of them used the sketch merely as an inspiration, others used only one side of the sketch to create a single-page scrapbook layout, instead of the double-page design that you see here.

Well that's all for now! I'm off to tend to my Design Team duties...I've been elected to post the first Design Team Challenge of the new team! -I'll be posting that soon!

Thanks for visiting and I wish those of you who celebrate it, a blessed Easter!

Hugs, Enikö

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!)

Childhood Wonder is Captured in Sketch-Inspired Layout

Have any of you ever used a a pre-designed sketch as inspiration for a scrapbook layout?  Scrapbooking off of someone else's sketch design has been a challenge for me (since I normally work so organically), but since I like to push myself out of my comfort zone occasionally, I made a commitment to give it a whirl. (I wrote about my first sketch-inspired experience in an earlier post: Sketch-Inspired Thanksgiving Layout).

I have since discovered a wonderful website called Let's Scrap, whose sole function seems to be to inspire fellow scrapbooking enthusiasts through weekly sketch challenges (with enticing prizes), group projects, blog-hops and on-line encouragement. I must say that it has been an amazing experience connecting with hundreds of women that share my scrapbooking passion. Scrappers from all over the world log-on regularly to share their traditions, familly events and life-experiences in addition to their artwork. Truly fabulous, inspiring and gracious women; I already feel like I have made some enduring friendships.

The sketch above is the one I chose when I decided to join in and rise to the sketch-inspiration challenge. I chose this sketch over others because I had recently received a stack of photos from Shutterfly of my darling grandson, Rigel, who at age four, was completely enamored by his Grandpa Jim's garden railroad during his visit last summer. I had the correct number of photos the sketch called for and I had the subject matter, so all I needed was the perfect paper to get my scrapbooking project going. Once I had the paper, I allowed the sketch, the photos and the story guide me. This is what came out of it: (click on image to see larger)
The paper and the embellishments compliment the colors in he photos...the title summarizes the story...and the photos capture the exhuberant movements of awe-struck little boy and the pleased, quietly observing grandfather in the background.

I scanned-in this layout before I added the journaling, but on the bottom strip of patterned paper I added my cherished memory of the occasion, "It was with great delight that I watched 4 year-old Rigel bond with his Grandpa Jim over Jim's Garden Railroad." On the left side I added, "July 24th, 2011, Martha's Vineyard, MA".

"So what did the pre-designed sketch contribute to this layout?," you might ask.

It's impossible to know how this layout would have looked if I hadn't worked off of a sketch (hey...great idea for another challenge...do two layouts of the same event -one designed organically, and one using a sketch), but I do know that I most likely wouldn't have added some of the embellishments where I did...the circle, for example...yet it works so well there. -And I definitely would not have thought to place the plaid ribbon near the bottom...which I think brings all the other elements together beautifully. I also may have used a shorter title and may have not spanned it along both pages.

But I did do all those things and the result is just lovely, don't you think? I love how the movement of the letters in the title reflect the movement of Rigel in the garden. I love how I matted the main photo on the left to make it the suggested 5"x7" size (since all my photos were developed 4"x6") and I love how I needed to crop the photos on the right to make them fit into the "size-equation". I also love how seven photos fit so perfectly and naturally on one layout, and tells a complete story.

I can't resist posting my favorite photo from the layout:
I simply love the captured movement of Rigel suddenly turning as he hears the approaching train engine.

But then there's this one -where his inquisitive nature is so very much on display-

On this following photo, which I shot from my bedroom window, Grandpa Jim's face says it all...
Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll check-out Let's Scrap and their many discussion groups and inspirations. Also, keep on the look-out for Let's Scrap's Blog Hop, coming in February. I will be hosting one of fifty greeting card sketches and inviting you to join in -creating and posting your cards, making you eligible to receive a nice gift.

I'll keep you posted!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Bloggers! Live an inspired life in 2012! -Enikö

Scrapbooking Clean and Simple...

Sometimes I just like clean and simple... Today's scrapbooking trends lean towards lots of color, lots of embellishments, lots of dimension, lots of patterned papers, and, alas, often lots of clutter. I designed this layout, titled "Gigi Plays", a while back, but it's remained one of my favorites. -Not only because of the subject matter (my sweet friend Gigi frolicking playfully on Ogunquit Beach in Maine, on a breezy autumn day...my dad in tow), but because of its simplicity.

The color is muted...almost monotone. The embellishments are minimal: a few chipboard shells, a couple of metal brads here...a few seashell brads there. Dimension is added only to the left page, with a dictionary definition of "play", matted & raised by foam dots, and five raised chipboard seashells. There are no clashing patterned papers, only soft background photographs. Most importantly, there is no clutter. Here's a close-up of the left-hand page:
Oh, I forgot to mention journaling... I'm the queen of journaling! I am quite firm in my feeling that each scrapbook layout should tell a complete story -you remember the grade school rule: Who, What, Where, When & How. A great rule! -Always works. But there are a few instances where the story can be told with a minimum of words. You'll notice that in the background above, there is a subtle type textured over the photo of the beach sand and seashells. If you look even closer, you'll be able to make out that the text is in fact a cluster of dictionary definitions of ocean-themed words. So by playfully placing definitions of "play" and "playful" on the layout, there is a cohesive, recurring theme.

Now let's take a look at the right side of the layout:
Once again, the soft text on the image of the beach sand reveals dictionary definitions of beach-themed words, and the word "BEACH" is actually drawn in the sand in the background photo. -The perfect background paper to display photos of Gigi writing in the sand. The words on this page are simple...the word "PLAY" appears twice, both times in soft colors. Over the water on the top, it is rubber stamped, and the bottom right is anchored with a small word sticker. The words "GIGI PLAYS", repeated three times with an inked rubber stamp and fading into the breakwater, is really all that is desired for additional journaling. We get the rest of the story just fine.

In my scrapbook, these pages follow a double-page layout that has quite extensive journaling about this special day at Ogunquit Beach, and the special relationship between Gigi and my dad. It covers all the "who, what, where, when" rules, making it even less necessary to repeat the same information here. But even if these pages stood alone, the important part of the story is evident -Gigi made an elderly friend feel like a kid again on that breezy day in Maine...clean and simple.

Keeping memories alive, one page at a time, Enikö

Stamping Enhances Summer Scrapbook Layouts: Part 2

Summers on Martha's Vineyard are filled with beautiful photo opportunities and the rich memories that accompany them. This layout captured our joy as Jim and I shared lobster and a glorious sunset on the beach at Menemsha on Labor Day.

In my last post (Stamping Enhances Summer Scrapbook Layouts: Part 1) I illustrated how stamping flourish designs with acrylic stamps over pretty wave-patterned paper can enhance a summer-themed layout. Here is another example of the same technique, using the same paper, but achieving a slightly different result. On this page, the title was stamped at the top of the layout, and the waves and flourishes act as a backdrop and also set the tone for the beach-themed photos.
Blue ink was used for the title and orange ink for the flourishes, to pick-up some of the colors in the polkadots of the paper. I paired the wave paper with a solid orange paper this time to represent the sunset, and I added a whimsical blue wave pattern (cut out with a punch) to ground the bottom of the page.
I stamped some flourishes on this side of the double-page layout as well, to tie it in with the opposing page.

I love seeing these two layouts side-by-side as testament to how the same paper can be enhanced and manipulated with similar stamping techniques, yet end up with interestingly different results.

Both layouts capture special summer memories, both layouts utilize similar techniques, yet the tone of each is quite different. Each layout is defined by the placement of different emphases on the various elements of design.

 

If you've been afraid of stamping, start with baby steps. Practice on scrap paper and learn how the ink responds to your touch. I find I am more successful when I tap my inkpad onto the stamp, instead of pressing the stamp into the inkpad, which tends to cause accessive pooling of the ink on the stamp and creates messier, less sharp images.

Stamping is not meant to be overly precise. Part of its charm is its imperfection, so throw caution to the wind and give it a try -you may just find a new passion.

Preserve those precious summer memories! -Enikö

Stamping Enhances Summer Scrapbook Layouts: Part 1

I like my summer-themed layouts to reflect the joyous spirit of the great outdoors, so I was thrilled to find some blue scrapbooking paper that not only had great graphics of waves, but also had a cheerful polka-dot element that introduced the sun-dappled colors of the season. It was perfect for capturing this fun summer day spent on one of Martha's Vineyard's most spectacular beaches.

I wanted the waves to be a little more predominant, so I stamped some beautiful flourishes over the wave graphics with copper-colored ink and stamped the title and date over the waves as well, attracting the eye to the upper right-hand corner of the page.

I used acrylic stamps, which work best when they are pressed onto acrylic blocks prior to inking. The advantage over wood-block stamps is that acrylic blocks allow for more precise placement since the pattern of the paper can be seen underneath while stamping.

Here's a close-up of the stamped title page:

I love that I was able to play off of the colors in the polka-dots with my embellishments and journaling blocks. The pop of oranges, greens and blues go a long way in pulling the look of this scrapbook layout together. -But my favorite element is the stamping...such a nice touch to a wonderful summer layout!

Preserve your summer memories! -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:
(click on image to enlarge)
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:
(click on image to enlarge)
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

 

A Whimsical Children's Summer Layout

To scrapbook the old-fashioned fun I had with my darling grandson, Rigel, when we played on the beach during last August's visit, I turned once again to Graphic 45 Papers. In their "On the Boardwalk" line, there are lots of images that remind me of beach days in Asbury Park and Coney Island during my own childhood. I was especially drawn to a printed scrapbook paper that was colorfully illustrated with vintage postcards of various beaches.

I immediately knew what I would do. I printed out my favorite photos of Rigel playing in the waves the same size as the postcards on the scrapbook paper. I used matte photo paper to mimic the look & feel of the vintage postcards and I glued my photos over several of the beach scenes -leaving some intact. This is a close-up of the right-hand scrapbook layout:

I really love the way this layout turned out. The image of the three beach-goers on the lower right just tickled my fancy, so I raised them with foam adhesive to achieve a great 3-D effect. Love, love, love the tag of the bathing beauties and by placing it where I did, it served to break up the repetition of rectangular images and added a nice touch of interest.

It was my good fortune that I also had some reproductions of old postcards of Martha's Vineyard on hand, which I incorporated into the left side of my layout. I titled my scrapbook layout "An Old-Fashioned Beach Day", which I wrote on the back of an old postcard, along with my journaling.

Graphic 45 papers have no shortage of whimsical graphics that are perfect embellishments to any scrapbook layout. This ad for men's and boy's bathing suits was a great contrast to Rigel's modern beachwear. I also added some large beach-themed grommets that picked up the color of the stamps & beach sign graphic.

Now wasn't this fun? And it really made me long for summer and the beach and playtime with Rigel.

Sharing the love, Enikö

If you enjoyed this post, please send me some blog-love by leaving a comment below. Also, please visit my website Enikö's Scrapbooks!

A Memory Book for a 60th Birthday: Part 8

Ah...Martha's Vineyard Summers...

When I scrapbooked photos of my friend Jaime's legendary beach parties for her Memory Book, I wanted to capture the essence of life by the ocean. We are immensely lucky to live only moments from beautiful beaches and we take every opportunity we can to gather on them. I had some great paper that had photographic images of a Cape Cod-style sandy beach with weathered fencing that was perfect for the occasion. (When I stiched the pages of my double-page layout together in photoshop, I somehow got the intensity of the colors wrong and the color of the sand and sky don't match up here as well as they do in the actual layout.) I love the "Life's a Beach" sticker placed on the bottom of the layout -it actually has real sand and tiny shells attached to it, and adds a great touch.

Another challenge was to tell the story of 30 years of fabulous dress-up parties in just two scrapbook pages. I found a really cool-looking journaling block that was the perfect tool for anchoring the page. I listed all the titles of the crazy dress-up parties we attended through the years and then arranged the photos as if they had been randomly dropped across the two pages. I used a dark floral printed paper thatdid not distract the eye from the photos as a background. This "random" arrangement, together with clever cropping, enabled me to fit 18 photos on my layout! Here's a close-up of the journaling block:

Jaime's scrapbook also included layouts devoted to her family, her catering company, her passion for sailing, and some humorous party shots that are too personal for public posting. One of my favorite layouts is devoted to the men in her life, past and present. But perhaps my favorite page is the final one, in which a very young and very tanned Jaime leans on a balcony railing looking off in the distance as if looking ahead into the future:

I adhered a gorgeous die-cut paper from Webster's Pages to a black background with the beautiful photo of Jaime front and center. I added a simple title: "Celebrate Life" and a couple of silk flowers which completed the story of Jaime perfectly, and offered a fitting closing page to her Memory Book.

On that note, I will end my 8-part series on "A Memory Book for a 60th Birthday". I hope you have found some inspiration and perhaps a little joy in these pages. I will close with a photo of Jaime's birthday cake -an amazing Gingerbread Cake baked by Martha, who appears in an earlier post about Jaime's TGIF girlfriends. The tradition in our circle is that everyone present is invited to place a ring on one of the birthday-girl's lit candles while making a wish, and as the candles are blown out, all the girlfriends' wishes will also come true.

Incidentally, the recipe for this truely delicious ginger cake may be found in Susan Branches 2011 Calendar available through her website and in stores now...a great Holiday gift idea!

 

SCRAPBOOKING 101: Part 4

An Introduction to the Art of Scrapbooking (cont.)

   

STEP 5:  LAYOUT:    

 Decide on a general layout based on the number of photos you plan to use and the size of the photos. -This is where you may decide to crop certain photos to fit your layout better. A word of caution: It is recommended that you not crop original, irreplaceable photographs and take care not to crop out interesting details that may interest future generations, such as the family car, or furniture or lamps typical to an era. As an example, don’t crop out the orange lava lamp from a sixties layout.

 

 This colorful layout illustrates several elements of scrapbooking design. Let's review -

In Part 1 and 2, I speak about sorting your photos according to a theme. This layout is about a toddler's enjoyment of the final days of summer and photos were well chosen to tell that story.

In Part 3, I discussed how to use color and paper to your advantage. Here, the bright colors of the paper reflect the mood of the colorful flower garden and the bright sunny day.

Part 4 focused on choosing an appropriate title for your page. I used the word "Sweet" on a die-cut of a butterfly for my main title and enhanced it by adding a strip of the words "The Sweet Days of Summer" underneath it -sort of like a subtitle.

This layout illustrates several elements that make the layout work, as I've discussed in this post, Part 5 of my Scrapbooking 101 lesson. Notice how cleverly the large photo on the right is cropped. By enlarging the image and chopping the top right off, the focus is placed on the child's point of view...we are invited to see the garden from a small child's perspective. The photo on the bottom of the left page shows us why he is so mesmerized - the flowers are, in fact, taller than he is. These two photos in juxtaposition tell us the story of why this is such a sweet day for this child. The other two photos show Rigel exploring the garden path and stopping for a moment on the garden bench to read in the glow of the warm sun, enhancing and supporting the theme of the story.

In future posts, I will be discussing the principles of layout in more detail, but for now, I just want to bring your attention to the powerful use of threes. Notice how the red journaling block on the left, the red banner on the upper right, and the red silk flower embellishment on the lower right move the eye cleverly around the entire layout of the double page spread. (Remember that trick!)

In Part 6 and 7, I will be sharing my views on embellishments and journaling. The silk flowers mimic the real flowers in the photos, giving them even more impact, and the flower brads add color and whimsy. Notice how the journaling block on the left gives the viewer the "what, when and where" of the story and the journaling under the large photo on the left actually tells the "why" as it describes the final sweet days of summer that are giving way to the chill of the coming autumn. 

What we have collectively is a great layout that tells a complete and delightful story. Go ahead, now you try it. I'd love to see what clever layouts my readers come up with!