Eniko's Playhouse

Co-ordinating Scrapbook Papers with the Colors on Your Photos

If you read my last post, you know all about my sister Ildi's beautiful autumn wedding in the woods of New Hampshire. It was a glorious day, blessed with perfect early October weather, and foliage kissed with the colors of the season. The wedding began with a procession...first the guests, then a little while later, the musicians...creating the sounds of woodland elves. Led by Ildi's son, Brooks (so handsome in his suit and fedora), keeping time on an over-sized drum, the flutist and the fiddler followed. Ildi's beautiful brunette daughter, Julia, was flanked by Erick's stunning blond daughters, Trina and Britta. It was evident at once that the guests were in for a treat...this was no ordinary wedding. Strolling hand-in-hand...coming up the path, were the beaming bride and groom.

I wanted to capture the magic of that procession in my scrapbook layout. The colors of the forest, the golden glow of the late afternoon sun shining through the foliage, the mystical way the guests heard the music...faint at first, building mystery and anticipation as it grew louder and louder...until the musicians finally appeared. I wanted to harness that feeling that we all felt when the lovely bridesmaids entered our vision, their sequin-speckled gossamer shawls all a glimmer. -And how it took our breath away when we spied the happy couple...with Ildi's golden curls shimmering in the sunlight, along with the gold thread that ran through the velveteen cape she wore...a gorgeous bouquet in one hand, and the other clinging onto her handsome betrothed.

How does one begin to tell such a story on a scrapbook page? I gravitated toward a Martha Stewart cardstock, resplendent with colorful sparkling butterflies that seemed to portray the kind of "magic" that I wanted to recreate...too busy, but I really wanted to make it work, if only as an accent. There was also a great color that seemed to go with the jacket I was wearing in the photo.
I find that the best way to sort scrapbooking papers for a layout is to simply lay the photos over them. While I loved the butterfly papers, they lacked the impact I was going for. There was a lot of blue in the photos, so I tried some beautiful flocked papers in two different blues.
Pretty, but too soft...perhaps a little washed-out. My next strategy was to focus on the foliage in the photos. Perhaps I could recreate the feeling of the forest with the right papers.
I loved the brightness of the creamy yellow paper with the flora & the fauna because it picked up the flickering sunlight in the photographs. I also liked the more subdued green-tinged papers that had a beautiful feel, but were a tad too "quiet". Then, there they were...the perfect papers that represented the autumnal glory of the forest, without overwhelming the photos, or underwhelming the beauty of the occasion.
(Please click on the layout to view it in its full splendor!)

The colors of these background papers were perfect for the atmosphere I was going for! They picked up the various colors in the photos, the matting, the journaling blocks and the flower embellishments. I used the sketch (by Cheri O'Neil) that we were assigned for the week at Let's Scrap... I edited my photos down to the ones that pertained best to the theme of the Procession, and added some really great journaling to describe the moment. I added just enough bling to represent the sparkle of the day and some butterflies to mimic the magic. I'm so pleased that it all fell together so beautifully...just like the Procession.

Thanks for visiting, and do leave a little comment, so I know you've been by...

Happy Scrapping! -Enikö

Graphic 45 Papers...a Thrilling Challenge to Work With

I've been hoarding Graphic 45's Once Upon a Springtime paper collection for some time now. I knew that once I got around to scrapbooking my sister Ildi's fairytale wedding, those adorable fairy images would come in handy...and indeed they did.

Ildi was already in her early 50's when she met her prince and decided to wed, in 2006, so you can imagine that I was quite taken aback when she announced that she was going to have a "Fairy Wedding." But I suppose if the guy you love makes you feel like a fairy princess...what's age got to do with it? Here's Ildi with her beloved Erick on their special day:
I've never seen a more gloriously joyful, excuberant, beaming bride! Ildi and Erick had been both married before, but this time it was different. They found in each other some little piece that was missing in themselves. At the risk of being cliche...they complete each other...and in fact, this really was a fairytale come true for both of them.

As my wedding gift to the couple, I offered to make the wedding cake. I sculpted the cake topper in their likeness (as close as I could get in miniature) of the bride and groom, depicting them as fairies.

Funny, now I see butterfly wings wherever I go...scrapbook stores and craft stores seem to be filled with them. But at the time, here in early October of 2006, it was virtually impossible to find the props I needed to bring my vision to fruition. At last I found some wings!

The cake was a simple little 3-tier... I don't remember now what flavor or what icing, but it was abundantly adorned with painstakingly made meringue mushrooms and marzipan acorns and autumn leaves (thank you, Laura Beckman -once my protogee & today the executive pastry chef at The Black Dog- for your help). The wedding cake needed to be as magical as the wedding...

Here I am putting the final touches on the "Fairy Cake":
And here is a close-up of the finished woodland fairy cake masterpiece:
So I finally got around to creating some scrapbooking layouts of this fun-filled wedding. As a member of the Design team at Let's Scrap, one of my duties is to create layouts inpired by specific scrapbook sketches posted on the site. For this particular challenge, this was our "blueprint' if you will": 

Interpreting scrapbooking sketches can be tricky business. At first glance, one might think that this design would be best applied to a children's layout, because of the "cutesy" graphics, but it is important to look past the obvious. The graphics need to be translated into mere elements...they can become an embellishment, a journaling block, or a photograph, for example. I decided to not flip or alter the design of the sketch this time...I thought it would serve my layout well as is, but how to use the fairy paper from Graphic 45? -That became my greatest challenge in scrapbooking the story of the "Fairy Cake".

Graphic 45 papers are very colorful and covered with patterns and images. One of my fellow scrappers commented, "I have G45 papers, and I take them out and look at them, and think how beautiful they are, and then I put them back, not quite knowing what to do with them." I knew just what she meant. Combining busy patterns is not only tricky, but can be outright frightening. "What if it ends up looking like a cluttered mess?"

Since I am a follower of Nathalie's Studio and Balter Designs & have taken their "Second Floor Challenge" -meant to inspire artists to push their boundaries (this week's challenge was to "use something from your supplies that you haven't used before") -so I decided to set aside my fears of "cluttering up" my layout and I started pairing the Once Upon a Springtime papers with wild abandon. Using the assigned sketch as a framework, and photos of the wedding cake at Ildi's wedding as the theme, this is what I created:
The experience was thrilling. At first, the fear of messing-up was palpable, but as I took risk after risk, grouping patterns that I would not normally put together, I began to feel that joy of creation that we, as artists, strive for. The beauty of the color combinations began to dominate over the fear of mixing patterns. I decided to use a cut-out of the cake itself as the embellishment in the lower left-hand corner (where the cutesy graphic of the boy is in the sketch):
I added two fairy tags in place of the cloud (and attached some sparkly metallic fiber for extra magic):
And I placed a pair of G45 "postcards" where the image of the sun is suggested and used one as my journaling block. (The image of the little fairy with the frog is an inside joke...Ildi has a small collection of frogs with crowns on their heads...sort of a reminder of how many frogs one must sometimes kiss before finding her prince at last):
Truthfully, I was still a little scared as I uploaded the layout to the Let's Scrap Gallery, wondering if my colleagues would find it "too busy". But as soon as it was posted, the accolades started pouring in...everyone loved it! ...And even more importantly, I loved it, too...as much for the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone, as for the joy of the finished product.

Go ahead...step out of that comfort zone...you might just love it out there!

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 a Mad Hatter Tea Party

'Tis the season to be thinking of fun-filled outdoor celebrations! I designed this scrapbook layout for a caterer's portfolio. The event was a post-wedding brunch held under open tents on a beautiful up-island property on Martha's Vineyard.
The Mad Hatter-theme of the brunch allowed for whimsical and colorful food and floral displays in a fabulous collaboration between acclaimed florist and stylist Louise Sweet and "caterer to the stars" V. Jaime Hamlin.

The event was more fun than you can imagine, and as a scrapbook designer, my job was to capture the fun through my choice of photographs, scrapbook papers, and embellishments. Perhaps I would have been a little less formal with my layout had it not been intended for a portfolio -I may have chosen a few less photos and may have placed them willy-nilly to echo the tumbling cups and saucers used in the flower arrangements, but I think I've managed to capture the essence of the affair. Here's a closer look at the individual scrapbook pages:

As you may have guessed, the title, "Mad Hatter Tea Party" was cut out with my Cricut die-cutting machine. -I used the negative portion of the green cardstock for the "Mad Hatter" and adhered the quotation marks and the "Tea Party" letters individually onto the layout after they were cut.

I do love my Cricut...so much nicer to have the ability to make letters out of the colors and papers I need for a particular layout, rather than having to depend on sticker letters that are often not available in the size or color needed. The Cricut Die-Cutting Machine is made by ProvoCraft, and is a great investment for avid scrapbookers -especially if you manage to snag one on sale, as I did. I use mine mainly for titles and tags, so I own a few cartridges that offer me a variety of fonts, but there are all sorts of shapes available on the cartridges that many people enjoy using for embellishments on cards or scrapbook pages. It's nice if someone in your cropping circle or your scrapbooking workshop owns one that you all can share.

Off to enjoy a few rays of sun...I hope this post made you smile

Happy Memorial Day weekend, Enikö

(Photography by Nichole Friedler Photography and Enikö DeLisle)

SCRAPBOOKING 101: Part 3

An Introduction to the Art of Scrapbooking (cont.)

STEP 4:  TITLE  Choose a title for your page and decide on a placement.

 Why should your layout have a title? Well, remember that the purpose of each layout is to tell a story. The intention is to communicate as much information as possible in one quick glance - the title enables you to do that very effectively.  The viewer should feel the emotion of the experience that you are scrapping instantly.

In the layout above, the "Happily Ever After" raised glitter lettering on the paper tells the story well. The viewer can surmise from the empty pair of decorated wicker chairs that the bride & groom have gone off to live their lives happily ever after, just as the title suggests.

Choose a title for your page that highlights or summarizes your theme or event. You may use names, famous quotes, simple phrases or even the name of a song – anything that you feel communicates the message of your theme instantly. Titles can be written out by hand, or printed out on a computer, or created by stamping with ink, by using alphabet stickers. I am fond of finding pre-purchased titles that I simply match with my theme. Once the title is decided upon, you must decide where it goes. The most popular placement is either on the top or the bottom of the right-hand page on a double-page spread, but again, there are no rules, only preferences.

To give you an example, I once used a line from a Crosby, Stills and Nash song on a page I designed for a client about his newly renovated vacation home. "Our House is a Very, Very Fine House" was the perfect title for the story I was intending to tell.

 
In the double layout below, the word "Magic..." says it all, so it is enough. Normally, I would have also included journaling & pertinent info, such as the date, but this layout was used in a portfolio for a caterer, so the impact of the photos and the title were sufficient. (For other examples, please see titles used in layouts in Part 1 and 2 of Scrapbooking 101.)What title can you come up with to enhance your next layout?

(Photos by Nichole Friedler and Eniko DeLisle)