National Scrapbooking Day 2012

Saturday was a busy day for us. Lots of stuff happening. I have a feeling this summer our weekends are going to be a little jam packed! Well, my weekends at least. Starting today, Berkeley's days off are Mondays and Tuesdays.

Anyways, this past Saturday, among other things, was National Scrapbook Day. Since I knew Berkeley would be working and gone most of the day, I signed up for the free Creative Crop offered by Big Picture Classes. I dedicated a few hours to some more traditional scrapping compared to the paper crafting I am normally comfortable with. Hourly from 9am to 8pm there was a new crop challenge released. I ended up with 8 layouts fulfilling 11 of the 12 challenges! Three of which were paper and the other five were digital.

I wanted to share the photos/files of everything I ended up posting over at Big Picture Classes.

Challenge 1: Feature a photo with a fanciful frame.
This was the first traditional style scrapbooking page I have done in a long time. I like how it turned out. The paper is a a gold glitter paper by Recollections. I added a raffia frame along the outside border. I cut the photo down a little bit from the 4x6 to add the frames. First is a black and white striped washi tape. The second frame was made using StazOn ink and a date stamp with the date of their wedding. I did some journaling about the picture and the day on plain white cardstock. The flower is Jolee's brand, I believe. They were leftovers for something else I had done in relation to the wedding. I finished the page off with the kraft label from Martha Stewart and Avery at Staples with their names. I believe the large stickers I used for their initials are from Sticko.

Challenge 2: Grab a photo from a few years back and a photo from today and tell a story about the way things are different or the same. 
Pretty straightforward. I added and layered the text, photos, and shapes. The brackets are from an Ali Edwards file. I literally only spent ten minutes on this particular layout. The journaling was short and sweet and just barely said anything to an outsider, but to us there is so much underneath.
Challenge 3: Use photos and/or page accents to create a page that talks about reflection, literally or figuratively
I went the literal route with this one. I love the reflection photo I took last weekend at the hotel so it was the main part of the layout. On a separate canvas in PhotoShop, I used some shapes and clipping masks to make the tag shaped area for journaling. I typed up some thoughts about where the years since leaving home have lead me. There are some personal details I didn't feel like sharing with the entire world so I blurred it out. I added a tag that came as a freebie from Xyron and Ali Edwards  to pull it all together.
Challenge 4/5: Use a twine technique on your layout! and Using iPhone photos.
This is the first layout I did that ended up fulfilling two challenges. The only thing twine I had in the house was a file of twine flowers that was a digital element freebie. What better to match fake flowers than photos of fake flowers. Both photos are from Michaels, I do admit that the photo on the right was taken by a coworker Lacey W. She has mad skills! The whole layout is digital so it was all about adding and layering.

Challenge 6: Use this Sketch! With a bonus challenge of using something old from the stash.

 

We were provided with a general template of a layout with the additional task of adding something old from our "stash". Most people used 12X12 pages for all of their layouts. I still don't feel comfortable trying to fill up that much space, so everything I did was 8X8. Due the size difference I used two small photos instead of three. Also, because I am relatively new to paper crafting and embellishments, I went with older photos from my stash of pictures. These are from the weeks before my high school graduation. So roughly 7 years old!

The washi tape on the pictures is from the packaging of the Elise Joy stamps I purchased! They arrived in the middle of me making this layout so I incorporated the tape and on of the stamps! Other supplies include Recollections glitter chipboard letters, a Paper Source tag, and Recollections glitter brad.

Challenge 7: Create a layout using three colors that are found next to each other on the color wheel.

This one is pretty self explanatory, yet it took the longest to complete. I was actually stuck on it for over an hour. I wanted the specific colors to be the focus of the layout but not outshine the photo. I used a full size photo, but only in black and white. The journaling I just formatted to fit around the flowers and made the font color and background very neutral.

Challenge 9/10: Using a pocket on your layout and Use any cast-off object on your layout.
 
 So this is my favorite one of the whole day! A lot of little things came together to make this page. Challenge simply asked for a pocket. Originally, I was going to use a leftover vellum envelope from the Summer minibook addon papers from last year. I got started on it a little late and as I was starting arrange everything for the other layout, I received the email about using cast-offs as elements for the page. I decided to scratch my other plan, and went with this one. Besides the background patterned paper which is from a Me and My Big Ideas paper pad, the only new items are the Pink Martha/Avery label in the bottom corner, the black and white striped washi tape on the top of the journaling, and the photo. Everything else was from something else. 


The border/matting on the picture was made using some scratch cardstock and leftover tissue papers. I just ripped the tissue paper into pieces and glued them on. I adhered the picture right on top. Before adhering the photo on to the base page, I added a clear pocket I made from leftover packaging. Inside the pocket is an index card that has journaling on both sides. It was also a castoff, but I used the washi tape and little blue pull tab to cover the previous mistake on it. I also added the "Sweet & Spicy" title that was just cut out from one of the leftover invitations from Sam's Bridal Shower. As a last little touch, I used old washi tape (blue and pink) that came on the packaging of some stuff I ordered to pull all of the colors together.

Challenge 11/12: Scrapbook a favorite memory from your childhood and Utilize kraft in two different ways on a project.

Again, another page that is pretty self explanatory for the challenge. This one I intentionally made to fit the two challenges. I like trying to keep things as simple as possible while still being interesting so I grabbed a dotted patterned paper two kraft like colors. The photo is from 2000, but it was scanned in with a poor quality, but I kinda like the way it turned out. Can't believe its been almost twelve years since that photo was taken. I also added a kraft tab and the notebook style paper for the journaling. Lastly, I put the Ali Edwards Sentiment Arrow.

So there it is, the eight layouts I made for Creative Crop. I am essentially a newb at traditional style scrapbooking so its safe to safe I am pretty proud of myself for getting these all done in 24 hours. In reality I only worked on these for 10 hours! I also learned some new techniques and tools for creating stuff in Photoshop. I think it turned out well and I hope to be making a small album from these pages.