be AUDacious

tutorial: creating negative titles

I've been putting together some layouts for an upcoming class where I'll be featured at Masterful Scrapbook Design. Speaking of, I'm currently one of the featured scrappers there for the Telling Stories class, and I was part of April's Artful Embellishing class. Anyway, this upcoming class has me thinking a lot about the techniques that I use on a regular basis. The layout below (which is from the Artful Embellishing class, incidentally) is a perfect example of many of my go-to techniques: using bold patterns, including different types of journaling, replicating a paper style, and including negative space.

Today's tutorial focuses on that last technique -- using negative space to create a title. 

At first glance, it may seem as though the letters in my title are simply created with the same paper used for the background beneath the patterned paper. However, if you look more closely at the shadows, you'll see that the title has been cut out of the patterned paper, which was then placed on top of the teal paper and shadowed. So the negative space created by removing the letters creates the title. This is the same look you would get by using a Silhouette or a Cameo, both items that are very popular in paper scrapbooking right now. I like using this technique because it's a little bit unexpected, and I just really like how it looks on the page. Here's how I do it:

Step 1:
You'll want to begin with at least two sheets of paper. In this example, I have an ombre paper as my bottom layer and a chevron-patterned paper as my top layer. (These papers are part of my Confetti & Cupcake kit, which will be releasing on 8/2).

Step 2: 
Select a color which highly contrasts against your patterned paper. In this instance, I used the color picker to choose a bright pink.

Step 3: 
Select a font and type your title across the page. I'm using Bebas for this example. In my experience, I've found that bold blocky texts work best if you are cutting them from heavily-patterned papers. If you opt to use a fussier text, with lots of swirls or serifs or other details, then you'll want to cut it from a solid-colored pattern paper; otherwise all the details can get lost in the pattern. 

Step 4:
Once you've placed the title where you want it, you'll need to simplify (rasterize) it. Then you'll need to merge the title layer to your top paper layer (Ctrl+G).

 Step 5: 
Use your Magic Wand Tool to select one of the letters in your title. Right click on the mouse and select "similar." This will select the rest of the letters that are the same color. This is why it is important to make sure you use a high-contrast color for the title, particularly if you are using a heavily-detailed patterned paper or a fussy font. Once your entire title is selected, just hit the Delete button on your keyboard. This will "cut" the title from your paper.

 Step 6: 
Add a shadow to the top layer. At this point, I chose to substitute a different patterned paper for my top layer, because I didn't think there was enough contrast between the two layers. But this didn't mean I had to start over! Instead, I just opened up a new piece of paper, placed it on top of my cut-out paper, and then "clipped" them together (Ctrl+G, Ctrl+E).

 Of course, this technique isn't limited to text. You can create the same look with the custom shapes tool, with brushes, or with the patterns on a piece of paper. 

 

Digital products from Audacious Designs related to this post:

InLinkz.com

Tuesday $$ Deals: Tag Team Templates (and a tutorial, too!)

(I've really got to stop it with the alliteration on these Tuesday $$ Deal posts...the last post was just as bad!)

I ADORE this week's $ kit; I think these little tag templates are SO flexible and fun! I can't wait to see what you make with them! The House Decorators and my creative team came up with some awesome layouts -- take a look!

by Becca -- I love how she clustered all the tags together and used screws to attach them to the wood background. The Camp Currie and In the Moment kits work perfectly with those swimming photos too!
(additional credits: alpha and paint splatters from Be You)

by Rachel -- This page is so lovely. The tags line up perfectly, and all the little details (buttons, tags, embellished words) lead your eye directly to that beautiful photo. I love the soft brush in the background and the hint of pattern on the blue paper too.
(credits: I Do kit and freebie, Painterlays, Iconic Banners, paint and edge from By Your Side Bits, recolored tape from Celebrate)

by Missy -- Missy noted that she'd print this page as a 6x6; she loves using the tag as a major focal point and thinks it would look awesome as part of series of smaller pages, bound into an album or framed. I have to agree!
(credits: Flight Path kit)

by Liz -- Liz's page uses a number of different items, many from a new kit that will be releasing in my shop on Thursday, so consider this to be your SNEAK PEEK! :) Hope you like what you see!
(additional credits: Garden Party Alphabet)

I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you; last week, I posted a great layout from House Decorator Carey, using my Sports Fanatic bundle. There are lots of great details on Carey's layout, but the one I love the most is how she combined two different flairs to create an element that perfectly matched the team's colors (blue and gold).

Here's how she did it (I'm using PSE 5.0):

1. Open the two flair elements that you want to combine. (NOTE: With the Pennant Pieces kit, each flair comes in two types: a white base with a colored image, and a colored base with a white image. There are also 5 different colors to choose from: red, blue, yellow, green, black. 15 different sports are represented.) For our example, we're going to place the blue image onto the yellow flair.

2. Select the Magic Wand Tool (use keyboard shortcut W) from your toolbar along the left side of your screen. Pull up the blue and white track image. Click anywhere on the image that is blue. This will cause "marching ants" (a dotted outline) to appear around that blue image.

3. As you'll see, though, only a portion of the image is selected. With the image still selected, right click. When the drop down menu appears, choose "SIMILAR." This will select all the other parts of the image that are the same color blue. (Hint: If you repeat this step, it will continue to pick up more bits of blue color on the image).

4. Right click again and choose "LAYER VIA COPY." This will make a duplicate layer of the selected image. If the selection didn't pick up the entire image (you can see that some of the track image, for example, is closer to white because of the flair highlights), then choose the portion of the image that wasn't selected the first time around and repeat steps 3 and 4. (HINT: Make sure that the original image is your active layer, NOT the copy layer. If you have to make more than one copy, you'll want to merge CTRL+E those layers until you have one full copy.)

5. Drag the copy on top of the yellow flair and position it so that it overlaps the white image. Once you have it positioned where you'd like it to go, just merge your layers and save the image under a NEW FILE NAME. Do not save over the original!

 

tutorial: circle accents

Today's tutorial is a quick one -- but it's a simple technique that I  use ALL the time. I love circle-shaped accents -- flair, buttons, round labels or tags -- and I love to include them on my scrapbook pages. They provide a nice bit of contrast against all the straight lines of a design, and they're always a great way to add dimension or an extra bit of information (like dates, names, etc.)

One of my favorite things to do is to create a basic grid-type layout, and then cut out a space for my circle accent to fit, like I did on the layout below:

I could just have easily have placed the circle tab on top of the patterned papers, but I like the extra touch that the cut-out shape provides, particularly on a paper-type layout. 

Here's how you can achieve this same look on your layouts:
(Note: I'm using PSE 5.0, so your program may differ slightly from mine. Still, the general steps should remain the same.) 

1. Build your base. You'll want to do all the preliminary design work first -- placing your patterned papers and your photos where you want them to go. In the example, I'm just working with patterned papers.

2. Right-click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool in your toolbar on the left side of your page. Change it to the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

3. Place your circle accent on your page. This will help you to determine how large you need to make your cut-out shape.

4. With the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, hold down your left mouse button and drag the cursor to draw a circular shape. To keep the dimensions of the circle correctly proportioned, also hold down the SHIFT key. Once the circle is the desired size, you can move it around on the page by clicking inside the dotted circle, holding your left mouse button down, and moving the shape to the position where you want it.

5. Select the layer of paper that you want to cut in the Layers palette in the lower right corner of your screen. In the example below, you can see that I have selected the layer with the striped paper, because this is the layer that I want to cut. With the layer active, just hit the DELETE button on your keyboard. The portion of the patterned paper within your dotted circle has now been deleted, leaving a "punched" area where your circle accent will fit perfectly.

6. If you have more than one layer that needs punching, simply select the next layer to delete (make sure you don't change the dotted circle or anything else) to make it active, and then hit DELETE again. You can repeat this with as many layers as you'd like. In the example below, I've shown this step with two pieces of patterned paper that are spaced out, but you can also do it with papers that are stacked on top of each other.

Like I said, it's a simple technique, but it adds to the paper-scrapped feel of your layout, and it can create a real visual punch on a page.

tutorial: adding color and texture to an alpha

I'm always looking for digital scrapping products that are flexible enough to be used with a variety of page topics and styles. One of the things I do frequently is to recolor and texturize alphas -- this can make one alphabet work for lots of different pages.

It's an effect I put to use on my "Gone Fishing" layout a couple of weeks ago. Initially, I had just used the plain Pop A Cork Alphabet on my page, but it just didn't feel right, even though the texture and color were both natural, similar to what was going on with the rest of the layout.

So I decided to add a pop of color and a little something extra: a brush overlay for texture -- another way to use some of the elements in the Camp Currie kit. Here's how I did it:

Note: I am using Photoshop Elements 5.0. The steps and commands may be slightly different on various versions of the program, but the overall process should be similar.

There are lots of different ways to recolor an item. This is the method that I prefer, because I feel like it does the best job of keeping the details and textures of the original image intact; it also lets me achieve a more vibrant color in my image.

Step 1: Remove the color from your item. I do this by selecting Enhance> Adjust Color> Remove Color (or Shft+Ctrl+U for the keyboard shortcut). You can also do it by choosing Enhance> Convert to Black and White (Alt+Ctrl+B).

Step 2: Duplicate the item. You can do this by right-clicking on the layer in your layers palette (bottom right) and choosing Duplicate layer, or you can go to the menu bar at the top and select Layer> Duplicate layer. In either instance, you'll be asked to rename the layer, which you can do if you'd like, or you can just select OK to go with the default name provided. 

Step 3: Apply a fill color to the bottom layer. I use the eyedropper tool to select a color from one of my patterned papers or elements. Make sure the original layer is selected (this is the lowest one in your layers palette). Select Layer> New Fill Layer> Solid Color. You'll be prompted to name the new layer (I just click OK to stick with the default name). The next dialogue box will prompt you to select a color. You've already done this with your eyedropper tool, so click OK. 

Step 4: Clip your fill layer to your original layer by selecting Ctrl+G. Merge the two layers (Ctrl+E).

PROGRESS CHECK: At this point you should have two layers open in your layers palette. The bottom one will be your alphabet letter filled with the color of your choice. The top layer should be the same alphabet layer with the color removed.

Step 5: Adjust the blend mode of the top layer. Begin by making your top layer (the colorless image) the active layer -- just click on it to do so. In the top left of your palette layer, there's a dropdown box that reads normal. If you scroll through it, you'll see a variety of blend modes. Select one. This is a step where you'll want to do some experimenting on your own. Personally, I always use either the Overlay or Soft Light blend mode. Sometimes if my top layer is too light, I'll duplicate that layer and choose multiply, then merge those two layers together. This darkens it a bit and helps the texture to become more pronounced. 

Step 6: Combine your layers. Once you've set the blend mode to your liking, all you need to do is merge your layers (Shft+Ctrl+E).

For the next process, you can choose to add the brush images to your letters one at a time, or you can arrange your title on your layout, merge the letters, and then add the brush image. The steps are the same, regardless of the option you choose.

Step 1: Open a brush and drag it on top of your letter or title. Resize it until it looks the way you want.

Step 2: Select a blend mode and opacity for your brush. In this instance, I selected Hard Light for my blend mode, because I wanted the detailed leaves and branches of the brush to remain visible against the cork background. However, for some brushes, Hard Light may be too dark, so you'd want to go with Overlay or another mode. You can also use the slider bar under Opacity to adjust your brush image -- the lighter the opacity of the top layer, the more visible the bottom layer's texture becomes.

Step 3: Clip your brush layer to your alphabet layer by selecting Ctrl+G. Sometimes I'll do this part before adjusting my overlay because it helps me to see the final effect a little more clearly; the brush takes on the shape of the letter and I can see how it's going to look before merging the layers (Ctrl+E).

Here's what the layout looks like with the recolored alphabet and the brush image applied. It provides a great pop of color, and it helps to make the other elements -- not just the title -- stand out as well.

If you have additional ideas for tutorials you'd like to see, leave a comment and share them with me. I'd like to make this a weekly feature on the blog, so your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you give the tutorial a shot, I'd love to see your final results as well -- link up your layouts in the comments below.

 

 

tutorial: adding a color cast to photos

Recently, Cass has gotten into the habit of putting together an outfit and props for Cami, grabbing my camera, and heading outside. The two of them can spend hours outdoors like this, taking photos, talking, laughing, goofing off. Chris and I will peek through the windows at them, but we stay inside, letting them have this time together to just be sisters, and even better, friends. I love watching them like this, and I love what ends up on my camera's memory card when they are finished. This photo of Cami is one that I particularly love, since it captures so much of what she is like right now.

It wasn't hard to scrapbook at all -- my Candyland papers and She Is elements were the perfect fit. Less perfect were the cool blues and purples in the photo with the warm pinks and reds of the kit. So I did what any scrapper would do -- converted the photo to black and white.

Still, the tones in the photo weren't quite what I wanted so I added a slight color cast to the photo. I do this quite a bit when I'd like a black and white (or sepia-toned) photo to match my layout colors just a little better. It's a simple 5-step technique (I'm using Photoshop Elements 5.0, but I'm sure the steps are similar in a variety of programs).

Step 1: Convert your photograph to black and white (you can use an action, your own workflow -- whatever you want to make this initital conversion).

Step 2: Use the eye dropper tool to select a color from your layout. I chose the light gray in the main stripe on my background paper. Make sure this color is set as your foreground color.

Step 3: With the photo layer as your selected layer, go to Layer> New Fill Layer> Solid Color and click OK twice.

Step 4: Click Ctrl+G to "clip" this color to your photo layer. Then, in the layers palette in the bottom right of your screen, change the blend mode of the fill layer to Soft Light. I don't always use Soft Light -- sometimes I'll use Overlay and make some opacity adjustments to the fill layer as well. This is a good time to experiment with a couple of different options before merging your layers.

Step 5: Once you have your blend mode selected, click Ctrl+E to merge the fill layer with your photo layer. 

At this point, you can make any additional adjustments that you'd like -- contrast, brightness, etc. Here's a look at the two photos side-by-side. The one on the left is just my initial conversion. The one on the right is with the color cast added from the papers in the background.

It's a really subtle difference, but it does have an impact when you look at the layout as a whole. The photo just seems to fit better into the overall design when the color is closer to what's being used in the kit.

 

tutorial: ombre

One of the biggest fashion trends right now – from dresses to curtains to hair – is ombre. This graduation of color from light to dark isn’t just something that’s reserved for fashion, though. It’s a great technique that you can apply to your favorite patterned papers, brushes, or elements with just a few clicks of your mouse.

This technique works best on graphic patterns with strong lines: stripes, chevrons, polka dots, or other geometric shapes all work particularly well. Patterns with ornate flourishes can also work well, such as the snowflakes in the background paper on my layout below, as long as the patterns aren’t too detailed or too distressed.

Credits: Brown Paper Packages by Karen Funk, Clipped Frames by Audrey Neal; March Foundations template #6 by Crystal Livesay

Here’s how to get the ombre look:

1. Select two colors; ideally, these colors should be in the same color family. You want the pattern to look like it is fading from dark to light. Set the darker color as your foreground color and the lighter color as your background color.

2. Use the magic wand tool to select the area to be recolored. I usually set my tolerance level to about 35. Once I select one of the stripes, I right-click and select SIMILAR to pick up all the other stripes of that same color. If you find that you are picking up other colors that are close to your intended color, you can reduce the tolerance setting to a 5 or 10 and the tool will be pickier about the color it selects.

3. Once you have all your stripes in your pattern selected, right-click and select LAYER VIA COPY.

4. Now, go up to the toolbar and select LAYER > NEW FILL LAYER > GRADIENT and select OK. When the dialogue box pops up, choose the drop-down arrow next to GRADIENT and select the first box from the options shown. Click OK.

5. Now, just clip your layer to your pattern layer by selecting CTRL+G. Merge the layers by selecting CTRL+E. To finish things off, merge your pattern layer with the original paper by using CTRL+E again.

That’s all there is to it! Now you have an awesome ombre patterned paper with just a few simple steps.

For APRIL’S TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE at Design House Digital, we're asking you to put this technique to use on a layout. You can use it on your patterned paper, on a brush or word art, or on an element of your choice. Upload your layout to the TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE GALLERY by the end of the month. Don’t forget to add a link in the challenge forum if you’d like to share your layout with us. At the end of the month, all participants will be entered in a drawing for a $5.00 DHD Gift Certificate. 

Of course, if you don't want to go to the trouble of creating your own papers, you can also pick up these two paper packs from my shop: Ombre Chevron and Ombre Dots and Stripes. 

DHD Mad March Memories Blog Hop

For the first time in a long time, I'm really excited about March Madness because my Murray State Racers have a chance to make some real noise in the big dance! We're making some noise over at Design House Digital this month as well, kicking off our own version of March Madness, digiscrap-style!

The shop has been just overflowing with great products recently, and one that I'm personally excited about is a new one I released last week called See-Throughs.

Essentially, these are 12x12 clipping masks that create a fun peek-a-boo effect on your layout backgrounds. They are an easy way to add an extra bit of pattern to your page, and they can be used in so many different ways.

Here's how to use them: 
NOTE: I am using Photoshop Elements 5.0, so if you are using a newer version of PSE or CS, then things might look a little different, but the steps will essentially be the same. Also, I know that there are multiple options for achieving this same effect -- this is just the way I've always done things. Feel free to share your shortcuts and suggestions in the comments section of this post.

Step 1: Open the See-Through in your program.

Step 2: Select a pattern paper and drag it onto your canvas. Move it to the layer BELOW the See-Through. Resize the patterned paper if necessary.

Step 3: Select a different patterned paper or a solid paper and place on the layer ABOVE the See-Through.

Step 4: "Clip" the second paper to the See-Through by first using the keyboard command CtrlG (Layer > Group with Previous). Then merge the two layers by selecting the keyboard command CtrlE (Layer > Merge layers).

Step 5: Add a drop shadow to the top layer now. Finish off your page by adding photos, embellishments, journaling, and a title. 

credits: star paper from Robyn Meierott's Everyday papers, kraft paper from Robyn Meierotto's Let's Go papers

There are lots of different ways you can modify this product to fit your needs. The masks are easily resizable, so you can clip your photos to them, or cut out portions of them to clip to journaling cards, accent papers, tags, and more. Play around with your background papers too -- use three or four different patterns. Embellish them with stitching, glitter, buttons or brads. You're really limited only by your own creativity. Here's how our Design House Decorators have put them to use on their own layouts.

Katherine

Aria

Celeste

 I'm offering up the See-Through from my tutorial as a freebie for you all; just click on the link below to download it.

Download An-dhd-freebie-seethrough

But wait! That's not all! Hopefully you made your way here from Aria's wonderful blog, which is the 3rd stop on our blog hop. (If you've gotten lost or mixed up, you can always head back to the beginning at the DHD blog.)

If so, then you know that your goal is to gather a letter from each blog post (along with whatever great freebies are available) and then head back to DHD to enter them for a great prize: this gorgeous collab from some of our DHD designers! Plus, you can enter to win a new Wacom tablet (details here).

As one final thank you for being so wonderfully supportive of my designs, I'd like to offer one person a chance to win a $10.00 gift certificate to my shop.  (UPDATE: Winner announced here.) (I've got an awesome collab coming out this week with Robyn Meierotto that you don't want to miss, so a GC sure would be nice to have right now!)

To enter, just leave a comment here on my blog. Want to earn additional chances to win? Here's how:
1) Tweet about the giveaway (with a link to this blog post); come back to the comments and link me up to your tweet.
2) Post about it on your favorite message board; come back to the comments and link me up to your message board post.
3) Share the news on Facebook; come back to the comments and link me up to your status update.
4) Follow me on Twitter and/or like my fan page on Facebook.   

You've got until Wednesday night at midnight CST to comment; I'll use random.org to draw a name on Thursday. After you comment, don't forget to head over to Carey's blog to find your next letter!

2012: product line and take twelve layout

I've got a simple new product line coming to Design House Digital over the next couple of weeks. The first release are these easy-to-use photo templates, perfect for scrapping your Take Twelve Photo Challenge pictures. These templates can be used to easily create a digital layout of your Take Twelve photos; you can also use the templates as a way to share your photos on your blog each month. In addition, these templates are flexible enough to use for printing and scrapping the traditional way, too. There are four photo templates: 2x6, 3x4, 4x3, 6x2 (that's width by height) and they come in two styles: square corners and rounded corners. 

Each template comes as a layered .psd file, meaning that each square is on a separate layer. Using these in Photoshop or PSE is really simple. Just open the template, and then open your photos. Place one photo above the layer where you'd like to have it located in your photo grid. Resize your photo as necessary, and then click Ctrl G to "clip" your photo to the template square. Make any adjustments to the location and then click Ctrl E to merge the two layers together. Repeat these steps with the rest of your photos, and then merge all the layers together. Here's a tutorial from the DHD blog to help you out.

Here's what the templates look like in action. I used the 4x3 template with rounded corners; I chose the 4x3 orientation because my photos were divided into morning, afternoon, and evening and this arrangement let me keep them grouped in that way. The other products I used are a brief glimpse at some of the products you'll see in next week's release in my digital shop. My plan is to use these items throughout the year on my Take Twelve Challenge. 

Speaking of the Take Twelve Challenge, have you signed up for Ella Publishing's reminder email yet? It only takes a few minutes; fill out the required fields and make sure to check the box that says "Take Twelve Project." You'll be sent monthly email reminders about the Take Twelve Photo Challenge, and you'll get some great opportunities to share your photos and win prizes! Also, don't forget to check out the Ella Blog today to see how other team members are scrapping their Take Twelve photos.

project: Portrait of a Reader

I've never made a secret of the fact that I love making lists. Just about everything I do involves making a list at some point. Part of it has to do with the fact that my memory, thanks to a non-functioning thyroid gland, is pretty pitiful so lists help me to function on a daily basis. The other part of it, though, is that I just love the tactile aspect of making a list -- the feel of the ink and paper, the sense of accomplishment that comes with marking something complete. (I also love the crinkle of notebook pages full of notes -- that is one of my favorite sounds. I'm aware that probably puts me fully in the nerd category, but I'm totally okay with that). 

I've attempted a couple of times to keep a reading journal, but I've never found one that I really liked. (I quit long ago buying fancy notebooks to use for journals, because they just ended up blank and gathering dust on my bookshelves. Thank goodness for the Moleskine datebook I finally found -- it's worked as a better journal/diary than anything I've ever come across.) Then Goodreads came along, and essentially this problem became non-existent. 

Except that there was still a little part of me that kept thinking, "Don't you want something a little more permanent, a little more physical? Something that you could pass on, along with your books, to your family members?" Reading is such a huge, integral part of who I am that I can't imagine not documenting it in a more tangible fashion. And that's how this project was born.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: "Portrait of a Reader" will be a simple mini-album project designed to do just what it says: create a portrait of you as a reader. It will be divided into sections with easily insertable pages so that you can add content year after year.

It is my plan to share the creation of this album with you over the course of several posts. Once a month, I'll share with you my progress on creating, maintaining, and updating each of the sections in my album. 

MY ALBUM PLAN: I've selected a simple 2-up photo album from Target. It's a 3-ring binder style and it's similar in size to a hardcover novel, which is nice because I plan on storing it on my bookshelves alongside my favorite novels -- makes sense, right? Here's a look at the pattern (this sample is 12x12):

 
I plan to include the following sections in my album: 

• list of books I read each year. This will be generated from Goodreads, so that means I'll have complete lists for 2008 and on, plus a partial list for 2007, which is when I joined GR. These books will be in order by star rating.
• characteristics of myself as a reader -- what I love to read, where I love to read, particular reading habits, etc.
• featured reviews for my most favorite books
• lists of books by favorite genres

I'm still trying to figure out if there are other sections that I want to include.

The plan is to create 4x6" cards in PSE with digital scrapbooking kits and then simply print them out and insert them into my album. Simple. As I develop each section, I'll share any templates or other guidelines that I create with any of you who plan to create an album along with me.

My intention is to use the Book of Firsts kit, a collaboration between Paislee Press and Three Paper Peonies at Oscraps. I love the stacked books doodle, and the patterns and colors work nicely with the album I've selected.

Here are some other great digital kits that you could use in your own album:

PageTurner by One Little Bird Designs

Bookmarked by The Tattered Pear

Between the Pages by Kaye Winiecki

Woodland Book Lovers by Danielle Thompson/Kitschy Digitals

Read It Again by Lauren Reid

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CREATING AN ALBUM WITH ME? I'd love to hear from you, if so. Right now, the goal is just to work on a basic album outline and to gather your materials. We'll check back in on November 14, with a look at my first section.

In the meantime, please share with me any additional ideas you have for sections in your album or for scrapbooking products (digital AND paper) that will be a great fit for a project like this.

guest blogger: Elizabeth Dillow

Elizabeth is one of those people that I wish I knew in person. One of these days I'll get a chance to meet up with her and talk scrapbooking, books, teaching, music, and all the other things we have in common. She's a phenomenal storyteller, and her scrapbook pages get right to what matters most: telling a story with pictures and words. Her blog is proof of that same incredible voice; spending time in her pages or on her blog is much like I'm sure spending time with her in real life would be: full of humor, intelligence, and great stories.

 

 

When Audrey invited me to be a part of this guest blogger series, she asked if I would talk about using timelines to build pages and guide journaling. Absolutely! I love a good timeline. When I was teaching high school history before my children were born, I always started a new unit with one; it was fun to see my students measuring off years, decades, even centuries of history and arranging stories in the right order. Sometimes if a unit end coincided on a Thursday leaving Friday open for something new, we would take a break and play one of my favorite history games called Chronology, a game where the objective is to build timelines and place events in the right order—always easy at first (which comes first on the timeline: the fall of Rome or the invention of the Model T?) but increasingly difficult as the game went on. Even the most reluctant of my students played along, clearly enjoying themselves despite their best anti-history class instincts. There is something comforting about a timeline when so much of the world is painted in grey; a timeline is black and white. It’s only the first part of the equating to truly understanding history, though; making the jump to filling in the details of events and interpreting their impact is the real work of history, and the work we do in scrapbooking.

 

As long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in chronology. Understanding how events unfold in history is inextricably tied to my love of scrapbooking, because I love a good story—and everyone knows scrapbooking is really about telling small stories that add up to one really big story, which eventually connect to another generation’s really big story, creating connections that transcend life expectancies and geography.

 

I really like playing with pretty paper just for fun, too. But sometimes I like to think about the real significance of what it is we’re doing in our respective scrapbook spaces.

 

So, timelines. They really are a terrific technique to try in scrapbooking, because they serve two very distinct purposes:

 

1.)    to help the people viewing our pages understand specific details about our lives and

2.)    to help us organize events in our own minds.

 

Sounds easy? It definitely is. So easy that we forget how useful it can be, actually. Here are a few examples to get you started.

 

I created this timeline page for an assignment at Ella Publishing Co. as a way to sum up an entire decade on one layout. It was fun to create; obviously there is no way I could fit every single thing that happened to me between 2000-2009, but I definitely documented some of the things that defined much of those years. It’s a very traditional way to incorporate information, and came together quickly. It would be very easy to include twelve boxes and sum up each month of a year the same way!

 

 

Because we move so much due to my husband’s career in the Air Force, I wanted to capture a quick list of places we’ve lived in the first 15 years of our marriage. My daughters love to see a visual representation like this, and I wanted to interpret all those moves for them in a simple way—that wherever we go, having each other is the most important part. I’m sure one day I’ll be using lists like these to remember where exactly we were living in any given year, too!

 

Tip: to perfectly space your years as I did, simply create a timeline and include every year; then use your software’s method of distributing the space evenly, and go back and delete the years you don’t need. Or, if imperfect measurements don’t keep you up at night, just eyeball it. That works, too!

 

 

When you think in terms of events and timelines, you’ll no doubt recognize the pivotal “before and after” events quickly—sometimes, they’re even announced from your refrigerator. I’ll never forget how I opened my refrigerator three years ago and was stopped in my tracks by this orange juice container, which was dated three days past the due date of my third daughter. Suddenly, my life was defined by a timeline of everything that still needed to be done before the date on the orange juice container and everything that would change forever after the orange juice expired. If I actually plotted it out, it might look something like this:

 

 

Silly, perhaps. But it made a huge impact on me.

 

I used this same kind of before/after thinking to make this page that appeared in my book The Scrapbooker’s Almanac:

 

 

I know very little about my grandma’s life before she was married, and even though this page doesn’t provide any new facts, it does inspire me to imagine what her life might have been like, and to consider how my own has changed over the years. It’s definitely an abstract way of using a timeline, but thinking about her life as a series of unfolding events helped me organize this page. You don’t have to use a traditional timeline to think of things in a… timeline-esque way.

 

 

Timelines don’t have to be actual lines and hatch marks, either! I consider this series of time-lapse photographs to fit into the category of timeline scrapbooking. You can choose any subject matter to recreate your own photographic timeline of events; it’s a fun way to see them unfold.

 

 

I recently saw a family tree featured in an article in Ohdeedoh and instantly fell in love with the creative method the artist used to present a family’s basic information. It got me thinking in terms of timelines, too—since each ring inside a tree represents a year, I decided to make my own and create a family tree that doubled as a visual representation of the years my husband and I have been together (six years of dating, and almost fifteen years of marriage). I drew the circles freehand in pencil, then carefully painted over them with a paintbrush in acrylic paint. The result is a unique addition to our family album!

 

Note: you can find the original, far more professional version here. Spread the word and support her unique Etsy shop!

 

Whether you’re documenting the events leading to the birth of a child, a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, or even how your own life fits in with historical events, using a timeline can organize the details and theme of a page in a fun and functional way!

 

Elizabeth Dillow currently lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming with her husband and three daughters. She is the author of The Scrapbooker’s Almanac, an instructor for Big Picture Scrapbooking, and the co-founder and content editor for Write. Click. Scrapbook. She loves her iMac, Canon 5D, Pilot pens, and sports teams from Cleveland.

 

www.elizabethdillow.typepad.com

www.writeclickscrapbook.com

www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com