3-to-Inspire with Shannon

Hello there, friends! Shannon here with your 3-to-Inspire for the week. I love this challenge. Picking three things to focus on when I'm creating my layout makes it come together so much easier. It's such a great starting point! Let's get to the list:

1. Use an old photo

2. Use a sketch

3. Use multiple embellishments to make a title

And now let's look at the page I created using these prompts.

1. Use an old photo

I knew that I wanted to use the Travelogue products for this page so I started looking through my photos for one that hadn't been scrapbooked yet. This photo from a few years ago is one of my favorites. It was taken during my long scrapbook hiatus so I knew it wasn't documented anywhere. All that I had to do was pull it into my phone for a quick edit. Sometimes I'm hesitant to document older photos because the quality isn't as good as new photos. I'm really trying to get over that so hopefully this challenge will give you a push to do the same!

2. Use a sketch

I always find that sketches help flip my brain into creative mode. This is helpful when I want to scrapbook but my brain might be feeling a little fried. Or when I want to break out of my box a little. Did you know that there is a new sketch every Sunday on the Citrus Twist blog? You can find them all through the Sunday Sketch tag. I chose a sketch from May 2020 for this layout. I made several changes - there is only one photo, the journaling is in a different place, I made a cluster of stamps, chipboard stickers, and puffy stickers at the top, and my page is in a Life Crafted album. That's what I love about sketches. You can interpret them as literally or as freely as you want.

3. Use multiple embellishments to make a title

This part of the challenge was so fun! I gathered up some Travelogue ephemera and chipboard stickers that had words on them. From there, I decided what I wanted to use for my title. There are so many possible combinations! You could also add in some stamped phrases or words too. 

I hope these 3 prompts will inspire you to get one of your old photos documented! Thanks for joining me here today!

3-to-Inspire with Ingunn

Happy Saturday, everyone! I am not anywhere near ready to let move on from the Travelogue collection yet, so for this week’s 3-to-Inspire, I’m back with another spread from my Mount Rainier 2020 album.

This time I am changing it up a little bit – instead of three specific types of products, I am calling this “3-to-In...gunnstepsalittlebitoutofhercomfortzone”.

1)    (1)  Document something you usually don’t // When I scrapbook vacations, I have a tendency to only focus on the adventuring parts – the hiking/swimming/touristing etc. But! I’ve noticed that my kids often reminisce about where we slept, not just our forays out into the world. They talk about the excitement of sleeping in a new bed, of a break in the routine, and they notice so many little details of where we’re staying than I do. In honor of that, I am including a section about our rental cabin in this album, and I hereby challenge you to document your hotel or Air BnB or whatever it is next time you are scrapbooking a trip!

 

2)   (2)   Use a color you normally avoid // I keep noticing more and more black scrapbooking embellishments around, but I tend to steer clear of them because I'm worried they'll be so dominant that they steal your attention away from the photos (and I am all about the photos). However, I can no longer resist, because the products are just too cute. In order to soften the blow of stepping out of my comfort zone, I decided to pair the black die cuts with my favorite color, also known as “any and every shade of turquoise” – I used a digital card & digital TN page (cut down) from Travelogue + a couple of the puffy heart stickers.

3)   (3) Stamp directly onto a photo // Dun-dun-DUN! This is probably something most scrapbookers do all the time, so you’re gonna think I’m a total weenie, but for someone who tends to pre-design most of her spreads digitally, well…the innate imperfection and uncontrollability of stamping, especially directly onto a photo *insert gasping emoji*, is very hard.

*braces self*

*drinks a sip of wine*

*just goes for it*

 

Ta-da! Okay, so this was admittedly a very small stamp, but I promised myself that I am going to work on actually using my stamps this year instead of merely hoarding them (especially this set, because it kind of feels like it was designed for me and my nature-loving heart), and this is a good first step. I also like how this added some additional black next to the turquoise heart, so that I have a visual triangle of black/turquoise across the spread.

*pats self on back*

*glances over at my dog on the couch in hopes of a sign of approval of my brave stamp usage*

*realizes I should probably not have any more wine tonight*

I hope I’ve managed to inspire some of my fellow scrapbook weenies (I know you’re out there, I simply cannot be the only one!) to try breaking out of your own box. If I have, please let me know and leave a link to your project in the comments!

 

3 to Inspire with Shannon

 

Hello crafty friends! Shannon here with another 3 to Inspire to kickstart your memory keeping. For this post, I'm focusing on a travel layout using the new Travelogue products available now at Citrus Twist. My husband and I took a trip to Hawaii back in July 2014 and I never got around to scrapbooking it. These products inspired me to get some photos ordered and finally document our trip!

Let's look at my list of 3 things to inspire your layout...

1. Make your own title card

2. Use a cluster of embellishments

3. Bring in some history

1. Make your own title card. -- Since the Travelogue Mini Kit doesn't come with printed cards (you can get them digitally though!) I decided to challenge myself to use only the mini kit and some cardstock to make my own pocket page cards. I started this title card by stamping a background using the 6x8 Travelogue Stamp. I love stamping backgrounds in a pattern. I tested out a few light colors to see what would match the kit best. This yellow is bold enough to catch attention but suble enough to be a background. Next, I chose the word "explore" from the Travelogue Puffy Phrase and Icon Stickers. Finally, I pulled the large "go" from the Travelogue Ephemera and used foam adhesive to give it a little pop. I chose to work with bold colors (yellow and orange) so I didn't feel the need to add any additional embellishments. I really wanted the title to stick out.

2. Use a cluster of embellishments. -- The colors that I chose to use on this card dictated the rest of the page. I had free rein of color choice since my photos are all fairly neutral in color. Since the photos are outside and depict a WWII bunker, I wanted to go with a more muted palette to fit the mood of the page. I decided on chartreuse and forest green with a pop of coral. Then, I went into the Travelogue Ephemera pack and Travelogue Puffy Stickers to find embellishments to match my theme. I didn't like that I could see the bottom corner of the ticket through the hole in the location icon, so I backed the hole with the same cardstock that I used as the background of my card. Once I had my cluster arranged, I felt it was missing something at the bottom. I grabbed my 6x8 Travelogue Stamp and split the "full of wonder" phrase into 2 lines. This a really great trick to make your stamp fit if it's too long to be in a single line! Just cover the word(s) you aren't stamping with washi (after inking the stamp!).

3. Bring in some history. -- Hawaii is so rich in history that it would feel like a disservice to leave that out of my album. Of course, I can't remember every fact about everything we saw nearly 7 years ago. Hello, Google! I knew what this WWII pillbox on the North Shore of Oahu was called, but I couldn't remember the information that was on the historical marker nearby. These days I would take a photo of that marker to have the facts right at hand. Live and learn! A quick Google search brought up the historic marker and some additional information. I used that to fill in some of my journaling. To top off my card, I used a phrase from the Travelogue Ephemera pack.

Putting this page together and stretching my creativity to make my own pocket cards really revitalized my energy to dig into this travel album. Do you have a vacation that needs to be documented? Don't let it weigh on your mind for 7 years like I did - take the opportunity to dive in now! I can't wait to see what you create!