Tip of the Month

How do you get a new prespective on a recurring event? Tired of doing the same (insert event) layout over and over again? What can you do differently - with regard to layout composition, journaling, picture taking, etc. - to record those recurring events in a way that doesn't drive you crazy?

kathy m from San Jose CA writes...
OMGosh! This is my problem. With 3 kids, you start to do the same layouts over and over. I can\'t handle it. Its going to make me lose my passion for this hobby if I can\'t come up with something new. For the pumpkin patch layout that I did for the umpteenth time, I did the same basic layout for all three, but I focused the journalling on something that the pictures made me think about each child. Their excitement, their lack of smiles, or that they are growing up. It actually made the layouts a little easier for me. I even used non-traditional colors for the layouts. I\'m really curious to see what other people do/suggestion.

Donna from Rhode Island writes...
For me, the challenge is birthdays. I have a very large family and every person, no matter what their age or family rank, gets a party! I\'m the designated family photographer and usually take 20-40 pictures during each party. Instead of just tossing these pages together, what I\'ve started to do is pick a \"theme\" for each birthday\'s scrapbook pages. For example, I\'ll do a shabby chic birthday, a monochromatic birthday, a cutesy birthday, an elegant birthday, etc. It helps me to keep focus when picking embellishments (because we all know there are WAY too many to choose from these days!) and papers (ditto!). If I find a coordinated line of products I\'ve fallen in love with, I\'ll use that for my theme (in other words, somebody\'s bound to get a Basic Gray or Wild Asparagus birthday this year!). I also make a concerted effort to use my numerous idea books during this process, and try something new with each set of pages.

Becky from Massachusetts writes...
I think the most helpful idea book I have read was \"Scrapbooking Life\'s Little Treasures\" by Rebecca Sower. After I read this, I really had a different perspective on my layouts and especially my journaling. When planning a layout, I try to focus on one of the five senses (see, hear, taste, touch, smell) to emphasize and use that as my theme. For instance: one really, hot summer day my son was running under the sprinkler. Now -- this type of layout can be rather mundane and repetitive. I focused on \"Cooling It\" under the Sprinklers. I glued clear, round beads all over the page to make it seem like cool water spraying across the page. It\'s one of my favorite layouts!! Holidays and Celebrations: It\'s pretty obvious by the pictures what the event is. I just enhance the pictures with my senses to make them come alive some way. Can you smell the Christmas Cookies baking? Can you feel the tug at my heart on Valentines day? Can you hear all the kids laughing and running around? Another idea is to ask whoever was in the picture to describe the day in three adjectives. You\'d be amazed what they come up with. I can\'t tell you how many times I have asked my husband \"what do you remember about these pictures?\" of when my son was a baby..... things I never would have thought of! Another factor or impact is color. An example might be pages from the 60\'s or 70\'s. Pick colors that were more popular then. Use slang language that was cool and hip. (lol!) That helps with letting people \"feel\" the message you want to convey about the time period. I also try to go with my first few reactions when I look at the pictures. Those are the ones I am going to recall in my memories and be able to describe the best! :)

Dorthy from Milford, OH writes...
For me it\'s Christmas. It has standard colors and themes. I still stick with the basic Green and Red, but will add various monochromatic shades of green or red to one year, multiple patterned papers for another year, and torn or inked paper for another year. I try to concentrate on one tradition to include with our standard photos. Last year it was the boys doing dishes after Christmas Eve dinner before we passed out presents. The previous year it was about the scavenger hunt for the big present. Another year it was about the Manger that was started during the Depression.

Rinda from El Granada writes...
Oh man, I hear you on the birthdays and Christmas! Somethings I\'ve done lately: shoot pictures in black & white (did this for Easter this year); let the kids do the journaling (or at least feature some of their handwriting); focus on relationships (i.e. for ds\' birthday, I took a pix of him w/each of his friends and journaled about their personalities); feature a song title/lyrics you like (for fil\'s bday, I used the Jimmy Buffet Song, \"Another Trip Around the Sun.\") Thanks for all the tips so far - they\'re great! rinda

Phyllis in IL writes...
This is my toughest problem with scrapbooking, I keep thinking that my DD will fall asleep looking through her albums years from now, first due to how many she will have and second, it will be like \"here\'s me at Easter age 5, here\'s me at Easter age 6, etc. What I try to do is one focus on the pictures, I try to make them different, also I am doing more 1 page layouts for those occasions and \"new\" occasions doing a 2 page layout.

Barb from PA writes...
When doing the same layout, use different color matts. If your outside in the snow, I think if you lean more toward blues it gives it a cool effect. Use yellow to brighten it up to give a warm feeling. Get closer to details. Example when outside in the winter, take a closeup of your child touching ice.

jllurker writes...
Idea books and magazines have helped me find new angles for layouts. I have recently done snow layouts with b&w photos on brown. I swore I would not do photos of my spring flowers this year until I saw a layout of flowers on black. Mine got oos and ahs at a crop last week. I am so glad I did it. One thing is doing different things with the photos - not just the same old snapshots. I used the macro mode for my flowers. Wow! The details were amazing. Changing my snow photos to b&w really made a difference. And don\'t be afraid to try different color schemes than what you normally use.

Emma from NSW, Australia writes...
I totally love scrapbooking but I\'m only 15 and I have alot of trouble trying 2 think of layouts and things and even though I\'m just a beginner, I feel that I\'ve used all my good ideas. I buy scrapbooking magazines in hope to get inspiration but I kinda think that using other peoples layouts is like stealing. Does anyone have any ideas on where i can get inspiration from or any ideas that you think could help me please email me. My email is vampire_bitch_11@hotmail.com (please excuse the address, my friend made it for me)

Gail from NJ writes...
I try to make sure that my layouts capture the specific memories that I want to remember. For example, for a birthday, if there was a great expression of surprise when one of my kids was opening a gift, I may focus on that. If it was DD putting her fist in the cake, that may be the focus. Of course I\'d want the traditional photos of blowing out candles, etc, but they may be secondary. But, I also like to vary the techniques and supplies I use to keep things interesting for me. The magazines give me lots of ideas for different angles of an event. Focus on different things each year for the event, like the preparation for the birthday party, or the assembling of a birthday gift with all the pieces laid out on the floor. I\'ve realized that I don\'t need as many photos as I used to take. I also try to use non-traditional color schemes for events. I got tired of pulling out the same old orange and brown papers for fall pictures. Maybe I\'d use those colors for accents, but use other colors as the main background.

INJacqui from Brown County, Indiana writes...
I don\'t scrap them. Really, I don\'t do every birthday, every Easter, every pumpkin patch... I do scrap every Christmas in a Christmas album. I concentrate on creating pages about my kids personalities and what they like. So, for a \"birthday\" page I may have a picture of them blowing out the candles, but the journaling is all about how they\'ve changed over the past year. I try to think about what I\'d want to look at if my mom had created a scrapbook for me. All the regular pictures are in two-up albums just for paging through. I save the scrapbooks for the \"good stuff\". That works for me *Ü*.

Eileen writes...
I always let the photos determine the layout colors. Sure, we think of red & green at Christmas time, but if no one is wearing those colors, those shouldn\'t be the colors of the layout! I like the old CM Idea Books (not so much the first one, but the subsequent ones got better). I look through my old Memory Makers Magazines and try a layout very different from what I usually do.

Neece writes...
Love the tips so far, and I\'m definitely taking notes! What I try to do is make the same topic not become redundant by choosing different techniques, embellishments, or colors I haven\'t previously utilized before. HTH!

Karen Seifert from Mt. Juliet, TN writes...
I take a class that is doing a page layout. It forces me to do it the way the instructor has shown. If I like the end product, then, subsequent pages are similar with my own little twist. Journaling is always a challenge for me. I get the who, what, when, where, but I am not a good story teller.I use quotes from books, or quote the people who are in the photo. My Mother & husband are great story tellers. They are able to create a verbal picture.I notice my style continues to change with new products being introduced to the market. Staying active with online groups , going to crops, & ALWAYS shopping, keeps my pages fresh.

Donna Scraps writes...
This turned out to be a very helpful thread!! I am definitely taking notes. i have struggled and struggled with this and think I will now start looking for the different perspective more...

Jean writes...
I have done some Christmas layouts with pictures of my childhood Christmas along with my daughter\'s current Christmas. Fun to compare. Also with my husband\'s years of birthday pictures I did a layout titled They Say It\'s Your Birthday and just did one picture of each year\'s cake/party. I also like to use my color blocking templates on birthday and Christmas pictures--gets a lot of photos on the pages.

michelle from mamichelle writes...
I have trouble with birthdays. They\'re always the same people, same place, etc. I always vary the colors. It\'s the titles I have trouble with. Lately I\'ve been doing different looking lo\'s with a title like \"How Old\" or \"So Many Gifts\" just to vary it a little. I don\'t always stick to red & green for Christmas. I try to do blue/silver, red/black, etc. and I\'ve been focusing on the big presents my boys got that year. It definitely does get redundant though!

MIndy Smith-Pace writes...
I love idea books and magazines. I save mine and look through them again months later. I also liek to surf the web when I am stuck. Ilove seeing other people\'s designs. I scraplift often.Sometimes I try to vary layouts by not always writing journaling or trying to journal a new way. Sometimes I use fulls entences, sometimes just words, sometimes no words at all. I guess by doing something different each time it is not as boring.

Susan in TX from Austin, Texas writes...
I actually embrace consistency for some annual events. When I did my daughter\'s first birthday page, I had a lot of pictures taken from a distance (this was in my pre-scrapbooking days, now I zoom in like crazy!). So I made a mosaic of these pictures in the shape of the number 1 for her page. Everyone who saw it raved about it and many scraplifted it, so I decided to do it every year as a \"scrapbook tradition\" of sorts. It\'s one of my favorite things in her scrapbook each year (this year will be 8). I have also done a big pumpkin shaped mosaic for the pumpkin patch pictures each year too. This is a good way to get in a lot of pictures that need to be cropped severely to be any good. HTH

kris from Minnesota writes...
\"Baby Wipe containers\" are great for storage!I store my Memory Maker foam stamps and other products in these containers. A great storage container for your eyelet tools,gel pens, your premade tags, emblishments by season or sport, ribbons, and just about anything. Just write on the container with magic marker what you have inside & put them on the shelf. They are stackable. At a glance you know what is inside.

kris from Minnesota writes...
\"Baby Wipe containers\" are great for storage!I store my Memory Maker foam stamps and other products in these containers. A great storage container for your eyelet tools,gel pens, your premade tags, emblishments by season or sport, ribbons, and just about anything. Just write on the container with magic marker what you have inside & put them on the shelf. They are stackable. At a glance you know what is inside.