Feeling the Love

How do you start your pages? Do you like to use sketches? Do you pick your paper first or your photos first? Do you start with a title and a story, or just let the creativity flow as you create? I really think that every scrapbooker is different, and today I thought I would share my creative process for my most recent creation.




When I scrapbook, I almost always start with the photos. I pick up my stack of printed photos, thumb through them, and as soon as a story or a title pops into my head, I run with it. There is nothing more frustrating for me than getting stumped on a title, so I almost always start my pages by thinking of what I want my title/story to be. I've found that scrapbooking is not fun for me at all if I try to force myself into using photos that just aren't "speaking" to me!

Once I have my photos in hand, I choose my paper. For this page, it was an easy choice. I loved the bright color of my sweater, so I knew I wanted to use some pops of bright color on my page. The 1974 line was perfect for that!

After I choose my paper, I'll gather up embellishments that I think I might want to use. In this case, I grabbed buttons, a few different types of alphabet and word stickers, some bling, and some chipboard (which ended up not making it onto the page.)

From there, it's time for the fun part! I tend to be a very simple scrapper. I've noticed that a lot of my pages have a very similar design--layers of solid and patterned paper, straight lines, journaling, and just a few simple embellishment. It works for me for now, and I find that if I stray too far from my comfort zone, it really stops being fun. I just can't force it! Maybe someday when my children are older (they are currently 8, 6, and 3) I'll feel that urge to branch out and be more creative, but for now, sticking to my comfort zone works for me.

I spend a few minutes working on the "bones" of my page. For this page, that included the photo, the solid blue paper, the red flowered paper, and the orange flower at the top, and the row of buttons. I settled on this design pretty quickly, but sometimes I'll spend 20 minutes or more pushing papers around before I settle on a design.

Next comes the title and journaling, which like I mentioned before, I've already settled on before I even start the page so it always comes together really quickly for me.

The final step is embellishments. I added the heart stickers and the word stickers. I stepped back and liked it, but I felt like it needed a little something more. I cut out and added the flowers to the lower right hand side and drew in a thin line around the blue paper.

At that point, I called it done. I'm really happy with how this one turned out. I'm also really crazy about that guy in the picture. :)