design each moment

Spring!

 

When my pack of Lotus Grid Paper arrived in the mail I could almost smell its minty freshness and knew immediately that it would make a beautiful background for spring flowers.  I had just read in the morning paper about a Lily Festival on the small island of Ie off our Okinawan coast and began to make plans to take pictures for this page which had already formed in my mind.

A short ferry ride took us to the pretty little island where the lilies were blooming in all their glory! It was such a beautiful day to be walking among all these gorgeous blossoms and as it was Easter week, it seemed even more perfect. The lilly fields were set against the backdrop of turquoise waters – we even spotted whales cresting in the East China Sea. It was a perfect spring day!

To make this page, I simply chose six close-up photos of the colorful lilies and cut them into one-inch squares. It was simple and fun to do and makes such a striking page.

The Lotus Grid Paper is such soft, pretty green and I’m working on a companion page showcasing the fields of white lilies with it.

Japan

I once read a non-fiction story about an American girl living in Japan that began with the sentence, "The Japanese are just like us, and they are nothing like us." After living in Japan for more than ten years, I can completely agree with that statement. For instance, the Japanese wear western style clothing like we do, they worry about their children's manners and futures like we do, and they enjoy many of the same activities that we do - playing baseball, going to the movies, or eating pizza to name a few. On the other hand, men and women often attend events wearing kimono, teach their children three different writing systems and eat rice with fermented beans for breakfast.
 
When I first came to Japan I wasn't sure if I would last the year living in such a completely foreign environment. But at the end of that year, I found I would not mind staying here indefinitely. Something special lingers in this land - an ancient culture that delights me and confirms that this world is not just a one dimensional place. I find Japan to be captivating, enchanting, humorous and accommodating; however, it can be bewildering, frustrating, and uptight all at the same time.
 
Despite these conundrums, I have received so much love, laughter, warmth and happiness from my Japanese friends that my heart will be entwined with theirs forever. I can't even begin to tell you how heartbroken I am over the tsunami damage and the nuclear problems this earthquake has caused.
 
I am stregthened though, by the acts of kindness offered from around the world through relief efforts and donations. When a tragedy of such epic proportions strikes one little corner of our globe, we use it as an opportunity to come together because we are all much more similar than we sometimes think. That said, I want to speak to the Japanese spirit and say 'Ganbate Japan' - chin up- keep moving forward, and you will get through this! I give you my heart, my love and my thanks for all that you have shared with me and all you have taught me.

 
 The tragedy of this year inspired me to scrap some older photos that I had put away.  The journaling reads:
     The aftermath of 9/11 was difficult no matter where in the world one lived. The happiness seemed to be sucked out of everyone for months. It felt doubly hard to be living in Japan, so far away from family and dealing with the base lock downs. By Sunday we just had to get out of the house so we headed up to the American Embassy in Tokyo.

    The minute we rounded the stone wall and the Embassy came into view we felt uplifted. Lining the rise to the Embassy gates were masses of flowers, messages in a myriad of languages, and people praying. People lined up to enter a tent where they could leave notes of support and comfort in large condolence books. Strings of colorful origami cranes hung from the tent symbolizing a wish for recovery.

     This outpouring of love from the Japanese people touched our hearts and did much to help us begin our own process of healing.  

 

P.S. If you are still looking for ways to help out, please consider a donation to the Red Cross .

Page Pattern Inspiration

Page Patterns recently celebrated their one-year anniversary and with the new numbering system they are now easier to use than ever.  Page Patterns are templates you can use again and again for designing attractive scrapbook pages.  The idea behind these is to offer you creative inspiration for your scrapbooking page layouts.  I like to print them out and store them in a notebook so I can take them to crops or leaf through them over a cup of coffee.

This month I felt that I was able to streamline the time I spent creating my pages because I used Tami’s Page Patterns.  I was drawn to the Page Patterns with the 2 1/8 inch squares and once I got going, I could not stop! Instead of spending precious time staring at an empty piece of paper and a pile of photos, I simply chose the Page Pattern that fit the number of photos I wanted to scrap. This way I could concentrate on the color scheme, embellishments and journaling.

 

 

1. First up were some photos from February of last year. With the 2 1/8” squares, I was able to fit in all those photos that were important to the story, even though they were not my best photographic work.  I simply followed the plan of Page Pattern # 20 without making much of a change; the only difference was title placement. This Page Pattern also gave me plenty of room to tell the story about this very fun event. (By the way, don’t be afraid to use the back of your Grid Papers as mats for your photos -- and a tip for matting photos on black paper is to lightly ink the edge of your photos with black ink so that the white paper edge does not glare out at you.)

 

 
 

2. Next up was a recent trip to the beach. (Yep, living on a sub-tropical island sure has its advantages.) I chose Page Pattern #14 but because the arrow on my sign pointed the opposite direction I flipped the Page Pattern so that the design is mirrored. The thing to keep in mind is that Page Patterns serve as a source of inspiration and guidance. There is no rule to say you must follow them exactly (although of course, you can). The journaling is hidden under the main photo. Once again I used the back of some Grid Paper as mats for my photos.

 

3. For my last page, I turned to Page Pattern #22 and printed one photo quite large. Before trimming my photo into 2 1/8” squares I chose the part of the photo that I wanted to remain intact – my husband’s head – and began my cuts there.  A bit of pattern paper for the border gave the page a completed look.

 

 

It’s so quick and fun to work with the Page Patterns. Simply adapt your photos to the arrangements shown in the Page Pattern -- but don’t be afraid to flip the pattern around, layer on some embellishments, or change the location of your title. By adding some of your own artistry, your albums will soon be filled with unique pages!

 

One-Photo Backgrounds

 

 

In her book Designing Photo Mosaics and More Tami Potter gives us photo tips that can truly help us spice up our scrapbooking pages.  Besides taking those close-up photos of our loved ones and details of our lives, she advises us to step back and take long distance, full-view shots as well, such as a field of green or a span of snow.  I’ve taken her advice while on my recent outings and want to share with you how I utilized these photos as backgrounds for my pages.

It’s cherry blossom time here in Okinawa, but due to the unusual cold there is not much in bloom. On a recent drive I found a single cherry blossom tree coming into flower and with the blue sky as a backdrop, let the flowered branches fill the frame.

 

I used this photo as a backdrop for the Love in Bloom page using the pretty new Raspberry Grid Paper.  You will need to print five 4x6 photos to fill a background this way. Here is what mine looks like before decorating the page.

 

To finish was easy. With the help of my Cricut and a few buttons, this page came together so beautifully.

For my next page, a sunflower field became my photo background. 

 

 Like the cherry trees, the blooming this year is delayed because of our unusually cold weather.  After taking a few close-ups of the stray blooms, I stood back and took one single photograph of the field showing all the greenery. This photo became the backdrop for sunflower page.  Each flower close-up was then hand cut and layered over the background field.

 

For the page title, I followed Tami’s advice on Page 22 of her book:  take photos of signage. This yellow banner became the title for my page. It reads ‘Himawari in Kitanagusuku’ (Himawari translates to sunflowers and the other word is the name of the town).

For the last page I used this photo of a close up of some snow taken recently by my sister Trish Collins.

 

Printed once at 10x12, it makes a beautiful background for my own snow photo. Now who says scrapbooking has to be about only happy times? I was truly not happy when I woke up and saw snow outside my window last year while living near the Tokyo area. Once again my Cricut provided the page décor and I love how this page turned out.

 

Give it a try – go out and take some full view shots with the idea that you can build a background out of it. I would love to see what you come up with using this idea!

A Shiny Inspiration

 

We talk a lot about why we scrapbook – to leave a legacy for our children; to remember our good experiences and ordinary moments; to relieve our stress; and to make friends with like-minded people. Most of all, it is a rewarding creative outlet, but what does it take to jumpstart or motivate us when our mojo seems to be taking a vacation? For me, it was this beautiful White Metallic Grid Paper. You will not believe your eyes when you see it!

These photos of my family were taken at the Gaylord Palms Ice! Show in Orlando almost three years ago and I’ve taken them out to scrap them many times over. Until I received my new metallic grid papers in the mail, the proper design inspiration always eluded me.

Upon opening the package from SnapNCrop, this normally chatty girl was actually silenced. I was so enchanted with these beautiful papers that they left me speechless and mesmerized. I could not wait to get to my scrap table and begin creating, and with the help of the Page Patterns, I quickly chose a design that helped me showcase my photos.

The sparkle, glimmer and shimmer of this heavy weight paper is so dazzling that the scanned copy does not do it justice. Order some today and see for yourself. I am sure you will be as impressed and inspired as I was. The Metallic Grid Papers come in icy white and glossy gold tones, perfect for Christmas, weddings or any other special occasion photos that cry out for that extra radiance.

As we close out our Thanksgiving holiday and find the Christmas season quickly upon us, I want to thank Tami Potter and the Mosaic Moments’ Staff for helping me to leave a family legacy, relive and preserve my special moments, and for continually inspiring my creativity with their beautiful products. Happy Holidays my friends!

Fun with Free Downloads

Did you know that SnapNCrop has quite a few free downloads perfectly sized to bring some creative accents to your mosaic pages? We all love stretching our scrappy bucks and getting something for FREE, am I right? And with the holidays coming up now’s the perfect time to cash in on a freebie or two. Let me share with you my ideas for ways to use a few of these great downloads.

 

The free Halloween download paired with bright Halloween photos are a perfect complement to the Cocoa Grid Paper. To make the most of my download, I printed it twice; once on white cardstock and then again on orange cardstock.

For my page, the tiled letters were cut from the white cardstock, each letter outlined with an orange pen, and then each block accented with orange ink. The scalloped-edge journaling square made the perfect block for my sticker embellishments, while the cute little pumpkin square cut from the orange cardstock completed the page.

 

Cocoa Grid Paper was once again the back drop for my turkey dinner page as the color really conveys a warm and cozy feel.  Here, I used Tami’s latest free download – a versatile autumn theme that comes in three colors: grape, red and warm. I chose the warm color scheme and printed it out twice on white cardstock, once full size and once half size. I also printed a set of the free number tiles in half-size. The center was trimmed out of the cornerstones to frame my turkey photo and the half-size numbers were added to the other cornerstone for the date.

Printing the tags half-size made it easy to label each photo separately. To view more journaling blocks, flip open the main photo.

 

There are so many things you can do with these free  downloads: color them, glitter them, print them in various sizes, mat them, pop dot them, or print them on colored cardstock (don’t forget to use the back of your grid papers for great color matching). The ideas are endless and I would love to see yours!

How to get your own free downloads:

Go to SnapNCrop.com and choose your favorite downloads, add them to your shopping cart and check out as if you were placing an order. You will not be charged anything if these are the only things you are ordering at the time. A confirmation email will be sent to you confirming your order. Open this email; click on the download and save it to your computer to use again and again.

When printing, be sure to check the box that says “paper scaling” and choose ‘none’ to have your downloads printed at 100%.

 

When printing in half-size check the box that says “paper scaling” and choose ‘multiple scaling per sheet’.