The one stop spot for crafting and genealogical inspiration

What's Important To You

Today's challenge is to create a scrapbook layout about what is important to you. It can be serious or fun but should include at least 3 patterned papers and a photograph of yourself.

Multi Photo Layouts

Like many people, I find creating multi photo layouts challenging but there are still times when I want to do them. I’ve recently taken the decision to go through old holiday photos and get them all scrapped. Since the advent of digital cameras, I’ve got into the habit of taking hundreds of photos, many of which are of less than perfect quality, but which, never the less, have something in them that reminds me of the holiday. Not only are many photos just not good enough to warrant a single photo layout, I just haven’t enough hours in my day to scrap them all in that manner. So, somehow, I’ve got to develop the ability to create at least marginally acceptable multi photo layouts.

Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to do just that. I started by sorting out the photos that I thought I might want to use. I got ruthless, unusual for me, and actually deleted those photos that just had nothing of interest or were so badly out of focus or composed that no amount of digital manipulation or cropping would save them. I then sorted them into groups that I wanted to use together, asking myself the following questions as I did so:-

Is there a strong photo that makes an obvious focal point?
Are there several photos of equal importance?
Do the photos show a sequence of actions or changes?
Do I have lots of photos of a place or event but they are of poor or less than average quality?

Having got this far, I was ready to scrap, and it was here that my inspiration just went missing and I sat just shuffling photos and papers around. Remembering what I was setting out to achieve helped me focus on the solution. I wanted to scrap as many holiday photos as quickly and attractively as possible in a short amount of time, I wasn’t setting out to design for a magazine or competition, so I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. Normally, I’m not the greatest fan of sketches, but in these situations sketches are ideal or looking through online galleries for layouts that appeal and scraplifting. So that’s just what I did. When looking for layout designs that might work with your photos the sorting you do to start with helps.

If you have a strong photo or a photo with an obvious focal point, maybe use a design with a larger focal point photo and several smaller, supporting photos.

If your photos are all of equal importance, consider a design which uses several photos of a similar size.

Do your photos show change or a sequence of actions? Then maybe use a design that has the photos side by side or in a circle so the changes or sequence of events can be highlighted.

Do you have loads of photos of the event or place but they are all of fairly poor quality? Consider using a grid type design or grouping the photos together to form a whole, maybe even creating a double page layout.

Having decided upon the basic structure of the layout, you can now do the fun bit of choosing the photos and embellishments. Use the embellishments and colour to move the eye around the layout. Try making a frame or border of some sort within your layout to “contain” your photos and journaling or using elements such as film strips or multiple photo frames. Finally, overlapping or grouping elements or photos helps connect them and makes them look as if they should be together.

Now it's over to you to try. The challenge is to create a layout using 3 or more photos. We'd love to see what you create, so please either email a copy to inspirationalley@hotmail.co.uk or leave a link on the thread on UKS. Here are a few examples of what I came up with it:-

Do something new and combine it with something old

Like most people, there are times when I get stuck in a rut. I follow the same tried and tested format with my layouts because I know that they work and as my husband says it makes them "comfortable." Recently, however, I've become bored and jaded and feel a need to do something different. I've looked through various online galleries but not found anything to inspire me. So, today I tried something different, I stuck with my own style of scrapbooking, but did it digitally. I'm no digital master, but I'm sure if I practice I will get better and at least my disastrous attempts didn't cost me any money unlike my recent attempts at traditional scrapbooking that have ended up in the bin.

So, our challenge to you today, is to try something new with your scrapbooking. You could like me try digital, or you may chose to try a new technique, scrapbook in a different style whatever, but, at the same time as trying something new, we want you to retain your own sense of style within the layout.

Here's my attempt at digital scrapbooking:-

Digital elements were designed by Kereena-Karolyi.

Report Card

Last week saw thousands of children receiving their GCSE results. The previous week many others received their A level results. Whatever the truth about falling standards and easier exams, most of these children worked hard and fully deserved the results that they achieved. But how did they feel as they held the envelopes in their hands and contemplated what was inside? Although it was many years ago, I remember only too clearly my own panic when I received my results, the worry that I might have failed, that I might not have the necessary grades, that I might disappoint those who were expecting so much of me. I can recall how I picked the envelope up from the mat when it fell through the letter box and went and opened it quietly in my bedroom by myself. But, it wasn't only official exam results that worried me, but the annual reports sent to my parents detailing my effort and attainment.

How did you feel when you received your reports and exam grades. Were you confident and eager to tear open the envelope? Were you nervous and anxious? Did it bother you if you did well or not? Our challenge to you today is to produce a piece of art work entitled "Report Card". My example is from my art journal, but yours can be anything you like, a scrapbook layout, an ATC, an altered report card, anything. Here's my example:-

Oriental Inspired

What does the word oriental bring to mind? Is it the people and customs of the Orient? Do you think of perfumes, spices, a particular style of dress or colours? Do you think of travel and holidays? Today we challenge you to use the word "oriental" to create a piece of artwork, be it a scrapbook layout, a card, an altered tin, whatever. Vicki says that when she thinks oriental, she also thinks in terms of the colours red, white and black. Your thoughts might be entirely different. Here is Vicki's example:-

Texture

How can you add interest to your layouts without spending a fortune on shop bought embellishments? One way, is to add texture, and this needn't make your finished work big and bulky. Here are a few tips to create texture in your layouts:-

Include layers, layer up different patterned papers, scraps of materials from disused clothes, use household products such as sand paper. Just be sure to match the things you use to the content of your photo, so sand paper would work well on a seaside layout, but you might struggle a bit to make it work on a layout about a ballet class.
Tear, ink, crumple and other wise distress the papers, leave frayed edges on material and rumple it up before adhering it so it sits in folds on the card rather than flat.
Use paint effects to create visual texture, try laying paint onto acetate and using as part of the background, tear pieces of tissue paper and adhere with modge podge and when dry use ink or paint colour, build up different colours of paint or ink and then stamp over it. If you don't have any acrylic paints, use tester pots from your local DIY store or use left over emulsion from your decorating, you can always mix them to get the colour you want.
Sew on your layout or if you can't sew, fake it with doodling.
Add fibres, string, raffia,mesh anything that fits the mood of your layout.Remember, you don't have to buy special scrapbooking supplies, use what you have to hand, builder's mesh coloured with an ink pad is every bit as good as what you buy from a Scrapbook store.
Use your old pizza boxes, tear them so the corrugation is visible, paint or ink them and then use as an embellishment.

These are just a few ideas of how you can use texture to create interest in your layouts. Why not have a go and see what you can produce? Here are some examples for you:-

Firstly, a canvas from Lou:-

Want to know how Lou did her canvas? - Details are in this word document:-
Texture canvas.doc

Shades of Purple

Shades of Purple – Violet, Mauve and Indigo

Today we’d like you to create a layout, mini-book, ATC, art journal page or whatever you like, inspired by the colour purple and its various shades. It can be the colour itself that features in your work, or you may choose to have no purple at all in your work, but, to take inspiration from the symbolic and psychological aspects of the colour. To help your creativity, here’s some information about shades of purple.

Spiritual
Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority.

The shortest wavelength is violet, often described as purple. It takes awareness to a higher level of thought, even into the realms of spiritual values. It encourages deep contemplation, or meditation. It has associations with royalty and usually communicates the finest possible quality. Being the last visible wavelength before the ultra-violet ray, it has associations with time and space and the cosmos. Excessive use of purple can bring about too much introspection and the wrong tone of it communicates something cheap and nasty, faster than any other colour.

Physiological Effect: Violet has shown to alleviate conditions such as sunburn due to its purifying and antiseptic effect. This color also suppresses hunger and balances the body's metabolism. Indigo, a lighter purple, has been used by doctors in Texas as an anesthesia in minor operations because its narcotic <"A soothing or numbing agent.">qualities

Psychological Effect: Purples have been used in the care of mental of nervous disorders because they have shown to help balance the mind and transform obsessions and fears. Indigo is often associated with the right side of the brain; stimulating intuition and imagination. Violet is associated with bringing peace and combating shock and fear. Violet has a cleansing effect with emotional disturbances. Also, this color is related to sensitivity to beauty, high ideals and stimulates creativity, spirituality and compassion. Psychic power and protection has also been associated with violet.

Should you like violet, you may believe that you are set apart and unique from others, you enjoy being creative and glamorous.
You are highly sensitive and observant, always looking for beautiful surroundings, and would prefer a world of fantasy to that of reality.
It is very likely that you are highly artistically talented, but hand in hand with that is the fact that you may be quite temperamental.

Here's an example:-

Yellow

Today, we'd like you to create a layout inspired by the colour yellow.

Yellow is the colour of sunlight, warm and luminous, the right shade brings cheer to dreary rooms. However, too bright a yellow can make people agitated and angry.

Yellow is the most visible colour in the spectrum and easily grabs attention. Imagine you're driving by a green field of grass, punctuated by yellow wild flowers. Your eye gets distracted by the yellow flowers and your brain forgets the peaceful green grass. In an office, you easily find yellow legal pads. The reason: our eyes see yellow first, before other colors.

Like the sun, too much bright yellow hurts our eyes and agitates us. Brilliant yellows make our eyes tired. Therefore, like road workers use yellow flags for caution, you want to use yellow with caution. Paint walls a pale yellow to mimic a sun-filled space and create a soothing feeling for the room's occupants. In contrast, bright-yellow painted walls can cause feelings of turmoil and hostility. Naturally bright rooms that have been painted bright yellow over-stimulate some people and may bring about angry feelings. Babies cry more and adults lose their tempers more often when surrounded by bright yellow walls.

Like the color red, yellow speeds up our metabolism. This color psychology aspect makes yellow a good color for china or table-top accessories. There's nothing like a cup of coffee in a yellow mug to wake you up! Think of the natural sunlight when you use yellow. Soft, warm rays feel good. Bright, hot rays feel painful. Balance using the color yellow ensures harmony.

Yellow is also symbolic of many things, cowardice, remembrance – “tie a yellow ribbon,” jealousy and deceit, death in many cultures it’s used as the colour of mourning and in Spain it was the colour worn by executioners.

Whatever, the colour yellow means to you, we’d like you to create a layout inspired by the word “yellow.”

Here's an example:-

Blue

Today's challenge is to create a layout inspired by the word blue.

What does the colour blue evoke? Seas, skies, peace, unity, harmony, tranquility, calmness, coolness, confidence, conservatism, water, ice, loyalty, dependability, cleanliness, technology, winter, depression, coldness, idealism, obscenity, tackiness, air, wisdom, royalty, nobility, Earth (planet), Virgo (light blue), Pisces (pale blue) and Aquarius (dark blue) (star sign), strength, steadfastness, light, friendliness, July (sky blue), February (deep blue), peace, mourning, truthfulness, love.n many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, believed to keep the bad spirits away. Think of the phrases blue blood, out of the blue, black and blue, blue collar worker feeling blue and boys in blue.

Use these ideas and associations of blue to create your layout.

Here are some examples:-

Red

Throughout the ages, colour has been used for healing. Even today, hospitals use colour in the form of ultra violet to heal jaundiced babies. Colour therapists would contend that the healing powers of colour go much further than this. So what can today’s colour, RED, be used to heal? Red is the element of fire and as such is warming, stimulating and energising. It can therefore, help to overcome tiredness and lethargy, to heal chronic colds and chills, and to stimulate low blood pressure and boost sluggish circulation. Colour therapists also contend that surrounding yourself with the colour red can make wounds heal faster and help overcome depression.

Red is a colour that makes us pay attention, it catches the eye immediately so is used to indicate danger such as red lights telling us to stop. It is the colour of passion, strength, energy, fire, love, sex, excitement, speed, heat, arrogance, ambition, leadership, masculinity, power, danger, gaudiness, blood, war, anger (seeing red), revolution, radicalism, socialism, communism, action (painting the town red) and respect.

In the home red is energising and stimulates the appetite, so can be useful in any activity or eating area, but it can make a room seem small, claustrophobic or oppressive and too much red will make us irritable, impatient and uncomfortable although controlled amounts of red can make a space seem cosy and warm. If we wear red it gets us noticed, but it can also make us appear heavier.

We now want you to consider the colour red and create a layout based upon it. It can simply be a layout containing the colour red, or it may contain no red at all, but relate to the symbolism of red or its healing powers. It’s entirely up to you, just produce a layout inspired by the colour red and email it to inspirationalley@hotmail.co.uk

Some further help:-

Well known phrases including the colour red:-

Like a red rag to a bull.
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight, red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.
Seeing red.
Red letter day.
Red herring.
As red as a beetroot.
Red and green should not be seen without a colour in between.
Red, red wine.
In the red.
Red light district.
99 red balloons.
Red Neck.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Caught red-handed.
Red-blooded.

Some examples:-

The first example is a card from Vicki:-

The second example is a layout from Terrie. Terrie has chosen to focus on the symbolic use of red to represent courage, energy and an attitude of attacking life. Her journaling also reflects on her brother's phobia of the colour red:-

Vicki loves to use red in her work and the next four examples are all from her:-

An example from Alex's Art Journal:-

We've received this example from Amanda - maddiejane on UKS:-

Colours of Refraction - Green

Colour is all around us, there’s no escaping it. It affects the way we behave and how we feel. Over the next few weeks we’re going to be setting a weekly challenge based on colour, starting today with the colour GREEN.

Green is the easiest colour on the eye and is said to improve vision. It symbolises nature, abundance, growth and fertility and can be seen all around us. Green is a calming, refreshing colour so is used in television waiting rooms whilst people are waiting to appear on tv. Hospitals also make great use of the colour green because it relaxes patients. By contrast, dark green is masculine, conservative and symbolises wealth, think men's clubs, reading rooms and smoking jackets, Green in many Western countries is considered lucky and is the national colour of Ireland.

Some also consider it an unlucky colour and seamtresses will not use green cotton on the eve of a fashion show because it’s thought to bring bad luck. Green is also associated with envy and jealousy, the phrase “green eyed with envy” springs to mind. In the Middle Ages green was associated with the devil and bad spirits.

Our challenge to you is to create some artwork, a scrapbook layout, a card, an art journal, an altered item, anything, inspired by the colour green. It could incorporate the colour green, it could relate to something that green symbolises such as a layout about nature, it could be how the colour green makes you feel; it can be anything you like as long as it’s inspired by the colour green.

Over the next few days we will be uploading examples to help give you some ideas, so keep checking back.

Send your completed project to inspirationalley @hotmail.co.uk or if you’re a member of UKS leave a link on the thread there. We hope you enjoy this challenge. Remember to check back next week for the next colour challenge.

Some Examples

Our first example is from Vicki:-

An example from Terrie

Another example from Terrie - This is a layout that some might have seen before, but it's an example of interpreting this challenge at its simplest level and creating a layout around the colour green.