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For a lot of us, September marks the beginning of one of the busier
times of the year. The “-ber” months. With the start of a new and unique
school year, followed by the most celebrated family centered seasonal
time, including fall festivities, then Thanksgiving, and eventually
Hanukah and Christmas, during which we try to cram as much jubilee as
possible into our already busy lives—we all have so much going on, and
it may feel like there is just no time to dedicate to preserving all of
these fond, albeit sometimes somewhat hectic, memories.
What if we told you that scrapbooking can be fast, simple,
and easy! It is a perfect to discover, or rediscover, the simplicity of
scrapbooking in pockets! By using Memory Protectors™ with multiple
pockets, you can quickly catch up on your scrapbooking or just add
photos, art, and journaling (and any other keepsake that you can fit
into a pocket) to your albums.
From how to tell a story to the creating of the artwork that goes
along with it, pocket scrapbooking is a memory keeping style all its
own. If you are new to this style of scrapbooking or are simply looking
for inspiration for your pages, we’ve compiled a list of artwork tips
and ideas for you below!
Pocket Scrapbooking Tips & Ideas:
1. Fill no more than half your pockets on a page with non-photo elements.
2. Stick to a color palette, pulling color ideas from your photos.
3. Use Picture My Life™ pocket cards (designed to coordinate with each other in theme and color).
4. Design and make your own pocket cards from papers, Thin Cuts,
stickers, and stamps. (This is a great way to use up some of your
scraps, too!)
5. Fill pockets with other things, besides cards or photos (ticket stubs, loose Cricut® shapes, sequins, etc.). Tip: We sealed the sequins pocket you see in our example so the sequins wouldn’t fall out.
6. Make a statement and split large titles or photos into multiple squares. Tip: Consider printing a large 6 x 8 photo and split it up into several pockets!
7. Use the negative space of a Cricut® shape to create a
pocket card. If the space is large enough, back it with a light color
cardstock and use the space for journaling. If you are cutting several
small shapes (like our 2019 below), back it with cardstock or any other
paper that will add interest to your layout.
8. Add a sentiment to your photos by stamping directly on them Tip:
If your photo has any sort of finish on them, we recommend you use
StazOn™ ink. If it is a truly matte photo, Archival Black is a good
choice.
9. Don’t want to stamp on your photos but want a similar effect?
Stamp directly onto the pocket Memory Protector™ with StazOn™ ink,
instead.
10. Add embellishments to the outside of the Memory Protectors™.
11. Use Flip Flaps™! If you have too many photos or things that you
want to work into a page but not enough pockets (or enough to fill whole
other page) add these stick on pockets that flip up (or in any
direction that you attach them) to reveal whatever is underneath!
12. Similarly, if you have too many photos for a traditional
scrapbook layout, and don’t want to create another layout with all of
the remaining photos, use pocket pages to display these.
13. If you have a piece of memorabilia to display that is too small for a pocket, mount it onto a piece of paper that will fit.
14. Create a window to the next page in your album by partially
filling a pocket (use a smaller photo, half a pocket card, etc.).
15. Number your photos to give your page or layout a more narrative
direction. Take this a step further by adding numbered journaling to a
pocket card that corresponds with the numbered photos.
16. Create color visual triangles. This means to purposefully place
the same color in three different places that, when connected, form a
triangle.
17. Don’t have time, or care for, writing in full paragraphs? Use bullet journaling to keep track of the details of a memory!
18. If one of your pockets is holding a card that you want to
remember to pull out when you revisit the page, add a tab along the edge
of the card on the open side of the pocket.
19. Easily add some visual interest to your photos by trimming them
down ¼” and mounting them on a piece of paper that fits the pockets
exactly, creating a border around your photos.
20. Sometimes things don’t fit in pockets—like notes, journal pages,
your grandma’s favorite clock—take photos of these things to include
them in your stories.
21. We said 20, so this one is a bonus: plan ahead. If you know you
will be going on a tropical vacation, or camping, or pumpkin
picking—there are activities that you know for certain you will be
participating in (playing on the beach, sitting around a camp fire,
walking through a pumpkin patch, etc.). When you are scrapbooking with
pockets, it’s easy to lay out some pages really quickly for these types
of events without having the photos yet. Once you have them, add them.
If you don’t like the way it’s laid out, rearrange! Easy-peasy!
If you just went through our list and still find yourself at a loss
for how to begin, or otherwise feel that your finished pocket layouts
didn’t turn out quite right, try revisiting one of our previous posts, 5 Approaches to Pocket Scrapbooking,
where we share additional ideas to get you thinking about how to create
a pocket page or layout, and to get you up to speed on this popular
style of scrapbooking.
Whether you’re cutting things up, attaching them to a pocket card, or creating a pocket for a group of items—there is no wrong way to tell your story. In the comments below, share with all of us how you are using pocket scrapbooking in your memory keeping.
Recipes:12″ x 12″ Hooray for Today Pocket Scrapbooking Layout D1938 My Acrylix® Love Lives Here Stamp Set, D1926 My Acrylix®
Simple Florals Stamp Set, X9017 Mix-in Paper Packet, X6047 Black
Cardstock, X6044 Peach Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z6047
Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp
Pad, Z6502 Peach Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2851 Saffron Exclusive
Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2896 Smoothie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7258D Summer
Vibes Picture My Life™ Cards, Z4235 Gold Loose Sequins, Z3132
Watercolor Paints, Z1950 12″ x 12″ Memory Protectors™ Design 3, Z1951
12″ x 12″ Memory Protectors™ Design 4
6″ x 8″ On this Day Pocket Scrapbooking Layout D1929 My Acrylix® Paper Pal Beach Day Stamp Set, D1932 My Acrylix®
Joyful Sunflower Stamp Set, CC7203 Happiest Place Coordinating
Cardstock, X5978 Glacier Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Cardstock, 1385 White
Daisy Cardstock, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7258D Summer
Vibes Picture My Life™ Cards, Z4304 Silver Loose Sequins, Z3191 6″ x 8″
Memory Protectors™ Design 2, Z3192 6″ x 8″ Memory Protectors™ Design 1
Last week we released a new stamp set, Let's Stay Home,
designed to equip you with sentiments and images that are especially
suited to our present circumstances. Here is some new artwork we have
created with this set to help you envision some ways to use the set in
your own memory keeping.
Spending
more time at home? The "Home is where the heart is" sentiment paired
with the adorable house icons make a great accent for a scrapbook page
focused on all of the activities you are doing in your home. The house
images are attached on the stamp, but are easy to trim out to fit your
page just the way you like.
The
images in this set work beautifully in pocket pages and mini albums
like this one, showing more images of our collective "new normal." The
"Play" and "Read" icons are sure to come in handy when capturing the
story of right now, and they are a great size for accenting 6" x 8"
pocket pages in an Everyday Life album.
You
may find yourself paying a bit more attention to the news recently than
you normally do. If that's the case, the Let's Stay Home stamp set is
there to help once again with timely sentiments like "In the News" and
"Current events." For especially noteworthy events, consider using
numbers from the Classic Alphabet Thin Cuts set to create a bold, eye-catching element on your page.
See More Artwork on YouTube
We've just released a new YouTube video showcasing this and other artwork and talking all about this new stamp. Watch the video now, and keep your eye on our other social media channels for more great artwork ideas and inspiration.
I will be there - will you? I hope you can join me :)
If
you have been missing out on the interpersonal connections that come
from crafting together with your best crafting buds, we have some
wonderful online opportunities coming up next month that we would love
to have you join us for!
National Scrapbooking Day Celebration
As
you may know, May is National Scrapbooking month, with National
Scrapbooking Day being celebrated on the first Saturday of May each
year. We are planning a FREE all-day event on
Saturday, May 2 to celebrate! The event will be held 11:00 am–11:00 pm
(MDT)
on the Close To My Heart Facebook Page,
and will feature creative projects as well as product giveaways
throughout the day. Join us live or catch up on the video after the
event has concluded! Get more details and RSVP to the event on the Event page.
We're featuring six awesome creative projects as part of this event and
would love for you to craft right along with us as we make them! To make
that possible, we have created project bundles containing materials
you'll need to make the projects. These bundles include brand new
products that are not yet available to the public as well as exclusive
items that are only available as part of the bundles!
While purchasing the bundles is completely optional, you will definitely
want to check them out to see the fun that we have in store for this
special event. Get all the details about these bundles and see the
artwork you'll make with each by visiting the National Scrapbooking Day
page.
Later
in May, we will be holding a virtual Album Retreat, which we are
opening to all who would like to join us! At our Album Retreat, we will
spend two days putting together an entire album of beautiful
scrapbook pages, with an emphasis on elevated artwork techniques. The
album we have designed for this retreat features 20 beautiful 12" x
12" scrapbook pages, including 8 two-page layouts, 2 single-page
layouts, plus a cover page and a closing page.
This event will be held
May 15–16,
and to participate, all you need to do is purchase the album bundle!
There will be no separate registration fee; you can participate in this
event for only the cost of the materials and the preparation work of
cutting the projects and packaging them—oh, did we mention that the
projects would be pre-cut? They will be! This will free up our time
together to focus on technique instruction and assembly. We are even
waiving the cost of the instruction, giving you an incredible value for
participating in this unique event.
We'll begin shipping project bundles for Album retreat on
May 1, so we encourage you to order yours by April 30
if you would like to join us for the event!
We
hope you'll join us for one or both of these wonderful events! Whether
or not you do, we hope you'll stay connected to us through our social
media for continuing crafting inspiration and ideas!
Close to my Heart put together a stamp set to help document some of the time you may be staying home right now. Keep busy, maybe you want to keep your kids busy. Above all - stay safe and healthy!
As
you can see, this stamp set is designed to give you icons and
sentiments that are ideally suited to present times. This set will be a
great tool for you when creating cards to send to loved ones or
scrapbook pages to share stories and preserve memories from this time
period.
This is my first attempt on a blog - can you tell? I am sure you can. From what I have learned about blogs they are like an online journal and you are getting a peak into my soul ...
At this time I am trying to learn how to post my artwork with watermark and copyright and all that jazz -but I a, learning. My plan is to post my work and along with it I will explain what I used and how I made the project.
As we go along, I will also give you a peak into my life. I will share some pictures of my family, places we have been, places we have visited. So, please come back and visit often. Just know, that I am very new to this blogging thing! So, at this time - any help you can give me is highly appreciated in growing my skills in "blogging".
If you live close to me and you would like to join me in my craft place or one my crops please, check my calendar for any upcoming workshops!
