Write From the Heart with Kiwi Lane and My Mind's Eye

It's my turn to do an installment of Write From the Heart from Kiwi Lane- yay!  I will say that it feels like it has been a looooong time since it was my turn for this segment, though.  Hopefully I'm not too out of practice and can help you with your journaling.

Sometimes when I scrapbook, I feel like there needs to be some long epitaph to convey the story behind the photos, or even the story behind the people in the photos.  And this is true in some cases.  It's nice to tell a long narrative about how much we admire a person or how something came to be.  It's nice to tell part of our family's history by combining our new thoughts with a photo from long ago. But sometimes, just sometimes, we need to let loose and share more of our personality in our journaling.  If you're a fun person, shouldn't you tell the stories that show just how much fun you have?  I think so, too!  So today I'm going to focus on that-

Tell the silly stories!

Here's a layout that I did using the Milo collection from My Mind's Eye's Now & Then-
Before, using my Kiwi Lane templates to "Frame" my layout:

After:

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); brads, die cut, epoxy shapes (My Mind's Eye); epoxy dots (Teresa Collins); letter stickers (My Mind's Eye, American Crafts); ink, glitter glue (Ranger)

Templates:

Wacky 1

Tiny Wacky 1T

Paradise 1

Celebrate 7

Tiny Celebrate 7T

Photos

I love that these photos are part of a silly story about kissing some fish!  And I wanted to make sure that we remembered that we are part of a fun and sometimes silly family that likes to do strange things and have a good time laughing!  It's not a long, sentimental story.  And that's ok.  It's still a story that helps tell who we are.  And isn't that what scrapbooking is about?

And since we're here anyway, here are a few design tips:

- Use your photo templates as a crop tool, along with planning your layout.  They are translucent, so you can see exactly where you need to cut to make that perfect page.

- Cut down a shape to make a smaller shape.  If you notice, I have three sizes of water drops/splashes. I made the smallest one by tracing the Tiny Celebrate 7T template and drawing the same shape inside the traced shape.  It was about 1/4" smaller all the way around.  This made a smaller shape without needing a smaller template.

- Add interest to your pages using lines.  All my photos are on an angle, as are the bits of patterned paper. But, my words (title and journaling) are all on horizontal lines.  And my embellishments (the wave shapes and splashes) are all in vertical lines.  By having each element of the layout moving a different way, your eyes move around the page.

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!

Write From the Heart with Kiwi Lane Designs and Authentique

Hello again!  It seems like it's been a long time since I've been on my blog... I think the holidays took over a little bit.    And they'll probably continue to take up most of my time for at least the next few weeks.  Blurg.  I think I'd rather be scrapbooking than... well, almost anything else that doesn't involve making more memories! ;)

It's my turn on the Kiwi Lane blog today, and I have a layout to share for our "Write From the Heart" segment.  If you're new to my blog or don't know about Kiwi Lane, here's the scoop- Kiwi Lane is a small, family owned and operated business that creates templates that make your scrapbooking a whole lot easier!  And everyone at Kiwi Lane is always overflowing with inspiration and creativity!!  You should definitely check them out, if you haven't already!

For this installment of Write From the Heart, I was able to work with one of my favorite manufacturers- Authentique!  I have loved them from the get go and their "Joyous" collection is another beautiful collection that those awesome creators have given us to help showcase some of our holiday memories!

Supplies:  cardstock (Core'dinations); patterned paper, die cuts, small letter stickers (Authentique); ink (Ranger); glitter glue (Ranger, American Crafts); brads and flower punch (American Crafts); brown letter stickers (Pebbles, Inc.); washi tape (Downtown Tape); paper bag (craft supply)

As is my specialty, this page has some hidden journaling.  And a rather lengthy explanation of why.

This photo is of me and my Grandpa about 5 years ago.  It's the last photo I have of us together.  The next morning he aspirated on a drink, had a series of strokes and passed away in the hospital on New Year's Eve.  I did not even know this photo existed until my mom showed it to me a few years ago.  I had it printed and sitting in a box, waiting to be put on a page.  I just didn't know how to give this unflattering photo the words it deserved.  It wasn't until our inspiring blog-hostess-with-the-mostest, Kristy, started doing pages for her book about her beloved dad, who passed away earlier this year, that I realized it had to be done.  I had to find the words to go with this not-so-great photo.  Before I continue, you should know two things about me: 1) I don't like to show strong emotion... in anything.  2) I rarely cry.  I might tear up, but the tears are not quick to fall.  Finding the words for this layout went against both of those things.  I decided on a letter to my grandpa for the journaling format.  I figured it would be easier to write to him the things I wanted to say, rather than write like I was telling someone else what I wanted to tell him.  And it was.  It is probably the most emotional piece of journaling I have ever written... top three for sure.  Don't get me wrong- I am a stickler for journaling, but it's usually very superficial.  And the heartfelt letter on this page had me crying... no, I was bawling!  There were many times that I had to stop and wait for the tears to subside so I could see enough to continue.  And I hate crying.  But, it was worth it!  I was able to capture what I had in my heart and now it's preserved for the future.  

Now, because I am not an outwardly emotional person, I would never share my innermost thoughts and feelings with the general public.  But, because I like you, and we're friends, I'm going to let you take a peek at my heart.  This is what my letter to my grandpa says:

Dear Grandpa,

It’s been awhile.  Just under five years, to be exact.  Five years and not a day goes by that I don’t think of you, remember your stories or feel your presence.  I miss your chuckles when I say something silly.  I miss your stories (yes, I was listening!).  I miss the loving way you always looked at Grandma.  I miss your words of wisdom.  I miss the way you never failed to call me your Princess.  I never thought I would miss any of these things if they were gone.  But. I do.

I still have my memories of you, though, for which I’m truly grateful.  Like this photo.  This unflattering, quick snap of the camera that captured some of your last moments with us in this life.  It was Christmas Day.  We taught you how to play Apples to Apples.  You laughed and had fun... a rarity in those last few years.  You even ate some Christmas dinner- another rare occasion as your appetite seemed to diminish after your last birthday.  We were even able to tell you that we were expecting our second child.  It was a very good day!

I’m so grateful to have had you as my Grandfather.  Some people may think that 95 years was long enough to be in this life, and I agree.  You had a long, full life.  But, there will forever be a hole in my heart where I will miss you every day.  I’m thankful for the time I was allowed to be part of your life here on the earth, and even more grateful that we are part of an eternal family.  It’s comforting to know that I don’t really have to say, “good-bye.”  Just “until we meet again.”

Thank you for being my Grandpa. 

Love, 

    Your Princess

(Photo taken 12/25/2008; Journaling written 12/10/13)

Thanks for letting me share with you today!  And I encourage you to Write From the Heart- especially when it's hard to find the words!

Templates used:

Mini Scallops 1A, 2A

Christmas 1, 2, 3

Tiny Holiday 7T

Tiny Tags 1T, 6T

Tiny Brackets 1T, 4T

Write From the Heart for Kiwi Lane Designs

Happy Wednesday!  I'm here today with (hopefully) some inspiring journaling tips for your pages.  This month Kiwi Lane has teamed up with the fabulous people at Simple Stories.  I just love Simple Stories' paper and was thrilled when I was given their "Smarty Pants" line to work with- complete with a package of some of the cutest brads I've ever seen!  Seriously, even if you have no use for a school-themed collection, you should have this one! 

For my layout today, I knew that I wanted to do journaling two ways.  First, I wanted the generic journaling (the who, what, when) visible, but the story of these particular photos hidden so I could focus on using some of that fantastic paper, brads and my Kiwi Lane Templates to make some school themed embellishments.  To accommodate my hidden journaling, I found some small paper bags in my supplies and included them in my framing process, which started off looking like this: 

(Remember: because you are not committed to anything when framing your layouts, your final product may look different than your originally planned page.... which is what happened here and why things will look a bit different on my finished page.)

My finished layout:  

Supplies: patterned paper, brads, card stock stickers (Simple Stories); pockets (Whisker Graphics); twine, paper clip, ribbon (craft supply); ink (Ranger); flower (Bazzill); circle punch (Marvy Uchida); washi tape (DownTown Tape)

I did my bits of obvious journaling with the cardstock stickers that are in the "Smarty Pants" collection- I added "4th grade" to the file folder tab on the title, I added the school year to the composition book I made using one of the 3x4 printed images on the paper and I added my daughter's name to the larger photo of her.  Really, could it get any easier?

I love that some of my tag templates fit perfectly inside the bags to hide my other journaling!  I also made a pull out tab with hidden journaling by combining a 3x4 photo template and a tiny bracket template- then slid it under a 4x4 photo so the bracket part sticks out and the journaling is hidden. I added brads to each of the journaling spots to make them easier to pull out when needed. 

Here are some of the details:

For the title and top border, I used a border strip from one of the sheets of Smarty Pants paper and cut it in half, splitting it in the center of the layout.  I then cut 2 4x6 pieces of the yellow star paper to fill in the rest of the strip across the top.  I used the Abbie Road 2B border to trace and cut out the pencil border from another sheet of the Smarty Pants paper and layered that on top of the yellow paper.  

For the red notebook- it was a printed 3x4 card on one of the sheets of Smarty Pants paper and all I did was round the corners on the right and add some ribbon to make the spine of the notebook.  

For the layered shapes below the red notebook- I cut the Journey 2 shape out of polka dot paper from the Smarty Pants collection and the small star from the Tiny Accents set.  I used a circle punch to make the circle. I attached a flower to the enter of the star with a clock brad (Ooooh, cute!!), and layered the star, punched circle and Journey 2 shape with foam adhesive between each layer.

Ok, I know there are lots more little details on this layout.  Most, if not all, of them were done using just what came in the Smarty Pants collection kit.  It was so easy to use, and so much fun!!  If you have any questions about anything on this layout, feel free to ask me in the comment section.

Templates used:

Sunnybrook Lane 1A & 1B

Abbie Road 2B

Tiny Brackets 1T, 3T

Tags 2, 4

Journey 2

Tiny Accents 3T

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!