Scraps Of Mind

Scrapbooking in Silhouette

Silhouettes can make a great scrapbook layout technique.

Here’s a cool scrapbook idea which you should try. Removing your subject from the background of the photo lets you position them with whatever backdrop you want in order to tell your story.

I don’t mean like those TV reporters who stand in front of a blue screen with a fan ruffling their hair whilst they report on some news story that the TV station didn’t have an on-the-spot-reporter attending. Although you could do a terrific over-the-top and funky layout with a silhouette of your children in some totally unreal setting.

I’m mostly talking about creating a design incorporating your subject without putting them in the context of their background.

For example, in this hybrid scrapbook layout of my daughter’s University graduation I wanted to feature her on the cover of a book. So I didn’t want to keep the photo background as that would have defeated the purpose.

So I used the lasso tool in Photoshop Elements to extract her out of the background and then I could use her in my design. And don’t worry too much about getting your selection perfect. You can always clean up the edges after you’ve got rid of most of the background.

Once I had got rid of the background I was free to use her silhouette on the cover of the ‘book’ which I made for my scrapbook layout (thanks to Erica Hite’s Bookworm Collection and also Hot off the Press for the background paper). And because I did this digitally I was able to change the size to fit the layout design.

And paper scrapbookers can also jump on the silhouette band wagon. Get out your scissors and start snipping. Just make sure you have a copy of the original photo to work on. You don’t want to ruin your original.

And if your photo isn’t large enough for the silhouette feature that you want for your layout, just scan it into your computer at a high resolution (say 600-800 dpi and you can print out a larger version.

Silhouettes can be a lot of fun and you can make some very funky scrapbook layouts using them.

So why not give it a go?

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Learn how to digital scrapbook so you too can make cool projects like this?

Click over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbook where you’ll find everything you need to know to get yourself started.

Madison Avenue Scrapbooking

Here’s a great Scrapbook Idea

We all know that scraplifting is a great way to kick start a flagging inspiration.

Trying to find something new for your scrapbook layouts can often be a challenge.

Well I suggest you look no further than your nearest magazine when your inspiration has gone on holiday.

Sit down in a comfortable chair with the beverage of your choice (some chocolate always helps the creative process I find, but this is optional). And start flicking through your favourite magazines.

Half close your eyes so you can’t see the pages too clearly. You don’t want to actually read the articles this time. You just want the pages to make an impression on you. So you can find one that can be translated into a scrapbook layout.

And usually the best page layouts for this will be the full page advertisements!

Don’t forget, these folk make their living by designing page layouts. So it’s reasonable to expect that they know a thing of two about it.

I found this ad for Campbell’s Soup in a women’s magazine a couple of days ago. It was just screaming at me to scraplift it and turn it into a scrapbook layout.

So I did, and this layout of my daughter and her cousins is the result.

So now I guess I’ll always think of Campbell’s Soup as ‘the family soup’

If you haven’t tried kick starting your mojo with advertising inspiration I recommend you give it a try. It will often inspire you to try styles and designs that you otherwise might not have. And it can give you a whole new perspective when you’re designing your scrapbook layouts.

And if you have tried scraplifting from magazines tell us what you did, and maybe share a link so we can go and see and help to boost our own inspiration.

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Want to learn how to digital scrapbook so you too can make cool projects like this?

Then click over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbook where you’ll find everything you need to know to get yourself started.

Make a Transparent Scrapbook Layout

Transparent scrapbook layouts have been a feature of the paper scrapbooking world for a year or so.

They’re a cool scrapbook idea. You make them by creating your scrapbook layout using a transparent plastic sheet as your background. Like the ones used for overhead projection slides.

And there are a few things you need to consider when you plan your layout design.

First you need to think about how it is going to look from the back. Remember with a transparent background, the back of all of your elements can be seen on the reverse.

One of the ways around this is to think about doing a reverse layout on the other side of the transparency. To make this successful, it’s probably a good idea to keep your layout design relatively simple with large shapes dominating, that are easy to work with when you design your reverse layout.

And make sure you exploit the transparent aspect by leaving plenty of space to see through.

Transparent layouts can look very cool and there’s a certain sense of satisfction in creating one, because they present challenges that are different from ‘normal’ scrapbook layouts.

But can digital scrapbookers create transparent layouts too?

Answer: Yes!!

The real value of the transparent technique is in it’s physical form, not it’s digital form.

It’s easy to just colour the background of your layout white and it looks like a transparent layout on the screen. But once you print it out, there’ll be nothing transparent about it.

The trick for digital scrapbookers is to save the layout file as a PNG rather than a JPEG. That way you can print it onto a transparent sheet and all the transparency will remain intact.

In fact you can even take it one step further and add a couple of ‘real’ elements to your printed digital transparent layout. Say a ribbon or a border of buttons. Brads are not so good as they look pretty ugly on the reverse side.

Once again digital and paper scrapbooking techniques come together to result in great scrapbooking.

I love Hybrid Scrapbooking.

And don’t forget, if you are interested in getting started in digital scrapbooking, there’s a bunch of information and videos to get you up and running over at Step by Step Digital Scrapbook – the site that’s especially for the beginner to digital scrapbooking.

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As regular readers will remember, I’ve written in the past about hybrid scrapbooking and how, these days, I would very rarely make a paper scrapped layout or card without some hybrid component to it.

I think a lot of this is because I tend to design my layouts ‘on the fly’ so to speak, instead of planning them out. Rather like Haphazard Hetty from an earlier article.

Now whilst that’s not really a big deal for digital scrapbooking, since I can always find an element that suits my purposes or modify it to do so without much trouble. It’s very different with paper scrapbooking.

So without forward planning, I would never have bought just the right element in the right colour for what I needed on my layout.

Once I started combining digital with paper scrapbooking, life became a whole lot easier.

I can use my digital alphas to create a monogram in the colour that I want. And I can easily add some journaling to it if I need to. Then just print it out on cardstock or photo quality card, mount it on foam tape and I have a custom designed monogram for my layout.

Another technique I like to use is to apply digital embellishments such as frames or accent flowers to my photos before printing them out.

And journaling tags are probably my most used technique. I choose a tag from my wide selection of digital tags. Change the size and maybe the colour to fit in with my scrapbook layout. Then just type my journaling directly onto the tag and print the whole thing out.

Apart from making life a lot easier, mixing my digital techniques with my paper techniques means that I’m never at a loss for the elements I need to finish my layout. And if it’s the right shape but the wrong colour I can change it to suit.

I know that many of you paper scrapbookers enjoy the tactile side of creating your layouts and don’t want to forsake it for digital scrapbooking.

And why should you?

But mixing the two scrapbooking approaches can open up a whole new level of creativity for you.

Oh and by the way, because I don’t need to buy lots of different embellishments I get to save money with hybrid scrapbooking too. You gotta love that.

I’d love to know whether any of you paper scrapbookers have tried hybrid scrapbooking and how you feel about it. Share your story or your views in the comments below. And how about you digital scrapbookers. Have you tried getting a bit of glue under your fingernails and mixing your digital layouts with some hybrid ones?

And if you’d like learn more about developing the digital skills to do this, click over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbook, the site that’s designed specifically to help beginners to digital scrapbooking.

Expand your scrapbooking and save your pocket. We all like that, don’t we?

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What Do You Do with Your Scrapbook Layouts?

So once you’ve finished your scrapbook layout what do you do with it?

Do you have lots of different albums; maybe based on themes like vacations and Christmas etc. or perhaps individual album for each member of the family?

I know the journey of creating the layout is often more important that the end result. But I like to have my layouts displayed in some format.

Usually I will print my scrapbook layouts out, if they are digital layouts and I keep the latest on displayed on a little easel on a shelf above my desk. Then when I make the next one I store the layout in one of my albums and replace it on the easel with the new one.

I have an album dedicated to my daughter’s life which I add to every so often and a fledgling Book of Me album which I confess doesn’t have many layouts in it. I also make themed albums for my overseas trips. Everything else goes into a sort of Miscellaneous album.

I rarely post my layouts in on-line galleries these days. I guess my on-line gallery is Scraps of Mind, as many of my layouts end up illustrating my articles here.

But I do love to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and browse through my albums. It’s a great feeling on a number of levels. I enjoy the memories that browsing through the albums spark for me. And I also like to look at all the different scrapbooking styles and scrapbook ideas I’ve tried and evaluate them more objectively with the distance of time.

I rarely would actually change a layout unless it really really bugged me. But I do like to see how my scrapbooking has evolved.

So back to the question at hand.

What do you do with your scrapbook layouts.

Share with us in the comments below. Who knows, we might even get some new ideas from reading what other Scraps of Minders do.

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