Putting objects in the layout

Journaling reads:
With two children, we can now be considered the all-American family -- a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter. This is an achievement for us. A family doesn't come ready-made. It is built through a series of events. After our wedding, we were just a couple. When our baby girl came along, we were a couple with a baby. Now that we have a son, we truly can be considered a complete family. My family now mirrors the one I grew up in, with one girl and one boy. And with two offspring, we have reached the replacement rate for human reproduction. In fact, the average American family has 2.2 children. Since a fraction of a child can only exist in the realm of statistical averages, this is as close as we can get. And who knows? We just might surpass it one day (by 0.8 of a child, of course).

I've created over 100 layouts now, and I think this is the first one that doesn't have a face in it. Yet I've noticed that some of the most creative layouts I've seen do not include a picture of a person at all.

I got the idea to take a photo of shoes lined up from a layout I saw on Scrapbook.com. When you walk into a house, seeing lots of shoes lined up by the door says that a family lives there. I loved the idea and I did a version of my own. An added benefit is that it is much easier to take a picture of shoes than it is to get two small children to smile at the camera at the same time.

Using a photo of an object rather than a person helps emphasize the journaling. Humans seem to be programmed to focus on faces. When there is a face in the picture, people's eyes are drawn to that and may overlook the narrative. Using an ordinary object rather than a face helps draw the viewer to the words, instead. I saw a layout that had a stack of pennies next to a story about her grandmother's frugality. It really made me focus on the journaling rather than the visual elements.

Now, when I have a story to tell, I look for objects that symbolize the theme. The possibilities are endless and they are all around me.

Mosaic style word art

It's been awhile since I've posted. I've been a little distracted with life and haven't been able to summon the energy to write. I've still been doing layouts, I just haven't written about them. Here's a little post about a new style I've discovered. It's new for me, at least.

The GIMP version that I downloaded comes with hundreds of fonts. This makes it hard to find the single best one for each layout title. I usually just experiment with as many fonts as I can before I get impatient and settle with the best I could find. This is how I discovered the font “DecoBlack.”


As soon as I saw it, I recognized that it would be great for word art. It is fun to combine photos with letters. But it's not always easy to make the photos look good and the letters readable. Imagine trying to put a photo inside the letter “Y,” for instance. How would you frame it? Yet the font “DecoBlack” does most of the work for you. The letters are broken down into rectangles and triangles, making it easy to find photos that will fit the shape.

This layout was my first experiment with this style. I think there's a sculpture in New York City with the letters L.O.V.E. arranged in this manner, so I can't say that the arrangement is original. I used a solid red background and white borders around the letters to make them more legible. I converted the photos to black and white so that the colors wouldn't clash.

This is just one more way to have fun with letters and avoid boring titles. Next time I will graduate to longer phrases, which means more pictures!

Journaling in lists

I like to say that my main source of inspiration comes from my family. Yet I've realized that it's really been all about my kids, specifically. In the process, I've neglected the one who got the whole thing going. I guess the reason is that my kids are a little cuter (no offense, Steve) and they change much more quickly, which makes me desperately want to capture every fleeting moment.

Yet I've known my husband for longer than I've known my kids (of course), so I should have just as much to say about him. In fact, I've made a deliberate effort to focus some scrapbooking time on him. I took several photos of him last weekend when we went out by ourselves. The funny thing is that it is almost as hard to get him to smile for the camera as it is my two-year old daughter. You can tell in this picture that I told him to turn and smile for me. This is his half-hearted effort, but I'll take what I can get.

When trying to decide what to write about him, I drew a blank. All I could think of was a bunch of lovey-dovey cliches, and I don't really like to write in that kind of language. I wanted to do something more simple and original.

That's why I often write in lists. Using lists, I can jot down whatever random things come to mind. Unlike a narrative, a list doesn't have to expand on one idea. Lists are more fun, they're spontaneous, and they save time and energy. It took me just a few minutes to create the journaling and required minimal editing. I spent most of my time on the visual layout.


The journaling reads:

Top eight things that I love about you:

• How you made me want to have kids.
  
• How you call from work just to say hi.
  
• How you handle problems so maturely.
  
• How you deal with my mood swings so patiently.
  
• How you are committed to your health.
  
• How you are a great hiking partner.
  
• How big and manly your chin is.
  
• How great your cooking is!

(Paper is by Michelle Coleman of scrapartists.com.)

Why did I choose eight for this layout? For one thing, I thought of this great way to incorporate the number “8” into my word art. For another thing, I wanted to highlight the things that stood out most. I could have done 100, but it would have seemed repetitive and people probably would not read the whole thing.

So, if you're afraid to write because you don't feel like a poet, try writing in lists. It's much easier when you're not constrained by a narrative structure and you're free to throw out whatever comes to your head.