What about Wednesday: Using Heritage Photos

Aloha, It’s Hannah with you today! It’s Hump day and I think we all love the idea of the weekend. It will be on it’s way I promise, just a few more days to get through!

Lately, as we transition from summer to autumn. Get back into school time routines. I Have been finding that my ability to create easily has been difficult. I know we all go through these times, when life around us is crazy and filled with chaos and that causes our crafty mojo (as many of us call it) to be effected.

I have been trying to find little things to help this transition be fast because I love to scrap. The worst feeling is wanting and having time to sit down at your scrap desk and then sit there at your paper and having no idea what you want to do on the page. We all go through this, but there has to be ways to make these periods to be smaller, shorter and that we still end up creating something we love.

When I started this layout, the first thing I did was changed up my size. I cut down my white card stock to 8 1/2 by 11. This size just isn’t as intimidating. The space is less and there is less room to mess up on.

Another thing I like to do is pick a photo of a story I have been meaning to tell. I have a list in my crafting notebook of stories I want to scrapbook. When I am having a hard time finding focus, I pick out one of those. I find having a story to focus on allows me to let go of having a perfect design. I can pick a paper with space for writing. A really nice ledger. Then I just focus on an even smaller amount of space, leaving room for my journaling. 

I love this old photo I have of my grandmother when she was little. Even though her clothes are worn, she always looked darling and had her hair done nicely and cute. I have been waiting to scrap this photo of her for a while. This photo has been sitting in my photo pile waiting for me to tell it’s story.

Another tip I would give, is to not feel bad about doing something you love to do on your layout. We all have things we love to do that are our go to or our signature technique on the layouts we do. There are many times when I purposely try not to do them because I want to try something different or unique. That’s how I grow by trying new things. But when I am in a scrappy rut I like to go back and do them.

Lately I have been loving doilies. It’s odd because I own really only a few of them. I just haven’t had the desire to go out and buy many of them. I think other scrapbookers make them look so amazing, but I often hate what they look like when I use them. For some odd reason though, I just have the need to use doilies on almost every layout. This time I grabbed another doily and layered away on it.

The cut file with XO’s and hearts was perfect. There was lots of openings for the doily and my embellishments to peek through. I picked an acetate and vellum piece so that it gave a light look. I layered the cork-fetti hearts and the Happy Dance sequin mix around the cut file and around the doily. I love the girlie feel this embellishment cluster feels.

Another thing that I like to do when I am in a slump, I use sketches. I used the newest Citrus Twist Sketch.

Using a sketch takes the pressure off of having to come up with the design of a layout. Lately I have been using a lot of sketches. I really love taking a sketch and then putting my own twist on it too. You will notice for this layout I overlapped the two patterned papers from the sides. I put the ledger paper over a light patterned paper. I made sure they were different sizes so they created some hard edges.

The doily is in place of the banner in the sketch and I extended more embellishing and extra journaling up the side of the photo. This worked really well because I only had one photo and it isn’t a big photo.

This Maggie Holmes Open Book ephemera piece is perfect for adding just a little extra to the layout.

I did my classic layering behind the photo. I used a fun washi plus sign patterned paper.

I choose similar colors that weren’t too bold to layer in. This way you are drawn to the picture and story.

I used a tag above the photo with some white twine. The twine looks so cute to the cork-fetti  heart. I tucked some more ephemera in the papers. Then I sprinkled sequins around making it looked scattered.

The puffy sticker on the photo helps draw your eye back to the photo. The gold mist splatters help finish off the layout.

What are some things do you do when you feel a little out of the scrappy loop? I love that by listening what others do to stay inspired to create helps me become more inspired to create on my own!!

I hope you crafty friends have a great rest of the week. Don’t forget to stop by our Facebook Group 15 Minutes to Scrap, to find more inspiration and check out our challenge this month. We love to connect with you and help inspire you to create something beautiful!!

Have an inspired Week,

Hannah