trimmingthesails

Simply before and after ...

I'm not at all sure I am still a simple scrapbooker. I used to think I was, for I fell in love with simple scrapbooking within a month of beginning my first page. Even the words simple and simplicity sent a frisson of creative excitement down my spine and I slept with Cathy Zielske by my bedside. (She still has a warm place in my scrapbook affections.) But I suspect I am now morphing into something else. I'm not sure it is shared by many, or even if the term exists - but I am now (I think) a Minimalist Scrapper, for my process seems to be panning out lke this: form, story-idea, photos, journalling, plus one thing.

Form
Flicking through magazines or leaflets, content is not the first thing I notice anymore - it's the page design which grabs me. A poster, an advert, a journal ... This magazine page inspired me this week - I loved the white right-angled edges top left and bottom right.
 
Story idea
There are always so many to tell, and so many different ways ... This week, my son rang to recount a lovely incident with his little son - and I wanted to record it for them both. Now that he is a parent himself, I notice how often he likes to hear about what he did, how he was at the same age as my grandson; and as my own parents grow older, I realise how few stories I have about myself when I was young, and want to make sure that I leave my own children as much of their own story as I can.

Photos
These I am rarely short of. The ones for this story were actually taken months ago but, as you'll see, are perfect. If you popped in on Wednesday, you may have noticed on my desk a half-hidden draft of the scrapbook page, and a much-thumbed copy of John McWade's How to Design Cool Stuff, open at the section on how to find the perfect colour. The answer? It's in the photo. Just enlarge the photo, sample a bunch of pixels, make each into a swatch, and drop them onto the background. It actually takes less time to do than to describe! Here's what happened when I tried:

Mmm. Wasn't convinced by them. Looking closer at the climbing frame, I idly tried this ... And, surprisingly, it looked good: a contrast, but not overwhelming and yet blending in too, linking the photos together.

Journalling
I usually find I can make a story fit the space available. Here, the shapes lent themselves to one block of text on the space top left, and two - as it was wider - bottom right. Keeping the same font for the journalling  and the title (Courier New) makes it quicker and simpler, and sizing is easy to adjust.

Plus one thing
Adding one extra thing - a flower, a ribbon, a stripey border, some patterned paper - cuts down time hunting for the 'perfect' embellishments. Here, I designed a little square on the screen, duplicated it, and filled them with the swatch colours from above. I cheated. I know: there are two things, not one! The metal screws on the climbing frame caught my eye and, as I knew where these were in my files, I couldn't resist adding them top and bottom.

And after ...
This is what it looks like ...

Printed out on a single piece of photo-paper, it is awaiting for a place in my album - probably Herma'd to the back of the next double-page spread about the second half of January, due for completion on the 31st.  Which, as I look at my calendar, is very soon. Lucky I'm a minimal scrapper, then! Hope you all have a lovely weekend, and thank-you for calling in today. :)

 

 

 

WOYW Wednesday (26 Jan 11)

It's dark here, hence the shadowy photo. But not because it's night. Oh no. This is a foggy winter's morning in the northern hemisphere - welcome! And what's on my workdesk this Wednesday?

 Here's a brief guided tour ...

1. Transformer. Not, as I thought when I plugged it in cheerfully, the transformer for my laptop. Alas no. It turned out to be the transformer for my Craft Robo. The Craft Robo really didn't mind. The laptop, however, did. Note to self: keep window open to disperse burning smell and label all transformers and leads forthwith. It will keep you occupied and distract you from thinking about item number 3.
2. Print-out from Twitter all about retweeting. Way back last July, in a moment of rash derring-do, I signed up for Twitter, tweeted once and then promptly fell silent for six months. I didn't have a clue what to do. Now, thanks to Julie's splendid and just-started class, I am determined to at least find out. I amazed myself yesterday by clicking on the Find Out More button on Twitter - that's the sort of confidence Julie gives you :).
3. See that red writing sideways on? It says ominously "31 January is the online filing and payment deadline". I've covered it half up because just thinking about my tax return makes me a bit faint. Only another hundred hours left in which to procrastinate and feel poorly ...
4. Four, is Rab, a gift handmade my very talented and creative friend, Amanda, who has a special giveaway right now to celebrate her blog birthday. Rab appears on my desk from time to time to remind me that he was originally born into a home where the sewing machine was in constant creative use, and that it is time I got out mine because - much as he likes to perch on top of my pile of mending - he can't do it all on his own. I'm listening, my little leporine buddy. I'll get back to you right after item number 3. Sorry, Rab? Oh, right - he says to let you know he has a backstory, as my journalistically-inclined DD calls it.
5. John McWade's wonderful "How To Design Cool Stuff", pages 32 and 33 on Colour Palettes. I love this man. He's right here, and here, so you can get to love him too. Hasn't he got the nicest crinkly smile?
6. Well, the best I can say is that it's a layout and it's underway. A trial print. Teacher's verdict? Needs more work. And a bit of Colour Palette magic. I'll have it done by Friday, if you'd like to pop back then. And as soon as I've finished it, I'm really going to have no option but to attend to ... you've guessed it, item number 3.

And there you have it - but there's lots more WOYWs over at Julia's Stamping Ground. Enjoy! Now, just where did I put that big pile of receipts ...

 

Being naughty and New 52

 I nearly bought a notebook. Right here. Now, buying a notebook really can't count as being noteworthy enough for a New 52 challenge. But it set me off on a train of thought, and here's where it went ...

Can NOT buying a notebook count as being outside one's comfort zone enough to qualify for New 52?

(Oh, and if you like the splashes, they're actually a free font called, gloriously, 'Split Splat Splodge', over at Dafont. Go on. I dare you. Slip it into the midlle of an email to your boss. Be naughty!)

 

 

 

A quartet with some fuzzy thinking ...

Hello! No, we've not gone all musical up here (though a tuneful ditty in praise of Fridays would be welcome): we're a bit more visual today. If you can see clearly, that is ...

One
I promised a photo of how my all-in-one 'This is 2011' is developing. Though the covers are still in progress (that's an optimistic euphemism, by the way), the pages are held in an open spiral for the moment. Book-rings will keep things together once the covers are ready until there are enough pages to bind. I'm not - and I realise this may be heresy for some - using any page protectors, though I may trim some into single sheets and slip them in between pages if I sense any stickiness.

Two
To make the best use of resources, the backs of the double-page fortnightly spreads also hold a layout. Here, a page was glued onto the back after printing the spread but - with careful planning - it will be possible to print onto the back of the spread should this be needed.

Three
The New 52 skinny pages are printed directly onto double-sided white, matt, archival quality A4 art paper. Made especially for fine art and digital art printing, both Fotospeed's High White Smooth Duo and Hahnemuehle's Fine Art Inkjet paper give excellent results with no bleeding through of colour from one side to the other. Additionally, it's slimmer than two lots of card, which is a bonus. When you count the cost of, say, two sheets of Bazzil card plus A4 Photopaper by makers like HP or Epson, then the art papers compare favourably. And it's a whole lot simpler ...

Four
Fuzzy photos. Not having got to grips with the SLR, I snapped these of my little grandson in winter evening indoor light with no flash and a point-and-shoot camera. Naturally, being two, he was not going to stop moving while I fiddled around! Now, I know photos like these are often discarded as not being good enough; my dilemma is that sometimes they're all I have. And so, I'm thinking - albeit a trifle fuzzily - it seems more important to have some kind of record than perhaps none at all. (And - as a protective measure in on-line work - fuzzy or blurry photos make identification harder.)

Oh, and speaking of photos ...
though hers are not at all fuzzy!, then do have a look at Kim's lovely work, tutorials and classes over here. I've just found her site, and if you are beginning in Photoshop/Elements, or would like to try out textures and photos, this looks like a great place to learn. As I am already experimenting with backgrounds, I will be doing Kim's great free class Learn Textures in Ten. (Yes, that's ten minutes!) See you there? Or back here next week? Happy photo-taking and crafting ...

WOYW Wednesday? Well ...

... here's what's on it. Or was, till I photographed it and popped it into a scrapbook page, which is doubling up as my Week 2 for New 52.

These skinny pages for Weeks 1 and 2 have been printed onto double-sided archival-safe art paper. When the light is better in a day or two and we cease to be living at the bottom of what feels like a murky pond, I'll photograph them and show how I'm fitting them in the 'This is 2011' album. However, in the meantime, if there is no progress with said Illustrator (and the ironing), it's going to be Woe On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

And if you'd like to see what else is happening on WOYW Wednesday, do call in over here with Julia ...

Keeping up with ...

... well, not the Joneses, but myself. I am determined this year not to 'meet myself coming backwards', as my grandmother expressively used to say.  Here's how the first fortnightly spread for January, in my 'This is 2011' album, has turned out:

Loving simple pages, I also need a simple process this year. Here's what I tried:

• setting up a template in advance - I love designing these.
• every few days during the fortnight, selecting a photo, dropping it in, and writing a heading plus a brief comment on a coloured strip - this took only 5 or 10 minutes at a time.
• typing in the main block of journalling at the end of the fortnight.
• getting it off the computer and into something tangible by printing the right-hand page and the photos, and preparing it for the album (covers yet to make).

 

Did it deliver what I hoped? Yes. When life was very busy, it only took small amounts of time to keep the pages moving forward and I enjoyed the sense of keeping up with documenting my days. It flowed along quite nicely.

Would I do anything different? Yes, again. Printing out the photos and trimming them individually, then reassembling them carefully with even spacing is not for me - or at least, not for this part of my album. On Saturday, my lovely crop-friend Karen (posting at UKScrappers as KJJC) watching me and my repositionable glue make a botched job of it, recommended a T-square to remove the stress, and suggested that printing them all on one page was - well - taking the fun out of it ... However, reprinting onto a single sheet when I got home and sticking the whole lot down with a few swipes of Herma was, frankly, blissful in comparison! Apologies to all of you with skill and patience and the ability to use glue with elegant flair - but I really need simple right now. :)

Anyone else documenting their year? How is it going? Please feel free to add a link below, or a comment, so we can come and visit!

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(For those of you who are interested in the technical aspects, the pages are 24x30cms, printed onto smooth white card, with the photos printed onto half a sheet of Ilford Galerie silk photo-paper A3+. My HP Photosmart 750 is creaking a bit but still functioning in the main, and allows for printing larger pages. These would work equally well resized for an A4 printer.)

Throwing away ...

And after the gentle rocking by the strong old woman through the long, dark night? (See Friday 7th January, story collected by Gloria Pinkola Estés). The old and weary man grew younger and younger, and became a small and very beautiful child with golden hair, plaited like wheat. Just as dawn broke, the old woman quickly plucked three hairs from the young child's head and threw them on the floor - and the child crawled down from the old woman's lap, paused at the door to give her a dazzling smile, then flew up into the sky to become the brilliant morning sun ...

The three hairs? They represent the need to throw away, to let go of some things or ideas before new energy can flow. In the quiet rocking, it's time 'to get right down to the bones of everything and anything in your life'. Those of you who visit regularly will probably smile, knowing that simplifying and letting go is music to my ears.

So although I am not yet done with musing and stillness, one hair that I am going to let go of, is the struggle to work out where everything in scrapbooking and journalling belongs in the welter of December, Christmas, Daily Life, My Holiday projects and albums. Should a journal be kept separate from the photo album? If a page has drawing, or paint or collage too, does that go in a writing journal or an art journal? Supposing it's got a few photos as well - is that the photo album, then? Water needs clear edges to flow, or it will sink away into shallow, swampy, silted fringes ...

It's all going in one place this year. One chunky, richly-textured volume, with pockets, flaps and hiding places for more private work, and spreads, inserts, and booklets for photos and journalling which record the year. There'll be room for fabric work, digital work, anything where creative energy flows. On the front, it will simply say 'This is 2011'.

Ikea's catalogue (we've perused it often enough during the renovations!) is, aptly, providing a template: photos one side, journalling the other. I feel the creative juices gathering already ... Here's the template I've been making and playing around with:

By Monday, the first fortnightly spread will be done. There have been some queries about how I'm going to print and store the New 52 layouts - I'll include this too. Oh, and I love the serendipity of that catalogue page title 'What do you love?' That I can be clear about. Simplicity. :)

WOYW Wednesday?

"You're not going to unpack those in here, are you?" said Himself, about to hoist another white kitchen cupboard door onto its hinges.

"Because ...?" I ventured, taken aback and suddenly tentative, clutching a large cobwebby box (recently rescued from languishing in the now chilly outdoor shed at the bottom of the garden).

"Well, because those are powdered dyes of, I suspect, a very permanent kind", Himself said with uncharacteristic sternness, removing a screw from between his lips. "And this is a new kitchen".

"They have to go somewhere", I countered, a tad defensively. "I want to get back to using them." The raised eyebrow turned in my direction had sceptical written all over it. "So where do you suggest, then?" I tried to make the latter sound pleasantly enquiring but the hint of steel was not lost on him.

"Ah, mmm ... what about ...?" Himself began, but it was, alas, too late. I recognise a hesitation when I hear one.

"Here will be just fine", I said firmly, setting the box down on the table. "It can be my new temporary workdesk. Anyway, they need decanting into glass jars and water adding to them." Himself looked dubious, door balanced on knee and foot on step-ladder. "I'll put newspaper and polythene down." I said. He opened his mouth. "And a dust-sheet", I added. "Tea?"

He nodded.

Skirmishing shouldn't be this easy - I added a chocolate biscuit to his saucer. And caught his eye. Hum. There'd better be something to show for this, or it could be a case of What's Off Your Workdesk Wednesday ...

New 52 ...

I'm just not good on New Year resolutions. Everywhere I look, they're popping up - bright and shiny, hopeful and energetic, new promises and fresh starts, beautifully expressed and documented ... However, the sense of disappointment when I don't manage to keep mine is just too dispiriting, that I'm not even going to try this year. I'm feeling the same way about goals, creative or otherwise - so I'm not going to have any. Time to hang loose, sit on a swing, and bunk off.

However, the New 52 idea from Peppermint has chimed somewhere, echoing down the corridors of my psyche, and touching a sense of .. playfulness? A tentative, emerging need for adventure? Something has been stirring - and pattering up to the surface came the memory of what follows in the page below, less than a week ago. New 52 doesn't require a huge commitment: more a kind of keeping an eye on oneself and what's flowing into and around one's life. As Peppermint puts it, it's about 'keeping an open mind'. I'm not even commiting myself to documenting it weekly (but, then again, I might find that I do). Here's Week 1 ...

Happy Monday! Especially if there's a little bit of you just tempted to do something even slightly out of the box ...

 

How this happens ...

Ever noticed this? You hear of a place, a name, a word you're holding in mind and, suddenly, it seems to be everywhere. Funny how this happens ...

This time of year, every few years, I become weary: not just healthily tired but deep-down-right-into-the-bone weary. I know I am not alone in this, but that fact never seems to console me. My default setting? To struggle to pull myself out of it. It never works and I never learn: I become more exhausted in the process. This year, I caught myself about to do it again. Infuriating how this happens ...

 What do you do, I thought, when your word for the year is 'flow' and it feels more of an aspiration than a reality? When you look into the deep well, and there's no water-rich reflection gleaming back  - just the long, dry, dark stretching away ... I tried what I have sometimes done in the past - reach for a book. Childhood books are a favourite: Little Women, Just William (now, there's a contrast!). This time, my fingers touched Gloria Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run With The Wolves. Gloria is a cantadora (literally, a singer), a teller of old tales which reach deep into the psyche and show us something we need. The page fell open at 'Clear Water: Nourishing the Creative Life'. Curious how this happens ...

Lurching through the night-time forest, bent double, gasping for breath as he hauls himself painfully forward, the old man reaches a little cottage, pushes open the door and collapses. An old woman hurries forward, carries him to the fireside chair and cradles him. All night long, she gently rocks him, back and forth ... Little by little, his wrinkles fade, he grows more youthful, and his limbs become long and strong - little by little, in the dark, through the night. As dawn approaches ... but we're not there yet. The rocking has to happen ...

Our rocking horse, I think, will not quite fit the bill, lovely as he is. But our hammock chair might. I've hung it up, found some soft cushions, a warm rug, and a gentle light ... And so, between now and when we next meet, this is where I will be. Rocking, resting, being held. Wondering what will happen ...

And wondering - what do you do, when or if you feel creatively weary or dry?