Using Buttons in Your Layouts

In my Shop class at The School of Scrap.com, I recently challenge everyone to use buttons in their layout. But wait...there is a catch! I wanted them to ONLY use buttons as their embellishments. No other type of embellishments were allowed. It was amazing to see how many people used the buttons in such extraordinary ways. See all the wonderful layouts at the School Gallery. Based on the great response, I am extending the challenge out to you. How many creative and extraordinary ways can you use buttons? Post the layouts in the comment section...Can't wait to see your creation!

Interviews in Scrapbook Layouts

Quite often in scrapbooking we are trying to create a "snapshot" in time to capture a specific moment in our lives. As a mother, I often have the "if only I can save this moment" thinking when my children do something silly, fun, or exciting. One way to capture thoughts of a child (or anyone else) is to do an "interview" that the person. It only take a couple of minutes to write down some questions that you want to ask the person. The type of questions is up to you. The question can be something serious like "Who do you admire the most?" to something silly like "What you rather be a buffalo or a horse?" The idea is to capture the person's thoughts in that particular moment in time to reflect the person's age, situation in life, mood, dreams, goals, desires, etc.

For this layout, I wanted to capture the thoughts of a 4 year old boy who is my oldest son. His mind is so interesting and his thoughts just amaze me. Kids are just so honest. The point of the interview was to capture his innocence and honesty. So I asked him some serious questions along with some silly type questions to get a good range. This interview was a great experience for the both of us because he had an awesome time answering my questions and I loved hearing his responses.

The layout that I created to go along with the interview used photos taken this year as well. I wanted the pictures to make his personality and his innocence as much as the interview. I used some flourish rub-on's on the bottom corners of the pictures to add some color detail. MME Bohemia "Just be You" and "Imagine" lines were selected as the paper as well as chipboard flower with buttons. The stripped paper going across the page which looks like ribbon is accented with the "Spirit" MM metal ribbon embellishment. The title is hand sewn on one side using Stampin Up silver cord for a nice special touch.

1st Birthday Today!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to my sweet little R!
Happy Birthday to you!

Your first year has been awesome and your little personality is just shining through like never before. You are soo loved and adored.

Using Music Albums as Inspirations for Layouts

As many of you know, I am a proud teacher at the School of Scrap. This quarter my class is Music Inspiration. As I parused around the Internet, I found the most fabulous album art that just practical leaped off the screen at me. So I challenged the students at the School of Scrap to use the fabulous album art as inspiration on one of their layouts for the month of January.

After I went home for the day and was printing pictures for my layouts, I noticed a picture of my little one's first tooth. Like a lightening bolt out of the sky, the idea struck me. I can use this photo for the album art layout! The hardest part of this layout was cutting the 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch squares and then placing them on the layout. The rest of the layout just fell into place.

Here is the album art:

Using Non-Scrapbook Items in Layouts

Up until recently, I had always been a bit intimidated about using "non-scrapbook" items on a layout. I was worried that somehow it would ruin a page or make it "not as good". So I purposely branched out, and used these leaves from Michaels on this layout. I LOVE the added depth that the leaves added. Try to add some "non-scrapbook" items to some of your pages...You will be surprised at the outcome and look of the layout!