Amy Sorensen Reading Write Click Scrapbook

New gallery day! You have patiently waited for a new gallery. And now it is here! Please enjoy The Vacationers! Remember, you can see the layouts in more detail and have the journaling if you click on over to the photo album!

Water by Aliza

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics Paper) + journal cards (Ali Edwards Designs) + wood veneers (Studio Calico, Ali Edwards) + fonts (TravelingTypewriter)

A Note from Aliza
I am a pretty straight, on the grid scrapper. So setting all the elements on an angle is pretty wild and crazy for me. But I love the way it turned out.

The Vacationers by Lisa

8.5 x 11 | materials cardstock (Staples) + patterned paper (Pink Paislee) + card (Project Life kit Happy place) + stamp (Studio Calico) + washi (Panduro Hobby)

A Note from Lisa
This layout came together by itself. It follows such a simple design I could use it for every page. It makes me happy!

September Fun Fact
I started scrapbooking in 1999 when my daughter was born. Yesterday marked 17 years…

Loved This Adventure by Aliza

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + patterned paper (Kesi Art, Kaiser Craft) + stickers (Fancy Pants Designs, Pretty Little Studio) + fonts (traveling typewriter)

A Note from Aliza
We did not travel much this summer, but this hike was quite glorious, and it was enough to make us feel like we were on vacation.

Journaling
Storm King Mountain. This was our second time hiking here, and first time with all 4 of us, completing a whole trail. There was climbing up and down rocks, amazing views, twisty trails in a tree covered forest, some exhaustion and crankiness, then an even better view from what we think was the top of the mountain, and then more climbing down rocks to get back down. Everyone (!) enjoyed the challenge. Sam brought his Go Pro and has been helping with some of the picture-taking responsibilities.

September Fun Fact
One son is leaving to study in Israel for the year, and one is beginning high school. How time flies.

I Didn't Love Paris by Amy

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (Pink Paislee) + alphabet stickers (Heidi Swapp) + font (Elsie Swash Caps Black) + gold pen (Pilot Juice Gel)

A Note from Amy
After I wrote this journaling I thought "Could I sound any more whiny? Complaining about being in Paris?" but I stayed with it because it was my authentic response. On a design note, I love adding gold (or silver, or grey) lines to fussy cut flowers. It adds a little extra pop and helps it to feel like it's more mine.

September Fun Fact
It's September! Is there anything more exciting than the arrival of autumn?

It's day 4 and we are so very excited for today's event. It's a big one and quite possibly our favorite. Right up there with swimming and gymnastics and our winter scrapolympic skeleton race. We have two teams that are ready and raring to take part in the relay.

The goal for this event is to take the "baton" from your teammate and use it to create your own layout. Then pass it forward and see where the third teammate takes it. For all our competitors today, there is little more exciting than being inspired by one of your favorite scrapbookers. Let's get started.

Team One consists of Amy, Lisa, and Aliza. Here is there awesome relay.

Here is what they each had to say about their layouts and their inspiration.

Amy began with a goal to incorporate the journaling right into the title. Or the title right into the journaling. For her, it all started with the pink card and then went from there! Amy's beautiful layout is proof that you can totally use pink on a boy's layout.

This layout then went to Lisa. She writes, "As you can see I scaled down from Amy's great page. Whenever I do scraplift and/or use another page as inspiration I make them into a page that is me. So I can be super inspired by a page that is super busy with sewing and a lot of embellishments, but that is perhaps not my style." Such a great reminder that we can look beyond the details (or in them) to find things we can use.

Lisa's layout then went to Aliza who made hers. She says, "I loved the simplicity of Lisa's page, but I had a large photo and a small story that I wanted to use at the time. So, I simply swapped the elements while keeping the basic design the same; My journaling is a small square, while my photo runs the length of the page. I tried to include some bits of stamping on the edge, as Lisa did, but I am a big scaredy-cat when it comes to stamping. So, I went with washi tape and stickers instead. Using those embellishments  also helped me spread my color scheme around the page."

What a successful swap of sides and elements. And what a terrific sets of layouts from Team One.

Next is Team Two, consisting of Jenny, Dee, and Marnie.

Jenny got the race started with a bright and cheery layout with lots of journaling strips and delightfully layered elements around her photo.

Dee took this layout and essentially turned it on its side. She mimicked the photo matting, and kept the strips for journaling. The difference in perspective makes it seem like a whole new "sketch."

Lastly, Marnie turned it again (not realizing that is where it began!) for the journaling, but maintained the horizontal photo. She also kept the journaling strips, and maintained Dee's 10 point journaling.

Team Two did a great as well. Much too close to call. We will determine it to be a tie, and we will cross the finish line holding hands like the marathoning German twin sisters. Oh, the Olympics warm our hearts. ♥

Will you join us in a relay? And if you need some teammates, we will gladly play along with you!

Welcome back for day 2 in our Olympic celebrations! The beaches here are spectacular, the weather divine, and our fellow athletes are keeping us up late with their tales of running with scissors, and trimmers that just don't cut straight. ;)

We hope you enjoyed day one and are so glad you are back from more. Today we have Synchronized Scrapbooking.

Synchronized Scrapbooking

Our second Scrapolympic comes from synchronized swimming.

Here is the official Olympic history statement.

An aquatic ballet, synchronised swimming has been delighting Olympic audiences with its grace and rhythm since Los Angeles 1984. It's a women-only discipline with duet and team competitions.
::source::

For our Synchronized Scrapbooking event, we have chosen to compete in synchronized duets: reigning in the creativity of an entire team seemed like too much of a feat. Beyond Olympic sized proportions! Writeclickscrapbookland will be represented by two teams who will each take on a sketch and will do their best to stay true to the sketch so as to stay in sync with their partner.

SYNCHRONIZED DUETS = PICK A SKETCH, PARTNER UP & FOLLOW THE SKETCH CLOSELY

Our first team is Amy and Lisa. They worked from a sketch based upon a layout by Cari.

First, let's take a look at Amy's layout. She stayed true to the horizontal strips, the three photos, and the decorated top corner. She added a bit of artistic flair to the bottom with a journaling spot. The makes the judges very happy for they expect Amy's layouts to be filled with meaningful words that more than perfectly substitute for any piece of patterned paper.

Next, Lisa's layout. Another strong performance by Lisa! She also maintained the horizontal tranquility of the original and gets bonus points for the use of a circle in her upper right hand element. Her three photos are not only perfectly aligned but radiate with floral beauty so divine we can almost smell the lovely aroma.

In her post performance interview, Lisa noted that she hadn't much to say, but that she loved how this page turned out. Before leaving the arena she added, "Isn't it a great thing when something you've created comes out even better than you planned?!" Yes, indeed.

Let's take one last look at Team One and their medal worthy layouts.

Writeclickscrapbookland is off to a terrific start on day 2.

Next up is Team Two consisting of Dee and Marnie. They worked from a sketch based upon a layout by Aliza.

Let's first look at Dee's part in the duet. Dee used the sketch to document part of her recent vacation to Portugal. She loved this quiet and relaxed afternoon at the pool and had so many fun pictures that the sketch was perfect! Her journaling talks a little about the afternoon. It looks so lovely. (Do you think we should all tag along next year?) In evaluating her precision, Dee gets high marks for meeting each of the segments of the sketch. Her margins are unusually accurate for someone limited by paper trimmers. Hooray, Dee! Exceptional work!

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts) + patterned paper (Studio Calico) + label sticker (Studio Calico) + ink (Stazon) + pen (Project Life)

During her post performance interview, Dee excited explained, "This layout was definitely fun and easy to make. I use sketches quite often to create my layouts, but usually I don't follow them as closely as I did with this one. But since the assignment was to follow it as closely as possible, I did! ;-) I love how it turned out!" We love it, too, Dee. And you!

Lastly, Marnie's layout. She took the opportunity to document some dance photo day candids. Because the sketch was so neat and tidy, the layout didn't get as overwhelmed as it may have with five glittery colorful photos. We are impressed by her restraint, knowing she prefers the single layout photos, we wondered if she was going to switch up the photo block. No deductions will be taken as she stayed in sync with her partner's five photos. And she does receive a small bonus for getting her title to shine in a cohesive way.

12 x 12 | materials patterned paper (American Crafts, Just Jamie) + journaling strips (Crystal Wilkerson) + fonts (Bebas, DoodleBasic)

We caught up with Marnie fleeing the arena (perhaps still embarrassed for having fallen asleep during yesterday's events...) when she quickly blurted out that she did have some trouble reigning in her urge to switch out a couple of the photos for patterned paper, but that she couldn't possibly stand another setback. We hear you, and are with you, Marnie. Everyone loves a good comeback.

Team Two finishes strong with excellent synchronicity. Here they are together in stunning beauty.

Phew! We survived day two without any falls or disqualifications. We hope the wind wasn't too strong for you and that your papers weren't blown from your table as much as the divers were from the boards yesterday! :)

Until tomorrow!

Happy Friday and welcome back for a look at the last (but first) sketch for this week.

Here is what I wrote to present sketch #1: I find that I am using smaller photos on my layouts these days, which is great for several reason; I can stretch both my printer ink and photo papers and it´s also easier to fit more photos on one layout if they are not full sized 4x6. And I do love me a good grid ;)

Here is my take on the sketch. I chose to use a bit larger square photos to make a grid along the side of my layout and then pair it with that yummy striped paper on the left. My title is a digital stamp from Kellie stamps that I printed on my strip of patterned paper and then I added the journaling on my typewriter.

Marnie used smaller photos and this works great too!

Here is Amy´s layout. Do you see how she changed up her photo sizes? Looks great, right! I am always impressed with layouts with a lot of journaling, but never seem to handle them myself.

I really hope that you liked this week´s challenges and hoepfully you can make something this weekend! After all it is National Scrapbooking day this Saturday!

Lisa

Welcome back! How did you like the sketch and my take yesterday?! Today I´m back with my take on the second sketch.

Here is how I presented sketch #2: I realize these two are similar in design, but the way you can use the photo placements are endless; 4 photos, or two a little larger, one large square or many more in a collage.

And here is my take on the sketch. I used a small collage with photos from a recent spring walk. I could have just typed my journaling next to the photo mat, but I wanted a little something more so I used a journaling card from the Project Life Everyday kit that I had bought digitally a while ago and typed my journaling before printing the card out. And that bright green washi was the perfect spring shade.

Amy also made a layout using sketch #2. See how she used two larger photos instead of the four square ones on the sketch? It works so well and I love that she matted the photos with a square (no pun intended!). Oh and just look at those kitties and their boy!

Marnie made a layout too. She stayed true to the sketch, but wrote the journaling on the right side instead which is very pleasing to the eye.

Again if this inspires you to make something of your own, please share!

Lisa

Happy Friday! Amy here, with one more Big + Little layout.

Today's pairing is not so much "big" as "a lot": it's a solution for those times when you have a lot of journaling. A big journaling space requires you to limit your use of other layout elements (photos and embellishments). So, try using a little photo on a layout that has lots of journaling:

For this layout, I was restricted to a small photo because the camera I had with me on the day in question wasn't working properly, so the only pictures I had to work with were pretty awful. Grainy and blown out and more than a little bit soft. (I did, in fact, retire said camera after this day.) But I still wanted to scrapbook the memory. So I printed the photo in black and white, on textured cardstock so the grain could camouflage some of the flaws. And then I wrote quite a bit—even about the photos I wish I had been able to take.

When I do a pairing like this—big journaling space, small photo—I like to work the photo right into the middle of the text somehow. It helps the photo to feel more prominent and the combination to feel more cohesive. In this layout, I put the text into columns and then used a text box with the dimensions of my photo to create just the right spot for the pic.

How do you incorporate lots of journaling onto your layouts?

Happy scrapping!

Hello! Welcome back to WCS and another day of big + little pairings.

One of my favorite things to do on a layout is use a quote as my title. I would guess about 10% of my layouts use this approach. To me, a "quote" is anything that was written or said by someone else (usually famous in some capacity, although I have used a friend or family member's words as quotes, too) that is so striking in its use of language paired with idea that I get a little bit swoony. (Remember...I'm a word girl at heart.) I have a big collection of quotes and I'm always adding to it.

So last week, when my friend I've known since junior high shared a picture of me from one of our sleepovers in 1984 or 85, I had two thoughts:even though I look like a goofball, I must scrapbook this pictureright now andI know exactly what quote to use!

But I also kept in mind my recent goal of re-using good techniques. I looked at a few of my recent layouts with quotes and spotted something I hadn't really intentionally noticed myself doing: using a quote as a title, in big letters, paired with my own words as a sort of sub-title in smaller letters. Here's what I mean:

The quote, from Coco Chanel, is the title, of course. And my words—I loved those bead necklaces—is the smaller subtitle. I like the way the repetition of the font (it's called Alegance, if you're curious) helps draw the eye from the title, through the story, and then out of the page. Even though the subtitle is the little thing in the pairing, it helps give the layout a finished look.

I don't have a ton of photos of myself as a teenager in the 1980s (one of the great tragedies in my life!), but I have made a few layouts with the ones I do have. This is always a hard process for me because almost nothing in the aesthetics of 20-teens scrapbooking really matches the aesthetics of the 1980s. I find that I tend to use a lot of cardstock or almost-solid patterned paper for these layouts, because more obvious patterns feel like they just don't match somehow. (If any manufacturer ever made decade-inspired products, I'd probably buy some!) But I almost always use the font Perpetua for my journaling. It feels timely to me—a chunkier sort of serif.

So, I'm curious: Have you ever scrapbooked any photos that scream "I was taken in the 80s"? What supplies and approaches have you used?

Happy scrapping!

Guys. You should see my pile of layouts I need to put away. I think there are more than 300, literally. Actually, probably more, because it's been more than three years since I've put layouts into albums. (Needless to say, it's not my favorite task.)

So over the past few weeks, I've been sorting layouts to get them ready for albums. And honestly, it's been pretty awesome. There are layouts I totally forgot I made, and stories I've loved revisiting. And, as I've been sorting, I've been making lists. What works? What doesn't? What techniques or approaches should I use more often? This is helping me make new layouts much more quickly because I have a sort of bank to pull ideas from.

One of the things I've noticed that I like (but don't do very often) is the pairing of something big and something little. I like the contrast and the way that the big + little pairing almost makes the little thing that draws your eye first.

So this week, the WCS challenge is a pretty easy one: mix something big with something little. I'll share several examples over the week, and I hope you'll play along by linking here or joining the challenge on Instagram.

On this layout, my big thing is the 6x10 photo and my little thing is the 2x3 picture. I intentionally printed one big, one small, but I had no idea what story I'd write until I had the pictures in my hands, and they made me think about the boys in my life; the journaling grew from there.

Stay tuned for more big + little layouts. Happy scrapbooking!

It's April and we are celebrating all things funny this month. Our gallery this month is No Foolin' and it is sure to make you giggle. If you would like to see the layouts and read the journaling, please hop on over to our gallery! Enjoy!

Hello! Amy Sorensen here, and I have a confession:

I love books.

No really. I love, love books. I always have three or four different things I'm reading and 127 or so things I want to be reading. I talk about books, write about books, think about books. They are my favorite decoration in a room.

Plus, I'm a librarian.

So I'm contractually obligated to also scrapbook about books (and reading). Throughout my twenty years of scrapping, I've made quite a few book-related layouts, so I thought for today's post I'd share some tips and tricks for getting books and reading into your scrapbook albums.

1. Write about your kids' relationship with reading. Some kids love it, some kids hate it; it's easy for some and hard for others. If it's a struggle, don't be afraid to write about it. If it's a joy, celebrate it! I've found that how kids feel about reading changes as they get older. My oldest three kids loved reading until they hit junior high, and then they've taken a hiatus. I'm hoping they remember one day that they love books. My youngest son loves to have someone read to him, but he's not a big fan of reading on his own. I've documented all of these stories and experiences. In this layout, I wrote about my youngest finally finding some books he really loved and would read without complaining:

2. If you come across a book-themed supply that you love,buy it.Especially if it fits well with your design aesthetic. It's a theme that comes up sometimes, but not always. So grab it when you find it. I have two book-themed stamps and I've used them a bajillion different ways on reading layouts. But don't feel bound to use theme-based supplies. Book spines are easy to make!

3. Take pictures of your kids reading. Maybe that seems obvious, but it's such a common, everyday sort of activity it's easy to overlook. I've had to be stealthy about this sometimes, especially with my child who doesn't love reading. The easiest way to interrupt someone reading is to make a fuss with a camera. My favorite reading-related pics are the ones where the subject is immersed in his or her book.

4. Document board books. There is something special about the connection babies make with their board books. All of our favorites are drooled on and coming apart, but they were so important to my kids' childhood that I kept all but the most disheveled. What were your favorite board books to read to your babies and which ones filled you with despair at the very thought of having to read themone more time? (Goodnight MoonandPat the Bunny​, respectively, are mine.) Were any of the books gifts from someone special? What did your kids love and what did they learn from the stories?

5. Take book-related photos. I've taken pictures of our bedraggled copies of theHarry Potterseries, of a much-chewed board book copy ofThe Very Hungry Caterpillar​, and of a stack of my daughter's Nancy Drew books. I've also photographed my kids's book shelves and their library piles. And I always take a photo at Christmas with whatever books they received. (It's not Christmas without a new book, is it?)

6. If you don't have a photo but you have a notable book-related story, tell the story anyway. In this layout, I paired a photo of my son jumping on the trampoline (he's just finishing his finally-perfected full twist) with a funny reading-related story. The picture has absolutely nothing to do with the story, except that it comes from the same time period. I connected these with a quote from Roald Dahl, who is an integral part of the story. I also could have taken a picture of the books in question, or found an image with the authors' signatures. The point is, stories about books and reading are awesome, so document them even without pictures.

7. Write about your relationship with reading. What made you love (or hate) it? What books influenced you? Who are your favorite writers? What writers have you met in person? What are your favorite books, genres, or styles of writing? Where is your favorite place to read? (Mine, I confess, is the bath tub!)

8. Include reading details in your life-right-now style layouts. I like to make at least one layout every year that captures the everyday details of our lives, and I always make sure to include what the person I'm scrapping about is reading at the moment. In this layout, the journaling is a list of random stuff, but I added the details of what we were both reading on the tag with the date.

9. Document generational connections. My three oldest kids all loved the Wrinkle in Time quartet and the Chronicles of Narnia, books I also loved as a kid. I've found these connections happen quite often once your kids hit high school, especially if they're reading off of the AP list. Several times I've chosen to read whatever book one of my kids is reading in his or her English class, which makes it easier to help them with essays and gives you a thing to talk about. I've made layouts about all of those experiences. One of my favorites is the one about the Twilight series, which I read (and hated) because my daughter was reading it (she loved it); we had some really great discussions about romance, choice, and being influenced by others, so I had to document it. There are also connections the other way, from you to your parents or grandparents. I still need to make a layout about how my dad and I both loved The Lord of the Rings and East of Eden.

10. Document your local library. Most libraries are just fine with people taking pictures inside, but if you feel unsure, just ask a librarian! Take some photos near your favorite pieces of art, compose an artsy shot of light streaming across bookshelves, or pose everyone at the entrance to the building. How often do you go to the library? What do you love about your library and what do you wish were different? What's the biggest library fee you've ever had?

How have you included books and reading in your scrapbooks? Do share! And...dare I say, happy reading?

Amy Sorensen Reading Write Click Scrapbook

Source: https://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/amy-sorensen/

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