Digital Supplies: Project 2011 Template No. 5 (First DoublePage Layout), which is free for AnnaNews subscribers; MultiFoto DoublePage Layered Template No. 12 (Second DoublePage Layout, releasing to the store tomorrow); ArtPlay Palettes Sunshine Bouquet (papers), Bloomig Marvelous (elements) and Strawberry Preserves (red button); Clouds No. 1 BrushSet; DragonDudes No. 1 BrushSet.
..........................................................................................................................................................
The Techniques | There are a total of 3 techniques covered in this week's little adventure:
1. Check In | We're just over half way through the project and so it's time to check in with the goals you set yourself in your Six Word Story. Are you capturing everything that you set out to document in your Project 2011? Do you need to modify or adjust your expectations in any way? Ask yourself these questions and then act on what, if anything, you discover.
2. Repetition | This technique is an extension of the use of the lists idea that we explored a few weeks ago, and is a technique that I credit to Ali Edwards. I am constantly learning, trying on new ideas for size, and incorporating practices gleaned from fellow scrapbookers into my own process, all in an effort to improve on what I am already doing. It's a matter of working to find the best scrapbooking fit. I really like Ali's repetition technique, which involves introducing each list item in the same manner. For example, Loved … is repeated each time I want to introduce a new idea in my body of journaling. I simply start each sentence with this word until I have added all the points I want to cover in my story. The repetition deepens the impression and serves to add emphasis to each point. It's also a super-easy means of getting all the details down on a layout in a simplistic manner, and can be applied to either list or paragraph journaling formats.
3. MultiPages | You are probably very familiar with single pages, you might be doing DoublePages, but have you ever considered triple, quadruple or multi pages? MultiPages are what I call a collection of 3 or more pages that relate the same story or event. When you are creating pages, you basically have 2 choices: You can make the story fit your canvas or your can modify the size of the canvas to accommodate your story. I think the former is definitely more the norm in our current scrapbooking climate.
..........................................................................................................................................................
The Layout | This MultiPage spread consisting of 2 Double Page spreads, in other words, 4 single pages. They tell the tale of our visit to the Renaissance Festival earlier this month. This is probably the most memorable adventure of our Summer so far, and provided me the opportunity to capture so many of the human connections I had hoped for at the outset of the project. Revisiting my Six Word Story was a great way to re-establish those goals in my mind and my Six Word Story served as a great starting point for the journaling in this sequence of pages.
The repetition of the Six Word Stories is also mirrored in my approach to the journaling. In using Ali's repetitive journaling technique, I was easily able to capture all the aspects of our day while providing emphasis to how I feel about each one of them.
With regard to the MultiPage layout, I could have chosen 15 photos to create a DoublePage spread, but even after eliminating photos from the event I still had 31, and decided I didn't want to part with any of them. In this case, I felt I needed to all 31 photos to tell the story in a way I wanted to tell it. I could have squeezed them all onto the same page but this would have inhibited my ability to add the details in a legible fashion, thus a MultiPage layout came into play. It's not a technique I employ very often, but I never shy away from the option, especially if I feel it will enhance the finished layout.
Here are few of my other MultiPage layouts:
And...
The journaling in my Rennaissance Festival layout reads:
I wanted this Summer to be about bonding as a family. With Eric deployed last year I felt that we needed to reconnect, and we have. This was a great day for our family. Time spent together, sharing, having fun, doing what families do. I think we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life that sometimes we forget to nurture the relationships we have with each other. Loved the exchanges we had with each other and loved watching the physical nature of these interactions. Loved walking hand-in-hand to the Renaissance Festival entrance swinging their arms with enthusiasm. Loved watching Ella and Luke actually getting along, play fighting with a plastic dagger that Luke had asked his Dad to win for him (He so desperately wanted that dagger which took 2 attempts to win). Loved watching them learn to play a flute, and to throw darts. Loved the sharing of a monster Italian Ice. Loved seeing Luke sitting on his Dads' shoulders while watching the belly dancing. Loved watching Eric laugh at and applaud the two stage actors from "Puke and Snot", the innuendo of which went completely over Ella and Luke's head. Loved that he gave up his shirt as a shelter to them during a brief rainstorm. Loved that Luke ate so much meat. It amazing how attractive it becomes to a 6 year old when it's served on a stick. Loved watching them pretend to be William from the movie, A Nights Tale, and joust from a wooden horse. Loved observing Eric being the best Dad ever. Loved Luke's moves with his new dragon sword and shield attire. Loved the way Luke closes his left eye as he bites into a giant turkey leg - Arrrrgh! Loved that I got to nap in Eric's lap while they all watched the jousting. Loved just being the 4 of us. July 9th, 2011
..........................................................................................................................................................
The Process | You have the choice of creating a DoublePage layout using the free template, or you can have a bash at creating a MultiPage layout using the optional MultiFoto Layered Template which will be available in the store tomorrow.
Consider the following process for putting this weeks pages together:
- Revisit with the first/title page you created and check in with your Six Word Story. Evaluate whether your journaling is thus far consistent with what you set out to achieve. Are you on track to reaching your goal with Project 2011? You may also wish to look through and re-read the journaling on all the pages you have created so far in the Project. Just going through the motions of this process can help refresh your intentions.
- Add your photos, papers and embellishements to the template as you have done in previous weeks.
- Select a means of beginning each sentence, that can be repeated for each fact that you would like to introduce. In the case of my layout, I introduced each sentence with the word, Loved....
- Keep in mind the 3-part story formula: Introduce your story, deliver the facts of the story to back up your introduction using Ali's repetition technique, and then close your journaling with the biggest and most important fact of them all, the one that sums up them all. For example, Loved just being the 4 of Us.
............................................................................................................................................................
Please post your links for you completed pages in the comments section of this post.
