by Ethan Johnson
December 16, 2007

Getting back on the inspiration horse:

10 Things I Love @ 33: Clean-cut yet interesting layout. Great way to take something of a "snapshot" of your interests at a given time for later reflection.

I'm Full of Scrap: Great idea! Door hanger that was made "just because", however it could be modified to something like "do not disturb" or "genius at work" or whatever to let others know that you'd like some alone time while you make art. Impractical for small households, but still a clever idea.

Favorites @ 3: Similar to the first layout, but modified to reflect the youthful exuberance of a 3 year-old.

I Love You: Lots going on visually, but it's really a simple layout that captures more of that youthful exuberance. Nifty two-fer theme-wise.

Go - Ready for Anything: The cake-taker in the "youthful exuberance" category. Simple and to the point, but the photos do the talking.

Meg's Snack: I'm a fool for the clean layout, but also the great photos. This is a "nothing" layout, really, but one that defines why scrapbook art is so alluring. These are the moments we often miss, or take for granted. Free advice: Keep the camera handy anyway.

At the Zoo: Fantastic use of negative space. This is a tough concept to master in any art form, really, but this is a fantastic example of how less can indeed be more. And I really wish I had the presence of mind to put the "scrap" in scrapbooking like this person did.

Super Star Eve: Despite all of the supporting embellishments and whatnot, the star attraction is the lone photo.

Kohi Means Coffee: Speaking of lone photos, this is fantastic on many levels. The coffee cup, the phrase book, the look of concentration - brilliant. Bonus points for apparently hand-lettering the title rather than resort to computer fonts, chipboard, or rub-ons. This is another tough decision to make while being tempted with the supply stash.

Reflection: THE cake-taker in the "lone yet effective photo" category. WOW. Love the whole thing.

Mission Impossible: Here's an under-rated approach: Celebrating the failures. It's easy to get hung up on the perfect layout, the perfect photo, the perfect moment, but sometimes things don't go as planned, which is a topic unto itself. This actually inspired me to finish a current work in progress that I'm not happy with.

Like Clock Work: Very clever "gear" elements to support the theme. I can relate to this layout despite not being a parent to human children. But dogs keep one busy too, ya know!

6 AM, -15 Degrees: This may seem like an odd choice, but I wanted to comment about this layout as something of a teaching moment: Looking through the layouts I pick for this occasional feature, one might assume that scrapbooking is always "high art" and always looks a certain way. Not so. In fact, one might consider this to be a "bad" layout, aesthetically speaking. BUT, the key lesson here is that anyone can do this, and what matters is that you're capturing memories for later reference. Yes, the layout could be much artsier but to me it's more important that someone took the time to preserve this. Makes the early start and frigid temperatures more worthwhile for the mountain climber, I'm thinking. And remember, everyone starts somewhere. Don't let the artsy-fartsies scare you away from trying out scrapbooking for yourself.

Gotta get cracking on my WIP pile! <EM>

(The scrapbooking index may be found here.)