Hi everyone! I’m Rachel Kaufman, owner of the kit club, inspirational source and online community, Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. Each month our kits are based on an emotion. We just celebrated our second anniversary this July, and we’ve covered some amazing topics – everything from freedom and gratitude to loss and safety. Our kits help you explore every side of yourself - your inner struggles and triumphs, your relationships, and your goals and dreams. Not only does each kit use color, design and symbolism to help you tell a deeper story, but our industry-exclusive FREE Inspiration Page each month provides you with a multimedia support system - including meaningful journaling prompts, a music playlist, quotations, stock photography and evocative challenges to make your tender heart and creative mind and hands flow.

I’m honored to have been asked by my friends at Ella to share what’s so special about what we do, and to show you some of the unique creative process of Inside Out-style scrapbooking. I’ve created a layout using July’s theme and kit, COURAGE. Check this out, and you might win your own COURAGE kit!



Materials: Patterned Paper, Die Cuts: Glitz; Chipboard, GCD Studios; Ribbon, Websters Pages; Alphas: American Crafts; Bling: Mark Richards; Paint: Making Memories; Ink: Tsukineko; Paper Glaze: Duncan; Pen: Sakura; Photo Credit: Tanya Sorkin Photography

The most important thing to me when I’m creating a layout is what I like to call ‘Visual Journaling’ – expressing the idea, the emotion behind the subject of the layout with visual ideas that reinforce the written journaling. It tells a much richer story than just good journaling or just a pretty page.

My subject for this layout was a big change in my life in the past few weeks that requires new courage on my part...I left my long-time career in fundraising and strategic planning and am now a full-time entrepreneur. It's exciting and anxiety-producing all at once. Have you ever experienced a change that was exactly what you wished for and then came face to face with new realities and challenges? I'm happy and nervous about what lies ahead and wanted to capture this feeling of new found courage...

Come join me on my quest to imbue my layout with more depth!

Color:

To reflect this month’s emotion, COURAGE, we specifically chose colors and patterns for the kit that are strong and resolute. The combination of deep red and clear blue connote power - like superman's cape and tights, or a waving (American) flag. For the base of my layout, I chose a patterned paper from Glitz with a bingo game theme to suggest a question: is what happens to us in life pure chance or beautiful synchronicity?


Photos:

While I'm often a single-photo scrapper, I used multiple photos on this layout, representative of the many parts of my life that come into play as I 'roll the dice'. It also reminds me that it's OK to have a variety of emotions at a time of transition.


Design:
The patterned paper I chose has a built in grid on it, so I took advantage of that symbolism in placing my photos. Three of them are lined up cleanly on the gird, and the largest is tilted - this represents the juxtaposition of the order of the stability of the past vs the 'off-balance' feeling of something totally new.

I used the chipboard star embellishments in a few symbolic ways. They serve as 'bingo markers', as I'm making choices in the game of life. The embellishment groups are also arranged like shooting stars with a bling trail, hoping for a bright future. The photos are nestled in among the stars, as I hope my destiny will be.



If you look closely, you'll see that I incorporated a tone-on-tone subtitle. I used cherry red American Crafts rub-ons to blend alliterative words - luck, love, life - into the red distressed paper strips. It adds some subtle interest to a visually flat area, highlights the photos, and sweetly and poignantly records what's at stake...




Technique:

I wanted to give the stars something more. I used one of my favorite painting techniques, learned from decorative wall painting...I used a plastic hair comb to distress the paint and create a wave-like movement instead of a flat coat of white. I then coated the stars with clear glaze to make the ridges in the paint pop. From a visual and symbolic perspective, the waves give the stars forward motion - a reference to life's trajectory.





Journaling:

I'm a big fan of hidden journaling. Why? My layouts are all about truth, and sometimes the truth is hard to share in an in-your-face way. Hidden journaling lets me feel free to express what's really going on and also symbolically show that some of my thinking is private. I trimmed out a section of the bingo grid so hat the journaling spot almost disappears. See the lace ribbon? That's the pull. But I always share my journaling with our members in a secondary photo, as does our whole design team - we want to encourage everyone to say what's really in their hearts...that's what the Inside Out approach is all about.



Scrapbooking from the Inside Out’s emotion-focused kits provide all-in-one value, unparalleled variety, exclusive inspiration and a heart-centered community to help you explore your inner world and motivate you to express yourself on the page with depth and meaning. No add-ons needed, just one big perfect kit with exactly what you'll need to Explore Your Inner World. Each kit is a unique, stylish creation that takes you to new places in your heart and your crafting.

Giveaway:
Would you like to win your own COURAGE kit? This kit’s retail value is $46.95 and it can be yours!



Leave a comment here and tell me what courage means to you, and you’ll be entered to win this beautiful kit.

Giveaway closes, Friday noon MST August 6.

And do come join us online…we're debuting our August kit, DISCOVERY. We would love to welcome you and join you on your journey to explore YOUR inner world.