Scrapbooking Yourself in 2012

What are your scrapbooking-related New Year’s resolutions? This year I want to commit to putting more of myself down on my pages and telling stories on my layouts that really capture more of my personality. Won’t you join me in doing the same?

To give you a bit of a kick start, I’ve come up with a few scrapbooking layout ideas that will inspire you to share yourself more on your pages in 2012—as well as some bonus time-saving tips which will make sure you don’t feel like you are “falling behind” with your other layouts.

1. Scrapbook the small things

It’s often very tempting to scrapbook the big events or milestones in life, but what about the small, everyday moments? They are just as important as the big ones, since they tell a lot about your day-to-day life and what you are like as a person. I know that the pages I make about the everyday are ones I will love to look back at in years to come.

	Supplies patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye, October Afternoon, Crate Paper, Echo Park, Pebbles Inc, Pink Paislee) • cardstock (American Crafts) • buttons (Crate Paper)• chipboard letters (American Crafts) • word stickers (October Afternoon) • tissue trim (Studio Calico) • cloud punch (Fiskars) • heart punch (EK Success) • font (Courier New) • twine
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*Bonus tip: Use a sketch
Sketches are a great way to save time when it comes to making a layout, since the thinking is already done for you. My layout was created using a weekly sketch from the Studio Calico blog, based on a layout by April Foster. Also check out the Ella Publishing Co. eBook, Stretch Your Sketches by Donna Jannuzzi for more great ideas.

2. Make a layout without photos

I don’t just scrapbook as a way to display my photos, but more as a way of documenting my life and telling my story. How about you? When you want to record your thoughts and feelings about something that you don’t have a photo to go with, make a page anyway! Use tags, journaling cards, or other design elements to dress up your words and make your ideas shine.

	Supplies patterned paper (October Afternoon, Crate Paper, My Mind’s Eye, Pink Paislee) • cardstock (American Crafts, Tim Holtz) • chipboard letters (American Crafts) • tags/twine (Ormolu) • stamp (Studio Calico/Hero Arts) • border stickers (American Crafts) (all from Brooklyn Flea kit by Studio Calico) • border punch (EK Success) • fonts (Courier New, Pacifico)
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*Bonus tip: Use a kit
Sometimes it can take ages to pick items from your stash that will work together on a page, meaning that you’re wasting time that should be spent actually making the layout! What I love about using kits is that all the mixing and matching has already been done for you. My first two layouts were made using the same kit, Brooklyn Flea, from Studio Calico.

3. Scrap a self-portrait

If you’re usually the one behind the camera (as I am), you may not have a lot of photos of yourself to scrapbook. If you look through my scrapbooks, I am definitely noticeably absent from many pages. If that situation sounds familiar to you, I challenge you to join me this year by taking some self-portraits at various points throughout the year and making layouts with them, like this one I made about my thoughts on the coming year.

	Supplies patterned paper (Studio Calico) • cardstock (American Crafts) • chipboard letters (American Crafts) • journaling spots (Studio Calico) • word stickers (October Afternoon) • die-cut tags (Studio Calico) • sequined gem (Prima) • star punch (Fiskars) • font (Courier New) • buttons
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*Bonus tip: Be inspired by good design you see online
There is so much to be inspired by online, and you can find some quick scrapbooking layout ideas in all sorts of places. One of my favorite places to go for scrapbooking ideas is Pinterest. I found an image of the cover of Uppercase magazine on there and used it as the basis for my layout.

4. Start an ongoing project

The online scrapbooking world seems to be buzzing with lots of talk about a photo-a-day challenge called Project Life. I’ve decided to commit to giving this a go throughout 2012 and I couldn’t be more excited about it! I love the fact that at the end of the year I will have a whole album that documents little snippets of my life every week of the year, and that it will also allow me to scrapbook in a totally different way than my normal layouts.

	Project Life Stephanie's Project Life album cover.
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Supplies album (American Crafts) • foam letter stickers (American Crafts) • page protector (American Crafts) • patterned paper (American Crafts) • cardstock (American Crafts) • chipboard numbers (American Crafts) • washi tape (American Crafts) • journaling card (Elle’s Studio) camera embellishment (American Crafts) • Flair! (American Crafts) • bird die-cuts (K&Company) • word strips (K&Company) • word sticker (American Crafts) • heart punch (EK Success) • fonts (Pacifico, Courier New) • glitter tag • doily

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*Bonus tip: Don't take on too much
If a photo every day sounds unmanageable or intimidating, join the Take Twelve photography and scrapbooking challenge instead, which encourages you to take twelve photos on the 12th of each month and create 12 scrapbook pages throughout the year.

5. Be inspired by others

One thing I love about scrapbooking is the community surrounding it and the willingness to share ideas and pages with each other. Scrapbooking forums, galleries, and blogs can be great places to find quick scrapbooking layout ideas. I was inspired by many elements from Stephanie Howell’s Project Life title page when working on mine.

	Scrapbook Layout Stephanie Howell's Project Life title scrapbook page
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And the star embellishment in the top left corner of my page was prompted from another creative source, this time from the front cover of Ann-Marie Morris’ December Daily album:

	Album Cover Ann-Marie Morris' December Daily scrapbook album cover
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Scrapbooking about yourself doesn’t have to be hard. Make it easy and fun by focusing on the little things, skipping the photos, taking more self-portraits, joining an ongoing project, and finding inspiration from others. There’s no better time than the present to start getting yourself in the picture.

Stephanie Baxter, author of Ella eBook Scrapbooking Your Single Years, is a twenty-something teacher living in Epsom, near London, England. She currently designs layouts and other projects for Pebbles Inc. and Elle’s Studio and has been published in Creating Keepsakes and Scrapbook Trends magazines. You can find more of her work at stephaniebaxter.blogspot.com.

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