#62 Inspired by Home

When I set out to accomplish this week's prompt I knew I would tell stories I needed to tell. I knew which products I wanted to use from my stash of Ready Set Go stuff. What I didn't anticipate was that I would be making one of my favorite spreads of all time.

I am not sure why I am in love with this page above any other of recent times. The pictures are fun, the products are great... but mostly it is the story that I think makes me love this page. But enough babbling, let's get to it.

The first page of the spread used a sketch from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership - the November collection. It was initially a 8.5x11 which I easily converted. And boy, am I glad I did. The wood paper really sets a tone for these pictures. They were taken over the span of 10 years and document the transformation of the home. The title doesn't make much sense and the page seems a little bare...

 
That is why I added a 6x6 page. I was able to add a picture of Steve, the mastermind behind the transformation - and a pocket for hidden journaling. I traced the heart from the die cut and placed it on the opposite page. I love the symbolism this creates. The heart of that house was Steve. 

 

But I had SO MANY photos of the years fixing up the house that I wanted to add many more photos. So I added a divided page protector with 6 more photos to complete my spread. I even found a photo of Gaby and I working on the house back in 2002/03! I tried to place the before and after shots side by side for comparison. 

 
I then added the patterned paper with the birds because this country home ALWAYS had colorful birds around. It is one of my most vivid memories of the house. I added the rest of my title to the front of the 6x6 -  and I like the message it has on it's own. I also added the address since it was something I wanted to document. And I used the stamps from Ready, Set, Go to tie this page with the opposite side. 

 
to finish it all off, I added all three layouts into page protectors, lined everything up like I wanted and stapled on the seams of all three pages to create a cohesive page. Pretty cool, huh?

But wait, that's not all.

I had one more [or seven to be honest] stories left in me.  I chose to document my current "home away from home" in this colorful and fun one page layout. believe it or not, I used as many pictures as in the previous layout but I didn't mind shrinking them into there 4x4 collages. It was more about the feelings these photos elicit versus the details of the home. 

 

I had a blast [well, except for all the times the first layout made me cry] making these pages and adding these meaningful stories to my albums. Thanks so much Lisa.

I have already seen knock-out beauties in the gallery and I hope you will contribute your story too. I love seeing your work based on these prompts.

I will be back tomorrow morning with our new assignment.

xo,
Pamage

#58 Inspired by the Roaring Twenties

I thought this was such a cool prompt I really wanted to do it justice. I wanted to find an aspect of this era that spoke to me. I searched art deco on google and pinterest. The results were heavy with fonts and photos of buildings in NYC. 

For a little bit I considered making a page about Rockerfeller Center and the Empire State Building. I even had the title. But today, I decided to focus my attention to the other aspect of this prompt - the roaring twenties and the great Gatsby.

And thus my layout was born.



Even as I typed the words "roaring twenties" I knew I would have to make a page about this decade of my life which is coming to an end.  

 
I searched easily on my memory drive for photos of me every year since 2003 and cropped them all to the same size and added the same action to them.

Tip: when scrapping multiple photos from different times, add the same action or filter to all the photos for a more cohesive effect. I did this easily by adding all my photos to the same document in PSE and then applying the effect to the document.

 
My internet search also turned up many great fonts reminiscent of that era. This one is called Andes and can be downloaded for free {:http://www.dafont.com/andes.font}. I also thought it'd be a nice touch to add a Fitzgerald quote, so I searched brainyquotes.com and found a fitting one. 

 
I felt with all the busyness of the page I needed to add elements that made it feel like me, so although I asked an art deco background paper, the embellishments were pretty current and in my style. 

How did you do this week?

Would love to see your creations uploaded and tagged WM#58.

I'll be back Monday with a new prompt.

xo,
Pamage

Challenge 58 week of 24th September 2012

Today is F Scott Fitzgerald's birthday. He was born on September 24th 1896 and in his short life wrote just 4 novels (along with many short stories), now considered to be the great American novels of the 1920s.

I adore "The Great Gatsby", the film of which I saw as an impressionable teenager and promptly fell in love with Robert Redford. It's a long time since I last read the book and am now tempted to run out and get a copy to dive right in.

I could have decided to make this week's prompt about your favourite book but instead, I'd like you to be inspired by the glorious age of the Flapper, the Charleston or Art Deco.

Be inspired by the Roaring Twenties!

We'd love to see your creations over in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery {here} with the tag #WM58.

Have a great week everyone!