Clubbing and Touring

Tonight is Crop Club. Mom & Kathy - my most faithful customers - are here. Summer is asleep (at least, she is trying to get sleepy!). Right now, she is laughing, but she'll settle down. I just finished professionally cutting three-inch daisies for Kathy. Now, I turn my attention to the next page in my Biltmore album.

This page continues with pix of the Winery tour, and I want to keep this one as simple as the last. I decide to mat the pictures using the old trick of bringing out subtle hues in them (image 1).


I select the mats from the Cottage Storybox. The battery in my camera is dead, so I have to recharge it before taking any more pictures, so I take this opportunity to do a little paging (my term for staging a scrapbook page).

In my stash, I know I have a small 3-D sticker of barrels that will go with this page and several large 2-D stickers of wine corks. I'm not planning much journaling for this page, and I'm planning to keep captions minimal. I find another epoxy sticker with a quotation on it that also might work well on this page.

Kathy ponders, "Why aren't there ever any icons on Father's Day stickers of the stuff that my dad does? There's just golf or fishing." I say, "Yea, they should have a TV. That's universal."

"Or computer," Kathy offers. I joke, "I doubt they'll ever have any firearm stickers!"

I consider background paper as well, but ultimately decide against it. It's tempting to want to use printed background paper with every page, but often the print will visually usurp the photos, which should bve the focal point of the page.

Mom needs help cutting paper. She's cutting a mat for Ethan's sonogram. I show her my pencil technique, then suggest using a photo sleeve or sticker sleeve to hold the sonogram. Sonograms are printed on facsimile paper and will deteriorate quickly if left to the air, particularly where it's humid. So, it is advisable to protect them within a scrapbook using a method called encapsulation. Another option is scanning but sonograms are very grainy and scanning could further obscure the image.

Looking through my pink project tote, I find a leftover strip of background paper I already used that combines all the colors of my photo mats for this page. I add that to the layout (image 2).

The epoxy sticker I've chosen will leave a large amount of white space if I apply it solely. So, I decide to give it a little help by cutting a semi-circle with one of the circle patterns and custom cutting blades and mat. I choose the same purple as the photo mat. I add the circle to my layout. (image 3).

Mom makes a mistake in her journaling. She writes "all pictures taken in Odenton" but one wasn't. One was taken @ St. Agnes Hospital. I suggest that she write in parenthesis (except 6 mos).

About this time, my camera battery has recharged, so I take all the photos up to this point. Then, I number and title each picture (1 - Fermentation; 2 - Barreling; 3 - Corking), adhere all items to the page, including the small 3-D sticker of barrels. Next, I add the cork stickers.

Mom wants some Ebony ABC/123 stickers. I go upstairs and get her a set.

The last element is journaling. I'm having a good handwriting day, which I'm glad about. I can't decide on just one ink color, so I use a combo of three to correspond to the photo mats. I choose purple and periwinkle fine-tip pens and petina precious elements pen. I normally just dive right into writing, but because I'm writing directly onto the page aand because I want to use each of the three ink colors as equally as possible, I scribble a draft separately first (image 4).

After writing, I decide to carefully lift and move the barreling pic and mat to the right to make everything a little more symmetrical (image 5).

That completes this page! I wipe photos down with the polishing cloth, slide on page protector!

Favorite Page and Favorite Tool

[August 19, cont.]

I already have the basic layout for the next page. The colors in the elements make it easy for me to come up with embellishments, which will be two epoxy stickers (image 1).

I speculate that I'll professionally cut some fall leaves to go with the theme of the page - probably brown, yellow and a few red or orange for a punch of other color. I also want to put "then" and "now" beside each of the images of the dairy barn and the present-day winery.

But it is time to quit for the night. I have to be able to keep my eyes open!

[August 20]

Summer is napping. I just put the folded clothes away, and now I'm ready to get back to scrapbooking.

I cut the leaves as planned, deciding that orange is too bright for this muted color scheme, nearly monochromatic. I choose yellow and brown instead, mat the postcard on brown (from the Colonial paper pack) to "lift" it off the page a bit. I write the description from the back of it onto a yellow journaling box from Cottage Storybox using purple fine-tip pen to go with the text in the cutout from the brochure (a surplus from previous page). (image 2)

Now, I'm ready to adhere everything. First, I need to turn my cutout into a sticker using my sticker maker. I make faint tick marks on the page where the sticker will go to ensure the layout isn't skewed. A pencil is my cannot-live-without tool. I use it for aligning things, making the right size cutouts, drawing outlines, etc. It's indespensible! I use a No. 2 pencil, but I'd highly recommend a photo labeling pencil, as it will not harm your photos if the pencil were to come in contact with them.

My sticker is ready so I carefully paste it to my page. Next, I apply the postcard using tape runner, then the journaling box. I use the mini tape runner to adhere the leaves. Doing this page is making me eager for the crisp autumn air to arrive and for those slightly chilly mornings perfect for leisurely sipping coffee.

After applying the leaves, I adhere the two epoxy stickers, which give the page a little dimension. Now, I'm ready to add the ABC/123 stickers in wine, using Titletopia. I pull out my trusty multi-purpose tool and clips. Clips hold the Titletopia aligner and backing sheet together while the multi-purpose tool helps me place the ABC/123 stickers onto the backing sheet (image 3).

I'm using all caps for the "then" and "now" because subconsciously I think caps contributes to the bold, curt statements. I transfer the THEN stickers to my page and immediately repeat the steps for NOW. With the transfer of those letters complete, I've made quick work of this simple, yet favorite page (image 4).