Rockin' and Rollin'

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned paper: Luxe, Mustard Moon and Scenic Route
Letter stickers: Arctic Frog and Creative Imagination
Punch: McGill Photo corners: Pioneer Photo Albums
Font: Futura, Linotype

Yippee...another envelope of old pictures down on a layout. I promise not to make you look at every page I make but there were a couple of things about this one I thought worthy of sharing.

I was happy to have an enlargement to work with on this layout...those are rather rare in this collection of photos and that allowed me an opportunity to play. Several weeks ago I saw Jennifer McGuire demonstrate a way to create a cool pattern using strips of patterned paper that I was itching to try. She called it a chevron pattern but I always thought if it had the break in the "V" it was a herringbone. No matter what you label it, it's a popular pattern in scrapbooking right now. Basically you cut a series of strips, glue them on two squares of cardstock at a 45 degree angle with one square slanting left and the other slanting right, cut those squares into strips and then alternate the strips to form the pattern. It sounds a little complicated but it really isn't. You can see Jennifer's video demonstration here.

There are two important things Jennifer doesn't tell you: (1) Strips of the same patterned paper need to be exactly the same size. If they're a little bigger or a little smaller, it throws the pattern off when you try to match them up to create the zigzag design. (2) You might want to avoid a striped pattern and you definitely don't want to use one with lines that run at a 45 degree angle. In the latter case, those lines run horizontal and vertical after you go through all the cutting and gluing so they'll never match up.

This is the voice of experience speaking here...that's why you see that pile of little pieces of paper there on the left. The green angled stripe clearly didn't work and had to be deleted and I had to replace some of the regular striped pieces too. Live and learn.

And see that white tool there on the right...next to the brayer? It's a cheap little scrapper intended for scrubbing pots and pans. It's the ideal little tool to get under the edge of a piece of paper that needs to be removed after it's been glued down.

Back to the subject at hand...I had to laugh when I saw the pile of little papers I'd accumulated cleaning up my herringbone design; I'm not usually that messy. The herringbone turned out kind of cool and I'd definitely do it again. And when is the last time you can say you used products from Luxe, Mustard Moon and Arctic Frog? Sadly, those companies have been out of business for years but some of their designs were timeless.

Daddy was a welder at one of the local refineries for most of his working life and I'm pretty sure he belonged to the oil workers' union all that time. He held numerous positions in it and went as a delegate to some national conventions. When he retired, they sent him a nice letter thanking him for his service and giving him a lifetime membership in the local chapter. He obviously was proud of that to have kept it all those years, and I wanted to incorporate it in the design without adhering the actual letter to the page. The easy answer was to scan it and include a reduced copy with the pictures and then tuck the original letter into a pocket.

I took a regular business-sized envelope, sealed the flap and then cut off one end to hold the letter, making it easier to get it in and out of the pocket which is really just a section of the background patterned paper that isn't glued to the cardstock base. By sliding a circle punch partway into the envelope I could cut a half-circle opening in the front to make it easier to retrieve the letter from the envelope. And a tab on the back lets readers know it's there and gives them something sturdy to use to pull it out of the pocket. It's an easy way to deal with memorabilia or even extensive journaling you might not want just everyone to read.

Two layouts in one week...it's been a while since I've managed that. I'm rocking right along.

Comments

[Linda]

Thanks for sharing the technique. I watched Jennifer's video and I think this would be fun to try. I am in the scrapbook mood and have put together several pages from last year.I need to do a page from KU basketball....this would be cute with red/white/blue.

I love to see your pages. They are timeless!