Wednesday 17 October 2012

What do I need to make a page?

Mr Blue wearing his special cap
Sian asked this question over at From High in the Sky and I tried to answer in a comment but failed so I decided to think about it and write my thoughts here.
I have been scrapbooking for so long I can't remember not doing it. When I had the riding school, way back in 1961 when I was 15, I took photographs of all the ponies and put them in an album with some notes about names and riders and what the event was and the date. Of course it wasn't called scrapbooking then. It was just a photograph album. It had black pages and I had a white pencil to write what we call journalling.
the journalling reads "Some mornings it's just not worth
 chewing through the leather straps!"
It was a very cheap album, from Woolworths I think and it received a lot of attention over the years so that eventually the covers fell to bits and then the pages started to detach from one another so I had to take all the pictures out and then make a new album. I haven't photographed the pages because it seems to have lost a little of its character in the transfer.
I like my pages simple. I am not a great one for embellishments and usually just matt and layer the pictures unless a sketch catches my attention. Then I will try to follow it, although my slavish adherence to the sketch sometimes makes the page seem flat and uninteresting.
The first page here was created because of the title. Mr Blue said exactly that so I took the picture and made the page because of it.
The next page was the Journalling. I saw that somewhere and remembered that I had the perfect picture of Mr M, taken when he had driven up to Northumberland and then he had a little nap. When he woke up he was still tired and needed a cup of tea. I asked how he felt and he pulled that face so I snapped it. The journalling fitted exactly and nothing else was needed.
The third one happened when I was downloading the pictures from the camera and these two were one after the other. We have a thing about "team" photographs. Whenever the family is asked to "Stand still and let me take your picture" they always say loudly "Team Photograph!" and fold their arms across their chests like footballers. It was Mr M who started it and it always makes everyone laugh so then I can get good pictures of them individually. This time we were driving home from somewhere and saw my son and his family walking along the road near where they live. We stopped to talk and I took the first picture, then I walked around the car to try and get my daughter-in-law in the picture and that's when my son said "Team Photograph" and explained what they had to do.
Reading back over this it seems that what I need for inspiration is a title; that the words come first and I can find a picture to fit. That would explain why sometimes I put together a page for a day out and I don't have a title for it.
I seem to prefer the 12 x 12 format for my pages. I tend to go for plain backgrounds for the most part, I like words on my pages most of the time. I sometimes have a lot of journalling, especially for holiday pages, but other times the title is enough. The words usually spring to my mind when I see the picture although sometimes I know I have a picture when I hear a phrase.
But what do I need to make a page? OK, paper, pen, glue, picture and inspiration -that's it!




4 comments:

Sian said...

I think the rest of your family is very lucky indeed to have a record keeper like yourself. Wow!

Thank you for giving this some thought and sharing what you came up with - it's good reading.

scrappyjacky said...

I just wish I had kept albums like yours from an early age.

Missus Wookie said...

Love the "team photograph' call - that made me laugh. Albums that are old and battered may lose a bit of character but are stlil precious for the memories.

Interesting seeing your process and hearing your thoughts.

alexa said...

Really interesting to read what you need for your pages ... Enjoyed your team photograph explanation!