Custom Engagement Scrapbook- Getting Hitched in New York City

Hello there!

I can now reveal the pages I made for a client's engagement scrapbook last November.

I wanted to give plenty of time for Dan to pop the question to his girlfriend, Jess.

You are going to LOVE this story!

Dan had saved bits and bobs from dates and trips abroad with Jess for over 9 years.

Now he wanted to pop the question by putting them in a custom scrapbook of their lives together.

Opening page- I used some Crate Paper Valentine's paper I had for a while.
I tried to keep things simple as possible since I knew many
eyes with different points of view would be looking at this book.

Dan met Jess on a band camp (BAND CAMP!!!!) trip in 2003 when they were both in High School.

They then attended George Washington University together (where they had great spots to see President Obama's first inauguration), and moved to New York City upon graduation.

Jess is a great photographer so Dan and I had plenty of material to choose from.
We decided 2 page spreads built around specific themes would be the best way to incorporate
everything. For this high school themed layout, I used the pops of red and blue in the photos
 to guide my journaling sticker choices and picked a dark color to match the next page.

High School Prom was very important to Dan. He saved the tickets all these years.
I built a page around the ticket colors and used silver alphabet stickers to give the page some pop.
Fussy cut roses from defunct manufacturer Paper Truck made their way into the page.
 I loved the look so much I made myself a page using the left over flowers.

 When I think of college my brain immediately goes to blue jeans and notebooks
so I used those prints as the main elements for this part of the spread. The blue
jeans paper is Bo Bunny and the notebook paper from a Me and My Big Ideas print.

This page went over HUGE with Dan. I was so excited because I really loved it too.
Prints from My Mind's Eye and Studio Calico were used to make the rays.
The stars were made with EK Success squeeze punches.
 Basic Grey chipboard alphas finished the page.

The book also had to have several pages detailing their favorite activities together and a special spread for their families who would naturally want to share the book.

The 2 page family spread turned into my favorite. I love the bright pops of red and you can't fail with tile letter stickers and grid patterns.

I really hadn't used my collection of stickers before this project.
Now that I had a specific audience I suddenly understood how to use them properly.
So there's a tip: if you're out of ideas, choose someone specific to design for  and make the page
in a way you think would please them. You'll be surprised how much you'll love the page.

I stuck to high quality materials for this project- Crate Paper pagers, letter stickers from American
Crafts, Elle Studio and Ormolu mini journaling cards, October Afternoon journaling stickers and
embellishments from Studio Calico. I also reinforced everything with Zip Dry glue since
I've had letter stickers fall right off the page just as I hand over a page more than once.
When in doubt- double the amount of glue in a project.

I had so much material to sort through I was actually worried I wouldn't be able to fit it all into 10 pages so the project expanded to 15, then, 17, pages. 

Next up are the rest of the themes Dan wanted covered: travel, city life, friends, sports and one page I love above all....

Dan saved 9 years of movie and broadway show tickets which we decided to make into a background for a page containing a tiny photo of the couple.

I've seen scrapbook paper with ticket themes before but never one made with actual tickets.

I matched pages in most of the 2 pages spreads but I associate travel with freedom and fun so
I just used a tiny amount of the green stripe paper on the orange page and brought orange to the green page with some My Mind's Eye enamel dots. 

These two have been EVERYWHERE! That map washi tape is AWESOME!
It brings to very different pages together perfectly. I wanted this book to look like
it had been put together over time so I didn't pick one collection or color scheme for it.
I love the look of matching books but I think they can look rather static and dated if they have
too many pages. Then again, sticking to a color palette and single pack of paper is more
economical- something to think about if you are putting a book together for someone. 

This city life page also worried me since the photos where from all over the place.
When I realized many of the photos had water in them a title popped right up and
the rest was easy. Journaling spots from Ormolu did most of the design work here.

Jess has a HUGE collection of Instagram photos- it was hard to pick just 6 for this layout but
I wanted to give the page some breathing room.  This was actually the first page I made and it still looks unfinished to me.

I showed Dan a stack of papers and his eyes crossed- too many choices! But he thought Jess
would really love this rainbow chevron print from Pebbles. I cut out a frame for the outside layer,
flipped to the b-side and layered navy flower print in between to get this super simple and fun page.

Personalized Baseball cards!!! HOW COOL! I love this page! Light blue
looks AMAZING with bright red and yellow. An arrow badge from A Flair For
Buttons on Etsy and actual baseball tickets finish this page.

Dan had football tickets, photos of baseball games and specifically mentioned the Dodgeball team
he joined with Jess. I was stumped! Do I make three additional pages? I decided to put
them all in one page and leave plenty of white space for  journal specifics like names,
dates and memories from each event.  

Awesome right? My husband and I are now saving all our tickets so I can do this
for my own book!

 I think I scared Dan a bit by tearing up and repeatedly expressing my enthusiasm and gratitude for being asked to be part of this project.

Designing for someone else can be risky- especially since design work can be so style specific- but I quickly got over any reservations by keeping things simple and choosing prints and colors almost everyone loves.

I recently got an email from Dan, Jen said yes (YAAAYYY!!) and was thrilled with the book.
I was so happy to hear they (and their extended family) liked the book.

They had so many cute couple shots! I saved them all up for this page and imagined Dan popping the question.
Jess you are one lucky lady to have such a thoughtful and romantic fella!
 Congratulations to the both of you!!!

Thank you SO MUCH Dan (and you too Jess!) for trusting me with your memorabilia and telling me your personal love story- that alone was worth the meeting!

MucHoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Scrapbooking Graduations and New York City

Today I want to share some scrapbook pages I made for a client here in New York City who wanted to surprise his girlfriend.

More on that story later!

I really enjoyed making this book.

Not only was I going to tackle a whole book at once (until now I usually worked on individual pages) but I also had to make themed pages about graduation and prom- subjects I haven't scrapped before.

The actual design work was easy!
What I found difficult was trying to interpret the needs of my client into something that would please not only him but the person the book would eventually belong to, his girlfriend.

Finding colors and titles for pages were the hardest. I wanted to stick to a clean color palette that would please both men and women and I very much wanted to stay away from overly sentimental titles.

Here are two pages from the book:

Many of the photos had specific themes and were easy to group into cohesive story pages but photos for "New York Living" were by necessity, quite random in subject. I was worried this would be difficult to scrap till I realized the client knew where these were all taken and didn't need me to spell things out. I added a few journaling spots to write in particulars and got out his way. Then I thought- isn't that how our memories work anyway? We don't remember every single detail of the night we went to dinner but snippets from one memory lead to others. I used a LOT of Ormolu products on this book- their small size and modern design were perfect for pages with lots of photos. The flair badges are from a Flair For Buttons (which can be found on Etsy or 2 Peas In A Bucket).

For this page I cut into a sun-ray print from Studio Calico and added a polka dot background paper with a more subtle print. I used some of the fantastic ephemera my client has saved over the years- these were tickets from his commencement from George Washington University. I was very impressed with the variety of stuff he had saved- I wish my husband and I had the forethought to save bits and bobs from the beginning of our relationship 13 years ago!

Overall a fantastic client and experience.

I am now available to work on other projects. so if you are looking for help with your project or even for friendly advice on how to get started please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

My email: hernandm1@yahoo.com

Have a great wednesday everyone!
Michelle

Scrapbook Basics- Movie ticket and Broadway show stub page

Hello!
I've been furiously working on my first client based scrapbook so I've been even MORE invisible and distracted than usual.
This is my first continuous scrapbook project- ever.

What?
It's true.
I scrap.
I usually make 8 to 10 pages a month (which isn't much considering I'm on 4 design teams).
None of my personal pages ever make it into an actual scrapbook.
They go into a memory box or on several easels I have around the apartment.
So this project was a true challenge and very exciting.

Some facts:

• My client has been saving all sorts of bits and bobs since high school. 9 years ago.
• My client handed over a folder with over 50 movie ticket and Broadway show stubs dating back to 2005.
• I have free rein over what will go in the design of the book as long as I don't go completely theoretical (you KNOW what my "theoretical" pages look like. This guideline was necessary.)

Not sure why this photo is out of focus- the file on my desktop is completely crystal clear. A reshoot is obviously in order.  For this page, I used a tape runners to mount the tickets onto an Amy Tangerine paper from the Ready Set, Go line and used a thin washi tape to define the borders. I think the black color is too strong. What do you think?

I turn in the completed assignment today and I really hope it is well received.
I am extremely nervous- what if my eclectic style doesn't fit the client's vision?
I didn't design a series of two pagers so no pages in the book "match".
There is no "page flow"- I wanted the book to look like something which took a very long time to make- years.

Isn't that photo the cutest thing EVER? They are SO HAPPY!
Ormolu tags bring s little more focus to the photo.
 I had to print it very small because of it's low resolution.

What I avoided:

• Paint, drips, gesso and 3D flowers. (If I got the look wrong it would be a disaster)
• Anything that would pop off of the page.
• Using a bazillion products- I stuck to a "kit" to economize and to make things easier since I had 15 pages to make in 3 weeks (in addition to my regular assignments- no pressure!)

My experience:
The "kit" took the longest!!! The hardest part of the job by far.
The first page took 2 days.
I freaked out over "What would my client do?" and second guessed everything down to the choice of glue. GLUE!!!!!
It was a dark couple of days.
Keeping my young and urban client in mind, I used lots of bright pops of color and white space.
I snuck in some hearts, paper doilies and fussy cut flowers- you can't leave ALL romance out the book!!!
This was an amazing experience.
At one point (since I had no personal memories to get in the way) I was meditating on the beauty of family, love and tradition and all KINDS of ideas started to percolate.
Scrapping as yoga- believe it!

Gratuitous Lola SHOT!

Little miss is BRAVE. Here she is climbing rocks in Central Park.
I didn't take this photo. I am INCAPABLE of taking this photo.
 I would never let the kid get near that rock. Thanks Dave.

Fingers crossed.
Michelle