creative process

I mentioned before that I participated in a Bible study this summer. As a follow-up to the study, I wanted to incorporate what we learned in the study to a scrapbook page. Unfortunately, my August scrapbooking night was not well-attended. The page turned out pretty cool, so I'd like to share it here. But more important than the page itself, I'd like to talk about the process behind creating a page like this.

When I scrapbook, I have trouble creating a page without some scratch paper. I am a visual person (obviously), so I like to write down my title and journaling before it hits the actual page. I also sketch the layout so I can determine if my ideas will actually work within the dimensions of the page.

The sketching is a little trick I learned a few years ago in an adult education class at CCAD. This can be used when you are brainstorming for a painting, sketch, or any work of art. Draw mini rectangles approximate to the scale of the work you are creating. Since I am creating a 12x12 inch scrapbook layout, I make squares. Then I outline where the elements of the piece should go. This way I can resize photos, move the title, and adjust the journaling before the glue comes out. Here is a picture of what that looked like for this project:


Planning out the page brought about more thoughtful journaling related to the topics of the Bible study. For me, I love being able to apply what I learned in a visual way. You could just as easily write a song or make a painting as an application of what you learned.

The page is constructed with a large envelope as the main part of the page. I made the envelope, but if I had a manila envelope on hand, I probably would have just used that. This envelope holds my journal from the study as well as some journaling that is more private. The journaling on the outside discusses the ways I feel God has shown his love for me. Inside the envelope is a note discussing the ways I want to show God's love to others. Call me a chicken, I just wasn't ready to put these thoughts out there for all the world to judge. But someday when I'm gone, maybe my descendants will care what my intentions were.

When I finished that layout, I was emotionally exhausted. So I created this page to balance things out. Who says you can't use pink and flowers for boys and alligators?!