Scrapbook Starting Points: How Creative Thinking Powers Your Stories

Time and time again, we go through the regimen that is our creative process. Though regimen seems a hard word( for when we create and are in the groove,the page flows together smoothly), our process is made up of various habits and quirks which when completed in order result in a scrapbook page. How can we leverage this process? When creative thinking powers your stories, the process becomes a polished tool to create distinctive layouts.

Creative thinking may seem random, but if we narrow it down to one starting point, we can take that beginning to build an entire page. Let’s start with the idea that we want to center our creative energy around the journaling. Think about the different ways that we can place the text portion of our layout onto the page. We want to go beyond journaling blocks. We want to make the journaling captivate us visually and not just audibly. Doing this is more simple then you might think. It can be as easy as replacing sections of the journaling with larger text or alternative colors of journal strips. Perhaps, even finding small photos to replace key words.

If you are not sure where to start, select the photo and sit down with a pad of paper. Jot down words and phrases that you would use to describe the subject or that might enhance the story you want to tell. My story started with a picture of my son playing with dinosaurs in the swimming pool. He was pretending to be one of the aquatic dinosaurs who was preying on toys( and people) in the pool. He would swim along with the dinosaur just below the surface of the water and then spring upwards into action. My list included: danger, lurking, eats, and imagination. Some words I liked immediately. “Danger” and “lurking” were perfect. The word “eats” was kind of plain. If you find a word to be too simple, use an online thesaurus to find something more interesting and colorful. I swapped “eats” for “consumes”. It conveys a deeper sense of power which one might associate with a dinosaur.

When your list is complete, you are ready to compose the journaling. It need not be lengthy. In many cases, I find that substituting complex words makes for descriptive and concise stories. You may even discover the title hidden right within what you have written. The word Danger became both the title and the beginning of the journaling for my layout. It reads ” Danger lurks below the surface of the water but only in his magination. Mixing Fact with fiction, altering his reality and consuming him in a world of creativity.”

Danger by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: My Mind’s Eye; Letters: Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Basic Grey; Stickers: Crate Paper; Wood Veneer: ArtChix Studio, Studio Calico; Die Cuts: Freckled Fawn; Paper Clips: Webster’s Pages,Pictome; Watercolor: Yasutomo; Pen: Sharpie;Appears in an article for Get It Scrapped

Getting the story written will probably be the most difficult portion of this exercise. However, once you have it worded the way you desire, selecting the paper and embellishments will be a breeze. For this layout, I chose a jagged chevron print to convey a sense of danger and unease. I used a thin band of wave stickers to represent the water, then let the photos float precariously from it. The title is in bright orange to promote caution. I added a small lightbulb to represent creative thought. I didn’t have a dinosaur that fit the page design. I opted to draw it by handand paint it with watercolor to match the actual toy as closely as I could. Little wooden people represent the imaginary creatures being gobbled up. I began with a large font, then decreased the size of the journaling to the point in which it was smaller and being devoured by the dinosaur. Overall, the design is simple in that I used few elements and supplies. Yet, once broken down, you can easily see how creative thinking powers the story. The concise and well thought out journaling paired with a few elements and placed visually creates one distinctive and cohesive layout.

You are probably thinking that this is way too much work. All I can say is that you shouldn’t knock it until to try it. Not only does this process create distinctive layouts, it is also a wonderful mental exercise(which does get easier the more often you try it).