Day Eight: Introducing…

Leslie Smith
Leslie Smith

Guest Star SusanB1962!


I’m a stay-at-home mom living in Connecticut. My husband John and I have been married for 22 years and we have two daughters: Alison (age 19) and Sarah (age 17).

I started scrapbooking in 1996 (yep ~ that long ago!) after a family trip to Disney World.  My husband’s cousin was a Creative Memories consultant and when I saw her supplies I knew I’d found the perfect way to document the memories and photos of that trip.

My style and supplies have changed a lot over the years.  I started scrapping chronologically and my albums were mostly filled with “event” pages.  Then I took Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories class and as I sorted my photos into categories I realized that, while I love and treasure those “event” pages, what I really wanted to do was tell the feelings and the stories behind the photos.  I graduated from college with a degree in English and I’ve always loved to read and write.  I was never able to successfully keep a diary as a teen but a few years ago I started a journal on our computer and I’ve managed to write in it on an almost-regular basis.  Much of the journaling for my pages comes from those journal entries.

I found Lain’s LOAD class in October 2010 and participating in it really rejuvenated my love of scrapbooking.  I joined ScrapHappy soon after that and I love the inspiration I get from her prompts and from how everyone interprets them.

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Susan’s layouts have a wonderful feeling of her sharing her story in such a personal way. I wanted to know more about her & I hope you have enjoyed meeting her!  Here is her challenge for us for today:

Lain’s ScrapHappy layout challenges have gotten me looking at print media with new eyes. As I flip through magazines and catalogs, I find myself tearing out or dog-earring pages that would make great scrapbook pages.

We recently received a Vera Bradley catalog in the mail and as soon as I saw the inside front cover I knew I’d translate it into a scrapbook page. Here’s a look at the inspiration piece:


There’s so much about this that already looks like a scrapbook page: the title on the tag, the ticket embellishments, the mix of black-and-white and colored photos, the tape over the top two photos. Plenty of ideas to scraplift!

Here’s my take on it:


The tickets on the Vera Bradley page reminded me of some SEI ticket paper I had and those tickets got me thinking about our annual town fair. I substituted a larger horizontal photo for the title/tag but otherwise I kept pretty close to the original design.

So here’s my challenge: make a page using this Vera Bradley inspiration piece. You can use the overall design, the colors, the mood, the photo placement, or even just the title. Turn it on its side or adjust it to an 8.5 x 11 page. If this piece doesn’t inspire you, flip through a magazine or catalog and see what catches your eye. Thanks for taking this challenge ~ can’t wait to see your pages!

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