Scraplift For Fun with Tracey of Clever Monkey Graphics!

 

Hi all, I'm Tracey - the creator behind Clever Monkey Graphics. I've been a designer in the industry for about 14 years now and my kits are stuffed full usually including lots of my own custom graphics. My kits are usually designed around a very specific theme and are filled with color - but there are always lots of more neutral elements allowing you to scrap far more than the intended theme. Today I am starting a blog series which will come out approximately once every month and in each post I'll talk about scrapbook design issues and sometimes about how to use some of my products. My goal is to increase your fun factor!

On to today's topic: Scraplifting

Wonderful ideas for creating beautiful scrapbook pages are everywhere, from Pinterest, to online galleries, to facebook groups, and designers like me put lots of layout samples with our products to excite you and which you in turn may translate into pages and albums of your own. If you feel like you are in a scrapping slump or can't figure out what to do with certain photos, scraplifting is a great way to move forward. Scraplifting by definition is taking someone else's scrapbook art or page and copying it or slightly modifying it into your own creation.


Ways to Scraplift
1. You can take everything from a layout, buy the kit used, and create your own with your photos and journaling.
2. You can adapt a part or even the whole of a layout for your own purposes. For example, if you love the way a title is done then copy it on your own page. Love the basic layout? Copy it. Love the use of color? A photo technique? The perspective in which a story is told? Whatever you love about a page, copy it to your own creations.

Look carefully at pages that jump out to you and figure out why you love them. Theme, color, kit used, layout, doodles included, paint work... you get what I mean. Figure out what you love and try to redo it in your own page.

Should I give the Inspirational Page Credit?
Maybe. If you copy everything about the page and post it to an online public gallery, then yes it is best to link to the original inspiration piece as that person put a lot of love and effort into their own page. This is a way to acknowledge that fact and to show your appreciation to them. If you copy a lot less, you probably don't need to do this though it is always nice and in fact is often interesting for others to see.

Scraplifting is fun! Most of us do it lots of times as it is a fun, faster way to create a fantastic page and try out design ideas that are new to you.


Now for some samples. My creative team member Susie Lopez and I used inspiration from three sample layouts made with my new kit Snow Whoa Woe and we created new pages. I created this collection a little late in the season but it seems the snow just won't end this year! Here is a peek at the linked collection Snow Whoa Woe.

 

 

 

I love Tracy's perfect white space layouts. She adds characters, squares of fun papers, and just the right amount of paint. Personally I'm a busier scrapper to these take a lot of restraint for me so scraplifting is perfect. I placed most of my basic pieces in the same places as Tracy. But for me I needed a little more. I needed to tell the tale behind my photo - yes that is me at the gym! And I wanted a little more pattern in the background but not big pattern - so if pattern can be subtle, I consider this subtle! I love my results and the whole page took me less than 30 minutes. I used my kit Work it Out Gym Time to create this layout.

 

Next up Susie used Linda's layout and was obviously inspired by the strong angled elements to the page. Look how beautifully she translated it into a fabulous new work of art using my kit Generations. Check out some of those great details like the date following the tree branch and the branches carefully laid onto the picture. 

Since Susie was helping me out by doing a page on Friday night, I decided to then scraplift this adorable page she created. Loved all the horizontal long elements and the paint meshed underneath. Well I did have to make it my own so yes I placed various horizontal elements including strips of paper I cut out from my kit Gone Hiking and my newsletter subscription freebie The Great Outdoors beneath the photo and more or less placed elements similar to where Susie had placed hers. I couldn't resist adding the bigfoot from the freebie kit! To make all the top pieces pop I placed a painted paper over one that showed a river/mountain landscape and simply adjust the opacity to my liking.

 

Again, probably about 30 minutes to create with much of that time spent deciding on my elements and how to get my horizontals.

These layouts were great fun to make! I must do more of this as these days I spend more time designing great kits for you than getting my own scrapping done. Susie and I both could have scraplifted smaller portions of the layouts but we both went for it all this time.

If I've inspired you to scraplift, I'd love if you join my facebook fanpage and post your layouts there - we'll be sure to give them lots of love. Below are links to the various parts of my design-filled life.

Tracey

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