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Heidi Dillon
Desert Showers
I returned from a quick and completely spontaneous two-night camping trip to the desert of southeast Utah yesterday. As always, there were so many wonderful moments on this trip that just could not be captured with my camera. I tried, of course. I took dozens of photos of Nelly exploring our camp site, hiking with Dad, and playing in the sand dunes of Arches National Park.
But the most meaningful and special moments are often the ones that can't be captured. A lot of the time, it breaks the magic of the moment to even try. So I don't.
"But! You're a dedicated scrapbooker!" you exclaim. "A professional one even!" (As if there were such a thing....) "How could you even think about not reaching for your camera at every single opportunity? And what do you do to record those special moments if you don't have pictures to scrapbook them with?"
"Aha!" I reply. "That's where my digital scrapbooking supplies come in." (Or paper scrapbooking supplies, or whatever you're into, really.) "I create a layout that helps me tell my story without pictures!"
Yes, it's true. You, too, can create layouts without pictures. In fact, it's a lot of fun. I'll give you a quick idea of my thought process as I created my Desert Showers layout to help you see how easy and fun this can be.
To begin: I knew that the story I wanted to share would include the gentle rain shower we experienced our last morning. I entered the term rain in my Picasa organizing software and looked through the search results to see what items would work to give me the look and feel I wanted for my layout.
I got many bright items in my results because rain is part of the word rainbow, and I knew the look I wanted was more soft than that. I was overjoyed when I saw pieces (raindrop background) from Thao Cosgrove's Barefoot Collection, because the soft colors and art really fit the mood I was going for. I also saw items (clouds and raindrops) from Shalae Tippett's The Weather Outside Collection Mini and knew that I would have enough from those two collections to make the weather parts of my layout.
I highlighted all the items I thought I might use and dragged them into a new, blank 12x12-inch canvas in Photoshop. (Because I use PSCS5, it will place the items in the same canvas automatically for me. Otherwise, the items will just show up in their own file windows.) This was a good start, but there was obviously more to my story than just the rain. I needed to set the stage.
Because I know the Scrap Girls Boutique so well, I was familiar with some recent kits that had come out that I thought I might like to use. So, I looked on my hard drive in the folders for Trish Yochum's Campfire and Campfire 2 Collections and Jacelen Deinema's Watercolor Desert Collection and pulled out some elements I wanted to use: The tent, sleeping bag, lizard, and cactus. I was really excited to use the Kokopelli image because he is considered a god of rain by some southwestern Native American tribes.
I started assembling my scene by using the embellishments I had already pulled out. I found I needed a few more things, however, as I was working. So, I went into my folders to find coordinating items, like papers, fasteners, and borders from the Barefoot Collection. I found the papers I liked to go on the top and bottom of my page and a border for my bottom right corner. I also loved the blues and greens of the glass pebbles, so I pulled those to use later.
As I was working with the Kokopelli image, I discovered that he looked like he was floating. I decided to put him in a frame to keep him anchored more firmly to the page, but the frames in the Barefoot Collection weren't quite what I wanted. So, I pulled out a wide frame from the trusty Lifted Photos: Weathered and Worn Embellishment Biggie and placed it on my layout with a tan paper from the Barefoot Collection behind it. I attached it to the page with the glass pebbles I had pulled out earlier. I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to make the bright red a darker, rustier red to better match the sleeping bag and the mood of my layout.
Now I had my scene complete: Desert camping complete with a cloudy, windy, rainy sky, just waiting for me to tell my story. Everything was just about ready, except I realized I didn't have a very clear focal point. I used the alpha from the Watercolor Desert Collection and created my title. I added the same Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to it as I had used with my Kokopelli to tone down the red, and I was really happy with the overall look.
I decided to use the Lettering Delights Scratchy Pen Font because it gave me a clean look that was vital for reading a lot of journaling, but was also a bit rough to give a hint of the rustic setting of the story. I've included the journaling here:
We found a terrific camping spot in the Horsethief campground near Dead Horse Point State Park. On our second and last night there, we cooked hot dogs and corn on the cob over our campfire. Nelly had never had corn straight off the cob before, and she loved it!
But she was so exhausted from her long day of climbing arches and playing in the sand dunes that she fell asleep on my lap in front of the fire almost as soon as we put her pajamas on her. Dan was so excited to get her sleeping bag out and put it in her travel crib and get her all snuggled up near the fire.
After Nelly went to sleep, Dan and I got out the star chart we had bought from the Arches Visitor Center and spent a long time picking constellations out of the sky. The nearly-full moon made it difficult to see them all, but it was a wonderfully relaxing way to end our evening.
In the morning, the sun had just come up and the sky was a faint, blush pink when we noticed soft, sweet raindrops falling in on our sleepy, upturned faces in our sleeping bags through the mesh in our tent's roof! It was just enough of a sprinkle to let us know it was there, but not too much to get us soaked. Just the perfect way to get up in the morning.
I love being in my red rock desert! I miss it if I’m gone from it too long.
I hope the next time you are experiencing a magic moment, you will simply let it happen, soak it in, enjoy it for what it's worth right then without worrying about missing the chance with your camera. You can always document the moment later in other ways!
- Heidi
Layout by Heidi Dillon
larger view
P.S. Here are some other products that work really well with this concept!
Scrap Girls, Etc. is a weekly column pulling bits and pieces from all over Scrap Girls. Stay tuned each week as Scrap Girls' Jane-of-All-Trades Heidi Dillon brings you tutorials, musings, recipes, interviews, design/software tips and tricks, layout walk-throughs, and who knows what else!
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