Leaving home …

This week’s layout is for my son formerly known as Kevin; he now goes by River.

In August of 2008 Kevin bought a train ticket to Washington state, packed a backpack and left home seeking a new life. Although I looked at this as him leaving home, he saw it as a new beginning.

 The journaling for the layout was taken directly from Kevin’s blog he had at the time.

“A few months ago I sold most of my things, packed a backpack, and rode a train from Lansing, MI to Seattle, WA. At 25 years old I couldn’t find a future for myself. I had no idea what path I had to take, but I knew I had to take one that got me the hell out of Michigan.

I had never been to Seattle, I didn’t know anyone in Seattle, and I had no job lined up. All I had was an address of a woman I found on Craig’s List that was going to allow me to stay with her until I found a place of my own…”

The mug shot is one of my favorites from that summer of 2008 and the other was taken at the train station in Lansing the morning we dropped him off – looks happy doesn’t he?

This layout uses BoBunny’s Cambridge line of papers and embellishments. I knew it would be perfect for masculine pages – plus it’s already ‘dirtied’ up so it works perfectly for me.

My scrapbooking style has moved to more basic and uncluttered – with just a touch of technique. All the papers, photos and stickers were edged lightly with Black Soot Ranger Distress Ink using a direct-to-paper technique to cover all the white edges; it often eliminates the need for photo matting. I played with all the pieces until I found the placement that was most pleasing to my eye.

The ’08 in the upper left corner is similar to the technique I showed last time but without the tissue tape. First the Pitch Black paint was dabbed on from the Ranger Paint Dabber. After that dried the Butterscotch was dabbed on so that some of the Black Soot would still show through giving an aged appearance.

The title, which is just perfect for this page, is mounted on a coordinating green cardstock then raised using 3-D Foam Squares from Scrapbook Adhesives. I finished the page off with a sticker strip at the bottom and centered three brads over it.

I’m experimenting with single-page layouts because I want to try using a ring-bound scrapbook rather than post-bound. I’m a big two-page spread kind-a-gal so this is all new to me. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Linda is Creative Director of Scrap Tales in Genoa Twp. where she encourages others to dive head-first into the art of papercrafting, whether it be scrapbooking, cardmaking or altered art. Read more on her blog.

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The Livingston Post is the only locally owned, all-digital information and opinion site in Livingston County, Mich. It was launched by award-winning journalists who were laid off from the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by Gannett Co. Inc. in 2009.