Dude! That's Awesome!

Dude!

I think this is the best page I've ever done.

It gives a sense of the time and place through photos, stickers, and background.  Whenever I see it I go right back there.

You may disagree, and that's OK.

But Dude!  It's for my memories, not anyone else's.  So if I think it's awesome that's all that counts.

Dude! That's Weird!

Dude!

Sometimes you should just do something weird in the scrapbook.  Why, you ask?  Because otherwise all you pages start to look alike.

This page is just a little weird.  It doesn't seem to fit with the location or the theme.  Yet, it kind of works and breaks up all those rustic looking pages.  I think it keeps things interesting and pushed me to try new ideas.

Weird is ok, dude!

Dude! Color Me Impressed!

Dude!

Sometimes it's just finding the right color.  Take this page from Yellowstone:

You thought I was going to go yellow.  Gotcha!  It's red!

The descriptor that I clipped from a brochure had this bold red background.  Using scraps from my cropping it for the page as accents tied it all together and made it all pop.

Dude!  That's how you put the scrap in scrapbook.

Dude! Move On!

Dude!

Sometimes there's just no good way to make a page.  After a while, you just have to glue things down as best you can and move on.

This page is a part of a set that I'm working on from our trip to Yellowstone.  Seeing wildlife is one of the thrills of the trip.  I cannot count how many different ways I tried to make it work.

As you can see, it ended up being sort of Meh! in quality but, and here's the important part, it's done!  If I can modify a favorite quote from my dissertation advisor:

The best scrapbook page is the one that is finished.

Dude!  Sometimes you just have to call it and move on.

Dude! I was There!

Dude!

I'm not a selfie person so there aren't too many pix of me in my scrapbooks.  But sometimes just being there, especially someplace that has been photographed many times before, is a huge part of the experience.

I can't count the number of times I've seen pix and video of Little Rock Central High School.  The events that happened there have influenced so much of my life and continue to do so each day.  Being there was what needs to be remembered so the selfie became important.

And while I was there, a student who was in the school that day stopped by.  She told how, because her parents supported integration, people stopped shopping at the chain of stores they owed.  They lost their businesses and Dad was unable to get a job anywhere for many years.

She was there.

Being there is what made this place special, dude.

Dude! You can Quote Me!

Dude!

This fort an Arkansas really creeped me out when I was there.  But you wouldn't know it by looking at the place.  It was quite pleasant.

So many bad things happened there that seemed good at the time but were horrific in hindsight.

I tried to capture that by making a relatively pleasant looking page then pasting a quote across it.

In case you can't read it in the pic, it describes the place as:

. . . horrible with all the horrors - a veritable hell upon earth.

Dude!  That quote will remind me of the contrast I experienced there each time I look at it.

Dude! Back it Up!

Dude!

Some things are deep!

This site in Vicksburg, Mississippi, had an incredible feature of a Civil War boat.  It was one of those amazing things that photos cannot capture.  It was mid-century modern and super-historic simultaneously.

So how do you theme it?  River?  Nautical?  Civil War?  Southern?  Patriotic?  Historic?  Modern?

The solution?  Dude!  Find the right background!

So the background is a blend of old-school texture with groovy paisley in a blue that conjures up both patriotism and a river.

Dude!  That's why you bought all those books of papers years ago!