STORY OF THE PAGE: The year was 2003 and I had been scrapbooking like a fiend for just over a year at this point. I had my first digital camera and was amazed that I could shoot with no flash in low light and get any shot of consequence. Aidan was reading like a banshee—here she had a Pony Pals book between her toes—and so I shot away. One thing this evokes that I didn’t write about at the time was how Dan was really instilling a love of reading in our kids. He took them to the library every week while they were growing up. Heck, he and Aidan still go to the library together and bring home assorted books and DVDs every time. It also reminds me that the hours we spent reading to them before they could read on their own was worth it on so many levels. Maybe a follow-up layout is in order here.
DESIGN STUFF: This page was me being about as minimal and as hybrid as I could be. The balance of this page is asymmetrical. Why? Because it hews heavily to the right side of the page. I basically created one vertical column of content (main photo, title words, journal block) that all share the same width. See the implied vertical line they line up on? I tossed in a photo and a little home-made book embellishment that repeat both the cardstock color and the title strip treatment. I used on main slab serif font for the big word in the title and the journaling, and I used a handwritten font to create a visual read-in for the title. One of the things I love about this approach is the tension created in the title by using a) two fonts that are dramatically different from one another, and b) two fonts with a dramatic size different. The script font is about half the size of the big word in the title, yet both pieces of type line up on the same baseline. My favorite way to do this is create two different text blocks and visually line them up, but you can do it by simply modifying your text in a single text block. A generous leading provides a really nice readability to the whole page.
TECHNICAL SHIT: One of my favorite things to do in those early years of scrapbooking was to create reverse title elements on my layouts. People would say, “How do you get a printer to type in white?” and I would say, “You don’t! You trick it!” It’s simply an element with a color fill and type turned to white.
FREE TEMPLATE (WITH IMPROVEMENTS) FOR YOU: I thought it’d be fun to give you this design in a free template, but as I was working on it, I thought: I can do better. And so, I did.
Here’s why I think it’s better:
1. The core balance is stronger. Look at the framing margin space. See how even it is on all four sides? When you do this, regardless of what is going on inside, you get a little consistency bump just by having this even, outer edge space.
2. It’s more balanced from top to bottom. I like symmetry more than asymmetry. I can’t lie. But the cool thing with this design? You can still ditch that upper left photo and create something much closer to my original page.
3. I like the little circle monogram treatment. The size of the cut out space is 1.25 inches, and the circle is 1 inch. It’d be very easy to replicate this look in hybrid form with those punches. Plus, it’s nice to have a little circular element tossed in with all that square stuff.
The template includes a How To PDF with links to the free fonts I used in the template (Slabo, a free slab serif, and Jenna Sue, a free hand-drawn typeface). The title on this template file is comprised of two separate text boxes so depending on the word you choose for your big word, make sure to line them up so they appear to meet where the small text meets the large text.
Enjoy!
Christina Forte says
than you so much. I remember seeing this page many years ago. I still love your simple style and I think it it wasn’t for you I may just about have given up scrapbooking…… thanks again.
Cathy Zielske says
Well Christina, now that is high praise! 🙂
heidig says
Thanks for the template. Another great page from the past. I think I’ve memorized all of the pages you’ve shared on your blog.
Janie says
Thank you, Cathy, for all the great tips and the free template. You’re a peach!
Michelle t says
Love this story. I remember when my daughter was 6, she’s 10 now, and she refused to read for anything other then school. I was so worried, she’d been exposed to books since she was a baby. Fast forward (too slow) 4yrs, she’s a reading machine. Thank God for the library. Anyway, I really love that cool handmade book embellishment too. Awesome layout. Michelle t
JennieB says
Thanks so much for the template; just love make a page Monday!
Kris Beauregard says
Your pages ….. ….. clean & simple goodness.
Kris Beauregard says
oh! thank you for the template too!
Omayra Ortiz says
¡Mil gracias, Cathy!
Helen says
I love all your templates, and own tons of them! Thank you for this free one. Your templates make scrapbooking so much easier!
Cathy Zielske says
Yay! And that is my goal.
Diana says
Such a fun template to look at and then tell a special story from the archives. How lucky we are to have a designer like you!
Morwenna says
Thanks Cathy!
elin rangøynes says
Thank you! Love this template and I had to use it immediately 🙂
Kathleen S. says
I love your color choices in this LO, and, as always, love the clean lines and balance.
Vivian says
Can I just say I love you and thank you? You inspire me and make me believe I can do this.
Cathy Zielske says
Why yes, you can say that! And YOU CAN do this. I promise.
Cara S says
Thank you for this – very generous of you.
Joyce says
Love the template and your layout. Thank you for sharing it with us! Sounds like a great idea to do a follow-up layout!
Carlie says
Thanks!
AbbyP says
Thank you for the Monday awesomeness, along with the great template!
Paige says
Thank you, Cathy. I’m still digging your style after all these years.
janel says
Thank you so much! Wonderful..and yes…I am loving your design after all these years too….keep on being YOU!
Keianna says
Love the template. Thanks. And you totally should do a follow up layout.
Audrey says
Wonderful template! Thanks so much!
Mollie says
“It also reminds me that the hours we spent reading to them before they could read on their own was worth it on so many levels.”
I love the sentence you wrote above, Cathy . . . it brings to mind a “conversation” I overheard last week when my husband and I were at Sam’s Club (a warehouse store) buying a few groceries and looking over their selection of books.
A young woman, an older woman (obviously her mother who had just gotten chewed out by the before mentioned daughter in the grapefruits & oranges ) and a little girl about 3 years old were walking past us and the books. The child picked up a children’s book and excitedly looked it over exclaiming that it was beautiful. “Can we have this book, Mom?”
“Put that piece of **** down . . . what the **** would you do with that . . . you can’t read!” I (through a few tears) actually wanted to slug her and give her a piece of my mind and take the little girl home with me. I wanted to call DHS . . . the police . . . the sherif . . . the highway patrol . . . the department of education . . . etc!!!!! You get my train of thought I suppose.
I love hearing about parents who read to their children and value reading and books for entertainment, education and family togetherness. I wish that this beautiful child had parents like Adian has who read to her on their knee and created a young woman who values books and learning. Enough from me . . . this just truck a raw nerve and you helped mend it, cathy.
Cathy Zielske says
Okay, that’s the saddest thing I’ve heard in a while, but what is even more sad is that I bet it happens so frequently. People can have children but it does not mean they know the first thing about what kids need. So so sad.
Mollie says
And, oh yes . . . thank you for the lovely new template . . . I’ve loved your Make-a-Page-Monday’s for a while!
Janelle says
Thank you thank you! This is a great page, and I love hearing the story behind the layout. Thanks for the template, and for MAPM. Gives me a reason to look forward to Mondays! 🙂
Eric says
Thank you for this. Just doing some late night perusing of my favorite sites and I’m glad I did because I came across this little gem. Very generous. Thanks!
Katrina says
What a lovely surprise to find a free template. Thanks so much Cathy.
Anne says
Thank you so much!
Jane says
Wonderful – thanks Cathy.
You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me. —Strickland Gillian
Denise S. says
Thank you Cathy.
AbbyP says
This has nothing to do with your post above, but I thought you’d totally love it: we went on a side-by-side (think golf cart on steroids) car trip last weekend with friends/family/our kids. Our Polaris Razor had some serious issues, and almost caught fire. Our 22-year-old total-dude son grabbed his cell phone, started snap-chatting our dilemma, and yelled (in front of many other “dudes”), “Oh my God Mom — you’ve gotta scrapbook the shit outta this!” Insert me laughing MAO! I asked if he realized he just said “scrapbook” in front of all those guys, and he said, “Yeah, that’s what we do!” Again, this is a manly-man kinda guy. Love it!
Cathy Zielske says
Ha! I love it. Sounds like my kinda kid. 😉
Katie Jones says
I definitely think that the simple style of scrapbooking, and the ease in which it can be done, is bringing scrapbooking and memorykeeping more to the “younger generation”. I love that your son thought to take pics for you, and wanted the story to be preserved. You should definitely get him involved in scrapping the story (and include the bit that he wanted it scrapped) – those are the gems that make scrapping gold!! Thanks for sharing the story, it made me grin this morning!!
Kay Gregory-Clark says
Cathy, this has always been one of my favorite layouts. In fact, when I first saw it, I designed my own template because I loved it so much. I duplicated it as best I could and even used the same colors! I’ve since used it, changing things up a bit. Thanks for the freebie—I’ll have to try it. BTW, I like it without the photo upper left.
Sakura says
Thanks for this beautiful template.
timounette says
Thanks a lot for the inspiration. Here is my page : http://timounette.canalblog.com/archives/2015/04/26/31958145.html