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A Digital Scrapbooking Journal - Part Eight

More Digital Scrapbooking Tools & Techniques

Tuesday, July 2, 2007: So Much to Learn – So Little Time

Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to learn and do all the things you’d like? I’ve really been pushing myself lately to learn all I can about digital graphics and scrapbooking. Of course that means I’m taking time away from my other crafting pursuits like wire sculpture and beaded jewelry.

I finished the mini-scrapbook album I was working on last week in time for Herb’s 4th of July birthday. I’m pleased with the digital layouts I did but not so much with the album.

This is the first handcrafted album I’ve ever made. At least it’s a gift and not something that a customer is paying for!

Now I feel like I ought to learn more about handcrafting books. In addition to finding the time, I don’t know where to find the expertise.

I’ve not seen much about this topic in any of my crafting magazines. Ah-ha, maybe this is a crafting niche that The Artful Crafter can fill.

I think I’ll go visit Amazon.com and see what they have on the topic.

Sunday, July 7, 2007: Wabi-Sabi Scrapbooking

After seeing a photo of a pretty pressed and framed fern in a recent issue, I went to Womansday.com for the directions and learned something new.

In the introduction to the nature-themed projects, the author wrote “You might call it wabi-sabi style – the appreciation of the imperfect beauty of nature in rocks, sea glass and leaves.”

I’d never heard the term before, though I have a sense for what constitutes the traditional Japanese concept of beauty. Words that come to mind are serene, austere, muted, calming and flowing.

I learned that ikebana flower arranging, Japanese poetry like haiku, Japanese pottery, Japanese gardens and bonsai best exemplify the wabi-sabi aesthetic.

I guess wabi-sabi intrigues me because this Japanese concept of beauty does not strive for perfection. Rather it values imperfection and impermanence.

Wabi-sabi doesn’t directly translate well but wabi connotes simplicity and serenity as well as the imperfections that result in any physical process or human endeavor. It is the imperfections that lend an object its uniqueness.

Sabi is beauty that comes with age and makes us aware of the object’s (and life’s) impermanence. Signs of wear and repair, the patina on a piece of metal, surface scratches or tears are all very sabi.

How interesting that the Western world has developed the quintessentially wabi-sabi artform of scrapbooking.

My Wabi-Sabi Scrapbooking layout uses the following Scrap Girls’ products:
BHA_PersianBreeze_12x12_BrownWeedsGrass background paper;
and
TCS_MoreThan_Words_MiniTags-Together tag and fastener.

I love the Scrap Girls Persian Breeze Collection. The papers are gorgeous – very wabi-sabi. The More Than Words tags coordinate nicely.

There are 24 different tags preprinted with meaningful words like “believe” and “blessings”. In addition there is a blank tag so that you can do your own word art – which is what I did.

I don’t know if you can make out the small print in the layout thumbnail. The tag says, “The beauty is in the uniqueness.”

The paper strips give the definition of wabi-sabi: “imperfect” with an out-of-place “c”; and “impermanent” with the end of the word fading away.

Sorry, I can’t tell you what the Japanese kanji symbols say!

The photo of the floating torii at the famous Itsukushima Shinto Shrine is a stock photo found in Print Master

. The Japanese print of the owl is also from Print Master. I used a Layer Mask to blend it seamlessly into the Persian Breeze background paper.

I’m still looking at the layout to decide if it needs anything else. Is it too cutesy that I made the “UNIQUE” text match the shape at the top of the torii?

Maybe a font with serifs would be more in tune with the elegance of the torii’s crossbar. Hmmm.

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