Wednesday 27 May 2015

Not Black and White: Scrapbooking With Contour Lines

Contour lines on a scrapbooking page? Now there's an intriguing idea. I've seen plenty of map papers with contours printed on them..

...but using them as a motif

From High in the Sky: Scrapbooking with contour lines for Get It Scrapped

the way I've been spotting them appearing on clothes this year? That's a different proposition.

When Get It Scrapped first suggested contour lines as a possible design motif I began with a story. I usually do. This story takes me back to my First Form Geography lessons (remember those?) it was cold and bleak outside, January, but indoors we were learning a little bit of magic. How to take a slip of paper, lay it across the map, mark the contours and transfer them to a sort of graph so that if we joined the dots the shape of the mountain revealed itself one ledge at a time. I loved to do that. I loved it so much that once, when our school was closed, I spent almost an entire day tucked away in the corner of my Mum's classroom feverishly making mountains.

So, I had a story - maybe more than one - but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that if I made that page, with that story and those lines, I'd probably end up over contoured. That's like  over catered, but with fewer nice sandwiches.

I went in a different direction altogether. And not even with the use of a map. I thought about other ways of incorporating lines on a page and journaling seemed like a plan: something with a bit of fun, so that skewed lines and wiggly shapes didn't seem out of place. And, let's be honest, skewed lines and wiggly shapes are pretty much a must have..

...on a page about ageing eyesight.

Paper is by Pinkfresh (love it!). Other contour line ideas ready and waiting at Get It Scrapped. Now I'm off to find some paper. I'm going to draw me an Everest.

20 comments:

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Oh, what a great idea. I love those marbled letters too.

Still unable to blog. I have been googling furiously for an answer, but to no avail. Even my resident tech expert can't help me.

alexa said...

Oh Sian, I read your post almost jumping up and down because that was my absolute favourite activity in geography too! I have always adored maps, and all map-related activities (which is why we have no GPS), so it's delightful to find another thing we share. (Though I also enjoyed river contours, ox-box lakes, and layers of rock sediment). Writing on the contours is such a neat idea!

Lizzy Hill said...

That is just FABULOUS....never liked Geography too much....was a bit like maths. You had to think laterally & I'm simply not good at that. But I DO 'dig' wiggly lines [& I DO have rotten eyesight!!!]...& the bright pops of colour against the white? DELISH!!!

Karen said...

I just love reading about your thought processes, and how you end up with the final story. The photo is just perfect, too!

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Oh, what a great idea. I love those marbled letters too.

Still unable to blog. I have been googling furiously for an answer, but to no avail. Even my resident tech expert can't help me.

Anonymous said...

Love your page! Love the story! I used to love geography lessons! (They were always the coolest teachers, too!)

scrappyjacky said...

What a great page......love the contoured writing...to me it has the look of a sideways heart.

debs14 said...

I love the way you can take an idea - any idea - and make a fab layout out of it. Brilliant.

Lisa said...

Loved the geography lesson story. Looking back, our Geography teacher was awesome and taught us so much - of course, at the time she was an old-fashioned tyrant (which she was actually, but hindsight and maturity can see those more positively!). You took me right back to those days. Maybe that's a story for me to capture somewhere along the line!

Contour journalling is a great idea and i like the very distinct areas you have created on your page!

Julie Kirk said...

Let's see if the internet lets me post this for a 2nd time then ... I chose Geography over History for my GCSEs although I can't quite place the contour activity like everyone else seems to. That said - there's not a great deal of any of the course I can remember. Except that throughout an entire coursework project the teacher had been spelling 'accommodation' wrong - only one 'c' - advising us to spell it that way - then realised his error and apologised to us about it ... clearly I remember word related things more than maps, lakes and urban conurbations [again ... it's the fancy words I recall!!]

My beleaguered Mam would empathise with your glasses quandaries - she's been trying to get a new pair of glasses for nearly 2 months now + every time they make new lenses ... she can't see out of them! Yesterday she had her 3rd eye test as they won't give her a refund until they've tried one more time to get it right! You can imagine where her patience levels are by now!

p.s: not heard of Pinkfresh until now.

Sian said...

No, no GPS here either. Can't stand them!

Jo said...

I never did that in my geography lesson and I feel like I've missed out now :( Great page!

KraftyKaren said...

I can't read the journalling my eyes are that bad even with my readers on LOL!!! I like that style of journalling, I can never write straight on my layouts and it drives me mad - deliberate wiggly lines is obviously the way to go!!! Love the layout x

This West London Life said...

I vaguely remember contours from Geography at school (I dropped it in favour of History, naturally), but plenty of opportunity to remind myself of them during map reading sessions at Air Cadets and in the RAF. I do like a good map!
Contour journalling may just work when you find out that you can no longer write in a straight line!

Susanne said...

This is such a unique page - love it.

Lou said...

a super page. I don't remember doing this at school - or maybe you have a better memory than me!

Becky said...

Great page and story to go with it. I never did that in geography but it actually sounds quite fun!

Melissa said...

I scrapped about having to go back to glasses this year, too! Great idea to combine the journaling & contouring!

Julia said...

Love the history to this page. I've never done that with lines even though I adore maps and loved geography. Feel like I need a masterclass!

Gail said...

I'd never heard that bit about the mountain before! Wish I could read your journaling but I can tell you that skewed lilnes and wiggly shapes definitely go wtih aging eyesight.

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