Happy Wednesday! Paige Evans here to shine the spotlight on another talented crafter: Brooke Takara!
Name: Brooke Takara
Location: Honolulu, Hawai’i
Blog: www.welobellie.com
Instagram: @welobellie
Pinterest: @wellobellie
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started crafting: Aloha! I initially started scrapbooking in 1998 when I was in high school. I had a million photographs and memories that I wanted to preserve but wanted something more than just the standard photo album. I loved the albums I’d created and found myself constantly flipping through them. I continued to scrapbook for the next couple of years but eventually fell off the scrapbooking wagon during my early to mid-twenties. Fast forward to 2012… I found myself with, yet again, a million photos and memories I wanted to preserve but this time the photos and memories were of my daughter. Again, I was looking to do something really special with the photos and memories. I found my way over to a couple of key scrapbooking websites: Two Peas in a Bucket and Studio Calico. It was love at first sight. The scrapbooking I remembered from the late nineties was all about decorative-edged scissors and stickers. But this? This modern, cool, hipster vibe that scrapbooking had taken on since I’d last picked up a piece of patterned paper? I was SOLD. The projects that most caught my eye were amazing works of art and to me, the most beautiful way to capture memories that I’ve ever seen! I’ve been documenting my memories via scrapbooking, project life, and mini albums ever since and I really can’t imagine a life without it.
Favorite thing to create: Scrapbook layouts, project life spreads, mini albums… it all just depends on my mood!
What do you love about scrapbooking? I love that I’m taking the time to document moments and memories for my family to enjoy for years to come. But I also really love the creative outlet it affords me. I love using my hands to make things and I’ve always had a thing for stationary and pretty papers, so scrapbooking is definitely right up my alley.
5 fun facts about yourself:
1. I love green tea and anything green tea flavored.
2. I hate coffee and anything coffee flavored.
3. I love the smell of rain.
4. I love to laugh.
5. My favorite color to scrapbook with is yellow.
Check out this AMAZING layout Brooke made for her spotlight:
E IS FOR EVERYTHING by Brooke Takara
Patterned papers are my jam. I love bright, bold papers and am always brainstorming ways to get as many different patterned papers onto one layout as possible. Here, I pieced together an “E” using triangles cut from patterned papers.
Here are four more spectacular projects Brooke created that we wanted to share:
11/08/14 by Brooke Takara
I am always drawn to using bold, striped patterned papers as my background. For this layout I played around with arranging fussy-cut flower clusters, punched vellum circles in two different sizes, washi tape, and gold metallic twine in a cascade down the center, leading to my photo.
HULK SMASH AND A SMIRK by Brooke Takara
I’ve always had a thing for metallics. I love mixing metals in my everyday jewelry choices so I thought it’d be fun to bring that to my scrapbooking projects. Here I mixed the silver from the Thickers with the copper metallic hearts and finished the project off with gold metallic thread sewing throughout.
SATURDAY STORIES by Brooke Takara
Cut-apart papers are so great. I usually cut the different elements up to use in my Project Life spreads, but here I thought it would be great to build this layout in the same way I work on a Project Life spread… one square (pocket) at a time, making sure there’s balance in color and embellishments throughout the layout (spread). I love all the bright colors mixed with the b/w photo.
PROJECT LIFE by Brooke Takara
My life is colorful so my photos are as well. I like using black and white elements in my Project Life spreads to balance out the colored photos and really make them pop.
Thanks so much for stopping by and getting to know Brooke better! See you next week!
