Nerd Love - Pi Day and Mad Science: CP Gal Jill Sprott

Crate Paper's Boy's Rule collection is chock-full of gadgets fit for celebrating nerd love. From gaming gadgets to pixelated robots, Boy's Rule makes it super fun and easy to capture your Jedi fanatic's most treasured memories. To help us feature these cool collection, we've enlisted a couple of our CP Gals to document their real life 'nerd love' stories. First up to share her 'nerdfolk' adventures is CP Gal, Jill Sprott.

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"Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can't-control-yourself love it....When people call nerds, mostly what they're saying is "you like stuff", which is just not a good insult at all. Like, "You are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness."- John Green

The members of my family adopt the moniker of "nerd" proudly. If we were a house on Game of Thrones, we'd be House Nerd. Our drawers are filled with t-shirts bearing images of the Millennium Falcon and Pac Man and words like "NASA" and "Bazinga!" We gather around excitedly as a family each week to watch Cosmos. There are more books in our home than any other kind of object, and there are not nearly enough shelves to contain them all. We actually do sing along to Dr.Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Our computers have names.

As you might imagine, my scrapbook albums include a great deal of evidence documenting the nerd culture that my family celebrates and perpetuates.

The Crate Paper "Boy's Rule" collection, which I used in mass quantities here, could just as well have been named "Nerds Rule", since it offers equal opportunities to scrapbook male and female nerdfolk alike. Here, I created a layout about my daughter, who dressed as an exaggerated form of herself last Halloween -- that is, a kid who is mad for science went as a mad scientist.

I let a piece of "Race Track" patterned paper guide the design. First, I placed the photo on the layout according to the rule of thirds, and then arranged clusters of accents in a circle, following the lines of the patterned paper.

I incorporated a variety of cardstock and vellum die-cuts, as well as wood veneer and resin shapes in bright hues, creating a sense of colorful and organized chaos to represent the mind of a nerd.

Although at first glance, the placement of the items may seem random, there is a kind of order present -- the clusters are thematic, representing my daughter's interests, such as video games, music and science.

At the center of the circle, a journaling card (pulled from the "Oh Darling" collection), unites the various parts of the circle, explaining their connection.

The members of my family may be individually and uniquely geeks and nerds (and, in some cases, dweebs and dorks) in our own ways, but we also honor our nerdiness together as a family. For instance, we recently celebrated Pi Day together.

To reinforce the "pi" at the heart of Pi Day, I repeated the concept of "pi" throughout the layout, in it's numerical and symbol forms. I began with the background, misting over a stencil that I created by repeating the pi symbol in a cut file and running a piece of cardstock through my die-cut machine. I then used the stencil as a mask, misting over the subtle pattern on a sheet of "Zap" paper from the "Boys Rule" collection lightly with a cream-colored mist.

I then gathered together various frames from the "Boys Rule" and "Styleboard" collections to house the photos, accents, and journaling on the layout.

In some cases, I placed items over the frames instead of under them, adding pop-dots to give them an extra boost.

Aside from it's symbol, another way that pi is noted is 3.14 and this version of pi appears prominently on the layout within one of the frames. First, I trimmed a bunch of threes, ones, and fours from a sheet of "Boys Rule" vellum "Numbers" paper, and adhered them to a piece of yellow patterned cardstock, grouping them by number. I then stitched across the numbers for a cohesive, textured effect. Over the frame, I used number stickers to emphasize "3.14" even further.

The inspiration for the colors on my layout may be found in the sweet centers of the pies that we ate during our Pi Day celebration. I worked in lots of cream (based on our macadamia nut cream pie) and gold (based on our golden apple pie).

As a finishing touch, I added a die-cut piece of pi (har har) that I reserved when I created my die-cut stencil.

So there you have it -- evidence that I am, in fact, part of a tribe of very proud nerds. If you aren't quite sure whether you are one of us, there is a pretty easy test. Think back to the first time you set eyes on the "Boys Rule" collection. If you gasped or your pulse quickened or you suddenly felt at one with the force, then you are most definitely a nerd.

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As promised, here's some insight into the Crate Paper GRAB BAG giveaway winner! Jennifer was randomly selected based on her comment from last week. After reading your opinions about the color, it seems that many of you still love to incorporate the pretty hue—especially now that spring is just around the corner. We're happy to hear the news!

Congratulations to Jennifer Schroeder! You've won yourself a bag of Oh Darling product.

'I am definitely more of a bold pink hue kind of gal. I love to wear it, share it, and pair it! My closet is saturated with pink. I love making gifts that include pink. AND, I pair it with gold, teal, and white when I design my layouts! Yum yum! Pink is a hue I can use any time of the year. CP thanks for the chance to win! CP is one of my favorite lines to work with!"

– Posted by: Jennifer Schroeder | March 24, 2014 at 02:20 PM

Please send your info to cpblog@cratepaper.com – thanks for chiming in!

If you didn't win this round, don't despair – we'll have another grab bag opportunity with more great CP Prizes in the near future. Have a crafty weekend!

Comments

Awesome layouts---I am a 'nerd' too!

Posted by: Laura Turcotte | March 28, 2014 at 02:41 AM

Hi, I love what you have created here, I'm wondering how you printed the text onto your journaling cards? I have terrible handwriting so I would prefer to use the computer & printer to get my text onto my cards but I'm not sure how to line it up when running it through the printer? How did you accomplish this? Thanks for your response.

Posted by: Karen Hayes | March 29, 2014 at 12:49 PM

Hi Karen! I don't have your email, so hopefully you'll check back in here for the response. First, using a ruler, I measure the space available on the card, and then open a word processing document, adjusting the margins on the page's visible ruler to fit the dimensions. After typing my journaling, I print it, and then, with a pen or pencil, I draw a box around the journaling, extending the lines beyond the journaling block. I add double-stick tape to the back of the journaling card (just at the top, usually), and place the journaling card over the printed block. The lines that I drew help me to see where the block starts and stops. I then run it through the printer once more, and that's it! :) I hope this helps!

Posted by: Jill | March 29, 2014 at 02:11 PM