Scrapbooking With Mary Anne Radmacher

Paper crafters are falling in love with the words of poet and artist Mary Anne Radmacher.

Wrote one scrapbooker:“I was so happy to find word-based embellishments that were not syrupy or fluffy. These are intelligently touching— and I love the colors, too.”

Techniques
Mary Anne’s intelligent and heartfelt words, combined with a sophisticated, contemporary calligraphy, lend themselves to a variety of paper crafts, from cardmaking to altered books. Of course, her sentiments are perfect for scrapbook pages, too—from teen pages to weddings and even for a photo of him. Take a look!

Meet Mary Anne!

Mary Anne Radmacher, artist and wordsmith, lives just down the road (actually, down the highway) from the YCS office at Hot Off The Press. Her Salem, Oregon studio is part store and part workshop. She sells her beautifully decorated journals, posters and prints, each featuring her calligraphy and wonderful words. In fact, words are Mary Anne’s specialty, and her shop’s name—Word Garden—reflects it.

Mary Anne says: “i've been writing since i was a wee lass. it was always easier to find my thinking way through the written word. verbal expression and interaction lacked clarity for me. so, as a child and a youngster i truly used writing to discover my attitude and emotional weather. i have long sought a balance between what IS and what MAY BE. my writing reflects that calculated optimism. in my life, as in my writing, i try to acknowledge the challenge of our experience while balancing that with the extraordinary opportunity and joy which our days present. people have called my writing "emotionally accurate", "intelligently sensitive". i don't mind those assessments. i like to
think i approach my truth in an inspiring and artful way.”

And what about that wonderful calligraphy lettering style? “i created my letter forms especially for my writing. i wanted a letter form which danced and felt very fluid. i took several "busman's holidays" to the sylvia beach hotel in newport, oregon...before it actually opened! i was the only guest. third floor library all to myself looking out over the sea. i probably lettered each letter no less than a thousand times.”

With such a popular and successful style, it may seem surprising that Mary Anne has had no formal training. “i have always been a "student" even though i have not received formal training beyond high school. i listen hard. i read a lot. and i am willing to say YES to the longings of my heart. so....as a young twenty something who kept expressing, "i long to be an artist”, i finally answered, "so, what's keeping you?" and my circle of friends encouraged me a lot. A LOT. they mirrored my talents back to me
in a way that made me believe i could achieve anything.”

Get inspired with more of Mary Anne’s work—visit her website at maryanneradmacher.com

Technique: Word Blocking

Paris combined a selection of words on a single page by overlapping and placing them in groups. She cut out the word “wedding”, matted it on metallic silver paper and created a ribbon loop on the left side. “Commitment” and “confident freedom” are also matted on silver paper and placed together to overlap the photo. “hope,” “shared dreams” and “mutual vision” are matted on silver and grouped on the right side of the page. “A future built on respect, joy and a good deal of humor!” is placed at the bottom of the page. Notice how Paris has created a balanced “frame” around her photo, placing it center stage? Notice, too, how Paris has placed each grouping slightly off-center: the “wedding” at the top of the page is more toward the right; the phrase at the bottom of the page is more to the left. And the single word groupings are offset as well. The result? A beautiful layout that uses elegant words to celebrate a special photograph.

In Paris’ Supply Box

Mixing Letters & Words

Mixed fonts is a popular look—and Mary Anne’s simple style of brush calligraphy is perfect for this technique. Because the same artist has drawn all the letters, you can confidently mix different colors, sizes and even mix capital letters with lower case letters for a totally coordinated look. It’s perfect for those who like the contrast of different lettering styles used together, but who don’t want the contrast to be too attention-getting.

Here, LeNae combined Mary Anne’s word plaques with letter cut-outs and arranged them in a column. To keep the border from looking too linear, she added fibers on either side of the word plaques. Notice that “friends” and “lifetime” are lower-case cursive written in black ink with a white shadow around it. The letters that spell “for a” are upper case block printing in white. How does it work? LeNae kept the page in tone-on-tone shades of pink and purple, so the mixed-font journaling would coordinate with the papers and photos without becoming overwhelming. “Friends” and “lifetime” are on a faux-texture purple paper, while the letters have a subtle brushstroke lines. The effect is one that‘s fun and fresh for a teen page, without distracting from the photographs.

In LeNae’s Supply Box

Tag Art

Who can resist tags? Possibly the most perfect scrapbook page embellishment, a simple tag is even more extraordinary when decorated with beautiful words.

Here Arlene combined two tags on a single page—the small tag contains the first portion of the quote, the larger tag has the second portion. They can be tied together with a few fibers, or placed separately as Arlene chose to do. While Mary Anne’s sentiments have instant appeal to women, there’s no reason why they can’t be used on a masculine page. Arlene chose a blue collage paper as the background, then selected blue tags to coordinate.

Scrapbooking With Mary Anne
By Sara Naumann, Hot Off The Press

Technique: Word Blocking

In Paris’ Supply Box

Mixing Letters & Words

In LeNae’s Supply Box

Tag Art

In Arlene’s Supply Box