Photo Assignment #5

Eeek!  I didn't know about this photo assignment until about one hour ago!  I even have my layout almost done.  But, of course after all of the "favorite" photos Lori at the Apron Strings Designs Blog wants me to take a picture of the area of my home that I want to keep secret from the world.

Am I that brave?

Okay, here it is.  The pile of bills to be files and receipts to be organized.  SCARY.

Photo Assignment #4

For this assignment, Apron Strings Blog challenged me to look for things around my house that make me happy.  Little touches here and there.  I spent a few days on this, thinking and shooting and then editing.  My husband kept asking, "What are you doing?"  I guess he thought it was weird that I was taking a photo of the light fixture.

In the end, I realized that I had a theme!  Three light fixtures and four photos of little display areas.  My husband usually does the display type decorating, and he has a great eye.  I love the little art pieces and touches that we have picked up over the years.

Photo Assignment #3

Okay, this one really got me excited.  I knew right away what I wanted to photograph.

I don't really like to collect things.  It kind of makes me feel stressed out to have that much stuff.  But, I do have one collection that is kind of fun.  You will have to figure it out from the photo.  What I will tell you is that recently, when a friend stayed at our house while we were on vacation, she left behind some of these for me to find.  That is the fun part of having a collection.

Photo Assignment #2

This assignment was to take a photo of our gathering space.  As soon as I read this assignment I thought of our living room.  In the past, I don't think that I would have chosen our living room...no one was ever there!  BUT, we have been working on decorating it and making it a warm and welcoming space.

Earlier this summer we have a number of people over for a few different events.  Every time the living room was full of people.  In particular, it was full of kids, who used the coffee table as their dining room table!  Then, the adults sat around them.  It was lovely.  It was inspiring to have guests and to see our space loved by so many others.  I hope that we have more opportunities to gather soon.

Photo Assignment #1

I love photo assignments!  I am a very literal scrapbooker, and sometimes these photo assignments get me outside of my normal box.  I like where this one is headed.

The first assignment was to take a picture of my favorite room in our house.  Humm...I didn't know which room to take a photo of for this assignment.  I like a lot of the rooms for different reasons.  Why is it my favorite?  After a lot of thought I took  a couple photos of my bedroom.  I picked this because I like the feeling in this room.  It is warm and cozy and a place that is good to sleep and read.  I also really love the built in closets and dresser.  Here is a special thing about the dresser...the drawers are extra long because they go all of the way into the eaves of the house!

Our cozy bed

The built ins

My Croppy Summer #24

The Apron Strings Blog is keeping me inspired these days.  I NEVER would have gone for these colors (as a matter of fact many of them have been in my stash for a while!) without this challenge.  However, it ended up working beautifully.

The challenge was to create a layout incorporating sky-blue, white (if you've got some of that fun paper with clouds on it, that'd work too) and spring green.  This is about as sky-blue as it gets--it's the sky! 

This layout is from our cruise in February, and was our favorite excursion...a day of sailing in the Virgin Islands.  What, really, could be better?

Still figuring out how to stitch with my scanner...

My Croppy Summer #17

I have not been scrapping very much this summer because I have been on vacation.  I got back and saw that I had missed a lot of challenges on the Apron Strings Blog!  I managed to squeeze at least one in today.

This is a spread that is for my girlfriends...it is actually a shared spread, started by my friend (she did the photos) and then added on by me (I added the paper...all scraps!), and then my other friend will do the title and journaling. 

This fit with the theme to use scraps, and I think that is is pretty cute. This was our girlfriend getaway to go scrapping, and before my one friend moved to Hong Kong!!!  This is also the first time that I have used my scanner and stitched two scan together...not too bad?

Inspired by a Cookie Jar Treat!

This weekend my goal was to finish up my album from last year (through July).  I had all the little bits left: some journaling here, a title there, and just a couple layouts.  Of course these are the ones that I haven't done because I wasn't inspired.

Luckily for me, I had a yummy bag of goodies from Lori at Apron Strings.  I spent a little time digging through the papers, looking for something to get me going.   I LOVE how this layout turned out.  I used Cosmo Cricket papers (really they are geared for a wedding, but I think that they worked beautifully for Rome).  I love how they all went together.  I even pulled out my old QuicKutz...which I haven't used in ages.  See, all of the stuff is worthwhile after all!

Overall this weekend was a success...scrap area cleaned, album finished, and I used some special paper from the Cookie Jar Treat.  Thanks Lori for keeping me inspired.

PS If you have been reading along (and I don't really know who is...) you might have noticed on my title page (below) for the challenge that it says Dec 2009-July 2010.  Well, that was wrong!  I am almost caught up on my scrapping, but not that caught up!  I was making the label for my album (on the spine), when I realized that I had the date wrong!  I laughed so hard, because at the time I kept confusing myself.  At any rate, I fixed the date, slid in this last layout and with the correct date on the album, I put it on the shelf.  Then, I spent some time looking at old albums (2003).  The style is very CM and simple, but you know what, I loved looking through those old memories.

Sketch Challenge

School's out!!! yeah!  My first Friday night I treated myself to scrapping time.  It felt so luxurious.  Because school ended on Wednesday (at which point I went to bed at 8:00), I could even stay up because I wasn't exhausted.

I worked on finishing things, which isn't always my strength.  I added titles and journaling here and there, and I created a title page and end page for my most recent album.  The title page was inspired by this sketch at Apron Strings.

Here is my take on this sketch (which I turned in to a 12 x 12 layout):

These are kind of random papers, but they all came together, and I like the feeling it gives for this album. The letters are "boxes4abc" at The {Stamps} of Life, a fantastic place to get incredible stamps.

Mon. Tues. Wed. Challenge

Finally, a moment to scrapbook!  Hooray!  I took on the challenge as inspiration.  These papers were definitely for a little boy, and as I don't have children, I kept passing them by.  THEN, I was waiting and waiting for the group shot from my Godson's baptism.  Wow, it all came together for a challenge at Apron Strings.  And, I made it in under the wire.  End of school just about 8 days away, so maybe there will be some time soon for scrapping. 

Here is my layout.  Busy, but fun.  I got kind of crazy with the stars, but why not???  Of course I can't find my white pen, so no journaling. 

Hodge Podge Card

This card was inspired by Gloria at Apron Strings on their blog.  I've been having a lot of fun making cards with my left over goodies and with stamps from The {Stamps} of Life.  I never thought that I would be a stamper, but it is actually a lot of fun!

Here is the original sketch:

And, here is my creation:

Hometown Challenge #5

The spread is the final step in the Hometown Challenge at Apron Strings.  I've been collecting photos along the way, and today I completed this two page spread.  Not every picture is perfect, but I love how it captures my hometown.  I never scrapbook this sort of thing, so it is exciting to have this in my album.  I didn't get to the A Week in My Life, but at least I have this finished! 

Lori, I hope that you do more challenges like this!  I loved it!

Here is my final photo, a view from my Hometown.  This is absolutly my favorite view of Seattle from Gasworks Park.  This is also where I got engaged!!!

Hometown: Assignment 4

So, I have to admit it...my favorite food is breakfast.  This is our go-to place that we can always count on.  Yummy!

Hop To It Challenge 10

I'm trying to keep up with at least one challenge each week at Apron Strings Designs.  This is for the Hop To It Challenge #10, to create a monochromatic layout, using green. In the end I just kept it super simple.  If you are a Bachelor fan, this is the same place they went on the last show  We cracked up when we saw the episode.

My Neighborhood Park

As I don't have children, I am usually at the park to work out.  This is the best park in Seattle: Greenlake Park.  There is a three mile loop around the lake and there is something for everyone.  There is a theater, a playground, crew, golf, basketball, swimming and on and on.  Here is a shot of part of the park and part of the loop trail.

Hop To It #4: Favorite Papers

This layout was inspired by Hop To It Challenge #4 at Apron Strings Blog to use some favorite paper from your stash. 

So, I have been stashing these papers for the "perfect" layout of our Spain trip last summer.  The problem is, there isn't a perfect layout!  I kept looking at these papers and not using them.  I love how they look, even though in the photo they don't look that special.  Somehow the colors and textures just remind me of Spain.  So, I finally put them to work, and they look pretty good.  I'm just glad to be doing some scrapbooking and getting past some barriers.  Thanks for the challenges!

Hometown #1

I'm coming in a little late on this one, but I want to catch up.  Here is the front of our house.  It is a gorgeous day...finally!  Love the blue sky in the background.  I went through photos and realized that I didn't have a photo of the front of our house (almost three years after moving in!).  Thank goodness for this challenge; at least now I have a few.

Hop to it #5 at Apron Strings

I'm hopping into some of the challenges on the Apron Strings blog for April.  I'll see how many I can complete.

Here is my submission for the challenge to use mostly white with a few pops of color.  This is very lightly embellished, but I think that it shows off the photos beautifully.  Somehow this just came together lickity split and I really like it!

Hometown #2: Your Grocery Store

This is my favorite grocery store.  I love everything about it! 

Apron Strings Challenge #18 Faux Stitching

This week's challenge at Apron Strings Designs is to use faux stitching.  It was perfect for the birthday card for my niece.  She turns three on Saturday.  I used some stickles to make it sparkly.  Guess who she loves...Elmo!