IKEA, Layouts and LOAD

I've really been spending a lot of time scrapbooking and enjoying my process. I've also updated my scrapbook room with a couple new IKEA shelves.  I'm really trying to ENJOY each moment and be grateful for the time I have to spend creating and reliving some old memories.

First, Twelve. with Stacy Julian at Big Picture Classes is incredibly inspiring.  It is a process-oriented class and the goal is to scrap 12 layout each month.  In January I finished 9 layouts, which is pretty good.  Here is a favorite from those layouts.

I know that in February I will make the goal, as I am also tackling the challenge of LOAD.

LOAD (LayOut A Day) this February, Past Perfect is a good way for me to begin to scrapbook some of my old photos (that my mom just found!).  Here is a favorite from day 2.  Photo from 1985.

This layout was inspired by a scrapbook starting point from Shimelle. 

I'm really enjoying these starting points, maybe even more than sketches, which I almost always use.  Shimelle has really inspired me to think about using blocks of pattern paper and layer different blocks together in different ways.

LOAD update: so far, 3 days, 3 layouts!  I'm already thinking about my plan for today's layout: The More Things Change.

Finally, last weekend I went on a great trip to IKEA and purchased two new storage shelves.  The trip was almost as much fun as reorganizing my scrap room.  I am proud to say that my Golf held EVERYTHING we bought!  Love this.

At the same time I was doing this we had lights (!!!!!!) installed in our closet.  The dark closets have bugged me since the day we moved in.  I love turning on the light EVERY DAY!  Now I have light, organization and plenty of inspiration for scrapping.

Here is a before shot of the room and the closet.

And now!

Finally, here is my new punch storage shelf, reused from the old pantry in our old kitchen.  I guess there is a reason that we've held on to this shelving for so long! And, it looks like I have room for a few more punches...

Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year... a few weeks late!

I just decided that one of my goals this year will be to update my blog more often.  It's been over a month since my last post.  E-gads.

I have been busy, I suppose with holidays and traveling and lots of fun at Big Picture Classes.  I can't believe that I was scrapbooking without them just over a year ago.  Now, the instructors and all of my classmates are such a huge part of my scrapbooking as well as my daily enjoyment of life.

Did I mention ENJOYment?  Enjoy is my One Little Word this year.  I've never actually picked a word before, but I do love the idea.  I thought about it last year and this year I knew that I wanted something to hold on to throughout the year.  I knew that my OLW needed to be active and positive.  Enjoy quickly found its way into my heart.  Here is my first page for the OLW class, along with my portrait, embodying the word ENJOY.

I've stacked my plate high this year already, because in addition to Ali's class, I am in two other classes.  Move More Eat Well with Cathy Zielske and Twelve. with Stacy Julian.  They are all three equally inspiring in different ways.  MMEW is very personal and introspective, and I am taking it with a group of friends.  This makes it super special to me and I love that I have a new way to connect and share my life with these friends.  Oh, and did I mention that I hope that it helps me to build exercise back into my life? Yes, I do hope that.  Here are a few of the pages I have completed for this class.

My final Big Picture Class is the big kahuna.  It is with Stacy Julian and it is INCREDIBLE.  It rocks my world.  Really.  She is so incredible, thoughtful, inspiring and is adding so much to my life.  Not just my scrapbook life (but that part is huge).  I aim to be as affirming in my life as she is in the class.

I don't have a specific layout to share for Twelve. but I will tell you that the goal is to scrapbook 12 layouts for 12 months.  That would be 144 layouts.  I have completed three so far.  I hope to get a few more done by the weekend.  Here is one of the LO that I finished.  It is based on a Scrapbook Starting Point by Shimelle Laine.  There is a right side LO as well, but the photo did not turn out.  I'll try to add later when I have better light.  The blue strips are washi tape from my friend in the photo below all the way from Hong Kong!  Great Christmas gift, Denise.

Setting an ambitious goal for number of layouts to complete brings me to my next adventure: LOAD212 with Lain Ehmann.  This starts February 1st and the goal is to scrapbook a LayOut A Day for 29 days.  I'm particularly excited about her theme: Past Perfect.  I just received a box of photos from my mom full of childhood photos.  This class will be the perfect opportunity to work through some of these memories and photos.  I can't wait.  Plus, it will help me meet my goal for Twelve.

Maybe one of these classes sounds interesting to you?  I hope that you will join in the fun and ENJOY the year ahead.  Thanks for reading, and I hope to post once a week.  It's good to have goals.

Journal Your Christmas--Week 2

I am so excited about my second week of work on Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle Laine.  I am having a lot of fun, and trying to use each day to think about the holidays in a special and joyful way.  This has been a bit of a challenging December, as my DH's family is facing some difficult health issues.  This makes Christmas planning a little more challenging than usual.

I have stuck with my plan of using divided page protectors, and I am loving the small size.  It is quite manageable and I am just doing the prompts that make sense to me this year.  As this is my first year, this seems like a good approach.

Here is page 2:

I have our Christmas card, along with our Christmas letter (tucked inside).  I journaled below all about our process for creating, choosing and mailing our cards.  Did I mention that I LOVE Christmas cards???

This page includes responses to the prompts for days 3 (Christmas card), 7 (Christmas to-do list) and 9 (Christmas tradition).

One thing that I love is my hidden journaling.  I cut an opening in the top of the pocket so that you can pull the hidden journaling out.  Here is a picture:

Overall, I'm very happy with my progress!   I can't wait to work on this more and share my progress. I will probably keep up this pace with about one full page each week.  So, check back later this week!

Journal Your Christmas--the layout

I have been thinking a lot about the prompts and information coming from Shimelle for Journal Your Chirstmas, but until today I had not actually DONE anything!

It felt so great to sit down and play with paper and stickers and photos and all of my craft goodies.  I am totally inspired right now by kraft, red and white.  So delicious.  You will see this from my first page.

I decided to use divided page protectors for this project.  It will go in my Things We Do album, in the Christmas section.  I don't know how many pages it will be, and it doesn't matter!  I will just play and have fun and do as much as I am inspired to do this year. 

I am using Basic Grey Nordic Holiday papers and the American Craft "Elf" thickers.

Here is what my first page looks like:

This included prompt 1: Manifesto, prompt 2: weather, and prompt 4: dreams.  On the back I will add in our Christmas card into the bigger section, for prompt 3.

I already prepped the other side, so I'm ready for the week ahead. Thanks for reading!

December Fun

It is December 1st and I'm trying to get in the Christmas spirit.  I decided to join in the fun at Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle Laine. 

I don't know that I will do something every day, but I do know that I will think about things every day.  I hope that this will help me get into the Christmas spirit.  I love her spirit and attitude and I know that hearing from her will keep me going.

So, to start off, she gave us a prompt to have us frame our thinking for the season.

Then, she gave us the manifesto, which I've already read a number of times.  December can be a hard time for families, and I love being able to focus on the positive and the joyful.

I hope that you are ready for some Christmas fun!

Shimelle Laine Love

One of the new blogs I started following this summer is by Shimelle Laine.  I love her style and her content.  I don't know how she comes up with it all!  I first heard her speak on The Paperclipping Roundtable.

She has a number of challenges and sketches and starting points that she posts throughout the week.  As I have been working my way through Mother LOAD, I have found Shimelle very inspiring.

Here are two layout I created based on something from Shimelle.

First, I used this sketch:

Here is my creation:

I also used her starting point for one of my layouts.

Here is her starting point:

And, here is where I went with it:

Both of these layout were also for LOAD.  I've loved finding time almost every day to scrap...I'm also ready to spend more time on a few layouts, just for the fun of it!  6 more days of LOAD!  I'll be sharing more layouts soon.

The Mother LOAD: Week Two

14 layouts done! 

I am starting week three of The Mother LOAD at Big Picture Classes.  I have two weeks under my belt.

I'm so amazed that I have kept up the scrapping, even with work being so busy. Sometimes I come home and I think that there is NO WAY I will scrapbook.  Then, I sit down and think that I'll just pick photos, or the paper, or the sketch...and then boom!  I'm almost done.  It has been very liberating and inspiring.

I'm excited to share my layouts from week two.  I'm trying not to over-think things, and to go with my initial feeling.  If I think too much then I start over-thinking and rethinking and not doing!  Lain always says to change up the prompts as much or as little as you need.  Sometimes I start off thinking that I won't follow the prompt, but I almost always do!  I love thinking about it all day and coming home to create something.

Day 8: Create a page about what you need.

Day 9: Use scraps to create a layout.

This layout is based on a Starting Point from Shimelle Laine.  I've really been enjoying her blog, tutorials and inspiration.

Day 10: Use a kit (and a black and white photo--I didn't do this part)

Day 11: Sketch Challenge

Sketch from Lain

Day 12: Use a sub-par photo on your layout.

I added journaling around the edge of the paper.

Day 13: Ritual

Day 14: Stamp on a scrapbook page

This layout looks better in person.  The dirty looking parts are actually shiny bits of loveliness from Perfect Pearls.  I love how this page looks!  I created a poem based on The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.  I highly recommend reading it (the book) if you haven't!

Now, I've got to get to work on week three!  Check back next weekend for a round-up of these layouts.

The Mother LOAD: Week One

On September 1st I started my first LOAD (LayOut A Day).  I was scared and worried that I just couldn't find the time to scrapbook every day.  I thought that there was no way that I could do a layout every day.

Well, I was right and wrong.  Most days I read the prompt in the morning, think about what I might want to do, and then come home and spend about an hour scrapping. I'm doing quite a few single pages, and I'm enjoying that.  Once again, Big Picture Classes has forced me out of my comfort zone and into trying something new.  I'm liking it!

Lain says to change it up when necessary, and sometimes I did.  But, mostly I used the prompts as a starting place.

Here are my layouts for the first week.

Day one: Scrapbook at goal or aspiration.

Day two: Scrapbook about laughing and who you laugh with.

Day three: Find a photo that you have avoided scrapping.

This is from 2007!

Day four: Scrapbook using your bare minimum requirements.

Day five: Break out of your habits and do something different.

Day six: Scrapbook a self portrait.

Day seven: Way back Wednesday: scrapbook inspired by the early days of scrapbooking.

So, I made it through the first week, and I also have days 8, 10 and 11 done (still working on 9).  I'll post about my progress next week.

Initial thoughts: I can scrapbook a little bit every day.  I'm surprised to discover this.

Shimelle Challenge 2

Yeah!  I actually finished another challenge tonight for Shimelle Laine's blog.  This one wasn't due until Tuesday, so I decided to get working.

This is for the Sketch Challenge.  Here is the sketch:

And here is what I created:

I'm happy with how this turned out.  I've had these photos sitting around to be scrapped for two years, and this was the perfect chance to finish this project.  I spent a little time using my cricut, which was good practice.  I actually cut out the same shape in two different sizes.  I had to practice a bit to get the right sizes!  This was part of the sketch challenge.

Thanks for reading!

Shimelle Challenge

One of the new blogs I am following is Shimelle Laine's blog.  I like her ideas and have been enjoying the content there.  I first heard got to know her on the Paperclipping Roundable.  I loved how she talked about traveling and scrapbooking about her travels.

Last weekend she posted a ton of wonderful challenges.  I thought for sure that I would get at least three done.  Well, I didn't.  But, I did get one done.  It must have been the perfect challenge at the perfect time.

The Let's Go Retro Challenge was to scrapbook a photo from before 2011.  For some reason this was just the nudge I needed to grab a group of photos that I had been stashing to scrap from our old house.  These were photos from 2002-2005 of the front yard.  Now that we don't live there (and haven't for four years!) I haven't been very inspired to scrapbook them. 

But, I picked them up and whipped out this layout, which I actually really like.  Because Shimelle lives in London, I have all of 10 minutes to get this posted and linked!

I wish that I had completed more challenges, but I have been distracted by The Big Idea Festival at Big Picture Classes.  I'm sure that you will see a post soon!

Week in the Life: Saturday and Sunday

I'm finally done!

I am really glad that I did this project, but I am also glad that it is over.  I might fuss with the pages a little and and something when I get them printed, but that will be fun and not necessary.

This is my first time completing a Week in the Life...I learned a lot.  This time I did everything digital, which had its benefits.  However, by the end I was sick of being on my computer.  I don't think that I'll ever really be a digital scrapbooker.  The other thing is that I really like the paper pages that I see from other folks, especially the 3x3 pages (baseball card sized).  Next time, I think that I'll try 8 1/2 x 11 for a change.

At any rate, a lot happened in one week.  It's really special to have all of this documented and I know that I will enjoy looking at it after I take a break from it!

Here are my last two days:
Saturday

Sunday

Thanks for looking!

Now I'm starting to prepare for The Mother LOAD... a page a day in September.  I'm trying to think about what types of things I will want to scrap one page at a time (as opposed to a 2-page layout).

Week in the Life Thursday and Friday

I have been slowly working on my layouts for Week in a Life.  I wish that I had more photos and this is a good lesson for any future attempts.  I felt like I was taking a million photos, but in the end, when I uploaded them I didn't have that many. 

One think that I liked about these pages is that I have some pictures of me.

Here is my creation for Thursday:

And Friday:

I'm working on finishing up Saturday and Saturday.  Thanks for looking.

Week in the Life

This year I decided to jump into Week in the Life with Ali Edwards.  Tomorrow is the last day of the week (Sunday) and I have done a pretty good job of taking photos to capture my week.

I thought that this would be a particularly good week to document (the week was chosen by Ali, but it worked for me!) because so many things were going on.  I would have regular work days, days off and big moments with our friends heading back to Hong Kong.

I purchased Ali's templates from Designer Digitals, and decided that this time I would create all of the pages digitally.  I don't usually do this, but for this project it seemed to make sense.  I may add in some other items later, when I get the pages printed.

My plan was to have two pages per day.  A large focal photo on the left and some sort of collage on the right.

So far I have completed Monday:

Tuesday:

and Wednesday:

Stay tuned for the rest of the week!

Why I Scrap

I am taking two classes right now at Big Picture Classes.  I'm enjoying both of them, even though I don't have quite the time I would like for scrapping (mainly because wonderful friends are visiting).  My first layout challenge for The Mother LOAD: A Scrapbook Marathon is to create a LO about why I scrap.

As I can't get to my scrap stuff (it's also the the guest room and we actually have guests!), I decided to do a blog post.

I've been thinking about this question all week, and there are a number of possible answers. 

First, it is creative, and I just love the beautiful papers.  I appreciate the beauty in the creation and surrounding myself with nice things.

Second, scrapping helps me to remember things.  Really!  Sometimes I forget even important things, but if I scrap the memory it is better stuck in my brain.  Not to mention how it helps when I look through old albums and remember that wonderful time all over again.  This is why I'm trying to spend more time on the journaling; later these words are so important.

Third, and most importantly, I scrap because it brings me closer to those that I love.  When I'm missing a friend or a vacation or want to spend time with a memory, scrapping is the perfect way to do this. 

Yes, scrapbooking is creative, helpful for documenting memories and best of all it connects me to the world around me and the people who make my life so wonderful.

My favorite is to scrap with friends; sometimes they are my friends here locally and sometimes they are my virtual friends in the incredible online community.

Here are some of my favorite scrapbook chicks:

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Back in Action

Wow!  It has been almost three months since I last posted.  What have I been doing???

Well, I have been scrapping, but mainly for myself and for classes at Big Picture Classes.  I've just linked my work directly there, so I don't have to post here.  But, I miss having my blog going, so I thought that I would do a little catch up.

Over the past few months I have taken two classes:

28 Days of Sketches with Lisa Day
May with May with May Flaum

I really enjoyed both classes.  The sketch class was pure motivation and the May Flaum class was completely inspirational.  I am a huge fan of hers, and I find her so real, honest and comfortable in her own skin.  I like that.

The sketch class kept me motivated and inspired, and I even tried to go outside of the lines of the sketch; sometimes I am very literal. Here is one that I really liked.

May with May was lovely.  I looked forward to her emails every single day, and I just loved being a small part of her life.  I was inspired to do something totally new, which was to try masking.  I made this page about a Turkish cooking class that I took.  I love how it turned out.

School just finished, and I'm relishing the long days.  I'm in the midst of Finding Photo Freedom with Stacy Julian, and it is amazing.  She is so incredible.  I love her way with life and people.  The class has really got me going, and I have spent days sorting and cleaning out my scrap area (mainly photos, but then it spreads...).  One of the main HUGE tasks that I have done is sort out all of my negatives and back up disks.  I'm taking them to work to have them in a separate place.  She really made it real that you have to have your back ups somewhere else.  Duh.  I can't wait to do this on Monday.  She is also encouraging me to get rid of some photos.  For some reason I have a hard time trashing photos.  But, with the added help of the class I'm making progress. I think that this is the beginning of something great.

If you aren't in the class, she shares a lot of wisdom on her blog, look for "Library of Memories".

Next up is The Mother LOAD with Lain Ehmann.  I'm a little scared.  More on that later.  Starts June 30.

I'm also hoping to follow along with Ali Edwards and her Week in the Life at the end of July.  The timing is good, as my friends will have all departed, and it might be a good week to capture in time.  I'm enjoying those sort of tasks, as long as they are short.  I'm not up for a year's worth!

Okay, that should get me up to speed.  I'm going to try and post a bit more.  However, it is summer and friends are soon arriving.