I'm back!

Wow! It has been a very long time since I updated my blog. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. The good thing is, I've been having a lot of fun and doing a lot of interesting things, therefore, I haven't had time to blog.

I haven't had as much time to scrapbook, though.

Maybe now that it is winter, things will change and I will be back at the creative front. I hope so!

This fall I took a class from Shimelle called Scrapbook Remix, and it was all about using patterned paper. If you are interested in this topic, I highly recommend the class. You get a lot of value out of Shimelle's classes, and I always find her inspiring. One of the prompts was about how to use your scraps in different ways. Without giving away the content of the class, I want to share what I created.

Deborah came over, and when she arrived I said, "Do you have something that you are planning to work on?" Luckily she was open to my idea, so I shared the plan and we got to work. I dumped out all of my scraps on the table and we started sorting. A few hours later we both had two layouts done (each!) that we loved! This was fun, a great way to use scraps and an inspired idea (IMO). I could see doing this a few times a year.

Here is my first layout, completed with red and yellow scraps.

And, my second layout using pink and green.

So fun!

Luckily this got my creative juices flowing and now I am inspired to get to work on Journal Your Christmas (also with Shimelle). Once you purchase the class you get to take it every year! Last year I did about half of the prompts, using a 4x6 divided page protector. That is my plan again this year. I will complete the prompts that work for me and I will use a divided page protector, adding my completed pages to my holiday 12x12 album. I think that it was a total of about 4 pages last year. I liked the small size (similar to project life) and manageable during the holiday season. I bought three 6x6 paper pads to use, but other than that, I will use my stash.

I chose these 6x6 papers:

LilyBee Christmas Cheer

Basic Grey Aspen Frost

Teresa Collins Christmas Cottage

I plan to be back more often! Thanks for sticking with me.

Scrapbook Getaway

This weekend was a heavenly treat: a weekend away with friends scrapbooking!

On Friday we drove up to Vancouver Island to the Wyldflower B&B where Jocelyn runs amazing crafting retreats.  We were pampered and well taken care of every minute of the day. Her brand new crafting wing is perfect for crafting and her beds are cozy.  The setting is calming and relaxing. I hope I get to return!

Here we are hard at work!

Here is a round up of my creations this weekend:

Inspired by leahf at Scrapbook Circle

Based on a Shimelle Laine Starting Point

Now, I'm packing up and trying not to feel sad. I will remember this weekend for a long time. Sorry about the picture quality-I'm rushing to get this up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Creating a Mini Book

In April I went to Great Wolf Lodge with a few friends. It was a quick getaway, one overnight. It was the first night of spring break, and the perfect way to start off with fun.

I decided to make a little mini book for one of the boys on the trip. It was for his birthday. I thought that it would be a fun way for him to remember the trip.

First, I took a 12 x 12  piece of chipboard and a 6x6 pad of paper. (Kraft Happy Day Funday by My Minds Eye)

I cut the chipboard into four 6x6 pieces, and covered the front and back of each page with paper from the paper pack.

Next, I added in photos and some embellishments. I kept it pretty simple, as the paper was already very busy.

I left one page blank for journaling. This where I wrote a message to him.

I added some decoration to the back cover (can you guess that it's his 5th birthday?)

At the very end I punched two holes in each page, added rings and voila, a little mini book.

I actually tied some ribbon onto the rings, but I forgot to take a final photo before I gave it away!

This is a simple project, and can be created in one day if you have the photos. This is great gift, and a great way to remember a special event.

I don't usually make minis, so this was a super fun project.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

LOAD 512 Round-up

May is almost over, and so is LOAD 512 with Lain Ehmann.  I really had a lot of fun this month.  I tried to use the prompts as inspiration, as opposed to guilty reminders.  Many days I followed the prompts, and other days I totally did my own thing.

I also participated in Creative Crop on National Scrapbook day, so some of those pages I used for LOAD.  Of course, I had my One Little Word work and Move More Eat Well.  I think that I kept up with all of those classes as well.

I know, May is not quite over.  BUT, I think that all of my scrapping time for the month is done.  I just might get one more layout done, but it will be a miracle (lots of evening stuff this week).

So, how did I do???

I completed 18 layouts and five cards.  I also worked on my grandfathers 80th birthday book and started a mini-book for a friend's birthday.  I feel really great about all of this scrapping because the most important part is that I had a ton of fun.

Here are some favorites:

Day 4: Hearing

This LO cracks me up and makes me happy every time I see it.  Joy.

Day 7: 30 minutes or less

Believe it or not, this took me 26.5 minutes!!!

Day 14: 3 (embellishments) 2 (patterned papers-double sided!) 1 (photo)

I love how simple, yet complete this page looks. A fun little memory of my friends in Turkey.

Day 20: Sketch (loved ALL of the sketches!)

This is a funny story of how a pigeon landed on Dave's head and I accidentally got the shot! Just because I was trying to get a photo of the pigeons on S.

Day 21: 5(minutes to find photos) 5 (minutes to choose your papers) 5 (minutes to journal)

I love these constraints, they get me going so quickly!

Day 27: Sketch

I loved all of the sketch days.  It surprised me that some folks found them the hardest!

These are not all of the pages, just a few favorites. 

I started 31 Things with Ali Edwards, and I have been sharing this incredible experience with Deborah. It has added joy to my every day.  I will post about my progress on this project soon.

Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment so that I know you were here!

80th Birthday book, part 2

I am almost done with my grandfather's 80th birthday book.  I have a few little things to do (like deciding what to do on the cover...any suggestions?).  But, otherwise it is done.  I also want to create a dedication/closing page from me to him. 

The colors of the invitation nearly matched the album; an amazing coincidence.  Because of that I really kept the color scheme simple, mostly creams and browns.

Here is the title page:

Then, I divided the book into sections.  The first section is for items that people mailed or emailed.  I collected them and tried to organize them in a meaningful way.  Here is the section divider for that part of the book and one page from inside.

The next section is a historical look at my grandfather's life in photos.  Here is the section title for that section, and then one two-page spread.  You can really get the idea from these photos.

I really suggest using a coordinated line when you are doing a project like this.  That way, no matter what people send to you, the overall look will be consistent.  I had a lot of fun on this, and I think that it will really mean a lot to my grandfather. 

I would love to know about any of your projects like this.  Thanks for looking!

May Scrapping

Wow!  May is full of scrapping.

First, I am working on LOAD 512.  I don't feel pressured to do a page a day, but I love the idea of trying to be creative every day.  That very much fits with my goals and hopes for being creative and enjoying my craft.  Sometimes I just have to get started, and then I'm so glad that I'm working on something crafty. 

On May 5th I spent the day ((Inter)National Scrapbook Day) with Deborah, and we had such a great time with the Creative Crop through Big Picture Classes.  I think that I got 6 of the 12 challenges done.  Deborah rocked it with 10 of the 12!  So inspiring.

I have also been working on finishing my grandfather's 80th album.  I plan to post about that later this week.

This doesn't even take into account my other classes.  They all filter in in different ways.  I'm always carrying my OLW enjoy close to my heart and action, and I have continued to be inspired by Move More Eat Well and my journey with my friends.

Finally, I am still being inspired by the work of Shimelle.  I'm afraid that she is scrapbooking so much that she might run out of photos, and then what will she do???  But, for now, I used her starting point for this layout from our trip to Hawaii.

Shimelle's Starting Point

By the way, I have already created 10 layouts since the beginning of May!  That is almost one a day...even though I usually do extra on the weekend.

Preparing an 80th Birthday Album

In March, my grandfather turned 80.  As a way to mark this milestone he is hosting an 80th birthday party in April.  As my gift to him, I said that I would create a scrapbook.  My email was shared in the invitation, and I have been collecting photos and memorabilia over the past month.  I love reading the different stories by different people who know him in different ways.

Now, however, it is time for the work to begin.  I have the bits and pieces, and I have to begin to assemble the book.

In January, during the CHA peeks, I saw this album

by Simple Stories.  I LOVED it!  It looked perfect for my grandfather, and I loved all of the variety.  Then I had to wait and wait...finally it was released in March and I ordered it right away.  I also order quite a few of the Documented items. 

I particularly like the 4x6 journaling cards.  I think that they will be great to have on-hand at his party.  People can write a note, share a story, and then I can easily add it to the album.  Here are some examples:

I now have everything in front of me and it is time to get busy!  I will share back the end result.

Scrapping with Deborah

On Saturday I was so lucky.  I got to spend almost the entire day with my friend Deborah.  We settled into the dining room and spread out our scrapbook gear.  One one point, my DH came in and laughed at how much of a mess we had created!

But, the reason that we had a mess was that we had been seriously creating.

I want to share two layouts from the day.

First, another layout based on Shimelle Laine's work.   I just love these starting points!  Here is what she gave us to start with:

I loved all of these layers!  I had a lot of fun, and used some photos from one of our snow days.  I love the photos of my friend Karen arriving on skis.

Those penguins really cracked me up.  I love how it turned out.

My final layout was a two-pager.  I used to only scrap two-page layouts; now this is more unusual as I have been enjoying the one-pagers.  This was inspired by a layout by Shelly Jaquet in Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.

Here is my take:

I just love that photo of my niece cashed out in the car!  We had a lot of fun that day, almost as much fun as I had with Deborah!

It felt good to really dive into the scrapbooking and give myself enough time to enjoy the process.  Plus, working with a friend was inspiring and encouraging.  It's nice to have someone who you can bounce ideas off of and talk about the process.

It was a great day.

Shimelle Love

I have been really enjoying Shimelle Laine lately.  Well, to be honest, ever since I first heard her on the Paperclipping Roundtable, I was a fan.  This is the first episode I listened to with Shimelle.  Then, I started following her blog.  Then, I started using her work as inspiration.

Today I'm sharing some layouts that were inspired by Shimelle.  One thing that totally amazes me about her is that she scrapbooks up-side-down in all of her videos.  I wonder, does she always scrapbook this way?  From a design perspective, it could totally work.  If you don't know her already, please do check her out.

The first layout was based on this starting point

Here is my take:

This is from my school's auction, and my friend Deborah was one of the co-chairs.  The theme was Super Heroes Wanted, and she was Super Deborah that night!  Love how this turned out.

Next up I have a layout inspired by this sketch:

Here is my take:

We got this cat canoe at the auction, and Nikko LOVES it!  We laugh about the fact that he seemed to know right away that this was for him.  He is always sleeping here (if not on the bed).

Finally, I used this starting point for a two page spread.

Here is my take on this starting point.

I fussed with this quite a bit, and I like how it turned out.  I am going to cut a slit in the page protector so that you can open the card (which is on the far right) and read the inside of the card.

More soon!  Thanks for reading.

A little LOAD update

February is LOAD time, and I've been having a good time.  I knew that I would not be making a page every day (as I had a week vacation planned and some serious work commitments).  I decided that I wanted to be at piece with that, and I wanted to enjoy the scrapbooking that I did get done.

I like the idea of LOAD, and I like the habit of scrapping every day.  Sometimes I would think, "I don't have time to get a page done," and then I sit down, get started and before I knew it I had a page done.  I do feel that the journaling is hard under pressure, and sometimes I save that for another day.

I want to share some of my creations here on my blog as well.

Day 4: The more things change

This prompt led me to sharing about what hasn't changed: my DH and me!

Day 5: The more they stay the same

My love of popcorn!

Day 7: I always thought (I changed this to what my cat thinks!)

Day 8: I miss

A photo of me and my college friends.  Yep I miss them!

Day 11: School Days

This page is a part of my school album.  You can read more about it here in a previous post.

Day 12: History repeats itself

I used this prompt to complete this fun birthday page (birthdays certainly repeat!).

Day 13:  Hobbies past

Some photos of different quilts I made (mainly in the 1990's).  This was fun, and something I had wanted to do for many years.

Again, I haven't done every day, but I have been enjoyed playing along.  I plan to whip up a few more after vacation.  One person who has completed every page (so far) is Dani.  She has posted a video every day, along with her page.  I love these videos almost as much as the scrapping. Go Dani!

Thanks for stopping by-leave a comment!