Tadaaaaa!

Here's the page I did for Day 31.
And I was so happy to have done something else for my little personal scrapbook until I remembered it's 8.5x11. :( Maybe I'll put it in one of those American Crafts books that can hold every size.

Paper and ribbon are from American Crafts. And that's my brother being a big goof, which he's very good at.

Now that the challenge is over, I'm going to try for the more sustainable goal of doing a layout a week. Maybe two. I've run myself out of my stash of photos to be scrapped, so I need to print more. I used up at least 72 yards of adhesive. I counted and I made a total of 39 individual pages this month. I'm not sure how much paper I used, but I have reduced my bulging blue folder to something that can be squished. And I've discovered that I have almost no red prints. So a good time was had by all.

Sad, sad day

My beloved LSS has closed. I went in to say goodbye and get a picture. They had just put their Rotatrim out for sale and were calling me to see if I wanted it. Do they know me or what?! Like many other scrappers, I've been on the hunt for a straight cutting trimmer for years. I have a Dahle that does pretty well, but this Rotatrim lets me get even closer to the cutting edge before running out of a place to align my paper. I'm really pleased to have the trimmer/memento.



The store's colors were black and kraft, so I decided to go along with that for my little memorial page. I have a nice group shot of all the employees who were there, but I want to put that on a longer page that lists all the fun stuff we did at the store. My kids were sad about it, too. They held craft days for the kids and all 3 of them have made teacher gifts or ornaments there. Now I'm going to have to plan them here at home.

Preschool Graduation

More of those nifty Scrapbooks Etc. photo templates tonight. They are so nice for when you have a bunch of photos that you want to fit on 1 or 2 pages. Fitting the patterned paper in the little empty slots is a little pesky. It would be easier to choose digital paper and plop it in before printing.

I used Basic Grey paper, cut the stars on the Cricut machine and used CK Jessica font.

Crazy Hair Day was today

I'd seen this idea on a blog (yes, a scrapping blog). After showing it to the kids, Megan liked it and Sam pronounced it "pure genius", so we bought some buttons and water soluble glue.


I used some brand new Doodlebug paper and the Tweed and Century Gothic fonts. The buttons are the same ones that were in their hair. My dad called home from work to suggest the page title, so I used his idea. It's funny how everyone's a little more interested in their pages when scrapping is done daily. Of course, the fact that I show them the finished pages first thing in the morning might have something to do with that. Hmm.

Overly Casual, I think.

Oh well, they can't all be winners. I think the kids won't care much. They'll be too busy looking at the pictures.


I found some cute birthday paper by Scenic Route. It conveniently included some fun little sayings stickers that worked well. With every evening's frantic search through my papers, I'm really getting to know what I have in my stash. It's nice to know what I have to work with. I think if I ever go scrap shopping again, I'll buy things with specific needs in mind.

Easter Eggs 2009

100% inspired by another layout that was posted to the gallery today. I used Daisy D's paper for the most part. The letters were done with an old kit from Close to My Heart.

Side 2

I forgot to mention that this sketch is from the Baker's Dozen class I took last summer. I love the way it turned out. The paper is a subtle tone on tone floral print that doesn't scan worth a darn. It's good in real life.

I used the Fastenator staples for the bullet points on this page. Despite

waiting for daylight,

lining them up using a gridded mat,

weighting down the page so it didn't move

and careful application

they are still crooked! I see why people don't love this little gizmo. Oh well, it was a good try. I think they'd be fine in isolated locations where they don't have to match all their friends.

Here's how they look together:

Breaking this in half

I'm wiped out. And the challenge is a layout a day, not a 2 page spread with perfectly spaced embellishments per day. So side 2 will come tomorrow. And I'll be in bed before 1:00 A.M.

This is one of the pages I worked on last night. I couldn't find any design that I really liked until I bumped into this one over in the 2Peas Garden. Amy Grendell I can see her site becoming a nice resource. She has tons of great pages made with standard print sizes.



I think the page needs a little something, but none of the flowers that came with the pink journaling one were a good size. I'm sure something will come to me, but meanwhile, it's done and she can gloat over it. Of course, I can gloat, too. :)

2/3 Done

Projects like this make me wish for a large-format color printer. The price of one makes me laugh and work out other solutions. Like these little Doodlebug rubons that I've been hoarding for years. They are so darned cute.

I actually tried to scrap this year's egg-dyeing pictures tonight. No luck. And I have an absolutely darling picture of my youngest that I worked on, too. Which leads me to repeat the phrase I've been saying every night of this challenge, "Maybe I'll have time to work on this during the day tomorrow." Fingers are crossed.

Perking back up

I printed these today. I love these photos of my son with his cousin. Babies are one of his obsessions, so it was neat when his cousin wanted to be held by Sam. Again, I glued the paper down before seeing who manufactured it, but it's several years old and probably not available any more. The letter stickers are from Doodlebug.

I went searching for a sketch so I wouldn't do a super plain page like the last few. I found this great one at Got Sketch's site. The original is more embellished, but I'm happy with the way this page turned out.

I'm seriously flagging tonight

And then I wondered if I was even speaking English any more.
Per Webster:

Main Entry: flagging
Function: adjective
Date: 1545
1 : languid, weak
2 : becoming progressively less : dwindling



Most of my photos are now falling into a few categories:
1. Already scrapped (This makes me happy.)
2. Don't have a clue how to make them work on a page
3. Need editing so people can see who's in the picture

I need to take a day and prep some photos for the rest of the month. Tomorrow might work, but I've been thinking that every day this week. The scrapbook date with my 7yo has been put off a couple of times, but her pictures are cropped to her specifications and printed, so we're practically ready to go. See you tomorrow!

This is my beautiful daughter, who has hit the silly stage with a vengeance. I ran 2 mm fun foam through the Cuttlebug Red tag Sale font and it came out looking great. That's like paying 20 cents for a set of Thickers. :) Paper is from Basic Grey's Baby Girl collection.

2 hours. No joke.

It started out as a cute little 8.5 x 11 on a white background with ribbon accents. After printing a test shot of the title and journaling, it was a little tight on space, so I started fiddling around with a larger piece of cardstock, which led to a search for some patterned paper that went with the photos, which led to a couple of different options and so on. In the end, I've got a basic page that might have taken 20 minutes to put together and that includes the rubons. Sheesh!

Fonts are Wasted Collection and Am Sans Light. Rubons and brads are from Doodlebug.

I decided to play around with Photoshop Elements again this morning. Lindsay Jane Designs had some free .PSD templates on her blog and I liked this one. I added all the drop shadows after looking up the instructions here. So at 7:24 p.m., I'm done for the day. And while I had really wanted to use up my paper supplies during the challenge, picking up useful digital skills is worth my time, too. Plus, I'm pretty sure my daughter will like this page.

Supplies for this page came from Kay Miller Designs. I love her papers and could easily buy everything she creates.

Halfway finished!

I hope this is big enough for all the family members who want to see the pictures. If not, I'll upload the halves in the morning. I swear it didn't look like an amorphous mushroom until I saw the thumbnail.

My 7yo popped into my bedroom tonight and asked what I'd be working on this evening. She approved the photos, then asked what colors I would use. We flipped through a few, then remembered the X and O paper we'd looked at this morning. She liked it and suggested I use red cardstock. Then she asked if we could ever do this together. So we have a scrapbook date planned for Monday after school. She tells me that she may just use photos and leave off the journaling. I said I might be tempted to add the story. She has lovely handwriting, so maybe she'll change her mind.

Last summer, I helped my niece and nephews make little 8x8 albums. I'm excited to scrap with a kid again. They do not sweat sticker placement ever!

I've been working on my youngest's baby pictures and thought, "Why not start from the beginning?"

The photos are in a free quick collage template from Scrapbooks Etc. magazine. If you haven't ever tried one of these, they are awesome! The paper is from a DCWV pack and the font is Century Gothic.

Since I got a copy of PSE 5 ($10 at a garage sale, have I bragged about this?), I decided to use it for the template. It takes fewer steps, but I had to fiddle with them more than I do in DIS. So I think I'll stick to my old software for assembling these in the future. OTOH, I discovered that Elements is way better at brightening and color correcting these poor blurry photos. So that's a serious plus.

Digital tonight

I just didn't have the time to make this page work with the papers I have on hand. It still took an hour plus. I wish I were quicker, but I like choosing supplies that support the page. Or at least don't directly bely the point I'm trying to make.

I've been wanting to scrap these dorky pictures for a long time. They make me laugh every time I see them. Once a family friend was trying to describe our clan to someone who didn't know us well. He said talking with us was like trying to hold his own in a room full of standup comics. Not so flattering, but accurate. When a stray thought strikes us funny, we usually pass it along.

This template is from Heather Ann Designs. The little brad things are from Melissa Baxter and the kraft paper was designed by Karen Hunt.

I think I'm getting creative!

Seriously. The letters in the title were plain blue and after I glued them down, they didn't stand out well enough against the lavendar. So I started thinking and tried a few things and ended up with this. It's equal parts kinda cute, kinda weird, but it helps the lettering stand out against the background and compete more fairly with the green journaling strips. Oh, and those strips? No preplanned journaling there! I just poured my heart out on tiny pieces of paper. See why I'm feeling creative?

The paper is from a CTMH kit.

A cool dozen

and another late night. These pictures jumped out at me this evening and then I found the perfect quote.

The font is Bell MT and the paper comes from Making Memories. I scraplifted the design from another lady in the challenge. It's a private Flickr group, so I can't provide a link.

Good thing this challenge is on Pacific time!

It's 12:36 A.M. at my house.

Those were hard colors to work with! This page wins the award for taking the longest so far.
AC Thickers, BG paper and Bazill scallops

I've been waffling over how to embellish this page for awhile. Today's flower prompt made me think of my punches (mostly bought for the little girl in the picture). I machine stitched the stems and added pink and yellow rhinestones to the centers, making this page the most embellished I've ever made.

Journaling reads: It was Sam's first day of 1st grade and Megan was dying to be just like him. She got her pink Barbie backpack and I made her a sandwich to put inside. We took first day of school pictures before walking up to the school together. It was such a little thing to do and it made Megan feel so big!

Letter stickers are from Doodlebug and the lacy punch is from Fiskars. The lined paper is from Scenic Route and I just bought a bunch more because I realized how much I like the notebooky look of it.

Favorite Photo

The LOAD challenge includes a daily suggestion. Each one has been good and I've ignored them all in favor of whatever photo/page idea was tickling my brain. However, today I went with the suggestion of using a favorite photo and here's how it turned out.

The font is named Selfish, but I like it because it's so pretty. I feel a little bad because the page is so simple, but with a photo that nice, I wasn't about to distract the eye with excessive embellishing. I feel like I need to compensate tomorrow by using tons of extras.

Cub Scout Day Camp

I had hoped to do these pictures last summer. Oh well. They're done now and before he goes again in June!

Paper is from American Crafts. The font is Am Sans light. I like it. Recently, I went through and made a little document of my favorite sans serif fonts. Then I did one for serif and one for swirly styles. It's handy when I want to find a certain look quickly.

I used a ruler to measure the spaces for the journaling and the end pieces of paper. That sure made it easy. See the virtual you tomorrow!

Why I scrapbook

I figured it would be fun to have the reasons in with all my pages. Plus I found this self-portrait and figured I should do something with it. I had to go through photos for my son, who is student of the week. Apparently, I get in the picture about 3 times every year. And I take something like 15,000 photos a year. Sheesh!

Paper is from Imaginisce, AC ribbon, Bazzill flower and MM journaling paper and brad. Dunno about the buttons.

May 6

Super busy with all the pictures, but I like it and the kids approve. What more validation could I get?

Papers are from CTMH and I used kraft cardstock for the background.

Finished early!

Cub Scouts got moved to Tuesday night, so I brought my scrap stuff along. It's nice to finish my daily page before bedtime.

I have no idea why the letter stickers scanned crookedly. They are straight on the real page. I've liked this picture of my daughter laughing with her tongue out for a long time. The paper is from We R Memory Keepers and the letter stickers are from American Crafts. I used little retired stamps from Close To My Heart for in between.

Another old picture

I've struggled with how to journal about these friends for a long time. This photo is almost 4 years old.

Stickers are from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line. The swirly font is French Script MT and the plain one is Tw Cen MT.

Day 3

I scanned and assembled this in Photoshop Elements instead of my usual software. Let me know if it looks wonky, okay? The line down the middle belongs there because it's two pages.

Papers are from KI Memories and the font is Cuttlebug Red Tag Sale.

I love the picture on the left. It was such a sweet moment. Here's the journaling:

It was Christmas morning with all the usual chaos. Megan had just gotten a beautiful purple scooter. It only took a couple of vrooms around the house before Rose wanted to try. Megan didn’t bat an eyelash; she shortened the handlebar and gave it to Rose. But the wheels were too speedy and Rose fell off. No biggie, Megan just helped her sister ride.

I can’t describe how happy it makes me that the kids are so good and kind to each other. This picture of them with their arms wrapped around each other makes my heart sing.

Day 2

Some cute old Doodlebug paper/stickers and I used the nifty free fonts at http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ to finish it out. I promise the pictures aren't blurry in person. I wonder if I need to clean my scanner bed.

With all my free time

I joined another Layout a Day challenge. See the cute blinkie?





So here's the page I did for today. The plan is to do one page/spread a day for the whole month of May. It works well for me since the kids are in school until June 5th. We won't start the whole swimming lessons, park visits, trips to visit distant relatives craziness until June and July.

I used papers from a Diecuts with a View pack and I'm pretty sure the little journaling card is from My Mind's Eye. My fantastic local scrapbook store sells them by the front registers and since they're decorated on both sides, there's no manufacturing information anywhere on the cards. I was lucky to find one of my CTMH inks that matched the card, so I used my extensive design knowledge (ha!) to tie the page together by inking the patterned paper in the same color. Truly, I live on the edge. For the non-scrappers out there, this is a technique that came into vogue about 6 years ago. I'm still happy that I put the idea to good use. I think it's cute here.