10 year old pictures

I found these in my little photo storage box and kinda freaked. I mean, they're Polaroids and as gung-ho as I am about archiving one of a kind photos, I'd never scanned them. Well, I have now! And they are backed up on the external hard drive.

I leaped another milestone by finally scrapping some of my son's earliest pictures. These are the pictures his doctors brought me while I was trapped in my hospital room for 2 days after he was born. The blurriness helps to hide how skinny he was. I was so surprised when I finally got to see him in person. He had a little round face even at 2 pounds, 6.5 ounces.

On a funny note, I showed these to my 4yo because I know she's never seen them. Her response? "Yick!"

The paper is from a retired Close To My Heart pack and the little printable journaling spot came from a Cathy Zielske class at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Back to digital

With the help of a great tutorial by Cheltzey, I was able to finally use a PSD template to create a page. I typically use Microsoft Digital Image Suite for digital scrapbooking, but it can't read Photoshop layered files, so I've been trying to learn the free GIMP instead. Most digital scrappers use either Photoshop Elements or one of the big Photoshop products and I have considered joining the crowd, but even when I carefully follow a tutorial, I get very frustrated with Adobe's non-intuitive menus. In no time, I begin to swear and throw things. This is not the best way to ensure your computer's longevity, so I'm gonna keep tackling GIMP.

There's no hope that Microsoft will bother improving functionality because they discontinued the product last year. Too bad, because I realize I've been using Microsoft everything for just under 20 years. Anyway, GIMP did a great job and once I'd gotten the hang of pasting papers to shapes, it was pretty darned easy. Their drop shadows are way more customizable than what I used in DIS and I am thrilled about that! I couldn't figure the text insertion out easily, so I bailed and went back to DIS for a quick touchup.

This first page uses kraft paper by Ronnie McCray. That kit is worth it just for the great variety of interesting kraft backgrounds. The blue paper is from Stephanie Burt, but I bought it at her closing her store sale, so I can't provide a link. The font is CK Journaling.


I found the journaling for this page saved to my external hard drive. It was sweet, so I went diving for the accompanying photos. The template is #58 from Heather Ann Designs. The gingham paper is from Jenn Ulasiewicz and I used a pink background behind that from Beth Kern. The fonts are Bodoni MT and Pea Jenny Script and Pea Shirley (the J - I didn't like the other.) The Pea Font site has tons of free handwritten fonts, along with some cute doodles. Good to know, eh?

One thing that makes me chuckle is how the photos of my daughter eating a single sandwich quarter included both a fish face and cheesy grins. What a nut!


It's time for my semi-annual asthma-a-thon, so I hope to get more digital pages done. I'm too wiped to manually cut and paste, but clicking a mouse is just my speed. Besides, I've had a lot of good ideas lately and this lets me get them out of my head quicker.

Made From Scratch

My friend Becky hosted a very cool craft day at her clubhouse. Our weekend was hectic, so I only got to visit for 2 hours. Here's what I made while hanging out with Becky:



I started from scratch with both pages and was happy to get them together so quickly. I cheated a bit by using the same patterned paper on both pages, but it worked with both sets of pictures, so who cares? The title letters were cut on the no longer supported Xyron Personal Cutter (sniff) and I used some old Making Memories Heidi rubons for the lower page. The notebook paper is not really notebook paper, it's actually from Scenic Route, so it's nice and hefty.

I've begun taking my scrapbook bag with me while I wait for my son in Cub Scouts. I bought a magnetic dry erase board and some magnets so I can work on what I want in the car. It's sort of a poor man's Arccivo. The point is that I should continue to have some new pages to post, at least for the next few months.

Another from the Baker's Dozen

This was definitely my favorite of the two classes I took last month. This page comes from Sketch 9. The ribbon is from an American Crafts pack my 6yo found at Target. Interesting little tidbit I discovered: The black Uniball Signo gel pen loses a little ink when you erase pencil lines. That's good to know for future pages when really black journaling is what I want. In this case, a softer ink doesn't compete with the black rubons. Nice!



More pages will be coming. Things got crazy last month with Cub Scout Day Camp and my kids' first camping trip and other totally scrap-worthy activities. So I'm going to keep chipping away at these pages in between taking more pictures and having more summer fun.

A couple more pages

I was given a crop night as my birthday present, so here are a few of the pages I made. The others are missing tidbits, so I'm waiting to post them in their fully completed glory.

The birthday pages are not from any of the sketch classes. I put together 3 class pages in the same amount of time this took (which makes me think hard about incorporating more sketches instead of starting from scratch -- triple the productivity!). I have been struggling with the photo placement on these for awhile. My daughter really wanted her butterfly cake on the page, but it was on a bright foil background and clashed with all the other photos and papers. I bugged my fellow scrappers and store employees for ideas and someone recommended cutting it out. That made a world of difference. The little trail coming from the butterfly is part of a big crystal swoosh by Prima. It is much sparklier and pretty in real life. So's the entire layout. I tried scanning at a high resolution and still got those dark photos and garish colors. Maybe my scanner is ageing badly. I hope not.




This is from the Baker's Dozen class. I am really enjoying the concept of the class. Put decorative supplies in 12 little egg cartons and mix them with the dozen or so photo collections that you've put together. The pages come together quickly and not because you are lowering your standards!

This is my daughter with my dad. There were some funny photos leading up to this one, but his reaction to her finger placement is a hoot.



I have 4 more class pages that are nearly ready to post, so there will be more soon. Just this week, I will get 5 new sketches/assignments in the classes. Funny how just a little bit of direction can get your mind moving. I am happy to get these done!

What's this? Our hero made a LO?!

Yes, yes, I did. It's based on the Baker's Dozen class currently going on at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I signed up for it in a fit of insanity, but it looks like it will pay off. Page #2 is already prepped and ready for assembly, but I'm going to go to bed and finish it tomorrow.

The Sketch 101 class is going well. I've got photos selected and printed for the first 2 sketches, but this page looked like more fun. My daughter selected the patterned paper. Strangely enough, it's what I had sitting to use on Page #2, so you'll be seeing reruns tomorrow. At least it's a different kid in that picture. :)

My Summer Vacation

involves this:


I waffled and debated about joining this and finally decided to do it. I like interacting with people in online classes, but I wasn't sure I felt like going along with the sketches. I am full of scrappy ideas lately (a direct result of cleaning out my scrap cupboard and finding tons of cute older pictures) and I don't want to put aside those ideas because the photos don't fit the assigned sketch. I'll see how it goes. I'll post the results here.