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.