Couldn't resist

I've had a whopping respiratory infection and this is my first day feeling good enough to sit for a bit. So I made this:


This is for the Flip Flop Friday Crop at Scrapbook Bytes. I have been participating since last summer. It's very helpful to have a few limitations placed on my ideas. Usually the requirements spark the memory of some picture or story that perfectly fits.

The picture template is from Heather Ann Designs and the papers and heart were designed by LaWanna DesJardin. I used Wendy Medium for the font and made the tag using Digital Image Pro.

I made it to the end!

Patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye, letter stickers are Making Memories, rubon stitches are from Daisy D's (and not too reliable, dang it! They rub off with an eraser if you put them in the wrong spot, but they also roll up on the cartridge instead of adhering.) and the font is Pea Amy.

I think will go put my feet up. Maybe read a book or something.

Waiting for Spring

I don't know what it is about this winter particularly, but I am sick to death of it! Usually I am much more tolerant, especially when the end of winter just brings me that much closer to 100 degree summer days and the accompanying sunburn. Anyway, I decided to do a page about it. The flower pictures are all from my backyard. The teensy stickers are from Making Memories.

2 more after this!

Then I will have completed the challenge I never thought I could do. Whew!
This is the page I thought I would do back on Day 3 or so. The pictures were matted, the journaling was written and I was completely stumped on a design. So I put it all in a storage thingie (BTW, these are the sturdiest I have found) and moved on to other things. One of the big benefits of commiting to a page a day has been the way I have to let something go when it's not working. Instead of beating my head against the wall when I get stumped, I move on. It's not my natural tendency, but it seems to be effective. So in addition to all the pages I got done, I'm very happy that I've learned some things about the way I scrap and that's going to help me with every future page. Cool, huh?

Pictures taken yesterday!

That sets a personal record. I generally let pictures age before scrapping them -- 2-4 years at a minimum is typical. But the girls were cute yesterday and I got some good shots, so it called for a page. I even printed the pictures the day I took them.

Striped paper is from that same Rob and Bob pack that I've been using and all the other stuff on this page is from Doodlebug. The flower is from a Halloween pack, but it went with my journaling strips. After I'd cut them and written on them, I realized I would have liked them thinner, but there was no way I could fit them through my rotary trimmer, so I left them a little thick. Better thick than crookedly cut. Oh, and the design is an honest to goodness scraplift from page 105 of February's Scrapbooks Etc. That's another first for me. I have never copied directly like that before.

BTW, my hat is off to everyone who uses their Sizzix letters. I picked the machine and a couple of alphabets up while on vacation because they were on dirt cheap clearance and I've always adored Fruit Smoothie. This was my second time using the Sidekick for a title. I suppose I could have gone faster if I hadn't been using as little paper as possible, but I didn't want to waste my glittery cardstock. I think it took about 45 minutes to cut those two words and I ultimately gave up on dotting the I's because the dots stuck to my fingers so badly. So I salute all of the Sizzix users in the scrapverse because you are much more patient than I.

Another second page

This goes with the mountain page from a while back. I decided it didn't need journaling after all, but it definitely needed the leaves. I should write to CTMH and complain that they just don't put enough aspen leaves in those jars!

If I had 365 penguins ...

This is a digital page that uses stuff from Kay Miller's Arctic Antics kit. I did something unheard of (for me, at least) and asked my daughter to pose a certain way for the photo. This had been a school assignment and I loved her crazy ideas (though I have my reservations about her willingness to invite polar bears) so I wanted the picture to show a little goofy thoughfulness. And it worked! I also used a transparency brush on the background of her photo to blend it with the black paper, which is a style I've never used before and wasn't terribly fond of, but I like the results.