Spring layout

I submitted this layout to  The Paperlife blog for their spring themed feature. I just saw this morning that Amy over there decided to use my layout! Yeah! And thanks Amy. So I thought I would do a post on the steps I took to make this layout.

All the flowers in my yard are so spread out that it is hard to enjoy them all at once. So I wanted to bring all the pretty blooms together in one place. I began with the idea of a grid of 4 photos, each 4×4 inches. Then I wanted to support the color in each photo by matting them with coordinating pattern papers. Sorry this next photo is a little blurry! The top two papers are from Basic Grey and the bottom two, as well as the cardstock base, are from Stampin’ Up.

I decided I wanted to contain all the flowers within a large circle. Circles really are my favorite element right now. So I pulled out my Cricut Plantain Schoolbook cartridge and loaded in a sheet of Stampin’ Up cardstock. Using the centerpoint feature on the cricut I moved my blade to the middle of the mat, cut one large circle and then cut one circle that was about 1/2 inch smaller. This left me with a circular ring to use on this project. (The leftovers are  a sheet of cardstock with a circle cut from it and a large circle that I will save to use on other projects.) I took that cut ring and laid it on my layout, moving it around until I got the placement I wanted. I ended up placing it on top of the photos and then tucking it behind a bit of the photos and mat at the top.

I then wanted to flood the edges with pretty flowers. But I also didn’t want to detract from the photos so I went with small neutral flowers. I used my Cricut Pagoda cartridge to cut out a bunch of flowers from cardstock. Then I used Glimmer mist to spice up the flowers in silver, pearl and latte. I crumpled up the flowers for added texture and placed gems, pearls and buttons in the center to finish them off. The final touches for the page were the tabs at each photo to label the names of the flowers, the title cut out of vellum with the Cricut Opposites Attract cartridge, and the date handwritten with my favorite Uni-Ball Signo white pen.

Need a pocket?

I don’t do many crafty things outside of paper making. But I have tried my hand at knitting (very bad at it) and crochet (fell right into a groove with that one). I crocheted a bunch of flowers just because it was so much fun. I didn’t really have a plan for them at the time. But when I found myself with a problem, the flowers came in handy.

The problem I was having was with my laptop. I wanted a place to store my headphones, reading glasses and Wacom tablet pen all in a place easily accessible to my laptop. I came up with the idea that I needed a pocket to stuff that stuff in. And what better thing to use than an actual pocket!

I cut a back pocket out of a pair of jeans that had holes in them. I left enough extra fabric at the top of the pocket to create a flap to close over the top of the pocket. Then, I figured out how to close the pocket. Those crochet flowers! I sewed a flower onto the lower part of the pocket and sewed a crocheted chain onto the flap of the pocket. Close flap, wrap chain around flower and voila, closing pocket! I used 3M Command strips (I LOVE those things) in the hook-and-loop style to attach my pocket to my laptop. I added a bit of decoration from my scrap stash with a clear button backed by pattern paper. Sweet!

Goals for the year

I don’t do new years resolutions. Instead, when I feel the need, I set goals for myself. It just so happened that around December I decided to set a whole new set of goals for myself. Here I am 2.5 months into the new year and I am looking over what I have set for myself and how things are going. These are goals I have that are not project related goals.

Goal 1: Start a blog. Check! Thanks to my DH who is tremendous tech support, I now have a blog! I am excited to share my ideas and thoughts on my crafty adventures.

Goal 2: Submit some of my work for publication. I am not an amazing scrapper. But I think I have some skill. What could it hurt to submit my work? The worst is that I don’t get published, which I am not now anyway. The best is that I could get in a magazine and who knows where that may lead.

Goal 3: Try out for a design team. Check! I applied for a blogger’s design team (haven’t heard back yet). I won’t say who or what for now. It is a short term position which would work well for my family’s needs. Other design teams seem too intense for me at this point in my life. But, wouldn’t it be exciting to be on a design team? I am still looking into other possibilities that may work for my schedule.

Goal 4: Enter contests (based on skill, not just a “fill out the form” contest). Check (almost)! I am currently working on entering a card making contest. The results will be in in April. After I hear back (or don’t hear back!) I will post the projects I submitted.

Goal 5: Make a bit of a name for myself in the scrapping/card making circle. I don’t need to be famous. I just want to be inspiring! This is a bigger goal that encompasses all of the above. I want to share, teach and be a provider of information. I love reading others ideas and I think I have plenty of ideas to share as well.

Wish me luck with my goals. What are your scrapping goals this year?

Cleaning up (or not)

So I’ve been cleaning up my scrap space. I had a bunch of items still sitting out from a Creating Keepsakes Convention I went to in early February. I had purchased a bunch of basic embellishments. I stocked up on buttons, gems, pearls and a few others. Being a color person, I sorted everything into their respective piles and lined it all up on my self waiting to be put away. But I haven’t been able to put them away. They are just too pretty sitting there. It is a tough to have the dual personality of wanting everything stashed and organized AND also wanting all those colors surrounding me. Hmmm. Guess I’ll have to put them away later.

You ARE an artist

So many people only look at art by the classic definition. Only painting and sculpting count. Those are the fine arts after all. Scrapbooking and card making is only a craft or a hobby. I say bah humbug!

When I was little I was in love with the Hallmark store. Rows of paper, markers, stickers and so much more artsy goodness. Somewhere along the way though, I came to believe that being an artist meant that I had to be able to draw. So I tried and tried to draw my way to being an artist. Only thing was it didn’t work. When I signed up for a paper making class in college my mind began to open. Being an artist is more than just the classical painting, drawing and sculpture. It is having an idea and bringing that idea to life. It is that moment of inspiration that fulfills itself. It is putting materials together in ways that makes me happy! Since that eye opening college class I have played and experimented and come full circle back to the stores filled with rows of paper, markers, stickers and so much more arsty goodness.

So take back the word. Go ahead. Call yourself an artist. I do.

Scrapbook Calendars

I have been recording small daily tidbits since my first child was born. I took a regular dollar-store type calendar and just wrote notes on it. I recorded the big things like my son’s first steps to the small things like taking an extra nap that week. When I approached memory recording in such small chunks I didn’t feel like I could fall behind. While my journaling was up-to-date, it took me years before I took this approach with my layouts! I felt so far behind until I started using BLANK calendars to do my layouts AND my memory recording.

I now approach my scrapbooking a month at a time. I look over my photos from the previous month and choose  photos to tell just one story for each child from that month. All the other stories are already recorded in the calendar journaling format! I don’t feel like I have to capture every interesting story in a full scale layout. I hang my calendars in the living room and it acts as an ever changing home decor item as well! You notice in the finished layout below the binder ring at the top used to hang the calendar in the house and the spiral binding at the bottom that holds all the pages together.

I got my first calendars from Stampin’ Up, though they only carry desk size calendars now. There are many companies that make calendar items such as 12 x 12 calendar paper from Creative Cafe available at Two Peas in a Bucket or the Year of Memories Keepsake Calendar by SRM Stickers available from Addicted to Scrapbooking. I’ve never used those products but it is something to get you thinking about what is available. Check your favorite LSS or online retailer for more items.

I used the 81/2 x 11 calendars to start with. You fill in months (I used stamps) and dates (I wrote in mine by hand) in the provided calendar grid and then use the blank page to do your layout. My goal was to do ONE layout a month for each child. That was only 3 layouts a month total for my 3 kids. I felt like that fit my busy schedule!

You can see below how an 81/2 x 11 page looks tucked into a 12 x 12 album. Because the calendar pages are back to back I had to place the pages in sideways into the book to prevent some pages from being upside down. This was something I didn’t think about when I started the calendars. But I just let it go and put the pages in sideways. No big deal.

After a while I got tired of the 81/2 x 11 size and the back to back limitation. So I decided to do my own calendars. I used Microsoft Excel to create a calendar template (also available from my Freebies page). There is the original .xls formated document (calendarblank.xls) which you can open, edit and print. There is also the .pdf version (calendarblank.pdf) which you can’t edit but can print as many as you want. Now these pages are in 81/2 x 11 format since I only have a printer that allows me to print that size. You can use the smaller page to incorporate onto a 12 x 12 layout, use it on a companion page for a double page spread or tuck behind a layout as hidden “journaling”.

As you can see from the photos above, I punch my calendar pages with a 3-hole punch and store the in a 3-ring binder. I used tab dividers to keep the pages separate for each of my kids. I keep the binder on a bookshelf in the living room for easy access. I even tied an ink pen onto one of the binder rings with some ribbon so I would never have to go looking for a pen.

I plan on adding in a calendar section for general family stuff –all those layouts that apply to no one child in particular, to my husband, to myself or to all of us collectively. This will bring my total monthly layouts to 4. A very manageable number I think. If you are like me and really like to stay chronological and up-to-date you’ll appreciate this method. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Blog challenge

Do you do blog challenges? I haven’t really done many since my scrap time is so limited and I have so many of my own ideas I want to work on. But every once in a while I find it fun to follow the plan of someone else.

I recently found Write.Click.Scrapbook blog and am loving it. They recently posted a mystery challenge to complete a project. While I didn’t play along with they mystery (I don’t like doing projects that may duplicate things I have done in the past), I followed the blog through the 5 part challenge and patiently waited for the reveal. Once revealed I decided to play along with a few adjustment to fit my needs. The project ended up being an A-Z mini album of “happy things”. I made my A-Z list and thought I would share it here. Once I complete the pages, I’ll upload a few snap shots of my completed work.

If you’d like to play along, please follow the links.

Creative Adventure: Part 1, Creative Adventure: Part 2, Creative Adventure: Part 3, Creative Adventure: Part 4 and Creative Adventure: Part 5.

So here is the list of things from A to Z that make me happy. It’s not polished but I will work on that!

a: animals
b: bathtub!
c: chocolate
d: droid
e: eggs (homegrown ones!)
f: Friday nights
g: gardening
h: husband
i: internet
j: jeans
k: kids
l: laptop
m: myth busters
n: netflix
o: OMSI
p: photography
q: quiet
r: reading
s: scrapbooking
t: tredmill
u: universe (add Neil deGrasse Tyson quote)
v: visions (of my scrappy life)
w: weight(going down!)
x: xanthan gum
y: yesterday (stories & memories) or yard (kids to play, room for animal, lots garden space)
z: zzzz’s(aka sleep)

Thoughts on Digital Scrapping

I consider myself a hybrid scrapper. My photos are almost always touched by Photoshop Elements before being printed (at home with my HP portable photo printer). I may crop, remove red-eye, add text or play with some color adjustments. It makes me happy to be able to manipulate and print my photos. I feel I have a lot of flexibility with my photo sizes and colors.

At times I will play all digital. I find it fun to use and reuse digital elements. I like to resize and sometimes reshape embellishments. And of course special effects like fading one element into another just can’t be done traditionally. Yet, as much as I like the flexibility of digital, I know I will always be a paper girl.

I just need to TOUCH things. I need to feel the papers, apply the glue and punch the shapes. I like to feel the lump of that button and the fuzz of the flock. I like to twist and turn the page to see how the glitter sparkle changes with the light. Oh, I am so addicted to paper and other goodies.

Digital is so much more environmentally friendly, but nothing can replace the human friendly need for touching things! So go out and touch your paper!

Scrapbook about YOU!

I am often not in photos because I am too busy being behind the camera. The ones I am usually in are blurry photos of the top of my head that my kids take. Not how I want to remember myself years down the road! And when I am gone I don’t want these to be the only reminders my kids have left of me. Because of that I keep a small scrapbook just about me.

The book is small. It is a 6×6 ring album. It is not added to often but what I do add is about what I am feeling in the moment. While some of the pages in it are far from serious, like the layout about my gall bladder surgery, what matters is that I am keeping track of things in my life that impact me. My kids will be able to look back at these things later and get a perspective on their mom that perhaps wasn’t there for them before.

I encourage you to scrap about yourself. Please post a comment with a link to a page about yourself! I’d love to see what others are doing to preserve their own story.

Here are some samples layouts from my album. These happen to be all digital. Because my album is only 6×6 I can easily print the layouts out on 8.5×11 photo paper and tuck them into my album.