Scrapparazzi Blog Candy

Scrapparazzi is celebrating their 5th birthday with some great blog candy. Find out how to play and help them celebrate here:

http://www.scrapparazzisblogg.blogspot.se/2012/04/blogcandy.html

Good luck!  (But I hope I win . . . .it looks like lots of fun stuff!)

Forgotten Tools

One of the hot trends in scrapbooking keeps catching my eye.  Hexagons are everywhere!  I wanted to try to incorporate them in a layout.  But its late (after midnight), everyone else is asleep and the cricut is loud. Then I remembered some forgotten tools.  Years ago (in my consultant days) Creative Memories had punches and a cutting pattern is some kind of geometric shape.  I dug them out -- and they were hexagons.

I'm working on a layout now, quietly, that uses the cutting pattern and punches to create hexagons.  But what other tools or supplies are buried in my stuff that might be new again?

Title Pages

My scrapping time is pretty limited and is rarely in large blocks of time.  I've developed a process to make the most of it.  When I start an album, I print the pictures for at least half the pages in the album.  After sorting the pictures into groups by topic, I go through my stash for paper I want to use for each layout.  Sometimes I pick key embellishments at this point too.

The next step is to come up with titles and cut anything I know I need with the cricut.  (At a minimum, this is the page titles.)  Sometimes I pick other inspirational items.  At the end of the process, I have a 12x12 folder or envelope with the main elements for a layout.

This really helps me make the most of my scrapping time later on, but is not the fun part of the process.  I've been focused for the last week on preparation for an album for my son's Junior year in high school and am really tired of the planning work.  The first page in the album is always the title page, so I took a break to put together the title page.  Here's what I came up with.



The Most of  the paper and embellishments are all from Creative Memories.  The tape and background paper are from the new Enchanted power palette.  Its one of my all time favorites with a great color scheme and lots of embossed and glazed papers.  The tape with the pattern cut into it was really fun to use.  The three little green dots are the inside of the pattern cut into the tape.

I also took a few minutes to look at other title pages I've done (relatively) recently.  Here are a couple that caught my eye this morning.

Stephen's junior album:

Elisabeth's 2d grade album

 

Elisabeth's 4th grade album

Now back to the planning and organizing so I can get to the fun stuff . . . . .

Retail Therapy

Life has been really exciting here this week.  On Monday my 17 year old son broke his leg.  On Tuesday my 12 year old daughter topped off a year of monthly illnesses by passing out.  (Now the doctors are runninga bunch of tests to see if they can figure out if something serious is going on.)   Work is crazy, the taxes are due and my mother is coming to visit this weekend.  Talk about stress!

So last night after work I invested in a little retail therapy.  Most of the local scrapbook stores in my area have closed, but Archivers was having a one day sale - 43% of all embellishments.  With one exception, I focused on items on sale and didn't even let myself look at paper.  I got some fun buttons, some new twin, some prima flowers, and some miscellaneous other things that caught my eye.

I did invest in some glimmer mist.  I'd been wanting to play with it and thought a brand new supply might be the perfect distraction from the craziness in my life right now.  And I had a30% of coupon.  I got a template also.  And some of the wood and canvas items for the mist were included in the sale.  So now I'm ready to experiment.  Any tips?

 In the meantime I wanted to share one of the layouts I've completed recently.  This layout from a family gathering in the summer focuses on a relaxed day with loved ones, just the kind of thing I want to focus on today.  It uses a mix of Basic Grey, LYB, Coredinations, and some other scraps I had laying around.  (Sorry the picture is so blurry - didn't look that way on my computer.)

The Scrapbook Nook Design Team Call and Layouts

I've only discovered all the wonderful scrapbook resources available on the internet in the past few months.  While the opportunities to buy supplies online and to see new products online are great, my favorite part is looking at all the great projects people post.  I get so much inspiration from them and am grateful that people are willing to share their work. 

But my friends and I are more traditional scrapbookers than many of the designers.  Most of our scrapbooks are a vehicle for storing the pictures we take of our families and friends.  We tend to put many pictures in a layout and sometimes are concerned about bulk in the layouts when we put our albums on a shelf.  When I talk to my scrapping friends, they often struggle with taking inspiration from the wonderful designs posted on blogs and by design teams.  They don't see how I get from a layout on line to the layout in my album. 

So I decided to apply for a design team.  I've never entered a scrapbook competition before, so I am way out of my comfort zone.  (It's both exciting and scary).  I hope I can have the opportunity to bridge the gap between many design teams and scrapbookers like my friends and me.  To that end I picked the following layouts to share. 

The first layout is from a visit to the butterfly exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory.  It is one of my favorites of all time.  I'm especially proud of the fact that all of the embellishments are cut from paper.  (I do love stickers and other embellishments, so that was a real accomplishment for me!)  It also highlights one of my favorite parts of scrapbooking - mixing papers from different lines.

This layout was a lot of fun and really inspired by the Dear Lizzy Paper with the clouds.  I again used lots of paper from lots of different manufacturers.  I love the clouds I created with overlapping circles and my cricut.

This layout is another favorite.  I think it captures the fun of the festival.  I did give in to my sticker habit with some fun carnival stickers from Jolee, but I also incorporated ribbon and tickets from the event.  I try to incorporate memorabilia from events in my layouts whenever possible. 

This Thanksgiving layout is another I really like.  I used an unusual color palette for the fall holiday.  While my daughter complained about all the pink and purple, I really liked the way it turned out.  And it was fun to use unexpected colors.

I know the design team is a long shot, but I'm really trying to challenge myself - in my scrapbooks and in my life.  Wish me luck!

Insomnia

It's about 2:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake.  So I got up to play on the computer and see what's new on all the great blogs out there.  If I get inspired before I get sleepy, I might put together a quick layout.  I did find a great Easter layout and a great giveaway at Pamela's World of Scrap.  Here's the link so you can check it out yourself.

http://pamelasworldofscrap.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-fun.html

Hanging On

I made it to Curves for the second day in a row and I can still move!  Maybe I'm not hopeless.  I'm also working hard at the healthy eating.  I made quinoa with pancetta, parmesan and peas.  It's almost like having risotto but is tons healthier.  Its all about the baby steps . . . .

A Fresh Start

I spent a lot of time over the weekend realizing how far I've strayed from my original resolutions - be happy, be creative, lose weight - since the first of the year.  I haven't stuck to my diet and I haven't exercised regularly (or much at all).  I did finish my daughter's fourth grade album (it may be the biggest album I've ever made), but I didn't jump on a new project.

But April 1st seems like a great time to start over!  It is a new month and it's spring.  So I'm starting again.  I spent time this weekend getting my next album project organized (always the worst part and I'm not done yet) and visiting lots of scrapbook sites and blogs for inspiration. 

I'm ready to start over - wish me luck!