My process, sans sketch

Today was my first day back to school for workshops. We did a great activity that I am going to turn into a page that I'll share with you tomorrow. Right now I'll share my scrapbooking process.

I sometimes sketch--I rarely use someone else's, mainly because I find it hard to search through sketches for one that will work with my photos and stories. It's easier for me to make my own. Some of my favorite pages, though, are created when I just start cutting without a sketch.

Here's an example. I had some photos of my son, occupying his time while waiting. I thought I'd scrap my admiration for his ability to fill his time without video games (he has none). I trimmed the photos down to wallet size and matted them on white.


I liked them lined up with a tilt, a little like Lisa Dickinson does so well.

Next I found same papers I like. I took my inspiration from the photos--his sweatshirt has some teal and orange in them, so I went through my patterned paper stash until I found some I liked: Bazzill Swiss Dot in teal and some Basic Grey Marakesh (sp?).


By the way, that is a lap desk my layout is on--I have a scrap space, but I scrap on a lap desk to be near the family.

I trimmed the patterned paper to make a little "home" for the pictures. At this point I envisioned a little stitched border, so I pulled out the sewing machine and stitched around each rectangle of patterned paper.

Now I needed to start thinking of embellishments. In particular, I thought I needed a strip of ribbon to clearly separate the patterned paper; black was my choice, since black often grounds layouts. I went down to my scrap space and also pulled anything that looked like it shared color (teal or orange) or feeling (a little whimsy):


I didn't end up using everything I pulled; in fact, I got out my stickers and rubons to play around too. I saw the title belonging best on the ribbon, and to make it easier to see, I thought I should put it on a tag of some sort. I laid stuff down on the page until I found a combo I liked.


I didn't see an easy place for the journaling; I thought I might type it on white, cut it in strips, and place it under the title, but I thought that would be too distracting from the rest of the layout. Instead, I just wrote it, using the dots as journaling lines.

There it is--how I create without a sketch.

Random Friday

I tried showing the boys Fantasia today. They fell in love with Fantasia 2000 this summer, so I pulled out the videocassette we have of the original Fantasia--predictably, our VCR no longer works, so I logged onto Netflix and put it in our Queue...and had the most interestingly random experience.

Up popped some recommendations based on my selection of Fantasia: Fantasia 2000, of course, Dumbo, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Mary Poppins, 2001...? and Psycho.

????????

I just don't get it. Granted, people who liked Fantasia may have liked Psycho as well, but I seriously don't see the connection.

This made me think of my randomness, or lack thereof. I am a fairly structured, linear person. Just look at my scrapbook pages. And even my gardens are well-structured: I group like plants to produce an impact on the viewer, I edge my beds, I weed, I have structures, I rein in spreaders...so I have a structured garden.

My garden, however, thinks otherwise.

I started noticing these flowers popping up all over my garden, far away from where they are planted:That teeny one next to the grass is a bachelor button. I couldn't figure out how it was happening until I saw a bird eating the seeds...and as my mom says, they were spitting the seeds out all over, even in the grass.

Other popular plants are my perennial geraniums:You can see it between the lamb's ear and the blue fescue.

This year the balloon flower also traveled:The rest of the balloon flowers are way on the other side of the butterfly weeds. Seriously, about 3 yards.

I am of two minds what to do: should I dig them up and give them away or replant them, or just let them stay? Some plants I let stay: the columbine, for example, never transplanted well, so I let it lie. Ditto my errant butterfly weed. But I have diligently dug up the rest and moved them, and they diligently return.

Psychos.

New pages and new hair

When the day starts with haircuts, you know it'll be a day full of energy. Here's Rowan's new 'do:
It's a normal haircut, just spiked with gel. Look at how happy he is.

Dominic got what he called a "hair sticking down" haircut:
Trust me, he's a lot happier than he looks. He just finished a sucker.

This afternoon I'm going with the boys to garden club. Some friends and I share labor and plants by helping out in each others' gardens. And we go out to lunch. I think I may have calamari today...

I just finished a few pages over the past few days. Here's one that is a typical design for me:I stack three photos, leave a spot for title and/or journaling, and add some paper strips. I have been doing a lot of "stripping" lately, so to speak. And this layout is a good example of why one should revisit products not used in a while. Before I put those flowers down, the layout looked empty and floating. I decided to pull out my chipboard, which I haven't used in a while, and found these flowers, which made a nice home for the Sassafras paper whimsies and the buttons.

The next one is a two pager I reworked:Originally, there was more stamping instead of the paper, but it was too subtle and looked like a mistake, so I added the patterned paper and brads. I never redo pages, but I do cover.

The last one may be my new favorite:
I used my Studio Calico August kit Over the Rainbow for it. I like the combo of bright colors and patterns with the strong lines I used. Oh, yeah, this is another typical pattern for me--two photos stacked on top of title and/or patterned paper. If you doubt me, check out a layout from earlier this week, The Best Day. I'm proud that I tried something new--the journaling is reverse printing in a text box. And the process of gluing and sanding the patterned paper on those chipboard cogs spurred me to buy the Basic Grey Precision File Set. I totally killed two emery boards last night.

Busy day

I knew today would be busy, so I decided to fortify myself for breakfast.

Today was the last day of the summer Rowan would have daytime tae kwon do--the last chance for me to plan scrapbook pages and read for 1 hour, interrupted only by having to strap on Rowan's sparring gear and have to deflect Dominic begging for water, potty break, and candy. In the afternoon Dominic had his third-to-last OT appointment--the "play doctor"--and I had the joy of traveling home during rush hour. Yikes. And later tonight I get to go to Simonsen's and be pampered with a hair cut.

The first appointment of the day was the one I worried about. Roswell, our American Staffordshire Terrier, was going to the vet to see if her UTI was better, and also to check out her limp again. She started limping after she came back from the kennel she goes to during vacation. Oddly, she doesn't limp all the time, only after she first gets up out of her bed, and in the evening her leg twitches pretty seriously. Recently it looked to me like her paws were bloody, either from her chewing on them (she does have a few worry spots) or from an injury.Good news, though: the UTI is better, and the diagnosis for her leg was predictable: Old Age. She doesn't need pain meds yet, but she's getting old and is starting to feel it--she is 10, after all. So the vet said to stop her chewing on her itches, we can give her two Benadryl two times a day. This gave me pause--the meds for the UTI said to open dog's mouth and put pills in back of throat. Roswell is a very nice dog, but she most certainly would not let me do that; she would, however, eat anything I wrapped in cheese. Happily. I asked the vet if it would be OK to keep giving pills that way, and she said yes. So Roswell looks miserable, but she has a happy tummy.

PS - The cookies yesterday that I sent to work with Derick were well appreciated. This was the container he brought back, not quite empty, as you can see. I'll post the recipe when I figure out how to create a PDF.

Rainy Day Creating

It's raining outside, so it'll be a day of indoor creations. I made cookies last night using my new cookie cutters I got in Seattle: ABC cookies (already been chewed). They came with a gingerbread recipe, which was GREAT. Especially when you dip the cookies in Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting. Mmmmm...

This morning I've been doing this:

Not fun, but important. I've been tweaking some assignments for my AP English course, printing them out, and filling out the copy order form. I think I only have about 4 more assignments/handouts to fix.

The boys have been creating too. Derick's gaming buddies are coming over tonight, so the house is clean (yes!) and the downstairs set up for Star Wars gaming. Rowan, of course, discovered this, took out the spaceships, and started setting up battles with his brother.

They (Dominic) had one near tantrum, but it was resolved by taking out more ships and someone (Rowan) letting his brother win.

Nothing like a little diplomacy.

Three More

I finished three 2-page layouts today, but I'll hold off posting those for now.

These three layouts I started at Mania, then finished at home. Here's the first:

This is a very typical design for me: A photo next to journaling, with patterned paper above and below. Why reinvent the wheel, I say. If a design works, use it again. And regarding the topic of this layout, Dominic has been persisting much better, though he still gets discouraged.

The next layout was about a fun day we had when Derick was at GenCon (sorry, hon):

I did some more of the clustering that I like. And when I was done, I felt like the design needed a little more definition, so I stitched. My cross-stitching (or in this case, backstitching) skills coming in handy.

The last one is my favorite (and Rowan's too--he thought the picture was cool):
This is another 8x12 photo I didn't use for the Big Picture Scrapbooking Class. I loved the white space on the photo, so I clustered my title and journaling there.And I did stamp on the photo with Stazon--it wasn't an even stamp, but I like how it looks distressed.

Some pages from Mania

When Derick goes away for business, or in this case, GenCon, I get to scrap. More specifically, I leave him and the boys for the night and go out for many hours and scrap. This time I went to Scrap Mania at Archiver's, and I finished 2 pages, almost finished 4 more, and got started on another two.

Here's the two I finished:

I don't normally use 8x12 photos, but I had printed three different ones for a Big Picture Scrapbooking class I took last month, Point of View with Nic Howard. I used one and had two left, so I made a layout with this one, using a fabulous quote by my husband for the journaling. I used a bunch of SEI tickets I got in my Studio Calico kit as a patterned paper border. I also had fun creating a layered cluster in the upper right corner, using bunches of stuff I had on hand. That KI quote sticker, by the way, I have had FOREVER. I bought it on sale years ago, and I finally used a quote from it. Lesson learned: don't buy scrap stuff just because it's on sale.

The next layout is a fun, quick one. I know Rowan will not be a morning person forever, so I scrapped it. The sun I made with some chipboard and two colors of Glimmer Mist. It drives me nuts to see the paper bend over from the mist, so I ripped a little of the worst off and put some paper behind it, sort of a little peek of sun. And I was originally going to call this layout "morning person," but I went for the bird because I had some unused bird rubons. Let your stash guide you sometimes, I guess.

I'll photograph the next layouts I finished and share those tomorrow.

Well, here I am!

The summer is almost done, workshops are about to begin, so it's time I achieved my goal of starting a blog. So here I am.

A little about me...I teach high school students English, I am a wife, a very tired mother of two very active boys, a reader, a scrapper, a gardener. I grew up in Maine, went to Minnesota to attend college at St. Olaf (Um Yah Yah!), and now live and work here still.

I have been a crafter my whole life, first with cross-stitching, which I still do, then gardening when we bought our house in 1998, and starting in 2002 I scrapped. I still scrap, as you can see by my links. In the summer, my heart belongs to my garden, though. The photo on the right shows why. That's my big garden at its glory in July: heliopsis (false sunflowers), gooseneck loosestrife, purple coneflowers, asclepias (butterfly weed), liatris (gayfeather), Asiatic lilies, and right in the middle a daylily that I think is called "Happy Day." Every morning for a week I look out at my garden and see that bloom. Happy indeed.

Last night I scrapped for a few hours at Archiver's, so I'll post some of what I did tomorrow.