Time to relax

So the busy week is done. I did fit some scrapping in, but in bits and pieces: selecting products one day, trimming and laying it all out, adhering/unadhering, and adding and subtracting elements. Here's what I did:

This one was for Inspiration Defined at BPS. I took inspiration from a favorite wall in my house:

Next time I use this design, I'll print smaller photos to make it really dramatic.

This next one I took inspiration from the picture at the upper left of the wall. I added a few embellishments.

Then I did this one for a sketch challenge (Sadly, I made this one for my father-in-law's birthday next week, but I selfishly can't give it up. I'm making him another one. The guilt!):

Here's the sketch:

Finally, this layout celebrates my son's first day at school this year. I used some scraps. The stars are a stamped image I punched out and adhered with brads.

So for tonight, to get ready for a weekend crop and for LOAD, I will finish editing October and November photos and send them in for printing.

ETA: The sketch comes from Studio Calico. They post a new sketch every Sunday for a challenge and a GC. I did use their January kit for the page.

Busy week

Well, darn those Vikings. As Rowan said, "We're back to game one."

Back to business, as a teacher, I can say some weeks are busier than others. This week, for example. I have conferences tomorrow night, so I'll be working from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. I do get an hour break for dinner--at 2 p.m. I've been using a lot of time grading, planning, getting ready.

On top of that, the family business continues. Last night was conference night for our sons. They did swimmingly. Not perfect, but better than we expected. Rowan is reading well, good at math, but needs to work on his spelling. (I think Derick and I know who he gets that from.) Dominic has been working well in class, even well with others, which is good. He's also learning to persist.

Still, during a stressful week, I find it helpful to create to help me unwind. I did a couple pages with some photos I just got from Shutterfly. (Don't get me started on how insane their shipping costs are. I got the photos free for spending a sad amount of money at Archiver's, but they get you on shipping, which I have to do because with this special, I couldn't send the photos to Target. Rats.) This week I also want to send some photos to my preferred photo printing site, scrapbookpictures.com. I have some from vacation I want to enlarge, and I have some others from October and November I'd like to start playing with.

I'm stocking up on photos because I'm doing LOAD next month. It's something Lain Ehmann runs, and I liked it when I did it in October. I got a ton of pages done, and it opened my mind to new things, seeing as how I had to do a layout a day (hence LOAD) without taking time to stress about perfectionism. Yay! But it's easier if I have a lot of photos to work with.

Funny Sunday

I spent much of church this morning snickering. During the children's sermon, which linked the peace of Jesus to Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr., the pastor started saying, "So if someone hits you, you should not..." At "If someone hits you" Rowan looked at his brother and GLARED. Derick and I tried really hard not to laugh, but we couldn't help it.

Later, the same pastor in his sermon mentioned, "So if you are distracted by thinking about the Vikings game tonight..." and Dominic raised his hand!

Finally, Rowan turned to Derick after the new members were welcomed during the service and said, "Hey! When there's new members, we get cake after!" He's still learning the Lord's Prayer, but he sure as heck remembers what happens during the service for him to get cake afterwards.

I mention this because I learned this weekend I get inspiration from words more than any other source--fitting, since I'm an English teacher. This week in Inspiration Defined at BPS, we are sent a word a day to take inspiration from. Here's what I did with "tires":


I miss that scarf. Yes, that's me 16 years ago in college.

And here's what I did with "spoon":

(This layout, BTW, was a true Stacy Julian moment for me. I thought of this story right away for "spoon," but I didn't want to take photos for it. Then I thought of these photos, which had been around for a couple years. Voila!)

I found it much easier to draw inspiration from these words than I have from any assignment so far dealing with design inspiration from everyday objects. Interesting to note.

Here's two more layouts I did:


This one was a design challenge from a grid. I took inspiration from a grid in a gardening magazine.


I redid this layout. The old one was much too busy, and green to boot. I like this one much better--the analogous colors work better with her red fur.

A few more

Here's some more layouts:


This one I used maps from the excursions, using photos that didn't make it onto other pages and other memorabilia. I played around with a little randomness.


Back to my comfort zone here. Phew! I think rock star hair is a phase all boys go through, BTW.


Here's my birthday sledding layout. So much fun to make.


A sketch challenge at Studio Calico. I used their kits on these previous two layouts.


I love this layout. I think every parent can understand it. And I'm proud of that photo--I finally achieved blurred background without blurring the foreground too. Unfortunately, the photo is of chipmunk toys. Rats.

Other creative ventures

I've been scrapping, but I have a couple pages that require computer journaling sitting around--you know how that makes me feel--so I took a break from scrapping to take on other creative ventures.

• I finished Audition, Barbara Walters' book. Pretty good. Quite dishy.
• Rowan was his first grade class' Star student this week, so I helped him make a poster for it. We used leftover photos that had never been scrapped. I also let him play with my scraps and my punches, to his delight. And to the best of my ability, I resisted the urge to organize those punched stars in a visual triangle. He put them on in any order he pleased.
• I visited with some college friends over the weekend and enjoyed talking with them. I also enjoyed learning we have Saturday afternoons free and may be able to make those conversations a habit.
• I went sledding with the boys. Wow, did they have fun. Now that I scrapped.
• I celebrated my not-yet-fortieth birthday and enjoyed dinner at Buca's, some scrappy goodness from the fam*, and a lovely Hobbit teapot from my MIL. Now I just need to learn how to brew tea the old-fashioned way.

Especially since I finished the book, which was due at the library today (guiltguiltguilt), I now feel energized enough to go back and do some scrapping, particularly finishing the computer journaling.

*My big guilt involves those scrappy birthday gifts. I didn't buy them, so I haven't really borken my New-year's res to make 100 layouts before buying new supplies. Still, should I hold off on using them until I make the remaining layouts? Decisions...

My favorites from last year

Looking back at last year, I felt like several things enhanced my creativity. What helped the most? Here's a list:

1. Organizing my patterned paper and cardstock by color, not brand. This sped up my decision making quite a bit, which allowed me to be more productive.
2. Subscribing to Studio Calico. I know some people hesitate to grant decision making to someone else when they spend their scrapping money. I am one of them. I must admit, however, that it stretched my creativity to work things together that I may not otherwise have thought to pair.
3. Bazzill stitching templates. I've been a cross-stitcher since elementary school, but the stitching templates, especially the flourish one, made it so much easier (and quicker) to stitch on a layout. Just enough to add a layer of charm.
4. Sassafras Lass paper. Mind you, I'm a pretty linear person. This company? Not so linear. It was good for me to stretch and use their stuff.
5. Upgrading to PSE 7. I did this to take a Jessica Sprague class. I still haven't experimented much with adding frames, brushes, etc. to my photos, but I havebeen able to more quickly edit my photos than I have before, and with better technique too. Working with better photos makes it easier to scrap well, IMO.
6. Experimenting with smaller photo sizes. I've always tended to scrap 4x6. Too much hassle to change photos sizes in PSE 3, which is what I think I had. Now that I have a higher level program, and a little knowledge to boot, I have made a wallet sized photo template I use again and again to put two small photos on a 4x6 print. This new size has helped me see my pages (and the creative possibilities) with new eyes.
7. Scrapping different sized pages. I'm a traditional 12x12 scrapper (except my vacation albums, which are 8 1/2 x 11). Two things expanded my horizons: taking The Challenge of Me at Big Picture Scrapbooking, where I was assigned 8x8 to scrap, and this layout: I tried so hard to make it work as a 12x12 with no dice, then something clicked, I trimmed the paper to 8 1/2 x 11, and it worked. I did a similar page in the same size with similar success:
8. Not fighting the block. I am a linear scrapper. I find I'm much more productive when I resist any urges to "break free" of what I am really like, and just scrap in a block. (Seriously, I see people again and again advertising that scrappers should "break free" of being linear, or sequential, etc. Is it really breaking free if that's who you are? I don't think so.) I suspect the same is true of people with a more free-flow style. If they tried to make the page linear, it wouldn't be comfortable with them. Here's a good example of a blocky style:
9. Clustering embellishments. Maggie Holmes does this brilliantly, grouping a few accents together to suggest a bigger accent. True confessions: I have a stash, a fairly sizeable one. When you have a few embellishments, this is an effective means of using them up. It's also a creative way of adding energy and texture to a layout by pairing together items that might not otherwise be put together.
10. Scrapping with a purpose. I find it easy to scrap when I figure out why I want to scrap a particular photo. Once I figure it out, then everything falls into place. If my answer is basic and dumb--"I want to scrap this because it's the time we went to the Arboretum"--I put the photos aside until I figure out why I want to create a layout about these photos. I also found myself scrapping more single photo layouts this year, mainly because I could figure out the purpose with the photo. If I wanted to scrap the photo because I loved the photo, I asked myself, "Why?" Once I figured that out, the rest would fall into place. Here's an example: I love this photo. When I asked myself why, it was because of the white space on the left of the photo. What seemed like an error in photo composition ended up being a perfect place for my list that I created while camping in Maine in 2008.
    

Looking back on your creative choices over the past year can help you figure out how you've grown, which I think can help you develop new direction and skills too. I invite you to look through the pages you made this past year and see how you became that scrapper that you are.

A little Hooray

If you can take a peek at a couple scrapbooking magazines this month, you will see my layouts: I have a layout published in both Creating Keepsakes January issue and also in Scrapbook Trends. The latter is one of my all-time favorites; it's in the stitching section.

I've posted before on how the publishing calls give me ideas and help stretch my creativity. This is true. As an example, if I can brag a little, I just got notice that three of my layouts will be published in June Scrapbook Trends! All were layouts where I got inspiration from the posts or other online challenges, so hooray.

On my journey still to create 100 layouts without new supplies. Here's the latest three:

Inspiration from the BPS class and my son's words. Making this LO made me realize how little purple I have.

Scrapping my minor medical scare from last week.

87 more to go!

Some milestone pages

Oddly, I seem to be running out of photos. I need to finish editing my vacation photos so I can start that book, and I'd like to print some photos from October to scrap. Here's a few pages I did yesterday:

I used mostly October Afternoon Report Card for this. I didn't want to do separate pages for open house and day 1, so to include the shots I wanted, I had to merge the two on one layout, no pun intended.

The inspiration for this layout came after I ran across a few old school photos from preschool. Look how much he's grown! Again with the Report Card.

This one I used my January Studio Calico kit on, with perhaps my favorite photo from last year. I hope you can read the story.

And yes, I am keeping my subscription as I scrap 100 pages. I don't want to stop it. I am still using us my stash; I get about 6-12 layouts per kit, which still leaves a ton of stash pages to do.

By the way, I got a diagnosis for my numb arm last week: the ulnar nerve on my elbow has been receiving too much pressure. What kinds of things have been putting pressure on my left elbow? Things like this:

I think I can deal with being a little numb.

Scrapping with purpose

I'm taking a Big Picture Scrapbooking class now called Inspiration Defined. One assignment was to do a page about why we scrap. Here's my take:


I used some index prints--my first time using those suckers. And I truly enjoyed using those orange flowers for the first time. Some misting on the background too.

I mean what the title says, though: scrapbooking helps me live with purpose. It helps me see the significance in my life, not just the big things (family trips, holidays, etc.) but in the things that happen everyday. Even the bad and scary stuff.

Yesterday was one of those moments. Like most days this week, I got to school sort of numb and tingling. (This is Minnesota.) It never went away, though, in my left arm and leg. I called my doctor during my prep hour, who told me to go to the emergency room. After many tests, I was diagnosed with paresthesia, which in a nutshell is a numbness and tingling not really caused by anything, but possibly caused by a nerve problem or stress.

Stress. After I had listed the stressers I've been through--my MIL's pancreatic cancer, my dog's death, stressful teaching conditions (over 30 in a class plus multiple differentiations in each class), department chair demands, husband away on business, stolen credit card number--that the doctor said, "I know what this is." The diagnosis is not complete; I have an appointment on Monday with my regular doctor, and I need to have an MRI too, but I do have a sense that too much srtess in my life is affecting me physically. Badly.

I sat down to think about what I need to do to reduce stress in my life. And since I scrap, here's what I did:


Again, pulling out the pretty papers, pairing it with a photo, and writing what I need to do right now to eliminate the stress that's within my control--that is scrapbooking. Plus, it's living a purposeful life.

2 more

Here's two more layouts, on my way to 100 before buying new supplies:

I used this sketch from Studio Calico. I plan on giving this to my cousin and her new husband. It was such a gorgeous picture, I wanted to scrap it.

My last Studio Calico kit had more pink than I could use, so I paired that paper with this list of what I love about winter to do a layout for myself. It's sort of a pep talk to myself to make it through the next few months. Frankly, after today's weather, I needed a pep talk.

95 more to go! Thank goodness, because Archiver's just got this boy's line from Little Yellow Bicycle. Be still my heart.

100 layouts, numbers 1-3

I've challenged myself to create 100 layouts without buying new supplies (excluding adhesive, neutral cardstock I run out of, and my Studio Calico kit, which I don't want to unsubscribe to). This weekend I got started on the first few:

I'm proud of the origami crane I stitched. To do it, I took a crane my son folded, traced it on the page, punched holes not too close together, then stitched. I erased as I went; I can never get the stitches to fully cover the pencil lines otherwise. And I'm also proud of my rediscovery of these Doodlebug letter stickers: I think their angles look vaguely Asian. Finally, I don't have tiny number stamps, so I used letters o and g to make "09."

This is my layout for my New Year's goals. I used the list from a previous post to generate ideas. The flowers are from a new Canadian company, Harmonie. Aren't they gorgeous colors? And I added some Stickles to the rubon flowers--hard to see.


Finally, some father-son bonding time over technology, in this case the iPhone playing cowbell. If you've never seen the SNL skit, go here to get the joke. It's funny...but IMO, men find it funnier.

Ugly paper

A while back, Alison M asked what I do to work with ugly paper. Here's the key:

Small doses.

Yes, it's easier to work with ugly paper if you cut it down to bits. I also think it's easier to deal with the pattern if you do the opposite of what it is like style-wise. For a linear, crisp patten, do something that breaks open the box. If it's wild, box it up with a linear design. Here was a linear design from the same paper line with crisp circles. A couple years ago I cut it apart and did something a little less boxy than I normally do:


To play around recently, I took a piece of old paper I got from a blog challenge. Seriously, it was in my "Donate to preschool" pile. It was filled with lost of random scratchy red and green and white lines on a blue background. Bu-sy! I cut it apart, used the backside a little too, and made this:


I like the end result. Not a paper I would have chosen otherwise, but still nice.

Hello, January!

When we woke up January 2, the temp on TV said -15, which is the temp at the Minneapolis airport. That made my husband and I flinch, until I realized that is about 40 minutes south of us, so it's probably about 5 degrees colder here.

I was wrong: it was 6 degrees colder. Yep, you can see in the picture how cold it was this morning.

The evening news said we made it above zero--to one degree above--but I think it didn't get there in Maple Grove. When we got home from IKEA at about one o'clock, the same sign said -7.

So what does that mean? It means January is here, the month where we here in Minnesota insanely look forward to the temps reaching the single digits--below zero.

New year's is also a time for resolutions. I made mine last year--to edit photos before printing them. I also took a couple classes to improve my editing skills and got a newer version of PSE. So what am I going for this year? Mainly, to reduce--and to help that, I'm not buying new supplies (exclusing adhesive and white/kraft cardstock) until I create 100 layouts. I may give up scrap shopping for Lent again. That helped my creativity a lot. Finally, I will probably do this again. Doing LOAD in October helped me destash a bit.

To make the task of no-buy more difficult, I got a Sale-a-bration catalog in the mail yesterday. I found three things I love--two stamp sets and a punch. To get them I would have to buy $150 worth of SU supplies.

So my resolve entered in: The first set I really wanted to go with the curly punch--which I can get anytime. The second--a set of houses--is cute, but not essential. And the border punch? In small print underneath, it says that it will be available next year to buy.

I can resist.

To record this year's resolutions, I am taking inspiration from a notepad I got in Chicago.

I checked the stuff I want/need to do the most, plus stuff I already do that I think I should keep doing. I'll narrow it, then turn it into a layout for my album. Which means I'll take another extend-a-arm photo of me. Nice.