Stories without photos

Thank you for the nice comments about Ella! I am so excited to be working with such a talented group of women and a fabulous company.

*A couple questions about previous posts: Diana, the papers on the back-to-school layouts were from BoBunny, not a kit. Twopeas has them! And the 12x18 layout will go in my album in a 12x12 page protector next to a 6x12 one.

On to scrap talk...

This summer my boys went with me to the new Maple Grove library. It was amazing. For the first time, we browsed the DVDs, and the boys brought home Avatar, the Last Airbender...and they were hooked. They have plowed though the whole series and become enamored with it.

What was especially delightful was their discovery of their own horoscope signs--Rowan is a Scorpio, and Dominic is Aquarius. They don't remember that, but they loved that the signs represented elements, Rowan's water and Dominic's air. So they combined that knowledge with their love of Avatar and figured they can bend water and air.

I have a vivid memory this summer of Dominic standing outside on a windy day in July, swirling his arms over his head under the windblown tree branches, shouting at me, "Mom! Mom! I'm bending the air!"

Of course, I have no photos of this memorable piece of summer. But is that going to stop a scrapbooker? Uh-uh!

I took a couple sweet pictures I took of the boys this year, printed them wallet sized , and used my Studio Calico September kit to make this layout:


For the most part, I just pulled products that I thought looked good with the photo. The feather border was purposeful--picture a feather in the air on a windy day! I trimmed one from the border, attached it with dimensional adhesive, and then hand-drew swirls to show its falling. I punched holes through my line, then stitched the swirls. It was a pretty quick and easy accent!

I've got something to trumpet...

Go here.

Photo quest

One of the ways I manage scrapbooking pressures is to recycle page ideas and pages designs. I do the same page for Thanksgiving every year, I reuse my sketches, and I use the same design for every vacation album. This recycling allows me freedom of design and embellishment without the pressure of coming up with something 'brand new" every time.

One page idea I have reuse for a few years involves vacation photos. For years, I've tried to get a Christmas card-worthy photo on vacation, and all for naught, mostly because of my two turkeys--er, offspring, who always manage to sabotage the photo.

This year may be the last time I can do this kind of page--we came pretty darn close to a nice-enough photo at Disneyworld. So, I may have to bid my photo quest pages adieu.

In honor of years of photo questing, here's what may be the last:

My scrapbooking resume

Updated February 27, 2013

Objective: To be involved in the scrapbooking industry via design teams, blogging, and publications.

My name is Jennifer Larson. I grew up in Maine and have lived in Minnesota since I attended college at St. Olaf, met my husband at the Mall of America, and settled down to teach English to high school students. I am the blessed, tired mother of two boys, a loveable shepherd mix, and a slightly neurotic but affectionate cat.

I started making cards in 1999, but I became enamored with scrapbooking when I was pregnant with my firstborn in 2002 and attended a basic scrapbooking class at my local scrapbook store. I always try to bring some sort of structure and whimsy to my pages, and if I'm smiling when I finish it, it's a great page.

Publications:

Simple Scrapbooks:
Sept./Oct. 2008 "Likeable You"
January/February 2009 "Climbing Roots"
May/June 2009 "Doggie Regrets"

Creating Keepsakes
January 2010 "My Best Buds"
Scrapbooking Everyday Memories: "Life" and "Black Friday"
Tips and Tricks: Stamping: "Sweet Spring Time" (featured ClubCK member)
Tips and Tricks: Flowers: "Violin Master"
Tips and Tricks: Summer Fun and Travel: "Summer Boys 2010"
September 2011: "Olympic"
March 2012: "The Year of Date nights"
May/June 2012: "5 Vacation Faves"

Scrapbook Trends
January 2010 "Fly"
February 2010 "Como Fun"
June 2010 "More Cowbell Please," "Faux," and "Another Great Day at the Home Front"
August 2010 "Routine Woman"
December 2010: "Extreme Sledding", "Holiday Snow", and "Rooftop Fun"
Quick and Easy 2011" "Summer of 1984"
May 2011: "Float"
July 2011: "Silly Summer" and "Sweet Summer"
September 2011: "Ball Park"
November 2011: "Strengths"
December 2011: "Blessings in Disguise"
Create: Holidays:  "Ninja Vs. Transformer"
February 2012: "My Best Friend"
March 2012: "Don't Bee Afraid"
April 2012: "Great Granny," "He's Got Goals," and "Open Sky"
May 2012: "Psycho Suzi's"
July 2012 : "Scenic Hike"
October 2012: "Cool Stuff and Pretty Stuff"
December 2012: "December 2011"
January 2013: "Click Click"
February 2013: "Around Town"
Create: Embellish: "Happy 9th," "Date Night," "Sweet Grandma," and "Sand Beach"
Upcoming: June 2013: "There and Back Again" July 2013: "Inspired Play," "Perfect Summer Day"

 
Scrapbook and Cards Today:
Fall 2011: "First Grade"
Summer 2012: "Summer Picnic"

Scrap Street Magazine:
September 2010: "Bottle"
July 2012: "2012 Summer Bucket List" (cover layout)


Ella ezine
July 2010 "At the Beach" (cover layout)
"Misting Magic" ezine article
"Little is Big" ezine article

Ella ebook
List It! Childhood Edition (cover layout)
Storytelling Strategies

Special talents and interests:

• As an English teacher, I have a strong interest and ability in writing and instructing writing
• An avid cross-stitching, I use stitching regularly in innovative ways
• I've been blogging since 2009 and participate regularly in online message boards and galleries, including Club CK, Two Peas, Scrapbook.com, and Studio Calico

Design teams/industry work:

Elle's Studio 2012
The Scrap Review 2012
Thinking Through Design 2012

Ella Friends: 2010-2011
Scrapbook Generation Sketch Support Team 2011-2012
GCD Studios 2011
 
Guest Designer/Special Projects
One Little Word: Reflect and Yes
Sketchy Thursdays: August 2010
Write.Click.Scrapbook: Custom Backgrounds and Photo Strips
Work In Progress: 2-Page Layouts
Simple Scrapper: Scrapbooking as Therapy
Scrap Rendez-vous: Heritage Photos

Special skills and training:

• Design classes and inspiration classes at Big Picture Classes, including Design your Life
• Former demonstrator for Stampin' Up!, which taught me many stamping and card-making techniques

Trying on a new size

Not clothes, though I am working hard on that: going to the club for the elliptical, waiting patiently for the pool to be serviced at the club so I can swim laps, and starting to run (I'm up to 1.3 miles--good for me!). No, I tried on a layout size I saw on Write.Click.Scrapbook: 12x18.

Jody Dent-Pruks was the one who did this size layout, and I thought it was a brilliant idea. So when I started making this page on my boys' first trip to the Lego Club at the Mall of America (inspired by this week's sketch at Studio Calico), I thought I could give it a go.


When I made the layout as a 12x12 spread, I didn't like all the white space on the right (odd, because I normally do), so I lopped it off! After having done so, I think it would have been better to make the left side the shorter one. Still, my boys are not going to gasp in shock when they see this layout and say, "But you should have made the LEFT SIDE the shorter one!" So all is well.

Home with Sicko

When I got home from Open House last night, Dominic was running a temp of 102. I stayed home with him today, where he spent most of the day doing this:


Poor guy. Earlier, he said his only symptom was his eyes couldn't stay open. Too true!

We had to make a Target run for sick stuff, and he decided that a blue raspberry ICEE might make him feel better. It did for a while.

While he napped, I decided to scrap some photos of him riding his bike a year ago and now to show his progress. I used this week's color scheme at the Color Room for it.

Here's how the layout started:

Nice, but a little blocky. I thought I needed to do some layering of round stuff to break that apart.

When I layer I try to do so in two stages:

1. Flat stuff (stitches, stickers, patterned paper, stamps, mist, paint, die cuts, etc.)
2. Dimensional stuff (buttons, flowers, chipboard, brads, etc.)

I had already layered some patterned paper. I thought some stitching then chipboard would be good, so I lay a template down to check it out:


I always layer the flat stuff first, then move to the dimensional stuff. First, I did some machine stitching:

Then I hand-stitched, layered a sticker and some chipboard and ended up with this:

When I cluster layers around a page, I tend to put them next to important things, in this case the title, the focal point photo, and the journaling.

Hopefully Dominic will be alert enough later on today to enjoy his page.

Start of School

We're two weeks into school, and it's a mixed bag for the boys.

Rowan is very excited for his new teacher and appears to have developed a new passion for reading.

Dominic is up and down; he'll be excited and happy, telling me everything he's done that day, super excited for his first day of homework, then crushed to discover the next day that he has more homework--it's not a one-time deal! Ah, well. Once the transition gets more routine, I'm sure we'll go back to excited.

Here's a few pages I did for the boys using BoBunny's Learning Curve, which I adore:



Dominic's unhappy day 1 LO also made use of The Color Room's color scheme and the Sketchy Thursdays Sketch.

On to week three for school!

Point of View

I apologize; this is a little bit English teacher-y.

Journaling is important to me. Whether writing a little or a lot, I want words to convey stories, along with pictures and product. Sometimes I think about which point of view I should write in.

A refresher:

• First person = I. (first person plural is "we.")
• Second person = you.
• Third person = he, she, it, they. No personal references.

What point of view do I use? It depends on the page.

• I use first person in pages about me. Or the family (we). So pages where I or my opinion is central, first person. Similarly, when I do event pages (what my family did), I say "we."
• I use second person when I want to address my subject (usually my boys). These pages are more personal, and I feel like talking to my sons on the page.
• I use third person for pages where it is not so personal, merely a record of what happened. I don't need to reference myself; I just write about what happened.

Here's a recent example:

This page I used third person for. Nothing personal, little emotion beyond happiness or pride, so I wrote in third person. (OK, there's a wee bit of "I." Hope that doesn't make me too self-centered!)

This page, however, is personal. My son failed at swimming for the first time, so I wanted to diminish the distance that comes with third person and speak/write directly to him, using second person. As a result, the page is more personal.

I'm standing down off my teacher soapbox now, but I hope that you feel comfortable now writing from various points of view!

Completed!

I finished the final pages that I made last week without computer this past weekend. Here's the last three:

This is the page I worried Derick might divorce me over. When he actually saw the finished page, he seemed over it, so maybe no divorce, but he sure subjected me to serious eye rolling.

I used zig-zag stitches for sleepy ZZZZZ...




This is my August page for Project 12. I got inspiration from the sketch for content as well as design:


The trees made me think of summer, and all the tree things we did this past month. I used some Maya Road chipboard trees I've had for a while, plus some new Maya Road felt trees I got with my returned Scrapbook Trends pages from June's mag. Thank you, Maya Road!

This page is Rowan's swim page. He didn't pass Level 3, his first time not passing, but he did get to swim in the deep end, so momentous nonetheless. I'm going to write about the journaling tomorrow. I used some Fancy Pants summer again, plus Pink Paislee.

The stamped wave was fun to make. I used a Fancy Pants stamp from Summer Soiree, plus some Claudine Hellmuth paints, teal and blue. I painted the stamp in sky blue with a sponge brush, then used a stuff bristle brush to paint over it with teal. I tried to "go with the flow" of the wave pattern, since the stiff brush took some paint off. The stamped image looks wicked cool, though.

I started some back to school pages too. More this week...

Thank you, Genius Bar

My computer is home and much, much quieter. Thank you, Apple Geniuses. I'll gloss over the fact that a part broke within its first 6 months...

I scrapped this week anyway, then had to put a bunch of pages aside, having no computer with which to journal. I could have hand written the journaling, I guess, but I had a lot to say and not much space, so I thought the computer was warranted.

I've finished about half of what I started. Here's what I did:


First were a couple cards, a sympathy card for a friend and a birthday card for my Grandma. I hate making sympathy cards; I guess I should make them in bulk when they're not needed, because I hate having to make one when one is needed.

The birthday card uses one of my favorite new things, a Stampin' Up! Embosslit die, which cuts and embosses on my Big Shot at the same time. Niiiiceee!

I ended up with over 12 pages out of my August Studio Calico kit, plus still lots of stash stuff left. This page came from some of the last stuff: I used number cards, letters, and gray paper. Also used The Color Room's color combo from last week. Which I missed the deadline for because of my computer. X%&#!


I have given up taking good pictures of my boys during their swim lessons (weird lighting and lots of motion), so I strive for a good shot after lessons on the pool deck. This year Dominic excelled, passing level two with flying (or swimming, as the case may be) colors. Since it was such an exuberant event for him, I pulled out some exuberant product: Fancy Pants' Rusted Sun line. I like that I used no real embellishments on the page, just patterned paper (OK, and letter stickers and a date sticker), but still managed dimension.

I love that gap-toothed grin...

This was a page using this week's Studio Calico sketch. I've been meaning to do the page since I got the kit. It came with clothes chipboards, including dresses. Nice. I have boys, and I hate dresses. This may be scrapping for the sake of scrapping, but I made a page about my loathing of dresses.

I covered the chipboard dresses with the paper whimsies from the kit, trying hard to avoid the flower centers ending up as a bullseye on the crotch of the dresses. That was tough. I then strung them on a clothes line and added some elegant dressy ladies which I would never otherwise use.

So, progress has been made in finishing up a glut of pages. Still finishing the August Project 12 layout and the page which, if my husband sees, may lead to his divorcing me.

Waiting...

The computer is still being fixed, so I am continuing my scrapping without the ability to post pictures or print my computer journaling. *sigh!* Oh well.

Try to visualize this:

1. A page about my son called "7 almost 8." Filled with adjectives, August Studio Calico, and this week's color scheme from The Color Room.
2. My August Project 12 page. Again I used the August Studio Calico, plus many pictures of the boys, most of which included trees.
3. A page about me using last month's Studio Calico kit and this week's SC sketch called "Not a Dress Girl." I love this page. I used the dress chipboards (which I would never be able to use otherwise in this family of Y chromosomes!) and covered them with the paper whimsies from Sassafras.
4. A page about Dominic using last summer's Fancy Pants collection Rusted Sun. His page is called "Swim Fan."
5. A page about Rowan's swimming lessons, again using FP's Rusted Sun and last Summer's Summer Soiree, called "Conquering the Deep End."
6. A page I made for this week's Sketchy Thursdays challenge (which I can't post) called "Watching Baseball." Derick may divorce me when he sees it. Pray for me.
   

These pages are done or close to done. I'll need to computer journal and put some finishing touches on them, then post. As soon as my computer comes home.

Labor day work and inspiration

So this Labor day really involves the word "labor" for me. Derick and I are staining our deck. Yesterday we spent 6 hours doing all the railings, two coats, and today we're doing the deck and stairs before the rain comes tonight. I hope that calories counter for exterior painting/staining was right, because then I can have pizza with impunity.

Right now my computer is in the shop. Its fan was constantly blowing, and the Genius at the Genius bar said that a sensor was not working, so the computer thought it always had to cool down. Best part: still under warranty. Worst part: I have no computer this week. Bye bye, access-to-photos, digi supplies, and PSE. Hello, blogging without photos.

I also can't print, so those three pages I have sitting around that I'd planned some computer journaling on will have to wait.

So I thought I'd share one of my favorite sites, Signals. I'm not a person who enjoys trolling the internet to find inspiration, so I'll try to stick with places I know will give me varied inspiration. Like Signals. This store has lots of cool stuff, some of which is inspirational, scrapbooking wise too!

I'm having trouble copying the image, so I'll share some URLs:

1. Be Bold wall art. This I'm going to use as journaling on a page about my son, 7 almost 8.
2. She was on her way picture. I can see using this on a page about me!
3. Blue Butterflies. I have some butterfly punches and dies and can see doing a cluster like this on a page.
4. You are... wall art. This one is just stinkin' cute. Definitely going to be the journaling on the next good picture I get of Derick and me.
5. Kinetic Swallows. I like the stuff-hanging-down-off-a-board look of this. I think it would look nice, "hanging" some page elements off patterned paper.
6. Edison quote. I'd love to make wall art with this quote for my iota of scrap space.
7. Faith print. First, I love the saying. Second, I like the way the sentiment is split up, sort of into the saying plus punchline. I might use that for title plus journaling sometime.
8. Mushroom stool. Never in a million years would I buy this, but don't you love the colors? Teal, yellow, cream, brown. Lovely.
9. White rabbit. I would love this for my garden.
10. Onesie. I want someone I know to have a baby just so I can buy this for them. Can you imagine making a baby page, lots of white space, with this saying on it?
11. Leaves and branches. I will have to use these colors on a fall page this year--green, brown, and rust.
12. Perfume bottles. Another one where I love the colors--pink, red, orange/yellow, blue and green, all light colors.

Another place I love, Wireless catalog, has items just as fun. I think they're a little less arty, but they are clever. In fact, my favorite Christmas present from last year came from here, the alien gnome catchers. Awesome.

Light Bulb!

(Bonus points for you if you got that movie quote. Plus, your kids would like my kids.)

I think of scrapbooking as writing, and I love coming up with creative ideas for pages. I don't care where the ideas come from; it's not a regular place, and I like the various places my ideas come from. Like I mentioned Wednesday, sometimes a phrase will pop in my head (My Life in Sticky Notes) and a page is born. Here's a few of the other places my ideas come from:

1. My photos

Sometimes I take a photo with a page in mind, other times I browse the photos on my computer and get ideas. This layout is from the latter:

I saw a bunch of fort photos when I was looking through my computer and used the two I liked best for this page. I used a sketch from Studio Calico for this, along with the August kit, Summer Camp.

I'm not sure about the circles? But the whole look of this page--the stars, the grid, the arrow--made me think of maps used in military campaigns, therefore I made circles.

2. HistoryBy "history," I mean "What's going on out there." I thought of this when I went to the Twins at their new ballpark this summer. Thinking back to last season, I realized I attended the first and last series at the Dome last season. Even though I'd scrapped those events, I decided I needed to scrap an homage to the Dome, since that's what I knew for many years.

Just a design note: I hand cut the banners from The Girls' Paperie On Holiday paper, which looked baseball-ish to me. To do the rope, I just laid glue down in a thin line, then pressed the hemp down, already knotted at the ends. Then I washed my sticky glue hands. A lot.

3. Product

A while back I mentioned finding some unused Hambly zoo rub-ons, one of which was a pig. I have recently discovered my Chinese Zodiac sign is the pig, much to my surprise. I finally made the page I'd been thinking about (the background color of this page is blue):

Amazingly, I also had another sticker from Jillibean Soup with pigs on it. I put it all together on this page. Because I sincerely hope I never have to use pigs again on a layout.*

I also have two more rub-ons from the collection left, a skunk and a snail. What could I use those for? Maybe the time my Granny skunked me in cribbage, and a layout about letters, AKA snail mail...

I sometimes put ideas in my notebook so I can remember them if I don't have time (or photos) to make the page now. Sometimes, though, when I go back to my list, I am no longer enthused to do the page I got an idea for, and that's OK. I think of this an an idea dying an honorable death. It's OK. If I still want to do the page when it's been on the list a while, I do it. That's why I did the Metrodome page.

*Oh wait, I forgot about this page:


I guess as long as Derick grills, I will have a use for pig. The food, not him.

New issue of Scrapstreet magazine is available online

And you can see one of my layouts there! The September magazine is here, and the link to the article with my layout is here. This was the first page someone asked me to do, sort of an assignment, which made me very excited. I like the result, and I loved the challenge. The prompt also gave me the idea for this page:

The title "My Life in Sticky Notes" had been going around my head for a while. The color inspiration gave me the creative push I needed!

And since I am preparing to start teaching again next week, I have to say my life in sticky notes is starting up again. I have two going: a to-do list, and a list of people I am giving some peonies to that I split today. Thank goodness for 3M.