Celebrating my son

I love Stacy Julian's book The Big Picture. I got so much inspiration from it and her approach to scrapping my life. I took special notice of the LO she made about her son with ADHD. She noted that it is her job to celebrate his strengths, since his disability doesn't normally lead to many kudos. (I don't remember her exact words, sorry. That was the gist.)

And so I remember this when I scrap my sons. My younger boy has both ADHD and autism, a double difficulty for him, particularly in school. This year's been tough, so I made this LO to remember what his strengths are (thanks, Stacy):


I used Studio Calico's February kit Sweet Shoppe. I added the stamped honeycombs with the original idea of printing the words, then pasting them on the patterned paper, but that was too much work, so I handwrote his strengths. The photo used a PSE action called Teeny Tiny World from Coffee Shop; this action blurs the background and focuses in on the center of attention, not that Dominic needed any help with that in this photo!

I have to admit, I was nervous about stamping on this LO, mainly because I was masking out part of the stamp, which can go awry. It was OK, but I try not to let fear get in the way; there is no such thing as a mistake in scrapbooking, only an unplanned opportunity for more creativity.

I think I make a page like this for both of my boys every year. I like that I do. Hopefully they'll always know that even though we're trying very hard to improve their behavior and focus, we know very well that they are fabulous kids. I don't remember who said this, but I'm using this quote as my mantra now: We don't grow up, we only learn how to behave in public.