Back again, scrapping again

It has been a year since I blogged, and what a year. Several things have kept me busy: school, which has involved lots of essay reading for larger class sizes; changing to a new computer, which involved moving our photos and files and developing a new workflow with the new computer; visiting my family (my father suffered strokes and has more recently had a hip replaced); my boys getting older and more involved in school, including XC and Nordic for Rowan and theater for Dominic; and the sad passing of our beloved dog Lola.

I've scrapped minimally in this time, mostly reading and cross-stitching.

Recently, though, I've organized my scrap supplies in a way to increase productivity. I also started going on scrap retreats again and joined a Facebook group with long-term friends whom I had met through CK's message boards. These things have helped motivate me to complete pages and seek inspiration and support. I like that.

Here are a few pages I started last fall at a scrap weekend with girlfriends that I recently finished.

This one might be my favorite. At the retreat I had cut apart a Project Life card around the photo, and I couldn't figure out what to do next. I thought about evidence of his growth and told a story on journaling strips. For the rest, I added a flower I took from a greeting card and then added some embellishments I had lying around.

I used the wood in our church and the white robes as inspiration for this page. More and more I'm stitching all things down on the page. I used a lot of Project Life kits for this.

Here I reused a photo from the last page and added two similar friendship photos from throughout the year to document their friendship. For the design, I just used some happy scraps in my scrap bin. I've been doing that a lot lately. That plus Project Life journaling card. So easy.

Here I tried a sideways approach, plus a tilted line of photos. Plus, again, Project Life cards. The colors in the pattern look like a baseball diamond, which I like.

Photos from my youngest son's first foray into theater at the high school level with Tuck Everlasting. I'm liking a base of patterned paper + lots of photos + bold title + verbal embellishments (very few).

This may be the simplest page I made. I'm discovering the ease of creating two-page layouts by printing photos in sizes that work easily together. Here, I used 4x6 in various orientations, which worked well with the pocket cards I had.

I think it's nice for some elements to break free of the grid. Plus the stitching serves a theme of family being sewn together.

The only thing I want to point out on this page is the double meaning in the title. I had the acrylic word UP from an Ali Edwards kit, which fitted grammatically, but we had been meeting in Marquette, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula, so U.P. takes on another meaning.

Thank you for visiting again! I'm going to try to be more realistic about blogging this year, knowing the new reality of caring for children and parents (in a way). I just came back from another retreat, so I do have more pages to share, plus more from my past year in Simple Scrapper.