Reclaimed pages, post-hard drive crash: part 5

These are my final pages that I'll be sharing that I lost due to my hard drive crash, but was able to reclaim because of our online back-up program. I've been posting these not just to share them, but also to remind you that you need a redundancy program to back up your photos: disks fail, hard drives crash, even external drives. Consider an online program too!

Now the pages:

This one I had made last spring but never posted, I'm not sure why. I think the design bothered me, for some reason? Not sure. If I go to a game, I generally keep the ticket and put it on the page, like I did here.

This was a very basic page remembering spring. I kept it simple and used kraft as a background since spring in Minnesota is a little washed out. By the time it's colorful, it's almost summer. I cut apart the die cut that came with the kit to use it in many places on the page.

Another spring page, probably the last egg page I'll make since the boys are getting older. I did a lot of stitching, die cutting, and inking for texture here. More color, since it was later in the spring--heck, the grass is almost green!

Thank you for looking at my reclaimed pages! Please take some time to explore online backup options so that you do not have to worry about losing your photos.

Reclaimed pages, post-hard drive crash: part 4

More photos to share, these some final pages made with Fancy Pants Designs products before my term was up:

This was using older Fancy Pants Designs products called Oct 31st, plus a cool set of older Thickers and a cute layered embellishment from Girls Paperie. Not really a Halloween page, but a spooky event that was funny, so I wanted to record it.

This project I've been using a lot. I had a Brag Book that I wanted to use for a project, but there were SO MANY PAGES (a good thing) that I unbound it and rebound it with only the journaling pages, leaving photo and pocket pages without a home. Here I bound them with rings and using the Be Different line, make a book to collect magazine recipes until I had a chance to make them and, if liked, put them in the official family recipe book. Here's some inside pages:

(*That ampersand I cut with Berkshire Swash font.  It's my favorite font for ampersand.)

Thanks for looking at my final pages from Fancy Pants! I have one more set of (almost) lost pages to share before returning to sharing my current projects.

Reclaimed pages, post-hard drive crash: part 3

Another day of sharing pages I reclaimed through Carbonite, this time pages that are a part of my 100 moments pages. Here's the first:

This one isn't one of my favorites, product-wise, but I had gotten a lot of Valentine's Day stuff in my February scrapbooking kit, so I used it since the topic seemed thematic. And yep, that was me back in upper elementary. Yikes. My dad, however, looks very handsome.

Finally, this page is about my introduction into adult reading--Agatha Christie. I did not have any photos of the event, so I took a photo using the books that were a part of the story--not the actual books, but the ones I've bought since. Man, I would love those original books. The book covers on mass market paperbacks in the 70s were mini-scenes, evocative and awesome.

You'll notice that I used different products with each page, even though they are going in the same album. I created cohesion with similar design--kraft background, though some pages use white, basic color blocked design, and a running stitch around. If you are doing an album all at once but was to switch up the products, this idea of similar design might be a good one to keep in mind.

Reclaimed pages, post-hard drive crash: part 2

Here's a couple more pages I never posted that I thought I'd lost on my hard drive when it crashed but recovered, thank you Carbonite.

This was my page last month for Write Click Scrapbook on the theme The Great Outdoors. I picked my favorite photos from our camping trip to Banning last year, enlarged my favorite, used antique-y and colorful papers from Lily Bee on a neutral background, then did some stitching to add motion. I also stitched over the title and curled the edges to add some dimension.

I love this page. The photo on the right I have scrapped before; this print I took off the board of school this past spring; it was taken about 7 years ago, so it was time to update it. Heh. I had recently taken the photo on the left and thought it would be nice to pair the two. I put the photos on a neutral background, used scraps from an old kit of my favorite color (yellow) plus coordinating hues, and then pulled whatever was lying around that seemed to match.

To embellish, I followed an old embellishing formula of mine:

1. Start with something flat--a sticker
2. Add something dimensional--raised stickers and buttons
3. Finish with texture--stitches and thread

I think I gave this page to my father for Father's Day; I thought he would like the page of the boys growing up.

Thanks for checking out another couple of pages recovered from the abyss! I'll share more tomorrow, plus a super deal from Scrapbook Circle.

Reclaimed pages, post-hard drive crash: part 1

Note: Today is the last day for the chance to win one of five kits from Scrapbook Circle! It ends at 8 P.M. PST.  Please go here to read the rules and go on the hop--and be inspired!

About a month ago the hard drive of my laptop crashed. It's the place I've been scrapping and blogging almost exclusively, and it housed all of my photos from 2014, including my iPhone photos I'd downloaded from my camera. Insert swear words of your choice here.

Right now I'd like to give a shout out to Carbonite for a generally easy recovery. All but the last 100 vacation photos I'd literally uploaded the night before were recovered. Those, fortunately, I'd uploaded online that night to a photo processing store that was too expensive and difficult to use, so I don't want to advocate them--their name starts with a W--but I grudgingly must admit that I am grateful I was able to go back, burn a too-expensive CD of them, and put them back on my computer, backed by Carbonite.

In the process of this mess I had about 10-15 pages I'd edited to share, but I didn't have time to before the hard drive crashed. I'm going to share those pages this week. Here's the first two, one for each boy:

This page is one made with leftover photos from another page about our Spring Break visit to the art and science museums. I decided to use the leftover Rowan photos on a page about his favorites at the Science Museum. The best part? The journaling is his. I asked him to tell me all of his favorite parts of the museum, and he listed them all.

And this page was about my son's first foray into theater as Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

I used bits from a fairly girly Studio Calico kit called Camelot. I wasn't sure about some stuff, like the pink tulle, so I overlapped it and sewed over it, trying to create sort of a side curtain for the page. It turned out OK. It bothered me that the letter stickers didn't come with a comma/apostrophe--I hate it when stickers interfere with my grammar!--so I used this star pin as an apostrophe. Bonus that the pin looks like the Wicked Witch's wand.

Thank you for checking out my first batch of recovered pages! More to come through the rest of the week.

It's the Best! New gallery at Write Click Scrapbook

Note: Tomorrow is the last day for the chance to win one of five kits from Scrapbook Circle! It ends at 8 P.M. PST on August 4.  Please go here to read the rules and go on the hop--and be inspired!

Hello! It's a new idea gallery at Write Click Scrapbook, and the theme is a big, wide open one: The Best! Here's my page:

I scrapped about our favorite new restaurant, The Freehouse in Minneapolis.We have been there several times since seeing their chef on a morning news show here in Minnesota. I used a kit by Studio Calico, plus some stash bits. Here's the details:

I've taken to stitching down a side of my journaling strips to anchor them to the page.

Kind of a boring title, I know, so I tried to make it more visually appealing by having the "h" break the plane into the other word. I stamped the word YUMMY with Stayzon black ink, which was a little spotty, so I filled it in with an American Crafts black Slick Writer pen. Protip.

I generally add a little something of the same to the opposite corner of an embellishment cluster for balance. And yes, that's a photo of my son at the bar watching soccer. He's drinking a Sprite.

Thank you for checking out my page! Please visit Write Click Scrapbook to see the rest of the fabulous pages this month, and come back all month for further inspiration.

Scrapbook Circle and PageMaps blog hop!

Welcome to our Scrapbook Circle Blog Hop! This month Scrapbook Circle has a new kit and a new team, and we're celebrating! You could win one of five August kits by commenting as you hop from blog to blog, meeting the team of Scrapbook Circle. If you just left Sarah Zenger's blog, you are in the right place. If not, please join us for the entire hop by starting at the Scrapbook Circle blog, here.

For those of you who don't know me: I am Jennifer Larson, a high school English teacher who is a wife to an RPG gamer and a mother to two Minecraft-Lego-Star Wars crazed boys.I was born in Maine but have lived in Minnesota since college. I started my crafting life as a cross-stitcher when I was a child, then fell into cardmaking in 1998 and scrapbooking in 2002. In addition to scrapbooking and cross-stitching, I love to read, run, and garden. Plus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best TV show. Ever.

Here's my page that I'm sharing for the hop:

I used the two-page sketch from August Page Maps for this layout:

I kept the orientation much the same, but I replaced some design elements with goodies from the August Scrapbook Circle kit, Island Paradise. I used bits from both embellishment add-ons: the Bungalow add-on I dipped into for the flair, and the Elle's Studio die-cuts and  Basic Grey chipboard I used from the Tiki Torch add-on (my favorite!).

To be eligible for the chance to win an Island Paradise kit, please leave a comment below and continue on to the next designer's blog, Diana Fisher, and enjoy the layouts through the rest of the hop! Remember, comments for the hop end Monday, August 4th at 9:00 p.m. Pacific.