October layouts for Simple Scrapper

Hello! The end of the month leaves me tired and sick. Sigh. I did manage to scrap over the last few weeks, though, some of my favorite pages in a while. Here are two pages I made for October's Simple Scrapper:

This first page uses a new sketch and an old story starter. I record a recent realization of mine: my son is slowly becoming a leader, specifically as he mentors younger children in church, taekwondo, and school. Here's some details:

I used a lot of Crate Paper and Jillibean Soup. I liked to pick out ephemera with phrases that fit the theme.

Next is a page about my beautiful grandmother and her sweet personality:

I used an old sketch and a new story starter. I also used pink! A color I don't use much, but both she and I were wearing it, and she is so pretty, I thought the color would be perfect.

I kept putting more embellishments on, then taking them off. I finally decided the pictures and words were enough.

My son came up with the title.

Thank you for checking out my pages! Please visit Simple Scrapper and explore--the perks of being a member will get you scrapping more creatively and productively!

Circles and food

The kit for Scrapbook Circle this month Hello Hello is really cute. In particular,  I loved the number circles from Pretty Little Studio in the main kit. I hadn't used them yet, so I made this page, which had been in the works for a while, listing our favorite foods on vacation:

I decided to put the photos on 2.5x2.5 circles; I had a ton of photos and figured this would make it easier (and more fun!) to fit them all on a page. I don't have a circle cutter that is perfectly sized for this (I ordered a punch but haven't gotten it yet), so I did an old standby and hand cut them and distressed the edges, setting them all in a circle. Here are the details:

There were lots of cute embellishments I hadn't used, so I sprinkled them here and there across the page. The printable was enough space to journal the purpose (recording our favorite vacation foods), and I hand journaled the restaurants along the outer edge to identify the numbered photos.

I had planned on "Vacation Eats" being the title, but then I saw the printable and thought it would look cute paired with the word "Eats."

Thank you for checking out my final Scrapbook Circle page for the month! I am so happy with how it turned out, and it was super fun to make. My eldest son can't stop looking at it, possibly because he likes it, but maybe because he's hungry and about to grow. It's that time. Sigh.

I'm working on pages for Write Click Scrapbook, Scrapbook Circle, and Simple Scrapper, in addition to getting started teaching a new year. Phew! I'll share as I finish this next week.

A dull scrapbooking post about altering page protectors

A bummer of a title,but I am super proud that I managed to make this work and I wanted to share it with you. Be warned, though: only pictures of page protectors--no pretty photos on this post!

I have mentioned before that I like to make my vacation albums 8.5x11 potbound. (Side note--my computer keeps changing "postbound" to "potbound." I hope I caught and edited all of them, but in case I missed one, please know I'm not referring to drugs!) Those albums are pretty hard to find nowadays. I LOVED the Stampin' Up! 8.5x11 postbound albums, but they discontinued them years ago. Sadly. As a substitute, I bought a few of these on clearance at Archiver's years ago:

I didn't buy any extra page protectors, though, which is something I've since learned: just like when I buy a stamp pad I always get the refill, now when I buy an album, I always get extra page protectors too.

In this case, I had used one album to scrap my Disney vacation. To scrap that vacation, which needed tons of page protectors, I raided the second album that I had bought for some of its page protectors, which left this album a little thin for the Custer State Park vacation I was going to use it for. When I checked my supplies, I had two different kinds of  page protectors:

On the left are Stampin' Up! extras--a lot of them--and on the right are the 4 leftover ones from the album itself. The problem?

When you lay them on top of each other, the album protectors are a hair shorter on the right than the SU ones. Damn. (On a side note, I just noticed that you can see me in the page protector--apparently I was wearing a purple shirt when I took this photo.) Since page protectors are pretty sturdy, I decided to be crafty and make the album page protectors a little longer on the right.

I had 4 album page protectors, but I only needed 2 for the album, so I cut the left edge off two and sewed them onto the other two, making them a little wider on the left:

After I did this and laid them on top of the SU page protectors, voila! It all lined up.

I suppose it didn't really matter that they didn't line up on the right, but I'm fairly type A and knew it would drive me crazy when I looked through the album. As a result, I decided it was worth the effort to try to even them up.

I did manage to edit and print the photos from this vacation before the summer was done, so I will be finished with this album within the next month. I'll share it once I'm done!

September pages for Scrapbook Circle--and a sale!

September is upon us, and I am working hard to prepare to teach 11th grade students. I'm teaching 11th grade AP and Reading, and I have a lot of work to do this weekend, but I am excited to meet my students. Until then, I wanted to share my September pages for Scrapbook Circle's kit Hello Hello. First is a page that's a little messy:

Because we had our date in NE Mpls, I picked some grungy looking papers to fit the warehouses. I also added some gesso, modeling paste with a mask, and some ink. It was tricky adhering the photos; I ended up using dimensionals on glue dots. Here's the details:

Next is a page I made with some random photos of the boys I recently discovered. I put them together on this page and journaled about the new chapter in their lives: middle school.

I loved the chipboard in the embellishment add-on.  It inspired my title block.

Then a page that's a little different: while I scrapped our Disney vacation from 5 years ago, I found these pictures of Dominic waterbending. They were so charming and such a perfect picture of his interest at the time, I used them on this page. I selected water-splashed paper and made a little bend with the epoxy in the add-on.

Here I was a little creative: the tags in the main were gorgeous. I trimmed them a bit to make them a smaller chevron. To do so, I laid them together and sewed in between.

Finally, a page I was inspired to make after going home for vacation this year. We ordered pizza from Tess' (mad props to the correct use of apostrophe on the sign), a fond memory of my growing up years. Here's the page:

I kept it simple, but I tried to make it look a little like the awning. I also used the flourish in pizza to highlight "favorite." Because it is.

Thank you for visiting! Please check out this kit, and the terrific deal going on now through Labor day:

Yes, you can save 30% on your order through Labor Day, Monday the 7th of September. If you've been wavering on whether to subscribe, now's a great time to start! Go visit Scrapbook Circle and check it out.

Finishing projects part 3: Vacation album

I'm making progress on my summer to-do list, finishing off number 4. Here's the list:

1. Finish creating the boys' 5th and 6th grade school album pages
2. Edit and print photos from Custer S.P. (2011)
3. Create mini albums with thank you cards from school
4. Finish the Disney album (2010)
5. Update the Easter mini-album
6. Complete the iScrap class/album
7. Complete the Get Messy class/album
8. Ask Derick to finish journaling his London album
9. Complete 5 Vacation Faves (2015)
10. Create cards for my Dad
11. Rowan school album photos: 3rd, 5th, and 6th; class photo 4th and 6th
12. Dominic school album photos: 2nd, 4th, and 5th;class photo 3rd and 5th

Last month I scrapped a series at Write Click Scrapbook sharing how I go about scrapbooking vacations. My goal was to finish this vacation album this summer, and I'm done! Here it is:

Here's the cover of the album. It took me a couple tries to get it sized right. I always forget about the space that needs to be left that can't be seen. No designs can go there!

I've mentioned before that I do the same design every time I do a vacation album. This simplifies my process and still leaves me with a visually appealing album. For the title page, I pick a great family photo, give a big title and embellishment cluster, and a table of contents. Here's the content pages:

Most of these are a two-page spread. I do a photo and title block, then photos and journaling on the other half of the page. I alternate products between pages, and I alternate where I put the title/journaling (top or bottom).

Although I do two-page spreads mostly, I also do a four-page spread when I have a lot of photos I want to include.

 

 

 

For the last page I included photos that I had forgotten. Not much journaling here; I often give just a quotation that fits.

And the back cover! I super glue an envelope (actually using sticky strips) and include memorabilia I wish to keep.

As I mentioned on WCS, I decided long ago it's easier to use a single product line for an album (though I do dig into stash on a needs basis). For this album I used October Afternoon Boarding Pass. I liked the bright colors and thought they would work well with my Disney photos.

Thank you for letting me share my Disney album! I hope to still print my photos from Custer State Park is 2011 before the end of the summer (I've already scrapped our 2012 trip to Maine).  For that album I plan on using October Afternoon's Sasparilla.  I hope to scrapbook our 2011 trip by the end of the year, and then I can focus on 2013 through 2015 (Glacier, Itasca S.P., and our big road trip this year). I won't finish my to-do list by the end of the summer, but making progress on it makes me feel satisfied.

Scrapbooking the books and the Bakken

Before school starts again, I want to share the pages I made for Simple Scrapper's September gallery. Here's the first:

The story starters for the month involve books. I have to tell you that I am so excited by them and will be using them again and again. This page involves my night stand and setting a goal to finish the books I had on them. I have to admit, I worried about the title, fearing it looked too much like "One Night Stand." LOL. I used an older sketch for this page. Here's some details:

I mostly used October Afternoon's Public Library collection for this page. I thought the colors and themes were perfect.

I wasn't sure if I should put the actual books I've read and plan to read in the next year. Aesthetically I worried it looked too cluttered. I left it on there, though, because I know writing things down makes me more likely to achieve my goal.

The next page uses a current sketch to record my son's magical experience at the Bakken Museum Summer Camp.

I flipped the sketch to match the orientation of the photos, realizing too late that this made the page look awfully similar to the last one. Oh well! Here's some details:

I used more October Afternoon Public Library and Daily Flash Milk Money, plus a gorgeous old piece of Bella Blvd computer paper.

Since the Bakken celebrates electricity, I was able to pull out every light bulb embellishment I own and get some serious thematic use out of them.

The title is supposed to be a play on the phrase "Release the Kraken." And the yellow Thickers, which are old, I had to adjust since I was out of e's and n's. I squooshed a c into an e, and I trimmed an M to make an n.

Thank you for checking out my pages! Please visit Simple Scrapper and check out their membership. You'll find lots of inspiration in the form of story starters and sketches/digital templates. As I said, this month would be a good one to join because of the amazing story starters.