My favorite scrapbooking pages of 2015

I don't think I did a reap of my favorite pages from last year. Although I was less prolific last year, I still enjoyed the process. Here's some of my favorite pages, in no particular order:

This was a recent page for Scrapbook Circle that I finished right at the end of 2015. I love the photo of my boys and used it as a base of a page that described their relationship using different nouns. #EnglishTeacher

Another recent page for Simple Scrapper, this time celebrating my garden. I love taking a one-page sketch and stretching it to two.

Perhaps my favorite page of the year using a heritage photo of me in Germany when I was in college. I reminisce on the song that is the title using a sketch and story starter for Simple Scrapper. Note: travel lines are my favorite themed paper, so I jump at the chance to use them on a page.

This page by Simple Scrapper I played around with circles from the sketch, this time with hand stitching, which I generally did less of this year. Note: More travel paper!

My son at the Bakken museum. I made serious use of stash on this page, starting with an older piece of bella Blvd that made a nice base for the technical page.

Both this and the last were Simple Scrapper pages. I loved that the sketch had diamond shapes, so I was able to use these shape stickers. Lots of machine stitching on this page, which I did do a lot of this year. I need to get my machine tuned up again, and it might be time to get a new one after 20+ years. Parts are falling off.

This page for Scrapbook Circle did something I fell in love with this year: taking inspiration for the page from a product. In this case I was inspired by the grid background paper to journal and embellish as I did.

More travel paper! I used it on a recent "travel" to Minneapolis to one of our favorite restaurants, The Freehouse. Note: this design is typical for me--same size photos in a line--but the huge tags and journaling on the bottom breaks it up and makes it look different.

Another page where I took inspiration from the background paper. I did a lot of big picture scrapbooking. This might have been my favorite because it might have been my favorite shot. Love white space.

Grids are good. Here I put all the shots in a grid, but one didn't fit, so I used it to embellish the title.

Finally, I (finally) got around to documenting my week in the life from the previous year. This might have been one of the only non-design team pages I made, which is a scrapbooking goal I have for the upcoming year: more pages using stash for a little randomness.

So what do I notice from my pages this year? A recap:

1. Color
2. Shape
3. Layers of embellishments
4. Pivotal stitching as a design element
5.  Big titles
6. Journaling strips
7. Designing from product

Thank you for visiting today! And thank you for letting me share some of my favorite pages. I've started some scrapbooking on my own this week, so I will be sharing as I complete more over the next month.

Happy New Year at Write Click Scrapbook!

Hello! It's a new year and a new gallery at Write Click Scrapbook. The theme is "My On Trend," which is a chance for us to share what our personal trends are. Here's my page:

I had the piece of striped brown paper, which was from an old Studio Calico kit, lying around. I got the idea for the page when I printed the photo of my husband and thought to pair it with the mead photo I had already printed and not used for my favorite photos page. I tossed the two photos on top of this paper to get it out of the way, liked the way they looked together, and went from there. This is, by the way, a typical way of creating non-kit pages for me.

Here's some details:

So what makes this page typical for me and my style/trends?

1. Journaling strips (of course)
2. Sewing
3. Different sizes and fonts for the title
4. Patterned paper mixes, especially the 2/3 and 1/3 split
5. More than one photo
6. A circle

I am not the only one who does these things, but these trends make me happy, so I do them a lot without qualms. Scrapbooking should make you happy.

Thank you for visiting today! Please go check out the inspiring pages at Write Click Scrapbook, and start the new year out by creating!

A colorful new year at Scrapbook Circle

This winter has been pretty warm, but we recently experienced some intense cold and snow here in Minnesota. As a result, I love working with bright colors in the winter. The Scrapbook Circle January kit Fresh Start gives me that opportunity. Here's my first page:

I used a lot of the add-on Shine Bright with this page; indeed, I love to use the 6x6 papers as layers for a photo mat. The big number in the add-on inspired my title. Lots of fun embellishments in this add-on too, including the Fancy Pants die cuts and meta badges. Here's some details:

Then a page that celebrates our favorite movie series, Star Wars:

Like the last page I used the add-on Shine Bright for the die cuts and badges. I also used the add-on New Day for the title--the big gold letters were so forceful, they were perfect for the page. The sequin embellishments in the add-on also show up in this page: I removed the adhesive backing and disassembled one to use the sequins sprinkled across the page.

The die cut font in the title is Bebas Neue, which is a good one to cut tiny.

Next is a page that came about serendipitously. I had taken the photo on the left last year, my son's last in elementary school. His first with a school iPad, he was highly distracted and did not perform as well as he could have. The photo on the right I took this year at conference night. He's been performing much better and has been excited about school, so I put the photos together to reflect on his transition in a year. I just happened to see the two photos together, which gave me the idea for the page.

(This may be the time to mention how hard it is to photograph these letters without capturing myself reflected in them!)

I punched the Maggie Holmes Crate Paper Sine Carefree, then sewed them in a frame around the two photos. I liked the whimsy and spirit. This time I used the sequin embellishments in the add-on New Day as is to frame his photos as well.

Finally, my favorite page this month, which I made as a Christmas present for my parents:

This is a favorite photo of the boys from last summer. I used the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Shine paper called Sweet as the backdrop, then layered the Studio Calico Seven paper and washi on top as a base for the photo The wood and cork from the main and the badges and die cuts from both add-ons surround the photo with happy sentiments.

Not much journaling on the page, just a list of nouns that identify who they are: 2 brothers, 2 builders, 2 black belts, and so on. I used epoxy dots from the main to separate the list.

I always struggle to adhere vellum. These big numbers are dark enough so that using regular dot adhesive works OK, but here I sewed it down  v   e   r   y      s   l   o   w   l   y, turning the page to mimic the number's shape. It mostly worked.

Thank you for visiting today! I hope these pages show you how fun this kit and the add-ons are. Please visit Scrapbook Circle to check out this truly inspiring kit.

Scrapbooking the year's best moments

A few years ago I scrapbooked a page I called "This was the year that..." It was a retrospective of all the noteworthy events from the previous year, using some leftover photos and a leftover kit. I loved that page. Since then, I've done a similar page every year. Here's my page from this year:

Before I made the page, I journaled a list of what I remembered from the year that was notable. I also opened up PSE Organizer and scrolled through the photos to find representative shots. I also rediscovered other moments that I added to my list.

To create the page, I started with the blue circle paper, then dug into my scraps for the trim. (Yellow is my favorite color, so that was a natural choice.) I dug into old supplies and used the corrugated numbers and the die cuts which I hadn't used yet. Of course I journaled on strips, then inked them with yellow because.

Thank you for checking out my page! Stop by later this week for my January work for Scrapbook Circle and Write Click Scrapbook.

January 2016 pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello! The new year is upon us, and I wanted to share the pages I made for Simple Scrapper. Here's my first, which uses an old story starter and a new sketch:

If, like me, you took photos of the eclipse that were poor, this sketch was a nice one--lots of white space to demonstrate the theme with a good piece of patterned paper since the photos didn't capture what I wanted.

This was a little bit of a kitchen sink page. I picked up do-dads and scraps I had lying around that seemed to fit. and how happy was I to use these glistening Thickers I had gotten long ago that fit the theme?

And then my next page, which used an old sketch that I stretched to two pages with a new story starter:

I tend to do a page like this every winter when my soul languishes for color. I mixed Pink Paislee and October Afternoon mostly for the bright hues to match the photos.

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please go check out Simple Scrapper for ideas this new year to make your scrapbooking more inspired and manageable.

What are your favorites? Scrapbooking the end of the year

Hello! I am scrapbooking on Write Click Scrapbook this week highlighting favorites. Today I'm scrapbooking my favorite photos of the year. I use the same design every year, which simplifies the process, and simple is good. Here's the page:

I used remnants from my December Scrapbook Circle kit, plus some letter stickers and background paper, which I was running low on. I picked yellow for the paper, my favorite color.

And that's my year-end photo review! Please stop by Write Click Scrapbook this week for more fabulous ideas about scrapbooking your favorites.

December gallery for Write Click Scrapbook

December is upon us, and so is the new gallery at Write Click Scrapbook! The theme is holiday favorites, andI had one lone holiday photo unscripted that fit the theme. Here's the page:

I suppose it's fitting that I scrapbook this photo now with the new Star Wars coming out in a couple weeks. I hope you can tell the joke in the page--it's Christmas Lights, with {abers} added after the S just like my sons added Star Wars to the manger.

I also used my favorite scrapbooking products--embellishments, especially stickers and die cuts. No patterned paper this page!

Thank you for checking out my page! Please visit Write Click Scrapbook to see some other awesome holiday pages.