New kit, new scrapbooking inspiration

I've subscribed to kits or been on kit design teams for years. There's something awesome about getting that box of new supplies every month. I stopped completely this year, and I noticed something: my scrapbooking dropped off precipitously without the new supplies. Mind you, I have a stash, so that alone shouldn't have stopped me, and I scrapbooked before kits. Still, most scrapbook shops near me have closed, and I discovered this year that kits really do keep me inspired.

I started shopping around for kits this past summer. I like a lot of them, but most seemed heavy on flowers and feminine supplies. I'm not shy about using them on my boys' pages, but I like something a bit more linear. I finally settled on the Ali Edwards story kit. It contains cards and embellishments, no paper, but it's been just enough of a hit for me to create. Here's a couple pages:

When I printed these photos of our Father's Day at Surly, I reached into a story kit, pulled some cards that reflected the mood, then pulled some embellishments that seemed to fit. I used yardstick as the background then added some stitching. Easy peasy! Here's some details:

Another month had the theme of Me. Like using the supplies to make pages about myself, but I don't want every page about myself to have me me me on it, so I used some products to make a page about my son and what makes him like me:

Yep, he's like me because he tries to carry in all the groceries in one trip. That's perfectly normal.

Again, I found some neutral cards plus some embellishments, then picked a basic green piece of patterned paper as the background to make all the red pop.

Thanks for visiting! Do you subscribe to kits? Which ones? Please share!

Come at me, Slowbro: Scrapbooking your hobbies

It's been a busy fall again, but I have been scrapboooking. I've also gone back to some other hobbies this year that I've neglected: I finished three cross-stitch projects, I have read 34 books this year, and I grew an embarrassment of tomatoes. But I've slowly started scrapping again, and this time about a new hobby: Pokemon Go.

I know, I know--it's the game that everyone did, especially kids, then quit. Not my family. We've really enjoyed getting out and visiting different places in the Twin Cities, enjoyed the exercise, and managed some friendly competition and cooperation. I made a few pages recently, one about our trip to the zoo, and I plan on making a mini-album of the different places we've been. Here's a couple layouts I've made recently, starting with my favorite:

A month or so back, the game allowed you to choose a Pokemon as a "buddy" that you could walk around with to earn candies to power him up--something I guess candy does to us all (heh). I picked my Snorlax since he's rare and I can probably never catch another to earn more candy. When I saw how big he was next to my avatar, I immediately thought "Come at me, Bro!" then transposed it to "Slowbro," a kind of Pokemon. I took a picture and made this page.

The nice thing about Pokemon from a design standpoint are the colors--they are so bright and primary that it is easy to design with.

This next page is about my husband and me and how much we like to go hunting Pokemon together (apologies for the fuzzy resolution. It's getting dark so early here. I need to invest some time into making a light box.):

I tend to call these Pokedates but was hesitant to use it as the title because to me it sounds kind of naughty. Still, my husband challenged me, so I did. I put the accent on the E like it appears in the game, and bonus! I learned how to create the accented E in my journaling. Still don't know how to do it in Blogger, but oh well.

Again, I used bright primary colors, plus some pink for the Clefable I put in the gym. The red button is supposed to be a Pokeball, of course.

Thank you for letting my share this geeky hobby I've been indulging in! I hope this inspires you to create some pages about what else occupies your time, aside from scrapbooking.

November scrapbook layouts for Simple Scrapper

Hello! The school year is underway, and I am starting to get busy. We just had mid-trimester conferences, and the papers in my English classes are coming in quicker. Still, I managed to edit and print some photos in expectation of future scrapbooking, and I scrapbooked some pages for Simple Scrapper. Here's the first:

This page came about for me after a family visit to the zoo I noticed my son taking pictures of Pokemon in the pens, so I asked him to share them with me. When I saw this sketch from Simple Scrapper, I knew I wanted to use it to tell the story of our Como Zoo visit where were saw animals and Pokemon.

This side of the layout I filled with photos of us, the animals, and my son's Pokemon photos.

The right side I selected my favorite family photos to put alongside the title and journaling.

Next was a page about my son and his newfound interest in school clubs. He found four he was interested in and narrowed it to two, choosing one because some of his friends were taking it. That gave me an avenue into the story about his growth. Making friends has been a challenge because he is on the spectrum, so I wanted to celebrate the casual acknowledgment of his social circle.

It's been a while since I've subscribed to a kit. Recently I've subscribed to Ali Edwards' story kit, and I used some of the cards and embellishments on this page. How perfect are those wooden phrases?

I used a lot of yellow since this was such a happy story.

Thank you for visiting today! I've enjoyed finding time to get my daily scrap on. Keep an eye on Simple Scrapper this month. We're starting another Photo Crush to help organize your photo stash.

Fall Back: October gallery for Write Click Scrapbook

Fall has arrived, technically. It was extraordinarily warm as we walked around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis yesterday. Still, fall is here, so I made a page about my favorite things about fall. Yes, there are a lot of memes about this, but none seem to speak to me. I don't like Pumpkin spice, for example. Here's the page I made about my fall faves:

I made this page for Write Click Scrapbook's October gallery, where the theme is fall. I dug into my Project Life cards and found 5 that looked fallish color or pattern-wise, and I used them to back the photo. The background paper my husband selected after I gave him a few choices. Gotta keep him in the game! The rest of the embellishments (wood and puffy stickers) came from fall products I had bought but not often used. And the button? That was an old Basic Grey flower I had for years that I used to cover up something in the photo. Here's some details:

I journaled in a list. It didn't fit in the space I had allowed, but I put a few in the same line, which worked. Something I have to remember...

I had debated putting more embellishments on the page, but from experience, I've learned that I always regret adding those extra embellishments, so I didn't. Keeping it simple.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope this gives you ideas for scrapbooking your own fall favorites list, even if (like me) pumpkin spice won't appear on it.

October scrapbook layouts for Simple Scrapper

The school year has started again, and it is a little early for papers for me to grade, which is good, since my classes are larger (30-34 in most). I am hosting a student teacher, who is off to a great start. I am getting back into the groove of working during the day and scraping at night. Here are some of my recent pages, both for Simple Scrapper:

This was a new story starter about caregiving. I wrote about a challenge: my boys leaving scraps everywhere. I took a not-stellar photo then scrapped and journaled over it to tell the story.

A moment of situational irony: as I took my tool kit off the bookshelf, the one that holds my wood veneer shapes that I wanted to use on the page, I found another one of these dang cough drop wrappers squirreled away.

I picked this paper because of the word "modifications," which appears many times on the paper. Picking up their scraps is a modification I would like the boys to make!

Next is a page that may be one of my favorites from the summer:

Used two single-page sketches and put them together on this two-page layout about a recent beach trip that ended up with my son stealing food from the thieving gulls and shouting "Mine!"

I love this movie. So many quotes...

I keep some Iris bins with themed products--Christmas, Halloween, School, Camping, and Vacation. I dug exclusively into my vacation bin for this layout. It prolonged summer for me, which made me happy. I used mainly old Little Yellow Bicycle, October Afternoon, and Fancy Pants for the page.

Yes, the gulls really did that.

I layered wallet-sized photos on top of 3x4 Project Life-ish cards. I LOVE this. It was so easy to create a coloful, eclectic background, and I am going to  do it again.

That little wave there was a scrap from another project. I usually kick myself for saving teeny scraps like this, but I'm happy it paid off this time.

Thank you for visiting! I hope you go visit Simple Scrapper to check out their membership. They have many story starters and templates/sketches for inspiration, plus a monthly digital magazine and an active online community. Check it out, and also visit Amazon to check out The New Rules of Scrapbooking, a book written by Jennifer Wilson from Simple Scrapper..

New scrapbooking pages at Write Click Scrapbook

Some more scrapbooking I did this past month included working some pages up for Write Click Scrapbook. We took a summer break and are back with weekly blogging. Stop by for some inspiration!

During the Olympics, we had some events ourselves. Here's a page I made as a part of a relay race:

I LOVED the bright green in the Rio Olympics (well, not in the pool). I used it as a pop of color on this otherwise mostly yellow-and-neutral page.

I am trying to use my Project Life cards more. These are from Pinkfresh Studio, as are the wood stickers. I like using them to frame the photo.

Next, my gallery page about my scrapbooking group and our mini-vacations to the Pine City Scrapbooking Company:

I used travel papers for this, which made it easy to design, digging into just one Iris container for my supplies.

This week I'm blogging at Write Click Scrapbook, sharing my vacation album and how I plan it. I've blogged about it before, but I am going into more detail this time.  Please stop by to check out what has been going on!

September scrapbook pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello! August has been a whirlwind. Between my husband going away to GenCon (a gamers' convention) and going away for work and the family going away on vacation, I have been rushing around, getting the most out of the summer and hurriedly finishing up what I need to--namely, back to school shopping and planning for teaching.

I have scrapbooked a little. Here are my pages for Simple Scrapper September:

This page made me smile. Lousy pictures, but they tell a funny story about the relationship between my cat and my son's lizard. She's not hunting him; she is fascinated by him. I used a new story starter and old sketch to tell the story of this simple pleasure.

Next is a page about my son's good work at the church rummage sale. He did a terrific job organizing the shoes and purses for sale, all by himself. (As a side comment, his room is NOWHERE near this organized--where did these mad organizational skillz come from? Where has he been hiding them?) I used a new sketch and old story starter for this.

I have been doing a lot of hand journaling lately.

Those are my pages for Simple Scrapper this month! Please go over and investigate--every month your subscription comes with templates, story starters, and a digital magazine with original pages.