Birthday scrapbooking layout for my dad

My father recently had a birthday. He is at an age where he doesn't really need anything, so I make him a scrapbook page instead. He and my mom display it in a frame until I send another page, then they put it in an album and display the new page.

This page is sort of special for him. My dad was a Navy pilot, so it was no surprise that he thought to give my son a drone on his birthday so that he too could experience flight--in a way. Here's the page I made about the drone:

I took a lot of photos, but this was my favorite, showing both my son and my husband as they watched the drone in the air. I used an old piece of Basic Grey paper, which had such a lovely pattern I didn't use much else. I also added bits of a Cathy Zielske set of Project Life cards and embellishments I got at Joann's, which paired nicely with the aqua background. I trimmed or punched some designs from the cards to add to the page and used some wood veneer from the kit as well.

My dad's not a sequin guy, but it seemed to fit the page.

Thank you for stopping by! I'll be sharing my April pages for Simple Scrapper soon, so stop by again.

March pages for Simple Scrapper

March has arrived! This is when my grades are due, and after finishing grading research papers and before finalizing my grades for the trimester, I wanted to share this month's pages for Simple Scrapper.

First is a page that uses a new story starter and an old sketch:

This month's story themes evolve places, so I wrote about one of our favorite places at a local attraction, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Hedge Maze. This, by the way, is my first panorama photo I took on my phone. Woot!

Next is the new sketch and old story starter:

We like visiting my husband on our days off from school. Partly we miss him and want to visit, but mostly we want to eat in St. Paul. Yum! I used some products from the Ali Edwards Story kits for this page.

Thank you for visiting! Now that my grading is done for a while, I am looking forward to digging into the photos I've had knocking around for a while. I also look forward to printing vacation photos from Glacier and Maine--I am almost caught up with those albums. Hooray!
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Scrap retreat: Two-page layouts

I'm back to share the two page layouts I made at my scrap retreat last month. One I can't share: it will be published in the Spring issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today. Woot! Here's the other pages:

I think this might be my favorite. We went to an orchard when my mom was here this past fall, so I put together wallet-sized photos with my favorite in a 4x6 photo. I used some newer products by Jen Hadfield and some Cathy Zielske stamps and chalks for the title (I'm trying to use some long-neglected products). Bonus: I had forgotten to put two photos on the page, so I managed to put them on the right side and still not make it look busy.

Next is a page about my last spring break:

We visited two places: Chicago, which is the page that is published, and Holland. I loved picking traditionally springlike colors for this page, paired with some vacation embellishments. Plus: I love the stained glass photo in the middle. The circle is nice in the middle.

Next is a summer visit to the Science Museum:

This was a surprise when we visited: we got the opportunity to visit the storage stacks, where they showed all that they had in the vaults. I tried to keep the book Relic out of my mind while we were there, and it mostly worked. The boys had a blast, and I recorded our favorite parts. Highly recommended if your Science Museum offers a visit behind the stacks.

Finally, another old haunt, the Arboretum:

I mentioned before that I've been trying to use some Project Life products and kits. On this page I used some of my Ali Edwards story kits. I think it worked. I used as background some beloved Fancy Pants old paper. I had to retool the background paper to make the flourishes match more.

Thank you for checking out my pages! I love doing two-page layouts, and I hope this gives you ideas for how to make them work.

Scrap retreat: Single page layouts

Hello! It's been a busy month: two birthdays (mine included), plus the research paper at school where I comment on the process writing multiple times (collecting the final drafts right now), plus my eldest registering for high school. Sigh. So I'm going back a month to share some pages I made at a scrap retreat back when it was cold. I'm focusing on the single pages first.

This first one celebrates Mother's Day, plus the fact that I get to spend the day with my boys watching superhero moves every year (thanks, Marvel--for real!):

At the retreat I brought my Project Life cards to make a hole in my stash. It worked!

Next is a page about my eldest's birthday last year:

I found I was more inspired to scrap when I got regular product in the mail, so I subscribed to Ali Edwards' story kit. You can see some of the product on this page, plus the glorious chipboard floppy disk photo frame that I finally had a use for.

Next a page about my son attending summer camp at Leonardo's Basement, a terrific place that focuses on science, art, and social skills:

The arrow was from the Ali Edwards kit, part of a pad of shaped paper. I find it easier to work with when I mount it on white cardstock (it's see through otherwise), though you can still see the edges a bit. Sigh. Love this older Heidi Swapp architechture paper on this page.

Another page about my younger boy, with his favorite shirt from last year (try not to be mesmerized):

When your son comes home with a recipe he wants to make, it must be done.

Another scrap weekend from last spring with my talented friend Tina:

At this latest scrap retreat I challened myself to use long-neglected products in my stash. Here you see a mask and some mist, along with my circle cutters, which are dying (Farewell, Coluzzle. I loved thee well.)

And a page about a funny story at the Arboretum last summer:

I used lots of girly products on this page, since it was about nature. I think the wood gran and print paper as the background subdue it enough for a boys' page.

Finally, what may be my favorite:

A few years ago we went to the Boston Aquarium. When there, the boys and I had fun trying on some funky fish hats. At the Sea Life Aquarium at the Mall of America last year, we did the same, so I put them together on this page. On this scrap retreat weekend, we made a jaunt up to Pine City to the Scrapbooking Company, where I got this nautical product. I thought of using it for our last trip to Maine, but I cracked it open and used it for this page. So glad I did!

Thank you for checking out my pages! So, so sorry about the neglected blog this past month. Soon I'll be sharing my two-page spreads, plus my March pages for Simple Scrapper.

February pages for Simple Scrapper

Last week I finished my February pages for Simple Scrapper, and these pages are two of my all-time favorites. Here they are:

First is the new story starter and an old sketch. The theme is celebration, and I celebrated a sort of low point when it came to homework: my youngest learned his lesson too late that putting off big homework assignments won't help. I enjoyed digging out the school supply products for this page!

The ruler sticker wasn't actually 12", so I cut it underneath the embellishment cluster and placed it so that it would span the whole page.

That school-themed sticker by Webster's Pages with the word "Celebrate" on it was a prize find in my stash.

Next is a page using a new sketch with an old story starter. My son turned 14 last year, and the sketch had a number on it, so I used the design itself as inspiration. I started making a list of my son's 14 favorites right now, and he finished it. The photos are ones my mother took on his birthday.

These wood veneer sequins are perhaps some of my favorite embellishments of all time. They're from Chic Tags.

Miracle of God, I still had enough R's, A's, and N's to spell his name in veneer.

Mad props to my son for listing nature as a favorite.

Thank you for checking out my pages! I hope they inspire you to go check out Simple Scrapper to see all that the membership has to offer.

Scrapbooking wish lists

Scrapbooking Christmas is not always my favorite thing. For one, the stories often seem the same. For another, I'm not truly fond of Christmas colors. That said, I found a Christmas story I wanted to scrap recently, so I made this page:

For the last few years, we took to wish listing at the mall by taking pictures of ourselves with the phones, then figuring out what we really liked later. I normally delete the photos after we wish list, but last year I didn't, thinking I might want to scrap it. I never did at the time, but I'm glad I kept the photos, because this year my boys took their own photos to wish list, and none of themselves.

Here's the details:

It's only a year ago, but Dominic looks so young!

Thank you for visiting! I hope you consider recording a small Christmas habit instead of just the big stories.

New year, new memories: January pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello!  It's been a cold start of the year here in Minnesota. This week should be warmer, but them it will chill down again in time for me to leave town with some friends. Until then, here are some pages I made for Simple Scrapper January:

This page uses a January story starter, which is about friendship.  I wrote about friendship as a military kid, which could be challenging because of moves. Since I grew up in the 70s and 80s, I picked warmer colors, which reminded me of the seventies.

The sketch for January inspired me to scrap the mammoth rain storm we got in Maple Grove this fall--10 inches!  I had taken a photo from a weather app from my phone and printed it for the page--it showed the epicenter of the storm over my house. I took many photos of the aftermath the next day, but I only picked one for the page from my favorite walk, now flooded over, and I recorded the story of the night before:

Thank you for checking out my page! I just finished a page about Christmas, so I'll share that later this week.