Making progress on pages I was stuck on: Scrapbooking blocks

I am still finishing up sharing pages I started then didn't finish in my scrap retreat in January. These two I was stuck on. I made them, then wrote the journaling, then made no progress,. I'm not sure why I didn't with this first one. It was pretty well complete without journaling. Here's what I ended up with:

To be honest, the only thing, aside from the journaling, that I hadn't finished was the date. Lo, my son had kept the box of the Switch and the receipt--we trained him well!--so when I asked him to find it, we were set. I used an Ali Edwards Story kit for this, plus scraps. I've been using my scrap bin quite a bit for patterned paper.

This page was a bigger conundrum. I'd put together the photo block plus the four clocks of colored paper under it. After I added the journaling, I looked around for something to finish it, and lo, serendipity: We are remodeling the downstairs after a flood, so most of my scrap stuff is upstairs right now. I saw a strip of green paper that looked like lawn, and that gave me an idea. I used them as strips of "lawn" to frame the title, then dug into my decorative brads, which were again right next to me because of the remodeling. After some stitching, I was done. And I love this page much more than when I started.

Thank you for stopping by! I made a few more pages--most brand new!--in my stay-at-home state. I'll share them soon in the next week.

Back again! Pages from October scrap retreat

Hello! Once again I went to a scrap retreat and scrapped a bunch of pages. Once again I was overwhelmed by life and haven'tposted them. Sigh. I'll get it together. Here are some pages about me:

I don't like scrapbooking Mother's Day as a stand-alone page, but I do like scrapping it as an event. Here we are playing the card game Marrying Mr. Darcy. I used an old Studio Calico kit for this.

I told one of my boys' favorite family stories, about the time my hair caught fire while camping. I used some October afternoon, American Crafts, and Pebbles camping products.

This page I love. For the past two months our family has been clearing out the entire living space for our family to put in hardwood floors. (And then we put it back, which has basically been the last two months for me. No scrapbooking for me!) I found a few preschool love notes from the boys, so I put them together on this page with a recent photo. I used a KI Memories envelope on the back for the projects and included some of their bon mots in the journaling.

A page I started then stopped because I wasn't sure what to say. I decided to focus on what made it typical and to take some gusses.

Finally, a page about my husband and me and some of our dates in the past year. I like compilation pages like this. Mostly Ali Edwards on this page.

And Those are some pages about me! I'll be back to share some family pages, then a page that shares something tough from the last two months.

Scrapbooking favorite places

If I had to pick some important places in my life, my home state of Maine would be up there, as would my alma mater, St. Olaf. Another big place: the Mall of America. This was, after all, where I met my husband. As a result, we love to go back several times a year.

On these two pages I scrapped this special pace. First, I scrapbooked a time we visited:

I picked some favorite shots, then added some journaling and embellishments. A typical page.

Next I wanted to scrap some favorite stops at the mall. I took pictures of signs and put them together into a grid layout:

I used an Ali Edwards kit focusing on the details to support the page. I found that using my shape punches on Project Life cards adds nice, inique embellishments.

Thank you for stopping bY I hope you make some pages celebrating some favorite places of your own.

Scrapbooking my life (and my husband's)

I am trying to spend more time scrapbooking my husband. I tend to scrapbook the family and myself more than him, so I wanted to share a page I made about his work space recently.

His desk is so uniquely him, I took pictures and scrapped it. I dug into my Ali edwards' kits and Project Life cards in particular to scrapbook this.

This page is a brief recap of a big injury I sustained Nordic skiing last winter: the day after a thaw (everything had frozen again), I kept falling while I skied, ending up spraining my back, among other injuries. The memories of skiing were still good, so I tried to use upbeat colors and pleasant patterns.

Finally, when I visited my home last winter and attended church, I took pictures of images within the church that had stuck with me growing up. I recorded my memories of these images from my formative faith years.

I hope this gives you ideas in scrapbooking stories of yourself and those significant to you!

Scrapbooking pets

Hello, me again, sharing some pages I have made.

At the scrap retreat, I had brought several photos of my pets, so I decided to make some pages with them. Here they are:

This is a story of the cat trying to scavenge food (in this case, fried chicken being prepared) and being caught in the act. I used an Ali Edwards kit plus an old Gossamer Blue Kit to record the story.

This isn't really a story, just an opportunity to record some darling photos of my typically non-photogenic dog. Hey--I stamped on a page! I'm trying to do that more and more. This page I made with lots of scraps and old products.

Thanks for stopping by again! I still have pages left from my old scrap retreat to share.

Scrapbooking the places we eat

I know there's a bad rap for people who take photos of the places they eat. I frankly don't care. I enjoy the food, and I enjoy the place, so I take picture so that I can remember the experience. Here are a few pages form the places I eat.

Last year I took the boys to Glam Doll donuts in Northeast Minneapolis. We love donuts, and we love Northeast, so it was a perfect match. I took some photos there and at home, and then I made this page. Here's the details:

I used bits from Ali Edwards' kit, then added from my stash.

This border combo I had lying around since a previous layout. I thought it would look good on the page since it looked sweet, so I added some yellow and pink scraps plus some sequins (sprinkles) to complete it.

Next is a page from a local pizza joint:

Again, I used the Ali Edwards kit, plus a story starter and sketch from Simple Scrapper. I added some people and food photos, plus some food-colored patterned paper and sequins for a yummy page. Thank you for visiting!

Science and Scrapbooking

Since today is Pi day, I thought I'd share my page from the last time we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota.

We have been members for several years, so I take a lot of pictures there. I think on this trip I  took at least 30 pictures. I do a lot of double-paged spreads from those, but this time I thought I'd pick my favorite photos from the Pixar exhibit, then a couple shots from our favorite places--the dino in the lobby and the rooftop porch that overlooks the river. Here's the page:

I had just gotten a series of soda-pop themed papers from Stamping' Up! so I decided to use them because they are bright and happy. I then dug through my die cuts for colorful accents, like the banner from Pinkfresh Studio and the stars, which I think are Studio Calico and Ali Edwards.

Thank you for visiting! Now it's time to celebrate math and eat pie.

Saving photos to scrapbook later

Sometimes I print a photo because I love it, but I don't really have a reason to scrapbook it because I lack story. After some recent conversations with my cousins, I was inspired to write about the important role my cousins have played in my life. Here's the photo and the page:

I used a kit from Studio Calico that had some nice girly colors and patterns, plus some elements from the Ali Edwards kit named FABRIC. I created some strong lines with the papers to balance the frou-frou. I had a lot of story to tell, so I printed it on cardstock, cut it into strips, and stitches it to the page abutting the vertical patterned paper. running horizontal is a strip of vellum that I stapled onto the page. Here's some details:

I know I wanted to create a cluster with all the pretty embellishments in the kits, so once I decided on the design, I clustered them around the title and set the photo on top of it. I decided I needed to make use of some of my rub-ons, so I added a gold heart and some Jenni Bowlin butterflies.

Thank you for visiting and letting me share this page with you! I hope it gives you ideas holding on to a favorite photo until you have a good story to write.

Scrapbooking Grandma

My parents live in another state, so we see them only a few times a year, mostly when we travel out.My father is more infirm, so my mother does more traveling. Last summer she visited to see the beautiful sights in Minnesota. I made this page for her to remember the event.

Every time she comes out, we take a photo by this tree at church. It makes a nice backdrop. I used Ali Edwards' kit for this. Note: this was probably the last time my youngest was shorter than grandma. Here's some details:

The journaling take worked as a good home for the title. The hearts were notepad sheets; I layered them to frame the photo.

The silver stars came with the kit; I added epoxy hearts from my stash.

After I put together the page, I thought I needed more color, so I found some striped paper in my scraps to use and draw the eyes across the page.

Two-page layouts: really big and really small

This is the final two-page layout I made this past month. This one I knew I would be pairing a big photo with small ones. The big photo involved my son at the starting line of a cross country race. Without a big photo my son would have been lost. Here's what I did:

Like the previous layouts, I had saved autumn die cuts. I then picked out some autumn hued papers that matched the die cuts and then spread it across the page. Here's the details:

Like before, I used Elle's Studio die cuts, plus elements from my Ali Edwards kits and Stampin' Up! Project Life kits.

Here's an interesting note: I had originally designed the page with the pages reversed, but my son said he preferred the pages reversed, and so I did it. It's his memory, after all.

Thank you for visiting while I share these two-page layouts I made this past month! Soon I'll share my Simple Scrapper pages for March. They are some of favorite ever. I can't wait to share them!

February pages for Simple Scrapper

I spent a full weekend scrapbooking after the new year (yippee!) and I wanted to share them right away. Here they are:

I used a sketch from February's Simple Scrapper for this page. I wanted to document a favorite photo from my mother's last visit. I used it to commemorate the years she's spent visiting for their birthdays and how we treasure these visits.

I used a lot of pink on this page, plus lots of green to match her shirt.

Next I used a story starter to document my creative outlet in the last year, which was too busy for me to scrapbook and cross-stitch: instead, I cooked. I printed a lot of my food photos and made this page to document a timeline of my creative cooking:

I used an Ali Edwards kit for this page, plus bright colors and die cuts from my stash.

I wrote the names of the dishes on the photo mats.

These utensils were random finds when I was sorting my die cuts. Fun find!

Thank you for visiting today. Please visit Simple Scrapper to see the wonderful story starters and sketches/digital templates, plus the monthly digital magazine full of layouts and scrapbooking inspiration!
SaveSave

Same page different boy

Not too often, but occasionally I make a page about the same subject with both boys Here are the pages I made regarding a virtual eality game they played at the Mall of America. First, Rowan:

(You can sew through chipboard! Just use the hand tool.)

Here's the page I made about Dominic:

I used Ali Edwards kits for both boys, just different ones.

Here's some hints I learned about making two pages about the same subject for different people without making the exact same page:

1. Do them on separate days.
2. Select one aspect of each story you want to focus on, and choose product to fit that subject (the kits I picked were themed FUN for Dominic and LENS for Rowan; those fit each boy's story).
3. Choose background/dominant colors first to reflect the emotion in the pages.
4. Show the pages to your subjects and allow them to give you feedback and ideas.

So those are my pages about the same subject! I hope it gives you ideas to scrap the same idea but in different ways.

Scrapbooking the year

Every year I do a retrospective layout on the big events from the year. Usually I design the page based on leftover photos I haven't scrapped. This year, I was more purposeful with my photo printing and had very few leftover. As a result, I went through the year in photos and selected the ones that for me represented our family's year. Here it is:

I used an Ali Edwards kit for this, one regarding the end of the year. I used it on my last year review page as well. Here are some details:

The title was foam, so I stapled it on. I couldn't reach far enough, so I glued the last letter. Fortunately, I still had enough numbers for the year!

I like laying down stickers and sewing them down. This kit also had chipboard, which you can also sew down. I just do it slowly with the hand wheel to make it even.

Thank you for visiting! I spent a lot of time editing photos this weekend, and I will share many more pages these coming weeks.