Summer scrapbooking catch-up

Hello! It's been a busy summer for me and my family, despite the stay-at-home order. We have done some home improvement (patio, painting, and deck maintenance), visited family, and remained crafty. In my case I cross stitched several projects, got one framed, read several books, gardened, and scrapbooked. Here's some of what I scrapbooked this summer:

This page records my husband and boys at last year's Gen Con, which sadly was cancelled this year. I used an adventure-like line from Echo Park that I got last year at Pine City Scrapbooking for this, mostly using the paper as embellishments, plus some random Studio Calico label stickers. The journaling card is Elle's Studio, and I love it. 

Another page made with papers I picked up at Pine City Scrapbooking, Simple Scrapper Great Escape, I believe, this time to commemorate our trip to the Vikings exhibit at the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, a legit castle. I made a mistake with the letters: those are meant to be dipped in glitter, so they have a protective coating on them covering super super adhesive. *crossed fingers the protective coating stays put*

This was a layout that came about when I cleaned. I found the social story and a note from my son's preschool case manager, and I decided to make a page with them. I had one--ONE!--KI Memories big office pocket eft, so I dug through my saved preschool photos to put on the page and embellished and journaled on the pocket. 

Here's a two page layout of one of our last trips to the Science Museum to a stellar exhibit on the history of gaming. Strongly recommend. I took my favorite photos from the visit and made a s t r e t c h e d page with them. I couldn't remember many details, but that's why the Internet exists; like I did with the Vikings page, I went and researched the exhibit and included the most memorable or favorite details. NOTE: The background paper is one I love from Bella Blvd about football, I think, but the quotes are all about games and winning, so it worked!

This is a page I made for my 100 moments album, one I got the idea for and started working on years ago because of Big Picture Classes. Again I used papers from a trip to Pine City Scrapbooking, this time Authentique. I dug into my Iris container with school-themed products--it's getting light, and when my boys leave the house in a few years, I'll probably get rid of the rest of them. I use a similar color-blocking type design for each layout in this album.

That's all I want to share today! I'll come back sharing some additional pages I made for Simple Scrapper and for my own family later this month. Take care!

Winners!

I used random.org to generate three numbers. Here are the winners!

For Here & There Inspiration:

Glenys said...

The classes all look great! Looking forward to some family time over the Summer!

For Going Places:

alisonm said...

nothing like waiting to the last minute!

For The Phone Photography Project 2:

Joyce Casaldi said...

I can't wait for my strawberries to get ripe, they are just starting to get red! I think my favorite thing about summer is getting my hands dirty. I just love playing in the dirt, floating down the creek at our camp site and reading fun books. I too am relishing in the fact winter has finally past!

Ladies, please email me at jennyrahnlarson at yahoo dot com so that I can send you the winners' certificates!

Big Picture Classes fun--and a giveaway!

I love Big Picture Classes--I've shared my inspiration from the classes many times. Recently I was asked to contribute to the reboot of The Art + Science of Scrapbooking. Here were the pages I'd made and posted earlier for this class:

And here are some peeks at what I did this time:

I loved this class because it helped me figure out how to try new techniques and new approaches while staying true to myself, and I was truly honored to have been asked to contribute.

Now that I've shared some of what I've done before, here's a giveaway! And it's a big one:

There are THREE amazing classes coming up at Big Picture: Here & There Inspiration, Going Places, and The Phone Photography Project 2. I linked those classes up so you can read what they are about. I have a giveaway for a seat in each class!

If you are interested, please leave a comment on this post telling me what you are looking forward to this summer (after the Polar Vortex, I am so ready for summer!). You have until Saturday, June 14 at 8 P.M. CST to leave a comment, and I will select a winner for each class! Check back late Saturday to see if you are a winner.

Now, it's time for me to go outside and do a little gardening...

Winner!

Here's the winner of the BPC giveaway, as picked by Random.org:

Emily! Contact me on the link to the right or at jennyrahnlarson at yahoo dot com and I will get you the info to get into the class!

Art and Science of Scrapbooking giveaway!

I love Big Picture Classes. I'm a fan. I've taken classes for a long time that have influenced my design and storytelling skills. So how delighted was I when, after taking one of my favorite classes ever, The Art + Science of Scrapbooking, I was asked to contribute to its reboot? Unspeakably delighted.

So I am thrilled to host a giveaway to share the class with a reader!

In this class left-brained Jennifer Wilson (and me! Must be the name.) and right-brained Stacy Julian (and Sue Triggs-Rhudda)  share pages based on challenges. Jennifer and Stacy share pages from their own challenges, then all four of us share pages we made using the opposite-brained challenge. Get inspired to discover a little about yourself as a scrapper, then try to test the waters on the other side of the pool!

To celebrate my participation, here's a giveaway!

Please leave a comment telling me whether you're right brained or left brained (if you're not sure, here's a quiz), and I will draw a winner Monday, May 12 at 8 P.M. CST.

NSD pages

I've said this before, but I think it's serendipitous that National Scrapbook Day is the same day as Free Comic Day. This year my husband and the boys made it a super day, going to two stores and then seeing Spiderman, which left me to scrap all day, uninterrupted. Here's what I did:

My goal was to kill at least one old kit. I killed two. Even better, I love them all. Usually when I'm working with the dregs at the end, I am dissatisfied, but not this time. I really love these pages, especially the last one, where I pulled out a mask and some mist and added a background paper from my stash to round it out. The journaling idea came from a pin on Pinterest; you can find it if you search "bro." (After I made the page, my son came up with "Bromama," which is awesome and reminds me that I need to consult my boys when I scrap more often.)

I finished everything on NSD with this page except the jouranling and stitching. Here it is:

It's another of my 100 most important moments pages I'm making. I am using color blocking on kraft paper and running stitching with each layout to make the album cohesive. You don't need the same products to make an album cohesive; design will do it.

I'm so happy after this NSD weekend. It was so much fun to scrap the stories, use the product, and be creative. Come back later this week for a chance to win a class at Big Picture Classes!

Picture the Holidays winner!

I entered the numbers into random.org, and here's the winner!

almadr said...

I love Christmas tunes - they always cheer me up and make me feel it's this special time of year again ;-)
Thanks for this giveaway!

November 29, 2013 at 4:28 PM

Congrats, almadr! Please email me by clicking the email button to the right or by emailing me at jennyrahnlarson at yahoo dot com and I will get you the info to sign up! Have fun!

Big Picture Classes giveaway!

The Thanksgiving holiday is almost upon us. My family will once again run the Turkey Day 5K in downtown Minneapolis. We are planning on running our giblets off.

In honor of the holidays coming up, I have a giveaway to share: an upcoming class from Big Picture Classes called Picture the Holidays. Here's the details:

Picture the Holidays with Tracey Clark

Another 31 Days of Festive Photography with Tracey Clark

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/picture-the-holidays.php

12/01/2013 $36.00

About the Class

Spend this December taking inspired, artful photographs of the world around you, during the most wonderful time of the year. Picture the Holidays has been reframed and refreshed for 2013, with new prompts and new pictures to help you creatively and mindfully celebrate this season of joy!

This 31-day workshop, from photographer and author Tracey Clark, is the perfect remedy for the holiday hustle.

Every morning, you'll receive a seasonal photo prompt that will not only inspire your inner photographer, but will also encourage you to take a few moments to yourself to get creatively centered before the day's festivities begin. Inside the classroom, you'll also find a class creed, holiday photography tip sheet, live blog, active student gallery, and supportive classroom message board.

Since the holidays are coming up quickly, I'm going to leave this giveaway up for a few days. If you are interested in being considered for this giveaway, please leave a comment telling me something you love (or loathe!) about the holiday season. I will draw a winner at 12:00 noon Saturday, November 30 CST. Be sure to stop by and check if you are the winner--the class starts December 1st!

Scrapbooking table scraps

I have this drawer by 7 gypsies on my side table where I scrap. In it I plunk every little bit that I am too lazy to find the original packaging for and put away. I also keep a spaghetti holder in my space in which I put every cute bottom border that I trim off but don't use. For the most part they just sit there and stare at me while I scrap, but occasionally I get serious and scrap these scraps.

Here's an example of one I did long ago:

I did this page long ago for a challenge for the Simple Scrapbooks blog to scrap bits on my space. I tend to be pretty meticulous and orderly, but I loved this look, and it inspired me to be a bit more random in my product choices every now and then. (Funny that this layout was so long ago, but my style is definitely showing itself here: cutouts from the photo, strips of stuff, and overlapping the photo.)

Recently I did something similar. Here's the result:

I did this page for The Art + Science of Scrapbooking at Big Picture Classes. The challenge was to pick an embellishment and design the page around it. I had long ago bought the HAPPY--it's my favorite color--but I had never used it, so I pulled it out, selected photos, then found happy paper to go with. The products were either in my tray or my new embellishments basket I keep near me. In particular, the "summer note" die cut and the "picture perfect" acetate were just sitting right by me, so I put them on the page. Just because they were Happy. Here's a detail:

Soon after, I also scrapped some of those thin strips on a layout. A LOT of those thin strips. Here's the page:

I used a sketch from Simple Scrapper for this. Here it is in process when I was working on it at Archiver's with some girlfriends last weekend:

I pulled every strip I had in a leftover Studio Calico kit and lay them down in a sunburst. I didn't think to make them all matchy-matchy--I just used what I had. Then I glued them down and trimmed the edges. The hardest part was not spelling a swear word with the strip that spelled "Hello." (Heh.) Here's some details:

This was pretty funny: I needed a small grid card for journaling, but I'd left my Project Life kit at home. My friend Janet had a mini-set of religious Project Life cards, so I looked through them and found this one that said "Blessed." Since I DO feel blessed now that Derick has been smoking all summer, it was a perfect match for the page, and it made me laugh to boot. Another instance of scrapping what's on hand.

So this is how I scrap what's lying around on my table! The look on my pages is a bit more eclectic than I normally produce, but I like it, it uses up supplies I have, and it's fun. Thank you for looking at my process!

Scrapping two random photos

I just finished a week where I had to write comments on about 100 papers in about 4 days. I didn't scrap much this week. :-) Once the weekend came, I finished some pages I'd started a week ago. One page in particular has become one of my favorites. (Isn't that always the case--whatever I just finish becomes my new favorite, LOL!)

In the Big Picture Classes class The Art + Science of Scrapbooking, a right brained challenge was pretty intriguing: pick a recent photo, rearrange the numbers randomly, then pick a photo on that date to pair with the first and inspire a unique story. Here's what I did:

The recent photo is one of my favorites: my boys in the same chair at the library, reading the same book. *sigh* The photo I found was my son "reading" the Sunday paper circulars a few months left before he would become an older brother. And my story was born. I used Fancy Pants Designs Collecting Moments for the page, mainly because of all the time and number related products. Here's the details:

I selected stickers and flair with phrases that seemed to fit the story.

I double cut the title in two colors, layered them on top of one another, stitched the center, then curled up the top and bottom. I got that idea from Celine Navarro.

If you look to the right, you can see I punched the chalk tape into a scallop border. It's not hard to do if you are careful to line it up right.

Thank you for checking into my page! The inspiration behind it was pretty unusual for me. Have you ever done anything like it to create a page?

Using both my right and left brain

I'm taking the class The Art + Science of Scrapbooking at Big Picture Classes right now. I am 60/40 left brained/right brained, according to a test I took. I thought I'd share the  pages I have made so far.

First, the one I've already shared:

This page was left-brained ideation, which was really easy for me. When I upload my photos, I print the best ones, the ones I know have stories attached, and I make those into pages right away.

Then the right brained ideation page:

Man, I struggled with this one. I was told to look through my patterned paper until a piece inspired me to scrap a place. It took my brain FOREVER to shut off the part that kept asking me to think of photos I have of places and just let the paper dictate my story. This older October Afternoon paper made me think of living a few blocks from the downtown in Bath, Maine. The paper was bright, so I lay some vellum on top to mute it. How nice it was that the vellum tape I haven't used in forever still works.

The left brained process page was a surprisingly BIG struggle for me. I've never done a pocket page before. Heck, the only pocket page I have I got for free with some 12x12 page protectors. i decided to make a front and back two-page layout about our trip to the state fair. Here it is:

 

NOTE: aside from the photo of my son on the ride, the food photo above may have been the best photo I took. Regardless, it doesn't go on it's own page. What else can one say about mini-donut beer and cheese curds but mmmm?

 

And the right brained process page--surprise!--was much easier for me. Pick a photo with a story, write the story and put it in a pocket. Here's my son channeling Iron Man:

The title was so much fun. This was an idea I got that turned out just like I'd wanted. (The photo above is a little fuzzy--sorry about that. I took the photo a little later so it was kind of dark.)

Thank you for checking out my pages! I am have a lot of fun in this class and will share some more pages I've made next week. If you haven't yet taken a Big Picture Classes class, do so--they are truly inspiring.