Summer pages for Simple Scrapper

Last time I posted some pages I made this past summer, mostly of last year when I went places still. Sigh. Here I wanted to share some pages I made for Simple Scrapper. First, here were some pages for August:

This one is a page about a birthday trip to Penzey's Spices to buy ANY SPICE I WANTED. Best birthday present ever. I like the deep blue background, which is October Afternoon. I don't have much deep blue, mostly aqua, so that is a patterned paper hole I need to fill. Letter stickers are Pinkfresh Studio and ancient Making Memories. Journaling Card is Elle's Studio, as are the wood words. Doilies are Stampin' Up, which has very nice embellishments. And any time I get to dig into the Embellishment Jar of Antiquity, I feel good. Here's looking at you, brads.

I live within a few hours away from most of my cousins, but I don't see them much, so when I do, I take pictures and commemorate. My cousin Janel is a legit artist, so I journaled about her gallery that she hosted and I attended. I took the product inspiration from the painting behind us, which was hers. The paper I used is an older Studio Calico piece that is just this gorgeous and fitting perfectly. I picked some embellishments to go in a circle, mostly from Crate Paper, and stitched around as a frame (I drew circles first as a guide). I tend to stitch stickers down anyway, mostly because they are mainly Ancient and need adhesive help. Added some Stampin' Up sequins because.

Here's a story from last September, again when I was going places. My husband plays with a swing band,  Westwind Swing Band, and they played at a winery/orchard called Parley Lake Winery. This place was obviously created with scrapbookers in mind, for it is filled with gorgeous sculptures and scenery. I started by enlarging the barn shot to 8x12, nice for an exposition shot on a two-page layout, then printed the rest 2x3 to fit in all around. I used some new Echo Park papers and old embellishments. A note on that: I used some old flair and discovered a lot was started to unpeel, which made them unusable. These worked, but I ended up tossing a ton. So if you've been intending to purge old supplies, start with the flair. That should be an easy job.

This last page shares something else that's kept us busy this summer, our new puppy Chewie, named after this character. Since we lost Lola last December, we've had a melancholy stay-at-home. Once summer hit, we started searching for a new dog, and this pup turned up. He looks like a breed, but he's a big mix. A big mix of cute, I might add. I chose an adorable photo of him and made this journaling heavy. Used up an acrylic alpha from Studio Calico for this. NOTE: when stapling, be sure to hit the letter.

Thank you for returning and seeing my Simple Scrapper pages! I'll remind you that this is a tremendous community filled with inspiration: sketches/templates, a monthly magazine, and classes.  If you need something to jump start your memory keeping, start here!

Scrapbooking tranquility and peace

I love scrapbooking bigger photos. I do this when I see a photo that I particularly love which makes me happy. In this case it was this picture of a beautiful duck. I took this photo along a local lake that my husband and I walk around, and it looked so beautiful with the surrounding branches and the reflections that I took the picture, later printing it in 8x12, waiting for a story. Here's the page:

I used a story starter and sketch by Simple Scrapper for this. I also picked some products to reflect the story (pun intended): since we were on a walk, I picked travel products, including arrows to show direction; I picked gold accents that reflected much like the photo was of a reflection; and I used a scallop border, sort of like a wave. Here's some details:

So what did I use to scrap this tranquil photo and retain the mood? Here are some of my tips:

1. Use fairly neutral colors.
2. Use products from one or two lines that mesh with the theme.
3. Use embellishments of various textures and sizes and shapes.
4. Cluster embellishments into one big and one small cluster.
5. Arrange the clusters to lead the eye through the page.

Thank you again for visiting! Please visit Simple Scrapper and check out all they have to offer this next month, including classes, inspiration, and a monthly magazine.

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Bulletin-board scrapbooking design

When I was in college, I had a bulletin board on which I kept various photos and mementos. Later I put the photos in frames, then albums, but I remember the process of putting down photos then filling in the gaps with stuff. I did that same thing recently with a few pages. First was a year-end review page I did for 2016:

I used several photos from the year. I split the page between two pieces of patterned paper, layered some on a Project Life card and used another for journaling, then used bits of Ali Edwards' kits to fill in the blanks. It works.

I did something similar with a page about my son's recent birthday:

The photos were different sized, which left some gaps when I put them on the page. I dug out some birthday themed stickers and some similarly hued embellishments to round out the page. I think this was mostly Crate Paper.

I adhered some elements, like the camera and frame, with pop dots for greater dimension.

With some stickers, I just layer them flat on top of each other.

As always, I like to stitch some stickers down, partly for decoration and partly for adhesive.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gave you some ideas for fitting together oddly shaped photos. I'll be back with more pages I scrapped this summer later this week.

August pages for Simple Scrapper:

Going on vacation last month made me remiss in sharing my Simple Scrapper pages. These two were among my recent favorites. Here's the first:

Last summer both of my boys went to day camp at Leonardo's Basement, a fantastic place in Minneapolis that mixes science and art and socializing. Since it was a summer event, I used my summer products. I've started digging into my patterned paper for the backgrounds and my Project Life cards for the smaller pieces of patterned paper.

Most of the embellishments come from the Crate Paper line called The Pier.

Next is a page about technology, specifically the changing technology of music throughout my life.

I'm the one in the hat with a necklace.

It's amazing what you can do with a circle punch, patterned paper, and stitching.

Thank you for visiting! Please visit Simple Scrapper to check out their monthly inspiration, including story starters, sketches/templates, monthly magazines, classes, and online community.

Pages from my scrapbooking retreat: part 1

I had the pleasure of attending a scrap retreat with some friends this past weekend. It was such a treat to get away and do nothing but scrapbook, listen to music, watch movies, eat (lots of that), and socialize. I finished a few pages completely while there. Here they are:

I made a similar page like this last year for Simple Scrapper. I kept some of the same design layout, selected some happy, warm colors, and  wrote the story. The book card and pocket and the October Afternoon Public Library worked really well for this page.

This was the only two-page layout I did this weekend. Again, I used October Afternoon mostly, Saturday Mornings, because I wanted to have warm colors and the food icons fit thematically.

I scrapped a lot of warm colors this weekend; it was about -15 every morning and didn't crack zero while I was away. Warm colors made me happy. Since these photos had primary red-yellow-orange, I went through my papers and started with those colors. I used some autumn themed October Afternoon (Daily Flash Apple Cider, mostly) to embellish.

Another warm page, just more subdued.

I fretted over this one a bit. It's my One Little Word layout, which I always do in January to dedicate myself. My Word is FOCUS, but I added the word "Currently" because of theme and visual interest.  I worried it might not seem like FOCUS was the title, so I framed it. Lots of pink, because I liked the background paper--it's out of focus, which I feel like I have been--and the rest sort of fell into place. The journaling is in the pocket.

Now the colors get a bit cooler since the photos are from warmer times. I used a lot of Crate Paper The Pier for this, plus Studio Calico Wanderlust. When I scrap just a few photos, I like to scrap them in a block; overlapping elements adds some interest.

Cooler colors here too because it was WARM in December when this happened! Seriously. I love the title on this. So much fun.

You'll notice on these pages that I did some serious stash-busting with these pages. I have some OLD products on here, paired with new ones. This might have been the first time I used bits of every container I brought with me on the crop. That made me feel a special bit of pride.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I have another 6-10 pages I started but didn't finish (titles and journaling to finish, mostly). I'll post again when I get those done.

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.

October layouts for Simple Scrapper

Hello! The end of the month leaves me tired and sick. Sigh. I did manage to scrap over the last few weeks, though, some of my favorite pages in a while. Here are two pages I made for October's Simple Scrapper:

This first page uses a new sketch and an old story starter. I record a recent realization of mine: my son is slowly becoming a leader, specifically as he mentors younger children in church, taekwondo, and school. Here's some details:

I used a lot of Crate Paper and Jillibean Soup. I liked to pick out ephemera with phrases that fit the theme.

Next is a page about my beautiful grandmother and her sweet personality:

I used an old sketch and a new story starter. I also used pink! A color I don't use much, but both she and I were wearing it, and she is so pretty, I thought the color would be perfect.

I kept putting more embellishments on, then taking them off. I finally decided the pictures and words were enough.

My son came up with the title.

Thank you for checking out my pages! Please visit Simple Scrapper and explore--the perks of being a member will get you scrapping more creatively and productively!

May pages for Simple Scrapper: Having fun

I had a lot of fun with the sketches and story starters for Simple Scrapper in May. The theme involved scrapping hobbies or free time, and since that is my favorite subject for scrapbooking, I relished scrapbooking this month. Here is the first page I did:

Our family went to the butterfly house at the Science Museum. Though I took a ton of photos, I loved how the sketch disciplined me to pick only my favorite shots of each family member to put on the page (truth be told, I added more photos than the sketch had by shrinking them!). I used a Studio Calico kit for this page.Here's some details:

I put the stars there to reflect the butterflies' migration route.

The next page records something my husband and sons love to do--play games--and the times this past spring break that I joined them. We played four games, so I journaled the details in a list format. The photos came from selfies we took and tweeted during the game (gamers love Twitter).

I used Crate Paper's Boys Rule and October Afternoon's Daily Flash on this page. They were both playful and bright but also grungy, and It made me happy to see how well they went together. Here's some details.

The script font is Mission Script, one of my favorites. It welds well.

Thank you for checking out my pages for Simple Scrapper! I hope you are inspired to scrap your hobbies and how you spend your free time.