Busy with teaching, and back with scrapbook pages

Hello! And sigh. This has been a busy year. As a teacher, I've moved from distance learning to hybrid, and now we've moved back to distance learning. I thought distance learning was busy, but hybrid...oof! I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know my students face to face, albeit masked.

In the meantime, I visited my parents in Maine, I finished tucking my garden in for the winter, I kept reading, and I kept scrapbooking. Here are some of my pages for Simple Scrapper:

This was a two-page pocket layout about my last-year's trip to Maine. Not gonna lie, looking through the Project Life Cards and pulling a bunch to use gave me joy. 

This next one is a layout celebrating my son's theater experience last year in Ragtime, a magnificent production. He played a few roles, including JP Morgan. He has a knack for getting cast as terrible people. Here are the separate pages:

Photo on the left a professional photo by Any Angle Photography.

Next a couple pages for November. Here is one commemorating the boys' game night with dad. Since the boys both have jobs now, it's a rare night that all of us are home.

Finally, a Thanksgiving layout. Last year was untraditional--I visited my parents in Maine while my husband took my boys to Buca's. I enjoyed reflecting on this special time with the ones I love in new ways, and it's important I remember that this year as well.

And those were some of the (few) pages I've made these past couple months! I am working on a cross-stitch project I will post when done, and I am getting to work on finishing my son's school years album, since he's a senior. *Gulp*

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!

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!

July Pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello! As I started scrapbooking again after school let out, I worked on my pages for next month's Simple Scrapper. I'm working on 2019 pages right now, so here's what I did:

Since quarantine, I have been doing a lot of pages about going out to new places. In this point, my husband and I visited a picturesque taproom near the park we sometimes ski at (Theodore Wirth park) called Utepils. This page is built off a busy piece of patterned paper from October Afternoon. I trimmed the plain paper out of the top to back it with wood grain; after I was done, I regretted not doing that on the bottom too! Too late. Instead, I added a strip of the wood grain to ground it.

This page made heavy use of the die cuts I'd taken out and not used on my last page, plus a few other things I had on the table. I call this technique "One whatever is left on the table." Here it worked!

Note: I did stitch down the title (I almost always stitch down small letter stickers), including the Thickers. It's possible--just use the side wheel (my name for it) instead of the foot pedal. Even so, go slow: I bent my needle on the T and had to take a break to get more needles. Sigh.

I don't often use memorabilia on my pages, but this layout responded to a prompt that said to make the memorabilia a dominant embellishment. Challenge accepted! This was an outing at the end of the year to see an Agatha Christie play, so I used the program and the tickets as the main focus. (This is the second photo I took of the layout; in the first, I didn't notice that the tickets were crooked. I had the photo edited and ready to go. Drat.)

I selected cozy products, from the background paper to the embellishments, to match the coziness of Agatha Christie books. And since it was a mystery, I used file folders all over.

Thank you for visiting! Please check out Simple Scrapper--there are many scrapbooking and storytelling resources, which can be so helpful in these times when we spend so much time at home. This visual community is valuable.

June pages for Simple Scrapper

Hello! I've spent the last weeks painting our flood-damaged downstairs and commenting on student papers. Now that I've finished, I've been scrapping. Here's some of my pages for Simple Scrapper:

This page was my representation of this month's sketch. I made this page as a rainbow promise for what we look forward to after Quarantine. My husband said "Sports" and my boys said "School" (!) and "Theater."

Creater comment: I fussy cut old Sassafrass paper for the background, then stitched it, and stamped two-tone stamping on the tag with an old Studio Calico stamp to enhance the theme.

This page celebrates my son'd performance at the State Theater on Hennepin Avenue because the school's production of Tuck Everlasting was honored by the Hennepin Theatre Trust. I used lush colors and ornate embellishments to reflect the theater.

Thank you for visiting! I'm almost done with my final overdue vacation album. I'll post pages of that when I finish! Take Care!

Who would have thought...Looking back at the beginning of the year

Now that Distance Learning is in full swing in Minnesota, I am busy all day long, setting up my classes, assessing student work, emailing (lots of that!), and Google meeting. As a result, I'm not scrapbooking as much. I'll share what I make as I finish.

In the meantime, I thought I'd go back to two pages I made for Simple Scrapper in January to start the year:

This page is actually really important right now. I looked back on the last year and some struggles we went through and reframed them as positives. I'm finding myself doing that a lot nowadays, of course, taking small sips of gratitude as the day progresses.

Craft-wise, I love the stitching template. It comes from a misting mask from Studio Calico, but you could achieve the same effect with a ruler and a paper piercer.

I used some flowers that I tore off a greeting card to use. I like the effect.

Next is a page about an event that broke my heart last year, the sudden death of my dog Lola:

For me, pages about loss are also pages about memory. I want to remember them, so I like recording the great things we experienced. In this case, my dog Lola in December stopped moving and eating, so we took her to the vet, where we discovered she was suffering from blood inner chest cavity, more than likely from a heart tumor. There was no end available that did not include terrible suffering, so we said her goodbyes. As she passed, I reminded her of all the terrific adventures she'd been on as a part of our family. The journaling here basically recounts what I said. That is what I want to carry in my heart.

Craft-wise, I ended my journaling with perhaps my favorite memory, one that the right hand photo shows. I think ending with the best memory is a good way to commemorate tough things.

Two-page layouts for Simple Scrapper

The last time I posted, I shared some single pages, smaller ones. Today I'm sharing something that's maybe a little trickier but perhaps more satisfying for me, two-page layouts.

On the design team for Simple Scrapper, we seldom get two-page designs. Still, it's one of the members' most favorite inspirations, so I try to use two-page designs as much as I can.

This first was a glorious, two-page sketch. I didn't have to do much--I subbed the journaling blocks for photos and added an embellishment/journaling cluster. It was a lot of fun digging through my word stash for the left side.

Next is a manufactured two-page layout, recording the story of our epic winter last year, which may have been the start of memes overtaking photos on my phone.

I say manufactured because I put together two single-paged sketches to create this spread. To do this successfully, you need two contrasting sketches, then pick something to unite the pages: Color, embellishments, paper (see my curves and snowflakes).

Instead of contrasting two sketches, you can also do what I did with a layout I recently posted: take one sketch and stretch it over two pages.

Here the left side was the sketch; I sort of mirrored/tapered it on the right side. Again, similar colors and products.

Thank you for stopping by! Hopefully this gave you ideas for scrapbooking two-page layouts.

Some more small stories on 8.5x11 paper

Hello! I spent some time recently finishing some 8.5x11 layouts, one about each boy telling a small story in his life. Here are some other smaller format, smaller story-layouts I made recently.

First is a page I did for Simple Scrapper in March, using a couple photos and some big PP banners to share a story about my son's last year in Dinner Theater at church. This was super each to come together once I picked the bright colors. The speech bubble sticker had been handing out in my workspace for a while, so I put it on the page just because it seemed to fit. There's a benefit to not always putting stuff away!

This page commemorates our transition to a new car. I'd taken a photo of my last car before we traded it in, and then a photo of my new car. Again, the FAMILY die cut and journaling card were lying around, so design-wise I started with those and picked homey colors and products to fit.

Another small story, this one my son's final piano recital. It follows basically the same simple design as the previous page. Big strips of PP form a nice base for the page, then strips of journaling stitched down and embellishments that lead the eye across the page.

The story behind this page made me laugh so I had to print the photo behind it and share the story. I don't know how to take pictures on Androids, but my son does, and so we did. This was a perfect page to use these huge die cuts.

One of my favorite photos of my cat. She is an occasional lap snuggle with me and only me. The color scheme led my design for the page.

Finally, a page about my husband. I had this Me Right Now journaling card I loved, but I'd just made a similar page about me, so I didn't know how to use it until I found this unused photo of my husband from Father's Day. I was at my January Scrap retreat at the time, so I called him and asked for his answers and wrote them own (it was also fun to see how many of these I predicted correctly!). A basic strip design with my husband's favorite color, British racing green.

Thank you for visiting again! I hope this gives you ideas of stories to tell of designs to try.

Scrapbooking across two pages

Hello! I've been putting together some two-page layouts with lots of photos. I thought I'd share some of them.

First, here's a page about my father-in-law's funeral two-years ago:

Here I did what I typically do when I have a lot of photos: I print them in standard sizes, in this case, 3x4. It made the most sense to line them up across the page, so I did. That left two spots for the journaling. For embellishments, I took inspiration from the flowers next to the flag and I used my Stampin' Up! punches with scraps to make the flowers.

Next is a page about a camping trip last year:

When I scrapbook a trip where I took some good vista shots, I print one big with the idea I'll use that on one page, then fill the other with smaller shots. I did that here, but you can see the photos don't fill the space in an even grid. I struggled with that for a while and thought about reprinting the photos as squares to make an even grid, but the orientation of the photos just didn't work. Taking a shot of the whole family manes I have to print it horizontally! Instead, I added a line of embellishments in between. I'm happy with the result. Most of the camping supplies come from my Camping Iris container, and most were Simple Stories, though the lovely coral paper was Pebbles.

Finally, here's a page I did for March Simple Scrapper:

This is one of my favorite sketches from Simple Scrapper: a triangular grid of Project Life cards. However, I'd printed my photos as wallets, smaller than PL! So I trimmed the PL cards to match the wallets. The background paper is one I love from Lawn Fawn. I have bought so much of it. It makes me happy.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this gave you ideas about incorporating multiple photos on two-page layouts.

Scrapbooking small stories

Hello! I just finished teaching the second trimester and am wrapping up my grading. As such, I am BEHIND on scrapbooking. What made me more behind was our water heater breaking and flooding our downstairs, which led to packing things up and moving them to get ready for new carpeting.

Gah.

I did scrapbook some pages for Simple Scrapper. Here's my sketch layout for April 2020:

This was the very embarrassing story of ordering romance novels, only to have them delivered to a student's house. Yikes. The cover is the coda to the story.

For this page, I recorded my friendship with my teaching colleague Chelsie. I had fun digging into my stash to pull fun, colorful, girly products to decorate the page. The discovery of the owl sticker was a bonus find for a page about us English teachers.

Thank you for stopping by! After I finish grading and packing up the downstairs, I'll be editing photos of my vacation last summer to scrap my final vacation album left unscripted.

Blogging again...Finally!

Well, this was an unintentional break I took. Nothing disastrous, nothing monumental, just life taking over a bit and making it harder for me to scrapbook and post. So what have I been doing these past six months?

1. Reading. I set an ambitious reading goal for myself this year--42 books. I read about 15 this summer. Some of my favorites were The Hate U Give, Disclaimer, and Luckiest Girl Alive.
2. Traveling. We didn't do a big family vacation this summer, but we did do several small trips. My first was a big trip to Maine with Dominic, where we helped my parents sort through and cull things in their basement, garage, and RV. Last winter my father had a series of strokes, and though he is less incapacitated, my mother is now his full-time caregiver, so I wanted to make their lives a little easier to manage. This trip helped make that happen. Later in the summer we also went to Maplewood State Park in Minnesota, then later in the summer we went to Holland, Michigan, to spend time with Derick's family. We rounded out the summer with a state fair trip.
3. Participating in a summer musical. Derick and I spent many, many hours late last spring and this summer rehearsing and singing in the choir in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, put on by a local group called Bunce Backyard Productions. It was terrific. The music was wonderful, and we met some terrifically fun and talented people. That occupied a lot of our time this summer!

Some other, smaller things included recovering from injuries that are included in the category of "getting older"--a sprained back, microtears in the meniscus of my knee, and tennis elbow--and getting used to not having my work computer to do blogging and writing on (we changed devices this fall). Right now I am writing on our   V   E   R   Y      O   L   D       and   V     E    R    Y      S      L      O      W   Mac that we will be replacing later this year. Thank goodness.

When I logged into this computer I found several blog posts that I had started but not finished. Heh. I'll be getting back to posting those. (Confession: I thought I had posted them!) Until then, here's some pages I did for Simple Scrapper this very busy summer:

Thank you for visiting today! I hope to see you visit again as I get back into the groove of sharing what I create, even on a slow device.

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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