The Scrap Review is back!

And for the news!

The Scrap Review, which went on hiatus for a while, is back! I'm looking forward to trying out new products again and letting you know what I think about them. Please stop by and check it out!

Until then, it's going to be a busy week. My older son has started the musical theater revue at our school, and my younger boy has orchestra, a recital, and a church retreat this week. Somewhere in there I will be uploading some new pages. More on the way!

Favorite pages from 2012

When you read this, I should be in the air, heading to California for CHA! I will blog every day this weekend, sharing some of my favorite products and projects that I see. Until then, hee's a list I had so much fun making: my favorite pages from 2012. Since it was the year of 12, I picked my 12 favorites. (Note: I ignored the ones that are going to be published this year.) Here they are:

 

I did this page as a guest blogger at Simple Scrapper. My post was about scrapping the stressful moments of life. This looks complicated, but I'm pretty sure those are two 4x6 photos with 6 pics embedded in them.

One of my first pages for Elle's Studio. I had a love affair with big photos and bright colors this year. Plus embossing.

What can I say, I turned 40 this year. This page commemorates the event. I lay some metal numbers down, misted, then stitched for the number.

This is an "inspired by what Dominic said" page. I just got it back from publication, and I have to say, it was a fun page to make. A fun way to record your life. Have your scrapped your cool stuff and pretty stuff?

 

Another Dominic page, this time his mild obsession with water towers. This page shows my love affair with circles this year too.

 

Again: my love affair with circles. And my husband. I love this picture of us.

 

I love two page layouts. The challenge of putting them together is great. Here I scrapped my son Rowan's  black belt ceremony. Kudos to him!

This page was a serendipitous "Those products randomly sitting on my table look good together, so I'll use them on this page" moment.

 

I finally gave up looking for some iconic childhood photos and scrapped the page anyway. Thank goodness for photo frame stamps and journaling.

 

Another big photo, but I was also inspired by product-the photo frame let me zero in on my son in the big photo, and it made the page more interesting.

 

A page about my grandpa and my memories of him, especially this phrase he said. I like how everything worked together on this page.

 

Another page where the perfect product--in this case, KI Flashback--led to the page idea. I had so much fun making the page!

This one was for The Scrap Review reviewing Bazzill Beach House. Again, big photo (I guess I'm in a rut, but it's a rut I like!). This was picked for the cover of ScrapStreet Magazine.

I think I posted more than 12--oops! Ah well. It was a fun year for scrapping. Now off to CHA to see what I'll be using to scrap with this year.

Belated New Year's welcome!

The New Year has come and gone, with lots of news and events:

• We enjoyed very cold but fun sledding as a family over winter break. As always, I jumped the moguls the highest. And almost swore every time. #scary
• I'm preparing for a student teacher. It's been a few years since I've had one, so I'm making the mental adjustment. Very much looking forward to the teamwork!
• I had fun over winter break scrapping with some Studio Calico peeps in Rochester, including Sweetsierra, Blbooth, and Amyscalze.
• I pulled out my Cameo for the first time and used it! Note to self: it cuts better with the blade in. Heh.
• I had some pages picked up for publication: 4 for Scrapbook Trends Embellish, and 1 for Scrapbook Trends June 2013.
• My regular scrapping group, the Scrapping J's, met and scrapped in full for the first time! Terrific fun.
• I ran the Commitment Day 5K on January 1st with my family in Minneapolis. It was -6 when the run started. Cold but fun. We were so proud to have completed the race, and we enjoyed coffee and cocoa after.

My biggest news? I'll be at CHA this weekend, and I'll share some of my favorite products and projects through The Scrap Review and on my blog.

Here's an end-of-year layout that I love to do every year that I completed with the Scrappin' J's:

I got a photo template a few years back for this, accidentally deleted it and then made my own to keep up the design. I used Studio Calico's December kit for this.  Here's some details:

 

I love breezing through the photos from the previous year, reliving the experiences, and picking the photos that make me smile the most!

Giveaway at The Scrap Review!

I had a new review over at The Scrap Review today for the kit club Gossamer Blue. Here were my projects (I always try to get 6 pages for a kit of this price):

If you go to The Scrap Review, read my review, and leave a comment by Wednesday evening, you are in the running for this lovely kit! Head on over, read my review, and comment away! And if you like what you see here, but all means go over to Gossamer Blue and explore and order!

Back from vacation

Sorry for the hiatus; I spent a wonderful two weeks driving to Maine and back with the family. We stayed on the UP, in Buffalo with family, then with my parents in Maine. A lot of my on-the-road photos look like this:

But mostly this:

We went camping in Acadia National Park, then drove back with an overnight at each of the first three places. This was a vacation where I used my phone to take LOTS of photos, and some of them are my favorites. Here's the shot that is the new wallpaper for my phone:

The only day of rain was our first day at Acadia, most of it while driving. Jordan Pond and the Bubbles were fogged out while we hiked around it, but it cleared when we finished, so I took this photo.

Our most exciting moment, next to hiking 8.5 miles round trip up and down Cadillac Mountain, was blowing a tire 30 miles from home on I35. Some Minnesota Nice good Samaritans stopped to help us put on the spare before it rained, and Tires Plus outfitted us the next day. And I'd like to give a shout out to my husband for reminding me to take a picture. Here it is:

 

(Just in case you wondered, if it sounds like a helicopter is following you on the highway, you've blown a tire. Pull over.)

I have spent the last two days downloading photos, making a mini album for Write Click Scrapbook, mailing a layout to Scrapbook Trends for publication, and making something for Elle's Studio. Once I make another couple things, I'll post some pages that I just about finished before vacation.

A page I made about Derick and I appeared on a post by Diane Payne at Write Click Scrapbook while I was gone; please visit some of these wonderful Summer dailies and get inspired!

Here's a post I wrote for The Scrap Review with my top five CHA picks; I wrote it while I briefly had a signal in Buffalo and Maine. (No signal in Acadia, though I would randomly acquire signals while hiking, alerted to them by text messages. I was so amazed at the random signal that I would stop and text just because!) I do plan on sharing the other 20 picks I had (heh), so if I get a chance tomorrow, I will.

My first Scrap Review is up!

My first review at The Scrap Review is up today!

The collection I got to work with is the Bazzill Basics Beach House collection. I made three projects, two layouts and a card.

The first page was for its intended theme: the beach! I made a page with our summer bucket list, photo pun intended. I got the idea from this photo and a page I saw recently where a person made a summer bucket list. Might have been Jill Sprott? Here it is:

Here's some details:

 

You can see that the collection worked well for fussy cutting and didn't have colors that would overwhelm the photos. I cut the tags out of patterned paper, I think from the 6x6 pad.

I also made a non-themed page about our one and only snow day we've gotten in my teaching career.
(OK, there was another snow day, but I was at a workshop, so I feel that didn't count!)

 

  

 

 

You would never know looking at this page that the papers come from a beach collection! Awesome flexibility.

(Trivia note: the sledding hill is right above the beach in the first page. If you look in the distance in the big snow photo, you can see the umbrella skeletons.  I love that these two pages are in the same place but two different seasons.)

And here's a card:

I'm not really a cardmaker, but I love this one. And can I also say how nice the Stampin' Up! baker's twine looks with this collection? I used it on every page.

If you like this collection, please visit The Scrap Review to leave a comment by midnight Friday EST for a chance to win the collection! Sorry, US residents only for this giveaway.

Back soon with a post on scrapping events or moments without photos.

A new team!

I'm very excited to share that I will be a writer for The Scrap Review! You can see the announcement on this post. I am thrilled to be on a team of such talented writers and scrappers (honestly, some of my scrap idols are on the staff. Eep!). I look forward to sharing with you some of my reviews.

If you want to read some random and funny things about me, my scrap habits, and my favorite TV shows, you can find the dirt here.