Using cards on a scrapbook page

Hello! We just returned from our summer vacation--Hawai'i!--and I plan to share the scrapbooking I did while I was there. Until then, here's what I did before I left.

I've written about this before, but I make pages for my parents. I bought them a frame to put them most recent page in and an album to put the older layouts in. Recently, I made a page for my father for Father's Day using a recent beloved photo of my boys.

The papers I picked out when I sorted through scraps. (I do that a few times a year and bring it to my sons' former day care; the kids use the pretty paper to practice fine motor skills--cutting--and their former teachers love to see how much my boys have grown.) I thought these patterns would look good together, so I use them as my backdrop.

When I recently organized my supplies (more to come), I found this card that I had saved, maybe to use on a page. It went color-wise with the papers, so I thought I'd overlap it on my photo and use it for my title. I used some journaling cards that I'd also uncovered in my organizational spree, so I underlapped those with the photo, told my story, and embellished. My dad loved it. I'm happy that the pages I send him allow him to follow the boys growing into men, even though my dad and mom live so far away.

Thank you for visiting! If you scrapbook for gifts, or you use cards on your pages, please share!

Getting organized for the new school year

The new school year approaches: I begin workshops this Thursday, and the boys start school the Tuesday after Labor day. It's a big year for them because they both start Middle School, Dominic in 6th grade and Rowan in 7th. Our district reconfigured grades from K-6/7-9/10-12 to K-5/6-8/9-12, which is why both boys are entering middle school at the same time, even though they are a year apart.

This may just be my boys, but homework has been a struggle. When they get home, they want to play, but the play never stops without a struggle. They learned that it's best for them to do their homework first, even though they might not want to. I wanted to share a couple ideas I have that I'll try out this year, both of which I've used with some success in cultivating good habits with the boys.

First is breaking down big tasks into smaller chunks. This is really important for my boys because they both have ADHD, and they don't know where to begin when faced with a big task. As a result, they tend to quit early, frustrated. Here's something I did with my oldest son a few years back to help him clean his room:

(Sorry for the poor resolution; I got this from my Instagram feed.) My oldest son resists my helping him, for he wants to do it himself, so I broke the room cleaning into smaller tasks on sticky notes. I put them inside his room, and once he finishes the task, he puts the sticky note on the OUTSIDE of his door. He does not have a perfectly clean room, but in the years since we started this routine, he's been able to manage doing this on his own and has kept his room in a much better condition.

How will this help him in school? When he gets home from school, we'll talk about his homework and discuss short term assignments--what he needs to finish tomorrow--and long term assignments--what is due later. With long term assignments, we'll break it down into "mental sticky notes"--smaller tasks to complete the assignment--and we'll use his planner to map out when he'll complete them. With luck, he will develop this as a habit much like he did with his room cleaning so that when he gets to high school, he will be better able to manage the bigger, long-term assignments.

Next, to help manage the daily tasks we will have a to-do list to complete before playing, which for the boys generally involves some sort of limited screen time (we have a computer and use the parental controls to limit the amount of time  the boys can spend on it, and we have a wii, although until the boys can demonstrate that they can manage their homework during the week, they'll only get the wii on weekends.) This summer I started making lists for my younger son to complete before he could have screen time (my eldest was away at summer camp at the time):

(ETA: Sorry for the notepaper. A local restaurant gives out notepads; I used it for his list.) Here I made a list of what my son needed to do before he got screen time--the list was mine, the illustrations his (heh). 1-5 were daily tasks, ones we'd like to be automatic with him; 6 and 7 tended to change depending on which chore needed to be done that day. By making an actual list my son could actually cross off as he accomplished things, he felt successful and saw when the end was near. Since my younger boy has autism, creating a list gives him particular focus for what he needs to do first. I can see doing this during the school year, maybe with a while board with the daily tasks in permanent ink and the shifting ones in erasable ink. But writing it down so he can cross things off seems to be important.

How will this help him in school? I know the schools use planners. I hope the teachers help students write down their tasks at some point during the class (I know I do that at the high school; it helps all students, not just the ones on the spectrum). When he comes home, we can check his list of assignments and we can make a game plan for completing them before he runs off to play.

Thank you for letting me share some ideas I have that have worked with my boys in helping them manage themselves and their time and their space a little better. We have done other things too--the website habitrpg helps you set goals and rewards you, sort of like you are playing an rpg (role playing game). The experience points you gain really are good habits. In the website, though, you get rewards for doing your daily habits and avoiding bad ones (playing on games for longer than an hour, e.g.). The boys liked using it this summer, and it helped them develop some good habits, or at least to understand that helping out around the house is their role as well as mom and dad's. Making a list--either one that physically gets moved when completed or one that simply gets crossed off--has been the real key. I hope it works as well with schoolwork when the year gets going!

Nontraditional colors

Hello! January has started, and started COLD. We had a day cancelled due to cold already, but the next week is looking up, temperature-wise. So there's that.

I have a post up at Scrapbook Circle on how to use a mask to add glitter to a page--please visit and get an idea for using your mask in a way other than misting! Tomorrow I will also have a post up at Write Click Scrapbook to give you journaling ideas for year-in-review pages I hope you go there too and get inspired!

Today I wanted to share a couple pages I made last month about my boys using nontraditional colors. I know most people think brown-green-blue when it comes to boy pages, but I love color, period, so I don't like certain colors of the rainbow being under a padlock for boys. When I got some heavy duty pinkish-coral in a kit, I decided to use it on a page about my son overcoming his fear of bees.

Here's the page:

(Quick side note: I had to take these photos about 3 times in December, it was so dark! I just could not get it white enough for the background paper.)

I started with the picks on the white paper, then dug around my stash for some yellow and red to add some warm joy. Again, I used a frame to draw attention to my son in the glorious flower field.

This next page celebrates my other boy's favorite event last summer: riding the high-speed boat across Lake Michigan. My husband had taken a pretty good photo of Milwaukee at dawn with his phone, so I blew it up for the background. It had lots of violet in it, so I pulled a lot of the violet and pink products in another kit:

I added the sequins to sort of draw together the top and bottom of the page. Plus they were sitting on my scrap table and seemed to go color-wise. More on that later this week.

I've been using a lot of Project Life cards on my layouts recently.

Finally, my younger boy also visited the bees at the same time as my older boy. His story was a little different, so I focused on his overall love of nature. Here's the page:

I used Scrapbook Circle's January kit for this page. I loved the add-on Shine Bright for this page; the 6x6 paper was just enough to frame the photo and create the tag banner.

Thank you for checking out these pages! I hope it inspires you to explore some nontraditional color palettes.

Star Wars Crafts

A few months ago I found the book Star Wars Crafts, I think when I was shopping for Christmas presents at Barnes and Noble. I showed it to the boys, when were not interested. Recently, however, they each pulled it out and asked me to make something from it. Since it was spring break, I did.

I made Dominic's project first: a Yoda finger puppet.

The easy part was first: cutting the fabric. Of course, I discovered then that I had a dull pair of Fiskars.

Next, sewing a miniscule piece of fabric. It's kind of tricky to sew felt, and a couple times I got too close to the edge and had to resew, but eventually I got it.

I stuffed the head, sewed the robe on it and voila!

Happy boy. It took only one time of the dog grabbing it before he learned to keep it in his room.

The next one was trickier: a Tooka doll from the clone wars. It was actually pretty small, which made turning it inside out after sewing kind of tough. I pulled a lot of threads doing it. Still, I got it repaired, then stuffed it, and started on the hardest part: adding the ears, arms, and legs. Handstitching.

Please know that I love stitching on pages, but actual sewing? I made this page to commemorate how I feel about sewing:

 

It took me all day to hand sew. I added the first purple strip and was reminded of an Olivia Newton John video:

 

When I added the second, it looked all right.

Even better, Rowan played with it all day.

The force is with me. Always.

Spaced out

My boys love outer space. I'm not blaming anyone for that (*cough DERICK LARSON!*) but their infatuation extends to all things Star Wars, planets, spaceships, stars, and so on.

For instance, when we went to Joann's today so I could pick up a Xyron refill, they asked for a meteor kit. How could I refuse? I got two. Only a half hour more and those meteors will be ready to roll into each other like marbles to try and make some craters. Hopefully the craters will not be in the house itself.

I mention this because I love October Afternoon's Rocket Age. I could seriously make 100 layouts with that line. Most of the line I got with Studio Calico kits in June, though I supplemented at Archiver's.

I make this page for this week's Sketch Support 2-page sketch with Rocket Age (click on images to see them larger):


I used a Jenni Bowlin Malted Milk Paint Dauber to go over the words "wonder" and "adventure" lightly so they wouldn't compete with the title as much.



Yes, that's glitter on a boys' page. I painted the star with a couple shades of yellow, then used some Pink Paislee yellow glitter from an old Pixie Stix I have.

I stitched the title word to make it stand out more.

I'm finding that adding a few cross stitches here and there on the embellishments really finishes the layout nicely.

And another page using Rocket Age, this time about my son's birthday last year at Space Aliens restaurant:


Sorry, you can see me taking the photos in the middle of the LO! My bad.

I love the vintagey looking American Crafts alpha that goes so well with the vintage look of Rocket Age.


I laughed putting that sticker next to my son's photo on this page.


I added the gems to get a little spaceshipy, if you know what I mean. I was picturing the red lights on spaceships that blink on and off, kind of like the one BURN-E was trying to replace.

I added some gems to the title for balance. Oops, you can see where I removed one from the first A. Ah, well.

Further proof I have an 8-year-old son

Sometime in February Rowan brought home the following art:


Pretty cute, that groundhog popping up and seeing his shadow. (Prophetic, since it snowed again today.) But look a little closer:


Yes, it says "Burp" and "Fart." Art with sound effects. This is my life raising boys, learning to tolerate body function humor.

*BTW, I spent time finishing my Wonder Woman layout, so I'll post tomorrow and share some ideas about how I go about embellishing, specifically layering.

The gift of sons

Rowan has had an up and down week. He made a treasure hunt for me to follow, the end being a note that says, "I love you, Mom." He also lost one boot at school (one boot!) and a library book at home. When we were heading to school Thursday, he said, "This has been such a hard week."

I love his humor and sense of play, though. Yesterday morning--a morning we got to sleep in because they had no school since it was mark reporting day--they both got up at 5, of course. I was still in bed.

Dominic called to me, "Mom, can we watch cartoons?"

I said "No."

Rowan the future lawyer said, "But it's not a school day." (Normally, I'll let them watch on nonschool days.)

I said, "But it's not even 6." (That's our other rule--no cartoons before 6. They're early risers.)

Rowan paused, then said, "Touche."

I laughed all day at that remark. Doubtless he got it from some superhero comic or show.

Here's a page I'm working on that captures a little of this boy's love of play. It's called "Play Personified":


I've never shown a page in process before. It's "in process" because I'm a little stuck. I love embellishments and have some ideas, but I keep putting stuff down and taking it off. I think the next idea with chipboard or stitched flourishes is one I'll go with, then I'll post the final product.

The design comes from a sketch in Double Page Design from Ella. It's a linear design that works well with 4x6 photos, but my brain has gotten stuck in how to work some fitting whimsy into it.

*Truthfully, I have a lot on my plate today that will slow me down too--Barnes and Noble with Dominic, violin class, grading binders at school, mailing stuff out, and so on. I hope I get to work on this page before the day is out. I'll let myself if I get enough work done first. Which is what I tell my boys, work before play.

Touche, they would tell me.

Monarch Fair

Every fall my boys' elementary school studies monarchs. They raise them, research them, and produce the monarch fair, which we attend. Here's the photos from earlier tonight:

OK, they put up tents to simulate the cocoon. Here my guys are getting "squishy" for the photo. I think it was Candice on write click scrapbook that recommended that idea for photography. My boys never pose pretty, but this looks like they're having fun, so OK.

Here Rowan found a friend who is also from his taekwondo class. She's a winner.


Rowan found his diagram on the board. It's on the lower left.

Rowan punching a cocoon. He's a boy.

In between ice cream headaches.

Dominic with his art.

This was around when I went into sensory overload: the book fair. I just dutifully followed the boys around, they handed books to me, I bought them. I didn't even look at the prices. Sensory overload worked in their favor.

Here's my LO for the week, appropriately about being a mother to boys. Since Derick has been away all week, it's been just me and the boys. I had journaled this a while ago, and this color scheme worked great. Now I need a nap.

Yay me!

The week is doing better--my sons' behavior has evened out, so far it looks like the cancer is out of my MIL, Roswell is taking her medicine (though still chewing and licking). The only down spot now is that I have to give medicine 3 times a day to my cat, who had a tooth removed. She hides under my son's bed all day now. She has defeated me.

Regardless, I want to share two high spots:

1. Thanks Lonely Scrapbooker (Artemis, right?) for sharing this link. Featured layout on Stacy Julian's site!
2. I am up for Reader's Choice at CK. (My screen name is Buffy fan). If you wish to vote you can go here.

Tough

This is kind of a hard time right now. Not just the constant correcting of papers, which I've been doing until I can no longer read, but a few other pressures too. For one, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent surgery last Friday. (They seemed to have excised all the tumor, and they are doing more tests to be sure.)

My dog, an 11 year old American Staffordshire Terrier, is dying. Since last summer, she's been chewing her feet apart, and month after month of medication works for a while but then stops, making her sad and making us talk about when we will need to put her down.


These two issues are difficult enough, but it all compounded yesterday: my boys came home with three behavior reports from school yesterday. I have two boys. You can do the math. And to top it off, Derick is away on vacat--oops, working in Vegas with the software company he works for.

But I scrap, and so I used my hobby to persevere.

Write Click Scrapbook challenged us Monday to count our blessings, so I did that. I'll turn it in to a layout soon. And on Stacy Julian's color blog, she suggested a muted color palette with just one photo, one accent, and one word. I used an expression instead of a word, but otherwise followed the challenge to create this:


I felt a lot better after I made it.