Busy as a Bee

This past week, I've been busy paper scrapping.  It's been so fun to create with paper.  I love both digi and paper and i seem to swing back and forth between them.  Yesterday, my hubby took the kids and let me scrap all day long - so fun! 

I started this LO a while ago but I needed to get the journalling printed out.  I wanted to do a page about what DS's name meant, where it originates from and why we chose it.  I put the reason why behind as hidden journalling.

 

I did this layout for Dawn's challenge over at Skrap 'n Chat.  Her challenge was to use a transparency on a layout.  I didn't even think I had any transparencies but I found this one that I bought many moons ago.  I used the quote by Mother Teresa on the transparency as the inspiration for my layout.  It says, "We can do no great things; only small things with great love."  I wondered how I could adhere the transparency because I don't have any vellum adhesive and then I thought about handstitching it.  Too bad I didn't stitch it on straight!  lol  The stickers are from the Wild Saffron line, which I absolutely love and wish I could have all of their yummy goodness!  (Thanks Diana for giving me a little bit of my dream!)

 

This layout has been pretty much done for a while but I needed to get the journalling on.  I kept the white cardstock and just adhered it with brads.  I used my CTMH distressing kit to ink the white cardstock to make it a blue.  

 

This layout is one of my current favourites.  It's based off a sketch from Page Maps (Feb. 2011) and I love how it turned out.  The flowers and stitching were so fun to do.  The colours make me so happy too.  :)`

 

This is another of my current faves.  I had pulled this photo and the patterned paper out a while ago but hadn't worked on the layout.  At Club CK, the issue challenge this week was to use green, blue and brown on a layout.  Aidan's birth announcement card was the perfect pic for the challenge.  I did a lot of fussy stuff for the layout and it was so much fun.  I used blue and green paint on the photo mat to match the patterned paper.  That made it qualify for Kirsten's challenge over at Skrap 'n Chat.  She made an additional challenge to use 39 things on the layout.  I hadn't really considered it because I NEVER put that much onto a layout but as the page developed, I saw that I could really do it!

I inked the chipboard "A" with two colours of brown ink and I inked the edges of the background paper and the PP block.  I also chalked the edges of the blue border strip that I cut out with SCAL.  I also used SCAL to cut out my title and I inked the shadow letters brown too.  I used two sets of brads and an eyelet to put one ribbon through.  I wrapped the green ribbon around the paper block.  I put a few green gems around Aidan's name on the birth announcement.  I finished the layout off with some dimensional stickers from the Wild Saffron pack I got from Diana.  Love them!

 

This was a quick page I did after my time-consuming ones.  I used elements from the K & Company Baby Boy kit that I have.  The stickers from the title were from there, as well as the sticker, the tag and the border strips along the bottom.  I just finished it off with a ric rac border and bow on the side of the page.

 

These pictures aren't the most interesting but I wanted to include them in the baby book because I want Aidan to know where he was born.  I used this paper from a DCWV stack and made a little journalling tag.  I decided to make a frame with ribbon to made the central photo stand out a bit.

Journalling Challenge #6

For the journalling challenge this week, I went with another starter but I wanted to do something a little more deep.  Profound journalling has found its way into my scrapping this past year.  Though I don't do it a lot, I like to use a favourite photo and write something heartfelt and meaningful to leave a message from me.  I know that some people find this kind of journalling cheesy, and that's OK.  Do whatever you're comfortable with.  For me, I think of it as a way to record what I'm feeling and to be able to look back on it and see what I was feeling at the time.  When I thought of this LO, I was feeling very reflective so I wanted to get those thoughts down before that passed (which is often quite quickly!). 

So, this week's starter is "I have faith in..." or "I believe" or "I hope".  You can write about yourself, your kids, your SO, a family member or friend, or about issues in the world.  Moving a bit deeper in your thoughts about life through your journalling may inspire LOs you never thought you'd ever create.

Paper vs. Digital Scrapbooking

This is always a topic of discussion in the scrappy world.  I have been a paper scrapper for many years - since 1997 or 1998 (don't remember - and I love it.  I love all the patterned papers, the ribbons,  cutting with my paper trimmer, altering chipboard and playing with so many cute embellishments that are out there.  I love the tactile nature of it - feeling the heavy cardstock, moving around all the elements to the page to make it come together.  Working with scissors and glue takes you back to elementary school!  Nothing beats working with your hands.

However, I'd been wanting to try digi scrapping for a few years and when I joined my scrapbooking message boards, I got the advice to buy Photoshop Elements (PSE) and take a class by Jessica Sprague (see the sidebar).  At first, I became easily frustrated as I found the concepts so foreign.  However, I pushed through and ended up thinking it was pretty darn cool.  So, I signed up for a second class by Jessica and I was hooked.  I love digi scrapping.  I love how you can make a LO look just like a paper page and you don't need all the tools and "stuff".  I love how you can customize colours to exactly the shade you need.  And I love how you never run out of anything! 

Yesterday I was thinking about how sometimes I just can't make the final product of my paper layouts come out the way I envision them in my head.  Sometimes they turn out great but other times, they're just OK.  They just don't come out the way I want them to.  I have found that with digi, my LOs turn out much closer to what I'm picturing and planning in my head than my paper ones do.  Why is that?  I don't know.  Maybe I need to take some classes to work on techniques.  Maybe I just have a better eye for my LOs on the computer.  But I find it interesting that I've come to this conclusion.