March 2011

I decided that since I got pretty much caught up with our family monthly collages, I should not let myself get further behind.  So, tonight I sat down and did March of this year.  This weekend, I need to get April done so that I can get May done soon after.

You can see that March was a low-key month for us, which resulted in fewer pages than I think we've had since I started this.  However, April will be packed full with fun stuff.  So, here they are:

Who's at the Zoo?

Over at Skrap 'n Chat, Suzanne posted a challenge to find a layout that you did quite a while ago that you still love and scraplift it.  What a great idea!  So, I went through my albums from our Middle Eastern trips and found this one I did of Der's trip to Wadi Rum.  Love the placement of the pictures and the colours.

And here's the layout I did based on it.  I stayed very true to the placement of the pictures and the torn edges.  I did add a few embellies as I've now embraced embellishments more than I used to.  :)  I used Just So Scrappy's "Who's at the Zoo" kit.  Funnily enough, I didn't even know what the kit's name was until after I'd finished my layout!  I also used the torn paper templates from Anna Aspnes.

Jump, Jump, Jump!

I did this layout for the May Colour Challenge held over at Club CK.  Merry challenged us to use blue, green and orange.  I just bought the "Refreshing" kit by JennCK Designs and I thought it'd be perfect for this challenge.

I wanted some fun pictures to go with those colours so I chose these ones of the kids on the trampoline.  Once I chose the photos, I realized that they would work well with the sketch challenge in the Issue Challenge #2 (at Club CK) and with the Issue Challenge #1 for using imperfect photos.

All the elements are from the kit except for the fonts, which I downloaded (most likely) from DaFont.com and the border punches are from Julie Billingsley.  I made the butterfly trails using a straight stitch brush from Jessica Sprague.

I'm really happy with how it turned out - I wanted to give a fun, carefree feel to the layout and that's how it feels to me.

Our New Family

This was our first family photo after A was born.  We didn't get one done right away - it sort-of fell to the wayside while getting used to life with a family of four.  We did get it taken within his first week of life though.  ;)  I wanted an elegant look and came up with this:

I used these epoxy stickers that my friend, Diana, gave me at our crop a couple weeks ago.  The go perfectly with the flourishes on the paper.  I backed them with navy textured cardstock and then mounted them on foam dots.

I used another of these stickers along with three glittery brads along the side of the photo.

And some Stickles to highlight three flowers on the paper and some lace as trim underneath the photo.

Birthday Boy

Since I had started scrapping A's second birthday, I figured I should finish up those pictures.  Since the last layout had so many pictures, there wasn't room for "proper" (in my mind! lol) journalling so I made sure there was room on this one.  I always want to tell the story and give the details behind a layout, if there is one.  If I don't, the layout doesn't seem complete!

I used Julie Billingsley's "Funfetti" kit again for this layout.  Aren't those balloons fun?!

My Sweet Boy

While doing little boy pages, you don't get to use girly stuff.  So, I was very happy to scrap these pictures of my little baby boy and me.

I added this stitched flourish near the title as I felt it needed a little something there.  I only used three of the six threads for the embroidery thread so it wouldn't be as "chunky".

I did my journalling on the tag tucked underneath the scallop and then added a Stickled heart.

For the little flower borders on the top and bottom, I chalked them to get the right shades and then added pearls and gems for the centres.  Love how these turned out!

I based my LO off of Kim Watson's "The Places You Dream Of", which I found in the CK gallery.

A pretty big milestone

Thanks to okanogangirl's Layout Lottery challenge over at Club CK, I started keeping track of my layouts since January 1st.  And I am now at 200 layouts done for the year.  That is mind-boggling because I am a slow, slow scrapper.  Over the past year, since I joined two different scrapbooking message boards, my productivity has gone up dramatically.  I find I'm so inspired by my fellow scrapbookers and by the challenges that are given to the members on both forums.  For me, challenges are great motivators and make me excited to do different or new things on my layouts.  Challenges can get overwhelming if you try to do them all but if you just choose a few, I find them completely inspiring.

I think, though, the biggest reason for my increased productivity is that I've started digital scrapbooking.  I love paper scrapping but I'm very slow with it.  With digi, I have access to my pictures, the supplies I want and can work on anything I want at the drop of a hat.  I don't have to plan ahead with digi like I do with paper.  In the last few months, I've found a great balance between digi and paper.  If I'm finding that I'm not inspired with my paper layouts, I can switch it up and do some digi layouts and vice versa.  I feel like there's always something fresh so I'm never bogged down.

In discovering Cathy Zielske's monthly templates, I've found a way to keep up with our family happenings.  It's so easy to clip my photos to the clipping masks in her templates, write up what has happened that month and voilà, we have our family activities recorded.  They aren't the most creative but I finally have a sense of keeping up to date.  I plan on using them every month from now on.  That way, we won't forget those things we've done.  And I can still scrap the individual activities on fun, creative pages later but the details won't be forgotten.  I love these templates and am so happy I'm using them.

I have to say that I am very proud of the fact that in less than 5 months, I have created 200 scrapbook pages.  It'll be very interesting to see how many I'll have done at the end of the year.

Birthday Bash

At Club CK, Erika's issue challenge this week was to do a birthday layout.  I wasn't planning on scrapping A's birthday photos yet but since this was a challenge, I decided to do it.  That's one of the things I love about challenges.  They get me using photos that I may not necessarily scrap at that point in time.

Here's my layout:

I based my layout off of Janet Phillips's template "2 Many Photos 34".  Can you tell I'm loving these multi-photo layouts?!  :D

I used Julie Billingsley's "Funfetti" kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.  She is by far my favourite digi designer.  I have so many of her kits and they suit my style perfectly.  And look at these fun elements in this kit!  The banner, the candles, the cupcakes, the balloons, the bows and ribbons and buttons.  They're all so fun!

I liked the layout but there seemed to be a little something missing.  So, I used some digital mists that I picked up from Design House Digitals from Gennifer Bursett.  I'm not a huge mist person but I like the subtle look of it on this layout.