March 2010

I just finished up March's family layouts from last year.  I worked on it for a couple hours last night and today and done.  Awesome!  Just two more months from last year and I'm done.  But I need to get started on 2011!!!

So, how am I doing for my March project goals?  My monthly layouts are coming right along and I think I'll be able to finish up 2010 this month.  However, I've done nothing else for my project goals!!  I haven't worked on my hubby's anniversary gift AT ALL nor have I sat down to do my classes.  Gotta get on those soon!

Passing on the love

Thank you to Cassie for passing on the Stylish Blogger Award - what a fun way to wake up!  :)   Check out her great blog at:  http://allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/.

Here are a few rules when a blog receives this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 8 things about yourself.
3. Give the award to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award.

Here are 8 things about me:
1. My husband and I have lived in six countries and our children were born in two different countries.
2.  I love to digi and paper scrap.  I've found a great balance between the two and I'm loving it.
3.  I'm an avid reader - historical fiction is my genre of choice lately.
4.  I love to play board games but don't do it enough.
5.  My favourite exercise is swimming but I also like to walk and hike.
6.  I love to do mosaics but haven't done them in quite a while.  It's taken second stage to scrapping for now.
7.  I grew up in a very small time and I loved it.  I want our kids to be able to experience small-town life too.
8.  I'm a sucker for Lindt chocolate and homemade baking.

I would like to pass along the Stylish Blogger Award to some of the blogs I love to read. Stop by and check out what these talented ladies are doing:

Diana:  http://wickysticket.blogspot.com/

Beth:  http://positivelypassionateabout.blogspot.com/

Jennifer:  http://scrapdrawer.blogspot.com/

April:  http://livewelllaughoftenscrapmuch.blogspot.com/

Shanon:  http://scrappingandtraveling.blogspot.com/

Briana:  http://meplus2.wordpress.com/

Jenn:  http://jennzthoughtfulspot.blogspot.com/

Vanessa:  http://grooveygrover.blogspot.com/

December is done

I have to say, I *heart* our new iMac.  It is soooooo much faster to do my digital scrapbooking on.  I threw together my December monthly in just a couple hours today, compared to I don't know how many hours on our laptop.  Wow!  This is so exciting!

I just love how these turn out!  And now that it's even faster to do, that leaves me more time to do my time-consuming layouts.  :D

Journalling Challenge #7

I'm a bit late this week with my challenge - with all the sickness in our house, I just couldn't get it done on time.  But, I finished it today so here it is.

What are some of your current favourites?  Or, think back to a certain time in your life and what your favourites were then.  Think of anything - from clothes to quotes!  Here's a list to get you thinking.

Pair of jeans
Outfit
Pair of shoes/boots
Make-up/Nail polish colour
Jewellery
Books and/or Authors
Kids' Book
Movies
TV Shows
Song and/or Singer
Sport/Sports Team/Athlete
Board Game/Card Game
Workout
Activity to de-stress and unwind
Food and/or Drink
Restaurant
Meal to make
Room in your house
Piece of art/Decoration
Car
Blanket/Set of Sheets
Outdoor activity
Seasonal activity
Museum
Store
Place to visit
Family excursion
Thing to do when you're aloneBase your layout off these ideas.  Pick one favourite or a few.  Do your journalling in a block, in a list or on journal strips scattered all over the page.  Have one photo, a few or none at all.

For my layout, I went with a few different topics and gave some of my current faves.  Some of them aren't new favourites but ones that I still love after some time.  This also works with a challenge over at Skrap 'n Chat.

I have a thing for grid layouts - I love them.  I like the clean lines and the orderliness of them.  I wouldn't want all my layouts to be grids but I can't resist a good one.  ;)

A new level for my digi scrapping

I have been doing all my digi scrapping on our laptop, which is fine.  I love our laptop and the convenience of it.  But I have to say that doing digi scrapping has been so much harder that way.  Having to always hook up to an external hard drive to download and access pictures and making sure there is enough free space to do a big project - simply a pain.

So when our laptop started acting strangely (not waking up from the sleep mode unless you touch the on/off button), we decided to go ahead and get a desktop.  We'd been talking about it for months so this was the push we needed.  We wanted to have all our media consolidated and on one source, as opposed to two external hard drives and flipping back and forth.  Plus, the possibility of losing it if an EHD failed was scary.

So, without further adieu, here is our new baby.

Being able to access the photos right away and working with that big screen is going to be fantastic!!!  Can't wait to do my first layout on it!

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. 

Gramma's Pride and Joy

I had plans to finish this up in February for a challenge at Skrap 'n Chat but it didn't happen.  However, I did get it done this week.  The challenge was to use layered hearts.  I used a pop of pink to go with my daughter's shirt in the picture.  However, the pink looked lonely so I chalked the flower brown and then added a tiny bit of pink.  I also chalked the edges of my cardstock.  The title didn't stand out very well in the photo but it says, "Gramma's Pride and Joy". 

 

I love these pictures of my mom with her grandbabies.  She came out for when Aidan was born and she spent 2 months with us.  The kids, especially Kirsi, got so attached to her during this visit and these pictures show just how much she loves them.

Cathy Zielske's Monthly Templates

Some of you already know that I love Cathy Zielske.  I love her blog and writing style and her scrapbooking.  When I was new to digi scrapping last year, I discovered her monthly templates.  She has a few different templates (and now has an add-on pack that I haven't used yet) you can use to make photo collages.  I love that it's mostly photos, with the chance to journal about your month.  She has the big journalling template (that I always use) and then another one that allows for much less journalling and more photos if you don't have much to write about or want a different style.

Since March is project month for me, I got started by doing November's section of our family scrapbook.  And here's what November was for us:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how these turn out.  They totally summarize our month and it's completely do-able.  You can have as much or as little as you want, and what's best of all, you get it done.  I've used photos again in individual layouts so that's not an issue.

I have to do January, February, March and December yet.  I won't need to do a ton for December as I have my December Daily album documenting our month and January will be slim too as I'm working on albums for our two big trips last January. 

Reorganizing the upstairs

None of us have been sleeping well lately so we're going to try something different.  So the kids and I spent the morning reorganizing the rooms upstairs.  My scrappy space is going to move from our bedroom to the kids' playroom.  I hope it'll work out well.  I'll make sure to get pictures once we get everything done.  Hopefully I'll have plenty of creative inspiration there!

A bit of a toot!

I got an email from Allison Davis, the brilliant scrapbooker whose sketches inspire many people, saying that my layout based off one of her sketches was chosen to be on her blog, Sketch Support.  I am so happy to have been chosen, especially by her!  When you see the calibre of the layouts on her blog, you can only aspire to produce something like them.  So, it's an honour for me.

Here's the link if you'd like to have a look:
http://www.sketchsupport.com/2011/02/my-way.html

Project Month

February was the month of challenges for me.  Between my two message boards, I had so many challenges to choose from and I tried my best to do all of them!  It was so inspiring and fun that I loved it.  However, in doing all the challenges, I neglected doing some ongoing projects that I need to work on.  So, I've declared that March is project month!  I need to tackle a few things before I allow myself to do any more challenges (though I will continue with my journalling challenges as I love doing them).

My two main projects that I need to tackle are my mini album for our anniversary and finish up our family album from 2010, using Cathy Z's templates.  It's not tough to do but I've had so many other scrappy things on the go that I haven't been doing them.  If I can get these done, I'll be a very happy camper.

My other "projects" are to do the online, self-paced scrappy classes that I've registered for.  I paid for these classes back in December/January and haven't done anything with them.  What a shame!  I've got two Jessica Sprague digital scrapbooking classes waiting for me and Cathy Zielske's "Design Your Life" class over at Big Picture Classes.  I want to do them but I've been so busy scrapbooking that I haven't invested the time I need to in these classes.  

I also need to sit down with the external hard drive and upload all of the digital layouts that I did early on and didn't convert to JPEG for printing.  I now have a good system in place where I save the layout as a PSD, then convert it to a JPEG (so I have two huge files of it at once) and then resize and save it for the web.  I have a folder of layouts to upload so I can do a few at a time.  I like that Persnickety Prints lets us have unlimited storage space so it acts like an online backup system for me.

How about you?  Do you have any projects you should do?  Will you join me for Project Month?

Journalling Challenge #5

This week's challenge is to start off a sentence and finish it with a variety of endings.  There are so many ways to go with this one that it should be an easy one to do.  Here's my sample LO:

My starter is "There's nothing better..."  I wanted to talk about the reasons why newborns are so  wonderful so I went with journal strips as I like how it separates the ideas.

Here's a close-up of the journalling:

Here are some ideas of starters:

• There is nothing better
• When I was young
• _______ makes me think of ________ because
• A year ago
• When you grow up

Our Song

Every week, Erika posts an issue challenge over at Club CK.  I love doing them but lately, I've been dropping the ball.  I can't seem to get them done within the week but I try to get at least one done for the end of the month.  One of the challenges this month was to use a song as inspiration for a LO.  I had been thinking on this one for quite a while.  I wasn't sure what song to use or what photos.  Then, one day last week, it came to me.  Why not use "our" song?  I had to get some of our wedding photos scanned so that happened on Friday. 

I used Julie Billingsley's kit "A Love to Last" and the fonts are Pea Jack and Jane and Blackjack.

Yesterday was spring cleaning day.  Derwin attacked our bedroom with a vengeance and it looks so great.  I decided to tackle my scrapbooking area which had become a disaster zone.  I got all the sheets of paper put back where they belong and then it was the scraps.  I used a system that a message board friend suggested and I love it, but I'd fallen behind.  Jennifer (paperclipz) cuts her scraps down to the nearest inch starting at 2" and then attaches them with a bulldog clip so it forms a kind of fan.  It's so much faster to find the scrap you need.  However, the key to this system is to keep up with it, which I've failed miserably to do.  So, last night, I decided to get cutting.  I got through a good chunk of them but after 2 1/2 hours, my eyes were going buggy so I stopped for the day.  I'm doing it again every chance I get until it's caught up.

Bringing more into the fold

Last night, a new scrapbooking friend of mine held a workshop to introduce scrapbooking to people.  Diana held it at a yoga studio that a good friend of hers owns and her approach to it was how meaningful scrapbooking can be.  Not only do you express yourself through creativity, you can validate yourself and your loved ones through it.  She did a great job explaining what scrapbooking is and why it is meaningful to her. 

I had helped her put together some page kits earlier in the week for the ladies to work with.  There were 2 patterned papers, 1 piece of cardstock and a few simple embellishments.  Diana brought everything that was needed to create a page and the ladies did a great job with it.  It had been a long time since I'd worked with beginners so it was interesting to have to explain how to choose the papers, how to set up a design and how to cut the papers down to size.  But it was a good reminder of how we all started off.

Here's a link to Diana's blog.  You really should check out her work - it's beautiful:

http://wickysticket.blogspot.com/

LOAD Day #3

So, I'm on Day 3 of LOAD over at Skrap 'n Chat.  Last night, I didn't really want to go up and scrap but I'm sure glad I did because I got the entire LO done!  Sometimes I just need to force myself to sit down and do it because I always can get going once I'm in the zone. 

Today's challenge was to use Blue, 3 Buttons, 3 Brads and 1 Bow.  It's so funny how I never know how things are going to come together until I'm in the middle of it all, unless I'm using a sketch.  I started off with the orange.  I wanted to put some orange on the second page and then it just morphed into a journal spot with yellow and blue brads all around it.  I really like how it turned out. 

 

 

 

Then, for the bow, I didn't want a big one as it didn't seem to fit the LO.  Then I got the brainwave to tie a bow in one of the buttons.  Just right!  I had these bathtime embellies from Jolee's (I think) and they fit just right. 

And with this 2-page LO, I've finished 20 pages in February.  Yahoo!!

I Love My Baby Brother

I finished another challenge over at Skrap 'n Chat.  This challenge was to have a picture of hugs and/or kisses or x's and o's and to have hearts on the layout.  I decided to scrap this picture of Aidan and Kirsi; I absolutely love this photo and wanted a layout that showcased the photo and their relationship.

 

I absolutely love the background paper but I cannot for the life of me remember which DCWV stack it came from.  Now that I've separated all my stacks into colours, I can't keep track of which line it's from.  I went with the monochromatic look to have the classy look and to focus on the photo.  I used my Leave It To Weaver (Fiskars) border punch for the first time.  I only have two border punches but I knew I'd love the look of this punch and I was so happy with how it turned out this time.  I used a sheer green ribbon and ended off with a small "bow".  I also used my new Patina Stickles and I have to tell you, I love 'em!  The colour was absolutely perfect for this LO.  I wanted to highlight the word "love" in the title so I used the Stickles on it and I used foam mounting tape to pop the letters off the page.  I added the different coloured flowers for a little visual appeal.

What I Like About Me

At Club CK, there is a challenge to do a layout about yourself.  At first, I thought this would be a tough layout to do as I don't normally scrapbook myself.  I include myself on pages about our family or our travels but I've only ever done one other page about myself.  However, as I got going on the page, I realized that it wasn't difficult at all and in fact, I enjoyed doing it!

I started out choosing the kit that I wanted to use, which is Julie Billingsley's "Prairie Fields", and then I chose the photo.  After that, I just started playing around with the design and the papers and came with this:

 

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to journal about but then it struck me.  I hadn't ever really written down what I like about myself so I thought this would be the perfect subject for the page.  I am a confident person and I know that there is plenty of good in me, along with the bad and the "needs improvement" bit.  So I figured that I should get at least some of it down in writing!  lol

Journalling Challenge #4

One of the things that I did back in October was to do an interview with the kids to see what their likes and dislikes were at this point.  Even looking back a few months later, it's so neat to see how much they've changed (and how much you've forgotten!).  I just hadn't put it into a LO so that's what I decided to finally do.  I have to admit that I love it!  And I plan on doing this regularly now because I know I'm going to love looking back on these later.

Once again, I used one of Julie Billingsley's kits, this time "Rambunctious".  I just love her stuff!

So, if you're up for it, here's your challenge.  Conduct an interview with someone you love.  Maybe your children, maybe your spouse, maybe one of your siblings, maybe your parents.  Maybe a grandparent who is still alive.  Maybe your favourite aunt or uncle.  You can ask any questions you want.  Here's the list of questions that I started out with:

How old am I?

Where am I living now?

What games do I like to play?

What activities do I like to do?

What books do I like to read?

What toys do I like to play with?

What songs do I like?

What foods do I like?

What foods don't I like?

What is my favourite animal?

What are my favourite clothes?

Who are my friends?

What do I want to be when I grow up?

What is a good memory that I have?

Something that is hard for me right now

What is my one wish?

What makes me smart?

I know how to

I can do ___ by myself

What are my chores?

What was my favourite vacation this year?

Picture of favourite silly face

Height:

Weight:

Date:
 

Obviously you wouldn't have the same questions for an adult but this will at least get you thinking.  Just think of the memories that you'd like to record about this person and make your questions from there.