The Beginning and college sweethearts

I never posted the first scrapbook page that Crate Paper put on their blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and add it now. It shows off a picture of my parents when they were dating in high school. The paper used is the 'Restoration' line by Crate Paper.





For me, the photos are always the most important. Paper is fun to play with, but I want it to add to the page; not over shadow the pictures. So the background is a neutral color with a subtle texture. That way I could add the flowers and layering without it being too much. The colors of the papers were perfect too since they enhance the colors in the picture.

And here's another page I did about my parents from when they were in college at Butler together. This picture was in their yearbook, but neither of them remember if it was posed or candid. (I'm voting for posed.)




This page uses papers from Basic Grey's 'Max and Whiskers' line and their 'Basics' line. It has a pretty simple background too so embellishments can be added without taking anything away from the picture.
Next, I need to work on a more current page about them. The 80's and 90's are getting skipped because I think I'd have a hard time scrapbooking those pictures without laughing the whole time. I realize fanny packs were helpful back then, but looking back it just makes us look silly. And, yes, I said us. I had my very own fluorescent one.

The Magic of Snow

There's something about a fresh covering of snow in the yard that's irresistible. So I recruited Dad to take pictures of me making a snow angel... for the sole purpose of being able to scrapbook it of course. (That's a sign you're a true, dedicated scrapbooker.) To make it even easier, My Mind's Eye posted a sketch challenge where the theme was winter. So I had my photos, a sketch, and the motivation to work on this page.



I used non-winter papers, but ones that had winter colors. The yellow was added for contrast. My favorite thing about doing layouts is all the little details that go into it. Using multiple fonts in the title, wrapping embroidery floss around the letters, stitching down the buttons, and inking the edges of papers are subtle touches that give it a finished look. I'm really happy with how this page turned out and has become one of my favorites... pretty sure I say that about every page though.

One of my favorites

Here's another challenge page we did for fun at work. The challenge was to use only one patterned paper, journal in a list format, and use butterflies on your page. It ended up being a really fun one to do. I even managed to use the vintage typewriter that I got for my birthday. I typed part of my list jounaling on a piece of cardstock then used it to punch the butterflies out. I also typed different words on the cardstock circles.



So far, the only list item I've completed is 'Play craps in Las Vegas'. I had to bail on the 'Learn to drive a stick shift' out of sympathy for my brother in law, who was trying to teach me. After never making it out of the church parking lot in the two hours we were driving, I felt bad for sucking the life out of him on his day off. I made it up to him though by paying for sushi that night for dinner. I'm close to finishing 'Take a picture a day for 1 year.' That one will be completed on April 20th. I just have to stick it out these last couple months. Speaking of which... I need to think of something to photograph for today.

As Seen on www.cratepaper.com

YEA! Crate Paper put another of my pages up on their blog! One of my goals this year is to try to get published. So lately, I've been participating in their sketch challenges and sending in random submissions. All this week they've had 'Customer Appreciation Week' and have been posting submissions for their three newest lines. I did this page Wednesday, emailed it in Thursday morning, and when I checked the blog Friday afternoon... there it was! It's exciting for me to see it up there. It was the seventh page I've sent in and the second one to be posted by them. It's great motivation to scrapbook more pages and try new techniques and layouts to keep it interesting. Here's the page I did...

It uses Crate Paper's 'School Spirit' line. The colors are fun and I thought they would be good for the page about my Uncle's comic book signing. He was the inspiration for one of the characters... a good guy of course.

Kid at Play

After getting a super nice camera last spring, I went a little picture crazy. A perfect example of this was when my Mom's side of the family came up to the lake. Luckily, my cousin's sons didn't mind having a camera constantly in their face so I ended up with some photos that I really love. The youngest boy, Matthew, probably got the brunt of it. Now, since I have all these great photos, I get to make new scrapbook pages. Here's one using October Afternoon's line 'Campfire'.



I'm still working on my embellishment clusters, so it took me a while to get the buttons and circles to look right. Also trying to work on layering papers. To border the green polka dots, I cut short strips of patterned paper out of the 8x8 paper pack. Then to make them stand out, I inked them with my handy Chestnut Roan ink pad and staggered them. After everything was on the page, I wasn't sure where to put the journaling, so it's hidden under the large photo with a tab that you can pull out. I'm pretty sure this is one of my favorite pages I've done.

First page of 2011

Here is my first completed page of 2011. The pictures and papers have been in my "To Scrap" pile since August and now they are finally hanging on my cork board. (I always hang my two most recent pages on my cork board so I can enjoy them for awhile before putting them in their albums.) The pictures are from the State Fair this summer when I went with my friend Erica and her kids.



The papers are Urban Prairie by Basic Grey. My favorite part (well, one of them) is the title. It's just regular kraft cardstock, but I diecut it using the Zootopia Slice cartridge and then ran it through a Basic Grey embossing folder. Inking the edges was the final touch to give it an ice cream cone texture. I love how it turned out. Plus, I always feel good when I can use different tools together. It makes the investment in them seem justified.

I've also been working on clustering embellishments. Just below the title, I layered paper (with a border punched edge), Tim Holtz film strip ribbon (attached with the Tim Holtz tiny attacher), and wrapped some orange twine. Then pop dotted a cardstock sticker with the date. This is a page that's definately fun to see hanging on my wall.

Willa and Buck

Some of my favorite pictures to scrapbook are ones of my grandparents. I love the clothes and everything else that's vintage. Plus, there's something about seeing my grandma at a younger age that I never get tired of. So a few months ago, when we had a challenge at work to use Graphic 45 paper, I knew I wanted to use an older photo. Instead of having one large photo, I trimmed it in a half and used it as two separate ones and made it into a grid layout. By keeping the layout simple, I wanted to leave the focus on one of my favorite photos of my grandparents.