Twelve pages down... one million to go. (Maybe not a MILLION, but you know what I mean)

 

 

This is what 12 finished pages after a scrapbook retreat looks like. The weekend at Quaker Haven was probably the best birthday I've had in awhile. I was with one of my best friends, her mom, and my mom. Plus on my birthday I received text messages and phone calls from some of my favorite people. The weekend was cold and rainy most of the time, but the lake really needed the rain so I didn't mind at all. Truthfully, it was like an extra birthday present. Nothings better than being at the lake scrapbooking so I'm already looking forward to the fall retreat.

Here's a quick rundown of the pages I finished over that weekend. Figured I'd show them in one big swoop, otherwise I might never get them all posted.



1990's Spring Break page using Echo Park's "Paradise Beach" line.

 

Page using My Mind's Eye.

Disney page using My Mind's Eye "Boy Crazy" line.

Universal Studios page using Basic Grey's "Bowties".

Another Universal Studios page with "Bowties".

 

Page about my mom when she was little using Echo Park's "Sweet Girl" line.

Simple Stories line from last summer.

October Afternoon's "Cakewalk" line.

October Afternoon's "Midway" line. LOVE these papers!

October Afternoon's "9 to 5" line.

Crate Paper's "Pretty Party" line.

I'm really proud of how this page turned out. It's a mixture of paper lines because I knew I wanted it to be yellow and blue, so I went "shopping" thru my papers. It uses some Crate Paper "Random", Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye, and vellum from a Dear Lizzy Line. The splatters are from Heidi Swapp (her gold spray) and then more gold embellishments from Dear Lizzy and American crafts were added. It just plain makes me happy. :)

Happy Birthday Uncle Ed

Most of the pages I've done lately have been ones about my Dad when he was little (partially because my Grandma took so many). So now I'm trying to make more of an effort to do pages about my Mom. I had remembered seeing a birthday picture of her and my Uncle Ed recently and when Basic Grey's 'Life of the Party' came out, I knew they would be perfect together. Plus, I had a sketch in mind that would look good too. The nice part is it turned out pretty close to how I pictured it in my head.



I've also developed an appreciation for spray mists, either Tattered Angels or Studio Calico's Mr. Huey sprays. The 'happy birthday' letters are the same ones I used on the "Boys of Summer" page (sprayed brown) and the same from the "Panama City" page (left their original white). I never really understood all the hype till now.

Here's a detail of the pennants I cut out from the different patterns. Pretty sure this is the third page in a row I've done that uses a banner of some sort. I jumped aboard the banner train awhile ago and never looked back.



Here's another little detail of the chipboard and folded ribbon made from patterned paper. I even put five little stars around the candle since it was my uncle's fifth birthday. (That's him in the picture.) You can also see a good close up of the machine stitching. The zig-zag stitch is the easiest to do since it doesn't matter as much if you're not going in a perfectly straight line. (Great for around circles.)



On a side note... I'm kinda proud of myself for two days in a row of posting. Maybe I can go for a three-peat.

Fun at the State Fair

This past summer, I got to go to the State Fair with my friend Erica and her kids. It's the first time that I really remember going so we took tons of pictures... 155 to be exact. (Luckily Erica scrapbooks too so she understands taking pictures of everything and her kids are used to having the camera pointed at them.) So with all these pictures, I new there'd have to be multiple pages. Instead of making a couple two page spreads, I've done individual pages for each of the picture sets I wanted to use. The "Ice Cream" page from earlier in the year was one, and I've finished two others. One is about the rides and another is about the Fair food we had. The last one I have to do is a general Fair page. It'll kind of be like a title page for the series and will have pictures from the midway and a cute one of the kids... but that's all I'm gonna say so I don't spoil the surprise. Plus, that's as far as I've gotten with the planning.

Here's the one I did about the rides. The background green is by Basic Grey and the rest is SassaFras Lass. "Rides" was diecut with my Quickutz and then I wrapped some orange and white bakers twine around the letters to add some more color. The tickets by Maya Road are a fun detail too. Those are stapled on with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher... aka Tiny Tim. I think the picture of Erica and the kids on the swing ride is one of my favorites I've ever taken.




This is the most recent one I've finished, it's about the fair food we tried. The papers are from Crate Paper's 'School Spirit' line. It's a pretty simple layout, so I embellished it with the stars and buttons. (Hooray for clusters!) A little fun fact... the orange scalloped piece just under the title is the left over portion from the punch at the bottom. I like that it reminds me of a tent canopy.



P.S. If you get a chance to try deep fried Oreos... they're pretty tasty!

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.

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.