A Day in the Life

Small chipboard albums make such great gifts. Here's a sample of one for an upcoming workshop that I'm hosting. The inspiration for this album came from the Lucky Stars stickers by Scenic Route.


This album will hold 10-15 small photos. I've tucked tags behind three of the photo mats to allow room for additional photos or journaling.


The patterned paper is all from Scenic Route's Garden Grove line. The colors are bright and gender neutral making this album perfect for capturing a day in anyone's life. I plan to fill this album with pictures of my boys on any typical day--playing at home, enjoying a playdate with friends, running errands with me, etc.

Ouch!

First, let me apologize for this awful photograph. I cannot take a decent photo of a 2-page layout spread to save my life. Anyone have any suggestions? Do I have to buy a scanner if I want decent images of my layouts? Probably.


The other day I spent hours finishing all but one of my unfinished layouts. Yay, me! It felt great to have a stack of completed layouts when I was done. My husband just kept making fun of me because all of the photos were from 2007 and 2008. That's my style though: scrapbook whichever photo(s) appeal to me at that moment. There's no pressure to scrapbook in order and I KNOW that I will never scrapbook all of my photos.

All products used for this layout are from Scenic Route's Liberty Kit. Scenic Route's papers are double-sided and super thick. Love this manufacturer and am still bummed that they've closed their doors.

I have many more completed layouts to share soon and at least one or two more showing off my boys' in their battered state. Ultimately I am confident that we will fill at least one scrapbook, if not more, with layouts of them wounded. Boys will be boys.

I'm Back!

Oh, my goodness! Things have been especially crazy around my house recently, but everything seems to have calmed down just a bit. My semester is finally over which means that now I have TIME to spend crafting again. Yippee!!!


I'm mostly finished with the above mini album, but I still need to order prints and add the journaling. I am ashamed to say that I am over a year behind in ordering prints right now. There just aren't enough hours in my days.

The mini album uses Scenic Route's Ashville line which is currently 30% off at my online store! The patterned paper is double-sided and quite thick. Because of this, I didn't feel the need to mount the paper to a chipboard album. Instead, I folded the sheets in half for weight (and to make pockets) and connected them all with metal jump rings.

I'm off to go work on my next unfinished project. I must have at least 15 semi-completed layouts and 5 half-finished mini albums. Oh, my!

15-Minute Layout

Maybe 30 minutes--15 minutes to choose the elements and prep the page and another 15 minutes re-arranging those darn paper strips so everything is even.


We have countless pictures of our son in his exersaucer laughing and smiling. Rather than scrapbook a bunch of almost identical pictures that don't really tell a story, I chose my favorite for this layout. Now I feel perfectly okay leaving the remaining photos in their plain $2 photo album.

This was a very simple layout. I trimmed 1/2" off two sides of the white textured cardstock and mounted it to the navy blue textured cardstock. The patterned strips of paper are from Scenic Route's North Shore line--Benson, Cross Step, Duck Dive and Sunset. The buttons are from my stash of random buttons and Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride Button Pack.

I very rarely journal in my own handwriting, but Scenic Route's White Line Background Paper makes it so easy AND reminds me why I am so sad that this company has decided to close.

Holiday Mini Album

Yes, I know that we are approaching mid-January and I am still posting holiday projects. Better late than never, right? Frankly, I'm going to be working on my holidy projects throughout 2010 in an attempt to complete ALL of them this year!

Here's a quick mini album that I made using the Fancy Pants Bracket Book set. The finished album size is approximately 5" X 5". It's such a quick project (I made 2 of these in under an hour) so it's a perfect gift for the grandparents!


I used Folk Art Enamel paint to "ink" the edges of the album. All the patterned paper is from Scenic Route. I thought the paper was adorable, but needed just a little something extra. Stickles to the rescue! Glitter glue makes everything better.

I have just a couple of additional holiday projects that I will share over the next few days then I will focus on highlighting the newest product additions to my store: Basic Grey Origins and American Crafts Junior. Yay!

This Boy...

I give up! I have really tried to avoid the trend of only scrapbooking one photo on a layout, but I can't do it any longer. I now understand why so many have been scrapbooking this way. You have total freedom to design and decorate your layout almost any way you'd like. Instead of balancing my photos, I strive to balance my fun patterned papers and embellishments in a way that the photo still remains the main focus of the layout. Too fun!


Speaking of patterned paper, the paper used here is from Scenice Route. I used paper from the Metropolis line: Johnson Street, Carter Drive and Main Street. I hand cut all of the little circle embellishments and adhered some with foam pop dots for dimension. Rub-ons provided a quick title and journaling solution. After adding all of these elements I still felt like something was missing. I grabbed my handy Black Precision Pen and drew some quick lines. Complete!

Supplies Used: Textured Cardstock (Bazzill Basics), Patterned Paper (Scenic Route), Rub-ons (Daisy D's), Black Pen (American Crafts).

Memorial Day Bloghop 2009

Please take the time to start at the beginning of the Memorial Day Bloghop 2009 . There are over 100 blogs participating!!! Bloggers from all over the United States and abroad are posting a card and sharing why THEY chose to participate in honoring our nation's heroes. CFH's Mission: To support our nation’s armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

As soon as I heard about this weekend's bloghop, I knew that I HAD to participate. My husband has been serving this great nation for almost 12 years in the Navy...with many more years of service still in his future. During his last deployment, he was lucky enough to receive letters of encouragement and support from complete strangers. He still has these letters with other memorabilia from that deployment. It is only fair that I return the favor and make a card for another service member to show that we are supporting him/her back home. I plan to make supplies available at all of my future crops for my friends and fellow scrapbookers to make cards that I will then pass on to CFH.



Supplies used: Bazzill Basics (textured cardstock), Scenic Route (patterned paper, stickers, chipboard), Offray (ribbon), ColorBox (pigment ink), Fiskars (border punch)

Next up on the blog hop is Lucy's Cards. Lucy is from across the pond and she does absolutely beautiful work! Anyone would be lucky to receive a card from Lucy!

Scenic Route

My Scenic Route order arrived on Friday! Woo hoo!!! I am so happy to have my hands on that Metropolis line again. With two little boys and summer just around the corner, I cannot have enough lime green, blue and orange paper on hand.

I have not yet made any samples of my own (too many custom scrapbook orders to fulfill first) so I did the next best thing. I found samples made by others to share here! All images can be found on the Scenic Route layout ideas site.







My new online store is almost ready to launch as well. I've been uploading products like a mad woman in all of my "free" time. I'm still not 100% sure that I like this particular e-commerce host, but I'll go with it for now. The Scenic Route Metropolis kits will be available to order on my current site tomorrow.

A Funny Thing Happened

When I go into a scrapbooking store or to a convention, I always love it when the product displays include at least a few completed samples. My favorite scrapbook store in Washington (which went out of business--tax evasion, I think, but that's a different story) had handmade layouts displayed everywhere! They weren't the crazy, expensive layouts you see in magazines today, but layouts made with real pictures and supplies we can all afford.

For my display on Saturday, I made sure to bring a handful of completed samples. The picture below is a sample I made when we lived in Florida--18 months ago, maybe longer. I always had it on display near my Cosmo Cricket chipboard and occasionally I would sell an item or two. I loved making this project and always assumed others would as well. It wasn't until Saturday that my assumption rang true. I sold it all!