It's Been a While...

Gads!  It’s been awhile!  I feel like I’m always writing that.  It’s not like I haven’t done anything.  I’ve got pages and pages done for my 2015 scrapbook.  I’ve even had company in my studio – yes, that’s right, my boyfriend has been hanging out working on a project of his own.  I’ll post it once he finally gets it the way he wants it.

Here’s how it goes in my studio (a spare bedroom that allows me to craft when the kids are not around).  I explained to D last night before we went up to work.  There is no yelling or loud outbursts of frustration.  You can be frustrated, just not loudly.  He says to me that he’s never done that, and I tell him that I know, but if he does he has to go.  I say all this with a smile, but I do mean it.  He gets frustrated easily with this art stuff.

So I was planning on getting to the DCWV May Scrap-a-Holic Challenge started last night but I had an unfinished page on my bench so I finished that one instead.  Then tonight I was planning on working on the challenge, but we’ve been invited to brainstorm on a play we are supposed to be putting on next month and that absolutely needs to be done.  So now I have no idea when I’m going to fit this in because I want to play!  I had a vision for my page!

Maybe tonight if we get back from dinner at a decent time.  We’ll see… In the meantime, I’m dreaming of my pages.

Prison Break!

Last night I worked on my “Prison Break” scrapbook.  I haven’t done anything with it for a while and it has been languishing on my kitchen table for a couple of months.  Not good – especially since the table is café style and no one else can use it while there are stacks of scrapbook paper and newspapers and glue sticks all over it.  Right now I’m up to 47 pages, front and back.  All of it newspaper articles.  I’m not sure if I can download newscasts about it.  If I can, I may burn them to a disk and include them too.  My hope is that Ron Howard or Tom Hanks will want to do a movie and will come to me and ask to use the data I’ve put together.  They will woo me with gifts and dinners and kind words and lots of $$$, and I will be gracious enough to hand it over.  Yes, my dreams are grand, but there are good people in them! 

I’m not sure how I’m going to bind all of this either.  Will I put it in a regular scrapbook binder, or a 3-ring, or maybe a comb? 

***

Wow!  Wrote that about six months ago!  Anyone else behind in their projects?  Just me????  Well, last night I did take out my Prison Break scrapbook and the few newspaper articles I had left and got to work. 

I didn’t make this fancy for a reason.  It was a prison break, not a party.  I added a few stickers – tongue in cheek, if you will, about travel and camping.  To be fair, it’s very hard to find prison stickers.  If there are any out there please send them to me! 

Honestly, even though it was a county away I was afraid.  We made sure the doors were locked, that the animals were inside, that there was a weapon close by in case of a confrontation.  Thank God we never had to meet one of these guys.

I think I will have to outline my “Breaking Out” letters on the front to make them stand out more, but other than that I’m happy with the finished project.  Now I can back to scrapping everyday life in 2015!

Have you ever made an entire scrapbook out of an event that happened in the public eye?  Why did you do it?  How did you scrap it?  Did you share it with anyone?

April Stack-A-Holic Challenge

It’s April and it’s also time for the Scrap-A-Holic Challenge from DCWV.  I realize it looks as though I’m only working on these challenges now, but they are my kick-start.  I’m also working on something very special which I will show to you soon – just not today.

As you may know from previous posts, I am a year behind on my scrapbooking.  For the April challenge, I have scrapbooked my mother’s birthday from a year ago, yesterday.  I’m hoping her birthday this year will get scrapped sooner! 

I used the Scripts and Music Notes paper stack from DCWV as the background.  I love this paper!  It’s so dreamy and soft and feminine.  Perfect for my mother’s birthday. 

I also used my Creative Memories Border Punch system to create a notebook effect on the side of the page and my Suburbia Cricut cartridge to make the tea cup and lettering.  When I think of mom, I think of tea.  That’s her go-to drink.  She used to take it with one sweet-n-low but now she’s switched to a teaspoon of sugar, and milk.  I propped the teacup on foam squares to give the page dimension, although you can’t see it here.  I also gave it a little bling with some glitter glue.  I love that stuff!

Did you see my flowers?  I used the leftovers from cutting my border and made them into stems and leaves!  So cute and a great way to use scraps! (Scraps? Scrapbooking?  It's a win!)

I have an extra pad of the DCWV Scripts and Music Notes paper that I will be giving away in the future.  Please follow my blog so you’ll know when that will be happening.

Syrup Time!

Several weeks ago I completed several surveys through DCWV and received a lovely paper stack from them!  What a surprise when they contacted me!  Thank you so much DCWV!  

I received the Luxe Lodge stack about a week after being notified and at first I thought to myself “How am I going to use this?”  Well, I had just started scrapbooking again, after a self-imposed hiatus (because I have no room in my house) and as I was going through my photos I came across the Maple Syrup Weekend photos from 2015. 

Here is a sampling of the different papers:

This is my favorite

Ok, as you can see, I love plaid...

        We do MSW every year with the kids and it’s so much fun because we get to taste NEW maple syrup and maple candy, smell the sap being boiled into liquid happiness, pet the alpacas, and ride through the countryside and woods in a wagon drawn by beautiful draft horses.  We always look forward to it, and we always say we’re going to try a different place the next year, but then we end up back there with the animals.  We love them.  Every time I see the alpacas I want to get a couple.  Unfortunately, living in the village put a stop to that.  Maybe someday…

So anyway, I took some liberties with the March challenge.  The main one being that I used two photos instead of one.  Most of the pages I create have two or more photos on them – I like to get as many memories in there as my scrapbooks have taken the place of my photo albums.  I used the birch tree paper as the main background page as it gives one the feeling of riding through the woods.  

I used the pine cone paper as my photo mat and my title words.  I love the pine cone paper!  

One of the circles under the photo matting is DCWV burlap paper from the 6” stack.  I love the texture!  It also lends itself to the outdoorsyness (NOT a word but using it anyway) of the photos and paper.

My Cricut was useful for the letters and the arrows for the forest signs.  I traced around them to make them stand out a little more and then added some directions for fun.

I had a really great time doing this challenge.  It’s been awhile since I have even tried, though I wanted to, and it just seems to me that I need to make time for what I want to do.  Even if it’s just a half hour a couple times a week.  Being among my paper and crafting supplies was therapeutic. 

Back In The Saddle Again

     This is the weekend.  No kids, no pressing urgency to clean, no real gardening where I HAVE to get something out and put away for the winter.  I will begin my Christmas cards!  I will finish the journaling for 2014!  I will start it all right here:

     I am refreshed!  I opened a drawer in my filing cabinet last night and saw paper that needed to be used.  I saw doodads and geegaws that begged to be used, at least once, so I could decide whether I liked them or not.  I saw the photo of my beloved cat AJ and her eyes were saying “Girl, you need to do something for you!  Grab some tea and scrap with me!”  Her photo often talks to me.  In my head, not out loud.  She’s been gone two years now, don’t judge me!  When she was alive we would hold conversations.  They sounded like this:

“What are you doing AJ?”

“Meow”

“Meow?”

“Mew”

“I love you baby girl”

“Puuurrrrrrrr”

     I still miss her so much.

     I did a page for her.  I should do another one.

     I’m looking forward to using the new products I ordered from HSN several months ago at the insistence of my boyfriend.  You heard that correctly.  Months.  I’m getting back in the saddle again. Here, take a listen!

https://youtu.be/E5F-O_19lSI

     He has such a nice face!

     Maybe I'll even have time to catch up on a few episodes of Mad Men!  Love that show!  I just started watching it on Netflix and I can't get enough of it!

I LOVE Don Draper!

Scrapping 2014!

     I am almost done scrapping 2014.  Finally!  I stepped out of my comfort zone of standard 12x12 pages and worked with some clear photo dividers.  I received this album through my SEI membership.  It came with the initial page dividers but as I started scrapping I ran down to the local big store and picked up more – larger pages with different blocking. 

     As I started this endeavor I realized that I couldn’t stay all cookie cutter – photo here, journaling there.  Some pictures begged to be in a certain spot on the page or with another photo that screamed “We’re together!!!!”, so I started some cutting photos in half.  The first one killed me.  After that it was easier.  Check out the weirdo with the mohawk!

     I love using the white gel pen with the black background - it looks so cool!  Plus, it reminds me of the scrapbook my mom had from her youth.  Black pages, white writing.  Something old that binds us together...

That's a snowy owl looking at you right there.

 

The miscellany page... (There's always one... or two!)

Check out my pages!  I even got some journaling done (the bane of my existence)! 

     I got a little crazy on the photo cutting but I wanted them a certain way!  I don't think it looks too shabby!

Notice the purple hair!

     I’m getting ready to move on 2015.  It seems fitting that the year is nearly over.  More on that later.  

     What have you done to shake up your scrapbooking, even just a little, this year?

Apologies All Around...

     I would like to apologize for my lack of creativeness on paper (or anything else) the last several weeks.  I have joined a theatre group and we are getting down to the last several weeks of rehearsals and once I get home from work I spend time with my guy and turn around and leave again!  Busy, busy, busy!

     I got home the other night at 10pm after a complete show run-through and the dogs were absolutely going crazy!  He told me they had been watching for me since 8pm, wondering where I was, why I wasn't there with them.  My boy (Toby, the beagle) was all wiggles and howls when I walked through the door.  It was like I was gone for a week instead of four hours!  It's nice to come home to that, even if I hate that they're so upset when I'm not there.

Not everyone has a Barrot (A Beagle-Parrot)!  But we do! 
Here is Toby on my boyfriend's shoulder.
It's usually mine so I was lucky to get this shot! lol!

     This weekend we are having a birthday party so I will definitely get some good photos to scrapbook and make some great memories too!  I hope everyone has a warm and creative weekend!  Sub-zero weather is being served up here, maybe I'll have a chance to create after all!

Toilet Paper Roll Album

             Last year at a scrapbook event I met a woman who was carrying toilet paper rolls in her stash of paper.  She talked of a toilet paper roll album that she had started making and had even been handing out as gifts.  I was intrigued, but did nothing.  I kept thinking about it, but since we use the roll-less TP, I was pretty much up the creek in the supplies department.

Fast forward to September 2014 – the local supply store has stopped carrying the roll-less TP and we have to buy the regular kind.  Finally, I can begin!  I knew immediately what paper I was going to use.  I had the Tim Holtz Lost and Found stack and had been dying to use it.  Then I started cruising YouTube to find a tutorial, and boy did I find one!  Check out My Sisters Scrapper – she has a ton of great tutorials and the ones I watched are really easy to follow! 

http://youtu.be/-8vndiRxuWk?list=UUuSLCMH4NBu0wUKEzD6Jw3w

She lists all the supplies you’ll need, plus dimensions, and it was like taking a class in my craft room. 

I didn’t do any embellishing – it’s not my strong point, plus I’m afraid to store anything that has stuff all over it.  There should be a class out there – “Don’t Fear the Embellie!”  Also, I will try to find better magnets.  The ones I picked up don’t seem strong enough when placed under paper.  I might need to use thinner paper though instead of cardstock. 

I love the product I ended up with.  Several of my friends have said it looks like something one would find in a gift shop.  I know I’m going to make several more and pass them on as gifts this Christmas.  I just feel really good about how well it turned out and wanted to share.

Tools I used:

Fiskars trimmer
Creative Memories trimmer
Fiskars tag punch
Creative Memories round tag