Getting ready for LOAD, Layout a Day with Lain Ehmann, to begin tomorrow! This will be my 3rd time participating. This months theme is Past Perfect.  I've got some old photos of my childhood prepared, as well as a batch of semi-newer ones from 2006. I ought to be able to come up with 29 new LO's from them. I'll be posting them here daily after I finish them.

My scrap room is clean, and almost totally organized. My desks clear and ready to go.  This will be my main focus this month scrappy wise, so there won't be many other challenges that I participate in. The exceptions will be Club Ck weekly Issue and ThanksLiving Challenges.  The idea is for me to have fun, not make myself crazy!  The only thing I need to do now, is figure out when the best time of day is going to be for me to work on my LO each day.  I'm hoping I can get most of the LOs finished in an hour, but I guess that is ring to depend on the prompt and how much journaling I'll have to do.

If you've never done LOAD, but are considering it, I highly recommend it.  It's a challenge and who isn't up for a challenge?  Then there is the wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you finish.

Wish me luck!

Squeeeeze Hugs & Lights

I love these pictures.  Mostly, I love the contrast of colors. The reds, and browns seem to highlight the blue of both boys eyes. They are both such a contrast to me.  Anyway, I really wanted this to be a special LO. I just found the Kraft FunDay collection by MME.  I was pretty sure they would work well for what I wanted to do.  I am very happy with how this came out.  I started with a sketch from the SLS eBook, but adapted it to fit the photos.  As it turns out, I am able to enter this LO in 4 different Challenges.  ScrapFit WW #23, use Kraft, Club CK ThanksLiving #1 and January Pinterest, and lastly for ScrapHappy January Inspiration.

For now, the journaling will be for me and I will be writing it on the back.  We love our Squeeeeze Hugs in our family. I am very thankful to have them.

I was able to finish another project today.  This is for the Club CK Jan/Feb '12 Issue Challenge #5, Use the colors brown, purple and teal on your LO, inspired by the cover of the CK Magazine Cover.  I was not afraid!  I love purple.  I just don't have a reason to use it all that often in a house full of boys....Oddly enough, both the lamp and the bowl in these photos had purple in them.  By using the purple and teal, I think it made the lampshade stand out, but didn't overshadow my son in action.  That silly, curious, proud little boy. 

I pulled scraps out of my bin, Basic Grey, SEI and Creative Imaginations, Bazzill CS, used a few different EK Success and Fiskars punches, some of the banner is Echo Park stickers, twine, ribbon, Glimmer Mist, Cosmo Cricket mini alphas and Thickers.  Volia! Another LO that makes me smile.

Got Snow!

Yikes!  Did we have a storm this week or what? For a minute I thought I was dreaming that I was living in Chicago again...Nope, it was the storm of the decade for the Puget Sound area. I didn't spend as much time outside as my husband and son did. I am fortunate he took so many pictures.  I have about 200 good ones to choose from.

This is my submission for the Frosted Designs Blog Hop.  As soon as I saw the prompt was to use vellum, acrylic or transparency, I knew I wanted to use vellum and some of these new snow pictures. I decided to try cut some snowflakes using my Cricut, something I've never done before.  Wow, they turned out great.  I used a simple snowflake, and kept them larger in size because I didn't want to tear the paper.  For some size variation, I then used my punch for the smaller flakes.  I added some colored & embossed acrylic snowflakes for a change of shape and color.

The vellum snowflake cluster at the bottom

Stitching, vellum and acrylic snowflakes

I used the negative space from one of the die cut snowflakes and layered it over the letter 'O' to give it some dimension

This LO will also be my entry for this weeks Issue Challenge over at Club CK, inspired by a card.   My Dad is a photographer/art designer.  He takes the mist beautiful scenic photographs and chooses a favorite to be his Holiday Card each year.  This is one of my favorites from a few years ago, taken in the Lake Tahoe area. I always cut the card part off and keep the photo.  This the the card that inspired my LO.

If you would like to see more of my Dad's photography, here is a link to his website.outdoorscenics.com

Been Busy Creating

I had some good scrappy time over the weekend.  It was nice to sit in my room, football on in the background and just get busy.  I had spent Friday evening perusing a bunch of challenge blogs for inspiration.  I even found a few I knew I could participate in, so I was ready to roll Saturday morning.  Two in particular are ScrapFIT and Scrapbookers Anonymous.
I've been working on pictures of spring 2006.  Some are events, some are moments, but man, just looking at them brings back all the memories.

This first one is for two challenges.  ScrapFIT Weekend Warmup #22, use STARS.  Stars are a fairly easy one for me.  Having two boys, stars go nicely on many LOs.  All of the PP and embellishments are by Fancy Pants.  The stars at the top and bottom of the page are rub ons.  The bottom one I outlined in black pent to make it stand out more. The orange triangle border at the top of the PP is a Fiskars border punch.

I also used this LO for Club CK Issue Challenge #3, use stickers in your journaling.

This next one is using a mask with ink and a stamp, which is something I've never done before, as suggested by Scrapbookers Anonymous and Scrap Our Stash.   The Journal spots are a stamp I use often, but they actually have lines in the middle. I used a mask so the middle would be blank and I could write the way I wanted to.  They aren't perfect, but pretty good for my first try and good enough to use. It's a small part of the LO, but it made a difference to me.

Seeing as tomorrow is a snow day for my husband and children, I may have some time to sneak back into my room again.  I already have some photos and PP's laid out on my desk!

Little by Little...

Little by little, I am getting back into the swing of things.  It was rough coming out of winter break and back in to the regular weekly routine.   So, I am glad we have lazy Saturdays at our house.   The boys and DH chill and do their own things.  It gives me a chance to regroup and recharge.

I was in and out of my scrap room all week with nothing to show for it.  Finally yesterday, some ideas started to form as I was getting ready to walk out the door. (of course!) I quickly made some notes on a scratch paper and hoped I would remember the rest.

I headed to my scrap room today and have been working on 2 of the 3 LO ideas so far.  The light is terrible today.  It's just plain grey outside and difficult to photograph the LOs.

Here is one using Sketchy Thursdays 1/5 Challenge.  I wasn't sure I was going to scrap this photo.  I wish  I had gotten the shot of my son looking at the book with my friend.  This sketch was perfect for the photo, so I went ahead anyway.  Lots of room for interpretation to make it fancy or keep it simple.  I kept it simple, but I did use a mask around the edge of the CS for the mist.

Some new creations

I finished off 2011 with 255 scrapbook pages created.  I don't think I had made that many over the past 3 years!  I'm calling 2011 a transition year for me.  I had some extra time on my hands.  I highly doubt that I will repeat that performance in 2012. These are some of the last few LO's I created.

This one is kind of crazy, but fun.  The clown paper was in the Sassafrass mystery box.  Didn't think I'd use that one, but it really went with the goofy grin in the photos.

This one I really like, but can't take any credit for the paper choice or design.  It is from Creative Color Techniques class I took at CKC Seattle in November.  I am challenging myself to finish the pages that I started in all the classes I took.

This is the first layout of 2012.  Sadly, I can't take any credit for this one either. It is also from a CKC class, Latest and Greatest with Basic Grey, sponsored by Embellish It.  As much as the flowers aren't my style, I do have to say we learned a very creative way to extend the use of double sided PP.  We cut the middle out of the background floral paper, covered the empty space with the yellow paper, then trimmed the piece we cut out of the middle, flipped it one to use the reverse side and stuck it on top of the yellow. I will remember that the next time I want to use both sides of PP.

I'm feeling good about my crafty start to 2012. A 2 page layout, and I've already backed up all my photos.  Hmmmm, what's next?

A New Year, a New Post

Wow, I didn't realize I had ignored my blog for so long.  The fall leading into the end of the year gets a little crazy for me.  It becomes calendar time and my own scrappy projects get pushed to the side until they are finished. This year I made 8.

This is the 6th year I've been making them and the first year I did not use a kit. I used my own designs.  I started by choosing my photos. I chose 1 or 2 per month and ordered prints.  Then I chose the designs. Some were from sketches, some were my own. Next I chose the card stock and papers.  When all that is done, I lay it all on the table and trim/cut the papers for each calendar, then assemble them.  The last thing I do is choose and adhere all the embellishments.  I keep them pretty simple. After all is said and done, it winds up being 96 pages....It's a lot of work, but so worth it.  Everyone in my family looks forward to their calendar each year.

Here is the calendar I made for my husband.  He takes it to work and hangs it on the wall of his office.

 I have many scrappy and non-scrappy projects in my future, which means there will be more new things to add.