Scrapbook Update

The heat index is at 105 degrees today so I am pleased to be at work! I mis-spoke a couple posts back that I was up to 30 layouts toward my goal. It was actually 35 layouts toward my goal and I completed 3 more this weekend bringing me to 38! Whoohoo. I am really pleased with the way they turned out and I have Becky Higgins partly to thank. Her sketches really do a lot to help me scrap faster. Once I find a sketch that works with my photos I can focus on the color and embellishments and not worry about placement. That is a huge help to me.
This first layout documents my trip to New Orleans in 2005. I used some of the new paper from the July kit and the 2 paperclips and ribbon from the June kit. The June kit also included some little white letter sticker which I used on all 3 layouts (I really like them) and here they label all the photos. There is A LOT of journaling on this page. Probably too much. I thought about using hidden journaling but I hate to have to take a page out of the page protector to read what happened and I didn't want to do 2 layouts (I am lazy I guess).

Here is another Thanksgiving layout featuring basic grey paper, some more of the June kit letter stickers and 2 paper flowers from the June kit as well. I only had one sheet of the basic grey paper so I had to cut and piece the paper together on the left. I have to say it turned out great. You can't actually tell it is 4 pieces of paper unless you look really close. I was able to copy the pattern really well. A simple layout but I love it.

Last but certainly not least is this layout of Katie's trip out to NYC for a visit. Forgive the ugly yellow color. It is a much softer hue in real life. I tried something new for me and painted the edges of the paper to give it a distressed look. That is really "in" right now and my mom gave me some paints for my birthday so I thought it would be good to try. Now, to plug Making Memories Paints....they are fantastic. They don't warp the paper because they aren't as "wet" as regular acrylic paints and they dry super fast. I probably only had to wait 5-10 minutes for the paper to be fully dry so I could keep working. This layout features paper and flowers from the June kit, some snaps to hold the flowers in place, some old metal words (girlfriends, buds) and a metal frame that I have had forever in my stash, and a few more of those little white letter stickers. I think this layout ended up being my favorite of the weekend. This BH sketch came from one of the magazine pages I keep in my idea drawer.

Next on my plate are some Christmas photos. Unfortunately the June and July kits don't have anything very Christmasy so I will have to look through my own stuff.