Monday

I didn't get any scrapbooking done this weekend. I finally got the my printer ink changed on Sunday night because I had to print out a new chart for my fridge (where I record my daily exercise). It kills me a little because I got such a great kit in the mail this month:The paper in this kit is so divine that I love BOTH sides of the double sided paper. I can't decide how best to use it! There are little felt flowers and big newspaper flowers and interesting journaling cards (in the black spiral bound notebook). I love it is all but I am still working in pink wedding pages. I suppose I could put them aside and work on this but I have so much wedding related stuff out that it would be a lot of work to set it all aside and change gears now. I must plow ahead. I am going to try and do a little work this week. Back to my old method, just a few minutes a day.

Scrapbook Update - August Kit

I received my August kit last week in the mail. It was a little late because I had to pick it up at the post office. I was a little disappointed that the color were orange and pink. What am I going to do with this? Then I got a brainstorm. I am using this kit to make a mini-album of my trip to BSF headquarters. I know you are sick of hearing about BSF but I have a workshop next week and I thought taking a mini-book would be a great way to show people the trip and even drum up some more volunteers for next year.

I don't have any photos of the book because I am doing it a little bit backwards. I am using a new-ish photo service called www.scrapbookphotos.com which is a lot like other online photo developers except that they have tons of photo sizes to choose from, artsy borders, even color spot treatments. This mini book is 6 x 6 so all my photos are 2x2 or 2x3 in size. And they are coming to me pre-cropped. I am really excited about this but it took a ton more work than I usually do. I had to sketch out each page in advance to figure out how the photos would all fit and to pick the sizes. I was hoping the photos would arrive before this blog entry but I am still waiting.

I am going camping this weekend with some girlfriends so I probably won't get to scrap again until next week. I will be taking some vacation days and hope to spend one whole day scrapbooking. I may even meet my goal next week since I will only need 7 more layouts to make it to my goal total! How cool is that!

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.

Scrapbook Update

Here is the July kit. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I barely dove into the June kit but actually these papers are kind of similar. The kit includes all you see above. 7 sheets of patterned paper. 3 sheets of cardstock (1 is the new pinked edge Bazzill. I had the scalloped in another kit and loved it). I also received 2 chipboard arrows, 2 tags, some ribbon, 6 shell buttons, metal letters that say "UR HERE", a silver frame, a silver starfish charm, a bunch of shell sequins (not a ton which is nice), journaling spots, and a clear acrylic alphabet. I was worried when I saw this kit online that it was going to be a little too far "out there" for me but I think I can make it work. I am thinking of using the UR HERE letters for my title page on the next album. Maybe.

I am planning to spend some time scrapbooking on Saturday so we'll see what happens. I believe at last count I am at 30 layouts and we are about 27 weeks into the year so I am still a little bit ahead (plus a trip album which isn't counted in the goal).

June Kit?

The July kit will be shipped in a few days but I havn't had a chance to use my June kit yet.
I wasn't as excited about these papers although I am already using the diamond paper on a layout. This kit also included more tags and stuff and fewer small embellishments. The stamp shown is a date/name double stamp which is kind of cute. There is also a big sheet of stickers which I am not sure I am into. We'll see what comes of this kit. I am determined to get at least one layout out of it before the July kit arrives. My mom will be tomorrow so I am going to try and get a layout done tonight. I am about half way there.

****I wrote this post out yesterday and I didn't finish the layout but I did work on it a little more. My mom is in the air now!