Show and Tell Sunday- Quick Grid layouts

I think anyone who scrapbooks laments that there is never enough time to get every photo scrapped and in an album. Couple that with how hectic the holidays can become as we rush to bake treats and pull off holiday magic. It can make you get cranky. So this month, I carved out a little time for me and made some quick pages. They are not the heavily embellished, "tons of thought poured into them" type of pages I often do. Yet, they both give me the satisfaction of a page done and they have visual appeal. I always enjoy seeing my pages finished and then getting to show them off to my husband.

This page is actually the right side of the two page layout. I used the Crate Paper North Pole Collection. It was nice to have all the paper and Embellishments right there ready to go. The grid pattern while simplistic, is appealing to the eye. The small chipboard circle says " Oh Christmas tree on it." I thought it was perfect for the photo of the trimmed tree. Note the direction of striped paper going in a on this page. It's placed so the stripes go downward. On left hand page, the stripes flow horizontally.

That coupled with all of the photos of my son facing toward the left draw the eye down and across the page. When completing quick pages, try to keep it simple and don't let yourself get caught up in the paper and embellishment selection. Just go with what you have. Over time, you'll get more relaxed about your selections and will find you have a lot more layouts done.

Have something to share? You can post it at Scrap Our Stash's show and tell Sunday!






















The Best Gift of All

Holidays and birthdays are often about the giving and receiving of gifts. For me, the best gift of all( and the true meaning of each celebration) is the warm, happy feeling I get from giving the gift. My son's birthday is no exception to that.

This is actually the title page for the layout I did recently in the Pagerize challenge. I used the rest of the My Mind's eye complete boy patterned paper sheet here as well as more of the Making Memories Just Chillin' Boys die cuts and trims. I used My Tim Holtz embossing folder, but instead of the whole sheet, I cut a star and a crown from it. They make nice accents at the top. I hand stitched around the star to make it pop out a bit more. I cut the K and Co. border into strips, using 3-d adhesive on sections of it for more dimension. You may be wondering about the little frame on the photo. Well, I just had to highlight my husband sitting there smiling.

You see, he also enjoys giving gifts to our son. You'll have to pardon the photo. One of my New year's resolutions is to learn to be a better photographer and to improve my photo editing. When I originally shot these photos, I was focusing on my son and not what was going on in the background. When I later saw my husband sitting there smiling, I knew this was one of those instances in which the background was really important to the story. I edited the photo as best I could, but as you can see, the lighting still hides my husband a bit. I chose the frame to draw more attention to him.



I hope you'll share your birthday celebration layouts with us at Scrap Our Stash. I know I can certainly use some heartwarming cheer during these cold days of December!

Reverb 10...updating

Well, as usual, life has been full. I can not complain because a lot of good things have been happening. The only bad thing has been to not be able to blog for the reverb10 project. So, rather than daily posts, here is a sort of recap of  the daily prompts I have found the most insightful :

Dec. 3rd: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail.
    Hmmm... there are so many. All of them involve my Husband and/or my son. I guess what most stands out are the little moments. Like when I get a hug from Dh or DS. That is the most perfect of moments...the time when everything feels like it will always be ok. Time stops and all that exists is a simple moment of well being.

Dec. 4th: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
   That's easy! I add a sense of wonder to my son's life. It's in the stories I weave for him. The magical moments of Santa or the Easter Bunny. It's a sad thing that wonder is rarely experienced by an adult. Kids need every minute of it they can get!

Dec. 6th:Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?
   I made a Scrapbook page!Papers, ribbon, adhesive, embellishments and thread...my mediums. Always at the ready, always waiting for a project for there are always pictures to be archived.

Dec. 7th.: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

Community was easy to find at Club Ck, Sketches 4 All and Scrap Our Stash. It's amazing how open people can be. I'd like to meet some of these people in real life someday.

So...some days, I guess the prompts just are not for me. Perhaps I do not wish to answer them or maybe I am just not ready yet.I guess that in itself is telling. It will be interesting to see how this develops by this time next year.

A Birthday Theme

Since this month's theme at Scrap our Stash is all about birthdays, I decided that now would be a great opportunity to finish off my son's tenth birthday photos. I also used my new birthday present, a sizzix texture boutique, to make an embellishment for the page. While gifts are a great thing about birthday's, the best gift for me, as a parent, is giving them to my son. His joy sparks mine and inspired the journaling for this page.

In my take of the pagerize challenge, I chose to use wallet size photos and to place them into groups. I used the placement of the original page's pictures, omitting one, as my inspiration for placement. Rather than regular birthday theme papers, I chose paper from My Mind's Eye's complete boy collection and embellisments and trim from Making memories Just' Chillin' Boy collection. The bingo card was made on coredinations cardstock with a Tim Holtz folder.Small star brads finally found a way out of my stash and onto the paper to add to the star motif. I hand stitched around a star on the lower right corner to add some color and texture. I actually fussy cut that star from the above patterned paper strip. The bingo card hides the hole perfectly. Another stash saver I utilized here was the method in which I matted the photos. It also saved me time. I simply chose to leave a small border of white photo paper around each photo when I cropped it from the main sheet.

If you want the recipe for a fast, fun page than pagerizing is a great way to go. The inspiration is right there for you to take and make your own. We'd love to see your version of the challenge...so don't forget to send it in!

The winner of the Birthday Blog Hop is...

Betty Ann! Congrats! I'll be in touch with you to get your gift certificate to you. I look forwward to seeing everyone's work at Sketches 4 All. Thank you everyone for hopping along with us!

Day 2 Reverb 10

First off...if you are looking for the Sketches 4 All blog hop, you can find it here.

Today's prompt is all about writing. Something I do a lot of and yet not not enough of all at the same time. How can that be? It's easy! How much do we write of something and that writing is virtually without depth? I think about this a lot when I am doing my journaling for a scrapbook page. I have taken a class and read many articles about improving what I write, adding more feeling and depth to it. I should take that and use it but often I don't. The biggest thing getting in the way of me writing is myself! I just don't take the time I should. It's easier, faster to just jot down the basic details. The sad thing is, that if I do take the time to really put myself into it, the page as a whole becomes so much more than just photos in an album. So, by this time next year, I would like to say that I made the time to add the depth to what I write...to make my albums more than just photos in a book with random details.

Reverb 10

First...if you are looking for the Sketches 4 All birthday blog hop simply go here. The hop goes on until Dec. 6th and I hope you will join in the fun!

So...now you may be asking what Reverb 10 is. It's a daily prompt designed to help you reflect on the past year as you move forward to the next. A way to get to know yourself a little more and to share the experience with others. As a scrapbooker and family archiver, I think it will be a great way for me to gain a different perspective about the everyday. Sometimes, journaling or telling the story needs a little more meat to the text...and just maybe, I'll find that here.

As far as today's prompt from Reverb 10: How would I encapsulate 2010 within one word? The first word that comes to mind is "trying". This was not the easiest of years for our family. We have seen a lot of illness and changes that are not so easy to fathom. While we are closer as a family, I definately could have done without some of the stress. One year from today I would hope the word I use will be "comfortable".