Been Caught Napping

Do you ever get some paper or supplies and think " What in the world will I ever use this for?" I'm sure you have. Sometimes it comes in a kit. In this case, mine came in a mystery box from My Little Shoebox. I got several sheets of pastel laundry themed paper. I rarely scrap in pastels. I also had no wish to scrap about my laundry. Or at least I thought I didn't. Then I found Ju Ju Bee napping in the laundry basket. She might not have been too thrilled about waking up to have her photo taken. I was quite happy though. I now had a cute photo and the perfect paper to go with it.

Carstock: Colorbok; Patterned paper and die cut: My Little Shoebox
alphas: American Crafts; chipboard: KI Memories; Stickers: Colorbok
jewel: Imaginesce; brad: Basic grey; mist: October Afternoon
Other: canvas, wire hanger; Sketch: Lain Ehmann for LOAD512

To add to the laundry theme, I hand drew and cut a shirt out of canvas. I dyed it to match the papers with some October Afternoon mist. I decorated the shirt with some faux stitching and a flower sticker. The page came together quickly with the use of a sketch. Since the paper was double sided, there was no guess work in choosing what I needed. There is only one big draw back to this page. I hate giving away papers or throwing out older stash. I keep trying to convince myself to do so. However, this page seems to support the  argument to save everything.

LOAD 512 Progress report

  At this point, we are nearing the halfway mark for LOAD. My husband paid me a compliment about it today. He told me that he was amazed that I had managed to keep up with the housework, homeschool my son, work on submissions for SNR magazine and make a page a day. Honestly, I am still not sure how I am doing this. I guess the creative juices are flowing and I am taking advantage while I can. I will say this...when you are doing LOAD some things do get sacrificed. LOAD pages are not always the ones with the deepest of stories. They are not always the pages with the most intricate details. Nor are they always the ones with the best photographs to upload to the gallery. Often times, they look a tad blurry. That's all ok though. At the end of the day, you are supporting a good creative habit and the rewards will benefit you so much more down the line. LOAD pages done now translate to more pages done on a daily basis each month. Once the creativity starts flowing, it's good to let it keep on growing.

 On a side note: I'm noticing quite a trend in my pages lately. My cats seems to be making an appearance on almost each and every page I have been making in the past week or so. Can you tell our pets are a huge part of our lives?!?! I took a ton of photos of both Boo and Ju Ju Bee over the past few months. Having a new kitten in the house certainly calls for many photo ops.

cardstock: Colorbok; patterned papers: Echo park and My Little Shoebox
Alphas: My Little Showbox; ribbon: Making Memories
flower: Jillibean Soup; brad: Karen Foster
title sticker: Momenta; Die cut: Echo park

  I'm off to create some more. I know I made my page for today, but I want to keep on going. I hope you do to. Oh...and if you want to see another pet themed page, head on over to the SNR blog. This week's color palette features a page with my itty bitty kitty.

What's Your Trend?

 I recently realized that I have certain techniques that have become trends. I am not necessarily talking about industry trends. I am talking about the trends you may see in the way that you work. I have tried a lot of new things over the past year. Some of those things have become staples in the making of my scrapbook pages. Misting and paint are one of those. I hardly make a page on which one or both are not present. So much so, that many of my friends now identify a page as truly me when they see the mist and paint. Last year, I really felt the need to hand stitch on quite a lot of the pages I produced. I now find that I am not hand stitching quite so much these days. My latest love is to use pen to outline the letters on my titles. I saw it done during a Masterful Scrapbook Design Seminar. Now I hardly feel a page is complete without it.

Let's Scrap sketch 1-4-12 ribbon-jillibean soup, glimmer mist-fairway,sapphire and tiger lily,SEI ink blue ink, Fancy pants to the moon papers,Amer. Crafts thickers-orange alphas,My little Shoebox tiny type alphas, Sassafrass green alphas, K and co. star chipboard sticker. superhero bands- from our egg dying kit, tags made with toilet paper which was embossed, inked and cut to fit the tag.

Who knows which techniques will become a regular part of your design style or which ones may become your scrapbook trends. The important thing is to observe your process. As you do so, you will learn more about who you are and the things that work for you. This will be a big help in developing your confidence and in making your scrapbook budget go farther. You will know which supplies to buy, because you will know the supplies you use most. So now, take a look at your work and ask yourself what your scrapbook trends are.