Project Life: August and September 2015

It's been so long since I have written and published here on the blog. Too long. Some of you may know, but for those who have wondered what I have been up to, I have been in the middle of packing for a huge international move. My husband has taken a job in the UAE( United Arab Emirates). We're beyond excited to move to a wonderful country filled with a rich cultural heritage. I can not wait to explore the city of Abu Dhabi and experience the beauty and art found there.

I will be sharing my experiences on the MSE blog and website. I know that I am sure to be inspired by all the wonderful things that Abu Dhabi has to offer. I have another week or so left here in the islands. While I wait, I have started a Pinterest board about Abu Dhabi which features some of the architecture and things to do. In the short time I have looked around the web, I can already tell that my weekends will be full of fabulous family adventures.

Though I haven't had much spare time to blog, I have managed to make time for memory keeping. While I didn't meet my summer goal to finish some of my Project Life pages for previous months, I have continued to complete one page for each month of 2015( a much better track record than the previous year).

August Birthday Celebration by Christy Strickler |Supplies: Digital Kit: Pocket Life August '15 Collection from Traci Reed Designs



















The most exciting event of August was my son's birthday. We didn't have a big party but celebrated in small ways throughout the day. A pocket page was the perfect answer to show the day's highlights. I streamlined my process in order to create this layout. If you are short on time and want to do the same, I have a few resources for you.

First, check out the article that I wrote for the Traci Reed Designs blog. It includes 3 tips which will help you become a little more efficient as you design your page.









Second, you can watch me create the birthday pocket page layout in this video:

I didn't make a video for my September Project Life page but I still wanted to share it with you. It features just a few of the photos I am taking to document our moving experience.

September Pocket Life Intro Page by Christy Strickler |Supplies: Digital Kit: Pocket Life September '15 Collection from Traci Reed Designs


















I don't have any concrete plans for the upcoming weeks ahead. My family is in a holding pattern until we receive the final go ahead to book our flights. My goal is to do my best to keep sharing projects and articles here on MSE but if for some reason things quiet down a bit on the blog, you will know why.

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

Pocket Life '15 August Collection from Traci Reed Designs

Pocket Life '15 September Collection from Traci Reed Designs

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Project Life Inspiration on Pinterest.

The Get It Scrapped Membership has a complete module on pocket page design.
Click here to visit Get It Scrapped.

Related articles

• Heritage Project February Round Up
• DSG Podcast | Episode 41: Organizing and external hard drive failure
• Catching up with the Digiscrap Geek Podcast
• 3 Color Scheme Approaches for Scrapbooking Heritage Photos

Throwback Thursday: Inspired by Get It Scrapped and Corrie Jones

What do you do when you are stuck and you lack motivation to scrapbook? I like to turn to sketches. I don't have to think about the design. I can just choose a photo and begin working. Sometimes, the process jumpstarts my creativity and I get my motivation back. A little over a year ago, around iNSD, I was stuck and lacked the motivation to create a layout. I chose to use one of the sketches from the Get It Scrapped Sketch and Template Library. Sketch #102 to be exact.

Catch by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: Studio Calico, Crate Paper; Confetti, Stamp: Studio Calico; Letters: American Crafts; Ink: Ranger; Doily: Freckled Fawn; Frame; Crate Paper; Other: Glossy Accents, Tickets, Tags;based on a Sketch from Get It Scrapped

Thank you for supporting MSE. The following includes affiliate links when possible.

See sketch #102 with additional inspiration from the Get It Scrapped Creative Team

For additional sketches and full access to all the Get It Scrapped materials, join the Get It Scrapped Membership. Click here to view more details

Related articles

• Ideas for Going from Planner to Scrapbook Page
• Get It Scrapped: Storytelling with Scallops
• How to Seize Inspiration from Scrapbook Challenges: Just Make Something
• Scrapbook Page Sketch and Layered Template #97

Live Online Crop Today at Get It Scrapped

Each Month, we have been holding a live crop in the Get It Scrapped forums. Today is the day! As a member of the Get It Scrapped Design Team, I love being involved with the community, talking with friends I know and meeting new people. This is the perfect opportunity to get to know members of the Get It Scrapped Design team on a personal level as well as getting to know other community members.

 If you would like to join us, pop over to the Get It Scrapped forum for details. The crop is free but you will need to register with the Get It Scrapped community to join in.

What the crop is:

-Think about it like going to a crop at a scrapbook store. You are pulling your chair up to a table to chat with other scrapbookers. Only it is a virtual table.

-We are talking about life, scrapbooking supplies, places to shop and just about anything else.

-Some people share their screens or video cameras.( this is optional) It gives you the chance to watch someone working live and ask questions about their process.

What the crop is not:

-We are not doing challenges or contests.

-There is no formal structure to the crop.We are literally just there to have fun.

If you come and join us, you can chat via the chat box. However, you can also talk via a headset if you would like to. Please don't just pop in. Be sure to say hello. We would love to talk with you!

Related articles

• Welcome to the Long Days of Summer! June is Here...
• tomorrowland

A look back at past iNSD Celebrations

Scrapbooking with my friends at Get It Scrapped on iNSD has become a little bit of a tradition for me. I don't have regular crop events here in the Bahamas so it's nice to be able to meet up with others and just create. Get It Scrapped live crops aren't like the ones held in message boards. It's an actual live meeting similar to google hangouts but instead it occurs in the Get It Scrapped classroom. Instead of reserving a table in a convention hall, we sit down in our home creative spaces and plug in our headsets. We snack. We talk. We talk a lot.Sometimes, people shop. We share about life in general. Kids and pets are often playing in the background. No one minds.Some of us share our webcams. I usually have mine focused on my workspace so people can watch me crop. A few digital scrapbookers share their screens and you can watch them work live. The best part of it all is that I don't have to pack up my supplies and take them somewhere else.

My goal today is to make four layouts. We'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, I thought I would share look at a few past pages from iNSD.

In 2013, I had the honor of being a guest for Shimelle.com.  I enjoyed making this layout about my son on a homeschool field trip to a local pond.

In 2014, I managed to make six layouts during the iNSD crop. This one was my favorite of the six pages I made. I wasn't feeling very motivated last year which I find kind of ironic since I finished so many layouts. Perhaps I should rethink my goal and try to beat six pages. I am definitely feeling more creative this year. So how did I make so many layouts? I used a lot of sketches. I think that's going to be the key to my productivity again this year.










If you would like to join us at the live crop head on over to the Get It Scrapped forums. You must be a community member to join the crop, but both the community and crop are free. Trust me when I say that it's a whole lot of fun! I hope to see you there!

Additional Resources
6 steps to a stress free National Scrapbooking Day - from fellow Get It Scrapped Design Team Member Margereta  Carlsson

Scrapbook Challenges has a full archive of sketches and challenge prompts to choose from.

Sketches from the MyScrapbookEvolution.com Archive

Color Palettes from the MyScrapbookEvolution.com Archive

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Sketches on Pinterest.

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Prompted on Pinterest.

Related articles

• 5 Pinterest Boards for Scrapbookers to Follow - Picks by Christy Strickler
• From Pinterest to Scrapbook Page | Circle Inspired
• Top 5 Must Haves for Hybrid Project Life
• Crafting with Teens, Calvinball and a Power Outage

Tales of a Craft Class Junkie: Style is Leverage and the Reflective Story Style with Get It Scrapped

Even though I have been scrapbooking for over a decade, categorizing my personal scrapbook style isn't easy for me. I  have found my groove and my process flows with ease( most of the time). I can work with just about any product I am handed, molding them and adapting them to my style with ease. However if you  ask me to name my style? Nope. Not Sure. I know who I am as a memory keeper but the name for that identity sits on the tip of my tongue, sort of unspoken like that whatsamacallit you know but just can't seem to say when people ask you. It's really not a problem for me,unless I am applying for a design team and they want me to define who I am.

Rather than categorize my style, I tend to sit back and observe. What do I do? How do I do it? Why do I do that? Do I need to make any changes? If so, what and why? This isn't about making a comparison of myself to others. This is about leveraging my style. Even if I don't name it, it's still mine and I want to use it effectively. I want to understand the way I use specific supplies. Understanding what I do and how I use products helps me work efficiently but it also points me towards opportunities to expand the way I work.

While I do always journal on a page, I tend to fall into a basic pattern. I have a tendency of capturing the event in it's most rudimentary and factual form. I don't know why this is, other than to speculate that, once the page is finished, I am just so ready to move on to a new design. Now there is nothing wrong with event scrapping and being factual. It's just that I want to do more with the way I tell my stories. I have gotten the chance to examine my story style with a layout I created recently for Get It Scrapped  as well as during the Style is Leverage Event.

All is Well by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper Pebbles, Basic Grey,We R Memory Keepers; Crate Paper; Letters: American Crafts; Punch: EK Success; Labels: Evalicious; Enamel Dots: My Mind’s Eye; Die Cuts: Basic Grey: Journal Card: Basic Grey: Other: ribbons; Appears in an article for Get It Scrapped; Based on a sketch from the Simple Scrapper Premium membership

I know I can get a bit lazy when is comes to journaling. Having a prompt helps me out quite a bit.When I created this layout, I started with the idea that I wanted to tell a reflective story and then found the photos to work with that story style. Let's look at this page, for example. These are photos of my husband and myself in the NICU with our son.Though it may not be obvious from these pictures,he was born premature. We were close to going home, but still had a long unknown path ahead of us.I would probably have written a brief explanation of the photos. Perhaps I might have mentioned how worried we were at the time. What did I do instead? I chose to write from my present perspective, telling my former self that I wish I would have known then that everything would be ok. My son grew up just fine with few health issues. It's something that I also wish to tell other parents of premature babies.

This is my second year participating in Style is Leverage. I came back to it, once again, to reevaluate where I am now. I like who I am as a memory keeper, but understanding more about how I tell my stories will give me what I need to move forward in the telling of richer tales. Story telling is definitely an area I want to work on. I personally feel that, no matter what lever or style of memory keeper we are, we can always benefit from taking stock in ourselves. Now for me, it's just a matter of making story telling experiments a habit and not falling too far back into old routines.

Have you ever taken a look at your personal story style? How do you feel about it? Does it convey enough of what you want to tell in your journaling?

Supply Options
This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

Some supplies are from the January 2015 Cocoa Daisy Kits. I am not an affiliate but I am a subscriber.

View blog post for supplies

Additional Resources

an article from the Get It Scrapped Blog

The Story Styles Lookbook which is part of the Get It Scrapped Membership
Click here to visit Get It Scrapped.

Related articles

• get it scrapped!: your style. your leverage.
• Scrapbook Challenges: In the Sink?

Game On! An Update on Calvinball

There are still a few days left to play Calvinball at Get It Scrapped. I might not be at the top of the points board, but I am very happy with my progress. Twenty pages made so far with 138.5 total points( this includes the bonus points). I might even have a page or two ready to post for more points over the next few days.

Take Time to Create Happiness by Christy Strickler |Supllies Patterned Paper:  Heidi Swapp, Gossamer Blue; Letters: Making Memories; Chipboard: Echo park; Flowers: Jillibean Soup, Freckled Fawn; Tape: Freckled Fawn, Little B; Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye; Jewel: Studio Calico; Other: Doily  











I finished all of the layouts and project for my design teams earlier this week. This left me time to play around with a few challenges just for the fun of it. I had quite a long list of layouts that I wanted to make for those challenges, but given the time needed to home school my son, I had to narrow down my choices.I decided to focus my energy on some pages for the Paper Issues Crop. I submitted the above page for a chance to win a spot on their design team. I have another page in the works which  should be done by tomorrow. It's been nice to sit back, relax and just scrap for fun.

What are you working on this weekend? Don't forget, you can still submit pages and projects to the Get it Scrapped Calvinbal challenge until the end of the month!

Supply Options

View blog post for supplies

Related articles

• Scrapbook Challenges- Break out your Maps! (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• Ideas for Scrapbook Page Storytelling with Badges (debbiehodge.com)
• Get It Scrapped: The Gilded Look (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)

Get It Scrapped: Luck Is...

March is a month in which the topic of luck often pops up. Get It Scrapped invited members of the creative team to document a story of luck. A perfect topic to share on St. Patrick's day. I chose to define what luck means to me.

Luck Is by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Colorbok;Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants; Letters: Girl's Paperie, Evalicious; Flair, Jewels: Studio Calico; Tape: American Crafts; Tag: Traci Reed Designs, K and Company; Other: Doily, Staples; Based on a sketch from the Get It Scrapped Membership











I decided to use an older photo of myself. I could have turned to the tried and true green and luck themed collections. Instead, I felt that, since this was a page about me, I might as well take advantage of a paper collection designed to document yourself. The Fancy Pants Me-ology line has hints of green, but most importantly, many of the papers are bold and contain uplifting messages.

Luck is certainly different for everyone, but I have always believed that if I did good things and worked hard opportunity would find me. Sometimes, being lucky simply means being brave enough to try something. Opportunity isn't always an easy thing to take advantage of and it doesn't always come packaged as we would expect it.

How would you document luck? We would love for you to share with us in the Get It Scrapped gallery.

Supply Options

View blog post for supplies

Additional Resources

an article from the Get It Scrapped Blog

The Get It Scrapped Membership

Click here to view more details

Related articles

• Get It Scrapped: Storytelling with Scallops (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• Get It Scrapped: Picnics and Outdoor Meals (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• Scrapbook Page Sketch and Layered Template #97 (debbiehodge.com)
• 29 Goals: The Album (rukristin.com)

Get It Scrapped: Documenting a Nature Story

I take nature photos all of the time. I love capturing images on birds and flowers. Most of the time I don't know what I should do with them. The photos often end up as part of my project life spreads. Though I am perfectly ok with that, I was invited to do more with the photos than just share them. I was asked if I could associate a personal story with a set of nature photos.

Now I Just Photograph Little Birds by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye, Bella Blvd.; Letters: American Crafts, Studio Calico; Die Cuts: K and Company, Girl's Paperie; Metal, Resin: Prima; Paint: Studio Calico;Photo Template: Traci Reed Designs; Other: Doily, Ribbon; Based on a sketch from the Get It Scrapped membership

These are some of my most recent bird photos. I sometimes feed the sparrows and bananquits we encounter around the island. That was the immediate story that came to mind. However, as I thought about the story a little more, I realized I had an opportunity to document some bird stories without photos. There was a time, before I used the camera much at all, in which I worked at a wildlife refuge. Caring for birds was something I did regularly. I knew at that time that I would like to be a biologist but I considered specializing in ornithology.I worked with birds of prey as well as hand raising hundred of orhaned baby animals( many of the song birds) This is something about me that my son probably knows very little about. I also recalled a time in which I fed the sparrows seeds from my hand. I was working at Sea World and one of the older gentleman had been hand feeding the birds for quite some time. It was a joy to help him feed them. Both are stories I had never documented and here was my chance.

I chose to create a grid of my favorite recent bird photos. One bird sits proudly facing toward the camera, while the rest of the birds are arranged to look towards him ( with one other exception). The paper choice may seem odd. Most people would choose a variety of nature themed or bird papers. I chose the hearts because of the great joy I derive from these small creatures. The pink chevrons reminded me of little bird prints in the dirt. There are a few trees and birds in the green toned patterns. Just enough, along with the resin bird and branch to bring thoughts of nature to my layout.

Additional Resources

An article from the Get It Scrapped Blog

The Get It Scrapped Membership 

Click here to view more details

Related articles

• Scrapbooking Ideas for Visual Storytelling with the Compositional Story Style (debbiehodge.com)
• Get It Scrapped: Using the Compositional Story Style (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• Scrapbooking Ideas Inspired by Doris Sander's Layouts (debbiehodge.com)
• Ideas for Scrapbooking with Free Public Domain Images (debbiehodge.com)

Game On! with Scrapbook Challenges and Calvinball

It's the first Monday of the month which means a brand new sketch from Scrapbook Challenges. It also means I am on day two of Calvinball. Now, most times, I try to get DT work done fairly well ahead of time. This time,  I might just have saved a few assignments to complete a bit closer to the deadline. Why you ask? Well, obviously for the points. More importantly, they give me quick inspiration for my pages. If you need a little quick inspiration for some Calvinball pages, look no further than Scrapbook Challenges.

The wonderful thing about Scrapbook Challenges is that there will be challenges posted throughout the month. You can create a layout, get a point for Calvinball and submit your layouts to the Scrapbook Challenges blog for their monthly prize drawing. It's a win-win scenario! Now that we have a game plan, let's start sharing the inspiration!

I Adore These 2 by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers; Wood Veneer, Vellum: Cocoa Daisy; Letters: American Crafts, Evalicious; Die Cut: We R Memory Keepers;Ink: Versamark; Other: Ribbon, Doily; Based on Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #430











I had been looking for a way to use this water color paper in a layout. Using a pattern like this can be tricky if you don't want to cover certain parts of the design. SBC sketch #430 allowed me to place most of my pictures and page elements to one side which left the parts of the patterned paper I liked best visible. I used just two photos instead of the recommended four photos in the sketch. This made my page feel a bit unbalanced. To put the weight of the page back in my favor, I moved the journaling to the right side of the ribbon. I also scattered vellum hearts( barely visible) along with silver sequins in a zig zag throughout the left side.These help form a sort of column that balances out the page.

Now it's time for me to make sure my layout is posted to the SBC challenge link up and in the Get It Scrapped Calvinball gallery.   You have throughout the month of March to play along with the Calvinball and the SBC challenges. Don't forget to share your layouts!

Supply Options
All supplies originally from the February Cocoa Daisy kits.

View blog post for supplies

Related articles

• Totally Rad Gamers (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• Scrapbook Challenges: SnapShots (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• A Love Affair with Wood Veneer (jennibowlinstudioinspiration.blogspot.com)
• Scrapbook Page Sketch and Template #99 (debbiehodge.com)
• Cocoa Daisy March Reveal: Hello Again! (Calvinball!) (dorissander.blogspot.com)
• Scrapbook Challenges: Talk to Me (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)

The DigiScrap Geek Podcast- Episode 21 and Calvinball Prepping

Calvinball begins tomorrow! What exactly is Calvinball you ask? It's a game we are playing throughout the month of March over in the Get It Scrapped forum. We're big fans of Get It Scrapped on the Digiscrap Geek Podcast. It's where many of us learned design principles, how to embrace our style, and most importantly, it's where we all became friends. Frankly, if I had never ventured over to Get It Scrapped, I might never have met my lovely co-hosts and this Podcast might never have happened.

 On the latest episode of the DigiScrapGeek Podcast, we talked with Debbie Hodge, owner and creator of Get It Scrapped. We covered quite a few topics, including Calvinball. I was asked whether or not I would ever go full digi. To hear the answer, you will need to listen to the show!

Meanwhile, I am spending my last hours before March prepping for the Calvinball shenanigans. It's going to be crazy fun. Fellow GIS members and the founders of Calvinball sat down to talk about the games origins on the DigiScrap HQ Podcast. I will be listening to this origin story as I mark photos for printing, rekit supplies and clean up my scrap space this weekend.

Will you be joining us for Calvinball fun? No matter when you decide, it's never to late to join in and change the rules of the game.

Additional Resources

The Get It Scrapped Membership
Click here to visit Get It Scrapped.

Related articles

• how to cheat at calvinball (dorissander.blogspot.com)
• calvinball! are you in? (dorissander.blogspot.com)
• calvinball: weekly update (for 5 points) (dorissander.blogspot.com)
• Calvinball Update: Layouts going in Albums (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)
• calvinball: the final countdown (dorissander.blogspot.com)
• Recent Snaps and Calvinball (myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com)

Get It Scrapped: Kitsch Style

The kitsch style tends to be known as garish. It's bold in it's own right while, in many ways, it exudes a feminine grace. Somehow, all of this bold design comes together and it works. It's the perfect style to describe someone with a bold personality. I chose to document our female cat, Jujubee.

A Diva Still by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: Sassafrass; Die Cuts: Sassafrass, Glitz Designs; Letters: Pink Paislee, American Crafts; Stickers: Webster's Pages; Ink: Tsukineko; Other: Doily, Buttons, Sequin Trim; Appears in an article for Get It Scrapped

Kitsch isn't my normal style. It took me some time to study it and get a feel for how it worked.I explored Pinterest for awhile, making notes of color, pattern and design. There is a definite retro feel which led me to choosing a collection of paper with that in mind. I also felt that, in order to make it work, I must use variations of the same colors throughout. Color and design of the layout made the page cohesive. 

The first print I chose is the diamond pattern in the canvas. I was then able to add scraps of paper and die cuts which repeated those colors. I knew I wanted a cat on the page. The queen die cut was chosen as I shuffled through my supplies. Not only does she repeat some of the colors from the canvas, she also represents that my cat is female and loves the world to be focused on her.

As I clustered the die cuts and embellishments around the photo, I paid attention to motif and color. My aim was to draw the eye to the photo and the queen. Notice how I repeated some motifs such as the flowers and the doilies. To add a bit more garishness to the page, I chose to mix in both silver and gold elements.

I am not sure the kitsch style is one I would use on a regular basis. However,experimenting with it was still a good creative exercise. I needed to identify what makes the style work so that I could incorporate it into my own page. Understanding a variety of styles can really help you to identify more strongly with your own personal style. It also helps you to touch base with some of the basic tenants of design. Once I had identified the components of kitsch style that I wanted to work with, I was able to choose a solid page design which would allow for my own personal style to be present in the page.

Additional Resources

 an article on the Get It Scrapped Blog

The Get It Scrapped Membership  

Click here to view more details