Someday

   As part of a recent writing assignment, my son was asked to illustrate and write about places he would like to visit. One of those places was France...or more specifically, Paris. I was struck by how passionate my son became as he talked about what he thought Paris was like. I felt like this would be a great moment to capture...one of my son's dreams. I think someday it will be neat to reflect back upon this page...especially if we ever get to visit Paris.

Sketches 4 All January Gallery girl Scraplift

  To capture the romance of Paris, I chose this older, cream colored paper from my stash. I don't know who makes it, but I do love the look of the white on cream words and phrases printed on it. For a Masculine vibe, I chose to go with a black, green and blue color palette. The Making Memories and crate paper patterned papers were a perfect fit. I mixed in some Crate Paper die cuts with Restoration border stickers, along with pink paislee chipboard, making memories flowers, and some office supplies. I must admit, that when I received the package of Pink paislee chipboard, I never thought I would find a use for the Eiffel Tower!

Scrapfit,workout#36
Scrap Whispers challenge #86
Frosted designs 1-25-11 Sketch

 The journaling was done on a Maya Road sheer ticket. A Tim Holtz compass mask with black magic glimmer mist adds to the travel theme. A fun set of pages, and a fond memory...and maybe Someday, there will be some photos of us in France.

I'm on FIRE!

    Well, I am not literally on fire! Technically, I sort of got into a slump. Not because of creativity. More because life threw me a curvebal in the form of sick kid, sick dog, and then me, well, getting sick. See the theme here. It's not a pretty one. That being said, everyone feels better and it's a rainy lazy day here. I am having a hard time falling back into the homeschool routine today with the sound of the rain beating on the roof. I feel so cozy! So what better thing to do than scrap...and what better topic to scrap than a campfire! So I took Scrap Whispers challenge 78 and literally scrapped a campfire.

I have had this pad of Paper Pizzazz Vacation papers for what must be at least 4 years now. We all have paper like that! I think I bought it on a whim. There are some great vacation papers in it...many are just specific to certain locales. For Example, there is an ENTIRE page of labels for trips around the world to cities like Paris, Washington D.C, San Francisco...well, I could go on. I must have really been hoping that buying the paper would make tickets to these destinations materialize. LOL Anyway, I finally made use of some of the camp themed papers here on this page. There was even a tag to fussycut. I used scraps of the paper to create faux ribbons. All of the papers were inked with colorbox Chestnut roan.

If you like the handmade flowers, you can find a tutorial here. They are really easy and fun to make. You just need to monitor your microwave so you don't have a campfire in your home. Seriously. While I did not start a fire this time...let's just say, there have been many accidental campfires in my kitchen. This is why we own a fire extinguisher.  And that's all I have to say about that...

Then and Now: One Concept, Two Takes

 Recently, I did a one hour challenge at club ck. I was very rushed. My son needed help with school, and that comes first. So after assisting him, I had about 30 minutes left to complete the challenge. I almost didn't...but then thought. What the heck, let's give it a go and see what you get. The overall result of my 25 mad dash of scrapping was not horrific. I had pulled out my Cosmo cricket earth love kit to make it easier on me. The challenge centered around showing a timeline of change. So I had quickly pulled together photos of my son highlighting 4 years of his life. I was in love with those photos. Each one depicting his sweet self at each wonderful stage of life.

There was just one problem...I was bothered by the fact that in my haste, I had covered my Sweet boy's hands in one of the photos. Not to mention the fact, that though I loved the border with the birds, as whimsical as it was ...it just wasn't working for me.


I generally come to a point in which a page is just considered done. This page, though simplistic, was important to me because it depicts my son's growth from 2001 until now. So I ended up making the page over. When I pulled the bird border off, the page was damaged. I wanted to salvage it, so I used an Martha Stewart punch to create a border on Cardstock. This, coupled with the Making memories ladybug trim from the Flutter collection, maintains the earthy feel of the paper while hiding the rips and tears. It also adds a little dimension to what was before, a very flat, basic page.

I changed the buttons from blue to yellow for a pop of color and also because the light blue just did not match the turquoise of the ladybugs. Though the page is still simplistic, I corrected what was bothering me about it and I feel, made it a little more interesting.

That being said, I will be shortly popping over to Scrapwhispers to enter this project in their "Then and Now' challenge.  I also have some future then and now projects planned. I would love to scrap about my son's change in favorite cartoons and also do a timeline for video games we have played from "then to now". So stay tuned...

Paper strips

  For those of you looking for the Goodbye Summer Hello Fall!blog hop, scroll down to the post below this one.

Paper strips can be an effective way to highlight a photo. In this case, I made a matte out of paper strips. It's easy to do. I used my cricut to cut two of the same shape. You could also use a stencil or circle cutter...or just cut two rectangles or squares of the same size. Next, layer the two shapes together so that all sides match, then use you paper trimmer to cut strips at even increments. You can then easily piece together alternate colors as you adhere them to the page in the shape of your photo matte.

I used an older Sketchy Thursday's sketch for this page. For the background below the matte, I spritzed glimmer mist in moonlight and frost. The main inspiration for this page were these cute die cuts which I received in a Club CK swap. I immediately knew I wanted to use them with these photos of my son's first experiences with snow. For added interest, I used 3-d adhesive on some of the letters and on the snowflake.

If you try a page with paper strips, you can submit it over at Scrapwhispers.There are other inspirational ideas there to help you use up leftover paper strips in your stash.

The Longest Day

  Those words can conjure up the worst of images or the the best of them.  There are two really long days that I can remember with vivid clarity. One being my wedding day and two being the day my son was born. Both hold great memories for me. As many of you know, I started scrapbooking when my son was a little over a year old. What that means is that the days of his first years are happily documented in scrapbook tomes. My wedding, however, is only now being scrapbooked. 1997 was a long time ago, but yet it seems like yesterday. I can remember in detail getting ready to walk down the aisle, how it felt to look into my husband's eyes while we recited our vows, how happy we were to be married, and well...all of the wonderful memories of that day. Here is but a glimpse at that day...one moment perfectly captured on film.

  Finding wedding paper in my chosen colors has proved to be difficult. Since we had a garden wedding, I had chosen hunter green so that the wedding party would match whatever might be in bloom that day. Hunter green scrapbook paper is either not available in a wedding theme or just not pretty. So I chose Basic Grey's cappella line. It seemed elegant and fit perfectly with the photos.I inked the edges in colorbox platinum ink. I chose Bazzill bling cardstock in glass slipper. I loved the weight of the paper and the pearlized sheen made it seem special and perfect for the wedding.

I used white prima flowers and MM all a flutter trim. I can say that if I want to use a lot of jewels in the future I will definitely look into an I-rock.These little self adhesive jewel shapes look nice but are such a pain. This page is based on one I had seen in a June newsletter on Basic grey's website. I plan to submit it over at Scrapwhispers for their longest day challenge. Do you have a day that seemed like forever? Think about it and maybe try to document it. You'll be glad you did...

Using a Speech Bubble

  Recently, I came across a a challenge at ScrapWhispers to use a thought bubble. At first, I was a little unsure. However, when I printed the photos of the sea lions, I could just see the little girl sea lion asking my son if he would play. These Sea lions are in quarantine b/c they are new to the place my husband works at. He brought us to see them and they immediately perked up when they saw my son. It was as if they knew he was a little kid just like them. They walked back and forth...following him as he walked in front of their enclosure. When it was time to go, My son started protesting and then the little boy sea lion started barking at me as if to say " no...we aren't done playing yet!". It was all just so cute.

I wanted some fun paper for this page, so I chose Sassafrass. All of the paper is Sassafrass except for a tiny bit of Fancy pants where I journaled and matted the photos. For the thought bubble, I used a chipboard sticker which I  mounted on chipboard and cut out. The brads(except for the decorative ones) and the buttons are Basic grey. I inked the edges of the buttons and the papers with Autumn leaves red ink and colorbok inks. I love the bright Sassafrass in stitches flowers for this page. I did a little bit of handstitching as a small accent with some orange floss.There is an acrylic arrow just visible under the orange page protector. I wanted to keep it neutral but wanted the eye to go from the title to the journaling.This is sketch 213 from Scrapbook challenges.