The Return of Scrapbook Sunday

For my post yesterday, I went through all my completed layouts from 2009 and selected a few layouts to share (I shared 26 pages out of the 150+ pages I did last year).  It was an interesting learning experience.

• I realized that my style is pretty simple - I usually have a strong framework or structure for placing my photos.  They tend to be lined up and orderly.  And that works for me because it helps accommodate the millions of  photos that I like to include. I used to rely solely on my scrapbook pages for my artistic outlet, and they were much more complicated.  Now that I have other artistic outlets (collage, art journals, altered books, ATC's, etc.), my pages are simpler. I think that's okay.  I also have very nice paper.  I would say that 90% of my paper is from the fantastic kit club, Club Scrap.  And I'm not a bad photographer.
• I realized how close our family is to two other families, and I am grateful for their friendship.  And I realized how important my brothers and sisters are becoming to me as we get older.  My parents would be pleased that we have not drifted apart in the five years since they both passed away.
• I realized that the year is woefully incomplete.  I still have dozens of layouts to complete from the summer, fall and winter.  I know most people would be happy to be almost "caught up," but I really want to get my 2009 pictures scrapped.  So, I placed a huge photo order and have been doing some more scrapping. One of my favorite new layouts is up top.
• I realized that I seemed to have "lost" a layout.  I kindof remember scrapping Henry's Middle School graduation, but I can't find the layout.  Maybe I didn't, but I can't find the unscrapped pictures either.  Any idea where they are?  Has this ever happened to you?
• I realized that I want to be better about journaling.  On two of the layouts from yesterday, the journaling was left "until later" and never done.  So, I need to fix those.  Plus, I want to make sure that my journaling includes the bigger picture - how I feel about Henry starting High School and Clara moving on to middle school, the importance of being close to my brothers and sisters, etc.  This week's challenge at the Scrap Weekly in 2010 Blog is about doing a "List of 10 Things" layout, and I plan to use that to capture some of these things on the kids' school portraits from Fall, 2009.
• It's really hard to take a decent picture of layouts.  Suggestions???
• I only seem to get motivated to scrap in response to challenges.  Why is that? Is it a bad thing?
• There's not a single picture of me in any of the layouts I posted!  Bad scrapper - gotta remember to hand the camera over occasionally and include myself. LOL! By the way, I am in several layouts from 2009.
• Finally, I realized that there really aren't any simple "day in the life" or "what we're doing now" type layouts.  I do like these and usually have a couple.  So, I want to do that this year. I welcome suggestions for the best way to accomplish that.  I'm not interested in the 365 Photo a Day idea, but more like once a month.

How would you describe your scrapbook style?  What do you like/dislike about it?  Anything you plan to do differently this year?  A walk through your scrapbooks can really help answer these questions.

So, I've started making some scrapping time again. The layout up top is one of my favorite. Remember, you can always click on a picture on my blog to enlarge it. It's titled "He Starts," and the journaling reads "Henry has always wanted to play sports in High School - maybe even in college.  One benefit of choosing HMB High over private high schools, definitely.  He was thrilled to "start" the first game of fall - he was the only freshman so chosen."  It's based on a Club Scrap sketch challenge, posted here and also meets the 365 challenge using lined paper for journaling (which I definitely remember reading but can't find anymore -what's up with that?). I also made the layout, based on a UK Scrappers Week 1 Challenge sketch, which you can see on Becky's blog.  It's pretty simple, but it was the first layout I've done in a while, and it got me back into the groove. So, thanks Becky for the inspiration!