Scarpbooking Variations: New Apps and Old Styles

#8 A Scrapbook Page or Art Project

I met some friends at the last remaining local scrapbook store last week and had a wonderful and productive time finishing the last of the pages for Henry's sports album. These pages are from his college soccer team's victorious trip to the national tournament.

Very traditional and basic pages made with cardstock and stickers. But that's the tone of his whole album. And I still have to add journaling. But I'm so proud of myself for getting caught up on this mammoth project. Plus, it ticks off item number 8 on the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. 

I still really enjoy making traditional paper scrapbook pages, and I'm looking forward to figuring out what photos I still have to scrap and which ones I need to print to scrap. 

But I'm also branching out into other types of scrapping, including:

• shutterfly photo books - I'm working on uploading my photos from Japan there and will create a 12x12 hardcover book with those photos.
• chatbooks app -  Deb Turtle's mentioned this app and shared a code for a free book (CFA6GXG7). It actually is free if you choose the slow shipping (which I did). I created a 60 page book with 60 photos from Henry's college life, all pulled from my iphone. I haven't received it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it and will give a review once its here. I think he'll like the book, and he's not that quality conscious - LOL! Anyone else tried this yet?
• I also got a notification for a new app called Parabo. If you use the code "amaze," you can get 25 free 4x4 photos. They're supposed to be on high quality matte paper, suitable for display. I did have to pay shipping for this one, so it wasn't actually free. But still reasonable, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out. I printed my favorite 25 photos from Japan, and I'm thinking of matting them together in a grid and putting them on display somewhere (maybe the bathroom, actually!). Anyone else used this service? 

Scrapping with Shimelle, Part 3!

On Tuesday, I spent the day scrapping with some friends at a local scrapbook store. I took the opportunity to do a few more of the Shimelle challenges. First up, using circles. I really liked adding little embelllishments to the circles that fit the theme of a "road trip" that my son and I took to visit colleges in Oregon.

I wasn't sure I had any photos that would work with Shimelle's color story challenge, but then I noticed that it was almost a perfect match for the tickets from the World Baseball Classic. I had planned to scrap these photos on paper that had black and white print and the big baseball, but the challenge spurred me to cut out the baseball and put it on red paper and then mat the photos in the colors to match the color story. It turned out so much better than my original idea, so thanks Shimelle!

And here's the last page I did for the day:

It fits Shimelle's challenge to scrap three photos on one page. I've enjoyed this foray into scrapping, but I think I'll take a little break for a while. Probably do a bit more art journaling.

Scrapping with Shimelle, Part 2

I continued to play along with Shimelle's Mothering Weekend Online Crop Party on Sunday, and I found the challenges to be, um, more challenging (and interesting!). When I read this one about creating a wall of frames, I thought, "Oh he** no!" But then I remembered some frames I had from an old Club Scrap Kit and decided to give it a try.

It was actually fun to add little fiddly bits to fill in and decorate the frames. I painted some chipboard for the 18, used chipboard circular letters and even added some black eyelets to several frames. The best part was finding a decent way to scrap the dark, poor quality iphone photos from Henry's 18th birthday!
I also completed some layouts from the use an old page kit challenge:

Technically, the challenge was to scrap with Shimelle's first paper collection, but I thought this captured the spirit of the challenge. Very simple and quick. But I'm so happy they're done. I've got one more scrapping day planned this week (tomorrow), and I'm hoping to do at least one more challenge (circles). I might have some photos to make the color story work, and might even come up with something for the last challenge. We shall see!

Are you doing any scrapping lately?

Scrapping with Shimelle!

Happy Mothering Sunday to all my UK friends! To celebrate, Shimelle is hosting a scrapbooking weekend. I created layouts for all five of her challenges yesterday, and I'm sharing them here on my blog. This first one is for the monochromatic challenge. It's Clara's photo from her track season.

Next up is my boy. This is for the challenge to scrap a larger photo. I've been trying to figure out how to end his sports album, and this one did the trick. It's got a bit more layering of bits and bobs in Shimelle fashion.

This one was hard. It took me forever, and I'm still not thrilled with it. I  made it for the "scrap something that has value/meaning" challenge. It's the photos I took when I packed up all of Henry's childhood stuff when he went off to college. I wanted it to be nostalgic and to capture meaningful journaling. I didn't really get there, but at least it's done.

This one is better! The challenge was to create a "color blocked" layout. I did used to have all those color blocking templates that Shimelle blogged about! LOL! But I"m pretty sure they went at a garage sale years ago. One thing I really liked about this layout (about Clara volunteering at Guide Dogs) is that I used eyelets, which I haven't used forever! Since all the tools are out, I might do a few more eyelet layouts today.

And finally, the challenge to scrap "older photos." These are from 2014, but what makes them older is that I thought my 2014 album was done. But when I was organizing all the completed pages yesterday, I found this stack (with papers and embellies already picked out) together in a page protector! Luckily, it only took 15 minutes to put the page together, and it was a great way to end a fun day of scrapping.
Hoping to do a bit more today!

Mail Art and Scrapping Fun

Happy Monday! Here's some creative fun to start the week. I'm in a One Card a Month club, and I received this fantastic hand painted card from my friend Tracy.  I also love the envelope she sent it in! Speaking of decorated envelopes, mine is featured this week on Kat's  blog. I sent it  in with my post cards for the Liberate Your Art swap. It's about half way down this post.
On Sunday, I got together with a group of friends to scrapbook, and I made huge progress towards finishing Henry's Sports Scrapbook. The pages are all pretty simple and still need journaling, but here's a sample. {Sorry the lighting is so awful. The photos looked fine on my phone, and I'm in too big a hurry to retake them}
A few baseball layouts:

And a few soccer layouts. The first one will tell the story of when his coach was hospitalized for several months with an awful, degenerative disease. He miraculously turned the corner and, through several more months of courage and hard work, has recovered. Shortly before all the boys were scheduled to leave for college, they organized a trip to visit him in the hospital. I was proud and impressed by  the turnout. It said a lot about the type of coach that Franklin is and also about the great group of young men on the team. The second one is notable for using a Creative Memories die cut from about 20 years ago!

I was surprised by the number of teams that my boy has played on: one club soccer team; one adult city team; one high school team and now his college team. On the baseball side, he's played on little league, all starts, two different travel teams and high school. I'm going to a crop next week, so I might do a few more layouts.

Memorandum Monday: A Return to Creativity

Welcome to Memorandum Monday! A chance to share your weekend adventures and reflect on new experiences, hosted by Sian of From High in the Sky. 
Last week I went to a crop and put all my Christmas card photos from 2015 into the proper album. It was great to complete a project and got me in the mood for scrapbooking. So, I organized my photos from 2013 (the only year I have printed and undone) and then sat down to order photos from 2015 and 2016 (somewhere along the line, I had already completed 2014). I discovered that most of my 2015 photos were on my iphone and decided to just print them at shutterfly. Well, this weekend was the first time I used the shutterfly app to download pictures off my iphone, and it worked like a dream! 
After downloading them, I got on my computer and made the first photobook ever for Henry (of their soccer national championship tournament) and ordered all my photos for 2015 and 2016. I was so pleased with myself!
I'm very excited to return scrapbooking and have a few dates planned with friends over the next month. Next step, organizing a few page kits so it will be easy to complete them.
What else was I up to this weekend? Gardening - I've been trying to spend about half hour every few days outside pulling weeds and cleaning up. Getting ready for spring! 
I also did a little doodling of hearts that might make their way into my art journals. For these, I totally owe my inspiration to Laurie over at Lone Black Bird. She has printable heart coloring pages that I copy and use as a jumping off point. Here's a page I made last week:

They're in my sketchbook. I plan to use them as a reference for art journal pages.
What were you up to this weekend? Anything new to share?
Have a great week, and thank you all so much for your comments on my brave post from Friday. Your support means more than you know. I love having a safe place to share.

Scrapbook Friday (on Thursday)

I am very happy to say that, with this layout, I have completed scrapping all my photos from 2014! This year, I am trying to scrap at least four layouts a month and post them on Fridays here on my blog. From here, I'll be moving on to 2013 or some specialty albums. I haven't quite decided. But I'm really happy to be back to scrap booking again!
What? It's not Friday? That's because tomorrow I'll be hosting the end of July linky for the 2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. I hope you'll stop by and link a post of your finds.

Scrapbook Friday: Embellishment Issues

I've been working on the last few layouts from 2014 and, as always when I'm in a rush, I think I would be happy with good photographs, nicely matted, placed on pretty paper with a little journaling. But, I also like it when my pages are nicely embellished. It's just that sometimes I struggle to make them all work in concert. I really like how this page turned out. I almost called it done before I added the stickers (photo corners, word, etc.) but I'm glad I dug around to find that little extra something.
But I never really made the embellishments work on this page:

I actually like the left hand page okay, but the stickers on the second page aren't really working for me. I think the floral border might clash too much the style of the stickers. I might go back and put a dark purple card stock border instead. Or I might just call it done. 
Thoughts? Do you ever struggle with embellishments?

Scrapbook Friday: Back in the Saddle

This year I've pledged to scrap at least four layouts a month and post them on Fridays here on my blog. I did four in early June, but haven't scrapped in over a month! This week I resolved to get back to it. 

I'm closing in on finishing up my 2014 album. And the hardest part of making these new layouts was the organizational part. I had to find my  remaining photos for 2014 and figure out what layouts I had left to do. I created a title page for the start of the album.

And this page of our menagerie will be the final page in the album. I also completed a couple of random pages of Clara in Hollywood (up top).

And Clara in downtown Half Moon Bay. So, that's four for July! But I only have four double layouts left to finish 2014, and I think I'll try to tackle those this weekend. 
Once I'm done with 2014, I might spend some time updating/completing Henry's sports album before tackling 2013 (which will be a big album). I also need to do a photo book for Clara's 2015 track season (although, given her injury, it will be a thin one), and I really want to work with Clara on a photo book for her Peru trip (she's due back next Sunday).
Anyone else finishing up scrapbook projects this summer?

Scrapbook Friday: Chippy Layouts of the Boy

Keeping up with my 2015 intention to scrap at least four layouts a month and post them here on my blog on Fridays, here are two I completed recently at a crop. After I pulled the photos and papers for these layouts, I was feeling a little uninspired. So, I decided to find some inspiration by turning to a neglected embellishment (which I have a ton of): chipboard and its fancy Tim Holtz cousin grunge board.  The top layout uses over 25 pieces of chip board and tells the story of Henry's summer employment. For the bottom layout, I used a chipboard house and then some grunge board elements to create an embellishment for a page about him moving out of the dorm and into the fraternity house at University. 
So, confession time. Do you have a big stock pile of a certain embellishment that you haven't used in ages? What is it? Any plans to get it out of your stash and onto a page? I gotta tell you. It feels good!

Scrapbook Friday: Scrapping at a Scrapbook Store

A few weeks ago, I met some friends at what may be the last scrapbook store in the greater San Francisco Bay Area (Scrapbook Island). There used to be a dozen within an hour's drive of me (including one in my own small town), but they have been shutting their doors one after the other. And it's a shame. Because cropping at a store is wonderful experience. I enjoy the feeling of community and, of course, the opportunity to shop.

It's wonderful to be able to wander down the aisle and find just the right embellishment to complete a layout. For these two layouts, that's what I did. I had brought page kits with me of  paper, photos and some embellishments. But both needed a little more to complete them. Can you guess what I bought for each?
Ready?
For the July 4 layout, I bought the little flag and the star bunting.
The The Hens layout, I bought the stickers of the hen, eggs and weather vane.
They added just the right finishing touch. Don't you think?

Scrapbook Friday: Finding a Theme

During my National Scrapbook Day scrapfest, I made this layout of the first day we brought Luna home. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the photographs, but I started by looking through my bin of page elements. I came across a bag of pink "love" themed elements and thought, "Why not?" She was a little baby, and we certainly fell in love with her. Plus, I wasn't sure I would ever find another use for these elements. So I created this layout which I like just fine. I like even more that it's done and that I used up those page elements!

I've actually found that coming up with a theme helps make my scrapping more meaningful. And easier because it helps me find a color story, papers and elements. In looking at my 2014 photos, I had a handful of a trip to the University of Redlands sitting with other photos from the trip to So. California Clara and I took during the summer and a few from our visit to Carroll College in Montana in the fall. Because I usually scrap chronologically, it took me a while to pair these photos together and write about them as the trips we took to look at colleges and to write about what she's looking for in a University experience. It allowed me to go to my "school" embellishments and find some stickers that supported the theme (globes and school phrases). I ended up very happy with the outcome.
I've made great progress on my 2014 photographs this month. And I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've got less than 10 layouts left to do! Besides the creative process, one of the things I like most about scrapbooking is the feeling of accomplishment from finishing a project. I should definitely put the 2014 scrapbook to bed before the end of the summer. And then it will be on to 2013, 2015 or Henry's sports album.

Scrapbook Friday: Scrapping from a Sketch

I'm continuing to scrap (currently working on photos from 2014) and sharing layouts on my blog on Friday. Most of my layouts are grids or modified grids. But occasionally I like to mix it up and use sketches to break me out of my rut. I found this sketch over at Stick it Down. It features photos from Mom's Weekend at my son's fraternity last year. We had a fun time, but I didn't really have that many photos. I started with an assortment of green and yellow photos because those are the colors of the University of Oregon. I added touches of blue to pull everything together. Stick it Down has three sketches a month - a one page layout, a two page layout and a card. Have you visited there before? Know any other good sketch sites?

Scrapbook Friday: Companion Pages

This year, I'm recommitting to scrapbooking and sharing my pages on Fridays here on my blog. I'm currently working my way through my photographs from 2014. As regular blog readers know, I usually scrap double page layouts and put lots of photographs on each page.  But sometimes I only have enough photos for a single page. On those occasions, I might make two very different pages. Or I might make a companion page.

Like this one, about building our chicken coop. They are somewhat related, in that Clara did start her egg business as part of FFA (the subject of the first layout). I used matching color blocked backgrounds on both, but different stickers to distinguish them.
So, what do you do? Are you a one page scrapper? A double-page spread scrapper? Do you worry about how your single pages look next to each other?

Scrapbook Friday: Scrapping with Paper Collections

In the United States, the first Saturday in May is designated "National Scrapbook Day." I think the tradition began with Creative Memories way back in 1994. I used to go to crops to celebrate, but this year I contented myself by treating myself to some quality scrapbooking time. It was a perfect time to keep up on my plan to scrap at least four layouts a month and share them here on my blog on Fridays. I'm sharing two layouts today - both created using paper collections. This layout might look familiar - it uses the same sketch as this layout, which was based on Amanda's April Scraplift challenge. I read a comment that said this is a perfect way to use a 6x6 paper pack and that comment stuck in my brain. So, when I had a bunch of miscellaneous photographs as my only photographs from Christmas 2012, I grabbed the Kringle and Co. 6x6 paper pad from American Crafts to make this layout. The only other thing I added was some ink for edging and two 12x12 pieces of craft cardstock for the background. You can click on the layout to enlarge it and see the details.

I made this layout, featuring the professionally taken team and individual photographs from Clara's cross country season, using Club Scrap's Marathon collection. It went together really quickly, and I really like it. I guess that's what I like about using paper collections.  It makes it easy to make a coordinated layout, especially if there's a theme to the layout that matches the collection. Do you use paper collections when you scrap? Got any good recommendations? Oh, and do you celebrate National Scrapbook Day?

Amanda's May Scrapbook Challenge: Guest Designer!

Amanda of Amanda's Scrapbook Pages runs a monthly Scraplift Challenge. I have been participating for the last few months because I find her sketches very appealing and really helpful to jumpstart my scrapping. She asked me to be her Guest Designer for the May challenge, and I happily accepted. I would love it if you came to join us this month and play along. You can enter the challenge here. The more the merrier!

Amanda's May layout (above) was a bit of a challenge for me because it only featured two 4x6 photographs, and I usually scrap 3-5 photos per page and almost always make a double page layout. But I did have just a few photographs from a birthday celebration that I thought would work perfectly. My background paper was much more busy than Amanda's so I ended up with more matting to make sure the photographs didn't get lost. I also used two cropped photos to substitute for the second 4x6 photo. I also added washi tape, as well as paper strips on the left side of the layout. On the whole, I really like the result! Thanks Amanda!

Scrapbook Friday: Inspiration for Holiday Layouts

I'm continuing to enjoy scrapbooking this year, and I'm working my way through my photographs from 2014. I'm realizing that the quality of a lot of the photos is not that great because so many of them were taken with my iphone. But I'm still  happy to be getting them done, and I like my "Scrapbook Friday" meme because it keeps me on track. It can be a challenge, though, to stay inspired. So, I'm always happy when I find inspiration. This layout was actually inspired by this layout on Melissa's blog and the use of all those brads by her layout here. Melissa's always got a lot going on at her blog, and it's worth checking out if you've never been there.

This layout, featuring photographs from our annual trip to the tree farm was inspired by a recent paper purchase. I bought the Tim Holtz Idea-ology "Merriment" paper stash and then mixed and matched papers from the stash for this layout. I often find new supplies to be very inspiring!
Speaking of inspiration, the wonderful Jennifer Grace is hosting another (FREE) blog event in two weeks. It's called "Focus Your Craft and Soul" and you can read details about it at this link. Her events always offer a ton of inspiration, and I'll be playing along. There's even a give-away open if you go check out the announcement link.
Since I'm always looking for inspiration, I'd appreciate any you have to share!

Me on Monday: A weekend with my boy

It's Sunday night, and I'm dead tired. But it's a good tired, a happy tired. I just spent the weekend with my boy who is attending college at the University of Oregon. It was mom's weekend at his fraternity, and we had so much fun! So I thought I would wave "hi" with others over at Sian's blog and tell you about my weekend.

We started the weekend Friday night at the college baseball game. Here we are posing with Henry's college roommate/frat brother/best friend and his mom. I absolutely love spending time with her. We took a bicycle hansom cab over to the park and got kicked out  chose to leave early when some of the moms got caught sneaking in beer because they didn't want to pay the outrageous prices charged in the stadium!
On Saturday morning, a group of us gathered to go for a hike up to the top of Spencer Butte.

There were about 40 of us total who entered the beautiful forest, including me and my boy.

 

We climbed about .75 mile straight up and were rewarded with awesome views.

One of my favorite photos was a bit of a fail, although it was good idea:

That's supposed to be Henry holding Autzen Stadium (the football stadium) in the palm of his hand). We had a big group lunch on Saturday and then Henry and I went to spend the balance of the afternoon lounging around, watching TV together, shopping and enjoying each other's company before heading out to a frat party involving drinking games and boys dancing with their moms. A good time was had by all!

Before I knew it, it was time to come home. I boarded the plane and was stopped by security because I had a rather large metal bottle opener/cork screw in my carry on bag. I had placed it in there before heading out to the party on Saturday night and had completely forgotten about it! What can I say? It was mom's weekend.
I already miss my sweet duck!