Skip to content

L.O.A.D. Days 11-12

  • by

The theme for L.O.A.D. is “Past Perfect,” so many of the prompts deal with memories from one’s childhood. I have a box of photos and several albums my mother put together that my brother handed over to me last fall. For some of the prompts, I started going through the photos looking for specific photos, and then coming on some I’d never seen. This first layout uses one I don’t think I’d ever seen, a photo of my mother’s sixth grade class. There were also photos of her first and second grade classes as well, but one of them had suffered quite a bit of damage over the years.

LOAD_2.11

LOAD_2.11Journaling

Patterned paper:  Lime Twist (MME) & Skate Shoppe (Basic Grey); number die & buttons: Papertrey; circle punches; sticker: October Afternoon

The prompt for the next day was Then and Now. I didn’t have anything particular in mind until I came upon this page from one of the photo albums. The pictures were taken on February 12, 1951 and my mother commented that the temperature that day in Kansas was 82°. It happened that February 12, 2012 in Rochester was one of the coldest days we’ve had all winter, so I went with that. Both the photo above and the album page were scanned with my new Canon scanner. I’ve been wanting one on my desk for awhile, and this one is perfect: very small, stands on it’s side behind my computer monitor when not in use. It was also relatively inexpensive (less than $100). 

LOAD_2.12

Patterned paper: “Fresh” by Pebbles; calendar: Jenni Bowlin; alpha: Paper Studio; twine: Canvas Corp; tag from stash; handmade flower from a PTI challenge a few years ago.

Journaling: 

As I sorted through some more family photos, I came across this page in one of the albums. The photos were taken on February 12, 1951 in Hays, Kansas. The baby is my brother who would have been just two months old. I was not quite three. My mother made a note in the upper right-hand corner that the temperature that day was 82°. 

 Today, February 12, 2012, in Rochester, New York, it’s 19° with gusty, bone-chilling winds. It was nasty enough earlier that we canceled the Presbytery Youth Worship service for this afternoon. It makes me wonder about global warming. 


L.O.A.D. Days 6 & 7

  • by

For the sixth layout, I wanted to get a photo of Caleb scrapped with basically the same layout I did for Skylar here. It’s a sketch by Jen Gallager for Shimelle’s Pretty Paper Party.

LOAD_2.6SweetLittleBaby2w

I used my Silhouette to cut the envelope for the small photo and tag as well as the title. Most of the papers came from Studio Calico kits. The heart border is a Papertrey Ink die and the gems are Hero Arts.

Yesterday I went back to an earlier prompt with a different subject: how things change. I reflected on how I’ve lost two roles that defined my life for so many years, but have acquired a new and wonderful role of grandma.

LOAD_2.7Grandma

This layout is based on the current Studio Calico Challenge Sketch. The journaling is hidden in the bag. Almost all of the supplies for this layout came from the current Studio Calico kit; some are from January’s kit. The hearts are OLD Heidi Swap chipboard. I think there are only two left now, and I had several packs of them. I created the journaling card with a Fiskar’s border punch and a strip of tape from my stash.

LOAD_2.7Journaling

Last night, Tracy’s cousin and I went to our first Swing Dance lesson. It was SO MUCH FUN, but the best part is I didn’t embarass myself! It’s a four week series of lessons, and I can see myself signing up for the next set if my schedule is clear.

Studio Calico Challenge and L.O.A.D. Day 5

  • by

Today’s layout is for two challenges: L.O.A.D. and last Sunday’s Layout Challenge at Studio Calico which I finally read this morning. After we saw Wicked a year or so ago, I typed up some of the lyrics that spoke to me, knowing someday I’d do a layout with them. So when I saw the challenge was to use a quote or lyrics I knew it was time. This might be one of the simplest pages I’ve ever made, but it came out exactly the way I envisioned it, and says it all.

LOAD_2.5_ForGood

Patterned paper: “Boxer” Basic Grey; Wood Veneer Alphabet: Studio Calico; die: Tiny Tags Papertrey Ink; twine: Papertrey Ink 

L.O.A.D. Days 3 & 4

  • by

Yesterday’s layout wasn’t based on the prompt as I wanted to be sure to get my January 365+1 photos scrapped. When I was in Oregon, I purchased Ali Edwards’ 2012 calendar templates and popped in two or three photos at a time as the month went on. I ended up deleting her title, and cropped the calendar before I printed it.

LOAD_3_Jan365

Patterned paper (and banner): American Craft; photo template:  Designer Digitals; stamps: Amy Tan for American Craft & Maya Road; brads: Basic Grey; number strip: stamp by Studio Calico, scanned and printed on an inkjet transparency.

Here’s a close-up of the journaling which I printed on a tag I cut from a piece of World Win paper.

Jan365Journaling

Today’s layout was based on the prompt which was to focus on how things have changed. The real impetus for the page came from a comment about using a blog entry for the journaling. I still remember the second post I ever wrote about having a quiet house, and knew I wanted to use that for this layout. The “boyfriend” in the post is now Sarah’s husband. It was his first visit with us, and he can be credited with the fact that I have a blog. I also incorporated some type tricks from Cathy Z’s current class, Ten Tips for Type. I’ve done these in the past, but had pretty much forgotten about them: two column journaling, and two type faces for the title.

LOAD-2.4Quiet

Cardstock: American Craft, die: small rickrack Papertrey Ink; buttons: Papertrey Ink

Journaling: 

We have a quiet house. In the last year, since both my kids moved out, I’ve become accustomed to a quiet house. But last week my daughter and her new boyfriend were here for five days. And my son, who lives nearby, came for dinner two nights. There’s been lots of laughter, conversation, music, and even a blaring TV. But they’re gone, and I have a quiet house. I miss the noise, I miss the laughter, I miss my kids. In a few days, I’ll get used to the quiet house and the comfortable rhythm my husband and I have developed over the past year. I like that too. But I’d rather have a noisy house.

This blog entry was written June 5, 2005. It was just my second blog entry, but I’ve never forgotten it. In the last seven years, our house has been quiet far more often than not, although we were lucky enough to have Matt with us for two years between his graduation and move to Denver. But the truth is, I would still much rather have a busy, noisy house. 

Photo of Sarah, Adam, & Matt:  12.07

I bought a new scanner today, and got a shadow around the buttons. There wasn’t any quick fix in PSE, but if anyone has experience with getting rid of it, I’d appreciate knowing about it.

L.O.A.D.

  • by

Well, I never imagined I would sign up for L.O.A.D. but once again, an internet community enabled me to the point where I just gave in. There was a message thread on Capture Your 365 about how excited a group were about this class. Since increasing my scrapbooking is definitely on my 2012 agenda, I decided there would be nothing better than a layout a day. Can I do it? We shall see, but here are the first two, both based on prompts from the class. The first prompt had to do with food, and we had just had a conversation with Betsay about how we all hope Skylar won’t develop Matt’s picky eating habits.

LOAD_2.1

Cardstock:  Bazzil; patterned paper: Paper Loft; journaling card: MME; date sticker: Jillibean; border sticker and alpha: Pink Paislee; Fabric Rip: Studio Calico; circle sticker: Scenic Route; Stamp: Hero Arts; Buttons: PTI; “Seeing Stars” die: PTI; banner sticker: Jenni Bowlin

Journaling reads:  We hope that eating habits are not inherited. Skylar isn’t far away from being introduced to solid foods, and we hope she’ll enjoy a wide range of tastes. Matt, however, was a picky eater from Day One. I remember him spitting pureed carrots right out of his mout all over me the first time we tried them. Not much has changed in 28 years. He has a very limited diet, mostly carbs and tomato sauce. His typical breakfast hastn’t varied since childhood either–Rice Krispies.

The second prompt was to choose a favorite photo—past or present— and I’ve been thinking about scrapping this photo ever since I took it. 

LOAD_2.2

Cardstock: Rustic White PTI; Bazzil Dotted; World Win gray; alpha and word sticker:  SEI; expoxy embellishements: KI Memories.

The journaling reads:  One of my favorite things about the new technology is Face Time. With both of my kids so far away, it’s a life saver. this has to be my very favorite photo from Matt’s visit home. I love how intently Skylar is looking at her Aunt Sarah, so far away in Oregon. I love the look in Matt’s eyes, too. It’s so clear how much he loves this little girl.

One thing I’m loving about getting back into scrapbooking is using up some of my really old supplies. I had my Valentine folder laying out and found the embellishments for the second layout in there. Some of those products are many years old!

Needing Some Christmas Cheer

  • by

It’s been a couple of tough weeks around here. One friend is home recuperating from a masectomy, another friend had surgery (more to come, perhaps) following a life-threatening fall, and yesterday one of my dearest friends received a diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor. She went to the ER on Sunday with flu-like symtoms and the tumor was discovered on a CAT scan. Who knows how long she might have walked around with this without knowing had she not gotten some kind of infection. Prayers for all of them would be appreciated!

I do have some Christmas crafts to share when there’s time again to ready them for the blog, but for today, here are the last two projects I’ve posted at the Scrap-Mart blog. My time on the DT has come to an end. I’ve really enjoyed my association with all the wonderful folks there, especially Katie, who is a fantastic DT Coordinator.

SnowmanCard
A wintery card made with Canvas Corps and Heartfelt Creations products.

WonderlandLO

This was made with October Afternoon’s Holdiay Style papers and snowflake stickers, and a new LifeStyle Crafts Snowflake border die, which was just perfect for this layout. I hid the jounaling on a stamped journaling card, since there wasn’t a good place for it on the layout.

WonderlandJournaling

In all the rush and busyness of the last few days before Christmas, don’t forget to take time to hug all those closest to you, and tell them you love them! 

Journal Your Christmas

  • by

My first Christmas Journal was made in 2006, so this is my sixth year and it’s a project I still enjoy. I’m much more relaxed about it than I used to be, and by the end of the season I always have a record of our holidays. Some days I write the journaling based on a prompt. This year I’m receiving Shimelle’s prompts (as always) as well as prompts by Tracey Clark through Paper Coterie. Some days I’m too busy to even read the prompts so I come back to them later, and some days I have my own stories to record. In the midst of getting Chrismas cards finished (I made 50 of them this year), writing the letters to out-of-town friends, cooking for our holiday Open House tomorrow night, and the usual meetings and appointments, I squeezed in time to make the first three pages. They’re all going in a Doodlebug StoryBook 3-ring 8X8 album that has two kinds of page protectors–regular and a photo page where I can just slip in extra 4X6 photos.

12.1Manifesto
I don’t always include Shimelle’s Manifesto, but I liked this year’s and decided it would make a good first page. It took me forever to come up with this simple page design!

The next page actually happened in November, but it was our first Christmas activity, and our only one with Sarah and Adam this year, so it had to be included. 

AshlandParade

The journaling reads:  The Friday after Thanksgiving is Ashland’s annual Christmas parade. Someone had told us everyone in Ashland turns out for it, and that seemed to be true. The weather was perfect, and it was lots of fun to watch Mr. and Mrs. Claus pull the switch from the balcony to turn on all the Christmas lights. It’s easy to see that this will likely become a new tradition for Sarah and Adam and their family.

12.2Weather

Journaling:

Today’s weather report on Channel 13 reminded us that last year we’d already had several inches of snow by now, and by the 7th of December we’d had 24 inches of snow. I remember that last winter seemed like it lasted forever. No wonder. 

This year was the mildest November on record since the 1800s, and I’m not sorry. I’m enjoying walking outside without freezing, and without slipping and sliding in heavy boots. I’m glad to be finishing up my shopping without worrying about whether the roads are passable. I love pushing the grocery card on dry pavement. I’ll be happy to see a coat of snow on the ground on Christmas Day, but I can easily wait until then!

I’ll be back later today with my blog post for the Scrap-Mart Christmas blog hop.

Baby Shower Scrapbook

  • by

I found this amazing jungle scrapbook by BoBunny at the Buffalo stamp store in September, and couldn’t pass it up. I had no idea what I might do with it, but I’m sure glad I grabbed it. It turned out to be the perfect format for Sarah’s shower scrapbook. After all the guests wrote their tags out, I printed a photo of each of them that Tracy had taken with Sarah that afternoon. The tag and the photo fit perfectly on a Grand Nestability Scalloped Circle die which fit perfectly into the scrapbook. 

Cover

The cover

TitlePage

Matt

Inside4

 The bottom photo is of Sarah and her babysitter who is still like family to us!

Inside1

The album came with several adorable chipboard animal faces which I used as dividers for the pages.

Inside2

Inside3

Sarah liked the animals so much she asked me to buy a second album so she can hang the faces on the nursery wall. Fortunately, the store still had an album left when we stopped there on our way home from Canada recently. I’m really pleased with the way this turned out, and think it makes a good record of a lovely afternoon.

Baby Shower for Sarah

  • by

Sarah and Adam left almost two weeks ago, and time has flown by, partly because we had to be out of the house for the better part of two days while the hardwood floors in the  kitchen and hall were redone. They are beautiful, and Jack spent three days installing the hutch near the window, and the crown molding. This week the tile guy, the painters, and the siding folks all arrive, and we should be done except for the final coat on the floor. The contractor took all his tools out of the kitchen and powder room on Friday, and we finally have our kitchen back for the weekend, at least.

The first day Sarah was here I hosted a baby shower for her. It was so much fun to have  so many of our good friends here to celebrate with her. The day after Sarah and Adam left was the anniversary of Micah and Judah’s birth and death; a sharp reminder of the grief and trials of the last year for all of us, but especially for Sarah and Adam. It was wonderful to be celebrating the upcoming birth of Caleb Elijah, and so good to know that everything is going very well this time around.

CollageforBlogw

I put together a collage of some of the photos. Sarah has chosen a jungle theme for the nursery and it was a lot of fun choosing and making decorations for the shower. The cake was fabulous. All the little animals marching around the cake came from the design of the paper products. It was a pumpkin spice cake and as delicious as it was cute. The cookies were made by a friend of a friend and matched the food picks in the muffins (see below). The centerpiece had three little stuffed animals, the giraffe and lion as well as a monkey on the other side. The family photo shows four generations:  Tracy, his mother, Matt, and Sklar—and Betsy and me as well. (I wonder where Sarah was when this was taken?) Sadly the light over Tracy’s head doesn’t do much for the photo.

Here are some close-ups of the banner and some of the things I made for the shower. 

2Pennantsw

BasketTags2w

Each guest was asked to fill out a tag with good wishes or advice for Sarah. Then Tracy took a photo of each guest with Sarah, and I’ve put them together in a scrapbook for her.

Muffins2w

FavorsBasketw

I used my favorite fry-box die to make favors we filled with chocolate-covered almonds.

FavorsClosew

These cute papers from My Minds Eye were just perfect for the jungle theme. I’ll be back tomorrow with some photos of the scrapbook album I put together. I’ll be taking it with me when we go to visit in a couple of weeks.

 

Sweet Baby

  • by

2671PPP

As soon as I saw Jennifer Gallacher’s layout on Thursday’s prompt, I knew it was the perfect layout for some photos of Skylar Rose.

SweetBabyLOw

I followed the general layout, but altered the position of the embellishments. I loved the photo that extended across the layout, and the little envelope with journaling and another photo. I cut the envelope with my Silhouette as well as the ticket I used for the title. All the papers and embellishments came from my stash. Since yesterday’s prompt was for dotted paper and stripes, I went through my papers and pulled a group of pink and green ones. Then I went through my embellishment drawers and alpha sticker sheets.  Once that was done, the layout came together pretty quickly. I’m planning to make another one so Betsy and I will both have one.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Pebble, SEI, Vintage Vogue (Pink Paislee), and old dotted paper from my stash
Chipboard hearts: Heidi Swapp
Trim and cardstock star: Melissa Frances
Spool Button: Vintage Vogue (Pink Paislee)
Distress Ink: Spun Sugar (Tim Holtz)

I Love My Cameras

  • by

2671PPP

Both kids were busy today on their own, so I had time to watch Shimelle’s video and then to create. Two posts in one day, after days of not being here at all! (Scroll down for the Pass the Book post.) The layout design was really inspired by several layouts on the video rather than today’s prompt, and I followed her ideas for collecting materials. In fact, one reason I signed up for this class was so I would begin to use the great papers and embellishments that arrive on my doorstep each month from Studio Calico. I did pull a few other items from my stash, but most of what I used is from the last several Studio Calico kits.

LoveMyCameras

I started with a full piece of patterned paper which is unusual for me and three photos I liked that would fit across the page. The patterned paper is American Craft by Amy Tangerine, and I already knew I wanted to use her camera stamp which I ordered a few weeks ago. The AC Thickers are also Amy Tangerine and were in the same order. Then I did exactly what Shimelle recommended and I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE. I chopped up other patterned papers from Studio Calico that I thought would be good accents. The little border of hearts along the bottom of the photos is actually a tear-off from the large patterned paper sheet. Those hearts prompted me to hand cut some little hearts of patterned paper to piece on the cameras. I popped them out on some Jenni Bowlin label stamps where I added the name of the camera over the photo that was taken by each camera. The brads were also in one of the Studio Calico kits. I used a Spellbinders Standard tag to cut the date which was stamped with sets from Papertrey Ink.

The journaling reads: Photos from my close-up/macro project for Shimelle’s Learn Something Every Day class. All my cameras take great close-ups.

Here’s a close-up of the cameras.

LoveClose-up

This is busier than most of my layouts, but I’m quite pleased with it, and pleased with the process as well. I’ve saved all the scraps, and will be using more of these papers as we work along in the class.

 

SMASH Update

  • by

Sadly, I’ve been known to create more than one project that rarely, if ever, got used. I thought I’d share an update on my DIY SMASH notebook, which I use several times a week. It’s turned out to be quite a wonderful resource.

InsidePocket

I added a pocket to the inside front cover where I stick clippings and ideas if I don’t have time to get them in the right place, or I’m unsure how I want to “file” them.

Page1

As I’m reading blogs, I jot down ideas and sketch out cards or layouts I might want to make. I have a whole page now of color combinations to try, and a list of card sentiments I loved.

Page2

These are cards I liked from a Stampin Up catalog I received at CKC this year. I don’t do a lot of clipping any more, but I’m much more likely to see it here than in the notebooks I have created in the past for such things. Most of my inspiration comes from the internet now, and I keep it organized in Evernote or on Vi.Sualize.us. I’m thinking of dismantling my notebooks, but it’s a big project which needs to wait until the first of the year. Way too much going on here right now.

PhotoTips

Photo tips from blogs. Often I “save” the whole blog post to an Evernote notebook, but if it’s just a short reminder I add it here.

Saved

A book site I want to investigate, and some music I want to check out.

WishList

And a couple of things that were on my Wish List at the time. I can cross one out now as I received something very similar from another company from Scrap-Mart. It’s interesting to me that a project I resisited for quite some time has turned out to be one of the most useful of the last several years.

 

 

Baby Album

  • by

My son and his long-time friend, Betsy, are expecting a baby girl in October. Today was Betsy’s baby shower. Her name will be Skyler Rose and I decided to make a first year baby album, based on the one I saw here on “pine is here.” Most of the embellishments were stamped and cut out.I’m quite pleased with it, and I’m pretty sure Betsy is too.

I chose the papers based on the motif of the crib sheets and accessories Betsy chose on her registry:  brown with pink and green polka-dots. I’m a huge fan of polka-dots so I had lots of papers in my stash. The Nestability Label Eight is the perfect size for a wallet-size photo each month. I left the left-hand side empty so journaling or more photos can be added there. The pages that appear to be plain are actually white with tiny pink polka-dots. I didn’t realize that they didn’t show in the photos until I’d already put the album inside the gift box with the other presents.

Cover

1-2
3-4

5-6

7-8

  9-10
11-12

It’s hard to tell from the double photos, but lots of little pink pearls were used as embellishments. I haven’t had much luck recently with uploading bigger files so you can click on them for a closer look, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Here’s the baby card that accompanied the album. The card base is a card from Impress Stamps that I’ve had for years and years. I love the pale pink vellum envelope that comes with them.

BabyCard

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Sweet Blush (PTI)
Patterned paper: Bitty Dots (PTI); others from SEI, Basic Grey, and a couple          unknowns
Chipboard alpha:  Basic Grey Chocolate
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings & Baby Button Bits (PTI); Baby (Fiskars)
Dies: Small Scallop & Banner Builder (PTI); Labels Eight (Spellbinders)

Road Trip Album

  • by

Before we left for Alaska, I managed to complete the album I started after subscribing to Ali Edward’s “Scrapbook on the Road” class. I took a little bag of goodies with me on the trip, but didn’t find too many opportunities for working on the album while we were on the trip. Having constructed the basics before I left, however, motivated me to be more conscientious about picking up memorabilia that I might want to include in the album. Here are some shots of the album:

Cover

I followed Ali’s directions for making the cover; painting over letter stickers and the embellishments with acyrlic paint. I’m quite happy with the result. It took several coats.

Denver

A combination of memorabilia, stickers, chipboard, journaling, and photos. All the supplies for this album came from my stash. I have a 12X12 envelope with travel papers & stickers that I save for these projects.

Denver:NM

I love the different sized pages you can create with the Spellbinders Creative Book Pages dies. The right-hand side shows a smaller page with one of the larger ones peeking out behind.

TaliesinWest

Here I used a pocket on the right-hand page to hold a stack of photos from our visit to Taliesin West. I rarely cut a shape from a photo, but I did on the left page, and cut a section from one of the memorabilia pieces on the right.

DesertMuseum

Here I included the tickets to the museum and another envelope with photos. The Desert Museum was one of our favorites from this trip.

Tucson

On the left-hand page, I made a little pocket and stamped the silverware to hold business cards from some of the restaurants where we ate in Tucson.

PacificCoast

Here you can see three different sized pages with photos from our drive up the Pacific coast and our night in Morro Bay.

FinalPage

The End!

This represents a fraction of the pages. It ended up being quite thick, and I had to order the largest size ring for my Bind-it All. Although I knew I wouldn’t attempt anything like this for our Alaska trip, having completed this made me more aware of the kinds of things I might want to bring home with me from our most recent trip. I’m planning to made a photo book (we got a great deal on one through Groupon), and will probably do a one or two page layout for each of the major stops and events on our trip. Still haven’t finished editing our friends’ photos as I’ve had several other projects in the works as well. I’m always surprised by how long the editing process takes.

Required: A Family Photo

  • by

Whenever I’m with either of my kids, a family photo is a must. I just got around to scrapping one from our trip to California in May, but I’m really happy with it.

FamilyPhotoLO

It just got posted on the Scrap-Mart blog, so I’m adding the supplies from there. The layout base is black American Craft cardstock. Patterned papers from October Afternoon’s “Five and Dime” and “Night Light Jack” as well as a piece of “Spring Fever” from Fancy Pants were used for the mats. Two of them were cut with my Grand Calibur from the Grand Large Labels Nestabilities by Spellbinders and then trimmed. The two borders were from October Afternoon’s sticker sheets from “Five and Dime” and “Schoolhouse.” I painted a wood veneer star and two paper stars (left-overs from a Silhouette border) with red Smooch and added a little October Afternoon sticker to the wooden start. The title mat is also an October Afternoon sticker with letters from October Afternoon and Glitz.  I stamped the date onto a tiny label sticker from my stash.

I’m in love with the October Afternoon papers, especially the stars from Five and Dime.