It's National Scrapbook Month

Carolyn, over at Scrapping Servant, is hosting a blog party to celebrate. (See the button or her link in my sidebar.)
Now, personally, I enjoy scrapbooking, but am WAY behind. embarassingly behind. So this little blog party might just motivate me to get a few pages done. I have enough papers and embellishments to do some basic layouts, so I really have no excuse. They may not win an award from Creating Keepsakes, but something has got to be better than leaving my pics on the hard drive.

Anyone care to join me in dusting off their supplies and getting scrap happy? How about if we set small goals...

1) make a list of 10 pages to complete (or whatever # is achievable for you)
2) find pics in storage (online or printed stacks, whatever is your "pile up" of choice and organize them. If they are not printed, get them printed.
3) Design and create at least one layout a week for the rest of the month... the list of 10 will give us something to keep working toward.

Baby steps, people, baby steps...

Let me know if you are going to play along! And jump on over to Carolyn's to see what giveaways are going on for the par-tay!

It's not too late!!!!

Haley is hosting a giveaway of some scrapbook kits. Go to her blog for details! She's doing the drawing tomorrow, so get over there and enter!

Scrapback... 11th page completed

Yesterday's tackle motivated me to scrap a page tonight. I was hoping to do more than one, but it took me longer than I had planned just to do this. You would think I took the time to measure my margins by how long it took, but I just eyeballed them. My adhesive tape runner is basically worthless, and since it's over a year old and I'm sure even hubby doesn't have that receipt, I can't take it back for an exchange. Thankfully I have other adhesives to work with, but still... "Money down the drain, Max," as Ruby would say. At this rate, I'll be done with Bear's 1st year scrapbook before she gets married. Maybe. Let's see... 11 pages in 2 years.... maybe not.

Today's Tackle:
The desk and surrounding area

Baby Bear is down for her nap. I am tempted to take one myself, but I refuse. I'll post pictures when I'm done, as if I try to upload them now I will distract myself and never even start the task. This desk has been a disaster area for quite some time. The passive part of me is now being overtaken by the aggressive side, and I WILL make this area usable again. When I post the pics, I will take suggestions for how to make the area even more usable and less prone to clutter. I'd like to set up a scrapping area, but I have to be careful about making it too accessible to my little one. Anyway, I'm rambling... I'll be back when it's done, with pics.

I also hope to get to the meme's I've been tagged in. I just haven't been that motivated to do memes for some reason.... but the desk will come first.

Before:

After:

(trash)

Whaddya know? There is a desk after all!!

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I got rid of lots of old paperwork I will never need and I uncluttered the desk. I know where my scrapbook embellishments and papers are hiding, though they are not nearly organized enough. I need one of those cubbie drawer thingies designed to fit 12x12 papers. And a long table to go along the wall for workspace would be nice. Oh, and I definitely need to organize what photos I have, figure out what pages I can make with them, and go ahead and DO some layouts with the supplies I have on hand before I buy anything else.

logging off/grounding myself from the computer : 1:25 p.m.

tackle completed: 2:45 p.m. /
post updated 3:15 p.m.

My scrapbooking observations in progress...

1) artistic, 1 photo pages have their place but are not fiscally responsible... or possible for every page.
2) journaling is of utmost importance. i want my daughter to be able to show these pages to her daughter and not wonder, "who, what, when, or where?" answering "why?" or "how" may be appropriate, too.
3) saving digital pictures in folders by date taken is a LIFE SAVER when my camera loses the date due to death of battery. i'm uploading pics daily these days.
4) even simple color blocking can be very pretty and costs less than using the best papers for every single page.
5) a corner rounder can really add a simple, clean look to a page without overdoing it.
6) the making memories circle cutter that has a center mount thing which the blade swivels around is hard to get perfectly round circles as you increase the diameter. hiding flaws behind photos makes this not-so significant. but if you are shopping for a circle cutter, as much as i like the cutting mat it came with, i don't know if i would recommend this.
7) if you have buttons out, your 20-month old daughter is sure to want to play with them. occupying her with large buttons is better than letting her play with scissors or a paper trimmer.

9 scrapbook pages done....

...tons more to go! But 5 pages in 3 days' time is a huge improvement over the 6 months it took me to move past the first 2!

2 more pages done...

... and I'm ready to go to sleep.

Was today's garage sale bargain really a find for Baby Bear...

(yes, our laptop is on her new-to-us kid-sized table.
She's playing Sesame Street games under CONSTANT supervision, of course.)


....OR MOMMY?

When she's not using the table, it will make a great scrapbooking surface upstairs.
Did you check out my 2nd page completed in 2 days?!
I'm especially proud of this one,
because the photo is so special to me.
I've also decided that since I have spent over $100 at our local scrapbooking store alone since it opened, it's time I start actually doing more scrapping instead of just collecting paper and embellishments.
(Tools used: Making Memories circle cutter & mat, cutterpede straight edge 12" cutter,
Bazzill and American Crafts cardstock & patterned paper, silver gel pen)

I had no idea I would be using the table, too, when I found it at a garage sale this morning.
At least not for anything other than playing with my daughter.

It's been a good day!

• I had a yummy treat (Scroll down to 1st post of the day for details).
• I took a shower.... I didn't take one yesterday, so I really needed it.
• I didn't have to water the plants because we got plenty of rain yesterday. Thank You, Lord!
• Baby Bear and I had fun.
  
• Baby Bear napped well.
• I got a couple of chores done. I am perpetually behind on chores.
• Lil' sis, BIL, & little niece J surprised us for a visit during their "let's see where the wind blows us" day.
• We ate a yummy dinner and both toddlers did pretty well at the restaurant. They even held hands as we exited the restaurant. SOOOO SWEET!!!!!
  
• After dinner, we took the girls to a park and played on the playground with them.
• Baby Bear kept asking for more of her Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, & the "gound" during the drive home.
• Baby Bear snuggled with me on the couch for a few minutes before her bedtime.
• I finished the 6th page of Baby Bear's Scrapbook (at this rate... I don't want to think of how long it will take me to get through her first year). I also came to the realization that I don't have to complete the pages in chronological order, since fancy-dancy scrapbook pages can be moved around. Yes, I am THAT slow to learn basic scrapping:
  

Tools used: deckle-edged cutterpede trimmer, mini-brads (i use a thumb tac in the carpet instead of a hole puncher- works great!), Shutterfly Studio collage feature, Bazzill pink cardstock from scrapnmemories, vellums from somewhere, brads from somewhere or somewhere else. ok, so those last two might not have been all that helpful. oh, well. it was either target, wal-mart, hobby lobby, or michael's.

Scrapwanderings

As I mentioned yesterday, I got a new blade for my Cutterpede paper trimmer. I must say, I think I'm going to love the deckle edged effect. I trimmed the edge of my ultrasound collage, and the effect is pretty cool. I have such a hard time cutting straight with the fancy-bladed scissors, so I suspect I will be using them for smaller accents and increasing my interchangable blade supply.

I am now prohibited from buying any more scrapping papers until I actually complete more pages with some of the photos and paper I already have. Too bad I left my adhesives at home. Nap time would make a great scrap time! I may go ahead and pre-plan some of the layouts for the next few pages, since I had hubby go through the trouble of bringing the pics that arrived in the mail while we were away last week.

So, Farm Wife, Bec, crt & steph- how are your scrapping projects coming along? (And anyone else.)

Here's a couple of novice questions for you experienced scrappers (those I know and those who may be lurking)...

1. Do you crop your pictures with fancy edges, or just use the cool edges on paper?
2. What are your favorite websites for layout ideas? Magazines? Blogs?
3. Do you journal by hand or type out your journaling? The class instruction told us that even if you have messy writing, journaling is so personal that the handwriting is part of the art. I know Bec wants her pages to be legible so she types many of her journal entries.

Good morning, sleepyheads!

I'm about to hit the hay, but first, I thought I'd share this link to FREE SCRAPBOOKING STUFF, courtesy of my W@H friend, Cheryl... (not to be confused with my famous sister-in-law).

I certainly hope Baby Bear continues her current pattern of sleeping in or staying quiet until 8 a.m. or later!

Scrapbook Challenge from Scrap n' Memories...


I decided not to come up with my own contest/challenge because there's a good one going on up the road from my house. I think the goal is pretty realistic, too... Click on the links for the details.

Now if I can just remember to bring a page a day up to show Tammy at least 25 days between now and August 1st....

scrap-planning

i am determined to move past page 3 of baby bear's scrapbook. so, while hubby used this laptop tonight, i got on the "old" one... the one with the non-functional screen (thanks to the melodrama of a spider scurrying across the floor toward my baby girl a few months back). it's the one that is connected to an old-style monitor 2 feet above it on the top of my roll top desk. it's also the one that houses my treasured photographs. the last 2 years of our life are summarized on that computer. anyway, i grabbed a blank sheet of printer paper and made a list. will those of you who are experienced scrappers tell me if this looks like a reasonable start? For a refresher look, this is what I have already put together. (minus page 3: click HERE.)

• 2 pages per month
• 4-8 pictures per month up to 6 months, plus Holidays, birth pages (2), 1st 2 weeks pages (2)- I know, this doesn't leave much space for journaling. I may have to crop creatively or something.
  

Potential smaller album:

• pregnancy: belly shots, ultrasounds, me and bec at showers

I have a 12 X 12 album that came with 20 pages (10 sleeves) and white paper in them. It looks like it has considerable expansion room. How many pages is generally too thick?

The problem I'm running into is that our daughter is so beautiful and I took SO many pictures of her in the early months. And of course I'm biased, but SO many are good. And then there are a bunch of pictures from other family members, like Caslon and Camera Guy. Those could be a separate scrapbook by themselves! I'm thinking what I originally wanted to be her 1st year scrapbook will be her 1st 6 months scrapbook. I do need to dig out the baby book I bought and be intentional about not duplicating too much of what will go in there, KWIM?

Maybe if CRT and I start a contest, I'll get going on this and she'll finish Maddie's scrapbook.
Anyway, I narrowed down some pics to choose from, and now I just have to have them printed. my goal is to print enough to have pictures for at least 4 or 5 pages. i have some fun charms, brads, and pastel colored safety pins to add as embellishments.

i'm also re-thinking my color scheme and wanting to do some cutesy "traditional" baby pages... i have the feeling i'll end up just mixing and matching a lot. and stamping on the white pages.
anyway, here goes...

You think it's a small world?

So is the blogosphere!

I was blog-surfing last week, and came across the blog of someone who I've met at my parents' church. Her blog reminds me of Zann & Farmwife & the Nudge-Nudge gang. She is an avid scrapbooker and is journaling this Christmas season and sharing her work on her blog. If she gives me permission, I'll post a link. I might even get inspired enough to pick up where I left off on baby bear's book.

So, my question for you, my blogging buddies is...
how do you capture memories from your kids' childhood and preserve them? Are you like me, collecting them digitally, trying to make sure my date setting is correct on my camera so I remember when they were taken, but not getting them printed often enough. Are you a scrapping queen, a junkie of any particular scrapbook brand, or a bargain supply hunter (if you do that, what are your secrets for saving money... hubby wants me to know!) Do you have a system in place or just tackle it in the late nights and early mornings, reminiscent of all-nighters from the college days, like a dear member of my family does when she has a project she is working on?

Lately, the blog has been my digital scrapbook. I have the same 2 1/2 pages of her actual book completed that I did 3 months ago. Perhaps there is a tad bit of hidden perfectionist in me, one that doesn't want to do it unless I can do it "right". But if I wait for perfection, it'll never get done. as That Grace says on her Random-Grace blog... "what's the point in perfect?"