Winter Slapped Me in the Face or Don't We Fondly Remember Fall?

I am not a real winter fan. I know that living in Minnesota and not finding the natural joy and beauty in the snow, ice and "crisp" fresh air of winter (which lasts from November to April, by the way) will probably be deemed a life mistake in my memoirs someday, but not having real, lasting snow until after Christmas and not seeing the first below zero air temps until the middle of January is A-OK in my book. Waking up this week in the morning darkness (thanks, daylight savings) is bad enough, but having the temperatures at -12 degrees with a chance of warming up to ZERO by the afternoon was a slap in the face from Old Man Winter. So I retreated to my scrapbook table with a cup of hot cocoa, got myself organized, and looked at pictures of warmer days. Memories of the cool and colorful days of autumn help take the sting of serious winter off my face. Remember the pumpkin patch? The corn maze? The giant chicken? The Halloween with out parkas and snowpants? (Wait...giant chicken?)
I dug in and committed to scrapping my way through fall. Here it is--giant chicken and all! I did make a promise to complete the journaling on each page before moving it to my album. There are whole years where the journaling is still blank - no matter what my great plan is, the journaling doesn't get done if I don't add it right away. Take that Old Man! Just wait until I start browsing last year's summer photos -- that will melt the ice cube you have for a heart!
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Kickin' It Like a Girl or Why Are There Only Three Types of Karate Paper?

Having the girl start with karate was a great idea. She is building strength, balance, coordination and confidence. We are so proud of her as she progresses through the the belts and competitions.The challenge for me is to create pages that highlight each event in a special and interesting way. Especially difficult is deciding what to do with the official certificates for each belt level. The certificates have no color which helps, but they are 8x11--hogging valuable real estate on a 12x12 page.
I know they are originals, but I cut them up anyway. I am sure that she will resent me for that (and a myriad of other things) when she is an adult, but I think I can take it.

The tournaments are a different challenge. Trying to capture the quick action of the individual form competition without the gold and orange glow of the gym floor coloring the photos vexed me for some time.

(OK, then I figured out the settings on my camera and had it filter it out at the last tournament.) Working with the gold haze and the blurry action, I was forced to be creative. In some I opted for the black and white versions. In others I just went with the blur and pretended I meant to do that.
Looking back over the collection, I feel like I have developed a rhythm in the whole karate theme. Seriously, there really are only three karate patterned papers in the universe, so I am being as selective as I can in using them. I'm always on the lookout for more. Hi-ayah!
Just a quick addition to this post-found a couple of great sites for a few more karate-themed papers and embellishments:

MartialArtsPartyStore
ScrappinStuff (martial arts)
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Isn't It Supposed To Be Christmas In July? or I Am SO Far Ahead This Year

[Let's Take a Sleigh Ride, 2009]

It used to be that when the July scrapping weekend would roll around, I would be prepped and ready to go with my Halloween and Christmas pictures. Powering through the weekend, cranking out layout after layout of fall leaves and pumpkins followed by green and red overload, I felt so accomplished when I was done and finally looking at January pictures.


[Winter Slide 2008, sketch from PageMaps]

As a pathologically chronological scrapbooker, I measure my level of accomplishment by how far behind I am from the pictures I took TODAY. My standard is six months. It's normal for me to be working on my Fourth of July pictures in January. There are some hiccups that throw me off my game like the year I took so many Christmas pictures I had to make a separate album. That's right - 27 12x12 pages chronicling the endless holiday season of 2005. But check out my sweetie girl in "All Tangled Up in Christmas" and tell me you wouldn't feel compelled to snap a couple of extra photos.


[All Tangled Up in Christmas 2005]

There was also the year I rebelled and did all of my fall and Halloween layouts out of order because I read a magazine article that gave me permission to "scrap what I liked." It was a little disconcerting to scrap out of sequence so I avoid it whenever possible. Yeah, I have issues.

This year was shaping up to fall right along the six month timeline when I was revisiting my summer pictures this winter. Then yesterday as I was finishing up the last of my pre-prepped pages (photos and papers matched up and stored together in a plastic page protector-I know, I already admitted I have issues), that the next stack of pictures I needed to work on sorting were for Easter.

I checked again. That couldn't be true.


[Christmas Morning 2008]


[Ice, Ice, Baby 2009, sketch from Sketches R Us]

I tried to figure out what could have happened. How could I have missed months of photos? Careful review of my pictures (digital and printed), my calendar, and my memory made it clear that I had completely covered fall and winter. First was the realization that I only had four layouts for Christmas. I really cut back on the picture-taking (could be that my camera was being troublesome).


[Hey, Santa 2008, sketch from Cherie's Sketches]

After I got a new camera from Santa, I picked up the pace a little, but the wicked-cold days of Minnesota winter offered fewer photo-ops, and I ended up with just these highlights from January and February.

March was easy, since it was only my vacation pictures (OK, there were 187 of them, but I put them in a mini-album rather than my big album.) I will save that scrapping adventure for next time.

That brings me to where I am now - it's only June and I am starting on my April stash. That's closing the gap to only two months. Hey, it's not really bragging if it's true.


[Cake, Candles & Party Hats 2008]
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All That Glitters...

How did I end up OWNING my own jars of glitter? I am really a cardstock and ribbon kind of scrapper. I want to blame Kit, the Glitter Queen, for my descent into the shiny side of life, but the truth is I glitter because my daughter's pictures beg for it. I am not sure how she got to be such a "girly-girl." But there's no fighting her desire to be FANCY and SPARKLY. So we just let her be who she wants to be. She is our princess in every way.

[Princess Through & Through, 2008]

This means that I have given in to glitter. It started small, with a few stick-on jewels here and there. But a couple of years ago, while working on a Diva layout, I was sitting across from the Glitter Queen. She just couldn't let those pictures of the girls all blinged out go without at least suggesting some glitter. I pooh-poohed the idea. Me? Glitter? How absurd. But Glitter Queen just made it seem so simple, so normal, so NECESSARY. I succumbed and had my first tutorial. The page really did capture the sparkly story.

After that, I dabbled in more jewels and stocked up with glitter paper. I mixed the glitter paper in unlikely pages, like the Big Fish page. Then I found Bazzill Bling cardstock. OK, you're killing me with this stuff. It's shiny and sparkly. It comes in all colors. I had to own all of it. I used it for the Cinderella/Halloween page - nothing else would do.

[Big Fish, 2007]

[The Updo and the Upchuck, 2007]

Now I have jewels (circles, hearts, flowers), glitter patterned paper, Bling cardstock, and a set of silver and gold pens I picked up along the way. Then I bought these great metallic pens from Creative Memories. They are terrific for journaling and doodling with shiny touch, especially when paired up with the glitter patterned paper. It seemed like a good match up in The Dolphin and the Unicorn layout.

[The Dolphin and the Unicorn, 2007]

I was heading down that glittery path faster and faster. I bought glitter rub-ons for Halloween AND winter. This layout for Snow Time was perfect with glitter-paper snowflakes and glitter rub on snowflakes.

[Snowtime, 2007]

Then it happened. I went all in. I had Glitter Queen order actual jars of glitter for me. A set of five. I own them. I rearranged my supplies and storage to make a spot just for them. I got spray adhesive. I glitter to do justice to my baby's natural sparkle and shine. I glitter because my baby girl is a princess who deserves to twinkle and shimmer.

I glitter because I can.

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Scrapper Interrupted

I love getting away for a scrapping retreat weekend. The group that I usually get away with was planning for the August 1-2 weekend. I knew months ago that I wouldn't be able to make that weekend work, so I did a different weekend with a small group in July. It was two and half days of relaxed time dedicated to scrapbooking. I worked on my daughter's school scrapbook. She is starting kindergarten this year, and I figured I should probably get that thing done. It took up most of the weekend so I didn't get many page layouts done.

[School Years Scrapbook]

Because I didn't feel like I made much progress on my pages, I went ahead and decided to try the August weekend. I thought an all day Thursday and Friday would allow me to get back on Saturday afternoon for the family activities we had planned. Ah well, the best a laid plans of mice and men.... Instead I got caught up at work until noon and didn't get up to CJ's Cottage until almost 3 pm. Then I got distracted with job hunting. Since I am one of many of the casualties of the economic slowdown and I need a job to finance my scrapbooking habit, it was important. Once I had that stuff under control, it was almost 4:30. Just looking at my stuff and knowing I needed to head home to take care of my daughter at 8. I did finish Family Snow Day and, except for the demise of my white paint pen, On the Ice.


[Family Snow Day 2008]


[On the Ice 2008]

Friday was another stop and start. Got up to the Cottage about 9 am and worked until 2 pm. Was able to crank out the Pisces Girls and Winter's Day (While the idea for the pine cones was Lisa's, it was Mary who dug deep in her stuff and came up with the perfect stickers to cover my mistakes. Thanks, ladies!). Must have had some circle thing going on in my head. Then had to take my daughter to the doctor for kindergarten vaccinations. No fun, but had to be done. Headed back up to the Cottage for the night.


[Winter's Day 2008]

Put the finishing touches on Winter's Day and dug into Egg Delight. It was a such an odd color palette-not Easter or springy at all. Could be because there was 3 feet of snow still on the ground for Easter. The odd colors made the flower embellishments a real struggle. I just couldn't find the right tone. I compromised with Cricut cut flowers out of the patterned papers.


[Pisces Girls 2008 - sketch from 52 Sketches]

I was almost ready to put the Pisces Girls page on my "ugliest pages" list (what was I thinking with that polka dot paper?), when I got a call from my husband. Minor family emergency required that I drive up to meet my sister-in-law 45 miles north on the freeway. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to do it. Lord knows I owe her a hundred times over, and this was no big deal. Just, seriously...while I'm scrapbooking!? By the time I got home with her and my niece, it was past midnight. Decided to spend the night in my own cozy bed and shoot back up to the Cottage early in the morning.


[Egg Delight 2008]

The next morning I was able to ease back in and put together the Lots of Bunny Love pages with the Easter laser cut template I bought two years ago. Not good enough to have the template to make the page quick and easy; no, I had had make the tag on covered chipboard. Why do I do that? Sure the tag is cute, but I honestly think I need a reality check (or a smack upside the head) when I choose these putzy things.


[Lots of Bunny Love 2008]

As my time started counting down, I was able to whip together the Zoom-Zoom layout. Love my little baby girl all dressed up for snowmobiling with her daddy.

[Zoom-Zoom 2008]

Then it was time to pack it up and head home. Just felt like I never quite got my scrapping groove on. Probably should have followed my instincts and skipped the weekend at the Cottage. But it's such a temptation-how could I miss all this:

• the awesome show and tell moments from everyone (Does Bev even remember where she bought some of that stuff? And Roxy is sure quiet, but has more stuff than all of us put together.)
• the glitter queens working on the front step (Yes, Marie did get a splinter in her butt, but she was glittering outside in her pajamas. What did she expect?)
• Amy with her glue gun, giant roll of 3M foam tape, and three packages of black paper (Johnnie says, "It's not really scrapbooking until you can smell the glue gun!")
• the strict enforcement of the "no naked scrapbooking" rule

It was tons of fun. Just wished I could say I got more done. Wait, did I hear there is a special discount weekend right after Halloween?

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Summer Fun

[Independence Day, 2007]

As Independence Day approaches, my family is planning our usual shinding by the lake. It's a very traditional 4th of July celebration including kids, burgers, swimming, sunshine and fireworks. Having the 4th fall on Friday this year will give us a chance watch the fireworks in PR, and have the rest of the family join us at the lake for the day on Saturday. Getting organized for what has become an annual event, got me looking back at the scrapbook pages from last year.

[Floatie Fun, 2007]

Last year we had great weather - sunny, but not oppressively hot - that had everyone glad to be at the lake. My favorite memory was looking out at the lake and seeing the floatie garden that grew there. Not only was the meal potluck, but so were the water toys. We dotted the lake with an exciting array of floaties from the simple noodle to the giant orange spider.

[Meanwhile...Back at the Beach, 2007]

Sometimes I get so caught up in scrapping my pictures in chronological order that I lose track of the fun memories that the pictures represent. Everyone really wants to see the pictures right away instead of waiting six months. To help with that, everyone has been pretty good about posting photos as soon as possible online for others to browse and enjoy. I love that there are others who are way better photographers than I am sharing pictures that I didn't get on my camera. It's immediate gratification while still riding high on the joy of the events. And I get to choose from lots of different pictures for my scrapbooks.

However, I usually scrapbook six to eight months behind the event. The gap in time allows me to think differently about the the design and palette for pages. I spent lots of time this January scrapping these summer pictures. I was far enough from the event that I didn't feel compelled to use the traditional red, white and blue for these. I actually had great fun with the oranges, yellows and pinks that I used in Floatie Fun and Independence Day.

Since I usually just have Olivia pictures, it was such great change up to have so many cute kid pictures to work with. The fresh and excited faces of the babies, boys and girls at play brought a sense of action and motion to the pages that made them a joy to work on. Not to be left out, I did manage to create one review of the day with only Olivia. I am her mommy after all. Using the preprinted paper for Summertime Fun made it a quick page to complete with the added touch of the giant metal arrow brads that Kit couldn't wait to get rid of. (OK, she literally threw them across the table at me like they burned her fingers. Thanks, Kit! One woman's trash is another's treasure.) The focus picture of Olivia in the pink hat was my favorite from the whole weekend and was taken by Gary. Outstanding photo; thanks, Gary!


[Summertime Fun, 2007]

We also knew from a recent retrospective of Char pictures that there just were not enough pictures of Char with the girls. Looking back at Emma with her long hair in darling braids, I wonder how adorable her new short haircut will look in pictures this year. The floral paper was heavy, almost a cardstock. I used a craft knife to cut out the petals and use them as an overlapping frame for the title card. Simple, but I really liked the effect.

[Auntie Char, 2007]

Once the family gathering came to a close, there was still plenty of weekend fun. The next day the kids found lots of stuff to keep them busy before hitting the lake again. The pink Barbie Jeep got a work out. Little Max learned to drive - not really from the best drivers, but at least some of the cutest in Driving Lesson. Later Kris gave rides on the quad - no driving lessons required.

[Driving Lesson, 2007]

[Quad, 2007]

Kris and Kathy talk about their memories of the Logging Camp all the time, but this was my first time to this northwoods historic hot spot. The design for this page is a total scraplift. I just happen to have the right sized pictures for the layout. It was also my first venture into covering chipboard with paper for the embellishments. I liked the way the chipboard adds just a little dimension and flow to the layout to guide the viewer across the page.

[Logging Camp, 2007]

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Travels and Adventures

[I Believe in Fairies 2007]

Capturing the excitement of special events is always a challenge for me. The first difficult thing is sorting through the pictures to find the ones that show action and sense of fun. Usually I have shots that clearly demonstrate my ability to chase after my family and friends and snap remembrances of the back of their heads, sides of their shoulders, and food in their mouths. Not quite scrapping material.

On our last visit to the Renaissance Festival, the visit with the fairy was really a high point for Olivia. Her belief in real fairy magic is strong and meeting one in person was cooler than she could ever imagine. The fairy was pretty photo-savvy and made sure I got at least a couple of great shots. Later in the day the best I could get were a couple of faraway looks of the awesome face painting. The piggyback ride of the girls is still the best shot, even if they do have food in their mouths.

[Day at the Zoo]

Out visit to the zoo yielded even poorer photos than usual since I forgot my camera. These photos are all from my cell phone. Because I didn't have a decent camera, any pictures of animals were out of the question. The only ones that had any potential were from the kiddie carnival and carousel. When I looked at the the pictures, I knew I would have to do something with the blurry ones. They ended up being loads of fun and just what I needed to share the motion of the afternoon.

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Not Really My Favorite Holiday-It Just Scraps That Way

[Pumpkin Grins 2007 - sketch from sketch me if you can]

By looking at the latest volume of my scrapbook, you might begin to think that Halloween is my favorite holiday. That's not really true. Somehow, I ended up with waaaay too many pictures related to pumpkins and costumes. I think that fall offers so many photo opportunities, that I just wanted to make sure I captured the best ones. From that point, the 8 separate layouts just seemed to be inevitable.


[Pink Pumpkin 2007]

Since I sort through my pictures again after I get the prints, I sometimes don't even realize how many stories I have in my planning piles. Once I separate the pictures, I match them up to paper, both patterned and cardstock. Sometimes I succeed in matching up two or three pattern papers. This is also my way of justifying my habit of buying piles of paper for events and seasons I'm not even working on. Since I ususally am scrapbooking 6 months behind, like dipping into my paper stash and finding cool stuff I forgot I bought.


[Pumpkin Boat w/ Insert 2007 - sketch from sketch me if you can]

In September and October I bought every cool and funky fall and Halloween paper that caught my eye. The result is that I have loads of outstanding papers from which to choose when prepping my pages. When I bought the paper, I had no idea what would go with the traditional orange and black color scheme and if there would ever be any way to use the super cool glitter green paper I just had to have.


[It's Mushy Inside 2007 - sketch from sketch me if you can]

While many people I scrap with buy for a specific layout, I just buy for the hope that I will use it. The great polka dot tag on It's Mushy Inside, is two years old--just waiting for the right moment. The sparkly pumpkin rub ons were just too fun to pass by when they ended up in the sale bin in January. The two pages of flocked tags from Pink Pumpkin and Preschool Halloween Party were 40% off and still have plenty for next year. Being able to bring out my collection three year's accumulation of fall and Halloween embellishments and doo-dads and sort through them allows me to be somewhat spontaneous.


[Preschool Halloween Party 2007 - sketch from Racketty Scrappety]

This great sketch gave me a chance to use the awesome spider paper that didn't quite seem to fit anywhere else or match up with any other pictures.


[Witchy Hat 2007 - sketch from Page Maps by Becky Fleck]

By the time Halloween night actually arrived, I had no idea how many fall and pumpkin pictures I had on my camera already. I am sure that I am now known as the neighborhood crazy mommy who takes pictures of trick-or-treating like I am a member of the paparazzi.


[Trick or Treat 2007 - sketch from sketch me if you can]

Seeing Olivia finally decked out in the much anticipated Cinderella costume, I had to capture the before, during and after Halloween. The bright blue of the costume allowed me to deviate from the traditional colors to a bling blue and white page for the the last of the Halloween pages.


[The Updo & the Upchuck 2007]



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