Scrapbook Saturday or How Could I Possible Get All This Done?

I recently found a whole Saturday to get away with my scrapbooking supplies loaded in my car and head over to my local Archivers for a 12-hour scrap marathon. The despair that comes from walking by the half-finished scrapbook page day after day in my work room became too much for me to handle, so I was forced to take action. It wasn't difficult to convince a couple of friends that this day just had to happen. (So sorry to K. who really paid the price for her scrapbooking obsession and ended up in the emergency room instead the scrapping room. It is a fear that many of us have - outsiders shaking their heads unable to understand how any one person could possibly have that many "craft supplies" in their car. Even though the car was damaged, her supplies were recovered without loss.)

Unpacking my scaled-downed supply pile was great motiviation. I was able to jump right in and start working on my prepped pages. I had spent the last few months selecting pictures, matching papers, ordering the left and right pages, and finding sketches, and now I was going to actually get down to business. It was fantastic!

It was such a great  day. I was able to put together all of my Christmas pictures. I have my new commitment to completing the journaling, and it was a motivator to try my handwriting a little more. I never did break out the Cricut. The lack of electrical outlets in the workroom made it more of a hassle than I needed. Instead, I was able to make use of my letter and sticker stash. Except for the glitter white letters for the "Snow Fun" layout that I had to buy while I was there. Sometimes you just have to give in to the call of the store.

I seemed to have lots of two-page layouts, but it was probably because the holidays seem to generate so many pictures. I did complete a page that is unusual for me: a one-page layout with only one photo - nothing more fun that the Thanksgiving centerpiece.  Besides, there tends to be no really interesting pictures at Thanksgiving in our family - mostly of food.

Thanks to all you who have been visiting - I hope you have been enjoying my layouts and projects. 

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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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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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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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Sketchiosity: It's About Sketches

[Faces of Olivia - sketch from Racketty Scrappety]

I love looking at sketches! There are so many talented folks out there willing to share the enormous variety and styles of sketches with scrapbookers like me. For me it's all about choosing the papers and embellishments. I can really make time on a layout once I have a plan. That's where I get hung up - I really need a plan. Once I realized that the generous sketches were handing me balanced and and unified layout plans, I grabbed on. The sketch really allows me to evaluate my photos, identify the story, and match that to a roadmap to success. While I used to skim through magazines and online galleries to find layouts to inspire me, the sketch doesn't intimidate me with the fabulous techniques and stunning photos of other people's families or vacation spots. It is instead a sturdy tool to which I measure my photos against and see if they have what it takes to live in that layout.


[Labor Day Swim - sketch from Racketty Scrappety]

Sometimes, as in the sketch for Labor Day Swim above, the sketch pushes me to think about using the photos differently like irregular cutting of the focal photo and the photo cut off the edge. I seldom have these unique flashes of brilliance on my own and appreciate the fact that the creative types at Racketty Scrappety do regularly, AND invite me to try it on my own. Awesome!

There is such a robust and rich world of free sketches available for interested scrapbookers. I have linked this site to some of my favorites. It's so worth it to visit the sites at least weekly to check out what's new and see the layouts that others have made from the sketches. If these are not sites you have been visiting regularly, then by all means check out their archives. They are gold mines of years of original and inspiring sketches.


[Backyard Restaurant 2007 - sketch by Stuck?!]

At last Friday night's crop I was able to layout, crop and start embellishing three layouts in a very short time with the help of the some great sketches. I was able to convince Kit to take a look at some two-page sketches. Kit and I suffer from the same affliction (no, it's not an addiction to cardstock)-layout paralysis. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. It's when you set all the pictures from the event down on the table and stare at them without movement or progress for an extraordinary amount of time. You shuffle the pictures around and turn them this way and that. 30 minutes later you decide to just get something down and start cutting. Using the sketches, Kit was able to sort, select, and crop photos for three 2-page layouts in just a few hours. We were both taken with sketches by Chris Greiser from Scrap Me If You Can.

Sometimes, however, I just see something great and scraplift the living daylights out of it to get pages like these two. That still works.


[Face to Face w/ Fluffy 2007]


[Septemberrrrr Swim 2007 - title credit to Kristi Y.] Read More...