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!
Read More...

SVG Files or How My Cricut Needs a Friend

[Stars and Stripes-the title was a great free SVG file that perfectly with this page]

I remember standing in line at the scrapbook expo in the convention center after digging through the bins of die cuts. At the expo the die cut paper piecings were fifty cents to a dollar. They came in various sizes and fit every occasion and holiday. I left with a bag filled with pumpkins, ghosts, bubbles, leaves, fireworks, and strawberries. It was the only way to get those multi-layered of embellishments. Some even came with their own sequins.
[Lemon Slices-the two layered lemon slices seem simple, but this SVG file adds just the right element of monochrome texture]

With the Cricut came the chance to make all of our own letters, and when the cartridges with the various paper piecings came out, I had the same reaction as I did with the fonts - why do I want to spend $40-$80 for a single theme? I usually only wanted one or two of the images. That is why one of my favorite discoveries in the marriage of Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot is the little extras I can create with the SVG files. [Giant Strawberry-this multi-layered strawberry was a little putzy, but a nice homemade change to the purchased die cuts I have used in the past. It also allowed me to select the shades of red that best fit the page rarher than being stuck with someone else's interpretation of "strawberry red."]

There are so many great SVG files available both free and for purchase online. These pages show some of the free files that I found at SVGCuts.com. They have great packages to purchase and always a few freebies to tryout. They also have helpful video tutorials for those of us using the SCAL with the the layered designs for the first time. The designs are clean and simple.
[Happy Birthday- with so may fall birthdays, I was happy to find a few different titles to choose from.]

Other sites for free SVG files:

1. SVGCuts (my first find and still my favorite) http://svgcuts.com/blog/
2. Tu J's and a Taco http://tujs.wordpress.com/
3. SVG Shop http://svgshop.com/blog/

Read More...

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)
Read More...

Spring Has Sprung or Seeing the Sun Again Reminds of Last Summer

Oh, yes, spring is really here. The snow is really gone (even that stubborn icy patch that lives on the south side of my house where the sun rarely touches) and the green buds are peeking out. I am so excited to see the lilies of the valley that my in-laws gifted me with last summer are shooting out strong and healthy. With the fresh air of spring, I am less likely to hang out in my basement at the scrapping table. Just doesn't seem right to hunker in the corner surrounded by adhesive when I could be enjoying my backyard before the inevitable mosquito invasion. The spring and summer fun ahead turns my thoughts to spring and summer past.

Cruising through my books, I am pretty excited about how I chronicled last summer. Lots of good stuff there, much of it created in our January visit to Carla's Creative Cottage. As always Kit worried there wouldn't be enough of us to fill the cottage, but never fear - the draw of the luxury of the cottage (both space and time) ensures that there are plenty of chairs at the table. Sadly, Johnny was not able to join us (it was hockey season, duh!), but I did complete a few back in black pages in her honor. I am still working on my technique of reverse printing to get white text on black.


[1-2-3 Walleye, 2009]

It was a mostly cool summer, but, of course, the one day in June we decided to go to a local carnival, we were plenty warm.


[Carnival, June 2009]

The highlight of the summer was our annual Fourth of July family gathering at the lake. With all the cool weather, we were thrilled with the "finally warm enough to swim" days for our event. I had some shopping challenges prepping for these pages. It seems like the trend this year was for muted colors for Fourth of July. I really just needed some bright, true reds and blues. Much harder to find than I ever imagined. I worked on these next couple of pages on the New Year's Crop at Archivers. I realized that six years ago when I started scrapbooking a place like Archivers had more die cuts and letters than anyone could ever need. Now I know I need my laptop and Cricut to make sure that I have the endless collection of fonts and cutouts that physical store just can't offer me.


[Spirit of the Flotilla, 2009]


[Fourth of July, 2009]

I like the way this one turned out with the block format, it really helped me out when I realized I had the ugliest patterned paper in the universe to work with. The narrow strips minimized the paper and drew out only the parts I like. The woman sharing my table that day was horrified that I was tossing out the rest of the sheet. She honestly wanted it. One woman's trash is another woman's scrap.

This fireworks paper, on the other hand was fantastic! It is actually Disney brand paper (you know the "happiest place on earth" folks who make their own paper and over price it for everyone) with embossing and glitter. That's screams, "I gotta have it!" It's a good thing the papers on this one were great, because the pictures were poor - blurry and dark.


[Fireworks, 2009]


[Sparklers, July 2009]




The summer officially ended with a great Labor Day weekend. It was warm enough to get in that last swim of the season, and we actually had a warm day for our visit to Itasca Park. A lot of double page layouts this time around - I guess I was feeling the need to use lots of pictures and wanted to spread out a little.


[Flying Solo, 2010] This one was nothing to write home about, but overall did the job and told the story. Also only used stuff in my stash.


[Itasca, 2009] Loved the colors in this one and how striped paper fits with Olivia's shirt. Really digging the Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot with the title.


[Lemme See Your Frog, 2009] Read More...

Half-Price Weekend or I Forgot My Cheat Sheet

[2 Girls, 2 Cousins]

My last visit to the Creative Cottage was a great deal. A last minute offer to spend the weekend there at half-price on a weekend when my husband was actually going to be home before the serious hunt for Bambi's father began in earnest was too great an offer to pass up.


[Quack!]

I did a quick pack of my favorite things and put in for vacation for the Friday afternoon in order to get an early start. Turns out there was no way of getting out of my office until after 3 and I still had to stop and pick up my share of food at the grocery store. I finally made it to the Cottage at 4:30 pm. Took me over an hour to settle in and quit moving my stuff around while staring aimlessly at my pile of pictures.


[Fishing]

Finally, I decided to complete all of my journaling for my last batch of layouts (see The Pictures Speak for Themselves). That putzy work took until midnight. There was a strong sense of satisfaction, but I felt like I didn't gain very much ground.


[Berry Picking, this one is actually from a sketch and kit from Archiver's that I found buried in my paper holder.]

The next morning, I pulled out the pictures and papers and I was ready to go. I realized in my haste I had forgotten all of my ribbon (yikes!) and The Book of Inspiration. I had no samples layouts and no sketches. I was on my own. I had to make up my own layouts. (double yikes!)

[Butterflies]

My output for the rest of the weekend was less than stellar, I was pretty proud of my final creations. Read More...