It started out as a simple goal of decorating journals I keep for my nieces and nephews. It's turned into an obsessive hobby. There's ink on my fingers. There's glitter on my face. There's adhesive backing stuck to my pants. There's reams of pretty paper and a massive amount of embellishments in my craft room. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Here's where I share my paper crafting creations with you. Thanks for visiting.
My friend (though, I think of her as a sister) called last night and asked for some die cut pigs - I have no idea what she wants these pigs for, but I'm happy to oblige.
Pulled up the Silhouette store and went on a pig hunt. Found two that I liked. One is a little cartoonish and the other reminds me of one of those diagrams you'd find at the butcher's to tell you where the cut of pork comes from.
Here are the two designs I chose.
Now, Ms. Laura wanted some purple pigs (does anyone else have trouble figuring out what parts to cut what color - it took me forever). Here they are cutting on the Silhouette - sorry for the light coming in the window. We're actually seeing sun today.
And after putting all those little pieces of the cartoonish pig together - those eyes are a pain - here are the collection of Ms. Laura's purple pigs.
And on this one, I actually tried to get a little fancy and do some shading. Patience and more time and I think I could have done it justice.
One thing I realized though, is I could cut out all different shapes
like this on Copic compatible paper and then do some real shading and
coloring. Good to know.
Another thing I realized is that before I sit down to make a layout, I really need to look through all of the images I own for the Silhouette. This will definitely help me to increase using the machine which would eventually justify the buying of the Cameo.
Today's LOAD challenge was to use a sketch provided by Lain. This is my finished product. I'm not sure how much it follows the sketch, but this is typically how it goes for me. I'll look at a sketch or something I want to scraplift and then somewhere along the way things go awry and the end product looks nothing like the original inspiration. I guess that's good in some ways, in others, lifting is supposed to save time, doing it this way, doesn't save a bit of time.
Again no process video since it was the continuation of National Scrapbooking Day (or weekend in my house).
The pictures are from our trip to Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge- documenting mom's love of birdwatching. It was so neat to be working on this layout and have her right next to me to fill in all of the details.
Today's LOAD challenge was to go to Ebay, search on your name and use whatever comes up in the search as inspiration for your page.
When I did my search, this is what I found:
I decided to use the gears as the embellishment on my page. As it was National Scrapbooking Day, Laura and mom came down to scrap with me. Laura brought her smaller box of pictures and it was this one of WTK and a train set that Laura picked up for him at a yard sale. A train set that she calls the most annoying thing ever. I loved how clear the blue of WTK's eyes are in this picture and decided I would steal this picture from Laura and scrap it. It definitely went with my gear embellishment.
Lots of Echo Park on this page and some Tim Holtz gears. Lots of scraps. I cut out stars for a layout I did about GEP earlier this year and on this page I used the negatives of those stars. Added some short journaling some train themed stickers. I painted some of the background paper over with white to provide a place for the title.
No process video for this one - I created it while my scrapping girls were here.
LOAD, day 4's challenge was about focusing on other senses besides sight when thinking about scrapbooking, today, about hearing. I chose to scrapbook a page about the call of the Bald Eagle - if you've never heard it, I suggest going to you tube and looking it up. It's not what you'd expect, that's for sure.
Journaling reads:
The
bald eagle’s cry is rather surprising. Given its majestic look, its large size,
its imposing beak and talons, one would expect its call to be the mightiest of
the birds of prey. However, when they lean their heads back to call out, what
emerges is a soft, timid cry. Filmmakers may use a bald eagle when they need
something that looks powerful, but will often use the red-tailed hawk’s
piercing cry when they need something that sounds powerful.
On a
trip to Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Stew, Mom, Dad, and I got to
experience the Eagle’s call first hand.
Stew almost caused Dad to wreck the car he yelled out to stop so
fast. I was irritated with him for all
of one second, before I realized exactly what he was pointing out. High in a tree just hanging out and watching
the world him or her sat a gorgeous adult Bald Eagle. We got to experience this sight for a long
time as the bird remained comfortably observing for awhile. She (I’m assuming the bird was a she due to
the size) would watch as other birds flew near her, but never too close. As Eagles sit on the top of the bird food
chain, I don’t think anyone wanted to disturb her. We heard a call in a distance that I didn’t
recognize, but our bird did. She replied
immediately and I knew what to expect, I’ve listened to recordings of the Bald
Eagle’s call and I’ve heard them at the bird rescue and at the zoo, but to see
this majestic creature in her nature habitat and to hear her call as clearly as
if she were right next to us was a sight to behold. Once the other eagles came around, she didn’t
stick around long. She flew off in their
direction – but we considered ourselves blessed for the time that she did spend
with us and for the ability to watch the eagles soar above us. There were four there in all. Stew didn’t manage to get the call recorded,
but he did take some stunning photos – especially this one as she flew away. (April 14, 2012)
First paragraph of the journaling comes for the following website:
Day 3 of LOAD was all about using holiday colors to scrapbook a non-holiday layout. I took the easy way out today. My beloved Flyers are orange, black and white - Halloween colors, so I chose to do a layout about a game that my husband and I attended in February. We played against the Pittsburgh Penguins and lost - but in the end we got the last laugh. We're still playing and they're now sitting at home, thanks to us.
Go Flyers!
The video to watch me put this layout together is below:
Here's another cringe worthy layout that I did early in my scrapping days. I'd say this layout was created sometime in late 2009. I remember very clearly seeing this end note design on everyone's pages and couldn't figure out how they did it. I couldn't find paper shaped that way even after a long time searching on the internet and in local scrapbooking stores. I finally asked someone and she told me it was a die cut. I had no idea what a die cut was. I eventually found page kits at I think Walmart that had a cardboard frame in this shape. I traced the frame and then cut out this end note design. This is the first layout where I used brads - and why didn't I round the corners of the photo to match the mat? Come a long way!
The cutting edge technique on this page ;-) - I printed the "Are You Ready for Some Football" on a clear transparency, cut it out and used it as my subtitle. Love those foam number stamps. Page created late 2009.
Cutting edge technique ;-) - I used real playing cards on this one and I stitched the word Family from a Bazzill stitching template. (Page made late 2009)
My first two page layout. There's a quilled pumpkin on the second page. I used glossy accents on the letters and glitter on the large P. The small yellow flowers were made from buttons and a hair tie and the large flower was the first time I used die cut papers to create a layered look. At the time I made this page it was Stew's favorite. (Page made: late 2009)
This is the first layout I ever received a comment for on scrapbook.com. Painted the chipboard frames. Stenciled those fish on with stencil paint. I thought it was awesome that I used twine around the photo - but ack, I cut that photo with shaped scissors. *rolls eyes* (Created late 2009)
(Side note: I left that Nike sweatshirt in a hotel room - I'm still upset about that!)
It's great to look back on all of these old layouts. I'm honestly really enjoying it - it continues to show me how much I've grown.
Day two of LOAD. Today's prompt was no pictures. As soon as I heard this, I knew exactly the story I wanted to tell. I wrote the journaling and printed it on my wide format printer. I don't use this thing nearly as often as I should. I think it's location prevents this. I'm looking around my room to figure out a way to get it out of the cavernous pit in which it now resides and put it out front and center. Only problem is the thing is huge - so it's going to take some maneuvering. We'll see if I can figure that out.
I didn't want to pull out all of the Christmas embellishments and paper that I own to scrap this Christmas story, so I chose items that were handy: a 6x6 paper pad from Authentique, some red ribbon from a kit, DIY thickers in my favorite font (Rootbeer Float!) that I covered in red glitter, a pack of brads from MME, some Prima Letters, a bit of Kaisercraft bling and Glimmer Glaze.
I attempted to use the silver Glimmer Glaze on my layout for day one, but after smattering it on the page, decided I didn't like it and covered it up. On this layout, I used the red to paint a border around three sides of the layout.
I'm thankful for the fact that this story is now captured in my book - never to be forgotten.
Journaling Reads:
So many of your memories of childhood fade away as the years
past and yet, there are other that etched indelibly in your mind that no matter
how much time has gone, the moments will never be forgotten. I have a lot of memories of my mom that are
like that, but one story in particular removes the layers of the everyday and
broadcasts my mother’s spirit loud and clear.
I don’t remember the year, but I remember all of the emotions, all of
the thoughts, all of what I was experiencing.
Christmas was always my mother’s time of the year. She loved everything about it. Okay, maybe she didn’t like going to the mall
and you’d never see her in Toys R Us no matter what one of us told Santa we
wanted, but she loved to decorate, she loved to cook, she loved to wrap presents
even if it did take her until the wee hours of Christmas Day to complete the
task. Mostly, she loved being surrounded
by her family. She loved seeing her kids
happy. One Christmas, sometime when I
was in the middle grade, Christmas approached and instead of her normal glee,
it was filled with sadness and regret.
Our father was long gone, again and my mother was a working, single mom
with four kids. There just wasn’t any
money for gifts. It bothered her. It bothered her a lot. We spent Christmas Eve at our grandparents so
that there would be something under the tree come Christmas morning. I don’t remember any of us being upset or
disappointed about the lack of gifts. We
knew how hard our mother worked to give us what we needed, but her hurt was
palpable. The day came and went and
honestly, I don’t think any of us thought anything more about it. That is until a cold Saturday in February. Awaken too early in the morning to the sound
of utensils being struck upon frying pans, we crankily opened our eyes and
listened to her call us all down to the living room. My first thought was what did we do now. Almost panicked we walked slowly down the
stairs to see the biggest grin on her face.
There on her ficus tree was strewn garland and tinsel. Below it were gifts wrapped in wax paper and
aluminum foil. My mother called, “Merry
Christmas.” To say we were confused
would be an understatement, but we caught on pretty quick. We were going to have the Christmas mom
wasn’t able to give us in December. I
don’t remember what the boys received, but I opened a brand new typewriter -
something that I had wanted for as long as I could remember. And though, the gift was appreciated and
special to me, I think seeing the joy in my mother’s face that morning was the
best gift of all. Christmas in February
has become quite the legend in our family.
It’s a memory that comes up every time my brothers and I reminisce about
mom. It’s a memory that shows the true
spirit of who our mother was and no matter when or where Christmas is
celebrated now, it hasn’t been and never will be the same since mom has passed.
(I need to learn how to take better pictures of my layouts.)
I've taken the plunge again. I hope this time I'm more successful. I think I completed seven days when I tried LOAD in February and then I went on the road for work and that was all she wrote. I am going to take time while I'm home to learn how to do some digital scrapping, even if it's very basic stuff so that I can complete my layouts while on the road.
For LOAD in February, I participated in a blog hop (on my other blog) and what I posted then about why I want to do LOAD hasn't changed, so I'll be pulling that post up out of the dungeon and posting it to the new blog. So you should see that in the entry before this one - if you're interested.
Now - on to the layout for Day 1. The challenge was Self Portrait. Since I absolutely hate having my picture taken and wasn't feeling especially introspective yesterday, I struggled with this one. I didn't know what direction I was going in or anything really that I wanted to document. I was flipping through all of our photos and I found this one that Stew took unbeknownst to me while we were at the Eastern Wildlife Sanctuary. The sun shining down, the serene look on my face, I look at this picture and see myself as hopeful in it, so that's what I chose to focus on.
I kind of cheated when it came to the patterned paper. I bought an ATC set at Michael's a couple of months back (love my clearance finds) and in it were these papers already perfectly coordinated. It doesn't get much easier than that. I've had that plastic word Hopeful in my stash since I started scrapping. I don't even know who made it - this was before I kept track of such things. I pulled a journaling card from Studio 112 (love those dollar bins, too) which matched the colors. The ribbon is from Michael's - Celebrate It. There's wax seals from Basic Grey. The three wire flowers and the moon pendant came in a kit and since I've pulled all of my kits apart, I don't know the manufacturer of those either. The word stickers are from Cosmo Cricket as is the background paper. The brad with the flower on it is MME and the other brads are Making Memories. I went a little crazy with the Queen and Co. rhinestones, but I don't do well with empty spaces and thought it needed something. The transparency I cut apart and used in places to border the patterned paper - that was also from my stash.
All in all, the layout took less than an hour - that's what I love about LOAD. Don't fret. The most important thing about the layout is that it's done!
(Originally posted 27 Jan 2012 for the LOAD blog hop. I've deleted all of the information pertaining to the hop - but the things I wrote about why I wanted to participate in LOAD remain the same, so I thought I'd share those thoughts on this blog since the hop was actually at my other blog.)
For those of you wondering what LOAD is - please see the post immediately proceeding this one. It will explain and provide links to every thing you need to know.
This is my first time participating and I must say I'm filled with a myriad of emotions about it. I'm excited, inspired, nervous, and maybe even a little scared. (Update: 02 May 2012: This is now my second time and I'm still excited, inspired and nervous - though I'm not scared anymore. I got over that. The community is so supportive - now if only I can keep up!)
So why did I choose to participate? Let me show you a picture...
This is a layout I started working on, oh I don't know, days ago? And it's still sitting here on my scrap desk without anything being adhered. I walk past it, move pattern papers around, think about some embellishments that I have that might work, pull those out and lay them on the desk and then, inevitably, I walk away from it. It sits there mocking me, preventing me from moving on to anything else. It's not this particular layout that does this - it's all of them. They all linger because of my expectation of perfection. What if I choose papers that don't go together? What if the embellishments don't match? What if I don't do the picture justice? What if I don't do the supplies I've chosen justice? The questions go on and on and so nothing in my scrap room gets done - well, that's not entirely true. They will get done...eventually.
How does that tie into LOAD? That's an easily answered question - when you have to make a layout every day, there's no time for this struggle. The time required to do one layout every day brings the art of scrapbooking back to the basics. It's not about embellishment. It's not about the latest and greatest papers. It's not about what everyone else will think. It's about that picture and that story and as long as those two things are stuck to that paper (preferably with acid free adhesive - but go on and use chewing gum if it's all you have around), then the objective of scrapbooking has been achieved. The memories are captured for those to enjoy for years to come.
And honestly, isn't that what this is all about? Isn't this at its very basic level why we all do this?
So that is why I'm participating - I want to be challenged to let go of the insecurities (since goodness knows I'm in no way artistic) and just create layouts that portray the accurate story.
There will be some obstacles along the way - one of which is the amount of time that I travel. I'm not one of those people who can add extra stuff to a suitcase. I don't check baggage and I travel with the smallest possible suitcase. It's the life of a road warrior - so there's no room for scissors and glue, but I have my computer. Those days I'm on the road, I'm going to reach outside of my comfort zone and try digital scrapbooking. There's lots of free kits to get started and it's still getting memories into albums.
There are also added benefits. It's a great way to get more involved in the online scrapbooking community and to meet others who share my same interests. Lain is so encouraging. Her energy just spills out of the computer screen and inspires you. The community is supportive.
I can't wait to get started, but eeek, is it really only five days away?? (02 May 2012: EEEEK, it's already here!)
LOAD (Layout A Day) is the brain child of Lain Ehmann. The idea behind LOAD is to create one layout a day for the entire month during which LOAD is running. Yes, one layout, every day. Is this insane? Some might think so - but I certainly don't, okay, maybe a little, but I'm up for the challenge. Are you? I'd love any of my friends out there to join me. You'll find Lain to be encouraging, uplifting, inspiring, and her energy just pops off of the computer screen. The LOAD community is full of like minded, supportive individuals who believe that preserving their family's memories is vitally important.
If you want to learn more about LOAD - and you should want to learn more about it - head on over to this page. To find Lain's website click here.
(Update, 02 May 2012: It's LOAD time again and again I've taken the plunge. February wasn't the success I hoped it would be, I finished 7 days before traveling derailed the whole thing. I'm not a quitter though - so I'm trying once more. I'll be blogging the adventures here and hopefully, will have a videos showing the process for all of my paper layouts. I'll be traveling some this month and plan to throw my hat in the digital ring - so won't have paper layouts those days - but I will still be sharing my digital layouts. Are you participating in LOAD? If so, please share your link, I'd love to see what you're up to.)
This layout shows the silly side of my husband. His birthday is in January and we had not one, but two parties to celebrate. When his side of our family came down, it was the first time most of them were seeing him after he got out of the hospital. There was a fire at our house on Christmas Eve and he sustained third degree burns to his hands. Once everyone knew he was going to be okay, it was time for the jokes to begin. His mom brought down a battery operated tea light candle to put on his cake - no fire for Stew. Not one to miss an opportunity to expand on a joke, this picture shows Stew warming his hands over this tea light. He makes me laugh so much.
In the layout I wanted to focus on how much I love to see him being silly and how much he makes me laugh.
I used a layered sticker from My Mind's Eye (MME) that reads, "I love to see you happy, laughing and smiling." I couldn't resist that tag from Jillibean Soup - Gnome one makes me smile like you do. It's just the sort of play on words in which Stew excels.
For the background paper, I a piece of cardstock from October Afternoon's Farmhouse collection and as is the case most of the time when I scrap, I changed my mind on which side of the paper I was going to use once I started the layout.
I originally pulled a piece of Studio Calico paper to use in addition to the Memory Box papers (on clearance at Two Peas for $0.22 - score!); however, there is so much dark brown in the photo that the layout really needed dark brown elements to ground it, so I chose that brown striped paper. I'm not sure of the manufacturer, it's a piece of paper I've had in my stash forever.
Finding the right letters was also a challenge. I love those Pink Paislee wood letters, but there wasn't a "c" - so I pulled a large chipboard piece and painted it with a Jenni Bowlin paint dauber in Brown Sugar. For the rest of the title, I used Studio Calico letters and pennants - the wood pennants went nicely with the wood alphas.
I used a strip from MME's Fun Day collection - it's the dark brown strip underneath the word Clown and the strip reads, "fun day," repeatedly.
For the date, I used a Elle's Studio label and stamped the date using the Smash Book date stamper in Chestnut Roan chalk ink by Colorbox.
Originally, I had chosen blue and green embellishments, but once the page came together, it was clear to me that I really needed something to accent that dark brown paper so I changed up the embellishments and went with some light and brown buttons.
For the journaling, I used a craft tag and stamped lines on it with Lawn Fawn's Schoolhouse Backdrop - because I definitely need lines or else all of my writing will be downhill. Once that was done, it took me a while to figure out what else to do. There was an awkward space in between that MME label and the journaling.
To solve this I pulled some chipboard shapes from Bella Blvd - the Brown and Champagne collection from Sophisticates. I bought these in every color about a year ago from a discount online scrapbook supply store. I suspect they are pretty old as all of the adhesive on the back is dried up. This doesn't bother me - I like the way they look and a little bit of Tombo Mono Multi and they're good to go.
In the end I'm pretty happy with the way this layout came together.
If you'd like to watch me put this layout together, you can do so below:
