Golfing in NC

Here's a layout that came together quickly, based on a sketch from Stuck Sketches. My husband, our son and brother in-law made it to the golf course a few times during vacation this summer. There was a photographer on the course for some reason, and I'm glad Phil agreed to let him take these pictures. I considered tagging along to get a few photos, but it was too early, too hot and too far from the beach for me! So I sure lucked out on this one.

Not much to say, which is okay. It's nice to just let the pictures do the talking every once in a while.

Consider the Background

Here's a completed layout based on a sketch over at Inspired Blueprints. I really wrestled with this one. The photos are supposed to feature our new bicycles, but in the background is our much larger and more dominant car. What was I thinking? This is why Phil is the family photographer. He always carefully considers his background. 


First, phase one of the layout, photos + paper. I couldn't help adding the title.                            

The finished layout, with these fun new spinners from Tim Holtz and the journaling.

There were many ways I could have gone with the journaling. I could have written about how we got new bikes to ride the new path that was recently completed just outside of our subdivision. I could have shared the story of how we took our first bike rides in the parking lot of the store where we purchased them. (Wish our son had been there. He would have been so embarrassed.) But in the end I settled on this story.

So true. Sad, but true. Honestly, we don't care. We're just glad they make bicycles like that for us getting older folk.

Tall Ships

I knew the double page sketch at Let's Scrap would be perfect to highlight photos from one of our summer mini-trips. When the Tall Ships sailed into Bay City, we drove up to see what it was all about and Phil took plenty of pictures. Here is the beginning of my layout, photos first.

For paper, I selected the August Kit called "Adventure" from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. Perfect stuff for these Tall Ships! I don't often scrap by theme, so when this started coming together, I got very excited.

Here is the finished product. Phil really liked it, which always makes me happy. I like to do justice to his photography.

I even found some "tall" letters and remembered to do some layering with my title. When the ribbon wouldn't conform to my circle shape, I cut it and made it work. For me, this is thinking outside the box. I know I have a long way to climb on the creative ladder. One step at a time.

Phil said these reminded him of port holes and he highly approved. So nice to be married to such an appreciative man.

Still Learning

We're in the home stretch in Shimelle's class, with only 6 more days left in the month of September. While my entries vary from day to day, there are certain patterns that emerge over time. Take, for instance, food.

Ah yes, the never ending quest to eat healthier and shed a few pounds. Then there's technology, where every day I should be grateful that I own an iMac. Some of the programs drive me crazy, but the computer itself is wonderful.

Poor Phil had a rough week with his PC. And finally, just the miscellaneous good stuff of life, like reading and scrapbooking. Wonder what I'll learn this week?

This post is part of a series while I focus on learning something new every day in September.

Friday Picks

If you listen to the Paperclipping Roundtable each week (and I hope you do), you know that the panelists all choose a Pick of the Week. This can be a product, blog, website, application, pretty much anything related to scrapbooking. Great stuff. Now since I spend a good part of my week surfing, tweeting and blog hopping, I figured why not bring some of my best finds your way? So here we go! In no particular order, and not all directly related to scrapbooking:


#1 I joined The Color Room - color palettes, sketches, videos - lots going on here!


#2 Crate Paper Tutorial: Flower Embellishments from Scraps - gorgeous use of leftover paper stash! Would make a great weekend project.


#3 Michelle's Collage Tutorial includes a freebie download of two 8x8 photo collages and great instructions! (with pictures, of course)


#4 If you homeschool or know someone who does, how cute is this Back to School Framed Layout? I don't think you have to homeschool to create this for your home!


#5 This YouTube video called "Flutter: The New Twitter" is making me laugh! Such dry humor and so tongue-in-cheek, just the way I like it.


#6 There is a brand new blog called Scrapbookers Anonymous looking for a Design Team. Lea and Theresa have been hard at work developing this scrap your stash challenge blog. Check it out!


Busy weekend coming up. Hoping to squeeze in some scrapping and make some sketch blog deadlines! 

Summer Summary

I'm still happily scrapping photos from this summer. Someday soon I will feel like moving on to fall, but not yet. We take tons of photos during the summer months, and I like to do a highlights layout. This two-page spread is based on a sketch from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 6. Love this book and Allison's website. As I mentioned in my previous post, during the week I worked with just the photos and paper.

Over the weekend, I came back to add the title, journaling and embellishments. Another reason to love sketches - knowing from the start where all the elements will be placed. Having those decisions already made frees me to think about creatively executing them.

Here are summer collages from previous years. In 2008 I focused on what summer looks like around our house.

Last year's theme was local sight-seeing. Phil took some really wonderful random shots that I was happy to gather together for this layout.

Do you do any kind of summary or highlights or collage layouts of the seasons? Funny thing is, I almost always do something for summer but feel no obligation to do the same for the other seasons. As Stacy Julian might say, I guess that's Photo Freedom!

Trying Out A New Process

As the slower pace of summer becomes more and more a dim memory, I'm finding the routine of being back to work is even affecting my scrapping process. A busier week = less time to scrap. If I'm bogged down on the details of a page, my motivation is also taking a hit. So this past week, I spent my scrapping time focusing on only the photos and basic design of each page. By the end of my work week I had 2 single layouts and 1 double layout completed to this point. Here's an example.

When Friday finally rolled around, there was only the title, journaling and embellishments left to complete each page, using ideas I jotted down while working on the photos and design. I really enjoyed starting a new layout almost every day and laying pages aside to return to later. Here's the finished layout.

The delay between basic design and finishing touches gave me time to consider each page with a pair of fresh eyes when I came back to complete the layout. There was more time on the weekend to attend to the details of title, journaling and embellishments. And I finished all 3 layouts by Friday night!

Do you ever change up your scrapping process to mesh better with the pace of life? This wasn't exactly an assembly line process, but doing the same thing on several pages before moving on gave me a nice sense of accomplishment throughout my whole week. Same destination, just a different route.

The Rhythms of Life

Getting back into a more structured routine this fall has its ups and downs. I'm challenged to be more effective with my time. Notice I didn't say efficient. I'm not someone who wants to learn how to cram more into my schedule and do it all faster. Instead, I prefer to take the tasks at hand and eventually produce the desired result. I'm okay with a daily flow that moves at different speeds at different times. It doesn't all have to get done today. Really, it doesn't.

Then there's the weekend, when different priorities take over. Since I teach piano lessons during the usual supper hours each week, my favorite place to be on a Saturday morning is in my kitchen, cooking and baking for the weekend and the coming week ahead. While catching College Game Day on ESPN.

Some household routines I keep up with very well, like the laundry. Not a hard thing when it's just the two of us. Other tasks, like cooking during the week, is an easy one to let slide. After all, it's just the two of us, so let's go grab a quick bite somewhere! Not really proud of that one, and very thankful for an understanding husband.

I guess at the end of the day, I just want that satisfied feeling that comes when things were accomplished with a calm manner in a reasonable amount of time. If I can't do that, maybe I am overcommitted. Is that too much to ask?

This post is part of a series while I focus on learning something new every day in September.

Back to School, and I Mean Way Back

First day of school pages seem to be all the rage on blogs and online galleries these days, but that event is but a fond memory in our empty nest home. I was feeling a little left out until I came across this idea in Donna Downey's book, A Photos First Approach to Designing Layouts. When I saw her way of scrapping "through the years" photos, I got busy and pulled these old (and I do mean OLD, haha) school pictures of my husband and came up with this.

And then, just to spread the humiliation evenly, I went ahead and tackled my own grade school photos, using the same design.

I think this is a great way to deal with these smaller school photos. Feels good to get something done with them and move on. When I'm feeling brave again, I do have pictures of our junior high and high school years. Yikes!

Finally, Some Pictures

I couldn't wait any longer to print pictures for my mini-album pages. Popular consensus (thanks for your comments!) favored the sepia, and I think that is a good choice. The journaling stands out, so you read it first and then look at the photo.

After a relaxing Labor Day hanging out at the zoo, this past week was back to work for me. So it's no coincidence that what I learned had to do with time and task management. I definitely need to stay focused to accomplish my top priorities for the day, and schedule the most important tasks when I have the most energy. So far, I feel up to the challenge. So far.

This post is part of a series while I focus on learning something new every day in September.

Color Challenged

This birthday layout has me thinking about color, specifically bright colors. I decided to go with bolder tones for two reasons. #1-The bright colors in the photos, especially my clothes and birthday cake #2-The birthday theme suggests bright, happy colors.

Now I'm trying to decide if I'm happy with the result. I used some basic design principles to try and pull it all together:

1. repeated patterns, specifically the circles and the stripes

2. mixing in some neutral colors, like the white & creme in my paper and title

3. the obligatory visual triangle, using 3 orange flowers.

The color scheme is supposed to be blue-orange complementary. I tried to think about the gallon-quart-pint thing, but I'm not too sure I pulled that off. Guess I just don't scrap with bright colors much anymore, so I'm not confident in using them. Honest comments are much appreciated, that's how I learn. (if I didn't want some feedback, I wouldn't be posting this!) Does anyone else have an element of scrapping that just puts you out of your comfort zone?

Back to Work

Here in Michigan, the kids don't go back to school until after Labor Day, which means today I also go back to work teaching after school piano lessons. I've really enjoyed my summer freedom. But I also love fall, football season, and a routine. So it's all good. Besides, working during the week makes looking forward to the weekend even sweeter!

p.s. I really am going to add photos to these pages pretty soon. I'm leaning towards the sepia.

This post is part of a series while I focus on learning something new every day in September.

Getting in the Groove

I've completed a couple pages for my Learn Something New Everyday mini album, but more importantly, I think I now have a feel for this project. These past few days my scrapping time was spent getting page elements prepared in batches, so assembling it all every day will be quick and easy.

The black outlined templates (SQ-3) are 2-inch squares acting as placeholders for my pictures. I'll print photos in a group once I have enough to fill a page of photo paper. Trying to decide between black & white or sepia.


In the meantime, I can prepare future pages. All my background pages have been stamped and inked, all the shapes have been cut, and all the scallop strips and circle dates have been adhered in the mini album. A little tedious at times, but in the end so much faster to do one step 30 times. Now I have a nice little materials pile in the corner of my scrap table, ready to go. I feel like I can keep up with this daily project during September and do other scrapping as well.

 

This post is part of a series while I focus on learning something new every day in September.