9/11

May God bless everyone who has kept our country safe for the 8 years following the attacks on our nation.

I am amazed at the feelings I have experienced today while viewing tributes and recaps on the television.

We will never forget.

Mojo Found

I received my September Personal Scrapper kit last Saturday. While I was in love with the October Afternoon papers, after finishing up one layout over the weekend, I was stumped on scrapping. No ideas. No motivation to scrap.

I had pulled some photos out that I thought would work with the kit. They stayed in a stack. Every so often, I'd grab a group of photos and move them around on my scrap table. Nothing came to me.

This morning after the bus left with the boys, I came up to my table. I took Kevin's first day of school pictures from this year and started playing around with them. I had them divided into groups for three different layouts. I took the first section and pulled out three sheets of patterned paper to use.

I finally found a photo arrangement that made me happy. I used several different embellishments from the kit and added the "bus" card from my stash. Then I realized I only used ONE of the patterned papers I'd pulled out. But I love the layout. The kit included the coolest sheet of paper that looked like a game board. Instead of covering up the paper, I decided to cut it apart and use it in pieces. I framed the LO with strips of patterned paper. I pulled some yellow foam Thickers from my stash to finish off the title. I'm debating finding a larger "2" for my title since it's so much smaller than the "nd".

To finish off Kevin's first day of school pics, I played around with some stips of the more muted patterns and worked everything at an angle. In addition to the kit, I pulled some vinyl Thickers, the "school" card and some buttons from my stash.

So Blake wouldn't be left out, I decided to scrap his last day of school from May. I used more of the gameboard paper. I used the top half of the page for pics of him that morning and the bottom for the afternoon "school's out!!!" shots. I cut some pencils out of a sheet of Cosmo Cricket paper and added some twine to the page, too.

It feels good to get back into a scrapping grove!

PageMaps' September Card Maps

After I posted a challenge at Personal Scrapper to use a September PageMaps sketch, Mel challenged us to use the newest Card Maps. I'm not one to turn down a challenge, so I did all 12 of them. I think I finished the 10 layouts quicker than I did the cards though!
I used scraps from a Bo Bunny line to make a few birthday cards and then leftovers from an older Love, Elsie line. For many of them, I'll add sentiments as needed.

September PageMaps Inspired Layouts

For the third month in a row, I challenged myself to scrap using all of the new PageMaps sketches that were posted September 1. I find that using the sketches saves me a lot of planning time and it's a fun way to knock out ten new layouts.

I had these photos of Tom helping my sister tattoo identification numbers inside her Highland cattle's years on Easter. I had printed them into a 5x7 collage, but cut them apart to use with an 8.5"x11" sketch. I used my June Personal Scrapper kit and love how the colors of the papers/embellishments worked with the photos. One sketch called for six 4x6 prints, but I adjusted it to use with my four 5x7 prints/collages. Again, I used my June PS kit. I used pop dots behind the cut out stars. I loved mixing the crazy Doodlebug alphas with Thickers for my title. The foam Thicker font I wanted to use for "museum" almost didn't fit, so I scrunched the "m"s a bit. I like how they look though.

While I had the June PS kit out, I realized a couple papers would work well with this shot of Blake that I was having a time matching up with anything. (Although according to Addie, EVERYTHING goes with camo!)I altered my sketch just a bit so I could sew in a pocket for the Governor's Cup Program. Blake had done well enough to advance to Regions and we were super excited the morning that I snapped this shot.

I really liked my July Personal Scrapper kit, but this floral patterned paper wasn't a favorite of mine. I noticed it matched out first day of school pics from two years ago, so I pulled it out to use. The story here is more about our tradition of posing before the bus comes on the first day, so the title is "posers."

My "2nd Place" layout is the result of a few happy accidents. I followed the sketch pretty closely, but when I was finished, something was missing. I decided to cut the LO down a bit and mat it on yellow cardstock to create a frame. Before adhering it to the yellow, I used my edge scraper, but accidentally tore into my layout in a couple places. Since the striped paer was already backed by the blue that was my original base, I added some stripe behind the blue that I tore. To keep with the "rough" feel of the LO, I adhered it crookedly to the yellow. A little background story...Last year Blake ran for 4-H President. He didn't win, but he won 2nd place in the poster contest. I used my July Personal Scrapper kit for this page.

When I made "a fan" I did something I never thought I would do. I took a 2-page sketch and condensed it down to a one-page layout. It's more common for me to take a single page sketch and stretch it into a 2-pager! The sketch for this was actually a 2-page 8.5"x11" LO. I made it into a 12x12 since I needed to crop my photos down. The important thing was Blake's expression and not the crowd around him at the ballgame. I used Bo Bunny scraps for this page. Again, I felt the need to "frame" my LO with another color of cardstock. I decided to use handstitching and sub stars for the flowers on the sketch.

I took another 2-page sketch (the one with the circle photo on the left-hand page) and used only the right hand side to scrap this certificate and photo for Blake. Every so often I have something like this to scrap and I usually find it hard to make it "pretty." Since the sketch called for an enlargement, I just subbed in the certificate and flipped the sketch. I used my brand new September Personal Scrapper kit that arrived yesterday.I've been wanting to scrap "don't scrap that" since I took the picture a few weeks ago. The boys had gotten into a fight in the backyard and Kevin stomped to the back garage door crying. Scout ran over to comfort him which was so cute I had to run in to grab my camera. Just as I snapped the shot, Kevin yelled, "Don't scrap that!" Doesn't he know you don't tell a scrapbooker that! I had fun using some Sassafrass Lass papers, here. I used my large title in place of the flowers on the sketch. "Fab 5?" took an 8.5"x11" sketch and turned it into a 12x12. I loved these Sassafrass Lass papers, but had them sitting around. When I came across this photo of these 5 wild and crazy guys, I knew I had to use them. I stuck pretty close to the sketch on this one. I LOVED the sketch I used for "2 cousins" but decided to alter it to use with these two photos I had out on my desk already. (The sketch called for 4 photos.) I added some embellishments and repositioned my title to fill in the space that called for the other photos. I just think this is a really fun page with the photos, colors, and Sassafrass Lass papers .

Underclassmen, beware!

There's a new safety patrol manning the halls at school this year!

And look who is one of the officers: Congratulations, Blake! Good luck keeping the kindergarten hall under control each afternoon. We are so proud of you!

PageMaps sketch contest/A La Carte challenge

Becky Fleck posted a Studio Calico Sketch Contest over on the PageMaps blog. I used the sketch, but flipped it on its side and made a few adjustments. I used some fun Sassafrass Lass papers. To complete this LO, I also used some "menu items" from the A La Carte challenge #7. I actually used all six suggested menu items:

• Use an ampersand, dollar sign, or other symbol in your title. Check! (Dollar sign)
• Use three shades of green. Check!
• Use a silver, gold or brass embellishment. Check! (I painted the $ gold and used two silver staples.)
• Use a tree. Check! (At least I consider those to be trees on the one sticker under my title.)
• Use stamping as your background. Check! (I used Kaiser Craft stamps and Versa Mark.)
• Use book print or an actual page from a book. Check! (A piece of Jenni Bowlin book print patterned paper in the top right corner.)

I love sketches and challenges!

Noel Mignon "Core Curriculum" Projects

I have been happily scrapping with my new kit. Yesterday I noticed there was even a Back To School challenge on the Noel Mignon Challenge Blog.

For this challenge, I completed a simple page made into a folder to hold certificates and awards for Blake's album. Everything on this page is from the Core Curriculum kit except for the Thickers. A Melissa Frances tag/envelope booklet was included with my kit. I loved it, but wasn't sure what to do with it until I saw this project on the Noel Mignon Layouts and Projects blog. Wow!The first three envelopes were shown on the blog and I pretty much lifted the cover and October pages exactly. I have the same general LO for September, but used the book page for my background. For the other pages, I just tried to be creative. All of the papers and most of the embellishments were included in the kit. I had to add ribbon and misc. embellishments here and there. I also got some good use out of alphabet stash. I also decided to paint the envelopes before I covered them with paper. I loved Noel's idea to use the tags throughout the year with a photo on one side and journaling on the other. With two boys in school though, I may use smaller photos and dedicate one side of each tag to one of my boys to document the hightlights of their school year.

I'm really happy with my new projects!