LYM-week 25

The Log Your Memory challenge this week was to document your relationship with the generations before you. I chose to compare myself to my father because I have always been just like him. I have his forehead and his half-a-widow's peak and most of his personality. I love my father. He loves me more.

There is a template challenge at ScrapOrchard right now and the template provided was perfect for this layout.  I searched through my stash looking for a kit with browns and reds and picked an old favorite by Red Ivy.  I figured pink was just good as red!

I am he.

Credits:

Template: June SO Template Challenge Free"bee" by Scrapping with Liz

Kit used Moments by Red Ivy

Stitches from Passionflower (collab) by Brine Design and Danielle Young Designs

Fonts: Myriad Pro and MA Sexy

Neglecting my new blog

I am so sorry I've neglected my blog this week.  There's been a lot going on in terms of yard and house drama. We had a tree fall into our yard and destroy our fence on Sunday night.  But that is mostly fixed now. We still need to do a little work on the repaired fence as I'm sure the tiny chihuahua could slip underneath it, but at least the tree is out the yard, the fence is up and the dog door is back in business.

The other reason I've been neglecting my blog is that my scrappin' mo-jo is gone!  I'm sure it will come back though.  I've only done two layouts since my last post!  But the weekend is here now, hopefully I can get some more scrappin' done.

(Virtual) Places I love-Deviant Art

Are you familiar with Deviant Art?  It has amazing resources for digital scrapbookers.  And it's a pretty cool site to just randomly look around for inspiration or just entertainment.  It's a social network for artists to exhibit, promote and share their art.  That's right share.  Just make sure you read the terms of use before downloading and using as everyone's varies.  But there is a lot of stuff that you can download and use on your personal scrapbooking pages.  For example type "PS brushes" into the search box and over 11,000 brush sets come up.  You can also search for grunge brushes or swirl brushes or anything your layout desires. You can also find old worn and torn papers and tons of textures as well as hand-drawn art and just about everything else.  Before using on any layouts that you plan on printing, make sure you check the resolution and/or pixel size as a lot of stuff isn't suitable for printing out at 12" x 12"!  I went browsing through Deviant Art over the weekend and found the following cools things (among many):

These foilage brushes by Obsidian Dawn:

Vector Foliage Brushes by Obsidian Dawn

These crumpled papers by valkiria-stock:

crumpled paper by valkiria-stock

And these love brushes by sd-stock:

Love Brushes 1 by sd-stock

I put these three things together with one photo, a few pieces of paper and one action and came up with this layout:

Credits:

Papers from Perfect in Every Way by Pixels by Jen

Crumpled paper texture from Cumpled Paper by Valkiria

Hershey Action from Everyday Actions by Amanda Padgett

Love brush from Love Brushes 1 by sd-stock

Plant brush from Vector_foliage brushes by Obsidian Dawn

Crazy about Speed Scraps

I love speed scraps.  This week I've been speed scrappin' like crazy.  Wednesday is the weekly speed scrap night at ScrapOrchard.  I made this layout.  I'm sure I will re-title it, extend it to two pages and place it in a scrapbook.

October 4, 2010

Mad Scientist: The Sequel by Suzy Q Scraps

Flower from Captivated Visions, It about us.

Font: Georgia

Wednesday was also the first "chat, non-chat" at GingerScraps-it was essentially a 24 hour speed scrap, which for me meant that I had the part of the evening that I wasn't scrapping the above layout to get it done.  A very nice template and theme was provided.  This is my layout.  I used a kit by Ju Kneip Designs and Sahlin Studio that I love.

I Scrap because

Practically Perfect Collab by Ju Kneipp Designs and Sahlin Studio

Font: English and Lucida Sans

On Thursday there was a speed scrap and chat at Funky Playground Designs. This is layout I made on that evening.  There was a requirement to use a two word title using a font and an alpha.  I rarely mix fonts and alphas in my titles, but I always like the results when I do.  Perhaps I should do that more often. That's why I like speed scraps, they lead me down paths that I would never take on my own.

Fireworks  Fun

Passionflower (collab) by Brine Design and Danielle Young Designs

Alpha from Joy by Vicki Stegall

Fonts: Twelve Ton Sushi and VT Portable Remington

On Friday we spent the entire day running errands in two different cities.  Exhausting.  I missed a speed scrap at GingerScraps while we were out and about, but it wasn't due until mid-morning today, so this is what I came up with last night.

Goofing Off

Kits used: 

Papers and Elements from Old Tyme Junque by Cari Cruise

Elements from Feline Splendor Kit by Creative Victorian Designs

Individual elements:

Button from Perfect in Every Way by Pixels by Jen

Button from Something to Crow About by Pixels by Jen

Button from In the Woods by Collie's Corner

Button from Cup'o Joe by MLE Card

This one I will definitely re-title as the layout is supposed to be about the first photos taken with my Iphone.  I had to change my title when I got to step 6 of the speed scrap instructions.  You would think that I would have read all the instructions before beginning since I started after the chat!  I normally stick to one kit when I speed scrap in the sole interest of saving time but this scrap called for 5 buttons and the kit I picked had none!  So I had to search my stash for buttons and I found the Feline Splendor Kit which had elements that worked really well with the Old Tyme Junque kit that I had originally started with.

This layout probably needs some journaling about how I ended up buying new phone.  I always let my speed scraps sit for a day or two (or several in the case of this week since I've been speed scrappin' every day since Wednesday!) and then alter them slightly, often turning them into two page layouts to go in my album.  I have a lot of scrappin' work ahead of me-it is a good thing that is the weekend.

LYM-week 24

The weekly challenge at LYM this week was to compare and contrast two people in your life or one person at two different times.  As soon as I sat down to work on this challenge, I thought of a conversation I had at the water cooler last week.  A co-worker asked if I was better off now than I had been 5 years ago. I immediately said "Yes!" because 5 years ago I was 2.5 months from meeting my husband.  I am much better off now that I am happily married.  As it turns out, he wasn't asking about my personal life but about a management change that occurred at work some 5 years ago. But I'm glad he asked because it set me up perfectly for this weekly challenge. So I pulled out a recent photo and one from 2006 and thought hard about what had changed and what hadn't.  Here is my layout:

Then & Now

Kit used Practically Perfect Collab by Ju Kneipp Designs and Sahlin Studio

Stitching (long and tic-tac-toe) from Someday Soon by Captivated Visions

Stitch border from You are My Sunshine by D'nia (Dunia Designs)

Fonts: VT Portable Remington and Stencil

Reel Men Fish by Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green

Today at GingerScraps, Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green are releasing a collab.  The papers in this kit are absolutely gorgeous. If you don't believe me, take a look at the previews in this post.  My layouts can be found in an earlier post here.

The Kit

Close up of papers

There is also a bundle available:

The bundle

Here is a close-up of the cardstock in the bundle (also available separately):

The cardstock

And there are templates available separately too!

The templates

I love that dangling fishline one, so I whipped up a fast layout with it!

Everybody Loves Morning Glory

Reel Men Fish Collab bundle by Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green

Font: Comic Sans, Gill sans ultra bold, InaiMathi

(Virtual) Places I love-Log Your Memory

Are you familiar with the memory logbook by Kristin Rutten and Log Your Memory?  The memory logbook is a scrapbooking calendar.  I have been using Day-Timer or a Franklin Covey to organize my life since 1999. Those two companies offer calendars in all kinds of themes: golfing, flowers, leadership, etc. Every year for several years I'd go through their web site to see if they had added a new memory keeping/journaling/scrapbooking theme.  I never found one, but late in 2009 I found the memory logbook. I bought the 2010 version, but to be honest at 8.5" x 11" it just did not fit into my life. I placed in next to my bedside table and only ever opened it a couple of times.  But the product line grew rapidly in 2011.  I was able to buy a bound memory logbook in the standard/classic 8.5" x 5.5" size.   I took my logbook and removed the pages from the binding, punched holes in them and stuck them into my Franklin Covey binder.  I also made my own monthly divider pages with an index and tabs. Now my memory logbook is an integral part of my life.

My homemade monthly divider page with index tabs.

I write everything in my logbook.  I journal in there, so when I make a page I have an easy reference. I keep track of all the dog's vet appointments and classes.  I keep track of all our travels, doctor's appointments etc.  I jot down quotes that I find inspirational and the definitions of words that I like. I take notes on memorable conversations.

I love the Log Your Memory (LYM) community. Each month has a theme.  The monthly page has photo prompts that go along with the theme.  This month the theme is relationships: Friends, Family, Acquaintances.

June monthly pages with the theme, photo prompts and quote.

The Memory Logbook includes weekly challenges that also go along with the theme.  Each month there is a guest designer at LYM.  Sometimes, like this month, the guest designer designs a kit to go along with each theme.  If you do every challenge that month, you will collect the complete kit. I try to do each challenge every week.  Most of themes go along with my everyday scrapping philosophy.  A lot of themes inspire me to record aspects of my everyday life that I might have not thought about.

A weekly challenge from February. February's theme was Loves of my Life.

The logbook also has a sketch page next to each weekly challenge to help you plan out your layout.  Here are some of my favorite LYM weekly challenge layouts:

Week 2: Choose a word as your focal point for the year.
Paper and elements from Serendipity Digital Kit by Fei-fei's Stuff.
Fonts: Old Script and Verdana

Week 7: Document what you love about your everyday life.
7 Things template from Simple Scrapper.
Papers from Moment by Red Ivy Designs.

Week 14: Compare and contrast parts of your daily life.
Stamp is KPertiet_OnWings-6 by K. Pertiet from Beautiful Evidence Kit from JS Class
All papers from Tuesday Morning by One Little Bird

Week 19: What tools, toys or gadgets help you have fun.
Template used: TemplateTuesdayNo30 by JoeyLynnDesigns .
Papers and Elements from It's about us by Captivated Visions.
The background is a photo of my Ipod blended into a solid colored paper.

The Memory logbook is available in half-years.  If you want to join in the fun you could pick up the July-December logbook at the store.  The challenges alone are also available. Most of the products are available in print and downloadable form.

I have no affiliation with LYM except as an active user.  I just really love the (virtual) place.

Scrap the Mundane Everyday

A frequent conversation we have at our house goes as follows:

DH: You're scrappin' that!? 

me: We're going to want to remember this someday.

DH: OK

I am a firm believer in scrapping the everyday.  I have two reasons for doing so:

1. I believe that my life will change enough that I will forget the details.  I have firm evidence of this, as I have already forgotten lots of stuff.  For example, I used to live far, far away (over a decade ago).  There was a park I went to almost everyday.  I loved that park.  I don't have any photos of it and I've forgotten the name.  Two years ago we had our awful, damaged linoleum floors removed and replaced it with tile. Recently my husband glanced at the floor and said "I've forgotten what the old floors looked like."  Document, people, document.  I wish I had been clever enough to take before and after photos of the floor.  In process would have been a good idea too.  I could have journaled about the challenges of preparing every meal with a microwave and a BBQ grill.  

2. As the top of my blog states, I hope that someday future generations will be interested and amazed. Think of how much change there has been in your lifetime, big and small. I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall. I remember a time before everyone had a computer and internet access.  I got my first DVR in September of last year.  We are considering buying a dishwasher.  I should photograph a huge pile of dishes and the spot in the kitchen where we think we'll place the dishwasher. My grandmother died a long time ago, but I used to love talking to her about her life.  She remembered WWI and II and the Great Depression.  I was told stories about borrowing shoes during WWII to go to town.  Can you imagine not owning a pair of shoes? (Shoes were rationed, as was everything else.)  I wish I had written these things down.  (I'm working on a layout about my grandmother; I'll post it sometime in the future.)  My point is we have no idea how different life will be when our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are adults. Document, people, document.  

In the spirit of documenting the mundane details of our everyday lives, here is a two page layout that I made about finding a new "flavor" of dishsoap and unloading groceries after a trip to town.  The first layout was made in response to a challenge to quote a conversation on a layout.  That challenge made me walk around wondering what conversational bit I wanted to remember forever.  I have many small moments in my life, of which I have a fairly clear memory, but of which I don't recall the exact words that made that moment so memorable.  Document, people, document.

Just Another Saturday.

Credits:
Frames: Shabby Princess, Havest Spice
Fonts: CK Academia and American Typewriter

The journaling reads:

We had just come back from running errands in Santa Fe, and I had to gate the German Pinschers out of the kitchen, because they were being especially monsterly by putting their noses in the grocery sacks. When we were almost done putting things away, I told Richard “You can let Dingbat and Banjo out of there.” Richard began laughing and asked “Dingbat and Banjo. Ok, but which is Dingbat and which is Banjo?” And then simultaneously I said “I don’t care.” as Richard said “Wait, I get it.” And simultaneously again I said “No, Ly has to be Dingbat.” as Richard also said “Ly has to be Dingbat.” Richard was laughing so hard, I was able to get my camera and snap this photo of him leaning against the kitchen sink while holding a case of toilet paper over his shoulder and laughing his arse off. I even had time to zoom and frame the photo to cut out the toilet paper, but in retrospect the photo might have been better with the toilet paper. We love our Ly, but she’s not the sharpest crayon in the box. But as Richard wisely pointed out “We probably couldn’t handle two GPs as smart as Blue.”

The second layout was originally made to satisfy my obsession with 2-page layouts. (I'll dedicate a post to that subject someday.)  It also documents some mundane details about the dishsoap we had been using and refers to the same shopping trip as the first layout. 

Just Another Saturday.

Credits:

Frames: Shabby Princess, Havest Spice

Fonts: CK Academia and American Typewriter

The journaling reads:

The dishsoap we'd been buying at Sam's club smells bad. I think it smells like marijuana. Richard says I'm crazy, but I think I know more about what pot smells like then he does. At any rate, I hate the smell of our dishsoap. It makes the otherwise horrible chore of washing dishes even more horrrible. 

We forgot to get dishsoap at Sam's two weeks ago and had to pick up a bottle at the grocery store. Richard pointed to this blue bottle on the shelf and said "That's the kind we got last time." By "last time", I thought he meant the last time we had to buy dishsoap at the grocery store. Imagine my horror when I got home and discovered it was the same pot-smelling dishsoap we buy at Sam's club. I hate that dishsoap and was looking forward to a break. 

Today we ran errands in Santa Fe. Dishsoap was now on our list. I was thrilled when we went to Sam's today and found that they are carrying a new flavor of dishsoap. Yay, no more pot-smelling dishsoap. I am very happy now.

The title I chose to give these layouts (not the title on the page) says it all "Just Another Saturday".  But it is just another Saturday at this point in our lives.  Someday, perhaps, our lives will be totally different. Who knows what a routine Saturday will be like in 10 or 15 years?

If I could give three pieces of advice to help you document the everyday details of your life it would be:

1. Take notes in your journal or calendar.  Jot down your thoughts, snippets of conversations, etc. Note when you've gone out to dinner or a movie.  I like to use my calendar, then all my appointments, trips, etc. are already in there.  Then use these notes to journal on your layouts.  Scrapbooking without journaling is just a fancy photo album, I always say.  

2. Take lots of pictures.  Try P365.  I think everyone knows that P365 is a project in which you take a photo a day.  Try it.  I started it last year and even though I floundered and eventually stopped it really helped me get into the habit of carrying a camera (I keep a small digital in my purse at all times), using my camera-cell phone more often and taking photos of the everyday details. Even though I am no longer doing P365, I still take more photos than I did pre-2010. 

3. Be willing to use imperfect photos on your layouts. Sometimes a blurry, or otherwise less than perfect photo, is all you have to document a memory.  Isn't the memory worth remembering, anyway?

$2 Tuesday at Two Little Pixels

Hey guys and gals!  It is Two Dollar Tuesday at Two Little Pixels today.  Brine Design has marked down two of her Cooper paper packs to–you guessed it–two dollars!  Here are the paper packs that are on sale the solids and the dottys:

I love the Cooper kit.  Here is a layout that I made with the full Cooper bundle:

Grampo Cruz

credits:

Cooper bundle by Brine Designs 

Title Font: CK Zenship

Journaling Font: CK To Do List

This is a layout I made about my grandfather.  I will always remember how fascinated I was by his rolling cigarettes.  I spoke to my brother and my sister about this and combined our memories onto this scrapbooking page.  

Sneak Peak-collab by Pixels by Jen & Pretty in Green

Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green have a fantastic collab coming out at GingerScraps on Friday.
Here is a sneak peak at the kit:

The papers in this kit are absolutely gorgeous.  Here are a couple of layouts that I made with the kit:

Sunset Fishing

Credits:

Photo from Kissimmee - The Heart of Florida, Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau

Kit used is Reel Men Fish: Collab by Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green

Font: Teletype 1945-1985, Stencil LTD

Fishing

Credits:

Photo by robstephaustralia (Rob and Stephanie Levy)

Kit used is Reel Men Fish: Collab by Pixels by Jen and Pretty in Green

Font: My Own Topher

(Virtual) Places I love-GingerScraps

If you are not familiar with GingerScraps, you have to check it out.  I discovered the site in January of this year and quickly fell in love with it.  First of all, every month an entire kit is given away. Each day a small part of a kit is given away and by the end of the month you have an entire free kit.  It's called the Daily Download and it is awesome. While you are there, sign up for the forum because that will give you access to the Welcome Wagon, in which GS designers give away more free stuff!  


To be honest, I quietly lurked at GS until late April when I participated in my first speed scrap. I quickly became a speed-scrap junkie.  Then during iNSD I became totally enamored of the site.  There were lots of speed scraps and other challenges, too.   And there was an adorable Gingerbread Man that ran around the forum handing out awesome coupons.  The layout that I made for the first speedscrap was made with the free daily download from January and is one of my all-time favorite layouts.  Here it is:

MOM

Credits:

Template by Pretty in Green

Kit is Because I love u by Pretty in Green

Shadows from Shadow like me by One Little Bird

This month the Daily Download is being provided by Pixels by Jen.  Here is a layout that I made with the kit:

Down on the Corner

Credits:

Perfect in Everyway by Pixels by Jen

I love the free daily download.  Here is a layout made with April's kit (also made for a speed scrap):

Friday

Credits:

Daily by HK Designs

Handwriting on Scrapbook pages

Katharyn of Brine Design has a great tutorial today on Funky Playground Designs.  It is all about how to turn your handwriting into a font to use on your scrapbook pages. Click here to read her tutorial.  I love to use my handwriting on scrapbook pages.  It's not as neat as fonts and alpha, but my handwriting is a part of me. And isn't that what scrapbooking is about?  Saving a part of ourselves for future generations?


Here are a couple of my recent layouts using my handwriting.  The first is about my dog, being absolutely himself on a hike on Memorial Day:

Our Scrappy-Doo

credits:

Just Me by Brine Design & Siamese Studio

Circle from Time Flies by Sweet Tomato Designs; 

Cardstock scallop from Cooper by Brine Design

The second is all about May 14th:

May 14, 2011

credits:

Grid paper, grey paper & note paper from Frolic by Sweet Tomato Design; 

Book and pencil from Just Me by Brine Design and Siamese Studio Flower; 

Flower stamp & frames from Passionflower by Brine Design and Danielle Young Designs

My New Blog

Hello and welcome to my new and very first blog.  My name is Angela and I intend to write about my love of scrapbooking is this blog.  A friend invited me a to a crop a long time ago and that is what started me down this path.  I had never scrapbooked before, but I went to Michaels, picked up some random stuff, when to the crop and never looked back.


Here are some of my favorite layouts:

Sumo Wrestling

Credits:
Scraplifted from Captured quickpage by Project B Designs.
Background Papers from July 2009 Neutrals by Crystal Wilkerson.
Papers and Elements from Gentle Rain by Blue Flower Art.
Button and White flower brad from Moments by Red Ivy.
Font is Maga Temple.

Heart Dog-left

Credits:
Outlined 4 Template by Fei-Fei's Stuff (all elements were in the template).

Papers from Of the Essence Add-On by Fei-Fei's Stuff and

Strawberry Lemonade by Jessica Sprague.

Fonts: CK Journaling, CK Summercamp, Times New Roman

Heart Dog-right

Credits:

Template: outlined 4 template by Fei-fei's Stuff.
Papers from Of the Essence Add-On by Fei-fei's Stuff and Strawberry Lemonade by Jessica Sprague.
Fonts: CK Journaling, CK Summer Camp, Times New Roman