I Really Struggle....

with Christmas pages!

They all seem to be so similar: photos of recipients with their gifts, red and green, Christmas tree, same old same old....over and over. If any of you have any great ideas for making my Christmas pages a little bit easier to scrap I sure would appreciate it! Just leave a comment for me telling me what you do to make yours more creative.

For now.... here's my latest Christmas page:



That's my son with some of his Christmas gifts from last year. I know that some of the photos are the greatest, but I really wanted to document his first year of "choosing" his own gifts.

A New Paper to LOVE....

Today I discovered a "stack" of paper in my stash that I had almost forgotten I had purchased. It was DCWV's "The Music Stack". I bought it, intending to use it for some of Kari's music pages. I LOVE the paper because it is very thick and glittered. Each of the pages in the pad of paper has beautifully colored glitter on it! A little bit of this paper goes a LONG way on a layout!

This particular page documents my daughter's first piano recital.



This page was so simple to put together! A little bit of inking, a stamped title, and a bit of lace trim.... voila! another page in the album!

A Little Something Different

I thought I would post my latest project, it's not really a standard layout, but it definitely falls into that line.

I've spent a few of the last weeks working with summer school at the local high school. While preparing materials for my crafts classes we found several wooden art kits that were filled with colored pencils, markers, etc. Most of them were missing various pieces, paint was dried out, etc. so we set about emptying the boxes. When we finished, we were left with several GREAT wooden boxes that had handles and latches. We decided that we could repurpose these as "memory boxes".

One of the workers at summer school took photos of the classes and trips so that students would have photos to scrapbook and students hung onto memorabilia. The final week of summer school we ModPodged designer papers into the inside of each box and students used foam tape and glue guns to adhere their memories inside.

I created one for the Director of the Program.



I added some tags and ribbons to the handle to decorate the outside a bit.

If you look closely at the next two photos you will notice things like fishing lures, erasers, tickets, chopsticks, and other special little things that will remind everyone about the fun that was had at summer school this year.







I have some more of these boxes lieing around and, I bet some of you do too. This project is so easy and kid friendly. Dig out one of these and have your child document their summer trip. It looks just like a little suitcase!

Another Page Done

This was a simple one. I used one of the new July sketches from over on Page Maps. If you're a scrapper and you are not using her sketches, you really need to check them out! I print out the pdf each month and file it away in a binder. Then when I get stuck for ideas, I just go through the sketches to see which one might work best with my pics.

Anyway, this page tells the story of the Mother's Day meal that almost wasn't..... You have to read the journaling to get the story, so remember to click on the pic to enlarge it. I used some semicircles of Stampin Up paper, SU cardstock, a border punch, some old stamps, and a metal exclamation mark. It was really very simple to put together, but I love that it allows the focus to be on the story. OH...I actually pulled out the sewing machine and sewed that circle!

Yes, I'm Still Here.....

Things have just been pretty hectic lately.

I won't bother you with all of the details, it's boring anyway.... Let's just say that I am REALLY READY for some summer relaxation!

As far as scrapping and crafting goes, I haven't gotten much done lately. I have finished a couple of layouts and I'll post those here; I certainly hope that my "production level" increases a bit. Summer is normally the time of the year when I get the MOST done, but somehow I don't think that is going to happen this year.

As far as my "spending limit" is concerned, I'm sad to say that I slipped a bit there too, primarily because of the new "Cricut Lite" cartridges at WalMart. I have purchased 4 and my sweet hubby purchased one for me. There are 3 more that I really want, but I'm trying to force myself to wait a bit. Other than that, I've really done very well.

On to my finished pages:
This first one used digital collage templates to block out the photos, something I don't do very often; I guess I'm more hands on than technological. I like the technique, but I'm certainly not skilled at it. I just left the areas where there were no pics empty and then added in papers and other embellishments in those spots.



My second page was just a fun one of our Halloween photos from last year. I dug into my chipboard letter stash for this one. I separated my chipboard into alphabetical drawers a while back, and it makes it SO MUCH EASIER to find the letters! I love mixing and matching them too!



Guess that's it for now. Here's hoping that I'm back sooner this time, with some more creative results to share!