Chelle Scraps

Hey Scrappers!  What a crazy week.  Just four doubles this week.  (Officially I’m counting that as 8 layouts.)

 

 

 

 
See you next week!

Hey Scrappers!  How is your scrapping everyday going?  I’ve had a couple of super busy days this week, but I still managed to finish five layouts:

I’d love to see how your scrapping is coming!

Hey Scrappers!  I wanted to check in and report my progress on everyday scrapping.  Here’s week 1:

I almost always do 2 page layouts, but sometimes I just don’t have enough photos for a 2-pager. These two will go side-by-side. Not the same topic, but they coordinate well enough.

Hey Scrappers!

Memory keeping takes time.  Sure, there are things you can do to be more efficient, but the reality is, it takes time.  Our “spare” time waxes and wanes, but overall we spend time on the things that are important to us.

Last fall we took our youngest to Disneyland for 3 days.  I knew I didn’t want him to forget those magical moments…not now, not in 3 months, not ever.  But at the rate I was going, he’d see those pictures in a scrapbook about 3-5 years down the road.  I’m sure I’d’ve forgotten the little details by then.  So I changed up what I was doing.

1.  I committed to scrapping a layout every day until the project was complete.  Not every day forever, just until that one project was complete.  I wasn’t perfect at it.  I didn’t ‘keep score’ and have to ‘make up’ missed days.  But I did plan scrapping into my day.  (Scrapping a layout a day was a technique I used back in my paper days when my grown children were little…it helped me then when the photos were piling up faster than I could possibly scrap with 3 little ones.)

2. My layouts weren’t all gorgeous works of art with hundreds of layers and perfectly tweaked shadows.  Some were more complex, but i scrapped what I could fit into that day.  I chose templates that fit my style, focused on a few key elements for each page, and planned plenty of room for the story.

If I had more time, then I added more complex clusters, etc.

And it worked.  3 weeks after we returned I had a GORGEOUS album from Adoramapix in my hands.  And trust me, he LOVED it.

I learned something very valuable:  Even with my busy schedule, I could fit scrapping a layout into MOST days.  And I remembered how much my family LOVES to look at the albums.  So I decided to stick with my layout a day habit just until the next project was complete.

(Total silence on Christmas morning when everyone opened their book and soaked up the memories.)

And then I continued with a layout a day until my son’s baby book (his first year) was complete…  In fact, at this point the day doesn’t seem complete until I’ve scrapped a layout.  I don’t do it every day.  Some days are just too too busy.  I don’t punish myself for missing a day.  This isn’t about perfection, it’s about memory keeping.

SO…my goal for 2014 is to stick with my layout a day habit.  I would invite you to do the same.  Just one layout.  Doesn’t have to be the bestest-award-winning-layout-of-all-time.  Just a layout that savors a memory.

My plan is to keep you updated on how my goal is going each week.  I’ll post my layouts here (unless I’m keeping them a secret for gifts).  Are you in?  Let’s do this!

ps.  I almost forgot to do one last night.  LOL!  I tried some quick templates by Fiddle Dee Dee to make those layers & clusters quicker.  Love ’em.

Sometimes no matter how much you LOVE that new, adorable Halloween digital scrapbooking kit, you just have to go wtih the flow.  My Halloween photos from this year don’t resemble black cats & striped witch’s stockings.  Not even close.  But hey!  The new Rock the Vote kit just happens to work perfectly!

I also used those Photo Stacks from my grab bag.  Wowsers those are HAN-DY! The pre-made clusters didn’t fit with my layout, but since all of the layers are included, I just duplicated a couple of the frame/mask/shadows and moved some others around and now I’ve got a row of 3 instead of just 2 on top of one another.  I can tell I”m going to be using these OVER and OVER and OVER….even just one frame at a time!  And the title alpha is from Fireworks.  

But wait!  No journaling?!?  OF COURSE there is journaling.  If you look super close at the “newsprint” to the left of my daughter’s head, you’ll recognize that I “removed” the newspaper story and added my own.  LOL!

OH! it feels so good to scrap again!

I’m always surprised at what a “pick me up” scrapping is for me.  Not sure why I’m surprised…I have been doing this for 25+ years.  Obviously I enjoy it.  LOL!  I’m plugging away on my 2010 album, about 1/3 of the way finished.  My goal is to have the books printed for Christmas.  Better get going.  My current rate of 1 layout/week is not going to make that.  Here’s one of the layouts I did this week.  These photos had been waiting for the perfect “fire” kit…and Cheri & I created one in July.

Credits:  Heros {fire}  Hey!  It’s on sale right now!

Next summer will be our 14th year of making a family float.  Now THAT would make a fun album…all of those layouts together. Hmmmm……

I don’t know about your house, but things have been pretty crazy around here this summer.  I’m hoping that things will settle down as the kids start school this week and we get back into our school-year routines.  The annual change to summer activities & schedules provides some rejuvenation, but to be honest, I could use a re-charge.

I’ve been a scrapbooker for many years.  My first scrapbooks were typing paper, construction paper mats, held together by rubber cement.  I really have done this for a LONG time.  LOL!  I’ve tried lots of techniques and scrapped through tons of trends.  This week I was reminded of a few reasons why I LOVE digi.

Several years ago I wanted to scrap a photo of my teething toddler eating a popsicle.  Hunted and hunted.  The only “popsicle” things I could find was this popsicle background paper.

So I pulled out my markers & my shrinky-dinks and made myself some “acrylic” popsicles.  It took me a few tries to get enough popsicles that laid flat.  At the time I was pleased with the results, but this page took me several hours.  AND that was only for the one copy to go in her album.  I still need a copy for our family album (the book I’ll get to keep when everyone grows up, moves away, and takes their albums with them).  I don’t even know what the page cost me.  (Frankly it’s probably one of my “cheaper” pages…just popsicles, printable transparency, & all that clear shrink-dink material.)

This week as I was finishing up my newest kit…and needing a page to use for the video tutorial, I found my photo…the one I’d saved for our family album.  In 15 minutes I completed this layout:

MUCH less time.

MUCH easier to make multiple copies.

Less money.

At one time my scrapbooking supplies took an entire wall of our family room.  Now everything fits on my EHD = MUCH less space.

No toddlers getting into my supplies.

And we can eat on the kitchen table.  LOL!

I scrapped! Ok, technically I scrap nearly every week, but most of my layouts are for a special secret project, so I can’t show them. But this week I can!
I couldn’t resist the sunny sweetness of the Ladybug Hugs kit. I’ve scrapped these pics before (ok…3 times total) but they are some of my favorite pics of my oldest dd. The ladybug kit reminds me of her sunny, happy disposition.

She used to LOVE going to this petting zoo. We would put a quarter in the “pellet dispenser” then put the pellets on the footrest on her stroller. The goats couldn’t resist coming up to nibble at the food which meant they were face to face with her.  She loved to see them…occasionally she’d grab their horns and try to kiss them.  What a happy little sweetheart!  The inspiration for this fun kit:

Take some time to scrap this week.  You’ll love it.

I was determined to get a few minutes to digital scrapbook this weekend.  And a few minutes was all I got…at the very end of the weekend (it counts as the weekend if I haven’t gone to bed on Sunday night, right?…even if it’s actually Monday morning?  LOL!)

Rarely do I trust my camera to my kids…and almost never out of my sight. But I do try to send a camera with them…especially at events like this family hike.  Unfortunately my favorite photo from the trip was blurry…BADLY blurry    

There are several creative ways to include a photo like this in digital scrapbooking.  This time I’m using my favorite way:  make it BIG and blend it in.

I placed the photo on the right hand side of my spread and changed the blending mode to soft light.  The faces weren’t as clear as I would’ve liked, so I duplicated the photo layer and erased all but the faces area, to help them stand out.  Unfortunately that made my text difficult to read.  I tried white text, but it looked odd on the page, so I also partially erased the photo under my text until it was easy to read.

A beaver from Forest Friends, a couple of trees & a splash from On The Water, and an embellished word art title from On the Trail word art & this spread was completed super quick.

Oh, and notice my journaling…I started my journaling as if it were a newspaper article.  The headline reads:  NINE CIVIL ENGINEERS BUILD DAM TO CROSS WATERWAY (Cove, Ut) — a quick & easy attention grabbing device.

Hope this inspires you in your memory keeping!