Scrapbook Cover Page

Aside from touring Anacortes, another major purpose for TWP's visit to Washington (which, side note, I'm sure she's going to finish writing about any day now... ;)* was to start a travel scrapbook for Miss FlowerGirl herself. Girl is not even two years old and already she's been on more vacations and trips than some people take in a lifetime. FG has visited both coasts and been on three airplane flights! So, TWP had been collecting travel themed goodies and wanted my help getting the first two trips commemorated.

One of my favorite pages was the cover page TWP brainstormed. The majority of the supplies you see on the page were hers, but we fiddled with some different layouts and put the Cricut to good use cutting out the "ransom note" letters.



[Clearly I just discovered the text options in my photo editing software and had a field day adding descriptions.]

I love the color combinations - they're fun and whimsical, but not too little-kid-ish, because the point of the book is really so that FG can look back years from now and see all that she did before she could even walk! I never think to make a cover page for my scrapbooks; I tend to simply write the year in the front cover somewhere, but I think it makes a lot of sense to have a introduction page when you're making a thematic book.

*Note to TWP - Gotta throw the guilt trip out there just in case your mother hasn't called in the last 48 hours. I know you're swamped with internship stuff and oh, a toddler. Don't have a nervous breakdown - let's chat soon.

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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Sister's one year wedding anniversary is just a few days away... which means I'm at least a year behind in my scrapbooking... (I guess it could be worse!)

Here's a page I made at Scrapbook University last week. Every two weeks this summer, several crafty ladies are getting together with my stamp lady (Michelle) to scrapbook. We get to use all of Michelle's stamps, inks, die-cuts, and other fun craft supplies. I always love scrapping with others because you get so much feedback on your own work, and you get to see what cool layouts and designs others come up with.

This layout is one I've been using often; three photos, with room for a journaling spot and a large title. Lately I've been trying to jazz up my titles - make them a little less obvious (aka. "bachelorette party"). This page also has many die-cut flower shapes. I picked the green and pink colors to coordinate with the panties that Sister got at her soiree! Happy Memories Sis!

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2009 Calendar - November and December

It's usually about this point in a project that I start to lose steam. I'm anxious to finish it up, my original burst of inspiration and creativity is gone, and it's a challenge/chore to complete the last few pages without them looking shoddy or like duplicates of earlier layouts.


Clearly, by November, the layouts were getting a little... sparse (that's the nicest word I could use for it). But, sometimes sparse and simple is a pleasant change of pace.


The way to avoid a complete meltdown by the end though is to plan the last couple of pages when you're first starting. That way, as you wind down, it's late at night, you're low on supplies, energy, wine, and motivation, you can have a few great pages at the end. I was quite happy when I found this Christmas tree layout on a scrapbook sketch blog Pencil Lines (also linked in the sidebar). It's #115 in their collection, and while I expanded mine to include larger photographers over the entire page, I think it still turned out great


The red buttons are from Target dollar spot mix kit I picked up last Valentine's Day. All of the photos were placed on one green piece of paper, then I glued them all down and simply cut around the outside. The stark red background contrasts nicely.

Another year done, another calendar complete. If I was smart, I'd already be working on next year's...

Hehehe :)

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2009 Calendar - October

Oh Cricut, how I love thee. The tree above? Cricut. The stack of pumpkins below? Cricut. The October heading? I'll give you three guesses... but you won't need them all!

Now, I will admit that the small leaves scattered throughout these pages are from a basic punch, but I could have done them with a cricut cartridge as well. The above page also shows another option for backing or highlighting your photos besides a simple square frame; four small square corners help offset the graduation photo. It's a great trick to use when you start to run low on paper, or only have small scraps with which to work (my inventory of dark brown paper started to deplete by the time I reached the October layout).

Again, remember that these pages still need text; the white space in the upper right corner and lower left corner are intentionally blank, leaving me room to add captions and descriptions.

I'm posting all of these pages to hopefully a) give some basic layout ideas, b) to share easy details that can be added to pages, and c) to have reminders of the calendar since it's now hanging in my grandparents' house!

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2009 Calendar - September

It's been a bit since I've shared any more pages from the calendar Christmas gift; the previous pages can be found starting here. The above page is for September (hence the back to school bus). I couldn't resist adding the photo of Sister's dog Lucy in her bumblebee Halloween costume - the colors matched and she's irresistible!

I would normally be bothered by the white (empty) space on the left hand side of the page, but I needed that space for some captions. When the photographs were just portraits, I wasn't as concerned with captions, but the left and middle photos are both specific action shots, and they definitely needed explanation (otherwise it just looks like my cousin is raising his arms for no apparent reason :).

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2009 Calendar - March, April, May

You've already seen the top portion of the March pages, but this is the bottom half with the calendar portion. I love that photo of my little cousin. It was taken by another cousin at my sister's rehearsal dinner; the little cuz just looks so happy and cute - even though she was sitting through a pretty (boring for a seven year old) social event :)

What do you get when you use a small oval punch on pastel paper? Easter eggs of course! I decorate each with other punches or just strips of paper - luckily, Easter falls during April next year.

Can I point out, that my fellow bridesmaid and I are not truly dancing in the photo above; we have way more skillz than what the photograph shows. We simply paused in the middle of a much cooler dance to pose for the photo...

More cutouts from my trusty Cricut.
Check back in a few days for the summer months!

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2009 Calendar - January and February

As promised, more of the calendar layouts that I created for our family Christmas gift to Grandma and Grandpa.

The biggest challenge with these pages was actually the calendar portion of the page. As the gift is ostensibly a calendar - and not an actual scrapbook - I needed to make sure the calendar cutout was prominent and not covered at all by photos. That left little room for creativity on the bottom portion of the spread, and often only space for 2 or 3 photos. But, I still like how it turned out :)

Most of the details on the pages come from my trusty Cricut (which got a workout for several days in a row). All of the month titles are 1 1/2 inch letters from "Cuttin' Up" cartridge, and the snowflakes in January are from "Stretch Your Imagination."
After photographing these, I punched three holes along the top or bottom of each page, so I could string each page through binder clips and make it flip open as a calendar normally does. I also added captions to each of the pictures; most of them are just names, but after finding so many un-labeled photographers from decades ago at my grandparent's house, I'm trying to make sure that things are documented well for the future.

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Sneak Peek!

It's done! For the past ten years or so, my cousins and I have put together a calendar of family photos for our Christmas present to our grandparents. In recent years, I've volunteered to create the calendar, putting to use my plethora of paper craft supplies. I tend to wait until the last minute and then spend the week before Christmas frantically trying to finish it. Wednesday, Thursday, and today have been non-stop calendar work; I turned the dining room table into ground zero and camped out (rations included everything from Diet Mountain Dew to Lindor chocolates to Chardonnay).

Well, here and now, I'm proud to announce that exactly six whole days before Christmas, the calendar is done!!!... okay, so I still have to punch holes in it, insert the binder clips, and write the captions, but the MAJORITY of the work is done, and if I do say so myself, it turned out pretty fantastic.

I'm going to make you wait until after Christmas to see most of it, but I'm posting a couple sneak peaks ahead of time just to whet your appetite for more...


These two happen to be a couple of my favorites :)

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