Daddy Dogs

Recently I joined the ScrapHappy family.  Lots of inspiration and monthly challenges.  There is a fee to join, but it's super reasonable!  And I believe the Flikr gallery is open to all.  So pop over and see what it's all about.

The first challenge I participated in led to this layout...

Before my husband left for his deployment as a civilian contractor we took the boys to Build a Bear. They were each allowed to choose an animal and then Daddy recorded a special message for each boy to put inside.  They LOVE these Daddy Dogs!

The picture was awful and yellow from the overhead lights so I just switched it to black and white.  That allowed me to use any paper colors I wanted.  :)

For the title I printed out this tag and then stamped the letters inside.  It looks pale here but it's easier to see in real life.

I added the ribbon because it felt a little like a dog collar with a name plate on it.  Plus it gave a supporting line to the layout.

I printed out my journaling in a text box in word (line spacing 1.2).  And then I just cut it into strips and glued them down one...by one...by one...by one...you get the picture.  :)

I only had one picture for this layout so it was perfect for a 1 pager.  And 8.5x11 seemed the perfect size.  I love that in my new 3 ring albums I can mix and match page sizes!  If you are wondering, this layout will be in my All About Us album because it focuses on a relationship between my boys and their Daddy.


















Do you scrap with black and white photos?  Ever had to deal with extended separation from a loved one?  What tips and tricks did you use to help little ones with missing a loved one?  I'd love to hear all about it!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Does the title of this post make you wanna sing a little.  It does me!  For as long as my youngest has been able to talk he has said to me daily, "I wanna hold your hand."  And every time I start to sing...I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-and, I wanna ho-old yo-our hand.  During LOAD this year I decided to create a layout all about it.

I saw this template by Crystal Wilkerson over at Write.Click.Scrapbook one day and knew I would need to use it!  Since the photos I wanted to use were from many different occasions I made them black and white.  Which made this layout a perfect fit for Crystal's template.  I love all the color!

When using the layered version of the template you can clip your own papers to the border.  I love how bright and cheery it looks!

I still used papers from Crystals Spring/Summer line but I had fun playing around with what went where.

I love the paper strips across the bottom.  I don't often make subtitles but this was the perfect place for one.  This is a staged picture but it is a perfect representation of how often my little guy reaches for my hand.  (cue the awwwws)

For the left page I used another of Crystal's templates.  I did add the stitching to make it match the right side.  For the pics I scrolled back through iPhoto and found several pics of my son and I holding hands.  Just more evidence of his obsession.  :)

I've been working lately on telling everyday stories.  This layout is definitely an example of that.  Which makes me love it even more!

Have you ever scrapped about a song that has a special meaning for someone in your family?  Link us up so we can see!

35 things I love at 35

Sometimes when you are attempting to do a layout a day you've gotta take things easy.  This layout was made on one of those days for me.

 One of the LOAD challenges was to create an all black and white layout.  And I did it!   Well, almost.  :)

I was looking for a white paper to use as a mat when I came across this lovely paper.  It has a subtle green pattern.  Which is where my "almost" comes in.  :)

My journaling consists of a simple list of 35 things I love at 35.  Hence the catchy title.  ;)

Have you ever made a page listing things you love?  Leave a link in the comments so we can all see!

10, 10, 10 Challenge

On National Scrapbook Day I participated in BPC's Creative Crop.  Stacy Julian gave a challenge to create a page with 10 products, 10 techniques, and journal with only 10 words.  I was excited to try it out!  So here's the breakdown...

Products: cardstock, paint, digi stamp, brad/eyelets, flowers, chipboard letters, ribbon, paperclip, tags

Techniques: paint, digi stamp, handwriting, folded ribbon, hybrid embellishments, tags as embellishments, visual triangle, eyelets/brads, doodling

This page just makes me happy.  I've never been able to make a two page spread with only one photo.  If I was ever going to do it this pic seemed the one to try it with.

This is only my second time painting on a layout.  And I so love it!  The dry brush technique made a cool mat for one of my favorite photos!

I love anything by Ali Edwards and this digi stamp is no exception.  I made it orange to match the mat and dropped it on top of the pic.  Love Love LOVE!

 Amazing that I could make a page without a photo and only 10 words of journaling.  And I even like it.  :)

To create a visual triangle I added this little cluster of embellishments.  I love the idea of using a tag as the base of the cluster.  Add the date...pretty.

This cluster is the baseline for my journaling.  It also is where many of my products and techniques come into play.

Big chipboard letters a white pen and some thoughts about my baby boy and the layout is complete.  :)

Try it out!  10 products 10 techniques and 10 words of journaling.  It's a fun challenge and creates an amazing page!

Gum Fun

I am more and more drawn to scrapping about everyday stories.  I'm behind the times...I know.  :)  I've almost decided to just use photo collages for event scrapping and save my creative time for layouts like this!

This story has been on my mind for awhile and I knew it had to be scrapped.  My son only recently got to try gum for the first time.  For the last couple of years every time someone else had gum he would say, "No gum for Tea-ton" (his version of his name at the time)  He would say it so longingly.  Absolutely adorable.  And now that he has actually tried gum I knew it was time to scrap the story!

My layout inspiration came from this one by Brenda.  I pinned it on Pinterest recently as a heritage idea.  But the layout design seemed perfect for this story too.  (if you haven't heard of Pinterest it is my favorite place to play online!)  This layout is done in 8.5x11 and I wanted to make mine 12x12.  So I stretched the sizes a bit to make it fit.  Otherwise the layout is the same.  I did sketch it first so I could be sure on dimensions before I started cutting, but that's just cause I'm picky that way!  :)

When you think of gum often shades of pink come to mind.  Since this is about my son I didn't want to do that.  Instead I used these shades of blue yellow and green.  I think it still gives it a gum flavor (tee-hee).

This is a photo from my son's birthday party.  The actual first time he tried gum.  However this part of the story is more about his hesitancy to try new things.  Which absolutely applies to the gum story but it gives a broader picture to his personality.

 My color palette came from the cute striped pattern paper.  Makes it so easy to pull other papers when you have an inspiration piece!  To make the title I downloaded a free font called Bubblegum from dafont.com.  In PSE8 I typed my title and clipped some digital paper called Pretty Pattern from Creativity by Crystal.  It's hard to see the pattern in this pic but if you click on the photo and enlarge it you can see it better.

Originally I was going to put some kind of gum SVG here.  I couldn't find one I liked and then I remembered the gum wrapper bracelets I made as a kid.  I thought I could make a flower out of that.  Trouble was I couldn't really remember how to make them.  So I did a search and pieced together the directions.  And this is my final result!  I like how different and fun it is!  Not to mention the fact that it is made from recycled materials!  Trash to treasure here I come!  :)  I'll post a gum wrapper flower tutorial tomorrow!

I chose to use black and white photos because I had a specific color palette I wanted to work with.  Since these pics were taken on 3 different days none of the colors coordinated at all.  So black and white they became.  This page has 4x6 pics and the left page has a 5x7.  As I already said my main photo was from his actual first time trying gum.  The second photo was not taken with this story in mind at all but it goes along.  However, only my family will see the connection because my son's phrase "No gum for Keaton" was typically said while we were in the car.  I don't say that in the story but WE would know why that photo was chosen.  The third pic was staged because my son's reaction to gum now is so predictable.  In fact I said, can you come take a picture for me, held out a piece of gum and he automatically started shaking his hands just like this.  So funny!

The inspiration layout had these little strips of paper across the top.  I thought they were a great way to use scraps (which is very Earth friendly too)!  It wasn't until after I put them on the page that I realized they looked like strips of gum.  I love it when I stumble on perfection!  :)

I had this little bit of wrapper chain left over and decided to use it to embellish the right side.  By itself it wasn't substantial enough so I added some patterned and white paper as a mat.  Which was also a nice way to bring a bit more yellow onto this page.

I love when a story comes full circle.  My son, who has been longing for gum for so long, has now decided he wants nothing to do with gum.  To highlight a few key parts in the journaling I like to give the words their own line, increase the font, bold or change the color of the text.  Or do all of the above as I did here!  :)

What funny stories have you scrapped lately?

My Scrappy Workflow

I've been thinking a lot lately about my scrapping process.  So I thought I'd share it all with you.  First let me say that I am a chronological scrapper but I don't get hung up on actually scrapping in order.  My pages just have to be in order in my album!  So here is how I start...

I'm a MAC girl so I store all my pics in iPhoto.  Whenever I upload, which I do fairly frequently, I sort my pics into events.  I find it easiest to only upload one event at a time.  So while my camera may have july 4th, a birthday, and camp all on it at the same time I will only select the pics for July 4th and upload those.  Then I will go back to the camera and upload the next event.  OR you can also upload all pics at the same time then select the ones from a specific event and split.  

So when I want to scrap I scroll through my events and find one that interests me.  Then I go in and decide which pics I want to use on my layout.  On a side note, since I want my layouts to go chronological in my album I always have in mind which layouts I want to do.  I'll then put a sticky note in the album to hold the spot.  So when I do finish a layout I try to put it in the album where it will go, leaving space for the ones I haven't finished yet but know I'm going to do.

My next step is to edit the pics I want to use.  I do this in Photoshop Elements.  You can edit in iPhoto, but only very basic things.  I usually want to do a bit more in the way of edits so I choose to use PSE.  Another side note, I always duplicate the photo in iPhoto and edit the duplicate.  That way I still have the original file if I ever want to go back and edit in a different way.  Cause when you save in PSE it overwrites the photo, and if you rename it the file doesn't go directly into iPhoto.  Which means I have to use the finder to find the file and then import it into iPhoto which is a pain.  There may be a better way, but I haven't figured it out so I stick with duplicating the original photo, editing the duplicate, and then saving it over the duplicate.

Ok so once I know how many photos I'd like to use, I need to find a layout idea.  For this I do a variety of things.  Sometimes I look through my Ella eBooks, sometimes I look through magazines, and sometimes I search favorite blogs and websites.  Which is what I did here.  I went to one of my favorites, Write.Click.Scrapbook, and looked through their gallery of layouts with 4x6 photos.  I found this adorable one by Moon Ko and knew that would work perfectly for my pics.

When I am lifting a layout exactly I skip this next step but usually I am turning a one pager into two.  Some of you may already know this, but I am very linear.  And I like to know what sizes I need before I start cutting.  So I sketch out the inspiration layout and decide how I want to spread it across two pages.

In this case I left the original layout exactly as is and used it for the left page.  I knew I wanted one of the pics larger so I made space for a 5x7 on the right side.  Since I typically blog about my layouts I always make note on the sketch of where the layout inspiration came from.  I then keep the sketches in a 3-ring binder for future reference.

By the way, all of the above steps I often do in stages.  I might sit on the couch next to my husband, while he watches TV, working on uploading pics, editing, or searching for layout inspiration.  Grabbing my grid paper and sketching is another thing I do if I only have a little bit of spare time.  Once I pull out patterned paper I want to be able to sit and scrap until the layout is done, but the preparation steps are easily done in small bits when I don't have time to sit down and scrap.

Now that I know exactly how many photos I need and what size, it's time to print.  And yes, I print my pics at home.  When I want to scrap I want to do it now and I don't want to wait for pics to come in the mail.  AND I only want to print the ones I'm actually going to use, not all the ones I might want to scrap.  Another quirk of mine is that I don't like to print from PSE.  So once I save the file I go back to iPhoto to print.  The main reason is that PSE will only let me print one pic per page.  Sometimes I have odd sizes and want to do two photos on the same page.  iPhoto lets me do that.  In this case I was just printing 4x6 photos but I still print them from iPhoto.

I knew I wanted 4 patterns for my layout.  Since I chose to print my pics in black and white I knew I could pic any papers that struck my fancy.  I've actually had these in my stash for YEARS!  I'd been waiting for the perfect layout for the text paper all about boys.  Today was the day!

As I was looking at the papers I decided that I wanted the text paper to be a full 6 in wide rather than the 4 in I had originally sketched.  I decided to let the 5x7 photo overlap the text paper a bit.  So I wanted another piece of patterned paper to use as a mat for the pic.  Which is where my scrap stash came into play.  I store my scrap pieces in these square bins (I think I bought this at Hobby Lobby) by color.  Red/Pink/Orange, Yellow/Green, Blue/Purple, Brown, Black/Gray/White Patterns, White cardstock.

I pulled out my Blue/Purple drawer and found this striped sheet that matched perfectly!  Now I can begin to assemble the page.

Once I get all the papers cut and things laid out on the page I can figure out how much space I have for journaling.  In this case I had a 3x6 space for my story.  I usually type my journaling in Word.  I just make a text box the size I need, decide on a font and type.  Then I mess around with size and font until I'm happy with how it fills the space.  Sometimes I print my journaling on vellum but usually I print on cardstock.

Once it's printed I trim the paper down to the size I need and add it to the layout.

And then it's time to embellish!  One of my favorite parts!  Since my layout is essentially green and blue I pulled out those bins and started digging.

Small embellishments are in these plastic jars.  I just turn them to scroll through what I have.  Unopened packages are in the side of the bin so I also sort through those until something jumps out at me.

For this layout I found this adorable green tag (since it's mostly green it was in the green bin).  I also pulled out my white bin for the two buttons.

I didn't have much else that worked for this layout, but I wanted to accent this page a bit too.  A string of buttons did the trick.  Each bin has a small jar full of buttons.  I just pulled an assortment of blue and green buttons and glued them down.

The left page was super simple.  All photos and paper blocks were 4x6.  And the black and white photos really work with these bright fun papers!

The text paper on this side works so well for this page.  It highlights some of the fun characteristics of boys which goes right along with the pics and journaling for this layout.

And here is my final step before adding a layout to my album.  Taking some pics of it.  I like to stand above my layout and try to shoot straight down if possible.  I used to put the pages on the floor but in my new scraproom the brown of the carpet and lack of light makes for very icky pictures.  My white craft table is right next to a north facing window with great light.  So I put the pages on the table, stand CAREFULLY on my chair (which is a swivel chair on wheels), and take my pics.  No injuries so far...knock on wood...

And there is my completed layout.  Simple and fun.  And by the way, I started this blog post just intending to tell you about my process.  A few steps and screen shots in I decided to actually make a layout to show you pics of all the steps.  So even though I didn't intend to actually scrap today I ended up putting together this layout in just over and hour.  It's taken me a bit longer to finish the blog post, but I did have to make dinner and deal with kids in there too.  :)  I love that I ended up with such a cute spread!

Now that you know mine, tell me...what's your scrappy workflow?