for Carrie

All of the family pages I have scanned so far... Dad got me the 6x6 Basic Grey pages for my birthday (well, he doesn't know that- he got me a gift certificate) and they were so perfect for our family! I have yet to get the new kids scrapped, since I don't have many pictures of you and Alice! Thanks SOOOOO much for all the fun scrapbooking stuff you sent!!! It absolutely made my week/month/year :D

Not drowning any longer

Well, hopefully not, anyway. I'll try my best.

I've been quite anti-social lately, since Sam started his new job and we only have three hours a day to spend together. That kills me so much, since I am a 'quality time person', hardcore. So we've been spending every non-working hour together and when he hits the hay at 9:30 I scrapbook until I get tired. Of course, I'm a total night owl, so that doesn't happen naturally until 12:30 or 1:00 am. And between 9:30 pm and 1:30 am are EXACTLY the times our mamas say it's rude to call people, so my friends probably all think I'm dead.

LUCKILY I recently discovered SIStv and I tell ya what, the ladies over there are online till ALL hours. I just might have hit the jackpot, here. And they're all gorgeous creative geniuses, too. It's like I just went back to college- hanging out in the Senior studios till 3 am, with everybody working on their paintings/pottery/installations/etc. and sharing stories and critiques. [sigh] It's a beautiful thing.

OLW challenge: today

Hopefully the whopping "fragile" sticker doesn't distract anyone from the actual one little word, here. I just love that sticker! A guy in my office ordered some glass samples and there was one on each box, so I scavenged them when he wasn't looking. :) I have an extra if anyone wants it!

ScrapMojo Recycled/5 Challenge

^The original (and heinous) page^


^RECYCLED VERSION!^
I think it's a little too busy... but it's still waaaay better than the first one. Believe it or not, the entire page is recycled from the original. The original is on one side of an American Crafts paper and there was another layout on the back, so I couldn't just rip it up and start over- so I wove all of my paper leftovers together and fit them around the photo. I also used up all my Love, Elsie letter leftovers to carry the alphabet theme. The circles on the right side are photo negatives- because what on earth do I need those for anymore, right? Gotta use them somehow!

The Art is Found challenge: Shopping Tags!

Ingredients: USPS envelope, Italian jeans' tags, graph paper, ancient thread labels off spools from great grandma, random old buttons and ribbon, Making Memories foliage frame.
Journaling reads: I got these awesome jeans in Florence and the tag was in Italian on one side with the translation on the other. Except the translation makes no sense whatsoever! It's hysterical.

Seriously, read the tag if you can. Absolute nonsense. Try reading it like a rap, it's even funnier. Oh, and beware those creepy Venetian transvestite mannequins in the photo.

One Little Word Challenge #25 "Grow"

Ingredients: generic cardstock, Love,Elsie stickers, small strip of unknown-brand striped paper.
Journaling reads: THIS is who I am today. And I am okay with that. Even though most days I get in a hurry, forget how far I have come and start to feel like the shy old me... like this... or this... or this. But I do not have to be that insecure, awkward girl in my memory. That was years ago and I HAVE GROWN. And gotten better with age, even! When I live in fear of my past self I stop my current self from stepping into the future. I WANT TO KEEP GROWING.

ScrapMojo JUNO challenge!

My first layout for a ScrapMojo challenge. This one is based (in case it's not obvious) on the Juno movie posters that are oh-so-cute. When I got finished I realized I made this almost entirely from found pieces, except those three Love,Elsie stickers that I couldn't resist. The orange background is the same overlay thingy that I used as the cover on my Inspiration album and it's just vellum, masking tape, notebook paper and Sharpie after that.
It was good to have an external challenge because for about a week I have certainly not been interested in creating anything (except maybe some chaos). But there are so many scrap challenge sites and books that are gonna keep me engaged when I'd rather just come home from work, cross my eyes and stare at a wall all night. Although really, that's not a horrible idea either...our walls are bright blue and covered in art, so even cross-eyed I'd be imbibing creativity and beauty!

New scrapbook!!

My first scrapbook wasn't a "real" scrapbook at all but a book of quotes about marriage that I repurposed and just scrapped over all the pages. So once I finished that one I got an 8x8 with removable pages and it is WAY easier to use! Holy smokes, who knew the ease of working on a flat, detachable page rather than a pre-bound page? I've only done two layouts so far, but I like both of them so much better than anything else I've done. Hooray!

What inspires me

Here is the finished product, as far as I can tell. It's pretty short, but I really like it. There are actually a few more pages I didn't scan because I already had on my flickr account, so I'm working on getting them on here...
The cover overlay is an orange/clear plastic piece from an old presentation that I scrounged at work. Each page is hand cut from a marketing booklet for an apartment complex we visited in Phoenix. Practically everything is found except the letters, stickers and scraps of patterned paper. (Some of those were found, too.)

It's SO much cooler in person, I really wish these scans could convey it properly. I certainly have a lot to learn about scrapbooking, though, and am still not content with about 40% of the pages I make. Maybe when I have more time on my hands... hahahahahahahaha

Hopefully this photo shows up much larger than it does on my view. (Aha, you have to click on it to see its true glory!) It's a miniature inspiration book that JocelynneB from Flickr made and it is so cool that I've started my own. I am the epitome of a fairweather scrapbooker and have yet to actually complete any book I've started. But hopefully this little one will remedy that. The fact that I dictate its number of pages should help... ;) I'll let you know how that goes, and will post complete photos ASAP.


I've been spending all of my free moments at work link-hopping through scrappers' blogs (usually starting here) and absorbing mass quantities of inspiration. Hopefully the weather will take a turn for the nicer, soon, so that Sam can spend more time in the garage and I can start makin' stuff again. (I'm a quality-time person, so any time he's home we're inseparable.) My first evening of working on the mini album, his friend called and apparently asked what I was up to because he looked over at me buried in piles of magazines, scraps, various adhesive products and photos and replied "I guess she's makin' stuff."