Hello Again!

 When you don’t know what to do - return to what you love. I’ve been questioning a lot of things recently and somehow that added up to me heading over to YouTube last night and watching a scrapbook video which reminded me that it’s been too long since I’ve played with pretty paper, stickers and photos. So this morning, I made a list of chores and then headed to uncover my scrapbook desk. Much to my surprise, once I found the bottom of the pile, I also found a partially started layout which allowed me to get started quickly. So here it is. A page with photos from the 70’s and my heart is happy. In my mind, I don’t have much time for my favorite hobby, but maybe I do. Stay tuned. 

More classwork featuring layouts of the 70's and 80's

Still loving this Shimelle sketch class - start with a sketch. As those of you who are following along know, I am doing the class at my own pace and out of order and it feels really good. Giving yourself permission to adjust or pick your own speed is such a gift. Here are my layouts for sketches #6 and #10 plus a little something of my own design.  

As I have been working on the Wyoming Trek Album (Girl Scout trip in the 80's) I have also pulled out the photo boxes from the 70's and 80's and grabbed a few photos to work with. I do love a good current project, but mixing in the older photos is so enjoyable. My kids find it hilarious and my mom and brother enjoy seeing photos from the "family archives" get a little attention.  

First up - two more layouts for the Trek Album. Both with the same sketch but they will be far enough apart in the album that it won't matter.  

I have been saving these three photos since I first saw sketch #10. I am also pleased to say that I used an entire sheet of Jenni Bowlin Studio red border stickers on this layout. Talk about satisfying! Currently, struggling with what to do with the creme and brown letter stickers that won't stay stuck down. Gotta fix that before I get this page in the album. 

Here are four random photos my mother took one evening. Such a sweet window into our life. It reminds me of my time when my kiddos were little. Love that you can see the pack n play and the baby gate in the pictures plus all of the cool 70's decor.   

For this last layout, I used supplies I had gathered for the July recipe from the For the Love of Homemade Kits on Redefined Creative. It really helped me use some older supplies and things I would not have normally put together. I have been working on several pages made with the supplies from this kit. Those will post soon. I did not take a photo of the kit before I started using it - but I pulled a lot of things and have been working away. Giving myself permission to pull out other things if I need them, but have been focusing on using what is on the table. It is has been really fun and has cost me nothing!

Turning in More Homework!

Summer is here, but Sketch class is still going.  Super excited to sneak in the time to complete projects for Sketches #3, #7, & #8 - cause who says you have to do your homework in order?

Again, not showing the sketches as this is a paid class from Shimelle - Start with a Sketch.  Here are my takes.

 I was thinking that this class would be success if it got me back in the scrapping habit, but, wonder of all wonders, it got me to turn on my Silhouette, download the software onto my current laptop, find a design, upload the gift card I have had FOREVER and actually cut and use a file!  Y'all, this is a serious win and a great reminder to take a class, try a sketch or something that will push you in some way.  I used a piece of equipment that I have had for years and just not in the habit of using and I am SO glad I did cause I am super happy with this page. Backing the images was a pain but I did see a recent layout without any backing and I may try that next time.  I also finally used those cute little embroidered boots that a coworker gave me about two years ago.

This is the ultimate use up random scraps pages design and it totally works.  It is busy but so is watching football - hahaha. The badges are from several old Cocoa Daisy Kits and somehow seemed to be the perfect color match. I think I am going to repeat this idea on the horizontal soon.  I save most of my scraps in a magazine holder so I have no shortage of small scraps for this type of design.  We shall see - as my Momma always says.   

This page took me a lot longer to complete that I had thought - mainly because I hemmed and hawed about the paper for a long time.  The photos were taken in the evening inside of a BBQ tent at Rodeo and they have a bluish quality.  I tried and tried to match or complement it with no luck.  It finally came together when I gave up on that idea upon seeing a stray package of an old Cosmo Cricket kit on my table that was on theme.  It's a bit "themey" and I am ok with that because it's not something I do all of the time and it is done.  And sometimes done is better than perfect.  Besides, when else am I going to get to put a horseshoe, stars and not one but two rodeo cowboys on a layout?  

Off to work on Sketches #6 and #10. A few layouts for the Wyoming Trek Album should be coming up soon plus some wonderful ole 80's photos of my Papa John and Uncle Brown. Bet they never thought they would be on a fancy scrapbook page, much less a blog!  

When You Get Stuck - Start Small

This whole not working and then working contracts and then having too much to do and then not enough rollercoaster has definitely hit my crafting mojo a little hard.  But I never give up, returning time and time again to this much beloved hobby. This time - I just started with some cards and I even got my daughter to help. We had a super fun day making more than 40 cards together. I got all of the ideas off of Splitcoast Stampers. When I'm stuck like this, sketches, copying something or a recipe always get me going. I am not making proceeds from these cards, just making them to mail to family and friends - so I simply copied some pretty cards I found online. So thankful to the amazing crafty people out there for the inspiration. Most of the supplies are from Stamping' Up and the rest are just from my stash.   

Here is our collection of pretty cards, several of which have already been mailed off. We even made some Fourth of July cards to send to folks just because. Sometimes, doing something for someone else is just what you need to do to get going again.  

 

I think we will do another session soon.  Elsie really enjoyed it and was really creative with which designs we picked and even helping to modify some to make them even prettier!  The best part was spending time together and using up some of my super old supplies.  We laughed each time we found a piece of paper or an embellishment that was older than she is. Good times.  

Still Working on the Wyoming Trek Album

In the midst of all of this crazy and the class I’m taking, I am still trying to chip away at the 80’s Wyoming Trek album for my Cadette Girl Scout Troop.  This double page LO has been sitting on my desk for months and months and it’s finally finished. It ended up just being two single pages using the same supplies, but it will work in the album! 

 

I am super excited to get these two finished and to have another story recorded.  I have pulled out some other photos and plan to use the Shimelle class to help get them complete.  Progress over perfection!  

Skipping ahead to Assignment #4

Here’s my take on assignment aka sketch #4 for the Shimelle class I’m taking. Even though I am making very similar pages with the same sketch, I’m not worried. Here’s why - they will end up in vastly different books, the design is solid, I’m happy with them and the stories are getting told. So who cares!  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Some bonus work

Still steadily working on my class work from the class with Shimelle. But what I’ve found is that the class is encouraging me to do other pages too. Here’s a few pages I made last week “outside” of class.   super excited to get these photos and stories captured. For the first page, I had the large photo of the White House that I recycled from the actual project and then printed the small photo. It was a super easy page to do. The other pages use photos that are from the 2000’s.

Hope you are doing well in quarantine land. I’m struggling, but scrapbooking is helping.

Back to School - Turning in my Homework

Finally got a new rhythm to life here and making time to photograph and post my class layouts. I really should have told the kids I had school and assignments to turn in too.  Then they would surely get how important it was for mommy to do her homework.

Since this is a paid class by Shimelle, I will only be posting my work (not the sketches). But I do so encourage you to sign up. So happy with how things are going so far - gives me the push I need, a lovely and supportive community and great ideas!  Finding time for my favorite hobby and still trying to be gentle on myself. Progress is the new perfection - my new motto.

Here are two layouts based on the same sketch. Love how they turned out. Different and yet the same.

As you can tell I am going through random photos from several decades. Just doing whatever feels right. It’s so freeing to scrap what you are inspired by at the moment vs that pressure cooker feeling I used to put myself in about “staying caught up” because that, my friends, is a recipe for disaster and a sure fire way to crush my creativity.  Hope you’re well and crafting.

We are all beginners

One of the things that my coaching training has taught me is that we are all beginners. This means, that even though I have scrapped for what feels like my whole life, I can always learn more, see things from a fresh perspective or simply just enjoy being a student. This season (crazy virus and my first job transition in nearly a decade) reminds me that this is the perfect opportunity to take a class doing something that I love.  Just so happens that someone I have followed for ages was offering a class. Usually I hem and haw on signing up but not this time - I read the description and clicked yes.

Shimelle is a favorite and I’m thrilled to have the chance to take this class at this exact moment in time. Since this is a paid class, I won’t show her content, but will share the pages I make.

So excited to share my first one. Yet again, I pulled out the stack of unused Hip Kit Club products and started. Here’s my take for lesson one:

Hope you are using this time to enjoy a slower pace and a hobby that you love that maybe you’ve been putting off due to time constraints.

I’ve also been loving listening to The Feel Good Effect by Robyn Conley Downs podcast lately. Happy to be spending some time on things that fill my cup.

When’s Octover? I’m ready for November!

October is always a full month for me and this year is no exception. Two weekends out of town and a myriad of activities so far and it’s only the 16th. Whew - just need to hang on a little longer through two scout meetings, the school fair and Halloween and not to mention what feels like an activity every singe evening.  In the craft room, the tables I put up are still full from my kit sorting and I’m determined not to let all of that work go to waste - so they are patiently waiting for November or a free night when I actually have the energy to do something other than crash on the couch. But hey, how would we appreciate Thanksgiving without a crazy October. Here’s a few pages to tide you over.

This one was made quite a while ago in answer to a challenge to use a song title.  This was Elsie's last school dance performance - the fifth grade sword dance.  And while she performs this dance regularly now for competitions, this was the last time she ever danced with her class. It was a cool moment and the end of an era.  So happy to have that moment captured.  This reminds me of why I still love my "big" camera.  You just can;t get shots like this with the iphone from as far away as I was sitting. 

Another one of Elsie - presentation for school created with a single photo I was emailed from the teacher.  Love that I got a peek into her day.  I added more embellishments that usual to this page and it's kinda making me happy.  I am usually a simple is better girl, but it was such fun to just keep adding.  Besides, I finally used that Hambly owl I had been hoarding for ages.  Ya! 

When your girlfriend convinces you to do something silly - you get a page about The Donut Dash.  I tried to capture the sugar sweet fun of this day with the paper and embellishments. The grid pattern design was from a sketch that was online.  Need to remember that some of my happiest pages come from challenges and random prompts from people I follow. 

So that's it for now.  Hope you enjoyed these pages.  I am going to grab some sketches and look for a challenge or two to have in my pocket for the next time I have a little time to craft.  What are you working on next? 

How to get started again

Let’s go back to a few weeks ago - just want to share the process of restarting for anyone who needs this encouragement. After getting a wild hair and making the layout featured in the last post, I decided it was time to get back to scrapping. So I searched my calendar for a way to make it happen. I found an upcoming weekend when my kids would be with their dad and I didn’t have massive commitments. I pondered going away for a retreat, but couldn’t justify the drive to even the closet one I could find - about 7 hours there and back plus packing and unpacking time - so I settled for an at home retreat. I will say, it wasn't the most effective weekend, I got distracted at home - errands, laundry, drop by visits, cooking - you know the drill - there’s always something, but I will also say I got started and that was worth it.

Step one was to clean up the space and make it workable for the weekend. I am lucky enough to have an office/craft space, but it was a mess. I don’t know about you, but I have several landing spots for memorabilia and things that need to be filed or kept so I decided to start there. I sorted out things that could easily get tossed, filed or categorized. Then I put up two large folding tables that I purchased at Sam’s - lifetime brand 6ft tables that fold in half for storage and also have three height adjustments (I like the standing height). And then I starting pulling things out - all of the unused kits I had piled up, half finished layouts from when I had to quickly store the contents of this room before having the floor replaced last December (yes it’s been 10 months since I touched a layout!) and anything else I found. I then sorted supplies, utilizing the dining room table and was ready to scrap. 

I was lucky enough to have some partially completed layouts as a jumping off point, which means I had very few decisions to make and could get back to adhering paper to paper and adding embellishments - which is my favorite part. After a few of these got done I was already feeling like I was back to my crafty self so I started making new layout selections. Personally, I don’t mind having several layouts going at the same time at different stages so I can pay attention to my energy levels and do what works for my current state. 

So there you have it. That’s how I got back at this craft that I’ve loved for nearly 30 years. Here are the partially completed layouts that were the first to get completed. I will be back with more layouts that just needed to be photographed and then the newest ones after that. 

Happy crafting! 

Choose Happy - this was a selfie from an event that I went to where a mentor of mine was being honored.  I decided to take advantage of a fairly good photo to keep my positive self talk going.

I will admit that my daughter is currently in 7th grade, but this layout was too cute not to finish.  The teapot is a mother's day card from her to me.  Yes, I saved the place cards and no, I am not ashamed.

Dress up holiday parties make for the best pages!  Three generations captured here.  I had already fussy cut these flowers but found an entire package of daises that went perfectly - yes, I used all of them - cause why not?

Concert time!  I took a ton of photos at this concert and I am so glad I did.  The layout was a little boring when I started, but a package of stars, some words and way to many clear accent stickers later, it was feeling a lot more festive.    

Here's a close up of the word and sticker fun.  I tucked those paint mark stickers all over the place and I love them - I had no idea how I was going to use them before this layout got restarted. 

Another confession, I stuffed some confetti from the show in my pocket and yes, it is on the layout, again, don't care. 

This layout was complete - only needed to be adhered and journaled.  And then I found butterflies and all was right with the world.

I struggled with this layout some - but once I just gave up and started sticking things down it worked.  Funny how when you make a commitment and then start working around whatever you committed to things seem to just work, 

So there you have it.  Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to share what you are working on or a layout that has you stuck.  

You can always come home again . . .

They say, you can’t go home. But I don’t believe them. Creative pursuits, while places of great joy, also need some joy to thrive or at least a hint of joy to spark more. What do you do when you just don’t have any joy?  Sometimes you take a break. You go dancing. You sulk. You watch movies. You read. You don’t beat yourself up the entire time. And eventually your creative soul begs for a release from the cave. And you walk out and just start.

And so I have. And I must admit it was jerky, but not painfully so. But I just stuck with what I knew - I printed a large photo - in this case a selfie I liked  - along with some quotes I have recently saved from Instagram and Facebook that have been inspiring and then I pulled out a kit (thank goodness for hip kits!) and simply used what was in front of me.  And here is the result - Create your own Sunshine . . .

Is it perfect?  No, but it is done and done is better than perfect. So there you have it. It’s a start and I am itching for more. And that, my creative friends, feels really good.

Hope y’all are all doing whatever brings you joy.

November Hip Kits - Layouts Completed

Ya'll - I have finally found my kit.  I took a hiatus for a bit from the kit club life since my last kit morphed into something that wasn't really me anymore (which is fine, but I needed to let go).  I waiting a long time and then I researched and looked at kits till I was cross eyed and I finally decided to give Hip Kits a go.  I am in love.

The November kit was pure magic and let me tell you, for me to say that takes a lot - I haven't scrapped a Christmas layout in like a decade - I don't know why or what has me so averse to the idea, but this kit was themed Christmas and I decided to accept the challenge and just do it.  I scrapped photos from this year, from the 70's, the 80's and the 90's.  I went nuts - in a good way.  I did add in a few things from my stash and also pulled in the leftovers from the October kit (especially the blue alphas you see a few pieces of paper) and that made me really happy to use it and make it work.

The result - 16 pages.  yes, 16.  And they are all journaled and dated.  I used some sketches and some ideas from the internet but most are completely my own.  Lots of double spreads which are my jam.

Here goes -

Ah, the 90's and big sweaters and leggings, oh wait that's back in style.  Hid the journaling in the photo holder.  And yes, I included both of the photos, cause, why not?  What else am I going to do with it?

Fast forward to the 2000's to me taking my own children to the mall.  This layout captures the stress and joy of being the mom in the Santa photo world.

This double captures just the highlights of a Christmas from little traditions to just the general things I saw that year that I wanted to remember.  Love that hot cocoa smile.

Back to 2009 and the perspective from Santa's camera.  And yes, I had them do separate photos of each kiddo as well as one of them together.  Cause I like to remember that they are siblings and also individuals - that's just me.  

 I have had these two photos sitting around for about 6 years and now they are on a page - yay!  My trouble - the blue of the school uniforms always makes them hard to scrap. These letters combined with the pink fresh studio paper was perfect.  The pink tree paper was a scrap from the thank you note layout.  Worked perfectly to frame these cute photos.

Here is that layout - I used a tree shape to mimic them sitting under the tree. And that snowman - perfect for this layout.  It is not a photo but actually an extra thank you card that I had made that year for the kids to write their thank you notes.  Every now and then, I get things done on time!  The snowflake mask has been in my stash for years - finally it has been used!  I also pulled all of the presents from the stickers and embellishments to add some impact to this page.  

Back to the 70's - and great old school Santa photos.  I just had to include the photo holder - it was just too fabulous not to keep.  1973-1976.  Lots of plaid, tears and hideous Santa chairs.

This was actually the first page I made with the November kit.  I used the sketch that is shown below the layout. This documents an actual snow that happened in Houston this year.  Goodness, we have had more than our fair share of crazy weather this year.  Between Harvey and then a snow storm and an ice storm I am done with weather.  I am ready for summer and sunshine.  

That little Christmas kitty stocking inspired this whole layout. Elsie is always taking or having me take photos of Wooley, he's a big part of our home life so I guess he deserves a page.  Glad I had a prompt to make that happen.  

This was a copy of a layout from Mercy Tiara - it was just too cute so I couldn't help myself. I added the snowflakes for a little more embellishment on the page.

 The last of my childhood Christmas photos are now scrapped.  As the layout indicates, these are the last two photos we have with Santa.  I fussy cut the ornament from the cover of the photo holder cause yet again, it was just too 80's fabulous not to include.

Here is a page about this year!  I used the sketch that was posted on the The Hip Kit blog.  Perfect for these instagram photos.  This page reminds me that I need to take more photos - just little everyday moment photos.  I enjoy these a lot.

Tip - I tape the sketch I use to the back of the layout to help me remember where I got the inspiration.  

Determined to use the supplies from the kit and not put them away until next year, I decided to make some cards with the left over embellishments and scraps of paper.  I had to pull some cardstock from my stash but it worked great.  I know I will be happy when Christmas rolls around next year and I have this little stash of cards.  Why don't I did this more often?  

 Here's my "kill a kit" photo.  This is what was left over when I finished.  Just a few letter stickers, NO chipboard or puffy stickers left, just a few enamel dots and a few small scraps of paper.  I am thrilled that I have basically nothing to add to my stash after this kit was killed.  The scraps are all going in the trash except the one piece of paper that is about 6 x 12.  I will keep the leftover letters just in case I can use them.