Using New Stuff

For the first time ever, I used a scrappy purchase on the same day that I bought it.  That never happens around here.  Ever.  Usually it hits the stash and waits patiently for me to remember why I bought it in the first place and for what project.  I've gotten much better about that and this is proof positive.  Yeah Me!

What I haven't gotten better about is printing photos.  What a hateful task.  I love looking through them but when it comes time to print, I really miss the days of getting a handful of photos back from the developer.  Not really but it sounds good enough to use as an excuse. 

Back in 2012, we went to Niagara Falls and as we were coming into the city, it started to look so cloudy.  This was our first introduction to the power and magnificence of the Falls.  The water is so forceful that it produces a mist that can be seen for a couple of miles away.  It was breathtaking!

 

 

 

In this photo, you can just barely see the sun.  It was a very sunny afternoon.

 

That's all for me on this lovely Tuesday.  We had a strong thunderstorm roll through last night and I slept like a baby!  Should be a wonderful day today right?  Thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!!

How Many Albums Do You Have?

I was looking at my albums and they took up the entire top of my filing cabinet.  That's like 4 feet of scrapbook pages.  Wow.  I have a lot of albums.  Or do I?  I have seen professional scrapbookers who have a full bookcase of albums (like Ali Edwards) but they do this for a living.  I am so curious about how many albums the average scrapbooker has.  Call me nosey because I am but that is what is on my mind today.  Looking around, I haven't really seen too many blog post or articles about the albums themselves.  If you care to post, I would love to hear from you about your album collection.  

Last night I challenged myself to create and I love what came out of the session.   It may be a while until I get around to putting a photo on it but I will get around to it.  I struggle so much with printing out photos.  gaahh it is such a pain! 

Anywho, with the photo organizing that I am doing, I am finding a ton of my kids school photos but, and this is a big but, I can't remember what grade the kids were in and the photos are not marked with the date or anything.  So funny because as a mom, you think that you will never forget that type of detail.  Here is the layout that I created with my oldest sons 4th grade photo.....

 

Not in love with it or the next layout I have to share but they are ok and I am happy to get these memories into my 4 feet of albums:)

 

 

This is a photo of my oldest daughter and my baby sister in 1995.  I posted a photo of them together from our NY trip last month.  It is good to see how their relationship has progressed over the years...

 

 

 

That's all for me.  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

 

 

Summer's Coming!

Summer is the busiest time of the year for our little family of 3 and this year we are tossing in college visits, getting a driver's permit and finding a job for Quentin into the mix.  The college visits are the toughest because he has no idea where he wants to go so he's being very resistant to taking the time to visit a campus.  We did plan to travel to MIT but I think that we are going to start with local campus's.  I think that once he gets to see a couple of schools, he will warm up to the idea.  He is very much his father's child when it comes to change.  Doesn't like it, wants no part of it, change is not his friend.  There has got to be a small piece of me in that child somewhere and hopefully we will bring it out during these visits. 

I really did think that I would get to do a ton of creating this weekend but I actually touched nothing in my craft space.  Nothing.  Which is not a bad thing but you know, I missed it.  We were busy all weekend. 

Friday we caught a comedy show at DC Improv.  It was fantastic!  Loni Love is so much funnier in person.  She was awesome!!!!!

Saturday we had Mother's Day Dinner at Fogo De Chao.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  We drank wine and ate meat for several hours before finally calling it quits.  Great dinner conversations with my boys and we were surrounded by other families celebrating one thing or the other so the mood was very festive.  It was lovely.  We followed that up by walking through DC.  It was a beautiful night.  Warm (not hot at all, just soothingly warm) with a slight breeze.  The city seemed alive. 

Sunday we worked in the yard (it looks so good:) and that makes me so ridiculously happy) and had an early dinner.  We ate so much at dinner Saturday that we were not even hungry until the afternoon.  Getting into a restaurant on a special day is crazy in this area.  Crazy!  But we got there at the perfect time and were shown to our seats immediately.  Score 1 for team Jamison......

I did create a couple of layouts last week that I haven't put here.  I am still working on my photo project and have started putting all of the pictures that I found into albums and weeding out duplicates.  I am going to give the duplicates to my children so that they will have a head start on their family albums.  With my youngest daughter preparing to have a baby, I thought that she would really love to see some of her baby pictures now.  In the photos on this layout, I was pregnant with my oldest.  Me and my best friend just happened to get pregnant at the same time.  We delivered the kids 4 days apart. 

 

I put a journaling pocket at the top (I remembered it this time and did not glue it shut) for my thoughts.......

 

 

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for stopping by!

 

Just the Facts Journaler

Journaling is my least favorite part of the scrapbooking process.  I am not one of those scrappers that often goes back and fiddles with a page.  When I am done with a page, I am done and I want to move on.  Usually immediately as there are often 3 - 4 started layouts waiting in the queue:) 

I've been thinking about trends lately and one trend that I have been loving is the use of quotes, poems & stickers used as journaling.  Even better are the teeny, tiny tags & labels to journal on.  Those make me feel as if I accomplished something really big because I wrote more than just the name & the date on my page.  The look of my handwritten journaling, on some pages, just does not appeal to me.  It looks out of place or sloppy to my eye so I tend to put it on the back of the page in most cases. 

One of the things I love the most about this page (besides the photo of my boys) is that the stickers that I used say everything that I have to say about them & why I created this page.  They are brothers but also the best of friends despite the age gap.  Quentin adores his big brother and Aaron never treats him as if he is an annoying little brother.  I am really crazy about how they get along and how each sees the other as something of a super hero.  There is definitely a more in depth story about this lo but that is all on the back of the page.  The majority of people that thumb through my album will get the information that they are looking for, but for those looking for more details, they can take the time to check out the back....

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!

To Trend or Not to Trend

I am really not sure how I feel about following trends.  On the one hand, I love trying new things and hate to feel as if I have been left behind.  On the other hand, I really don't want to create pages that look just like every other page that I see on pinterest and in galleries.  Individualism is very important to me but so is stretching myself creatively.  So where is the balance between being true to your style and trying other scrappers style?  Is scraplifting something that you can do too much? 

Some of my favorite scrappers have styles that do not suite me at all but I really enjoy seeing their work and can normally pick their pages out as soon as I see them.  They try new things but I never get the feeling that they are chasing trends.  And their work never seems boring to me.  They change it up just enough to keep their pages from looking like they fell in a rut.

I find that if I sit and just create what is in my head and never look out of my shell, creating becomes less enjoyable for me.  For whatever reason, my layouts don't feel "right".  But if I give myself permission to venture into styles that are way to the left of what I would do on my own, it makes me more inventive on my own stuff.  Working this way really helps me to walk the creative line between copying and uniquely me.  How about you?  Any thoughts on the subject? 

I really love the trend of the huge, hand-cut titles but I don't necessarily want to hand-cut my titles this way.  Maybe a page here and there but I think that I will admire this one from afar and try to find ways to create titles that look like I cut them by hand.  I always title my pages.  Always.  But more often than not, the titles are created using the smallish thickers or from a journal card that has a message that I like.  This page has a really big title on it that almost looks hand-cut.  The font is actually a really, really cute one from the silhouette store.  I didn't even remember that I had it!  It was perfect for this page......

That is my dad flipping on the trampoline for the kids.  He is the best grandpa ever and really spends a lot of time talking to, playing with and loving on our children.  I love how they are all sitting down looking at him in awe.  And seriously, whose granddad does this?  This photo was taken in 1996 or so but my dad would still do flips for the kids today:)

By the way, this is a Kelly Goree scraplift...

I still have to journal and add a couple more tiny photos (I plan to do all of that in the film slots) but this layout is done and going on my wall for a bit before it gets put into an album. 

Happy humpday everyone and thanks so much for stopping by!