Scrapbooking a busy life

I know I’ve mentioned this a time or two, but I’m a little busy. And I know that I am not alone in this club! One thing that gets lost in the business of life is my scrapbooking. I used to be a “super scrapper” staying up all hours of the night, even keeping up on my photos and stories. And then graduate school and career started to take over my life and I dropped my scrapping. The problem is I love scrapping, love making mini books for our family and for the grandparents. And mostly I like to keep a record of our family life that says- we where here.
A while back at one of my favorite thrift stores I found a set of monthly 4×6 index card dividers. While looking thru my junk this spring I found them again and thought they’d be a great mini book for the year. This is also a way for me to keep track of stories through out the year so I can go back (maybe) and do large scrapbook pages.

Many of the photos I took this summer I used my iphone hipstamatic app, these are smaller and square.
-In photoshop I resized and placed two photos on a 4×6 canvas to print.
-I cut various papers into 4×6 pieces
-bought a package of word bubble type embellishments
-saved tickets and other bits of everyday life
-Punched holes and bound with a ring

cover

a few inner pages

What I love:
I can make this as big as I need to by changing the rings.
It’s just the right size for the kiddies to handle. And there are not a lot of extra embellies on it so it’s not delicate.
I can adapt this to any season, maybe even make one for each kid as a highlight of their year?
This can be as complex/simple as you want to make it!

If you haven’t scrapped in a while or don’t srapbook, this is a super easy way to document your photos and record stories!

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Scrap booking with Old Photos

I have many, many old family photos. Somehow I became the un-official family historian. Partly because I enjoy old photos and the stories they contain, and partly because I enjoy scrap booking. I spent many hours with my grandma, listening to her tell stories from when she was in the military, about history about everything. When she passed away right after Christmas last year at the age of 93 I was entrusted with the task of writing her obituary and life sketch for her funeral. Long before she passed away she gave me boxes of old photos and scrapbooks that I have been going through slowly, scanning and sharing with my family. For some time I have wanted to start scrap booking these to record these stories that she told me. Here are a a couple.

Joining the WAC (Women’s Auxiliary Corp)

With old photos, especially military I find that keeping it simple is best. For this photo that tells a little of the story about why she joined up, I used a scrap from an American flag that had been distressed.

Next, I kept the same kraft base, added this scrap of green and kraft paper along with a scanned copy of an article from her hometown newspaper that published a story about her commendation and a letter she wrote home to her mother. It’s a beautiful letter, and it shows the love she had for this country and how thankful she was to be born an American.

A very lovely lady, and my personal hero.
Thanks for letting me share a bit about her.

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Doing some scrapping: procrastination at it’s finest

If you know me, and are around much you can tell I have a lot of homework I need to get done by the amount of other stuff I do!
So this week I grabbed some photos, and stuck them to paper. Kept the layouts pretty simple, tried not to worry over the “design” and just got the story down. My titles are a little lame, but they’re done!

pool time (09)

old school play

first day of school, one of my favorite “non-posed” pictures, kind of hate this page though…. (09)

farm life (09)

summer girl (09)

canoe trip (09)

working (09)

okay, now I really should get my homework done so I can pack us up for our road trip to Colorado tomorrow! Two four year olds in a car for 15+ hours at a time. Can you say pass mommy the tranquilizer?

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help for a scrap book page

Had this photo of my dad and my little guy working on an ancient car. Really wanted to scrap it, to tell the story about how these two guys hang out and do stuff. Also wanted to cut into my big pack of Sweet Pea DSP for the first time!
(all supplies Stampin Up!)

Excuse the poor lighting but you get the idea. I somewhat simple LO on kraft, with a few embellies, and lots of story in my own handwriting. And while the journaling was what I wanted and told the story–the important part of scrap booking. It wasn’t very nice to look out. Now I’m not trying to win a scrappy contest, get published, or get on any design teams. I just want my pages to tell the story and look sort of nice. You understand right?

So here was my triage process.

1. Cut off the kraft background. Lay on white clipboard, try different color backgrounds.

2. Bermuda Bay background, not bad. And now that I look at it on the computer I like it.

3. End up choosing Chocolate Chip cs. But still needed something in that bottom rectangle. So I add a piece of pattern paper.

4. Finally end up using my Scallop envelope die to make a little spot to tuck in the journaling cards.

And there’s the final product. Much better huh? I think the kraft would have been fine if I hadn’t journaled right on it.

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Reasons to Scrapbook-updated

Looking back through old posts I found this one from May 2007. It’s hard to remember where I was at in my crafty journey but I think this was an attempt at writing my own creative creed. And even though I’ve dabbled in various styles the basic heart of why I scrapbook still stands. I’ve read Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom,and incorporated a lot of the ideas into how I keep things together. But in the end, I still do it for the same reasons, to tell my story, my family’s story as a group and as individuals, document our daily life, and persevere old stories.

here’s the original post
I know that to most people the idea of scrapbooking is that it is a silly hobby for housewifes or “crafty types” to get into. The idea that it’s just cutesy papers and stickers on a page with photos of jr’s 1st birthday. Or collecting all of your vacation pictures and writing silly commentaries about your trip. I think scrapbooking is just like this and it’s more. It’s a hobby where you can make your projects, cards, or scrap books. It can be sweet and lovely, or it can be edgey and artsy. It’s however you want to express yourself.
That being said, why should you scrapbook?
1) to record the stories you want to remember or that you want to pass down
2) document your daily life, the average day in your life
3) document special occasions, life changing moments
4) gather and collect old stories and photos and bring them together to tell a personal history
5) deal with the ups and downs of daily life

Why do you scrapbook?

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using my DSP and catching up on scrapping

I’ve been working a lot, trying to get my yard cleaned up, painting, chasing kids, cleaning out kid clothes and toys, and just trying to keep up with the daily chaos of my house. It’s been a long time since I’ve scrapped in fact I can’t remember when I last scrapped. Maybe last fall? Anyway, since I have quite a bit of SU designer series paper packs I decided to start scrapping. Mostly these are simple pages, some are great, and some not so great in the design department. If I had to define my style I’d say it’s clean and simple with some funkiness thrown in for fun! I like to use my pages as a large scale journal of sorts, so most of my pages have a lot of journaling right on the LO in pen. I don’t draw lines or pencil in my journaling, I just use a black acid free pen and scratch out my mistakes. Might not work for most, but it works for me. I also mix page sizes right in my 3 ring 12×12 albums, something I started doing a couple of years ago before it became cool.
And now, here are the LO’s I’ve made in the last 2 weeks. All supplies are Stampin Up! unless otherwise noted.

Prince Charming

Specs:
Delicate Dots DSP, card stock (So Saffron, Kraft, Bashful Blue)
Bigshot Billboard alpha die

Cheap Labor

Specs:
Good Morning Sunshine DSP, card stock (chocolate chip, summer sun, kiwi kiss, whisper white)
Big shot large scallop circle, spiral punch

My Guys

Specs:
Manchester DSP, card stock (kraft, baja breeze)

Mr & Mrs

Specs:
Walk in the Park DSP, card stock (baja breeze, whisper white)
baja breeze corduroy button, Big shot (matchbox die, flower layers 3), eyelet border punch

Farm Kids

Specs:
DSP from last catalog, card stock (kraft) Pacific Point ribbon and ink

Walk, Run

Specs:
Manchester DSP, card stock (kraft, baja breeze), ink (versamark, chocolate chip)
tab punch, Upsy Daisy stamp set, Latte buttons

That’s all for now, thanks for looking!

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lots of scrappy goodness ahead!

Last weekend I decided to do something with all of those photos I’ve printed. Ali Edwards inspired me to do my week in the life book which got me going to do more scrapping. Some of these I really love, others are needed a little bit extra. But here are 9 layouts with multiple photos that are part of our story this summer so I’m pretty happy with that.
So here they are:

Miss Clara

From 2008 scrapbooks

Hubby’s birthday

From 2008 scrapbooks

More Clara

From 2008 scrapbooks

Farm Kids

From 2008 scrapbooks

My hubby

From 2008 scrapbooks

Our garden this year

From 2008 scrapbooks

From 2008 scrapbooks

Pumpkins

From 2008 scrapbooks

Silly girl

From 2008 scrapbooks

Farmer’s Market (not really loving, needs something else….)

From 2008 scrapbooks

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scrapping with junk mail

I am a pile maker, and when my pile gets too big I just move it or make a new one somewhere else. The problem with this is that I end up losing things -like a tin of cute Stampin Up felt flowers- then I replace the item only to “find” it later on. My dear, sweet hubby made room for me in the office so I could have my computer and printer downstairs and have a place to do crafty things. It’s been sweet to have a workspace again, more on that later. Meanwhile as I move and sort things I find all kinds of treasures. One treasures was this piece of junk mail that I attached a few sticky notes on with the idea that someday I would do a scrapbook page with it. We get all kinds of interesting things in the mail, and I save lots of them thinking how I could do something cool with them. Eventually. What actually happens is I have odd little bits and pieces that I find much later and wonder why the heck I saved this piece of paper.

But this calender page was a cool piece of mail and it was a perfect jumping off point for a “day in the life” type page. This page was from Oct 07, and it’s now July 08, better late than ever? I found a photo from about the same time frame last October.

Here’s my process: (All supplies from Stampin Up! unless otherwise noted.)

1. cut a piece of white card stock to fit over the existing lines
2. used Dashed Lines ink wheel (one of my favorite things.) in Bashful Blue
3. made the flower to cover up part of the text not covered by my card stock, using a scallop and circle punch.
4. stamped the genuine article stamp with a white craft ink pad. attached all.
5. (another current favorite is kraft card stock, I really like it with bold colors)
stamped it with Polka Dot background stamp using Versamark ink.
6. trimmed and rounded corners of photo, matted it on a strip pattern paper, stapled a bit of ribbon on the side. Added rub-ons to the ribbon.
7. remembered more about this time in my life and decided to make the photo mat a pocket and add a journal tag, spiral punched.

final page size 8.5 x 11

I am pretty happy with how the final page turned out, it’s been a while since I’ve actually “scrapbooked” lately I’ve been into card making.

My challenge to you would be to try and save a piece of your junk mail and re-use it on a scrap page, card, or tag.
What about Acid Free? I don’t think the mail piece is acid free, but it’s not touching my photo so I think it’s okay. Here are my thoughts about archival stuff. Many of my photos are digital so I have the original electronic copy if needed. I have old scrapbooks from my grandmother, with magazine and newspaper clippings glued in with rubber cement or something similar. These have held up pretty well, so my scrap pages should hold up as well if not better. Finally if it really worries you there is archival spray that you can use to make things acid free. It’s spendy but if you have memorabilia you are worried about saving, it might be a good idea.

Happy Scrapping!

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