Scrapbooking Family History

I love creating heritage pages although sometimes they can be a challenge. I try to find ways to make a layout beautiful as well as record family history. Sometimes there's not a lot of information about a certain person or photo, but I can usually glean little bits here and there.

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny; Stamps: Inque Boutique; Glimmer Mist: Tattered Angels; Flowers: Bazzill, Prima; Pin: Making Memories; Ribbon: Bazzill

I made this layout for a class I taught at Porter's last night. My great-grandparents are in the large photo in the center. Then the smaller photos are of them and their children...when they are young and then years later. I made a family chart down the left side of the layout starting with my great-grandparents. I thought it was a great way to tie all the pictures together and also give the reader a quick visual of how everyone is related.

The butterfly was made by cutting a pattern from regular paper and attaching it to the layout with temporary adhesive. Then I sprayed Glimmer Mist over that area. After it dried, I removed the mask and there you have it...a beautiful, shimmery accent!

I have a couple of kits left over from class. If anyone is interested, let me know!

FREE Photo Editing Class by Jessica Sprague!

Lookie what I just discovered today! I'm definitely going to be giving it a try! Click here to register.

Fancy Pants is in da House!!!

I have to admit, the best part about my job at the lss is getting to play with all the new products that come in. (It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it...right)?

The Kraft Kuts line from Fancy Pants arrived just in time for my weekend demo and I think I'm in love! Now I know that I say that about many products, but every once in awhile a collection comes along that completely inspires me. My head fills up with ideas and I feel like I could just keep cranking out the layouts until there's no more paper left. Well, that's how it was with this Fancy Pants collection. I managed to make five 1-page layouts this weekend...that's a record for me!

There's a collection for boys and one for girls, but when I saw them, I realized there was so much potential. I don't think there's a theme you couldn't cover with this stuff (except maybe Christmas). Here's what I made:

Now don't laugh, because these picture are old! I think I was in Jr. High. We were having a party for my sister and acting really silly. But they made me think about all the fun we used to have together as a family (actually, we still do). So I decided to scrap about the overall feeling of happiness and love I remember growing up. The first photo is of my two younger brothers, my sister, and my sister's friend. The second photo is my dad, me, and my sister. And no, our house wasn't pink or purple...it was red. The pictures are just really faded (and maybe the house was a little bit too)!

Some of the sheets of paper were a little busy for me (like the owls). But I really liked it after cutting it into strips. It added a nice splash of color and they are super cute!

This was my first real attempt at editing a picture in Photoshop. I don't know how to do anything fancy, but I did manage to eliminate the hospital cords and whiteboard that was hanging on the wall. I think this photo of my in-laws and their new grandbaby is so sweet!

I LOVE using the shaped papers all by themselves as a background! I printed smaller photos (2 1/2 x 3 1/2) to fit more of them in the small space. This layout is about Cam's school play. He was Velveeta...so cute! I wrote the lines he memorized for the play on the little journaling spots. A simple pocket on the back of the layout makes a great place to store a copy of the program and a newspaper clipping.

This past school year, I decided to do something a little different with the kids' traditional first-day-of-school photos. I took pics of them coming home and documented what their thoughts about the first day were. Here's Taylor's:

• Find out what's new with old friends.
• Try not to be tardy for every class.
• School lunch is still gross.
• Too much to remember!

I really lucked out that there happened to be a #7 in the perfect spot of this patterned paper. I lightly traced a circle around it with a pencil. Then I used my sewing machine to stitch around the circle three or four times. It made a great, inexpensive accent and reinforced the "7th Grade" theme.

So there you have it. I could have made more, but I decided I should sleep a little too. For more fabulous ideas, visit the Fancy Pants Gallery.

Happy Scrapping!

Harry Potter and Heidi Swapp

Once again, Cam is missing his big brother and best playmate. Since Taylor's at scout camp for six days, this could possibly be the longest week of his little life.

When Cameron is bored, he likes to make things. Often those things revolve around characters in his favorite computer games. Harry Potter, Wizard 101, Club Penquin, and Toontown characters are all over the house. He's pretty creative.


So today he decides he's going to make another Golden Snitch (think Harry Potter). He knows right where the Heidi Swapp wing stamps are because he uses them all the time...you can never have too many snitches after all. He wadded up a paper towel to make a ball and covered it with yellow construction paper. He stamped the wings and taped them on. Then he drew something (electricity???) all over the ball and declared it was the best snitch ever. Then he wanted to hang it from a doorway so he could fly through the air and catch it. Hmmm...we spent at least 30 minutes trying various ways to make this work without it ripping from the door jamb, but he finally gave up. I'm not sure how many violent leaps and snatches this snitch could take, but it still seems to be in one piece.


Stay tuned...I'm sure we will have an overabundance of Puffles, Fire Cats, and Doodles before the week is over!

Freebies!

Got Crafts? is a great resource for all things crafty. This website was created by Valerie Salmon and Janna Wilson. From sketches to free project downloads to classes, you are sure to find some inspiration. And we all like freebies, right? Check out this page! I especially love the fabric mini book.

Happy Crafting!

Scrapbooking with the Kids

Yesterday, Cameron was bored. His brother had gone to a youth activity, so it was just me and Cam all day. We read, played games, did chores...and he was still bored. Anything I suggested, he didn't want to do. Finally, I asked him if he wanted to scrapbook with me. "Sure, I guess." he said.



Now, I have to admit that scrapping with the kids isn't always that easy for me.
Problem #1: I'm a perfectionist. I really have a hard time stepping away and letting them do what they want.

Problem #2: One time, Cam was happy with slapping some pictures on a page and adding some doodles. But that was only one time (or maybe two...see the zoo pages below). Since he sees me scrapbooking almost everyday for assignments, he has decided he wants his pages to "look like Mom's." So here's some tricks I've learned to help the process along:

• I let them choose the pictures they want to scrap. Then I pick a few papers and embellishments that match and let them decide what they want to use. The fewer choices, the better!
• I find it easier for them to create a layout if they have a visual idea of what it could already look like. Usually we look through a magazine together until they see something they like. Then we scraplift.
• I have to turn my head the other way when it's time to attach pictures and titles. They are most likely going to turn out crooked and I have to let it be OK. (Really...it's OK)!
• I like to let the kids journal in their own handwriting. This makes the page that much more memorable in years to come.
• Last night, Cam wanted me to attach everything to the page for him, but I tried to have him help me with as much of the layout as he could. For example, I lined up the stamp but he pressed down on it. When punching holes, I held the setter while he pounded with the hammer. (Ouch!) He applied the adhesive to the different elements and I attached them to the page.
• Remember, kids always feel like it's their creation when they are involved in the process.
  

Here's what Cameron and I made last night:

He thought the flowers on this paper looked like the jungle, which went great with his jungle-themed birthday party.

We punched holes in the round frame with a hammer and eyelet setter. (He only hit my thumb once)! He stamped the "6" on the tag and wrote his name and the date.

This was the 2nd layout of the night. It was a scraplift from a Sande Krieger layout in the July 2009 Scrapbooks Etc. Cameron soon lost interest and wanted me to finish it for him. The little circles are punched from patterned paper with a 1" circle punch, then cut in half. Very easy!

Cameron was very excited that I was going to show you his birthday layouts and wondered if we could show all of the ones he has made over the years. So here we go!

In case you couldn't tell, these are from his trip to the zoo:


This was his first year of baseball. He liked the doodling best.


Taylor is older and sort of a perfectionist in his own way. Here's some pages he has made over the past few years.

Shooting BB Guns at Cub Scout Camp

Taylor wrote all the journaling about his favorites at age 9.

Taylor loves using my old Coluzzle alphabets. It makes it easy for him to cut out a title by himself. He also did all the stamping.

This was one of the 1st pages he ever made. The dinosaur is an overlay we created on the computer with clipart and a blank transparency.

Taylor made this page all by himself.

Taylor had drawn plans so his Dad would know how to cut out his derby car. We shrunk the image on the scanner and printed it out for his page.

Well, there you have it. Involving the kids in making their own scrapbooks can be a great boredom buster. And sometimes I have even learned some great design tricks from them!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today DH and I are celebrating 17 years of wedded bliss!

These three layouts are as far as I've gotten on my wedding album after all these years. I know, I know, but I've never been able to settle on that perfect classic look that I won't hate in 10 or 20 years. I have decided to just jump in and scrap with copies of my wedding photos. It's better than nothing at all, right?

The story of how we met.

Some of our engagement photos.

Finally hitched!

Have a great weekend everyone!