Happy Birthday - make a wish!

So, I'm working on Jordyn's birthday album right now. I only have about 5 weeks until her 14th birthday. And so far, I've scrapped 11, 12, & 13. And now 3. Four birthdays down, nine to go!

Happy Birthday - Make a Wish! (double):

Happy Birthday - Make a Wish! (left):

Happy Birthday - Make a Wish! (right):

Some observations on the process and the products used:

1. Locating pictures for Jordyn's birthday, pre-digital era, is no easy task. Bad momma, bad momma. I've located 1, 2, & 4. But somehow I need to locate birthdays 5-10. EEKS! I only have 5 weeks left to do this and I can't let her down!
2. Working with 4x6 photos is not how I like to scrap. Especially photos that don't necessarily have the best composition. I like printing photos in whatever size I want so that I can best tell the story. So, for this layout I circle punched the photos to crop out much of the background noise.
3. I didn't work from a sketch, and OY! Let me tell you, I MUCH prefer having a sketch or inspiration layout. But, that's OK. The memory has been captured.
4. Not one of the best designed layouts, but look at how cute 3 year old Jordyn was!

Wish me luck on the other layouts!! I'm gonna need it.

Challenge 18 - brothers brothers brothers

This was a fun challenge layout to do! ScRap SiStaZ Challenge 18. I really like the design.

brothers brothers brothers Double:

brothers brothers brothers Left:

brothers brothers brothers Right:

Some observations about the process and the products used:

1. I have TONS of pictures of the boys together, and I store them in a folder entitled "brothers". Imagine that. Most of the really good pictures of them, though, are horizontal shots rather than vertical. But, this layout called for vertical.
2. I used 7 pictures instead of 5 because I can never gauge what size photos to print. But, I think it still worked out OK, and bonus! more pics of my loverboys.
3. LOVE LOVE LOVE coordinating paper kits. Thank you, SU! (this is probably the first time you've heard me say that, right?)
4. Who says you can't use flowers on a boys' layout? Pashaw.
5. All pictures were taken this year during April & July. (L to R - our kitchen during Owen's birthday party, inside Comerica Park, playroom, steps of Marriott hotel in GR, outside Comerica Park, White Cloud Michigan at Kevin's softball game, Meijer Gardens in GR)
6. Alphas - white paper letters, blue chipboard, red ghost alphas (from Heidi Swapp).
7. I try to snap pictures of the boys being very brotherly without them knowing that I'm taking a picture. I love capturing these moments on the down low.

Inspiration Layout:

ScRaP SiStaZ Challenge 19 - NINE YEARS

Had the scrapping bug tonight. I followed ScRap SiStaZ Challenge 19 (even though the post says it's Challenge 18, it's really 19). When I printed the wallets for this layout, I also printed the wallets for Challenge 18. I hope to scrap those in the next couple of days.

NINE YEARS:

Some observations about the process and the products used:

1. It took me less than 5 minutes to select the patterned paper. It jumped out at me because it had all of the same colors that were in my photos, yet it was light enough for me to do my hand written journaling directly onto the paper.
2. The square buttons on the right side of the 4x6 photo were left over from a sewing project that I did when I was in ninth grade, I made a halter top. Told you...I save everything!
3. This is my recession era anniversary present to Kevin. We celebrate 9 years of marital bliss next Wednesday, 10/21.
4. Following Stacy Julian's "category drawers" made locating photos for this layout super easy. Except, I don't really have category drawers in the physical sense, I have category file folders in the virtual sense. These photos were all found in the "Us" file folder.

Inspiration Layout:

10 things right now

OK, I totally scraplifted this layout from Ali Edwards. I hope she doesn't mind. :)

I did not purchase her digital kit because I have no idea how to USE digital kits (someone, teach me, PLEASE!) So, I recreated, as best I could, the elements in PowerPoint. I'd also like to learn how to put digital frames around my photos. Here, I used some rub ons, but I didn't have enough to completely frame the picture. Ah well, I made do.

Eight is great!!

TA DA!!!

Now I can move on to Jordyn's birthday album!! :)

Eight is great!!:

Observations on the process and the products used:

1. Picasa Photo Collage (LOVE those!!)
2. Still will never understand why a photo (even a collage) looks great on my computer screen, then cuts off someone's head when I print it out. Sorry Liam.
3. Title and journaling created in PowerPoint, leaving space in the middle for the 5x7 photo collage.
4. Title used five different fonts:
   Eight - A Truer Blue
   is -Verdana
   great - Digs my Hart
   !! - Elise
   ) turned sideways to make the smiley face - Arial
5. Again, used buttons from my sewing stash that I've had for years and years and years.
6. Stapled some scrap green ribbon on at the last minute to create a color contrast to all of the blue and red accents.
7. All in all, this was a pretty quick and easy page. Less than 2 hours. That's pretty quick, right?

8

Ahhh, one more layout to go and Liam's birthday album is DONE!! Until next August, anyway!

This layout is of his actual eighth birthday and how we celebrated as a family. The next layout that I need to do for his album is of his eighth birthday party.

8:

Some observations on the process and the products used:

1. I used Picasa to make the photo collage. However, since I had four pictures, it made the collage into an even grid. So, I printed my focal point photo in a 4x6 photo by itself, then I used Picasa to create a 4x6 photo collage using just 3 photos, so that I didn't get an even four square collage. Then I put the two 4x6 photos together on the page to look like one big collage. Took a minute to figure out, by I like the end result.
2. The green frame is chipboard that I got in a super cheap chipboard kit at the Mega Meet. I painted it greed and then used green Stickles on top of it to give it some birthday bling. Owen helped me put the Stickles on. Oh, the joy he had doing that!!
3. 8 was created with the Cricut. Alphalicious.
4. Ribbon around the 8 is from my ribbon scrap stash. It's good to keep scraps. Recession friendly scrapping!!
5. Button is from my sewing box that my mom gave to me years and years and ago. I've hoarded buttons for a long time now, and I believe this came from one of my mom's old sweaters, circa 1978.
6. I really like the way the layout turned out, actually. I think the next ScRap SiStaZ challenge should be to scraplift it!! Since I plan to use this same design at some point in the future, anyway. :)

one

Finishing up Liam's birthday album. If you remember, I had a hard time finding the photos from his first birthday. But I did find them (hard copies, not the digital copies), and let me just say, they were not stellar photos. And since I didn't have digital copies, I wasn't able to alter them at all. So, taking a cue from Stacy Julian, I got out my square punch and punched portions of the photos out to show closer detail. By doing this, it also echoed the grid patterned paper I had selected. Unintentional bonus!

one: