ScRaP SiStaZ Challenge 5a - Turning Fourteen

I still haven't given up on completing all of last year's ScRaP SiStaZ challenges. I recently completed Challenge 5a and I want to complete them all before Tina starts posting more challenges (which I'm guessing will be sometime after she finishes her Master's). In finishing this challenge, I also completed another layout for Jordyn's (still sparsely populated) birthday album. This is one of two layouts that I plan to complete to document her fourteenth birthday. Next on my list is her 14th birthday party with her friends. I just need to find a good inspiration layout to guide me through!

Turning Fourteen - Double:

Turning Fourteen - Left:

Turning Fourteen - Right:

Some observations about the process and the products used:

1. Inspiration was 8 1/2 x 11, I tweaked it to a 12 x 12 format.
2. I also tweaked the topic from Meeting Santa to Turning Fourteen. I'm not ready to tackle my kids' Santa photos yet. It's on my long list of projects that I plan to get around to some day....like when I've cloned myself four times over and when I no longer have a demanding career.
3. I've had these pictures printed since early January, with this layout in mind. I finally put the layout together in late February and am just now getting around to sharing it here on my blog. I might not move as quickly as I did last year, but at least I'm still moving.
4. Love how the orange and red patterned papers pick up the orange in Jordyn's shirt and the red poinsettias in the background at the restaurant. I also love coordinating patterned papers from a paper stack, which in this case are from DCWV.
5. I'm comfortable with hybrid-digi scrapping (meaning I journal and make titles on my computer). I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn how to do a fully digital layout. Maybe I'll make time on my maternity leave to figure this out. (Kendrea, here I come! Will you teach me??)
6. I was having a frumpy day, so excuse the hat and baggy sweater (which even now, at almost full term in my pregnancy would still be baggy on me!) But look at Jordyn, isn't she just gorgeous?? Yes, I'm biased. That's my job.

Inspiration Layout:

2009 Shellnut Thanksgiving Album

WOW! By this time last year I had created a dozen layouts and written nearly two dozen posts on this blog!! And here it is March 1st and this is my FIRST entry for 2010!! Man, have I been slacking.

However, in the last six weeks of my pregnancy, I'm going to try and scrap and post as much as is comfortable for me to do so. (And as much as my Monday-Thursday single motherhood schedule allows!)

I actually finished this Thanksgiving album back in January. Yes, it sat on my scrap table in a state of partial completion for nearly the entire month, much longer than I ever like to let a project sit. But, in the end, I got it finished, the memories are captured, and that's what counts.

It documents the Thanksgiving celebration that we had with my side of the family this past year (I still have to print pictures and make the album for the Thanksgiving we shared with Kevin's family!! It's on the to-do list.) We celebrated at my sister's house, and it was really weird not having my parents there with us. They're officially snowbirds now.

This album flips kind of like a perpetual calendar. And there are several "little" squares in between each page that has each person's thankful thoughts on them so that we can pull it out next Thanksgiving and be reminded of what everyone was thankful for in 2009.

Front Cover

First & Second Pages (My sister's family)

Third & Fourth Pages (My brother's family)

Fifth & Sixth Pages (My family)

Seventh & Eighth Pages (My cousin and her husband)

Back Cover

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?