Thursday, February 14, 2013
LOAD213 - Day 12 - p. w. m.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 27 - Psycho Clown
Journaling Reads:
Liam, you wanted to wear a scary costume this year...Mission Accomplished! You enjoyed scaring the trick-or-treaters.Some observations about the process and products:
- I originally intended different pictures and a different topic when I was creating this splattered background paper. But, I thought the effect went better with the scariness of this picture.
- The black border along the left is a recent purchase. Because, apparently, I don't have enough scrapbook supplies and I constantly have to buy more. It's an illness.
- I would have never tried this splatter technique if it wasn't for LOAD. Not sure I'll use this technique again, but, ya never know.
- I hated this costume of Liam's, but he loved it!
- Looking forward to finally putting together these Halloween albums for the kids. The problem with Jordyn and Liam's album will be finding the pictures of their younger years. Bad Mommy.
Friday, October 26, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 22 - Commitment
Journaling Reads:
Liam, you never complain about going to football practice, even though starting on 7/23, a full month before games begin, you practice five days a week for three hours each day!! Even during a mega heat wave, you look forward to going to practice. All of that practice and dedication has prepared you for days like today….the highlight of each week…game day!Football has taught you commitment, team work, and responsibility. It has taught you to appreciate hard work and to enjoy the benefits when it pays off. You understand that it takes everyone on the team to do their absolute best in order to bring home a victory. And that’s what you do each game, you give 100%.Quote in the bottom right reads: Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. ~ VINCE LOMBARDI ~
Some observations about the process and products:
- I accidentally printed this picture in B&W, and almost used the B&W pic on the page. But, the color picture had such a different feeling. So, I knew I had to use it.
- I need to add the location to this page. When Liam and I were looking at it, I wasn't really sure. I had to look at the date of the photo and compare it to the football schedule to be sure. It was at Lake Orion High School.
- I printed the journaling and quote on patterned paper. I first printed it on a white piece of paper, then I taped my patterned paper over the white piece of paper and sent it through the printer again. I had to doctor some smudges on the Vince Lombardi quote because I didn't have another piece of that same paper to print it over. Oh, well. It gives the layout a messy locker room feel, right?
- I LOVE my date stamp from the K&Company Smash line. Love it.
- I don't love this title treatment, but I'll live with it.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 16 - This is what ELEVEN looks like
Journaling Reads:
I dropped you off at football camp on your 11th birthday. I filled your bunk with balloons. Your favorite part about camp wasn't swimming or movie night, it was football practice, of all things. Of course it was.Some observations about the process and products:
- ALL of the papers on this layout, except for the Kraft cardstock, are from my scrap drawer. Let me tell you, ladies, ORGANIZE that scrap drawer (I organized mine by color) and then USE it!!
- K&Company Smash journaling tag. I don't think I've ever handwritten this much journaling in my life!
- Criss Cross ribbony thing at the bottom is actually covering up some hand drawn stitch marks that I made that I didn't like.
- "Buttons" were pre-punched from scrap paper years ago. They've been patiently waiting in my Punched Paper Buttons drawer until now.
- The patterned paper beneath the photo of the boys lists everyone's name. This was a late addition to the page.
- Another late addition to the page was the yellow arrow pointing out which player Liam is. Easy for us to tell now, but will it be easy to tell which one he is 55 years from now?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 15 - game ball
Journaling Reads:
I'm pretty sure you got today's game ball as much for your big smile as for your pitching (you didn't allow any runs) and your hitting (a game-changing triple). You've got a big baseball heart.Some observations about the process and products:
- Background patterned paper is from Stampin' Up. I heart Stampin' Up papers, I tell ya.
- I went through an entire package...an ENTIRE PACKAGE! of buttons. I mean, come on, you can't just frame the photo with buttons, you've gotta scatter them around the page, too. Duh.
- Journaling card is from, yep yep yep, K&Company Smash.
- Yes, the ribbon under the title is a little wonky. And yes, the "g" in the title is a tad askew. But, guess what? I'm over it. Hi, my name is Heather and I'm a recovering perfectionist.
LOAD1012 - Day 14 - HERO
Journaling Reads:
Dad, you came to see Liam play in his first tackle football game with the Oxford Junior Wildcats on August 22, 2010, just five days before you were hospitalized for and eventually diagnosed with brain cancer. You saw Liam play football again on October 10, 2010 and November 6, 2010, when his undefeated team won the league Super Bowl. Being at those games definitely put a smile on your face, something we didn’t see much of as the disease chipped away at your ability to show spontaneous emotion. And, even though we’re not sure how much of the experience you understood or remembered, we will never forget that you were there. I am forever grateful to Shawn for bringing you out to the games so that we could spend that time with you. You were a bit of a football HERO in your day at Royal Oak Kimball High School, and I know, with all of my heart, that your football soul watches over every game Liam plays. You would be so very proud of the solid player and good sport that he has become. He’s shaping up to be a fine young man, just like his Papa was.Some observations about the process and products:
- Ooh, la la, WASHI tape (black with white polka dots).
- The background paper was just a plain black piece of cardstock that I altered with a white ink pad. I don't totally love the result. It kind of turned out looking like cobwebs, but, it is what it is.
- Guess what? The black and white scraps? You guessed it. All came from my scrap stash.
- The grey border down the left is like fabric that I think I picked up one year at Michigan's Mega Meet.
- I added the pic of Liam and my dad towards the end of the layout creation process, because it was looking a little blank on that side of the page. I'm glad I added it. Because this page is really about my dad watching Liam play football, and this was from one of the few games he was able to attend.
LOAD1012 - Day 12 - Donuts
Journaling Reads:
Mom - "Liam, what kind of birthday cake do you want this year?"Liam - "Can I have glazed donuts?"
Mom - "You're the birthday boy. I'll go to Meijer and pick some up!"
Some observations about the process and products:
- I'm pretty sure this is some Bazzil cardstock. I just like to say Bazzil.
- Journaling card is from K&Company's Smash line. I am getting a LOT of mileage out of these!!
- Patterned paper strip and patterned paper tab are both from my scrap bin. I think I'm going to challenge myself to NOT cut any patterned paper for the rest of LOAD that doesn't come from my scrap bin. Using up my scrap stash!
- The 4 x6 photos I just printed on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of photo paper, left them spaced as they were and trimmed around the border to have a consistent frame all the way around.
- Flowers on a boy's page!? You Betcha!!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 11 - A&W
Journaling Reads:
Journaling (along the border of the photo collage) Reads:
Some observations about the process and products:
- Photo collage a la Picasa, of course.
- Patterned paper from my scrap box.
- Journaling spot from K&Company's Smash line
- I could really, REALLY, go for some chili cheese fries right now.
- The creation of this page was slowed down by Hulu. I was watching a couple of episodes of Revenge and New Normal. Slowed me down a bit.
- Date stamp that I've been using on the last couple of lay outs is also from K&Company's Smash line. Digging it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 10 - interception
Journaling Reads:
Liam, you’re not the biggest player on the field. You’re not the fastest. You don’t have the strongest arm or the longest punt. But, there’s a whole lot of drive and determination wrapped up in your little #24 uniform. You hit harder than many of the big guys and you aren’t afraid to go after kids twice your size. You, by far, have the biggest football heart out there and as a first string defensive corner back, you are indeed a valuable asset to the team, as evidenced by this play…your first ever interception during a game. I couldn’t be more proud of your motivation and good sportsmanship.
Quote in the corner Reads:
“Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” ―Lou HoltzSome observations about the process and products:
- Stars were pre-punched, all I had to do was grab them from my punched stars drawer.
- Photo Credit - Tracy Albert, our team photographer.
- If you could hear the cowbell when looking at these pictures, you'd have to plug your ears. Proud Momma Moment.
- As I was looking in my sports embellishments bin, I realized that I have a ton of stuff that I will probably never use. OK, I will definitely never use it. I used to SAY that I was a scrapbooker, but I think I was more of a Scrapbook supply collector. I'm so glad that I'm spending time more scrapping and less time collecting supplies.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
LOAD1012 - Day 1 - And She Was!
The prompt for Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day (LOAD1012 - S.H.O. Time) challenge for Day 1: What song would play when they announce your name at an Awards show?
The song that instantly popped into my head was Dancing Queen by Abba, but I don't have any recent pictures of me dancing (not professionally, anyway, although I'm sure I have some pictures of me dancing just for S's & G's).
So, I decided to scrap an event and I chose a song that, for me, epitomizes the celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
The name of the song is Black Velvet Band. And, if you've ever been to an Irish Pub, you know that it's customary to sing along with the chorus and, even though I don't think it's an official lyric in the song, there is a certain point where you raise your pint and emphatically sing-slash-yell: "AND SHE WAS!"
Journaling Reads:
March 16, 2012 marked the second annual St. Patrick’s Eve and Corned Beef & Cabbage party at Greene Acres. When I think of St. Patrick’s Day, I think of this song, especially the chorus, and I smile:"Her eyes, they shone like the diamonds. You’d think she was queen of the land.
AND SHE WAS!
And her hair hung over her shoulder. Tied up with a black velvet band."
There were some new families that attended this year who were a fabulous addition to the mix. I’m so lucky to call these wonderful lasses my dear friends.
Some observations about the process and products:
- Dios Mio! Will I EVER be able to scrap a page in a half hour?!? More like three hours on this one. Sigh.
- I might not be able to scrap in little time, but I can scrap with little product: 1 sheet green cardstock, 1 sheet white cardstock, printer paper, shamrock stamp, Stampin' Up ink pad, chipboard letters. Minimalism.
- PICASA - Use it a ton. I love a good collage. I love text on photos. I love free. Enough said.
- I had to use restraint when stamping my shamrocks...I was tempted to stamp shamrocks all the way across the bottom and all the way across the top. Case in point that Less is More.
- I think I smiled the entire time whilst making this page. This party makes me smile. These people make me smile. That song makes me smile. The food makes me smile. This memory makes me smile. Reason number 5,672 that I scrapbook.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
LOAD512 - Day 4 - nine Years
OK, so I didn't follow the prompt.....AGAIN. But I followed Day 3's prompt to use holiday colors on a non-holiday page. I used pastels reminiscent of an Easter egg on this page I created about my son and his baby quilt that I finally gave to him at NINE YEARS OLD! lol Another one for his birthday book. (Pardon the crooked, blurry, photo with a bad glare).
Journaling Reads:
It only took NINE YEARS for me to give you your baby quilt. The squares were made by gramma, me, Aunt Shawn, Aunt Dee, Aunt Mary, Aunt Marie, and other family members at your baby shower. This year I FINALLY had the squares assembled into a quilt. Better late than never!Some observations about the process and products:
- Done is better than perfect.
- Stampin' Up papers. Love how the packs are double sided and coordinate.
- The flower was a last minute addition.
- I think this is missing something, maybe a tab or tag that let's Liam know that I gave this to him ON his ninth birthday as a birthday gift. Hopefully he wraps his own babies in this quilt one day. For now, it's hanging on Ashton's nursery wall.
- This page literally took me about 30 minutes to put together. I'm getting better at this whole quick scrapping thing!
LOAD512 - Day 3 - 9
Umm, didn't follow the prompt....again. But, hey, I got another one of my kids' birthday pages completed!
Journaling Reads:
We celebrated your 9th birthday by taking you and a few of your minions (your brother, Owen, your brother from another mother, Nathan Bourn, your football brother, Aiden Boeve, and your faux brother, Max Parsons) to the Star Theater at Great Lakes Crossing to watch "Despicable Me" in 3D. The movie was super cute, and everyone had a good time, despite the fact that I made you take a photo in the theater lobby.
Some observations about the process and the products used:
- Used my Cricut AGAIN. Two days in a row? I'm going Cricut crazy!
- Cute minions, eh?
- I didn't take many pictures of Liam's "birthday party" but these were enough, and they tell the story.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
LOAD212 - Day 26 - Awesome
Journaling Reads:
Liam, if you could describe today using one word, what would it be? “AWESOME!”
1 Prior to the start of the match, Liam shakes hands with his first opponent of the day, pinning this Holt wrestler in the second period. 2 Liam warms up with teammate Alex Finney. 3 In solidarity with his Oxford wrestling brothers from elementary through high school, Liam dies his hair black for the state tournament weekend. 4 Coaches Curtis and Borg respectably and successfully argue with the referee over a scoring oversight in a key match between Matthew Curtis and his opponent from Holly. 5 In his second match of the day, Liam gets pinned by a tough competitor from Hartland. 6 Oxford coaches and wrestlers watch the action on the mat. 7 Oxford Elementary takes second place in the MYWAY Team State Championship, triumphing over Grand Blanc, Holt, and Holly, and falling to Hartland in the finals, out of a pool of ten schools.
Some observations about the process and the products used:
- Photos taken and scrapped ON THE SAME DAY!?!?! Oh, yeah!
- Picasa Photo collage. 'Nuff said.
- Cardstock, Punches (arrow, scallop, word window), and journaling pen. Who needs fancy products to scrapbook?!?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Eight is great!!
- Picasa Photo Collage (LOVE those!!)
- 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.
- Title and journaling created in PowerPoint, leaving space in the middle for the 5x7 photo collage.
- Title used five different fonts:
Eight - A Truer Blue
is -Verdana
great - Digs my Hart
!! - Elise
) turned sideways to make the smiley face - Arial - Again, used buttons from my sewing stash that I've had for years and years and years.
- Stapled some scrap green ribbon on at the last minute to create a color contrast to all of the blue and red accents.
- All in all, this was a pretty quick and easy page. Less than 2 hours. That's pretty quick, right?
8
Some observations on the process and the products used:
- 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.
- 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!!
- 8 was created with the Cricut. Alphalicious.
- Ribbon around the 8 is from my ribbon scrap stash. It's good to keep scraps. Recession friendly scrapping!!
- 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.
- 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. :)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
one
Monday, September 14, 2009
Challenge 12a - my 3 students
I wanted to finish up another ScRap SiStaZ challenge before Tina started posting new challenges for the fall, so I scrapped about the first day of school here at the Hillary's, lifting Challenge 12a. That leaves me with only 4 challenge layouts to "catch up" on from the first batch of challenges. Not too shabby!!
my 3 students:

Some observations about the process and the products used:
- When I first saw this layout, I thought it would be perfect for me to do something with, since I, too have 3 kids. I'm glad I finally came up with something.
- I switched it from a double layout to a single, but I think I captured the overall feeling of the original.
- I enjoyed using the Heidi Swapp ghost alphas (that I got at the Mega Meet) for my title. But, I don't have a wide array of adhesive and staples seemed like the most sturdy route to go. Adds texture, no? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!
- I really do love using the Cricut. A MUST for any serious scrapper.
- Jordyn's photo was shot in the same location as the boys' photos were shot, but there was no sunlight, so you can't really tell.
- I can't believe I have 3 kids in school!! Holy Moly, where has the time gone.
Looking forward to more challenges!! :)
Challenge Layout:
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Challenge 17a - 2
I assembled all of the pages in the correct chronological order and gave it to him as a gift. And he loves it. LOVES it!! Even gave it a thumbs up. That's what it's all about.
Challenge 17a was my inspiration for this layout. (WOO HOO, only 5 more challenges to go until I've done them ALL!!)
2:

Some observations on the process and products used:
- The inspiration layout is a double spread, mine is a single. But I stole the strip of smaller bordered photos that kind of overlap each other. That's about the only similarity between the two. And that's OK.
- When Kev looked at the page, he said, "Wow, where was his second birthday at?" And I read the journaling to him, "We celebrated your second birthday at a rented cottage on Big Star Lake." Kev's reply, "OOOOhhhh, yeah." That's what scrapbooks are for, to help us remember.
- I had originally printed the photos across the top in full color, but thought that turning them to sepia would make them coordinate with the paper, better.
- Speaking of the papers, another SU! paper set.
- The arrows on all of the photos point to Liam's sports related gifts. It was a sports birthday.
- He was such a good looking baby!!
four
Monday, August 3, 2009
Challenge 15a - happy birthday
Some observations about the process and the products used:
- "happy birthday" Heidi Swapp sticker. LOVE that.
- No real title, so, "happy birthday" will have to do.
- You might not be able to tell very well in the photo, but I added brads to the center of many of the flowers in the CTMH patterned paper. That was my way of taking it to the next level.
- I busted out my flexible ruler, all prepared to do the wavy title and accents, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. But, I still followed the lay out pretty well - 1 large square photo, with 2 smaller square photos.
- Journaling font is called Baby Bowser
- The photos from this celebration did not turn out very well, which is why I turned the two smaller photos into black & white.
- Who's gonna be the next one to post a challenge layout?!? Get scrapping, girls!








