The Latest

I worked on this scrapbook page about our trip to the Academy of Sciences when we were in San Francisco last. I've never really ever done anything with circles on a page, I'm generally more linear minded. The circles on the overlays made me think of cells or something. With the exception of the overlays, I was pleased to use up supplies that I already owned. This is also a great way to use up scraps of patterned paper. I had fun being a little wild on a page:


This page about the Japanese Tea Gardens is pretty much complete, I was working on it this week. I made my own template for the patterned paper, I like the flourish shape.

I did some fussy cutting with my scraps to create accents to fill in "dead" spaces:

The tea gardens picture in particular shows that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make a good page- I used cardstock, patterned paper, a butterfly punch, some ribbon and a stamped journaling spot.

Happy Scrappin!

Family Tree

I made this awhile ago but thought I'd show it here. I wanted to show that it's not hard to make decent looking home decor items using scrapbook supplies. The 9x9" frame came from Ikea, complete with mat. I put a piece of patterned paper behind the mat, then used a metal tree & frames set made by Creating Keepsakes (was sold at JoAnn's, don't know if it is anymore). I copied or printed vintage family photos of my mom's side of the family, cut them out with the included template, and glued them in place. The frames come with adhesive on the back already, just had to stick them in place. I used pink and yellow embroidery floss (it coordinates with the paper) to tie onto the loops of the mini-frames for a more "finished" look. I typed the word "Family", printed it out and adhered it to a white scalloped label from Martha Stewart Crafts and glued it in the corner. It didn't take very long to put together.

I like the look of it- I don't like when people try to put really trendy stuff with old photos in an attempt to "modernize" them- it ususally doesn't work. I try to be more timeless with my scrapbooks than most people. I think you have to respect what era it came from.

My mom likes the family tree a lot, I'm like "It's MINE!";)

Jen's page

My cousin Jennifer had Baby Cashew, aka Raegan in October and since I know she loves to scrapbook but has no time cause of the baby, I made a baby shower layout using the pics my aunt sent us:

My cousin is doing a jungle theme in Raegan's room, so hence the critters:

I only glued the large pic on three sides, creating a pocket for a tabbed card that holds all the gift info on it. Even if this is in a page protector, you can still grab it out from the top (I hate it when people make interactive page elements that you can't access through a page protector!).

What do we learn from this? Save your scraps! This layout was dirt cheap because I didn't buy anything for it- all the animal pieces are cut from cardstock scraps. I designed the animals myself, but you could find animal or other shapes online to trace or even trace cookie cutters. I pre-poked holes in the cardstock before stitching with embroidery floss (which is pretty stinkin' cheap) so that sewing was easier. When sewing on cardstock, you have to be careful that you don't pull too hard or you'll rip through your paper. You don't even have to have knots on the back- I secured the ends of the thread with a little adhesive. I used ric-rac for the alligator's teeth- I love glue dots for attaching things like that on pages. I used my smaller scalloped scissors on the big pic and my huge scalloped scissors on the smaller pic.

Another trick on this page was the collage of all the shower pics- I scanned the pics, then created the collage in Photoshop Elements (I made sure it was 8x10) and then got it printed as an 8x10 enlargement at Walmart. Much cheaper than getting a bunch of little wallets printed (which is what I had to do before I had Photoshop at my house!). With most pictures, you don't need to see them big, you just need them to get a sense of what took place.

I haven't made a page for awhile, it felt good to do so. I liked it alot, it was hard to mail away!