Scrapburbia

Halloween is right around the corner!

Seriously... has this year gone fast or what!! So long summer, ready or not, here come all the fall holidays!

Halloween is of course the most notable fall holiday around here, the kids just don't get all that into Thanksgiving. Candy, costumes and late nights are where it's at!

And just in time for Halloween 2010... I finally scrapped Halloween 2007...sigh... it's not about staying caught up, it's about enjoying the process... right? If it were essential to stay "caught up" to be a good scrapper, I'd be a miserable failure... so I'm going with enjoying the process:)

 

And in perfect sync with my behind-ness...I think this is the first time I've done pennants on a layout. They've been hot for a year or two now and I am just getting around to it:)

Oh well... long live behind-ness...If I'm gonna do it I might as well go at it with pizazz, conviction and peace of mind!

Happy Scrapping! Enjoy the Journey!

Getting Back into the Groove...

You'd think I'd be scrapping constantly given the amount of rad product I'm always surrounded by. Every time we get new stuff in I am swirled up in desire-guilt-creativity-lust-exhaustion... I love seeing-touching-mixing. Truth be told, I get quite a bit of satisfaction from the seeing-touching-mixing bit... but I feel far more accomplished from actually finishing things...

...I bet you know the feeling of sorting-coordinating-loving-reminiscing... then standing over your scrap-table with a blank stare and deciding maybe it'd be easier to start dinner-laundry-dishes. Once I finally do get started I can pull an all-nighter, it's the starting that gets me.

But I did force myself to start...

I'm learning to stop talking myself into changing my style-scrapping faster-using stuff that doesn't speak to me, and just letting it roll...

I've realized I have a pretty solid style. There are some really amazing scrappers out there, and I often print out there stuff and take it to the table to draw inspiration from it... but then, it always just looks like mine... I haven't decided if I'm unteachable or if having a "style" of my own is a good thing. I think I'll go with the later and stop fighting it. It would just be nice to see something new from myself once in a while, know what I mean?

Blah, Blah, Blah...

I'm gonna go scrap...

(by the way, I used Basic Grey "Eerie" line on the layout above... I have a halcyonic relationship with my x-acto knife, so cutting out the tree was a-okay with me. The border under the title is made of fragments from border rub-ons... love that look on this page. I also use the Martha Stewart Notebook border punch at every available opportunity)

This cat is fast as lightning...

While at IKEA several months ago, we each got a treat at the cafe just before we left. We got one soda between us to share and Josh and I went together to decide what to get and fill it up. Josh, always full of 40 questions for any situation, asks:

"Mom, why can't I have Coke?"

The answer is always the same..."Because it has caffeine, which you do not need. You already have enough energy to light a small city."

Hmmm.... now that I've mentioned that, I don't think the government has even considered harnessing the power of children that are lightning balls of constant energy, Josh could make millions before he's even a teenager.

The photos in this layout aren't at IKEA, they are California, but they may as well be. If there is a camera pointed in Josh's general direction, there is a good chance he's pulling some fancy Kung Fu moves.

Same, Only Different.

This layout reminds me not only of the trip we took to San Diego in 2008, but also the trip we aren't taking now. We sort of had a tradition of heading to the west coast for spring break as often as we can but because we are going out to Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts in June we decided we'd better skip the spring break trip this year.

That doesn't mean we aren't having a good time though... So far we've been to the Aquarium, Children's Science Museum and tomorrow we have a trip to Jump On It planned... I do believe this is our first official "Staycation!"

I found the inspiration layout somewhere other than my own album this week.This Sketch is at CreatingKeepsakes.com. Every month the Becky's Sketch is published on the website, and sometimes... maybe always, there are additional "Same,Only DIfferent." Sketches available.

The Sketch I used is on the bottom left. 

You can print out the PDF of the additional sketches from January 2010 here, not to mention several other pages of sketches and ideas that can be printed out and saved to refer to later!

Have a great day and happy scrapping!

   

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A little sunshine in this snowy April

I have been seriously craving some sunshine... and some warm weather to go with it. I am looking forward to walking to the park with the kids, going to the zoo and replanting my potted herb garden.

You may recognize this layout, it used to be a kit on the Scenic Route site... (FYI, did you know everything is 60-80% in the Scenic Route Store? You may want to head over... I'm just sayin')

I was going to post the directions and templates for this layout... but I can't find it at the moments and I'm hustling to get out the door for a Family Easter Celebration... so I'll post it a little later!  

Have a great Monday and a Happy Spring Break for those of you enjoying it this week!

Quick and Easy

This layout is seriously a blast from the past... you get a gold star if you know what line those little flowers are from.  

Any guesses?

BINGO! It's Sentimental, which dates back to 2005!

The layout isn't quite that old, but still...

Of course I look at this now and there are things I would do differently... such as put the sets of parallel photos right next to each other. BUT, onward and upward... I'll keep that in mind when I use this sketch again!

I am off to find a good graphics tablet today, I think I am going with the large Wacom Intuos4. I cannot wait for someone to hurry up and invent that "transport matter around the globe" thingie... I have no patience and cannot wait for shipping...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Patience is no virtue of mine."

Same, only different...

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day! <---this color of green is even called clover!

I really don't have issues with St. Patrick's Day, in fact I didn't even realize it was St. Patrick's day until 10:00pm Tuesday night when Amelia wanted to run out to find some green pants...(Jim was SuperDad and took her out) I feel like I should have posted some fancy green layout or something... but a day late just wouldn't be the same. So, I'll just apologize and promise that I will try to be more thoughtful of holidays in the future:)

I don't think I would have called it "stuck in a rut" at the time, but looking back, I think I may have been. These poor flowers, as cute as they are, may have been used and abused just a bit to often. I could probably throw 5 more layouts up here using these flowers... and I'm sure I'll use them again in the future, but I am certainly glad to be trying some new things these days.

I always called them my "Elsie Flannigan flowers" when I taught them in class... they reminded me of her work back in the day. And they really are super easy. On the backside of the paper, I draw a circle slightly smaller than the flower will be, then draw smaller circles around it for the petals. That makes a basic flower, then I just experimented with different shapes and number of petals and cut centers.

Speaking of Elsie, have you visited her blog lately? She's always got eye candy for everyone...

  
...not to mention she is just as sweet as her yummy treat looks!

Shop the latest HOT PRODUCTS at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Same Only Different...

Hehe, I be you didn't know I am 251 years old! Actually I was 26 (and forever will be) but my cutest-ever kids used a 2,5 and a 1 candle... somehow the math adds up :) And I know you wish you got a HOME-MADE piñata for your birthday!

That layout is perfect for events with lots-o-pictures, like bad hair days, Christmas and piñatas! You can really pack the 3"x3" photos on there!

The second layout is the kind of layout I do when I'm flipping through photo albums (as opposed to scrapbooks) and feeling sad about how the time with my babies has gone so darn fast! No matter what period in my life I am in, it always seems like I'm so busy... but then 5 years later looking back I wish I could go back to when I had nothing but time. 

(I would be EXTREMELY ungrateful if I did not take the time to mention that right now, my life is bliss... I get to hug and kiss my monkeys all day, cook dinner, do dishes and scrapbook with no pressing deadlines and creative mountains to climb. I won't have to look back at this time and wish I'd done things differently so I could have been there for my kids... not that I won't want to go back and do it all over again, but I won't regret not being there.)

My kids are romping carefree in the yard. No school, errands, or laundry to do...okay there was laundry... but that isn't what comes to mind when I look at these pictures. I remember Josh's Fuzzy little head and Amelias dirty knees. I can smell the yard in the warm summer sun... and how frustrated I was that it was such a mess... but geez, at least my kids HAD a yard!

Isn't it funny/ironic/frustrating to know how good we've had it and didn't even know it... alright... I still wouldn't want the fixer upper house... but the yard I could totally live with! We had peach, cherry, apple and plum trees, not to mention grape arbors and bazillions of roses. 

If I knew then what I know now...

    

A little Scenic Route...

You may recognize this layout... maybe, maybe not. I designed it for a class that Layle taught, and it's been in the Scenic Route Store as a kit every once in while over the last year. While it's not available as a kit anymore, it is super easy and versatile.  I think I might just borrow the idea from myself...

When I made this I was on a serious black photo matte kick... I think I used them on EVERY LAYOUT! I have diversified a little bit now, but only because I've made myself... I still think black is a fabulous go to matte color for making photos really stand out and be the main focus of a page, especially when using bright colors.

The majority of my Scenic Route projects are two pages with only 4"x6" or smaller photos, so I think I'll throw them in from time to time... I do believe there was a request for a little Scenic Route inspiration once in a while and I am happy to oblige.

OH! And Guess What!?!? We are out of the worn background papers! EVEN I don't have them anymore... I am just itching for a worn with blue grid right about now! I guess on the bright side, the white backgrounds are still available and they are only $.25! Did you know EVERYTHING in the online store is at least 50% off now... there are some deals to be had for sure!

Same... Only Different.

 

This is a somewhat unusual color palette for me. I really loved the diamond pattern that I used in both of these and wanted to highlight it, but as it turned out I didn't have a lot that went with it... I ended up using some more OLD Basic Grey that I had from several years ago.

My buying habits have changed over the last few years. I went from buying anything and everything I liked, to not buying unless I LOVED IT and could think of an immediate use for it. Not that I had time to use it immediately, but I was surprised to find that there were a lot of things I really liked but didn't match the pictures I was taking. "I can always find things I like..." became my new mantra.

Now that I have more time for scrapbooking I have lots of things I like, still plenty I'll likely end up giving away eventually, but it's fun to go through my stash and find something fun to use that I'd forgotten about. NOW the problem is that I only bought the one piece of paper that I really liked and didn't grab coordinating papers like stripes and polka dots and you know how hard it is to find an old line when you need more of it...

How do you shop for supplies? Do you buy for specific projects and pictures, or do you buy what you like knowing you'll find a use for it eventually?