The Girls

Ok, as promised...a picture of the layout I did last week. What do you think? The photos are of my sister and I. We were about 5 and 3 respectively. Back then, my mom liked to dress us alike. So we both have on the same sundress. They were made of patchwork fabric that contained blue, yellow, green, and orange. (Wonder if Mom still has those dresses.)

So, design-wise, I was totally trying to recreate the dresses with the paper choices. Using multiple patterned paper on one page is a big deal for me, as it's way out of my comfort zone. I picked the orange out as the background, and then did the blue, green, and yellow as alternating blocks. I used rub-ons to make it look all stitched together. I think it came out kinda quilty. (What do you think, Zegi and Sara, my quilting afficiandos?)

For the embellishments, I just liked the green buttons. I was trying to work out a visual triangle with the green jewel at the center of the flower. I was also trying my hand at layering embellishments. So the flower is actually 2 flower embelly's stacked, with a jewel on top.

I'm not to keen on the way the journalling looks. It almost fades into the background. I picked up a Marvy Giga Circle Punch from Michael's a couple weeks ago (with a c.o.u.p.o.n. Me likee c.o.u.p.o.n.s. Almost as much as g.i.f.t.c.a.r.d.s.) The cicle from the punch is just slightly too small to cover it. I might punch a circle, cut in half, and place that over the journalling...with the same words written on it...anyways. I could just figure out a way to also cover the little bit of the old journalling that would still show. We'll see. I'm still thinking on that one.

Supplies used: Cardstock = DCWV. Patterned paper....crap, I didn't write it down again. Rub-ons were Heidi Grace, I think. The flowers are from DCWV. Buttons from The Paper Studio. Text from...um....I think Memory Makers, but I could be wrong. I know, I said I'd be better at keeping tack. At least I have no plans on being published. ;)

Finding Subjects - Or, Where Have I Been

This past week and a half has been a flurry of Birthday celebrations. The Hubby had a Birthday. My mom had a Birthday. There was shopping, wrapping, cake buying, dinners, family get togethers...and little time for much else.

So that's where I've been pretty much. I did manage to get some scrapbooking in. I finished a cute layout with photos of my sister and I when we were preschool-age. I did a funky little psuedo-quilt out of paper and rub-ons. It came out well, but I haven't had time to photograph it to share with you! I'm hoping to get that done this week.

I also started work on a layout about hubby and our World of Warcraft gaming lifestyle. The plan is to submit that to the monthly challenge over on Paperclipping.com. But we'll have to see if I can get it done on Wednesday night.

I spent all afternoon yesterday at a baby shower. That's where the "finding subjects" comes from. You know, I had one of the coolest bridal showers ever back in April 2008. But we were all so busy with the party, that no one ended up taking many pictures of the decorations, snacks, people, etc. So I don't have a whole lot to scrapbook from the event. So yesterday, when I got to my friend's baby shower, and knowing my friend is a big scrapbooker....I snuck around taking all sorts of pics. I snapped photos of the cute decorations, the brightly wrapped packages, the cake, even the flowers that her hubby sent her. And then at gift time, I positioned myself opposite her, so I could take all kinds of pictures. I wanted to get her alot of pics to work with.

Well, when it was all over....I had 100 pictures. 100 PICTURES! Holy Shnikes! It was good because most people were taking pictures of her opening just their gift. I got them all...as well as candids of people talking and laughing. But the down side, is that I have to pull them all off my camera and burn them to a CD. That's going to take awhile. Oi. But I know she'll appreciate it.

So that all said....if I don't post much this week, you'll know I'm sitting her downloading, editing, and saving pictures for her CD.

My Pseudo Heritage Project

I'm calling it Psuedo, because the pictures are supporting the "journaling", which isn't my own words. The story is this: My grandpa died in September 2007. When my mom was going through Grandpa's sock drawer, looking for black socks to send to the funeral home, she found an old letter. It turned out the letter was from Grandpa to Grandma, when he was in the army in WWII and they weren't yet married. The letter details a 7 day trip...or furlough? R&R?...that he took to Rio de Janiero. Grandpa was stationed in Brazil in WWII. The letter was a fascinating look at my grandpa in his early 20s. I learned alot about him, and yet he made statements that were SOOOO grandpa.

My sister typed a copy of the letter, complete with Grandpa's typoes, into the computer so we could print copies for everyone. But as I read the letter, I realized I'd seen some of the photos he talked about his friend taking. I had a box of photos I had spirited away from my grandparents' house a few weeks before. (Sounds worse than it is. My mom told me to take them since I'm the genealogist.) So I decided to combine the letter and photos into a scrapbook.

This is the first page of the letter. I had no idea where Grandpa had been stationed. So I managed to print a map from the web that showed the city the base was in, the first city he flew to, and his final destination of Rio.

This is another page from the letter. My grandpa is the man in the photo on the front left. I hand wrote the captioning from the back of the photo onto the page below the picture. I was trying to make it seem like Grandpa had actually created the scrapbook.

I like this page, as the picture is of a really neat old building. All the background paper I used, is supposed to be reminiscent of old wallpaper. Normally I hate shabby shiek. (sp?) I just dislike old-looking stuff.

This page, I just was so proud of myself to pair up Grandpa talking about buying a snazzy suit, with a picture of him in the suit.

I haven't finished the album. Grandpa's letter ended up being 16 printer pages of multiple sections. I split the letter up into small sections because I scrapbooked in 8x8. I've scrapbooked about 15 scrapbook pages and estimate I have about 15 more to go. Oi. But Grandpa LOVED to travel. My grandparents went on vacations with us EVERY SUMMER. This album is just so him.

Girlfriend Time

I watching Paperclipping Live tonight, and the host, Noell, had her friend Dedra on. They worked on scrapbooks together. The show ran long and there was alot of chatting and giggling. But it got me thinking. What is it about crafting, that makes it so much fun to do in a group? People gravitate to group crops and scrapbooking stores, sewing classes, tutorials, and in the information age, to the web. And they craft in groups.

Crafting in a group is different than crafting by yourself. Granted, alot more progress overall is made when when crafting solo. There's less distraction. But when groups give you that instant feedback. You can hold up your project and have others go "Oh now that is so cool." Or you can get help deciding how to fix a problem or figure out a certain technique. That support and encouragment can be invaluable to your overall creativity.

There's also the giggle factor. Face it, places a bunch of female friends in a room, and what do you end up with? Giggles. LOTS of giggles. And silliness. I think that's the part I love most. The camraderie is priceless. When I've spent time crafting with people, I always spend more time laughing than actually crafting. It's a great stress reliever.

Ultimately, this need to craft in a group is what's lead me to implement "Craft Day." Craft Day at my house, is a Saturday afternoon, when a group of friends get together and craft. I called it Craft Day because some of us scrapbook, some quilt, some cross-stitch, some bead, etc, etc. The list could go on. We have food, laughter, and fun....until everyone feels like leaving. It's one of the best ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, I think.