Gettin' my scrap on ...

Back in February, I got to spend a whole weekend (Thursday-Sunday) scrapbooking with some of my very favorite people!  We have been scrapbooking together since I was pregnant with Claire.  I think our very first weekend "retreat" was in Gatlinburg the week before I found out if Claire was a boy/girl (Nov. 2005).  We have made a lot of memories together ... literally.

 

Here are some pictures of everyone hard at work. 

 

 

Claire did all of her "scrapbooking" on the computer.  She had a lot easier time packing up than the rest of us!

 

 

I worked on 3 different projects while I was there.

 

#1: a scrapbook about Will's 2011 trip to Cape Town, South Africa. 

 

I finished the entire book on Thursday afternoon/night.  It still needs a few titles and some journaling from Will, but otherwise, IT IS DONE.  I haven't said that about a scrapbook in a long time!

 

I used a Creative Memories Picfolio album.  I highly recommend this if you want to finish an album quickly, but you are somewhat limited in the number of photos you can use.  (I think they are expandable now ... I bought mine back in 2007 ... it's vintage!)

 

 

#2: Claire's baby book.

 

This is a book about my pregnancy with Claire thru her first year of life.  Yes, I know she is ALMOST 7, but I've been busy since 2006!  Here are a few pages from her book that I just love!

 

I worked on Claire's book all day Friday and Saturday and I made it to 8 months (and Christmas).  So I only have 4 more months to go!

 

#3: David's baby book.

 

I know, he is 4.  But I have done a little bit in his book. 

 

Like the title page ... 

 

 

Ultrasound photos ...

 

And pictures of his nursery.

 

I worked on David's book on Sunday morning.  I was missing a few pictures I thought I had already ordered so I spent the majority of time organizing the pictures from his entire first year and separating them out by page and making a list of pictures I was missing that I needed to print.

 

Luke's baby book got no attention at all.  Sniff, sniff.  I have purchased supplies for his album and printed pictures so I am headed in the right direction!

 

Now I just need about 3-4 more of these weekends away to get these baby books finished up!  Ha!

Weekend Visitor

David started his new 3-day class at preschool this week and right off the bat, we had a school project to complete.  Meet Mack the Monkey.  He is the class monkey who got to come spend the weekend with us.  (And I got to make a little scrapbook page about all the happenings.)

 

 

David has loved his new class so far.  We went to a classmate's birthday party on Saturday and he had so much fun playing with all the little boys from his class.  A friend of mine who works at his preschool told me she has never seen him so happy and excited to be at school.  That makes this mama happy too!  (Of course, it also makes me a little sad that my little shadow enjoys spending so much time away from me now.  Sniff, sniff.)  I'm glad he is having such a good time.

 

And I hope that Mack the Monkey comes to visit again soon!

All About David

I had to post this because (1) I haven't done anything "scrapbookie" in a long time and I really miss it and (2) poor David told me yesterday that he was THE ONLY ONE in his class that didn't have his project turned it.  (In my defense, the deadline was "ASAP", not any specific date.)

 

This was a project for David's Pre-K class.  Each child was given an 11x14 poster board and told to put pictures, etc. about them, their families, etc.  It will be laminated and put into a book with the other classmates and put out in the classroom for everyone to view throughout the year.

 

Instead of printing the pictures and making a boring old poster, I decided to digitally scrapbook them (since all my traditional scrapbook supplies are in storage) and print 8x8, 5x7 and 4x6 prints to put on the front and back of the poster board.  Here are my scrapbook pages.

 

 

I think everything turned out so cute.  I worked on this on my laptop in the car while Will had the kids at soccer practice.  Whatever it took to get it done for my poor child!!

 

On a side note, David insisted on the Chick-Fil-A picture after we visited Chick-Fil-A for dinner and saw the mascot dressed as a fireman with a real-live firetruck and ambulance in the parking lot.  Apparently, it is community safety week (or month?).  The picture I had was on "pajama night" and David still (many months later) sleeps with the stuffed cow (in pajamas) they gave him that night.  (He also sleeps with a tot sock monkey from Sonic.)  Hey ... free stuffed animals are his thing!

 

And I love that Chick-Fil-A has kids' night the same night we have soccer practice each week.  We swing by there for dinner every Tuesday night after soccer.  Such a fun tradition!

Project Life Tuesday: Week 3

{Click on the icon above to visit Jessica's blog and see other Project Life inspiration.}

Another week and I am still behind.  I planned on getting my pictures for the week off my camera and working on these layouts on Sunday afternoon, but life got busy and it just didn't happen (and I watched the last 4 episodes of "Friday Night Lights" on Netflix to finish the series.  So good!).

 Here is my layout for week 2 (January 8-15).  I don't have time to do it this week, but next week I am going to put the photos and journaling separate below the spreads so you can actually read it (for all the grandparents reading). 

2 down, 50 more to go.

P.S. Thanks for all the input about the background.  Looks like everyone thinks the light gray background works. 

Project Life Tuesday: Week 2

{Click on the icon above to visit Jessica's blog and see other Project Life inspiration.}

 Here is my layout for week 1.  It took me a little while to get back in the groove of using PSE.  I do love how much easier (and less messy) digital scrapbooking is for me.     

I can't decide what to do about the background color for my layouts. Obviously, if you are doing a traditional album, this is just clear space on your page protector. I am going with this light gray for now because when I put a color on the background, it seems like a little too much. What do you think?

I was hoping to have spreads from week 1 and week 2 finished in time to post, but it just didn't happen.  I will catch up before next week.  

1 down, 51 more to go.

Happy scrapping!

Project Life Tuesday: Week 1

 One of my goals for this year is to get back to scrapbooking.  I do a decent job of memory-keeping here on the blog, but I love to have books to hold in my hand and look at in person and not on a computer screen.  Plus, I don't necessarily blog about everything I would scrapbook about.   One of my favorite blogger is Jessica over at The Mom Creative.  I am going to try Project Life this year.  (Project Life is a 365/daily photo project created by Becky Higgins.  You can read all about it here.)  Jessica has a weekly post where she displays her weekly PL layouts and has a linky where other people can do the same.  Accountability works ... or so I like to believe.  I do think this is a good way to stay on top of my scrapbooking for each year.   I decided to do digital project life and then I will print my 52 spreads (one for each week of the year) in a bound photo book at Shutterfly or Snapfish when they have a good deal going.  I just purchased my digital kit TODAY and got Photoshop Elements loaded onto my laptop.  (It runs super-slow on our desktop, which is why I avoid using it very often.) Here is my cover page for the album. (I have blurred out our last name.)   

Although I hate to be behind already, since I just started today, I will try to post my layout for week 1 and week 2 next Tuesday. 

DIY: Kitchen Message Center

Another Pinterest project completed.  My inspiration ...

Source: makeandtakes.com via Susan on Pinterest

BEFORE: My kitchen wall with plain, boring bulletin board to hold the kids' art.

Bulletin board removed.  Wall taped for dear hubby to hang 6 12x12 frames.  (Sadly, my kitchen wall looked like this for about 3 weeks before we got the pictures hung.)

12x12 cork boards went in 3 of the frames. 

The other 3 frames hold a menu board (from my original inspiration), a shopping list board and a family photo with scripture.  All of the "photos" were created on Photoshop Elements 7.0 and printed at Costco for $2.99/print.

AFTER: here is the message center in use.  I love it!  I attached the dry erase marker above the "menu plan" board with a velcro dot.  I also used a velcro dot on the bottom center of each frame to hold the frame in place.  Otherwise, I might drive myself crazy trying to keep these frames all lined up.


To summarize:

Supplies needed:
6 - 12x12 frames with glass.  (These were $5/each at Hobby Lobby on sale.)
3 - 12x12 cork board.  (Approximately $5 for 4 at Hobby Lobby.)
3 - 12x12 prints or pieces of scrapbook paper (this step can totally be done without Photoshop)
velcro dots
dry erase marker

Total cost = $45 (does not include marker and velcro dots that I already had but that cost is minimal)