Turning That Stash into Christmas Pages (yes still)

Yep, still scrapping the stash and yep, still scrapping another Christmas page! 

The story (in Reader's Digest form):  between the two of us, we have been laid off for several years (cumulatively) and since money was so tight, I would not spend it on a Christmas tree when it was going to be hard enough to do gifts for children and grandchildren.  (We have not had an artificial tree for probably 20 years---one of husband's bug-a-boos.) But this year, even with money being tight, he went out and came home with a tree. 

You know what? Going without one for several years, really made this one so much more beautiful to me.  I left it up longer than we ever had in the past.  I just enjoyed it being lit up every night for as long as I could. 

Used papers from the Pink Paislee Snow Village pad again, except for the white distressed background paper--that's the B side of an Authentique paper (again from a pad, the one I used so much of on my eldest grandson's graduation album).  The "happy" title is a Doodlebug sticker (from the set that I forgot I had -- for um, like y-e-a-r-s).  The wood veneer snowflakes are from Michael's (got them on clearance last November and there are only a couple left--so those have been well used!).  The only other embellishments are really the sequins and the tissue paper.  And even those items have been repurposed from my sewing box and the gift wrap box! 

I am finding that not having nearly the stash of scrappy supplies that I used to has made me appreciate the supplies I have on hand even more...just like with the Christmas tree.  I don't need racks and stacks of paper; it is far less overwhelming now to select papers and embellishments.  And I think I may even love these pages more than ever! 

have yourself a scrappy good day,
use up some of that stash,
you'll be glad you did!

Cheryl

Flat Layouts---the saga continues

And here we are again with another "flat" layout...and it has title placement issues to boot!  Poor baby.  And again, I remind myself (and others) that the story is told, it is not an ugly page, and the recipient loved it.  Mission accomplished! 

That being said.  Let's start with the title.  Once again, when I look at the page on the computer screen, I see that I would be happier if I had cut the title slightly smaller and placed it below the photo, right on the navy print layer.  Bah... live and learn.  Always learning! 

Then the flatness.... I have an ongoing battle with myself.  I love giving some dimension to a page, using pop dots and dimensional accents. But, in this case, my practical side won out.  I simply had to make some of the pages for this project flat.  I simply did not want to venture into a third album for this project. 

Papers for the page were from Authentique (the B side for that nice distressed background), old Creative Imaginations, Basic Grey, and more pieces from Authentique.  I cut the title using my Cricut and three different cartridges to make a wack-a-mo looking title for this crazy bunch of wack-a-mo boys.  Stickers were from Lily Bee, Simple Stories and Basic Grey. 

This was the last day of school, Junior year.  Some sort of dress-up day...not sure the look they were going for (Daisy Duke?), but they were funny! 

As for me..still have to be happy with a page that makes the recipient happy. 

and better yet, still learning
Cheryl 

I didn't disappear...I've been under the weather and so, it appears,  has my laptop.  I left the poor infected baby with my daughter this past week who has been doing her best to rid it of a particularly stubborn malware.   Hopefully we'll have this situation licked soon. 

In the meantime, I thought I better use this small window of opportunity to get a layout posted... 

Another page of my eldest grandson's graduation album here.  Jacob and Jessica at the Powder Puff football game last year at homecoming.

I used some snips and left over pieces from the page I did of him ready to go to the dance (um, yeah I don't scrap in chronological order so... just happened to have the pieces laying about on my desk.)  Also used another piece of denim printed paper from Authentique, and several cuts from Basic Grey's Clippings line.  Added two wood veneer words (from Studio Calico), and a couple of stickers from the Clippings kit, a staple here and there and the title (which was also the alpha from the clippings kit).  The last thing I did was add the penwork  around the photo and paper layers and the journaling.

Even with his goofy buzz cut, he was still a pretty darn good lookin' kid (not that Nana is biased at all...)!    

ok, back to the Packer game, now...
Cheryl

O.K. I give Mr. Weatherman... It's fall.  I wimped out and turned the heat on.

And since I am giving in to fall, today I am posting a football layout done for Jacob's graduation album.  It was from last year's homecoming game.  His mom gave almost all of the senior boys on the team their requested goofy buzz cuts.  (Hence that shaved stripe down the middle of his head.) 

This was also their last football game of the season and the senior boys last football game.  After the game, we all waited by the gate and welcomed them all off the field.  That's his Uncle Matthew in the background, Jacob is holding little Jackson and then that's stepdad Nick in there too. 

This is a totally scrap-lifted layout from Tonya Gibbs at Psychomoms Scrapbooks Blogspot.  http://psychomomscrapbooks.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-06-05T03:00:00-04:00&max-results=7&start=21&by-date=false 

I used the backside of an old Creative Imaginations paper for it's royal blue tone-on-tone pattern for then I dug around looking for masculine patterns in blue tones.  What ended up on the page was quite the mish mash of old Basic Grey (Boxer and Vagabond), Creative Imaginations (can't remember the name, but it was a 4th of July, Americana print), Echo Park (A Boy's Life) and Authentique. 

I heartily recommend watching Tonya's video as she created her layout.  While I used different papers, I really followed her layout almost to the letter.  Loved, loved, loved this layout and the video.  It would totally work for scrapping any sport; baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball...and of course football. 

Goodbye summer, hello fall. 

Hello, poor neglected blog.  I may have slightly under estimated the wear and tear of working two jobs.  Ahem, I've had one day off (today) in the last eleven and some days have been twelve hours of being on my feet.  Eat, sleep, work, repeat.   I'll revisit cutting hours after the first of the year.  But for the time being... I'll just plan on being tired, v.e.r.y., v.e.r.y. tired.   

Then, I hope everyone is having a Happy Thanksgiving!  We're having a bit of a mixed up Thanksgiving.  A breakfast feast at my daughter's, then home tonight to have a turkey breast, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy and such.  They are going to dinner at the in-laws tonight.  All good, as long as there were the grandbabes to play with today! 

I did finish up a page or two, but haven't gotten them photographed. I am halfway done with Christmas cards, and because that is non brain taxing, (since it's production mode and not design mode), I'll probably work on finishing those up tonight.

The following layout has been "done" for awhile.  I think.  I say that, because I keep looking at it and thinking I will add a couple of horizontal strips.  Then I look at it again and think, nah, it looks done.  This may go on until it is actually in the album. 

Photos were from the state wrestling competition.  The real story though was one of personal courage, which I am not sure Jacob would want me to share publicly, so I won't.  Suffice to say, this boy made me the proudest Nana there could ever be.  I shared my thoughts on this on an index card which tucks behind the photos on the second page. 

Papers are from Authentique, the Loyal collection which I got in pad form at Hobby Lobby several months ago and have made great use of!  Stars are punched and edges inked.  Stamped the mesh look images in opposite corners and drew in a border line.  The stickers are from an old 7 Gypsies sticker sheet (still a lot of stickers on those sheets to use up!).  I stapled across the paper strips and tucked in a ticket stub from a Tim Holtz pack.    

Alphabet stickers are Thickers, Tiny Type from Cosmo Cricket and Little Yellow Bicycle. 

So there it is; the "maybe" done layout!  Happy turkey day!