Four Teams Four Pages

That's about my pace recently. Actually, I'm feeling pretty good that I got all four done -- okay, one was a day late...

Some of my blog friends have asked me to share a little more about myself outside of scrapbooking. I'm Holly, originally from Colorado. I came to Japan 18 years ago on a one-year teaching contract, but met a local boy, fell in love and am still here. There's always the hope to go home someday, but I've been here so long that its comfortable here too. I have two kids, a daughter who is 11 and a son who is almost 9. They -- as I'm sure you can tell -- are the source of most of my scrapbooking inspiration. I also make pages for friends and family when I have the pictures! (Hint to my USA family to send photos.) I don't scrap in any particular order. I love going back into my old photos and using them for layouts just as much as I love to use my latest photos.

I still teach English conversation, as well as paper scrapping to some wonderful and enthusiastic local women. I have learned SO much about my own scrapping by teaching them.

I do speak, read and write Japanese at some level of proficiency, but keeping this blog completely bilingual became too much of a chore to the point that I didn't want to write posts anymore. So for the general posting I think I will keep it simple. But for my class announcements I will add blurbs in Japanese -- just in case.

I'd love to learn more about my blog friends too. Link me to your blogs too.

And without further ado, I will get to the pages now. As always, I am so happy you came for a little visit.

for Lisa-Marie of Studio Gypsy at Scrapbook Graphics

for Edeline at Edeline Marta Designs (guesting at Scrap Orchard this month)

for Madam Wing at The Digichick

 

for Mye at Bubblescrap Designs

Extracted photos

Have you ever made a page with an extracted photo? In paper scrapping that would be the equivalent to cutting out the subject of your photo and using just that cut-out. Several weeks ago I had to do my first extraction for a magazine submission I was working on (I can show it to you in June) and had a great time with the process and liked the result. And while I definitely won't be making this my main style of scrapping, I will probably go back to extracted photos again.

In this case, I needed some kind of cool photos that I could put in the boxes of Studio Gypsy's Reclaimed Vol 3 papers. I had some cute picts of my daughter so thought I would give these a try. I had a hard time getting the case shadows to look right until my friend suggested trying out the Shadow It 3D Action from Studio Wendy. I did have to tweak the results just a little, but am very satisfied with the shadows.

Its FAR from perfect, but here is my page called Growing in...

Thank you as always for stopping by.

Only three

I only had time for three new layouts this past week. Sometimes real life just gets in the way!

First page is a photo of my family and I right after we had climbed up and come back down from 1000 steps of the Great Wall of China. What an incredible experience. This is only one photo and I still have tons more from our trip to China. I'll definitely be making more. This page was made with a gorgeous new kit by ViVa Artistry called Chrysanthemum.

I made this page using Jana's irgendwie...bunt! What a fun name for a kit. What a fun kit!

And last but not least this one using Hey Momma by Wendy Page.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

One of the things I love about CTing for various stores is that I get to play with a great variety of designs. Each designer has their own flavor and I have been SO lucky that I get to create with designs that I may not have had the chance to otherwise. It really has stretched me as a scrapper and I love the opportunity. I just hope the designers find my pages a good example of how great their kits can be. Grunge, Vintage, Fresh and Flirty, Romantic. Oh the variety is endless. Thank you to each and every designer that lets me play with their goodies!

Your Mother set by Dysfunctional Designs and the Pixel Gypsy at The Digichick

Junk Hound by Studio Gypsy

Until the End by Edeline

Freshly Squeezed by Bubblescraps