Scrapbooking for fun

Why do we scrap? Here are some of the reasons I've come up with.
1. I want to preserve my memories in a fun way
2. I hope to have fun looking at my pages and be able to remember more details through the journaling than I would remember by just having the photos in an album
3. I enjoy it. Understatement -- I love it!

I started off scrapping only events - you know, birthdays, trips to the beach, track and field day, etc. Most of my pages were double pages with more than 10 photos. After a while I would find a single photo that I loved, not necessarily from an event, and just wanted to make a lovely page with it. On these pages I would journal about my thoughts and feelings about the photo. These are still my main two styles of scrapbooking.

Recently, I've discovered two additional reasons. Reason one: after becoming a member of a few shops' and designers' creative teams I've been scrapbooking for "work." The designers need a page to show off their kits, so I go looking through my archives of photos to find a suitable photo and make a page for them. Granted, I still make these pages for me, but it may have taken me a lot longer to scrap a certain photo had I not needed a photo to match a particular kit.

Reason two: scrapbooking just for fun. This is fairly new territory for me. To make these kind of pages I usually have to bribe my kids to pose for me. I know some scrappers use stock images for these kind of pages and that is wonderful for them. But for now, my kids are still willing to help out for the most part and I'd rather make pages that are more "meaningful" to me.

Here is a series of pages that I made, once again using Box Society goodies from Studio Gypsy. I got a little crazy here, but boy did I have fun! My daughter had fun posing for me in front of a green screen too. This certainly won't be my main style of scrapbooking. As long as my kids are around I'm sure I'll be scrapping their school events and activities as well as our family memories. But every once in awhile, I just want to play.

Crazy Dollhouse

Thank you so much for stopping by.

What's your style? part 2...

The more I think about it, the more I realize that when I am scrapping for one of my CTs, I tend to scrap a page in a way that reflects the designer's kit. Case in point, this page...

Can you believe that this set is from the same designer as who designed the set for my Storyteller page below? That would be Studio Gypsy. Her style is so eclectic, from week to week I just never know what kind of page I'll be making. I suppose that is stressful for some people, but I am finding it challenging and rather exciting. Its given me a great excuse to have to take new posed photos of my kids. My daughter was very obliging the other day -- all in front of a green "screen" of sorts -- posing in strange poses so I could make this page (and hopefully more to come).

The rest of my pages this week are fairly mainstream. Some older photos of my little girl,  a pet snake and a long-overdue page for my son's kindergarten album.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web.

Paper to Digi

We're doing a fun challenge on The Digichick blog. It's paper to digi meaning that we find a paper layout that we like and copy it as a digital layout. This week we are scraplifting Candice Greenway's incredible gallery. She has such an interesting and consistent style. I love her way of adding a huge photo to almost every page. I lifted her Chocoholic page and this is what I came up with.

Why don't you come join us for this fun challenge.

Eclectic

Have you defined your scrapbooking style? Some scrappers make purely fantasy and scenic pages. Others make only traditional paper-style pages. I'm sure it depends on what supplies you are using as well.

I thought for awhile that I was one of those scrappers that would only mimic paper pages using digital supplies. But there are just so many great designers out there in digiland whose lovely kits I want to use. And its a bit difficult to scrap a traditional-style page using some of the kits with realistic elements. Case in point is this new layout using June's Creative Fusion from Studio Gypsy coming tomorrow. In the Tell Me a Story part of the kit, she has stacks of books and cabbage roses. In the alphabet portion she has shelves and screws. I had a wonderful time with these new items making this page about how my daughter used to line up all her beloved stuffed animals and read to them.

Journaling reads: There was once a beautiful little girl who was a storyteller. Each night before bedtime she would gather up every creature in her magical realm, sit them all down in an intimate little circle and read them a story. The words printed in the book didn't matter for she told the story from her heart. And they were all simply mesmerized.

June Creative Fusion by Studio Gypsy (coming tomorrow)

Easy Breezy Part 5 by Busy Bee Designs (coming tommorow)

Another style I have recently tried my hand at is Art Journaling. You can find my first attempt at an art journal page in next month's Artisan Notebook. And I'm sure I'll be posting it here on my blog in August. Art journaling is certainly a far departure from my usual style. But I thought I would give it another try after seeing Roben-Marie's huge line of incredible designs suited perfectly for art journaling pages. I am a huge fan of CD Muckosky's pages and Roben-Marie's designs remind me a bit of things I could perhaps find on a page by CD. So I gave it a try. Its not nearly as good as a page by CD or any more seasoned art journal scrappers. But it was interesting to make this page -- it really just took on a life of its own once I opened up the elements by Roben-Marie.

Art Mats, Art Bits and Blooms Alpha by Roben-Marie

Have I ever mentioned how blessed I am to be able to CT for such a variety of designers. I get to play with such a diverse range of digital designs -- and in doing so I am able to stretch my creativity to new limits. I still have not made any purely fantasy style layouts, but I will never say never. I'm just now getting into extracted photos so those kind of pages may be on my horizon.

At least for now, I will not define myself - not put a label on my scrapping style any more. I'm having way too much fun being eclectic. That's it for today. I'll leave you with a few more pages I've made this week. And I'll be back soon with a very fun challenge coming to The Digichick blog.

After the Rain by Jennifer Labre Designs

Fresh Summer Mango by JM Designs

Easy Breezy Part 1 by Busy Bee Designs

Homeroom Fun Papers, Restful, Wordstrips by Roben-Marie

Easy Breezy Part 5 by Busy Bee Designs (coming tomorrow to MScraps)

Papers and elements from Mojito by Kristen Rice

Thank you so much for stopping by!

No More Fuss

That's the theme of this week's journaling challenge on The Digichick blog. This week we are challenged to document something about your kids, a loved one or your pet that you’ve given up fighting or making a fuss about. As for me, much to my daughter's delight, I will give up nagging her about her preferred hairstyle.

(Hairy Situation - using Calypso by Amanda Heiman guest designer at TDC)
 

Here are my other new pages this week. As always, having a lot of fun.

(Sweet Serenity using Sweet Serenity by Jennifer Labre Designs)

(You Are My Sunshine by Edeline Marta Designs - coming soon) 

 (Summer Fun by Bubblescrap Designs and Manda King)

Thanks for stopping by!

Toot toot!

I am so excited and so honored. A few weeks ago I submitted a layout to the Scrappers World Awards and I can't believe it, but it won! (Insert jumping for joy lady here!)

There were so many wonderful layouts in each category. If you have the time come take a look through the winners gallery. Incredible pages!

Here's my winning page. Thank you so much for stopping by my little blog.

You make me feel like dancing

Yay! I can finally show you my "secret" pages. I think I told you that from May I was invited to be a member of the Just Write Team for the Artisan Notebook. May's challenge prompt was the phrase, "You make me feel like dancing" and we were to have at least one extracted photo on our page. I just so happen to have a dancer in the family and had the perfect photos for this one! So without further ado, here is my page, as seen in the May 2010 Artisan Notebook.

I also received another wonderful invitation to join one of my favorite scrapper's new CT. I have adored Sasha's pages in our gallery for months now. She has such an amazing style and can show off a designer's kit like no other! Well, her amazing new templates can help even the likes of me to imitate her pages. She recently started her own template line under the name of Busy Bee Designs selling at MScraps. Come take a look. Here is my first page using one of her templates. I'll definitely be making more soon!

And finally, here is another page featuring my beloved Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but at one point they owned a little diner and this is a photo of them there.

As alwasy, thank you so much for stopping by.