Christmas Cutie

This is an older layout, but looking through pages on some other websites I was reminded of this look and how much I like it. I love the combination of all kinds of different elements clustered together, surrounded by negative space.

I have been scrapping tons of photos of my nieces and nephew lately. When I first started my oldest niece's album, her dad thought I was giving them the album. I was like, yeah, when I die! These are my memories of my niece - I want to keep them! I'm already on volume 2 for both her and my nephew. I have been on a scrapping roll lately and I'm enjoying it very much.

Snow Day

Wednesday we got about 18 inches of snow here. Since I am a long-term sub right now, I got to celebrate a real snow day. And lucky for me, I have another scrapper right in my house who invited me over to scrap with her. My friend/tenant and I scrapped her table for a few hours while the kids alternated between playing outside and warming up in the playroom. I did two coordinating layouts of my nephew.

Winter Visit

This is an older layout but still one of my favorites and I thought it would b e the perfect page to post on this snowy day. I love making pages with a grid - so fun to arrange the photos and add the embellishments!

trying to get my scanner to work....

I really, really want to post more pages in 2011 but I am facing some challenges. First of all, my scanner seems to be producing inconsistent images. Parts seem overexposed and I'm not sure what to do about it. Secondly, I have yet to find a great stitching program that works with Windows 7 and and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I used to use a program that came with my scanner - well, two or three scanners ago. That definitely isn't going to work now. Third, I really, really stink at photographing layouts. Even when I use a tripod I can't seem to get a good image. If anyone has any good tips I'd love to hear them - this is how my layouts are coming out right now:



BTW as bad as that image is, I LOVE those photos. That's my niece last summer grabbing onto my daughter in the kiddie pool. Plus I love those bright Doodlebug papers, and the simplicity of the whole thing. Thanks to Jennifer for giving me the Bazzill border.

New Year's Resolutions

I have three New Year's Resolutions this year:

1. Get my arts and crafts area clean and organized, and maintain it. This will make me so happy.
2. Invite my friends over to scrap and/or craft more. This will make me super happy too!
3. Scrapbook more. I love all the other things I do, but I think scrapbooking has got to be my greatest love. I love photos, pretty papers, and all the tactile stimulation that comes along with embellishing.

To get myself started I did a layout for the Doodlebug challenge at Two Peas.

I have finally got some creative juices flowing again. I have mostly been working on scrapbooking lately, but for some reason my scans are all coming out overexposed, so I need to find a new way to post pics.

Ethan and I were lucky enough to have a day to ourselves to do whatever we wanted (thanks Lisa!) so we decided to go to NYC to check out the American Folk Art Museum. I had never been there before and I loved it! Ethan was esepcially interested in seeing Henry Darger's work. Coincidentally, it was right next to MoMA, and it was their free Friday night, so we got to go there as well. We saw an interactive piece that was about screaming into a microphone, which honestly got really old really fast, since you could hear people screaming though the whole museum. We also got to see a special Matisse exhibit though, which was much more interesting to us.



I'm happy that Sunday scrap nights with Lisa are coming back with the new school year, and that I'll have lots of time to get inspiration and just hang out with my bff, even if it is only through the computer.

Wow I have been out of commission for a while! I had no idea how long it had been since I'd posted. I've been keeping very busy with things like Girl Scouts, teaching, and homeschooling for the last couple months. I finished up scouting last Saturday, and teaching today (homeschooling never stops!) so I feel several projects coming on! In the meantime, the big news at my house is that my husband has officially converted to Christianity and was baptized at our church on Pentecost. Also, he released his first CD of the Month for May which was awesome! I will post an art journal page and a couple scrapbook pages soon! Hope everyone is enjoying their last few days of Spring and looking forward to summer!