Should have known better - NSM Day 3

I'm so incredibly spoiled that my almost-4-year-old is amazingly respectful of my things.  He just knows not to mess around with my knitting or scrapbooking, even when I leave it on the coffee table or some other similarly accessible location. 

But last night, when our friends brought their just-turned-2-year-old over, I really should have picked up the supplies and photos from the living room.  Or at least moved the glass of water sitting next to the supplies and photos.

Because by the time I thought to check up on them, the glass of water had been spilled into my tote bag.  Luckily, everything was in plastic folders, so I just wiped up and thanked my lucky stars.

Please excuse the hideous cell phone photo of the stack of stuff I wiped off before giving up for the evening.

No paper was harmed in the making of this blog post.  Sadly, no scrapbooking was accomplished either.

Part of a page - NSM Day 2

I put together a page for National Scrapbooking Month Day 2 on Monday.  Well, part of a page.  I'm am so blocked on titles!

I took this picture of Deuce last winter and just like it.  There's no real story behind it.  He's smiling, he's cute, we've been outside in the snow and his cheeks are flushed, he's wearing a hat I knit for him...  all nice things.  But nothing jumped out for me as title worthy.

I'm just going to add this to the stack of title-less pages to work on for Saturday

Mission: Scrapbook every day in May

May is National Scrapbooking Month!

I'm giving myself a personal challenge to do something scrapbook related every day in May.  I used to think that scrapbooking was all about sticking photos to paper (still is a pretty good working definition :D ), but Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom turned the tables on all that.  Scrapbooking is all the things we do that result in a memory being preserved.  Taking photos, editing photos, organizing supplies, designing and making pages, presenting them online and in your house and making other memory items are all part of what is important to me about scrapbooking - having fun and capturing stories and moments.

So, Sunday I took some pictures and a couple of short movies.

Bob, Deuce and I went to the beach near our house for kite flying day.  Luckily the event was free and the kite was $1 and bought 2 years ago, so I wasn't disappointed when he just dug in the sand the whole time.  Bob and I flew the kite and my brother, visiting from out of town, stopped by and played with Deuce on the playground.

The light was weird.  It was overcast and everything was moving, so I don't feel like I got any good shots.  But here are a couple of Deuce and Uncle Andy that are workable.

A little kid on a big slide

A big kid on a little slide

One of my goals is to dust off Photoshop Elements.  These photos seem like good candidates for some fixes.

Scrapbook Pages

I haven't really been able to focus on anything, but I've managed to do a scrapbook page.  Sometimes I get an idea that just takes a lot of fussing with, and this was one.

Sorry for the out-of-focus pic, I'm not too steady in low light w/ no flash.  The background is a 12x12 piece of corrugated cardboard, painted with a coarse brush and brown and blue paint.  The mushrooms, owl and beaver embellishment were cut from patterned paper, I bought the wood tree and the hearts are cut from felt.  It needs a title...  suggestions?

And then sometimes a page just comes together.  This is using a patterned paper pack that I love but have a hard time using.  Apparently I found the right use.  The title is a stock cricut cut from Designer Calendar, the rocket journalling spot is a sticker and the other rocket is a wooden shape from the craft store.  (just noticing I used a premade wooden embellishment on both of these.  hmm.)  For whatever reason this page just went together easily for me.  I guess it makes up for fussy cutting out an owl on a branch.

I love paper

Day 2 of scrapbooking, and I'm back!

After doing literally one blank gift book and one page last night in the space of about 5 hours, I'm rolling at a much better pace today.  The surroundings are definitely helping.

I love that every time I finish a page, half a dozen people around me ooh and ah without being asked.  Any tool - someone has it.  Deciding between two papers/colors/approaches - someone has the answer.  Need inspiration - pages, books, magazines are everywhere.

I don't want to make it sound like I discovered the concept of a retreat.  People have been getting together in groups to participate in common interest since the nudist colonies.  But I have not wanted to go for a couple of reasons.

One is that I am a home body, and miss home deeply minutes after I leave the driveway, sometimes to the point of actual regret that I left.  Issuey, I know. 

Secondly, I'm not the most confident person and it's hard for me to go into a social situation where everyone else is there with friends and I'm alone.  I know about a third of the people there, but some of these ladies are here with childhood friends, neighbors...  I'm the only person here as a single.  I'm sharing a room with two really nice people, and sitting at a table with another group of two.  I got a couple hugs when I came. 

Between having fun socially and being productive, I'm really glad I came. 

Total scrapbooking immersion

I am at my first weekend scrapbooking retreat this weekend. I'm blogging from my phone so I can't promise much. What I will say is that if you want to get back into doing something that you once loved, pack all your shit in the car and go somewhere that you're surrounded by people who love the same thing.

I warmed up with a gift book (to be gifted without pictures) and then started my house books I've been planning. I'm just cutting paper and after an hour or ao of that I felt ready for the real thing.

I hade made some kits of photos, papers and embellishments along with layout ideas and I rocked one of those. I started a second one, but got stuck on the title. Titles and journalling are not strong points for me so I wasn't shocked.

I really feel confident that tomorrow is going to be creative and productive. I haven't felt either of those things is a while. I'm ready!