Sketchy in Summer

Summer is here! Part of me is celebrating, part of me really needs to get out of the house. But instead I've been playing with sketches again, finishing up a few page ideas from the back of my mind. Here are my takes on Sketches 108 thru 110 from Creative Scrappers

Sketch #108


Sketch #109


Sketch #110


What is it about summer that makes me wanna use sketches and scrap Christmas layouts? Not a clue. Anyway I did something surprising...I actually went out and found that rumoured LSS across town and guess what, it was actually open!!! Even though it had been over a year since I last had a really good browse thru a LSS, I was a good girl and stayed almost entirely within the 50% off boxes...that's how long it's been, that the stuff in the clearance bin was actually newer than most of my current stash! Of course I stocked up on adhesive too...can't get enough. Found some awesome double-sided tape that's working beautifully. The ladies were very nice and sweet and we had a great time debating Glimmer Mist...they still didn't totally convince me it's as great as they claim. I did try a few of their suggestions and it did work slightly better but I still think chipboard is the only thing it makes prettier than it messes up. Anyway thanks for looking, gotta run! Sweet dreams~

LSS...how do I miss thee?

Made this page lastnight for Mission 0019 at Mission To Create.


Some of the concepts were a longshot for me...especially the embossed paper, since I have none. So instead I tried an improvised attempt at "faux embossing", which also happens to be a challenge at Skrap N' Chat this month. It's easier to show than explain.


If this were 3 years ago, I could have just ran out and picked up all the stuff for the challenge with no need to improvise. I really miss the LSS. All 5 I used to shop at have gone under, and the last one I heard of is way on the other end of town and has inconvenient store hours. If you'd driven more than 30 minutes out of your way to find a scrapbook store boarded up as many times as I have, you'd understand why I can't get motivated to make the trip to this alleged LSS.

Yes, there are oodles of online shops that boast fabulous deals, which I'm sure are awesome for most. It's just not for me. First of all, I'm a sensory shopper. I don't get inspired by looking at packages of paper on a computer screen, in fact some of the exact paper collections I've been indifferent to when posted online, I've gone crazy over in the store. I have no idea what I want until I see it in real life, let alone how well the colours will really work with my photos. Second of all, inspiration comes suddenly for me. I need instant pictures and instant supplies--waiting for postal delivery just won't do. Third of all, nice scrapbook supplies are not cheap. No matter what the deal, I can't justify paying even more on top for shipping.

Yet would having a local scrapbooking store make me a better scrapper? Some of my best pages came from 2005-2006 when I didn't have the considerable scrap stash I have today, when I didn't spend 30 minutes deciding what alphas to use, but how to make pretty letters out of origami paper and poster paint. So while I do miss eyeballing pretty papers and lovely letters, learning to make do with what you have is much better for the creativity (and the credit card!)

Scrap to Basics

All riiiight!!! My Worldly page was showcased on Scrap Yourself!!! It's so nice to have my scrap mojo back again.

It's midnight, the house is dark and quiet, and I'm highly caffeinated. If I don't get sleepy soon I may have to start another layout....

For now here's a new page I did about my favourite boy.



Made this lastnight. The 3D picture was the challenging part and for the rest I just picked the most glowingly bright scraps from my stash and had at'er with a Sharpie and some nail scissors. Mannnnn was this one fun! I love bright colours against black. Thanks for looking!

Hello mojo!

I don't know exactly where it came from, but there has been a flash flood of scrappy inspiration around here the last few days. Maybe after hauling through those mega-pages from my last post, and then doing that one Creative Scrappers sketch (which I also incorporated into a Skrap N' Chat challenge, as I am prone to do), I finally got the hankering to just scrap a few pretty pages. First of all here's one I finally did for a travel challenge at Scrap Yourself. This was fun to make, though the journalling technique was challenging...I wrote it out on Notepad first, then copied most of it backwards one word at a time so I could fit it on the page right. I even talked my son into biking with me to Wal-Mart this evening so we could pick up the pics while DH was out with the car!



So we have these family friends with 3 sweet kids, the oldest of which has known Antonio since they were babies, and I've used them as scrap subjects before, and felt it was high time for some recent pages:




And there's plenty more in the works. I'm soaking a picture for an experimental technique which hopefully I'll get to work on tomorrow after work, and another few in the ideas stage, with pictures printed and ready to scrap! Now why is it that the most inspiration hits when you have the least time? When creativity flows you have to act on it! Good thing I'm a fast scrapper!

getting sketchy again

Here's a quick page I did today with Creative Scrappers' Sketch 107:



I always forget how much I love the look of sewing and painted edges in my pages. I guess it's a time thing. There's just not enough of it for scrapping these days!

This page has, however, broken my recent multi-pix streak. Seems all I wanna scrap in the last few months has been pages like this...



...and this...



...and this...



Even my one-pagers have been pretty loaded...



Every once in a while my scrapping style will re-gravitate towards using as many pictures as I can cram in there. It's why I originally started using 12 X 12 and I'm constantly on a mission to scrap beautifully using lotsapix. It's easy to create something dazzling with one photo, but come on, sometimes there are 100, and you can only narrow it down so much. Some events just can't be illustrated with a single picture. Yes, you can do multiple pages of one event. I did 26 pages of our vacation to Italy. But even among those, only 3 were single photo layouts. Most had 5 or more per page. It's just how I roll!

That said, it's been a challenge making every page perfect with so many pix to choose from. But then again, why does every page have to be perfect? Why does every page need to be better than the last? Of course we always give it our best shot, but sometimes, it's really more about the pictures and the story than the design and decoration. Gotta keep it fun!