Lobster Picnic from 2009

Our plans to go to Maine this summer fell through. Half of my family is up there right now though, and this weekend they had a lobster picnic (or they at least had lobster. I'm not so sure about the picnic part). Anyway, I don't have anything new to show (yet), so I thought I would post a page I did years ago on one of our past lobster picnics. I can't believe this was already 3 years ago!

This also shows how super easy and inexpensive it can be to make a scrapbook page. Seriously, all I did was get some blue paper, some red-checked paper that I thought looked picnic-y (which I ripped along the edges--using a ruler to keep a mostly straight line), and then a big lobster sticker. I cut out the pictures so that they would fit, stuck them down in a haphazard-y fashion, and used my Cricut to make large letters for the word "Picnic." The lobster sticker is the most expensive thing on this page (it cost a few dollars at Michaels).

I'm trying really hard not to be bummed that I'm not in Maine with the family, but instead stuck in Florida (which is quickly turning into one big swamp thanks to Tropical Storm Debby). Reliving these pages is not helping! Here is a sneak peek at what I've started working on to distract myself. I grabbed this ugly tray from Goodwill a few weeks ago. It's going to get a huge make-over (if it will ever stop raining long enough for me to get outside to spray paint!).

Cloudland Canyon

Here is a look at some of the scrapbooking I accomplished this weekend. I got quite a number of small projects done, and it felt good! 

I have been very excited to scrapbook these pictures ever since I got them printed. They are from our mini-vacation up to Chattanooga during Easter. We spent an afternoon at Cloudland Canyon State Park, and it was so much fun. 

Usually when I scrapbook outdoors-y pictures, I tend to go with blue/green/brownish paper, but as I was sorting through my paper stash I found this background paper that I bought for super cheap at Tuesday Morning. Definitely not the sort of thing I normally use, but somehow I thought it worked perfectly. Then of course, since it's Cloudland Canyon after all, I had to add some cloud embellishments. Overall a super simple layout, but it's the pictures and colors that make it fun.

Wedding Toasts

Here is the latest installment of the Allison/Stephen wedding album. I don't want to share too many of the layouts because I want to keep most of it a surprise for them, but here's just one final sneak peek:

Beth and Teresa did a hilarious toast together, and I wanted to make sure that was included in the album. 

It's hard to tell in the picture, but those are champagne flute stickers.

I cut out all the letters using my Cricut machine. I don't think I could live without that thing! The little blue flower embellishments I found on sale at Michaels.

Graduation Cards

It's graduation season! I had a sister-in-law and brother-in-law graduating from high school and college, and here are the cards I made them:

For the top card I used my Storybook Cricut cartridge, and for the bottom I used the Simply Sweet cartridge, plus a free graduation cap SVG that I found online. 

Congrats Laurie and Dan!

Scrapbook Room

I plan to spend a lot of this wonderful 3 day weekend scrapbooking and getting caught up on projects (and of course cleaning my house. I really don't know how it gets so dirty during the week.). Since I have nothing yet to show you today, I will give you a little tour of my scrapbook room. Originally our second bedroom was going to be a guest room, but we never bought a second bed. Then it was going to be Dave's study, but he never used it for that much (he prefers the living room floor, or the dining room table, or my parents' back porch). Since the room was basically turning into a junk room, I decided my scrapbooking and I could take it over. 

Here is a look at the mess creativity happening on my table right now:

Here's a bigger look at the generally organized chaos. 

I even cleaned up this room for the pictures. Look at that uncluttered floor! 

(Anyone want that arm chair? We are giving it away for free!)

My sewing machine and some embossing supplies. (And our enormous printer! It's so big and ugly, but it prints things for super cheap, so I'm okay with it.)

My laptop finally has a home! My family was getting rid of this old TV cart, and it turns out to be perfect for my computer, cricut, external hard drive, and laminating machine. I love it. 

Wish I could say that filing cabinet is full of craft supplies! But sadly, no. 

Okay, now it's back to scrapping and cleaning. 

Using a Layout Sketch

Hello again! Sorry it's been so long.

Got a little bit of scrapbooking done this weekend, including this single page layout for Allison and Stephen's wedding album. I wanted to try going from a pre-designed sketch (never done that before; usually I just make it up myself as I go along). So I did some Google searching, and found the My Little Sketch Blook website, where Liz has created dozens of layout ideas to give some inspiration.

I had two horizontal 4x6's to work with, so that narrowed down my choices of sketches. In the end I chose this one for my inspirational starting point.

And here is what I came up with (sorry about the weird glare above Allison's head)

I left out some of the frills (including the butterflies. Wasn't a fan of those), but I did want to do some kind of flower in the bottom left corner. I used a Martha Stewart flower punch for that, and whatever yellow and beige paper scraps I had lying around. I added ribbon to the top, because it matched the paper perfectly so I couldn't resist. For the journaling circle, I punched out holes using a nail (I know, super scrapbook-y equipment, right?) and then used embroidery floss for the stitching (I have pretty much every color of the rainbow, from my old cross stitching days). For the title, once again I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot software. I'm just now figuring out all the cool things I can do with that program. 

I really enjoyed having a sketch to start from, so I'll be looking for some more sketch inspiration for other pages. Usually I try to fit so much more than 2 pictures to a page, and most sketches don't do that. But for Allison and Stephen's album I have plenty of room for pages so I'm not worried about squeezing all of them in. 

Later this week I'll show some of the cards I've made using Target brand washi tape! 

Gingerbread Houses

Happy weekend! So far I've spent my weekend cleaning up my house (which was really overdue), taking care of a sick doggie, watching a cute family of ducks that live on the lake by my house, and reading this book:

Okay, I know I've read it about 50 times already, but it's just too good. Probably my favorite of the HP books. I got hooked on it again this morning and couldn't do anything else until I finished it. Now I'm tempted to start book 4, but not too tempted since it's one of my least favorites in the series (after #2). 

Here's my layout for today. It's from back in December when we decorated gingerbread houses. I finally overcame my fear of my sewing machine, and did some zigzag stitching. It took a few tries, and I'm still not good at figuring out the right tension, but it worked here! I've always wanted to do that. It's such a fun way to add subtle embellishing. I found a lot of good tips on how to stitch on paper here and here.

The paper is from a fun Paper Studio pack from Hobby Lobby. I really liked the patterns because they didn't scream Christmas, but they still give a Christmas-y feel. The title was done using my Cricut and free fonts I found in various places. 

Maine Roadtrip 2009

In only a few weeks my family will be in Maine for our summer vacation, and I can't wait! It's been 2 years since Dave and I have gone, so I'm especially looking forward to it. We haven't decided whether we are flying or driving yet. Flying would obviously be nice, and roughly a million times faster than driving, but I think driving has its advantages too. For one thing, you don't have to be as picky about what luggage you bring. Also, we could bring our dog. And it's possible to make the drive fun.

Back in 2009 when we drove up from Georgia, my sister Annie came along to keep us company. Her job wasn't to help me and Dave with the driving, but mostly to keep us awake and entertained during the drive. :-) We had a van back then so it was super comfortable and there was lots of room to spread out.

For this layout, I wasn't so much focused on the pictures, as on the story behind them. I didn't take many pictures during the actual drive up, yet I wanted to document the long trip. I liked the idea of having a map that showed how many states we drove through, and our actual route. Making that map was time intensive! First I had to find a map online that fit what I was looking for, and was big enough to fill up a 12x12 space, then I had to print it, cut it out, trace it onto my paper, and cut that out. Then I filled in the state lines, which aren't quite exact, but thankfully I'm not a perfectionist (or I was just to sick of it at that point to care).

The yellow letters were cut out using a Cricut machine. The stickers were whatever random ones I had in my very-random collection of stickers.

Maybe if we fly to Maine this year I'll do a parallel page that emphasizes how much quicker that is. :-)

Good Luck Card

I can finally reveal one of the cards I made over the weekend. My sister Annie is starting her dental hygiene program today. For the past year and a half she has been taking her prerequisites, getting awesome grades, and a few months ago she found out that she was accepted into the super competitive dental hygiene program. I'm so proud of her! :-)

So as today is her first day of classes, I wanted to make her a little encouraging "Good Luck" card. A few months ago I found these perfect Mrs. Grossman stickers, which apparently are now considered "vintage," as I found out through a quick Google search. (Someone is selling two tiny sheets of these stickers on ebay for $2.99! Crazy!)

The paper I used for the letters I got for super cheap at Tuesday Morning (never would have thought that they would sell scrapbook supplies, but they are actually awesome. You have to dig a bit--which I think is fun--and they don't have a big selection, but everything is marked way down.) I used my Cricut machine and Sure Cuts a Lot software to cut out the letters.

The whole family signed the card and we gave it to her last night at dinner. Here's to hoping she has a wonderful first day!