Instagram Mini Album

Sometimes during these busy weeks it's easier to sneak in time to do six by six layouts than full twelve by twelve, so I've been concentrating on my Instagram Mini Album.  To make it even easier, I've been using all the new BasicGrey Fact & Fiction supplies that my wonderful husband and daughter got me for Christmas.  The album won't be super matchy, but it will coordinate throughout with a certain color scheme and feel.  Here are the first seven pages.

2013 and What's New

I'm beating the post-Christmas blues by spending lots of time with my family and working hard with my Girl Scouts!  Here's what's new around here:

• My sweet husband is our city's Girl Scout Cookie Sale Manager for the first time ever.  It's pretty awesome to see him working this way, but stressful to see him get stressed when people are unresponsive.
• I feel so lucky to have a job that I love, working at the museum.  I haven't been working as much as I'd like lately, but hoping now that Winter vacation has passed things will pick up.
• I started a Girl Scout troop at our local Boys & Girls club.  I have girls ages 9 through 13 and we've only had one meeting so far, but it was fun and it will be a different experience for me to be with older girls who have not had a previous Girl Scout experience.
• I haven't been scrapping a ton, but I have made good progress on my new mini album made entirely of my Instagram photos.  (I got a tablet for Christmas and was so excited to finally join the world of mobile devices!)  Esme has been scrapping with me a lot and I love it.  I gave her my extra Instagram prints and this is what she made:

• This week we start Robotics!  I attended training on how to coach a FIRST Lego League competitive team but I still feel a little unprepared.  The trainers assure me that soon the girls will be teaching me what to do.  Definitely happy to be offering more STEM activities for Girl Scouts.
• I love having an instrument that I can play.  I haven't quite gotten to it every day, but my autoharp has definitely been getting use since its purchase in late October.  At the moment I have a touch of laryngitis, but I hope to get back to it full force once this wears off.  
• I can't wait to get back to the beach this summer.  On these cold days when it gets dark so early, I think even more about the night we had a fire on the beach and how late it stayed light.  That's my favorite time of year!

Loving Grid Layouts

I have been working harder to give weight to certain pages in my albums. It can be hard to balance having 100 adorable photos when they are of a not-particularly-significant event in our lives, or when I have similar photos year after year of the same activities. I have been turning more and more to grid-style layouts, where I can get lots of photos on a page.

For this page I wanted to include lots of photos because I am looking back at a time that my daughter and my entire Girl Scout troop was so much littler! Half the layouts I've pinned on Pinterest seem to be grids as well.

Girl Scout Camp Layout

We are so happy that our daughter has had such positive experiences at Girl Scout summer camp these last two summers. The photos from last year were so special to me I had a hard time scrapping them. I wanted the feel and look of the page to be bright and expressive. I finally took the plunge and did the layout today:

I am pleased with the result - I used products from a wide range of companies including Jilibean Soup, K & Company, Echo Park, Colorbok, Doodlebug, and American Crafts.

Scrapping with Mists

Thanks to Shimelle and her Glitter Girl videos, Esme has been super into scrapping lately and that means I have been getting a lot done too! Recently I was lucky enough to participate in a local scrapbook store's tag sale, and I made over $100! I bought all kinds of goodies with my gift certificate, including six new bottles of mist. I got Mister Huey's, Glimmer Mist, and Dylusions. I am finally catching up and learning how to incorporate these onto my pages. Here is a page I did recently using them:

I also busted out my Fiskars texture plates for the wood grain paper on the right. I dry embossed and rubbed with ink to add a little more texture to the page.

Anne Fisher please email me - I have a Slice card that's waiting for you!

2 Songs by Ethan

My sweet husband celebrated his birthday yesterday by playing at a local open mic.  I love these songs!