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!

Red Sox Mini Album - A Gift for My Brother

My brother has done a ton of work on our house, from resealing toilets to hanging doors, and really wanted a special way to say thank you to him!  He is a huge baseball fan and luckily I was able to get some Red Sox tickets for a song!  We loved having a special night out with him, and then this album was the second part of his gift.  I'm posting a few pages to give a sense of the whole album.

I purchased the round, chipboard album and a 6 by 6 Authentique collection at the nearest local scrapbook store.  I also went to a local sports collectibles store to score some supplies.  The cover is made from printed packing tape - only $1 with purchase at the second store.  I used Stickles to jazz it up a bit.

I covered a couple pages completely with a photo.  My favorite place for processing is Costco, both for quality of prints and for price.  I was so touched that my brother made this such a special night for my daughter.  When he arrived he told her it was a night she would never forget.

Esme was really spoiled this evening - she got to try all kinds of Fenway snacks, plus Charles let her use his binoculars to watch the game and made sure to explain everything that happened as the night went on.    Using the collection of papers helped to make this a super fast and easy album.  I also used navy blue paint on the edges of every page for a cohesive look.

I tried to throw in some fun doo-dads to help document the night even if I didn't have photos of a particular event - Charles had given us the complete background story on, "Sweet Caroline," so I wanted to be sure that was included.  Even though we could see the game easily from our seats, it was hard to photograph the players so I included some baseball cards too.  I made sure to get the very common ones, so that my brother wouldn't be too concerned that there were holes punched through them.  

In additional to the red and blue patterned paper I threw in a fair amount of green and white, from baseball stickers to gingham ribbon, and even a bit of sparkly felt.  Esme doesn't realize how lucky she is, but because of Charles she actually go to go down on the field at Fenway Park!  I just gave Charles the album a couple weeks ago.  I new he liked it, because he proclaimed it a Home Run!

Making Memories Slice Basics 2 Giveaway!

I was lucky enough to get several copies of this card for free! It's an older card but Making Memories flowers never go out of style, and neither will this classic font.

Please note, I am only going to ship the card in the little plastic case and the booklet - not the entire box. This makes it cheaper for me and I will give away three cards! To enter, please leave a comment telling me what papercrafting projects you are working on this summer. For an extra entry comment again with a link to one your Slice projects. I will choose winners Wednesday night and post them here.

Adult Time

 

Our daughter is away at camp, and my husband had the first four days of this week off!  We had a wonderful time together.  We shot off some fireworks in our yard, went out to eat, went and visited a waterfall, swam in the lake, read together, listened to music, went to a city fireworks display, went out for ice cream, etc.  Time alone with him is extra precious to me because most of the year we work opposite shifts and don't see each other very much.  It can be very hard - I spend a lot of time missing him.  So four uninterrupted days together was such a gift!

That said, we really missed our daughter too!  He went back to work on Thursday and lucky my best friend, Lisa, was there to help me beat the missing-Esme blues.  She met me at a scrapbook store that is equally distance from our houses.  Time with Lisa is also very precious since we live an hour and a half apart.

Here's the layout I did - these photos are of my niece around this time last summer.  I have been hoarding some 6 by 6 paper pads so I broke one of them out for the patterned paper on this one.  I also used Doodlebug stickers, BasicGrey rubons, and a Simple Stories bingo card.

Plants Program

This summer I am working on developing a new plants program for the museum.  Luckily for me, part of  creating the program is experimenting with seeds and determining which ones we want to use in the classroom.  

So far (with Esme's help) I've planted peas, carrots, parsnips, two kinds of sunflowers, cilantro, basil, and more.  They all have to be in containers so they can be moved out of my yard and into the museum, and I have to plant some more this week so I have plants in different stages of growth.  The biggest challenge is the lack of sunlight in my yard.  In a city neighborhood with 4 huge maple trees and a big Victorian house, we almost entirely in the shade.

Girl Scout camp!

This is Esme's first time being away on her own for more than just a couple night, and our first time as parents being apart from her for that long.  She is learning to sail this week - so lucky! - and we are having some couple time.  We do miss her, but so far we are doing pretty well and keeping ourselves entertained by using restaurant gift certificates we've been amassing over the last few months, going to the movies, etc.  Today we're going to be outdoorsy and check out a local waterfall.

Because Esme is homeschooled, it's really important to me that she have the chance to be out on her own and independent.  We are lucky we have a couple Girl Scout camps not too far away, and we can feel completely comfortable sending her there.

Adoption Party!

By the time I met Deb in Fall of 2009, she had already had Sagelicious with her for a long time and was planning to adopt her, so I figured the big day would arrive any time.  I had no idea how loonnnnggg it would take for these two to finally be mother and daughter!  The adoption was finally finalized this Spring.  As a child in the foster system, there could be no photos of her posted on the internet in any way, shape or form.  I am posting this photo in celebration - Sagelicious and my daughter are good friends and I have soooo many adorable photos of them together.  I did cheat and post this one a while ago.  Today is the day of the big party celebrating this family!  Sagelicious has a new pink and lavender dress, and wants to dance to Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and eat chocolate from a fountain.

Work in Progress

Right now I am.....

• scrapbooking a mini album for my brother, Charles, of our trip to Fenway Park
• getting ready for Girl Scouts end-of-year Court of Awards ceremonies, including trying to find a day and place that works for my whole Brownie troop
• dreaming about the big trip to DC - now officially less than two weeks away
• winding down at work, but hoping that the grant I wrote will come through, so I get at least a few hours in summer
• dreading grouting the floor in our rental unit, but glad it is only a few tiles
• looking forward to summer vacation with the family, and seeing my daughter use her wet suit and boogie board for the first time

A new Esme quote...

While watching the "Mrs." competition on Toddlers and Tiaras, "High heels, bathing suits, and moms do not mix."

Girl Scout Cookie Commercial

Doing this page made me remember how much I love scrapbooking!  I love all the clothes-line pages that are popular right now and really wanted to do one of my own.  These are some older pics - special to me because they are of Esme and her godparents.

I used my Slice for the title and dug deep into my camping themed materials for a mix of embellishments. I have had that Pebbles tag forever, waiting for the perfect layout.  The sticker that says, "savor," was from a scrapbook store in Connecticut that went out of business at least 5 years ago!

Life Cycles of Frogs and Toads

For the last few weeks I have been working on this mural to be used as a game board at the museum where I work.  We have a special frogs exhibit and docents will use play this game with school groups who come to visit.  At first I worked on it in the office I share with the other educators, but I actually moved much faster on it when I brought it home.  Watched a few episodes of The Office on Roku, listened my daughter practice playing the recorder, and filled all the details.

At this point, I am thrilled to be done with it!  I do have to tweak it a bit now that we've tried playing the game, but at this point it is pretty complete.  One of the docents very kindly said to me, "So you're an artist?"  I wish!

Officer Awesome

I have had these photos printed and ready to go forever!  My nephew is obsessed with fire fighters, police, EMTs, etc., but I'm afraid in this costume he looked more like one of The Village People!  I used one of my brand new Martha Stewart border punches that I got from my sweet husband for Christmas, and a die cut from the Travel USA design card for my Slice.

Back to Scrapping - Be Mine

I'm not sure if it is just weeks, but it certainly fees like months since I have scrapbooked, and the last few days I've realized how much I've missed it!  Not only because I love the tactile experience, looking at photos, etc. but because it is the one time a week that my best friend, Lisa, and I have completed devoted to spending time together.  Last night I got to break out several items I'd collect at tags sales or received for Christmas and did a couple pages.

This set of photos is one of the first sets I've had printed after using filters on Picnik.  They have a very soft feel.  They are from Valentine's Day 2011 and it is amazing to me how much Esme has changed in that time.

2012 Fashion 4 U - At Last!

After months of hard work and being crazy busy, the big day is finally almost here - our Girl Scout fundraiser is tomorrow.  We are trying to raise money to get to Washington DC.  It's going to be an amazing day, so please come out and support us if you can!