NSD 2012 (3rd installment)

And now, for something totally different... I switch gears from vintage inspired heirloom possessions to bright colors and doodling! 

but first: my Mom did say she remembers at least trying to make cookies with the springerle rolling pin... "They could have been used for building brick though. Anise flavored and very hard, at least the ones we tried were." (And that's why I only use the rolling pin as a decoration- lol!) Although it might be interesting to try as an experiment. I think I read somewhere that springerle cookies were sometimes used as Christmas tree ornaments; I guess if that's the case, it wouldn't matter if they were hard or not.  

So, now, back to the scrapbook pages. All weekend long, the scrapbooking website Two Peas in a Bucket- yes, I know- don't ask me where the name comes from; that's just what they call it, lol!!  Anyway, all weekend long they hosted special events and challenges for National Scrapbooking Day on their message boards. My "Fresh" layout fit the criteria for one of the challenges (altering the chipboard dresses and and the picket fence), and I wanted to complete some more of the challenges.  This layout meets the criteria for 'bright colors,' don't you think??

I showed these photos on the blog before, but I hadn't scrapbooked them yet. I know they're not technically 'good' photos, since they're blurry, but I think the blurriness capture the feeling of movement I really wanted to use them to record the memory of Bisbee and Prescott having such a good time playing in the backyard. This layout was made for the challenge 'Bright Colors' and I think it delivers. It's a double-page layout (meaning the pages will stay together like this in my album) made up of one 6x12 page that holds the long, epic title, and the 12x12 page that holds the photographs. The paper is from the American Crafts Amy Tan Sketchbook collection, and it works perfectly for the fun, playful feeling I was going for with these pages. It has multicolored watercolor-look backgrounds, coupled with black or white doodling, and a very hand-drawn feel. I got this paper in a variety pack purchased at the most recent scrapbook store yard sale, I think-I would never have bought this paper on my own, but I quite like how it turned out here.  

The long, epic title on the lefthand page was all done to be tongue-in-cheek; this is not a 'serious' scrapbook layout at all. The title was made using my vintage typewriter, and practically every set of small letter stickers I own, along with a couple mini alpha stamp sets, with teal blue, cactus green, mustard, orange, and black ink. It took about 2 1/2 hours to actually do (why do I do that to myself?!? lol!) but I really like how it turned out.

The journaling/title reads: "Throughout history, there have been stories of pursuit- epic tales of glory, thrilling tales of the hunter and the hunted... Aesop's Fox and the Grapes; Jason and the Golden Fleece; Sylvester and Tweety Bird; Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. and now, there is: Prescott and Bisbee"  haha!! They spend sooo much time chasing each other, running crazily around and around the backyard, and every once in a while, one will 'let' the other one win. (except Bisbee cheats sometimes; she hides behind things, or plops herself down on the grass, to get a break and catch her breath- lol!!)

I added in a couple strips of another patterned paper (the hearts) to bridge both pages, but other than that, I didn't really add anything (didn't need to!) This is one of those layouts I'm really glad I have completed, and I'm sure I'll be glad to look back on it once it's in my album.

One last layout I started on Sunday afternoon, before I had to pack up all my crap stuff and head back home. Another one for the 'bright colors' challenge at the 2peas website! This layout also fit the criteria for a 'chevron' challenge as well, (the huge blue floral chevrons I added next to the title) and a third one called 'the final stretch' since I've had these photos printed for months, and never got around to actually doing anything with them.  The photos are from my trip last year to Artfest, and don't fit any theme or anything, so I felt pretty comfortable just choosing random paper and colors to put with them. (some people might think the paper overwhelms the photos, and yeah, maybe it does from a purely 'design' standpoint, but I really like the fact that the paper and mood captures the fun, and the visual 'overload' that was a big part of Artfest for me.)

I spent a ton of time on these chevrons, too- way too long, actually! I thought it would be easy to just hand-cut chevrons, but I should have known better, since I've always been 'math challenged' with stuff like this. I started trying to just mark them out with a pencil and ruler, but I kept getting the angles wrong. I finally resorted to googling 'chevron images' from the internet and tracing one that I thought would work. Even then, something looked wrong about them when I cut them out! By that point, actually, I think ANYthing I did was going to look wrong... so, I stuck them down and called it good. I finished up the journaling and white pen doodling when I got home. (just couldn't let National Scrapbooking go that easily, I guess- lol!! Actually, 2peas is leaving their challenges open through May 13th, so I have another layout in process- right now it's on the dining room table!) 

NSD 2012 (2nd installment)

After the 2-hour sewing fiasco from Friday night's scrapping, I wanted something a bit simpler to work on- something I could complete and feel good about getting done. haha!! So, I decided to start a project I've been wanting to work on for a while: documenting some of my most 'prize possessions.'  They have memories associated with them that I wanted to record, so I finally decided to put some of those memories down on paper. (fyi, these layouts are 8 inches square, so they went a bit quicker!)

This first layout features my set of vintage aluminum measuring spoons. They hang inside the kitchen spice cabinet, and are one of my favorite 'kitchen' collectibles- not because they're worth anything in a monetary sense, but because they were my Grandma's. They always hung inside the door of her spice cabinet, and now they do the same in mine. Every time I open the cabinet door, the clanking of the spoons against the wood makes me think of time spent in Gram's kitchen, whether it was doing homework, helping mix up a batch of cookies or caramel corn, or, when I was really little, keeping myself busy with the egg-beater and some soap flakes in the kitchen sink. :)

I used some of my newest paper on this layout- a couple weeks ago I went to the Vendor Faire at the local Creating Keepsakes convention, and found a vendor selling products from my favorite paper company, October Afternoon! (They have the most wonderful, vintage-looking patterns of paper in a great variety of luscious colors, along with embellishments, stickers, and other items that match...) The paper line on this page is from the 'Farmhouse' collection, which is full of faded calicoes, ticking stripes, and vintage patterns like wooden rulers and ledger pages: perfect for photos of my vintage favorites! I added a few other touches, such as the punched butterflies and baker's twine, to add to the 'homespun' feel of the layout.

This layout (I really apologize for the crappy colors in this photo; it was late at night when I took it) is a no-photo layout that I made, pretty much, just to use these cute little chipboard dresses. They started out as glossy dark brown (ick!), but that wouldn't work for my project, so I ripped off the brown layer and replaced it with some of my vintage-floral patterned paper (much better!!).

It's just a little layout documenting how fresh clothes smell when they're dried on the clothesline outside. I do hang a shirt out to dry on the patio now and then, but I can't really do it with the entire load of laundry so much here in AZ; depending on the weather, the clothes could collect dust before they're even dry! 

And, one more  'heirloom possession' layout that I completed- this one with a photograph of Grandma's Springerle rolling pin. Springerle is a German anise-flavored cookie / biscuit that has raised designs, either from being pressed into a mold, or rolled with one of these special rolling pins. (According to Wikipedia, they're most often seen at Christmastime.) I don't ever recall Grandma making these, though, to be honest... (Mom, do you remember every having springerle cookies??) I do remember, however, that the rolling pin always hung above the window at the kitchen sink; I think Grandpa made the hanging brackets for it. Now, this rolling pin hangs above the window in our kitchen (I think I've hung this above the window in every place I've ever live, actually). Again, seeing this every day reminds me of time spent in Grandma's kitchen, and the papers I chose for the design go along with that-- . the paper and colors I picked remind me of her kitchen; it was always a sunny place, with a flowered oilcloth tablecloth on the table... I'm definitely glad I finally made this layout!! 


I do have a number of other heirloom possessions (both mine and Tom's) around the house that I'd like to also document with the same type of layouts; now I just need to take the photographs! So, this took me through late Saturday night at the Scrapbook Cottage; I finally got to the point where I was just 'shuffling papers around' without much intention-- that's when I knew it was time to go to bed! (where I watched a couple episodes of Mad Men on my laptop, and finally turned off the light around 3:30 am- lol!!)


I'll be back again with one more NSD scrapping installment; I did a couple more layouts on Sunday that are a total change of pace from this vintage type page.

NSD 2012 (first installment)

So, Saturday May 5th was National Scrapbooking Day... I don't know much about the history of this, but I do know I had a really fun time this weekend!! I headed to the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage after work on Friday, and was messily creative till Sunday afternoon. Yay!! I didn't take too many photos of the weekend, but here are some of the ones I did take. (please excuse the photo quality; most of these were taken at night, and the light wasn't the best so I had to use the flash. And as always, click on any of the photos to make them bigger.)

My workspace, not long after I got started. There were four of us staying the entire weekend, so I had the entire front room to myself (I got there first, so I got first pick of the workrooms- haha!) The front room has three 6-foot tables all butted up together, and by Saturday morning, I spread out onto all three of them. ...laptop, computer, typewriter, photo printer, paper carrier, cardstock, patterned paper, stickers, inks, stamps, ribbon, thread-- you name it, I brought it with me (at least some of it, anyway).

This 2-page layout is the first thing I worked on... I had actually designed the layout last time I was there (in January), but never finished it. I knew I wanted to do hand-stitching on it, and knew it would take a while to design that and actually do the sewing and make flowers that fit the scale and design of the layout... and yeah, it did- like 2 hours! whew! But, I really like how it turned out-- the colors match the prevalent colors in the photos, and the flowers are (very loosely) based on sunflowers, which are a summer-time flower.

This layout was pretty much the only thing I got accomplished on Friday night; I had no idea how long it would take, and it was sort of frustrating me. So, I headed to bed around 10 pm, to get some good sleep for an early start on Saturday.

Not sure if I've shared this layout (unfinished) on here before, or not. The photos were taken last summer when we visited family in IL and WI, and the journaling reads: "It started out as sort of a joke, to take photos of a theme during our trip back to IL/WI... But, it ended up really making me think about how difficult a livelihood farming actually is." 

The flowers and stitching add a nice dimensional touch, as well as a truly 'hand-done' element. I will be doing more hand-stitched layouts, I think. (when I have the time, that is!)

So, Saturday morning I got up bright and early at about 5:45. Why, when I didn't have to?? Well, I did have to-- my brakes had been acting up, and had recently started grinding and groaning... soooo, instead of scrapping at the cottage on Saturday morning, I took my library book, art journaling supplies, and my iPod to the local Honda dealership! Nope, not exactly how I wanted to spend my Saturday morning! (especially since I forgot to take a pair of scissors with me, darn it!)

It wasn't too bad, though- I got the chance to work a bit in my newest art journal (I'll show you more of it later), and gluing, collaging, coloring, and doodling is therapeutic for me, as always. I did get a few funny looks from some of the other patrons in the waiting room, but I've long since gotten over that. 

They had snacks, too-- I got a small bag of popcorn to munch on, as well as snagging a couple extra popcorn bags for my journal!! 

and thankfully, I did have a few things already cut out of magazines in my collage-stuff files, like this topiary... also thankfully, now my brakes work fine!! 


(National Scrapbooking Day- well, weekend, actually- was a lot of fun, besides my personal creating and challenges I found on the internet-- next post, I'll be back to the Scrapbook Cottage to show you more actual "scrapping" since I stayed up till past midnight on Saturday evening! and yes, I'm still tired!!)