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!!)

in the works...

so, here's a few random things that have been in the works:


1) My scrapping room is finally evolving into its (hopefully) final form. It's about time, too, since we've lived here for, oh, over two years now- LOL! I've never been very happy with the arrangement of the desks or the amount of light on the work spaces, and I've moved the furniture around at least 3 times, but I think I'm finally close to getting it how I like it. (I used to do this when I was little, too; I'd totally rearrange my bedroom at least once or twice a year- remember that, Mom?)  


Anyway, back to my current issue: I usually end up working in this room late into the evening, so decent light is a must! I have one decent drafting-type light on the main desk, but the only light the other work surface (which is our old kitchen table; how's that for re-purposing?) received was from one of those clip-type lights you can buy for around $5 at WalMart. Not exactly good lighting for actually seeing what you're doing! (and, since the desk was usually piled full of junk stuff when I wanted to use it, I needed another work surface for actually working at.) Tom just installed track lighting in his music room (lighting left over from our first apartment), and he suggested getting the same thing for my crafting space- that way, I can direct the light wherever I want it: brilliant!! (Of course, the room now needs to be cleaned, since the better lighting shows just how messy it actually is- please disregard the mess for now, and focus on the lighting!)

(once I get the shelves re-arranged, I'll take some close-up pics of the items on them to show you...
I have a pretty eclectic collection of stuff up there.

2) A couple new scrapbook pages, with more on the way. I recently signed up for a workshop on the scrapbooking site Two Peas in a Bucket, and have finally gotten back into the groove of scrapping. It's odd; my scrapping mojo comes and goes, and when it goes, it takes me quite a while to find it again. But for now it's back, and I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts! The class is The Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking, a 5-chapter course on scrapbooking taught by Shimelle Laine, with a humorous nod to Douglas Adams' classic book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. (which I need to read again, so I can get all the 'in' jokes that I think she's added into the class content.) The course is chock-full of handouts, ideas, videos, a private message board, 42 example scrapbook layouts, and tons of information, and so far I've made two layouts with ideas for plenty more! Here's my first two, both using some pretty old pictures from my pile of unscrapped photos:

Both layouts are about the flowers and flower garden I used to have back in Illinois. I spent alot of time gardening, but that was in a different climate, and before we had 5 pets and a house to take care of! 

(and before we lived in a desert- lol!) 

3) not so random, but spring is definitely in the works here in AZ! The high temps have been in the low 80s, the hummingbirds are extra-busy, and there are more hints of green appearing in the backyard grass. (the dogs are trying their darndest to find the greenest shoots to graze on... apparently they're confused and think they're sheep, rather than sheepdogs?!?) I guess they like a bit of salad with their dinner now and then- haha!


4) another random thing in the works for me isn't quite so fun: this Wednesday, I'm going to the endodontist to have a root canal re-done... re-peated... whatever the correct word is for that process-- Not fun!! But, neither is having an infected tooth, so I know it's best to get it fixed sooner rather than later, before it becomes more serious. 


5) a more-fun thing I have in the works is some cute Easter cards: I have the idea; I have the supplies; I just need to put those ingredients together and make them. (once I pick up all the crap straighten my desk, that is.)


6) one more fun thing in the works is a weekend scrapbooking retreat in May at the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage, over National Scrapbooking Day weekend- it's the cottage's one-year anniversary (already!), and they're having special stuff for the weekend scrappers: door prizes, dinner provided, and other assorted goodies. Since they were instrumental in getting me back into scrapping again, how can I pass that up? (answer: I can't!) So, I hope my mojo stays around until at least then-- or at least, it better not go very far, so I can find it again by May! 

a couple 'real' scrapbook pages!

and now, for a few 'real' scrapbook pages, to go along with my latest Project Life layouts! I want to keep up with Project Life to have a slice of our 'day-to-day' along with random things, but I still do like a well-designed (or not, lol!) 12x12 scrapbook layout. I finally decided to scrap photos of a Labor Day weekend trip we took to Las Vegas in 2009.

I decided to include a couple 'on-the-road' pictures as sort of a 'title page' for this section of layouts-- This was my first view of Joshua trees; they remind me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book! The picture of Tom was taken right over the state line into Nevada; I was sort of amazed to see the poker machines right in the gas station, but I guess when gambling is legal, everyone has to take the opportunity to get some $$ out of it.

this is a close-up of the upper right corner; the stickers are October Afternoon's Boarding Pass line of papers; it's full of really cute travel-themed things. I'm not really 'good at' that whole 'layered embellishment' thing that's popular right now, so this is about as layered as I get on my pages.

this is a picture of the entire 2-page spread. I got the background papers and stickers (Las Vegas themed) at a scrapbook store we stopped at on our way into town... yes, of course I planned that, haha!! The scrapbook store was our first stop, actually; I found out where it was before we left, and we planned our route accordingly. (Tom was pretty nice to accommodate that, for sure!) And since then, these papers and stickers have been knocking around in my craft room, so it feels good to finally use them, before they got lost forever (in the abyss).

the left-hand side: Since this paper is one of those 'photo' designs, I didn't want to cover up too much of the famous 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign (besides which, I didn't get a good picture of it, myself). This page is a couple pictures of 'people we met' including a couple impersonators on the street, and Tom getting to meet Corey and Chumlee at the Gold & Silver Pawn shop (which was pretty cool, by the way!). It also includes a photo I took of the street pretty late at night, still filled to the brim with cars and people. 

the right-hand side: again, it's a pre-printed themed paper, so I didn't do much embellishing. This page includes selected photos of things on the strip; my take on Las Vegas was that it was crowded, noisy, dirty, and pretty much 'all for show' so that's what my layout reflects. The photos are all 'fake' things: a fake volcano, fake Paris, fake New York city, etc. If we go back to Las Vegas again, I think it will be to see a show or to see more of the city / area than just the strip... neither of us gamble, and neither of us like large crowds, so spending time in and around the casinos on the strip is kind of pointless.

This layout is one of several I plan on doing to showcase some of our favorite Christmas ornaments. Both Tom and I have a collection of ornaments from before we met, and since we've gotten together, we've started buying ornaments when we go on trips. It's a really nice way to remember the trip when we're decorating the tree. This layout is based on a Scrapbook Generations Sketches for Scrapbooking sketch that I modified slightly to accommodate larger photos. At first I didn't really like the gold paper I used, but after adding the stars, I do like the way it turned out.

A closer look at the left-hand page-- the stars were cut on the Cricut electronic cutting machine; I don't have one of these machines yet, but the Scrapbook Cottage has one, and my fellow scrappers had quite a selection of cartridges with them for the weekend. They were nice enough to let me borrow them to cut whatever I wanted. The star design is from a military-themed cartridge of shapes; in addition to soldiers and planes, the cartridge included some really nice stars, badges, fireworks, etc. 

An even closer look at the page- the journaling strips I included on this page. I hauled my typewriter with me to the cottage for the weekend, and I actually used it a lot for journaling! Since I write kind of big, I really like being able to include more text, and the 'coolness factor' of the vintage typewriter hasn't worn off yet... lol!

I should be asleep right now...

...because I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep the last couple nights-- this weekend I stayed at the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage, and who can sleep when there's scrapping to be done and Diet Mt. Dew to drink?? (you think one thing had anything to do with the other? haha!!) Anyway, I didn't take many pictures, and most of the ones that I did take turned out crappy, so they will be re-taken tomorrow afternoon. But, here's a little of what I worked on:

 this is an addition to the Christmas week spread in my Project Life album... I wanted a way to save a few of the Christmas cards we got, so added them in a couple different ways- above I've used a 6x12 page protector; below I added a couple cards into the album just by punching holes right in the cards.

 I also added in an 8x8 page protector, and made a collage-style page with snips and pieces from all the cards we received. I've seen Ali Edwards do something similar before, and really liked it.

 (please excuse the slippers I'm wearing in the photo above- but you gotta be comfortable when you're crafting all day and all night, right?!?)

and as a refresher, above is the spread before adding in the extra page protectors. I really like this approach; it's a good way to add in more 'things' without feeling like I have to stretch the week into two entire 12x12 2-page spreads. It's probably just a psychological thing, because I know there's more than just the 2 12x12 pages of stuff there, but they're smaller-- so it works, in my brain.

This is a horrible photo, but it's a still photo from the movie Mona Lisa Smile. I was watching it on my laptop during a break from scrapping. The movie is decent (free-spirited Californian takes on the conservative mid-century view of 'the woman's place in society' at 1953 Wellesley College), but I absolutely LOVE the clothes in this movie. Every outfit-- I want to have the entire wardrobe in my closet! I really like her shirt-dress and sweater combo here, and I believe she's wearing a squash blossom silver and turquoise belt here, as well. I started noticing small things about people's outfits, like the fact that all the earrings are clip-ons, and the fact that Julia Roberts' character wore this super-cool silver and turquoise jewelry throughout the entire movie. Love it, love it, love it!! (I also found another piece of silver and turquoise jewelry to add to my own collection, at another local estate sale- I'll take a photo of that tomorrow, too!)

scrap! or what I did with all that stuff... part 1

so, on Friday night when I got to the Scrapbook Cottage, I was kinda frazzled, what with work, packing, driving, and unpacking... So I didn't feel up to designing any scrapbook pages-- a little too much pressure for me right off the bat, I guess. So I'm really glad I took my art journaling supplies with me! Cutting, pasting, and doodling randomly is a great way to ease into a creative mindset, but with no pressure... (plus, my art journal had been feeling kind of neglected since I got back into scrapbooking!) Below are a few of the pages I worked on; some are finished, and a couple aren't. my current journal is a vintage gardening book, and I've kept some of the pages from the book-- this page is one of the chapter dividers. Details doodled on with gel and souffle pens, plus a bit of fun pink pom-pom trim.

the flip side of the page above. The motorcycle policeman came out of a vintage 1950s National Geographic magazine, I think.

an unfinished journal page-- gray cardstock, Asian newspaper, rubons and scrapbook paper, and a snippet from a vintage atlas page. I really like this vintage gardening book for journaling, because of the 3-ring binder mechanism. I can take pages out of the book to work on them, and rearrange pages as I want. (I've already found my next journal; it's a vintage 3-ring binder reservation book from a restaurant; I found it at one of the local thrift stores.)

another partly-finished journal page-- the card on the page is the valentine my sister sent me this year, which featured a vintage valentine card. It's so cute, I had to keep it!

I stayed up till about 1:30 am, then read a bit before finally getting to sleep about 2 am (!!! seriously, I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late!) Saturday I slept in (no dogs or cats to feed- it was a nice break from my regular schedule, I have to say...) till about 9 am, then put away my art journal and got out the scrapbook paper and photographs... (the photo above was a reference so I could remember the photo arrangement for the page I was working on... I don't think I ended up using this arrangement after all, but the digital camera is a nice tool for doing this.)

yes, it is a bit embarassing...

...but this is actually the "before" picture:

This picture is of my workspace after finally getting unpacked and set up for a weekend at the Scrapbook Cottage, in Phoenix. (yay!! I've been waiting for this since I was first here back in May!) After a busy (and very long!) day at work, I drove home to pick up my supplies and give the pets their dinner, then zipped back up into Phoenix to get my scrapping mojo going. I decided to start with a bit of art journaling tonight to get warmed up, then I can hit the scrapbooking hard tomorrow. After some good sleep, that is. More pics to come!! (and by the way, in my defense, I literally "threw" my supplies together last night, at about 9:30 pm. Since I didn't really have a "plan" for the weekend, I just brought everything-- lol!!)

scrapping again--

well, just a little scrapping, anyway! I'm finally working on scrapping the photos I took this spring when I went to ArtFest. (okay, not all of them: I think I took about 200 total, and most of them are never going make it off my computer due to "quality" issues with my photo taking skills.)

(and Tom, if you read this: I promise, the scrapbooking supplies WILL be picked up off the kitchen table by the time you get back from your business trip-- lol!!)

I had wanted to start working on these pages at the National Scrapbook Day crop, but didn't get around to it. I can never put a page together without some sort of sketch or idea to work off of, so I start out slow-- plus, I end up doing other projects in the middle of things, like deciding to totally re-do the way I store my cardstock and patterned paper, which led to this layout being incomplete for, oh, maybe about 2 weeks?? I think it's the Gemini in my personality coming thru; I can't do just one thing at a time, and am very easily distracted. (seriously: I can easily fall asleep if I watch TV without doing something else at the same time, like reading a book, playing a computer game, or surfing the internet.) Anyway, back to the layout-- see what I mean about being easily distracted? haha!

This page will be sort of a "title page" to all the ArtFest layouts:

I want these pages to feel sort of messy and chaotic, to go with the creative energy and excitement that was part of ArtFest-- hopefully I've captured it with the colors and patterns of the papers I chose to use. (but still have the photos, not all the other "stuff" be the focus-- it's a fine line!) I also added in some hand-done elements, like the "scribbled" circles (a new sparkly pink gel pen) on the background, and the dotted line on the border (pink acrylic paint pen). This is a way I can start to "blend" my art journaling artistic sense with my scrapbooking pages, too, hopefully. I'm not totally "in love" with this layout, but at least it's done and I'm on my way. I'm trying to work on letting go of my perfectionist tendencies, but it is hard: I especially don't love the title stickers (I think they're too small for the page design) but I don't want to go out and buy new ones just because these aren't "totally perfect" for it... (baby steps, right?? lol!!)

Below are a couple detail shots of the layout:

the flower is felt, for a bit of texture, and the edge on the purple paper was made with my new favorite border punch- lol; I only have two border punches total, but I really do like this one! The pattern it makes is like notebook paper ripped out of the spiral binding. It is this punch, which you can get at most local craft stores. (and they're not priced too bad, with a 40% off coupon, either!)

this is a detail shot of the focal point photo, which isn't a "great" photo or anything, but it's one I wanted on my page because it shows where I went. It's a photo of a map of the Olympic Penninsula; I used two circle punches to make the ring around Fort Worden, which is where the ArtFest retreat is held every year. The chipboard arrow (by the way, the shade of red doesn't quite "match" either, but I'm okay with that... lol-- I told you my perfectionism was bad!) is from a set of chipboard shapes I got at the local scrapbook store off the clearance table. Look for more arrows and circles coming soon, so I can use them up- lol! But, I do like a bit of chipboard, etc. to add a small amount of dimension to my pages. (I still want to be able to put my pages in page protectors when they're finished.)

So, stay tuned for more scrapbook pages coming soon, because I am spending Saturday the 28th at the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage... yay!!