pet pages from the SB cottage

In addition to doing some art journaling and moving bits of paper (okay, lots of paper) around on the table, I did actually finish some scrapbook pages while I was at the Scrapbook Cottage last weekend; probably about 10 pages / layouts, all together. (wow, has it really been two weeks ago already?? where does the time go, anyway?? )

This page features one of my favorite photos of Bisbee... she had just been to the doggy beauty parlor, and was looking particularly cute, I thought. I love the little pink bow in her hair! (okay, I never thought I would ever write a sentence like that, but really, she does look cute with a bow.) She is such a happy dog, and particularly "girly" looking (she even runs like a girl- haha!!) so I wanted to showcase that. I fought with this page for AT LEAST an HOUR, trying to use a certain color scheme I had in mind, but I just couldn't get it to work. Once I gave up on that and started picking other papers, the page came together in about 15 minutes. Funny how that works, isn't it?!? (aggravating, too!!) The starting point for this layout came from Shimelle Laine's blog, and one of her newest series, "scrapbook starting points."

here is the "starting point" from Shimelle's blog for the page above featuring Bisbee... mine turned out quite different, right?? That's the beauty of the starting point concept. Different papers, different colors, add your own number of photos, etc. to "personalize" it just for you- absolutely brilliant!

This one is a portrait of Krista, also made using one of the layout starters from Shimelle Laine's "starting points" series. This is one of the first "portraits" I took of Krista, and had wanted to use pink / girly colors with it, too, but they just didn't work with the colors in the photo, so I switched to Sassafras Lass papers, which I think bring out the golden tones in her fur. A couple manila shipping tags, add in some of my vintage buttons and rickrack, and it was done. more or less-- I always fiddle with things on my pages for a while, moving things 1/4 inch here or there. (here is the suggested starting point from Shimelle's blog, which you can find here: Shimelle Laine) Basically, four 5 1/2 inch squares with a narow strip across the middle, then you take it from there.

This one is a portrait I took of Bisbee (on the left) and Prescott (on the right)... looking at him now, it's hard to believe he was ever that small! I love this picture, too-- they both cocked their heads just so, and I managed to get it on film... yay! The printed paper I used was leftover when I cut up the paper for another page (using the pattern on the reverse, I think), and it was just laying there-- it ended up being perfect for this picture! The paper is printed with a pattern that makes it look like layers of fabric and sewing, and when I got home, I added some of my own "real" sewing to it, along with a few more vintage buttons and stickers that match the patterned paper.

thanks for looking-- I'll be back soon with more scrapbook pages!! (and check out Shimelle's blog, if you have time- I promise, you'll find something inspirational there for your scrapbook pages!)

scrap! a bit circular...

...this post, that is: a blog post about a scrapbook layout that's about scrapbooking-- you follow? No?? I don't blame you; it took me quite a while to come up with that line. :D so, this is one of my recent scrapbook layouts-- it's a 2-page layout that I made using one of the new Scrapbook Generation sketch books I purchased a couple months ago. It's the first one I made following one of those sketches, actually. It took me a little while to understand the flow ofusing a sketch: 1) choose coordinating papers; 2) cut all the paper following the dimensions provided; 3) assemble the page; 4) add embellishments, title, journaling. I found out a couple things about myself during this process: a) choosing matching papers is difficult- I think it took me at least 45 minutes! 2) I buy paper in a vacuum! I buy it just 'cause I like it, not because it will go with any other papers I might already have... that's one of the reasons it took me so long to choose the matching papers. 3) Turns out that I am still as math-challenged as ever- oh, I can do straightforward math (with a calculator, that is); I just have a difficult time following measurements and dimensions sometimes (meaning these papers are not the original pieces I chose-- those got cut incorrectly, so they're waiting for some other project).

This layout is actually about National Scrapbooking Day 2011, so it is technically a "scrapbook layout about scrapbooking." This might seem kind of odd to anyone besides a scrapbooker, but it makes perfect sense to me- lol!! I won a 12-hour crop at the newly-opened Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage. (it's a beautifully-renovated bungalow that hosts day crops as well as weekend retreats, so of course, I had to document the day! I also previously blogged about it here. (and I'm going to go back, for an entire weekend sometime next month-- I can't wait!!)

This layout consists mainly of photos of my workspace, and photos of the layouts I worked on while I was there. The journaling talks about what's in the pics, along with how this event got me back into scrapping after over a year off. To quote Martha, "that's a good thing!!"

Even though this layout took such a long time to do and I ran into a few bumps along the way, after all that, I quite like how it turned out! (Now, should I make a scrapbook page about this blog post, to continue falling down the rabbit hole?? lol!! just kidding!)

(somewhat related: tomorrow is an open house at the Scrapbook Cottage, if you're located in the Valley and want to check it out! Go to their facebook page HERE to get the details.)

Scrapping Saturday!!

I spent all day yesterday, National Scrapbooking Day, in Phoenix at this lovely place: the newly opened Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage!! I was lucky enough to be one of the winners of a free 12-hour crop at this cute, cute, cute bungalow cottage yesterday, for their grand opening weekend. This was a great opportunity to get some pages scrapped, since I haven't scrapped for quite a while (sad to say it's been well over a year, since the last post I wrote about scrapping!) so I packed up my paper, printed out some photos, and headed into Phoenix. The proprieters are a very nice duo of women who had gone to scrapping retreats in San Diego, and decided to bring a similar weekend getaway idea to the Phoenix area. The house is available for weekend getaways, Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon, or for 12-hour day crops. (You can even tack on a Thursday or Monday, to extend your weekend even more!)

This is the dining room with its beautiful built-in china hutch; it's now the tool center, containing a huge selection of stamps, ink pads, idea books, and tools, including a Cricut cutter and a computer with a wide-format printer. (That's Kathy there, one of the very nice owners.)

I took a little photo tour of some of the rest of the house, too, while I was taking a break to stretch my back. This is one of the super-cute bedrooms: pillow-top mattresses with 300-thread count sheets! So, if you get exhausted from all that scrapping and working, you can actually sleep, in comfort.

These two pictures are the upstairs bathroom-- it is gorgeous!! There's a second full bath on the first floor, which is just as gorgeous.

( I had a claw-foot tub like this in my very first apartment, but it didn't have a shower. ) This renovation is a great way to update a bathroom and still respect the architecture of the room; you can still enjoy the window in the room, and the shower head is beautiful.

These are a couple of my fellow scrappers-- we each got our very own 6-foot table with our very own Ott light! I've been to a number of all-day crops back in Illinois and Wisconsin, and lots of times we had to share one of these tables with someone-- that makes for some cramped quarters, for sure. (imagine sharing one of those tables in the middle of the room, so you couldn't even back the chair away from the table, either! not fun, especially since I tend to spread out when I work, as you can see below.)

Here's my workspace-- pretty messy, and the inspiration was coming rather slowly-- It actually took me a couple hours to get into a groove; this picture still shows the first page I was working on, and it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. In my defense, though, I did have to unpack and get set up, along with having to cut and crop my photos before getting to work. (The first finished page is below; it just needs the journaling printed out, which will be folded and tucked into the library pocket.)

This is the picture of us that was taken at our 7th anniversary brunch; I think it's one of the nicest pics of us, and wanted to showcase it.

This page was a fun one to do-- this pic of Tom was taken a few years ago when we were in Seattle for a long weekend. I bought the paper specifically with the idea of using it for this page; I loved the hearts and fun colors. (scrapbooking paper is somewhat addicting, but shopping for it can sometimes lead to pattern and color overload.)

The pics above and below are from a trip we took a few years ago at Christmastime-- we stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch , which was certainly a memorable experience! The ostriches were kind of scary to me, actually, and the lorikeets (pic below) really did feel a bit like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. I knew I wanted to play up the colors of those birds, which are really vibrant. (these pages took a couple hours to do, actually, because I kept thinking of more little details I wanted to add: I really need to work on my speed; plus, I am a bit picky-- it took me at least 1/2 hour to get the ribbon tied the way I wanted it on that first page.)

The pics below are from the same trip, taken when we took a day trip to Tombstone, but they're not quite finished yet. I finally got into my scrapping groove about 8 pm, but then had to start thinking about picking up, since the crop only went till 10 pm. I did already make a reservation for a weekend getaway, though; that way, I can work as long as my inspiration (and my caffeine supply) holds out!

Well, hopefully it won't be another year (or longer) before I show you a new scrapbooking layout, although I can't promise anything! And if you want to plan your own crafty getaway, for scrapping or other crafts, I highly recommend the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage... maybe I'll even see you there! (I'll be the one with the paper scattered all over, looking for something I just set down and misplaced-- lol!!)