California Pocket Page

It’s been a couple of weeks since I shared a Project Life style page so that is what I will be sharing today. But first, a few thoughts. I have to admit … I was very S.L.O.W. to try out this pocket style scrapping. It just didn’t appeal to me. One of the reasons I love scrapbooking is that I enjoy the process of playing with the products. The tactile enjoyment I get from it is very relaxing to me, so I just couldn’t see the point in scrapping any other way. Especially a way where I was supposed to just slip things in pockets and call it good.

So what exactly changed my mind and made me decide to give it a try? As an iPhone user, sometimes my phone is the only camera I have with me. I began to amass a series of photos that weren’t necessarily “scrap-worthy.” You know, those random photos you take with your phone that capture FANTASTIC memories, but are either poor quality, or not interesting enough to dedicate an entire page to that one topic. However, these photos still had meaning for me and my family and I wanted to find a way to organize them into our memory books. So this year, I decided to try a pocket-style album as a compliment to my other pages. My goal for this album was to give a quick overview of our year, including all of those random, but meaningful, iPhone photos. I wasn’t going to stress myself out taking a photo a day or anything like that, but I would use it to record happenings from each month.

So far, so good! I enjoy putting together this album, and I see a purpose for these kind of pages … BUT I will still admit that the process of putting these types of pages together isn’t as enjoyable for me as scrapping a good ol’12 x 12 layout. I have fun doing them, but as a traditional scrapper, I feel like they are kind of piece-y. Am I the only one that feels that way?

#1 –  I LOVE the fact that I am using up paper scraps, and random stickers and bits from my stash to decorate the photos and cards … but it takes me FOREVER to find those little bits and get them to coordinate with each other. You would probably say to me, “Just simplify. You don’t need all those bits.” But you see, … I DO! I NEED texture and interest. 🙂 It doesn’t feel like it came from ME if I don’t add them. It’s just a part of my style.

#2 – These pages are NOT faster for me. They take me just as long (if not longer) to put together as a regular two-page layout. Granted. I am covering more ground and more memories at once with the pocket style, which I like, but it still takes me a long time.

#3 – All those random photos, cards, and embellishments together are kind of messy looking to me. I’m sure that it is just me … I’m a person who can’t stand visual chaos (weird, for someone who likes adding lots of little details) so I think that is why it doesn’t chord with my scrapping spirit as much as a regular layout does. Maybe I just need to experiment with the way my pocket pages are coming together to find a more harmonious way of doing it. Hmmm. Something to experiment with…

#4 – All that being said … my family LOVES looking through this album. I’m sure they could care less how visually crazy these pages are. They just have fun reminiscing and seeing everything “at-a-glance” … and that’s why I have become a fan of pocket scrapping as a compliment to my regular scrapping. 🙂

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Okay, rant over. Just thought I would get those thoughts out there. 🙂 If you’ve hung in this far … thanks for listening to me ramble. *wink* Here is our California Vacation pocket page.

The base cards mostly come from the Becky Higgins JADE Project Life Kit.  I pulled out all kinds of randomness from my stash to accent these pages. The title card has Pebbles Thickers, American Crafts Halloween Mix Tape, and a little chipboard airplane from a K&Co. set. On the picture to the right I used a script epoxy word by KI Memories. The “destination” stamp is from an old Creative Imaginations Creative Café stamp set. The “Go, See, Do” circles were punched from an Ormolu card included in the Scraptastic Club’s July 2013 This Life Noted kit. On the bottom row, I used some K&Co. Smash clips along with some OLD Heidi Swapp journaling circles.

This side has more leftovers from the July 2013 Scraptastic Club This Life Noted Kit, another Heidi Swapp journal circle for days gone WAY by, and more chipboard accents from the K&Co. chipboard travel stickers. It feels so good to find homes for these cute little doo-dads I’ve been holding onto. 🙂

Thanks for popping in to see me this weekend!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and Sunday!

Hugs!

Camping, A Foot Injury, and Scraptastic Pages!

Hello!!! Long time, no see! I’m so sorry I disappeared on ya for a couple of weeks. In my church I serve in the Young Women’s program and last week was our annual Girls Camp. The week before had me running around getting ready (I organize the crafty activities), and then last week was the actual campout. We had a great time … minus me rolling my ankle getting off of a horse. I will spare you the purple and gray photos of my foot, but I’m glad to report that I’m doing much better! I walk with a little bit of a limp, but that’s just proof of my “war wound,” right?! (My husband has affectionately started calling me “Gimpy.” LOL!) Here are a few pictures of me with the other leaders and our adorable group of girls. (We had sooo much fun! I miss them all ready!)

We even had coordinating PJ’s!

When I got home I went to work on my July 2013 Scraptastic Club “Out on the Town” Kit and Add On and have six pages to share with you today. The Add On is sold out, but you can still pick up the Main Kit or Exclusive Ormolu Flair if you would like!

FIRST DAY, FIRST GRADE

I’m working on my kids school scrapbooks again … trying to get them all caught up during the summer. Here is little Camryn on the first day of school last fall. Holy cow! She looks so tiny!

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FIRST PAYCHECK

Jensyn started her first job this summer working for my dad at his copy/print shop. Of course I had to snap pics of her filling out her job application and receiving her first paycheck. I love how she immediately came home, pulled out all her money and started making a savings plan. That’s my girl!

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LAGOON

We have a little amusement park here in Utah called Lagoon. We try to make it there atleast once each summer. This daytrip was from 2011. Feels good to get it scrapped and in our album! When I initially scrapped this page all of the photos were in color … but it was madness! TOO much going on … so I changed the pics to black and white. I like it so much better now.

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LIFE IS GOOD

This one is of Maryn on the first day of school last fall. The colors in this kit were a fun twist on the primary color scheme that I usually reach to for school pages … and the black and gray give a slight nod toward chalkboards of yesteryear. 🙂

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OUR LITTLE VAMPIRE

I picked up Camryn from Kindergarten one day and she had a mouth full of vampire teeth. Funny girl! Halloween was over, but she still picked those teeth out from the Treasure Box as her reward that day. 🙂 This was the last page I created with the kit and so I just layered together all of the chopped up scraps together for a photo mat. I’m slightly addicted to adding crooked chopped strips of patterned paper to the top of my pages lately. Casual and fun. 🙂

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THESE ARE THE DAYS

Finally, here is Jensyn on the first day of school last fall, all gussied up for her last year in junior high. Sigh! Seriously! I can’t believe she is heading to high school next year. Time flies, my friends.

So have you been doing any scrapping this summer? I’m mostly outside, but on the days it’s too hot, it’s kind of nice to do a little scrapping indoors.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

It’s Sketchy Thursday at Scraptastic Club!

And this month is my turn to provide the sketch. I hope you’ll come and play along with us! Here is the sketch.

And here is my resulting page using the June 2013 Scraptastic Club Carry On Kit and Add-On.

The chevrons totally remind me of the tread on a bike tire … perfect for this page of my son and his bike.

I embossed the red cardstock piece using my Cuttlebug machine and a Cuttlebug folder called Relly Rave (sorry, I was unable to find a link on the Cricut.com site).

Stop on by the Scraptastic Club Blog to see what the other designers did with the sketch!

See you soon!

Little Mermaid

I love die cut characters and couldn’t resist adding a cute, little mermaid to this page about seeing a “Little Mermaid” play. I used a mixture of the May 2013 Scraptastic Kits on this one.

I love the BasicGrey Candy Buttons as bubbles … and the Heidi Swapp plastic letters have a perfect, watery feel about them! The Mermaid cut file is by Miss Kate Cuttables and can be found here.

Have you done any swimming yet this summer?