Scrappy Saturdays - Video Tutorials

Archivers Online Tutorials

If you have a scrapbooking tool that you bought and haven't figured out, or would like to try out but are unsure how to use it, the link above has lots of video tutorials to show you how. I have the Crop-a-dile Big Bite for reaching the center of 12 x 12 paper, but haven't really used it. Now I can see all that it can do and try to use it on my pages.

There are 14 tutorials on binding machines, Copic markers, using acrylic stamps and much more! Enjoy and start using those tools that you bought and haven't taken the time to learn how to use. I am especially excited to use the tutorial on the Bind It All so I can make my own mini albums of events, my neices and nephews, themes, etc.

Scrappy Saturdays - Online Scrapbooking Classes

I thought I would try to round up the online websites that have scrapbook classes. This is by no means all of the sites, just the ones that I am familiar with. Most of them have a variety of classes, ranging from free, to self-paced, to month long and some even have longer, more involved classes.

Big Picture Scrapbooking - www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com

Jessica Sprague - www.jessicasprague.com

Get It Scrapped - www.debbiehodge.com

Two Peas in a Bucket - www.twopeasinabucket.com

That is all I can think off off the top of my head and I know there are others out there. I will add them as I find them.

Weekend Report

I spent the last weekend with good friends from my hometown. About 2.5 years ago my best friend that I have known since Kindergarten (and attended through high school and all the way through college) invited me to join her family at a scrapbook retreat. It is held in March and September at a Catholic Retreat Center. The event begins at 4:00 on Friday afternoon and concludes at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon.

We get two days of uninterrupted time to scrapbook, visit, eat, reminisce, eat, visit, eat...well, you get the picture. There are cabins to stay in onsite. My friend has 4 sisters (3 of which came), and her mom and a cousin. My husband was at a meeting close by so I stayed with him the first night and at my sister's the second night.

I was able to get 35 pages done this time and was very happy with that, as they ready to be loaded into the album (THEY ARE DONE!). I always have grand plans of getting stuff organized better and picked out ahead of time, so I am more productive. The last week before the retreat, my husband was out of town 4 of 7 days, so there were lots of extra chores to be done around the farm, so the organizing wish didn't come true.

One of my goals was to complete all the little groups of photos from various years that I hadn't completed for the albums for my kids. A trip to Ft. Wayne in 2005, Christmas pictures from 2007 and a visit to the Ranchwife from 2006. The only group of photos that didn't get completed from those years were our trip to Austin, TX in 2007 (because either I didn't print them all or I can't find them). I ran across them on my computer the week before and didn't manage to upload them to Walmart to get them printed. Now I can't find them again. Now I can get a fresh start on 2008 photos. I have them all printed and sorted, so next time I get a chance to work I am ready to go.

Unfortunately in my rush to get them into their respective albums today, I forgot to take a picture of any of them to post. Oh well, guess you will have to come visit and look through them. :)

Weekend Happenings

Hubby returned from an out of state business trip Friday about 2:30 in the afternoon. We were at our coop classes - Science/Art/PE and got home around 4:30. Hubby did remaining chores (like haying the cattle). We dropped the kids at Grandma's around 5:30 and attended a meal/speaker. The main speaker was a friend of ours who was recently elected the Iowa House of Representatives. After enjoying our meal and entertainment by a Abe Lincoln lookalike, my hubby headed home to get some rest and I scrapbooked with a few friends in town for the evening.

I managed to get 5 pages completed last night and since I was the only one that was going to be scrapbooking today, I stayed home today. I did laundry, picked up the kitchen and the rest of the house and put my scrapbook supplies away. After supper, while watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, I did some scrapbooking. While I didn't put down any pictures, I used many of the kits of coordinating papers that I have and made pages that only need the photos and journalling added. I hope to work on those pages tomorrow as well as sort 2008 photos amongst the various albums I am working on (each of the kids and one for our family album). Mainly that will require labeling some index card with dates and events and making the various piles of photos before putting them into the kids album photo boxes.

If I am lucky maybe I will even get some photos posted (it's been a while!).

Spent New Years Scrapping!!!

This is a layout of my favorite photo taken in 2008. Unfortunately, they is a big round glare on the photo on the left side of it. Edited to add: The glare is not on the photo itself, but rather on the photo of this layout and just showed up on the glossy photo.

These were taken at the Lookout at our friend's ranch in Wyoming (the Duncan Ranch). We went there at dusk and it was beautiful. I loved the darker blue colors and the moon behind the rocks.


These three layouts are from DH's cousin's wedding in October of 2007:

These are for our Godson's graduation pics:

These are 6 month pictures of my adorable little neice:

Weekend Crop

I returned home about an hour ago from a weekend crop that I organized (or at least initiated). A couple friends (Dawn and Vickie) and I brainstormed where we might hold it.

We had three requirements:
1. It had to be free
2. It had to have plenty of table space
3. It had to have good lighting

One of the gals suggested our local extension office. It fits the bill perfectly. We all have a 6 foot table to ourselves . There are 6 overhead lights, so that is great and it's free.

We were able to get in there at 5:00 tonight, about half an hour after the office closed. The office has a kitchenette (refrigerator, microwave and sink) plus a bathroom. There is also a large conference table should we need to spread out more or add room for additional scrappers.

This should fit the bill until we outgrow it with the number of people. I was able to complete 6 pages tonight between 7:00 and 11:15 and plan to spend all day there tomorrow while my sweetheart takes the kids on a trip with him (WHAT A GUY!).

We plan to make this a regular thing, probably on a monthly basis. I, for one, am looking forward to it and maybe, just maybe, I will begin to get caught up with my photos! Not likely, as I know that I have at least doubled my photos taken this year and it is not even over (still have Thanksgiving, birthdays, and Christmas before year end!!!)

So if you would like to join us, let me know and we'll make room for you!

Color Combo Generator

http://www.scraptitude.com/colorcombo/

This is a neat site that I ran across. You can input either Stampin' Up! colors or Close To My Heart colors and it will generate color combinations for you to use. Since I have a ton of leftover Stampin' Up cardstock and have recently been purchasing CTMH kits and coordinating cardstock, this has been great for coming up with color combinations to use on pages.

At the last retreat I went to, I completed 32 pages, many of them double page spread and lots of them using the books put out by CTMH (Cherish and Imagine). They also have out another one called Reflections. While the books are pricey, I was able to get them at Michaels with a 40 percent off coupon, making them less than $20 each.

Hope you enjoy this neat website.

Door Prize Gift Album

I have been very busy lately. Haven't gotten much scrapping done for myself, but managed to make a couple of gifts lately. The one I made yesterday only took about 1 1/2 hours.

I made it a 4 x 5 inch album that was wirebound. I decided to wallpaper the top part and then leave room for journalling on the bottom part. I went with something generic as I wasn't sure who would receive it. As it was, it went to a gal that I know pretty well and she was happy to receive it. She was concerned that it was paper and stickers and that she had to put it together and make it look pretty. She was relieved to find out that it was completed for her, except adding her own photos and journalling. She said that she had a few gals come over to look at it and one offered to trade door prize gifts with her. So perhaps I could sell some of these online.

These should be rotated a 1/4 turn to the left so you can see how the pages flip up. This is a sample of the pages in the album. Let me know what you think.

Overnight Scrapbook Retreat

Okay, so I got home on Sunday evening (exhausted), but had to leave within an hour for another call meeting and have been trying to catch up (on sleep and other things) ever since then.

This is a picture of my two roommates working away at their albums. I was at the table in the upper left , across from Vickie (in the blue). She and Dawn were my roommates and we had great fun playing jokes on each other.

I completed 43 pages which is less than I had hoped, but considering I didn't arrive till 9:45 p.m. and get started scrapping till 10:30, it wasn't too bad. I am hoping to photograph some layouts and get them posted a little later today. I am particularly happy with my winter photo layouts and am thinking of getting them color copied and framed.

Gotta run! I'm still not caught up and there is always plenty more to do.

Day Thirty One - Get a Load of This class challenge

WOOHOO!! I completed the LOAD (Layout Out A Day) Challenge at Big Picture Scrapbooking http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/ and this is my last layout. I decided to post a little bit bigger photo so you can see the details. You might remember the photos as I posted one earlier, the same day Pioneer Woman posted hers.

Working on this challenge I completed 42 pages, which is a rip-roaring start for me. Normally I don't get any layouts done unless I go to a crop. I have a great head-start this year and am going to an overnight retreat Feb. 8-10 and another one the 7-9 of March, so I should get tons done! There is hope that I will get current and can go back and finish up pictures from our dating years, trips to New England (for business - pre-kids), etc.

I hope to keep posting some layouts, but it may not be every day. Besides if I do 100 layouts at the retreat, there is no way I will be posting all those. This was doable, 1 or 2 at a time. Also February is a superbusy time for us so I may not always have internet access to get them published. Need to migrate my photos and camera software over to the laptop so I can be more portable. Will have to put that on the To Do list for February.......

Day Thirty - Get a Load of This class challenge

Another page from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Gotta run.

Edited to add: Sorry, I had a web seminar at 9:00 p.m. and needed to get logged in. If you are ever passing through Sioux City or visiting there, it would be worth your time to stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center along the Riverfront. They have a number of interactive displays, they have life-sized animated, talking Lewis, Clark and Seaman figures and lots of information about medical methods, the jobs of the participants, etc.

They also cover the courtmarshal of a deserter who was brought back, and of course they cover the sickness and death of Sergeant Floyd who was buried near Sioux City. The monument is nearby, high on a bluff and just minutes away. It will definitely add to your studies of Lewis and Clark

This is What We do at a Mamapalooza AKA Day Twenty Nine of the class challenge

For all of you wondering just what is done at a Mamapalooza....Here it is......

It involves Chocolate!! Nice paper I found, huh? We visited, toured the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Trinity Heights, Sergeant Floyd Monument, lots of games and puzzles at Suzanne's and great food around her huge dining room table with a little guy along for giggles and entertainment. Hope you enjoy!!

Day Twenty Eight - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

At the end of the last school year, for our Mom's Night Out, we pampered the homeschool moms that attended. We decorated, lit candles and gave favors out. It was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

Day Twenty Seven - Get a Load of This class challenge

A picture from Easter dinner with my folks, and sister and her family. My other two sisters and their families had been up the week before, so didn't come back to my folks on Easter. It was a beautiful day and the kids were able to spend time outside.

Just 4 more days left in the challenge to do 31 layouts in 31 days. I have already done about 43 layouts and will be posting one each day. Since I am now in the habit of uploading pages I will probably continue to do it with my current pages, not the one that I am going back to get caught up. At least these are within the last 12 months.

I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoy making them. I am preparing to go to a weekend scrapbooking retreat, so trying to get organized and prepared so I can be efficient in getting them done and finally finish up some albums.

Day Twenty Six - Get a Load of This class challenge

And finally, the boys......my son and my nephew. Isn't the picture of my nephew on the bottom right sweet? He generally doesn't like animals but his sister had so much fun with this lamb that he decided he would play with it too!

Day Twenty Five - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

My niece was getting up close and personal with the bottle lamb....She loved it!

Day Twenty-Four - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

Page number 3 of Easter weekend. My neice meeting the bottle lamb for the first time. You will love the other page I made with her and the lamb. You'll have to wait for a day or two till I post that.

Day Twenty-Three - Get a Load of This class challenge

Pictures of my BIL, neice, nephew, son and myself along with the teeny, tiny bottle lamb that was born just days before Easter. We were bottling it, so we took it along with us, as there was no one to bottle it while we gone for the day. I journalled this page after the photos were taken.

Day Twenty Two - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

This is the first of many (like 6) pages that I did covering Easter Sunday last year. I did not take any at church, although I should have taken a picture of the church perhaps. These photos are of my sister and neice playing with the goodies from Grandma. I did embellish this layout with a few stickers after I took the photo.

Day Twenty One - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

Every year for Easter we have a tradition of baking Resurrection Rolls. The directions follow the events of Matthew 27:57-61 and the ingredients represent Jesus, the oils of embalming, the spices used to anoint Jesus' body, the cloth that Jesus' body was wrapped in after his death and the tomb. I decided to document this as one of our family traditions. Speaking of that, I need to document some others. Better make a list...... HMM!?!?