Disney Photos

We came back from Disney with over 3000 photos. I've been sifting through, deleting repetitive shots and those that weren't well composed, blurry, or otherwise "less than." I've managed to trim the collection down to about 2700 so far. I imagine (hope) that I can trim out some more.

Thanks to using Adobe's Lightroom, the process of culling and organizing the photos has been easier than one might think. Am I finished with the task? Nope. I treat it as a fluid process. If I didn't it would become this huge and overwhelming task. What exactly do I mean by fluid process? I pull open the catalog of all stuff Disney. Sometimes I randomly choose or create a keyword, flip through the catalog and apply it to whatever photos fit it. Other times I pick a batch of photos from a certain activity or time period and delete the ones I know I won't miss or use for any purpose. Whatever task I feel like tackling is the one I work on for as long as I want.

What am I going to do with all of these photos? Create a photobook for starters! Here are some of the pages I've done with photos taken in Hollywood Studios:

Layout design inspired by Sketch-N-Scrap Sketch #102. Digital elements came mostly from KellyBell Designs' The Studios kit.

Credits: JWH_MagicVacation (Scrapgirls)
KellyBell_TheStudios
Sketch N Scrap sketch #56

Credits: lpritchett_fromeartoear
LaurieAnnHGD-Magic World
TangieBaxter_splattergraffitti and  YouAreMagnificent
ScrapGirls_STI_JIF6_Magical
lth_cu_paperblenders
noreimerreason_rtm_mouse

I Love Shimelle...

...not in a creepy, stalker-ish way or anything! I love her style of scrapping and teaching. In my book she is the queen of layers. She has a knack of getting lots of layers on one page without the finished product being bulky!
Here are some Shimelle inspired pages:

From sketch 18:

Psychedelic dude!

It's the 15th of the month so it's time for a new reveal from Sketch N Scrap. I love color, but I may have gone just a bit far with this layout:

The more I look at this layout, The more I like it. It just all  fits with the photos and the story behind them. To add to the fun I was able to truly play with my Distress Paints and water to color the chipboard swirl.
I used this sketch for inspiration:

This sketch is so versatile. I can't wait to see your interpretation.

Inspired by Washi

You know how sometimes you have that ONE photo that you really want to scrap but you just can't find the way to do it? That's been my problem for awhile. Thanks to Soul Scrappers' June Around The World challenge and a flying trip through Michaels, I finally scrapped a photo I've wanted to put on a page for a long time!

On a recent trip through Michaels I spied the washi tape I used on this page. It just begged me to bring it home to create a page inspired by Mexico. I used the tape everywhere! It created the frame for my photo, covered my letters, and grounded my paper strips. I also was able to use up a bunch of green flowers that have been lurking in my stash along with some orange and pink brads.  Do the colors quite match the photo? Well, ummm, no. That's okay though because I feel like the choices that I made conveyed the feeling and mood I was aiming to achieve.

Charity Auction a Success!

Thanks to all of Transitions' supporters who helped make our annual fundraising auction a success! Being the memory keeper that I am, I couldn't NOT make a few pages for the agency scrap book!

I'm not sure my co-workers are going to thank me for that last one, but it had to be made! I had a bunch of fun creating the layouts with layers, inks, and stamps.

Pages and more pages

I've been scrapping my heart out lately! Thanks to all of you who popped on over to Colorful Creations and voted in the So You Think You Can Scrap competition. I made it through to see another week. This week I had some multimedia fun. I misted, stenciled and die cut my way into creating this layout:

If you like this page, hop on over to Colorful Creations and vote starting Thursday! Don't forget, Colorful Creations is in the midst of their annual fund drive. If you like the challenges and community over there, please think about contributing so that the community stays available.

Don't forget to check out my color palette challenge. Time is running out. The deadline is June 1.

Onto other pages:

I'm staring down the finish line for my Disneyland albums. Looks like I'll get them finished before the 2 year anniversary of the trip!
The last layout is one using photos from the San Diego Zoo. The Disneyland album may be nearing completion, but I still have to figure out what stories get their own pages from the California trip. I played with the idea of using QR codes on my layout. It's so fun to be able to include video on my pages.

Leprechaun Mischief

Apparently the Leprechauns have gotten into blogger. The post I had ready for the March 15th reveal of Sketch N Scrap's Sketch #29 has disappeared! I don't know what mischievous magic has been afoot!
Without further ado, here's the sketch:

and my take on it:

I had fun using some pink. Pink is a color I rarely get to use. I thought the Everyday Eclectic collection was a perfect choice for these photos.

Sketch N Scrap Blog Hop

We decided to try something new this month and our team is sharing artwork today featuring a bonus sketch!

If you have come here from Kelly's blog, then you are on the right path.

Christopher loves to play with legos. He doesn't have the building of things down to a science yet, but has a ton of fun anyway. It seems as though his most favorite pieces of legos are the mini figures--a kid after my own heart!


Now hop on over to Tamika's Blog

I have an RAK for someone who can correctly identify one of the believed origins of the phrase "Wearing your heart on your sleeve." One correct answer in the comments will be chosen as the winner on February 15. Good Luck!

Challenges, Challenges, and a school project

I've been a scrappin' fiend lately. At least that how I feel anyway. It is February so that means there is a LOAD challenge going on everyday. I've actually only done one of the challenges. The challenge was to create a wordless layout. The idea behind it was to use color, patterns, and embellishments to convey emotion. I combined it with the technique challenge at Soul Scrappers. The challenge at SS was to create your own background. I made this background using a stencil that I cut on my electronic cutter, dylusions spray ink, Tattered Angels glimmer mist, and Distress Ink. Here is my result:

Christopher had a school project. His assignment was to create a poster, with the help of a parent, showing his life cycle, including drawing a picture of what he thought he would look like when he was old. I grabbed a few photos of each time period and allowed Christopher to choose which ones we would use. I gave him choices of colors. He drew his picture. I designed and put the page together. I'm just hoping that it gets returned home so that I can put it in his scrapbook. The final project:

I have created two more layouts for So You Think You Can Scrap over at Colorful Creations. Last week we were presented with a sketch, a color palette, and required to use a diecut. We then had to choose one item from a list of other elements. I chose bling. I cut the doily-like shapes and my title using my electronic cutter. For the bling, I used some Bazzil Bling cardstock and some pearls. The result:

 

Week 5 of SYTYCS presented us with the following requirements: the sketch, distressing, torn paper, and a recycled element. You could say that I was very distressed and recycled the entire layout LOL! I started the page, completed it about 90%, hated it, pulled it apart, and put it back together with a different background. I think this may be the very first time I've ever done this. I usually keep going with a layout until I don't hate it and call it good.  But anyway, here's the page:

 

I distressed the edges of some papers and tore others. The tag behind the Thomas photo is a recycled clothing tag. I collected beer bottle caps from a parking lot near my office. I turned Christopher loose on them with my Tim Holtz distress hammer. I put them through my cuttlebug to flatten, covered the logos in alcohol ink, and embossed with distress powder. After they cooled I sanded away some of the finish and sealed with a matte art spray. It was fun! I placed them on my layout and layered them with brads and themed stickers.

White Chocolate meets NYC

When we went to NYC, Christopher was intrigued by the street performers. We stopped in Columbus Circle to watch the Breeze Team perform. Christopher was getting his groove on and was invited to join in the performance. By the end of it, he was named White Chocolate by one of the performers. I've had this story in my mind. I was going to include it only in the photo book from the trip, but when I saw the sketch in this round's Designer Spotlight at Colorful Creations it spoke to me. Here's the sketch:

And here's my page:

I've also submitted this for the introduction challenge at About A Boy  AAB is a brand new challenge site with this challenge being their very first one. Check them out.

Sketch N Scrap #25

Back for another reveal!
Here's the sketch:

Here's my version:

 

I had some fun with this one. I used a lot of metallic-like coppery colors to mimic pennies. The layout was a little flat looking to me so I spritzed with some tattered angels and then edged my inner block with a paint brush dipped in the glimmer mist.

Come visit us at Sketch N Scrap and show us your take on this sketch. You have until the 31st to link up for great prizes. Be sure to check us out in February for a lovely surprise!

Sketch N Scrap #24

With a new year comes a new sketch:

This one was a ton of fun. I dug into the depths of my stash and pulled several ancient pieces of paper. Here is my result:

As this new year kicked off, I've found myself working diligently on putting together my December album. I've been having great fun with it and look forward to sharing some of it here. Stay tuned!

Sketch N Scrap Reveal

Sketch N Scrap #23 has been revealed!
The sketch looks like this:

My mojo was on the fritz, but here's what I can up with:

I added some misting and scatters. It still didn't feel finished to me so I doodled a border around the page. The larger photo is one of my most favorite from Disneyland. I decided that even thought the background paper was meant for a Halloween page, that it was a good match for these photos.

You have until the end of December to link up your creation and have a chance to win a prize. I can't wait to see your interpretation of the sketch!

First Design Team Reveal

Today is the day! My first page as part of the Sketch N Scrap Design Team has been revealed.

The sketch:

My page:

 

I stuck pretty close to the sketch for this page. I did squeeze in an extra photo. I added some doodled lines and stitches in order to pull together a cohesive page. I also incorporated some scatters of black gems to pull the eye through the entire page.

Come join us a Sketch N Scrap. You have until the end of December to link up your interpretation of the sketch and be entered for a fabulous prize. I can't wait to see yours!

Sketch N Scrap inspiration

I've had some of these layouts completed for a bit, but didn't stop my process to photograph and post them. Here goes:
Inspired by November guest designer sketch:

Inspired by Sketch N Scrap # 19

Inspired by Sketch N Scrap #20

Last but not least, inspired by the recent Design Team Call Sketch:

Sketch N Scrap 18

Sketch N Scrap is always a good time. Sketch #18 is up as this month's first sketch.

I used this sketch with my 2nd Kit-tastic kit and made this:

I created my kit using House of 3's Daily Junque collection. I added in a bunch of stuff that's been in my stash forever. I still have to do some journaling. There are a couple of stories I could tell with these photos. Which one I'll choose will be decided by which album I place this page into.

Scraptastic

I've been taking part of May Flaum's Kit-tastic class over at Big Picture Classes. It has led me to do a bunch of scrappin'. Here are some of the results:

Shooting the moon

In March of 2011 I went out late at night with my camera. I "shot the moon" as it was in perigee (appeared larger than it had in 20 years). I've had the photo for awhile and couldn't decide how to scrap it...then came Sketch N Scrap #17:

Here's my take:

This is a bit different from my normal style. I don't typically do shabby chic or have as much dimension as I do with the flower in this one. I made the flower using Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die. The papers are a Miss Elizabeth set that I picked up at the dollar quite awhile ago.

More pages

I've been scrappin' and snappin' so I have more pages to share :)

This first one is inspired by Sketch N Scrap's   guest DT sketch challenge:

I added another photo and played with the layout a tiny bit to create this:

I struggled a little in choosing my papers and colors. I settled on straight cardstock with just a strip of patterned paper to pull in all of the colors from the photos. Next time I need to be sure that we're all wearing coordinating colors or turn the photos into black and white LOL! I am happy with the final result. There's not really any of what I would call journaling on this page. It will serve as the title page of what is becoming my Disneyland album. Just a side note: the Disneyland part of the title is actually a photograph of a magnet. When I saw it at Disneyland, I thought "oh, what a great page title"---Guess it goes to show that you can take the girl away from scrappin', but you can't take the scrapping away from the girl. ;)

This next one is a double page sketch challenge posted at Scrap N Chat:

Up next is my take on yet another sketch (I can't for the life of me remember where I found it) I combined it with a layering challenge that I posed at Scrap N Chat. The photo isn't the best, but I've layered stamps, stickles, washi tape, and other embellishments to create the page.

This last one is from Sketch N Scrap 14:

I flipped the sketch around a bit.  I've had this one done for quite awhile, but never got around to posting it. Here's the inspiration sketch:

I'll be back later this weekend with more scrap creations!

Using what you have...

There are so many options available in the scrapbooking world. It is really easy to spend a lot of money getting the latest and greatest gadgets, tools, embellishments and so on. Of course, once you acquire all of this, you might find that you build a tremendous stash. It doesn't have to be this way. You what you have--all of those punches, dies, and older die cuts can be used together to create custom embellishments for any card or layout. Investigate your kitchen--you can use foil instead of specialty foil paper. Cookie cutters, sponges, even potatoes can be used for stamping. Invade the office for staples, post it notes, paper clips, markers, file labels, sharpie pens, even rubber bands--all of these items can be used to embellish or add texture to any project. Oh, and what about your household tool cabinet? The possibilities there are endless.

In the following layout, I was completing a challenges to use opposing colors on a color wheel. When I placed my orange cardstock, it was just too plain. Off to the laundry room I went and found a cap from a detergent bottle. It worked perfectly as a stamp to add some oomph without competing with the business of the printed paper.

 

This next page was created with office supplies (with the exception of the 12x12 base). I used some crayola markers and water (relying on Creative Chemistry techniques), book paper and graph paper to create embellishments and papers. It was just fun to play and create. I like this page--it may not be polished with manufactured scrapbooking-intended stuff, but it still captures a memory and shares a story.