Life Outside the Fishbowl

Layouts, and a Bit of Life.....

It's been a year, at least, since I've been regularly scrapbooking.  A pile of boxes blocking access to your desk and craft area will do that.  But I've got a few layouts up on the ScraPefect blog today.

Luckily, it's almost as easy as riding a bike. I grabbed a Cocoa Daisy kit I hadn't even opened and started matching up paper. I've even managed to pick up a new D-ring album for 2016, even though my 2015 album has been quite neglected.  I'm looking forward to having some quiet time once the kids are back in school so I can spread out over the kitchen and dining room and do some catching up.

Which reminds me, I also have quite  lot of catching up to blog about -- I started strong last fall and then got caught up in another round of disruptions   renovations. Seemingly never-ending.  It's a bit hard to think and type when they're tearing apart the basement 20 feet from you. 

And just when you think you're climbing out of one thing, life throws a few curve balls.

I haven't talked about this on my blog - I am now so I can warn people. I had to drop everything in January to fly down to be with my family. My dad had a cerebral hemorrhage which left him in a coma with no hope of recovery. After a very long, hard few days we made the decision to remove him from life support.  He was on Xarelto and had been for a few years.  Xarelto can cause uncontrolled bleeding. Thanks to this drug he'd been bleeding internally, finally culminating in a brain bleed.  And, the problem with Xarelto is that the doctors can NOT do anything to stop the bleeding, unlike other blood thinners. There is not antidote to counteract the Xarelto.  The only thing they can do is wait for the drug to leave your system, in about a week.  Too late for my father. 

So, you'll have to excuse me for neglecting this blog for the past half-year or so.  I'm making an effort to get back to a regular blogging schedule -- there's so much from last year's renovation and trip to Scotland I never finished sharing.

 

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A Bit of Glitz

I've got a layout on ScraPerfect's blog today. I used the Best Glue Ever along with ScraPerfect's Designer Transfer Foil and some yummy leafing from IndigoBlu -- royal peacock. You can get a step-by-step on the ScraPerfect blog here.

Other products used: Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swapp and Studio Calico wooden pieces, Kerri Bradford's "Lovely Little Words," and Kara Dudley's "winter lace" cut file.

November Project Life(ish)

Catching up on my posting my pages from the end of 2014...

November, as usual, was quite busy.  Thomas's science class had a field trip to the Hidden Pond Nature Center to learn about watersheds. It was amazing.  I was astounded that Lake Braddock is the only school that takes advantage of the Nature Center this way.  The kids got to take samples, determine water quality, look for invertebrates, and much more.

In addtion, the AAP kids participated in NaNoWrMo - with a 5,000 word minimum.  Thomas wrote over 6,000 -- quite an achievement for a boy who doesn't like writing. Rachel was inspired to start writing her own novel, about dragons, complete with illustrations.

Here's the Design H page that opens the month (front and back):

My Girl Scout troop did another round of archery. This year they got to use the foam targets as well and had a mini-competition at the end.   The Design A page has another archery pic, plus a shot from them at a local gem & mineral show.  

I also included a shot from my first watercolor class - when we finally moved on to painting a still life, as well as some packaging from the Lucky store (our new favorite shop), and of course, the changing leaves - my favorite part of fall.

The backside of the page has more Thanksgiving-related cards.  We ended up hosting this year at the last minute when our friends had a burst water pipe. In between gettting their college son's clothes washed, cooking and hosting I completely forgot to pics.  Instead, I included a shot of the first snow of the year and the kids volunteering at our church packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

And that wraps up November.

Catching Up With Project Life(ish)

And finally getting around to photographing last fall's pages.

I'm still working on my December pages along with my December Daily -- and I keep moving things back and forth between the two.  But I am ready to finally call the rest of the year finished.  I'm sharing two pages per month with you as this post is already quite picture-heavy.  Most of the supplies in these came from either Studio Calico or Cocoa Daisy's monthly kits.

September --  Did I really not post September?  First up, my front and back Design H page.  I still get shudders when I think about buying all those school supplies. I included our weekly schedule on a pocket card - all the afterschool activities, scouts, sports...

And important shots, like the first day of school.  The color's a bit wonky - which is what I get for not photographing these outside when the weather was still way above freezing.  I'm not going to even mention the snow we're supposed to get this afternoon...

onto October's Design H page to start the month...

and I'll share one of the Design A pages. Scouts, more scouts, Girl Scout cookie training and Halloween.

which leads into November...  and another post....

 

Layout

Here's a fun layout I put together. I'd been saving this map paper for something travel-related. And then when I was looking through my photos I found these cute shots of Rachel from a trip to California a few years back.  The map and the clouds just seemed right together.

Don't ask my why her hands are in her mouth.... probably something to do with chocolate....

I used a Kerri Bradford kit to cut the title on my Silhouette and sprinkeled a few wooden embellishments on the page. 

Foiled Again!

I've been playing with ScraPerfect's Designer Transfer Foils. I cut a sheet of shapes with my Silhouette and grabbed some cheap stencils. You can get step-by-step directions at the ScraPerfect blog here.

I liked how they turned out so much I immediately ran off and made a layout -

Here's what I used to make this layout -

Full disclosure: these are affiliate links, and I would recieve a small commission if you decide to purchase through them. Any money I recieve just helps me offset the cost of this blog.

 

Layouts with Multiple Photos

Sharing a layout real quick I made for ScraPerfect. It's hard to believe it was just over a year ago we were strolling around London doing my best to fill up my camera's SD card.  I gathered several of my favorite shots from our first stop and combined them into one big block to print.

To create this photo block I made a new letter-sized document in Photoshop. I created a custom crop at 300 dpi and used it for each photo, dragging it onto my new document after cropping.  When I had all six lined up and spaced I realized the photo block was too big.  To remedy that I selected all six layers, held down my shift key and dragged the lower corner to resize everything together.

Holding down the shift is important -- it keeps the proportions the same. Otherwise you'll end up with wonky, distorted photos.

Back to School Time

And with that comes back to school shopping. If the never-ending supply lists weren't enough, the kids need new clothes.  Including these boots, which were "needed" for the upcoming Hoedown every January. That is if she hasn't grown out of them by that point....

I've got a mix of paper from the July and August Cocoa Daisy kits - Crate Paper's Open Sky and Fancy Pants me-ology. Also included are Thickers and some really old Heidi Swapp acetate shapes  and Doodlebug chipboard heart.

Catching Up With Project Life(ish)

I've been slowly working on my monthly Project Life pages when I get a chance. What I'm doing this year is putting together a Design H page (6"x12") with several Design A pages and summarizing each month as a whole instead of week by week Although I do stick to putting things in chronologically, it gives me a bit more freedom in how I plan my layouts.

May's still in progress, however, June is now finished!  This is the front and back side of the Design H protector. I like to start off each month by choosing a couple photos that best summarize the month to highlight on the first page. For June it was my son's birthday and a horseback riding event with my Girl Scout troop.

I also like to include a journaling card with important dates/things we did during the month. I'll stick it anywhere it seems to best fit.

June was a bit different as I only used one Design A protector. Instead of a second Design A there's another Design H with photos of my son's 6th grade promotion - well, photos of him with all his friends - and a smaller 5.5x8.5 size holding the program.

Now, off to finish up May...

 

Hidden Photos on Your Layout

It's nice to be able to spend time and just create, especially after spending a week volunteering at a Girl Scout camp.  Who am I kidding - it's just nice to spend time in air conditioning!

Anyhow, I've been very productive this week. I put together this layout for ScraPerfect and wanted to share a quick way to add extra photos to your layouts.  I used a large tag folded in half that can be flipped open to reveal two more photos - photos that I wanted to include, but just didn't work well with my main photo.

I placed the tag with the fold side down and my main photo adhered on top.  When you open the tag you see two more photos. I've also hidden my journaling in a pocket that was sandwiched between two of the pattern papers.  I had just gotten a pack of Snap's photo flip pockets and just wanted to try them out.

 

Supplies: Kaisercraft, Basic Grey, Crate Paper paper; Studio Calico wood stars and stamps, Maya Road paperclip, Ranger tag, American Crafts Thickers, Snap photo flip pocket, Stampin' Up punch