Harry's!

Harry's... Not Just Another Restaurant!  I had so many stories and memories of Harry's that I couldn't even fit them all on the page.  I didn't have room for embellishments or anything, I just had to write, write, write!  I was even removing pieces of photos that I didn't desperately need, just so I could fit another paragraph in!

This page has value, even if it's not really all that visually pleasing.  For me, the part of scrapbooking that made me start doing it was the ability to put the stories next to the photos.  I wasn't particularly interested in the artsy stuff at first.  I like it now, when there's room in the design to have it there, but for me, the priority is photos, stories, safe materials, embellishment.  If I didn't have room or time for that last one, it just has to go.

I love all aspects of scrapbooking now but the stories and photos together are what makes it satisfying for me.  So that's another story told.  What's next?

Red Barn Coffee

I found myself at a crop with a brand-new collection pack of Papermania (not sure what it's called) and it had a bunch of things that I thought I'd try using.  I like big flowers, but usually I only use one on a layout, surrounded by smaller ones.  This time, I lined up some coffee-coloured ones along the bottom of the page, and used baker's twine in a spiral glued to the middle of each flower.  I didn't have anything else with me that would make nice flower centres, but I'm pleased with the effect that this twisted string gave when I laid it in a spiral in a puddle of glue.  It's a little bit trippy, especially under flourescent bulbs, but I'm sure it'll be ok when it is at home in the album.  The title is stamped with a Papermania alphabet set and the star in the circles is a Banana Frog stamp.  I think the brackets and journaling stamp (laid top-and-tail fashion to make a box) is Bo Bunny.  The ink is Memento.  The patterned paper is from the same set as the flowers and string, and you can find me using this set in a previous entry called Minnie Me.

Repetitive Scrapbook Pages?

What do you do when you went to, say, a parade for example, and you got a whole bunch of shots of loads and loads of groups?  It's kind of nice to have, but I look at the stack of photos and think, "I don't know how long I can look at these... let's just get through this, get it in the album, and then we can flip through it as often as we want!

My solution is to keep it simple, and create a feeling of continuity in the pages.  As such, I am not going to show you all of my parade photos here, but this one page is an example of how I made all the others.  Blue scalloped border on the top, red scalloped border on the bottom, white background, and titles all cut in the same font alternating colours per page.  Now I can keep them but I didn't spend ages making separate designs for the same subject.  It's what I like to call a "chapter" in a scrapbook.  Ideally, you start it with a right hand side title page, then do doubles and end with a right hand side page.  I'm not sure what I ended up with!  But parity is everything when putting the album together.  I'll find out sooner or later!!!

As I write this, the pages are still in boxes until I can confirm their planned order looking at my detailed notes on the subject... which are in a pile somewhere...

Pizzeria Uno

Quick one, just keeping it simple as always... using Basic Grey monograms and my handy black pen, stamps and very little else...

Touch Screen Drinks Machine

Please excuse the parallax distortion.  I swear the scraps are put on straight!!

This one needed to be mainly black, white and red due to the coca cola theme.  I borrowed some black and grey patterned paper from a fellow cropper and used up the very end of my red scraps for this layout. 

One day I'll be organised and then watch what I can do!!!!

Minnie Me

The most major craft purchase I adequate this year was a complete set of 36 memento dewdrop ink pads.  I have been lucky enough to find good enough matches for my scrapbook papers, so I have been using them to decorate the pages.  This is a similar scheme to the Subway page I shared ages ago.

I have really been bad this week at blogging daily so I will start again now!! Final week!

You have been warned!

This page is a classic "me" page.  Die cut title, drawn around in black pen because it got lost on the paper.  Punch Around The Page on the photo,  some die cut floral frippery and voila!

The photo,  in case it isn't showing up, is a sandwich board outside a gym and it says:

Spring Has Sprung
The grass is Riz
Do you know where your
Swimsuit is?

Loved it!  Absolutely had to be scrapped.

Hair-did!

Letting the paper and stamps do the work again... this time in lime green!  I kept this one to one side for months because I thought it wasn't finished...  then I added the die cut floral border on the bottom.  I'm still not convinced, but at least it looks a bit fancier.

Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts is a New England staple.  I used to work there too... this particular branch used to be a pool hall and before that it was the post office!  How things change. 

Another of my quick style pages - a couple of matted photos, background paper from Basic Grey and a die cut title.  It never fails.

The mirror image...

This is the one I made to go over the page from yesterday's page.  It's very similar.  Brenda Pinnick background paper, matted onto card, two matted photos and two journalist spots.  Presto.

So simple!

This page takes full advantage of a single sheet of patterned paper with a banded design that makes it look like I did something.  Photos, mats, journalling spaces..  that's it!  I even made another one that's nearly a mirror image of that to go on the opposite side.  You'll see that tomorrow. 

Sketchy page

This one was based on a sketch I saw... er,  somewhere.   It's not exactly the sketch anyway,  even if you could see it.  I changed the shapes involved for a start.  I used some Papermania 6x6 paper for the shapes and good old pen for the title... I think that's all there is... a quick one but I love it.

Here Come the Girls

This is a great photo.  My mom picked me and Vix up after Rose's wedding and my three Aunties, Iris,  Holly and Sharlene, and Nana Harriet got to see her for the first time in probably 30 or more years.  There was much hugging and catching up.  Here we all are outside the hotel.

I always see photos of scrapbook pages where the creator has really pushed the boat out and made a masterpiece.  I wanted to do this with this photo but I was so under prepared (This one also from the same crop as the others) that all I could muster was this.  I like it though.  It's enough I think.

Are you enjoying Blogtober?  We're nearly halfway and I have missed one day only!  That's not bad going as I am blogging 'live' every day and not scheduling posts.  So a pat on the back for me!  Yay me!

Plain... but fancy.

This is another of my efforts from the crop for which I packed abysmally.  Patterned paper was almost nonexistent, but I did have plenty of cardstock in lots of colours... I still had to dip into the crop shop for some better colours to tone in with the pictures but I got there in the end.  Die cuts to the rescue!! I slathered them on all over the page, mostly behind photos.  I like it though... it has a quirky but classic look, which describes my Nana perfectly.  

A late one!

Another page done with Basic Grey stickers, a few scraps and some stamps.  This was my cousin's birthday party that she had on the eve of her wedding at the hotel where we were all staying.  I enjoyed this evening, mostly because of the great conversation I had with my Aunt Iris.  It was great to be with this side of my family after almost 20 years apart.

Vixie Knows how to Party!

Just a quick scrapbook page whipped together with Basic Grey stickers... I was at a crop with a box of what I thought would be sufficient patterned paper for the photos I'd brought.  I got stuck in and realised I'd brought the wrong box!  Here's one of the things I made whilst making do.

Here is the obligatory Blogtober link.... :)  it's never too late to join in!

Vixie and her Mammy

Mammy is the name that we traditionally are calling our maternal grandmothers.  I was the first, because my Mammy had a nanny in the South of the USA and they called their nannies Mammy.  She loved her Mammy so much that she wanted to be called Mammy one day.

(Clarification for anyone who speaks with an Irish accent, in the USA, Mammy is pronounced the same way as Americans pronounce "Ma'am," which isn't very helpful unless you have heard that in a movie or some such... as Mammy and "ma'am-y" would sound the same in Irish too!!!)

If you recall the page entitled "My Grampa," It is made with basically the same stuff, just a bit more girly looking. :)

A Rainbow of Scrubs

A Rainbow of Scrubs.  It is what it says it is.  I just found it cool that you could buy scrubs from Wal-Mart in so many colours.  I made this a very basic page that I'm sure I have some sort of name for in my head but it doesn't translate into anything I can type.  Basically this kind of page is anchored either on the left or right with a piece of patterned paper and has a number of other layers, some torn, some punched, whatever, and then I put a smaller little cluster of strips up in the corner to echo the main layout.  I think I picked it up when I was doing Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party.  You will see a lot of this from me.  This time, I added a title cut from a Sizzlits set and a small filigree butterfly cut out of the same paper as the border punched layer of plain cardstock.  Other than choosing a solid background colour (I think this is Jacaranda by Bazzill) and matting the photo on white, that is absolutely it.

Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party had a lot of takeaway value for me, the most interesting part being the analysis of patterned papers and how to unify several patterns without making your eyes water.  I also love her Creative Stash Dive project, wihch combines several patterns and solids and using all of it up to the last possible scrap.  Great video which is included in the Pretty Paper Party class if you're interested.   Shimelle.com is the place to go if the class is still available.

Uncle Jamie DLO

I'm really happy with this one.  This is a DLO of photos taken of my brother Jamie, his girlfriend at the time and my daughter Victoria.  It really captures their silliness and his Proud Uncle Moment while we were stealing a moment for food at Chipotle.

I wanted it to have a tatoo-ey feel to it because my brother had collected some nice ones since I last saw him.  I love his Finnish Lion tattoo that says Sisu, which can be translated as Courage but I think it's more like "Balls" or "Cajones." My mother's side of the family is half Finnish and many of us carry some stereotypical Finnish traits, the aforementioned Sisu being one of them.

I didn't see nearly enough of my brother on this particular trip and I haven't been back since.  I hope to see him in the next year or two at the latest.  I miss him.

Vixie and Grampa

Here's a simple page of my daughter and my father hanging out together.  She calls him Grampa.

I used a solid bright pink smooth cardstock, some scraps from Basic Grey collection packs, handwritten journalling and a die-cut alphabet for the title.  I think it's a Tim Holtz one, maybe Market Text or something.  It's one of those 12-inch Sizzlits dies with the alphabet and numbers on it.  I like using these, especially if I have a lot of titles to cut out at once.  It's also great to get right down to the last scrap of paper as you can just lay a small rectangle over the letters you want to cut out and roll it through.  I have even double-stacked thinnish cardstock on parts of the die and achieved a good cut on both layers.

This photo was taken in the McDonald's I used to work at in High School.  It was a lot busier then.  They have scaled it down quite a lot.  There's less seating, fewer cash registers (tills), and the layout is almost unrecognisable.  Very strange... but then it has been 20 years!!