It Takes All Kinds

Happy Birthday to Me

I turn 41 today. Yikes! Age is just a number right? As you look around the web and through scrap magazines, there are lots of examples of pages for kid's birthdays, not that many for adults. Since until recently I wasn't scrapping kids, I do have several examples of adult birthday pages to share. For the last few years I have made the effort to document my birthday as the old memory is going and I've got to get the details down!

This one from two years ago focuses on the delicious cake my friend made, and the flowers I got from my husband.

This 12x12 is from the same occasion and was published in the CK book 50 Moments. In this page I talked about my wishes for the following year.

Last year I spent my birthday back home in Barbados. Not as exciting as you would think, since Lucas wasn't with me, and I spent most of the day dealing with the local DMV. In the evening, determined to salvage the day I went to the beach. One of the benefits of being on a small island! I did two separate pages to document the event.

This one tells the entire story of my day.

This one is a fun take on bullet point journaling and a To Do list.

A few days after my birthday I had some friends over and this last page documents part of that occasion.

Notice that I scrap a variety of sizes. I use the American Crafts D-ring albums which can hold all sizes of pages. These will all go into my About Me album. Also did you notice that only one page has a photo of me? Since I am usually the one behind the camera (something we are all familiar with), I rarely have photos of myself taken during events. In that case I use photos of representational objects instead.

If you haven't scrapped pages for adult birthdays give it a try! If you have any questions about products or techniques used in these pages feel free to ask in the comments.

Welcome Kieran Haden

Our son Kieran was born on April 11th, just four days late, but it seemed like a month to his anxious parents. Since then it has been an endless round of breastfeeding, changing diapers, sleepless nights, and of course tons of photos!

As luck would have it, just as I am getting to the point of thinking about scrapping again (and actually finding a spare hour to do it) we ran out of printer ink! So I decided to play around a bit with digital scrapbooking. I'd still call myself a beginner at digi, even though it's been 4 years since I first tried it out. I don't do it very often, usually only when, like this week, I realise printing photos isn't possible.

I converted my original colour photo to black and white using a free action available from The Pioneer Woman. The digi kit, Embrace Life by Sandy Krieger, is also a free download from Memory Makers Magazine.

This page came together very quickly, as I didn't use any fancy techniques, just simple layering of papers and elements with a few drop shadows to create depth. Since time is a scarce commodity for me now, I am happy that I was able to create a layout to celebrate Kieran's arrival without having to pull out all my paper stash!

One Month to go

Our baby boy is due in exactly one month, and I think I can safely say that we are ready! Well physically ready anyway. His nursery is all set up with the essentials, and most importantly we have settled on a name.

I wanted to record this great event, and did this page about it.

Since we have decided not to share his name until he is here, I have more detailed journaling on the back of the layout. That's a good technique when you don't want to share private or intimate information.

All products used except the sequins are by Jillibean Soup!

Five Wonderful Years

It feels like just yesterday but Lucas and I have now been married for five years! And do I have a wedding album scrapped yet? Not at all. In my defense I did start one a few years ago, but it was back when I didn't know what I was doing, and I'm kinda glad I stopped to be honest!

What I do have is a random collection of layouts, some about our wedding day, and others celebrating some of our anniversaries.

Here is the most recent one, celebrating our five years together

I keep these layouts in my "About Us" album, which contains pages all about Lucas and I. You may notice that I scrap both 12x12 and letter size, so I use the American Crafts D-ring albums which allow you to store mixed sizes in the same album!

Have you scrapped your wedding photos? If it feels like an overwhelming task, maybe you can do what I did, and choose some of your favourite photos from the day and scrap them as stand alone pages for your regular albums.

Should Old Acquaintance be Forgot?

Heck NO! You should make a mini-album about them.

My daughter began kindergarten this past fall and on the first day she instantly made a lifelong friend. Cora is just about the sweetest little girl I know...besides my Ema, of course! We had Cora over in early December for the afternoon and I whipped out my Canon and fixed 50mm lens.

I created the body of the mini-album from 3 sheets of 12x12 Core'dinations cardstock and accented the album with another sheet of cardstock, one sheet of Basic Grey paper and their chipboard, some American Crafts Thickers and their ribbon.

Here are just a few pages from the album:

 

 

 

 

So, with the new year just around the corner, make an attempt to record your friendships...whether they be friends from long ago or more recent ones...acquaintances should not be forgotten.

Happy New Year!

Best Wishes Challenge

On Tuesday I met a woman named Peggy. She traveled into our town for an appointment. I was working at our local scrapbooking store that day and she stopped in before her appointment. Her husband brought her. You could tell by the way he looked at her that they were not in town for good news. His heart looked heavy.

Peggy fell in love with some cards that were being taught in a class the following evening. They were the Baby Card Kit by Basic Grey. She is a grandmother to 11 grandchildren, she told me during her visit to the store. Her husband figured out how to use their cell phone as a camera and he took photos of the cards for her. Sadly, I mistakenly thought the class was sold out. She really wanted one of the kits but our records showed that all the kits were spoken for.

After Peggy left I double and triple checked our records to find that there was in fact one kit left. Due to the fact that our store uses a computer system to record data on our customers I was able to track down Peggy's home address. A Basic Grey Baby Card Kit will be arriving soon...with this card tucked inside.

My challenge to you is to send a "Best Wishes" card to someone special. Someone who could use some best wishes. I bet you know exactly who I am talking about.

For Aleida

I have been remiss in posting this, and I do apologise. We were all saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Aleida, just about a month ago. I didn't know her as well as some of you might have, but what little I knew inspired me. I knew that she would be perfect for this team, and was so happy when she accepted. And she was so excited to be a part of this project, I could feel her enthusiasm pouring out through her e-mail, across the miles.

Aleida was always positive, always upbeat. And also a bit naughty! Her message board posts never failed to make me smile, and I always imagined that if we were to meet some day we would really hit it off.

To say I was shocked when I learned of her accident would be an understatement, I thought it was some kind of bad rumour. That a life as vibrant as hers could be snuffed out in an instant was inconceivable to me. But if she taught us one thing, it was that we need to live each day to its fullest, and to cherish our loved ones. And to scrap everything! All the little moments as well as the big events. She leaves her family such a treasure in her work.

Please take a moment to visit her blog, spend some time getting to know her, if you didn't already. Her link will remain as one of the contributors to this blog, as far as I'm concerned she will always be part of the team, because she is truly inspiring.

Ch..ch..Changes!

When I was planning my post for October this was definitely not the topic I had in mind! But life's like that, you have to roll with the punches.

After a difficult summer dealing with my fil's terminal illness and subsequent passing, we found out that I was pregnant! Very much a blessing and exactly the news the family needed. So it looks like I have one more topic to add to my repertoire of scrapping subjects. We're excited and a little bit nervous!

Have you scrapped a pregnancy test result page, or maybe your baby's first ultrasound? Please do share with us!