My Happy Days

One of my favorite books from my childhood was actually this schoolbook that was at my grandparents' house.  I think it belonged to my aunt.  Published in 1936, it is about 2 children who visit relatives on a farm and their adventures.  I spent a lot of weekends at my grandparents house.

Here is the journaling:

Clara’s little primer from grade school was one of my favorite books to read growing up.  I read it in Grandma’s living room on cold or rainy days.  The stories are about children who went to visit relatives. They learned about farm animals just as I did when Paw Paw used to take me with him to pick up milk and eggs on Saturdays.  Every week he put his handmade wood carrier with 3 empty mason jars in the back of the blue Chevrolet truck.  I hopped in the cab with him and we went to a farm and swapped out the empty jars for two jars of sweet milk and one jar of buttermilk.  Often there were baby animals at the farm and one autumn I watched the farmers making molasses.  I was amazed at the gorgeous golden color of the sugar cane as it boils. On the dirt road to the farm, we had to cross a bridge and Paw Paw would always tell me, “Hold your feet up so they don’t get wet.”  About every 3 weeks we stopped at another farm to get fresh eggs.  I loved going on errands with my grandfather and I loved the warm, homey stories in Clara’s school book.

I like that doing this prompt got my documenting other elements from my time at my grandparents house. For the page, I used lots of odds and ends including a couple of images I cut from some October Afternoon Public Library paper.

I do have a couple of photos taken outdoors at my grandparents during this time in my childhood but they are old polaroids and in pretty bad shape.  I have scanned them and will use them on other layouts.

Here's the video at YouTube:


And here is the sketch:

Thanks for visiting today.

My kind of shopping

I'm off prompt today on LOAD and instead doing a page about shopping with my mother at our favorite local consignment shop.  We especially like to go right after the New Year when she discounts all the winter things 50% off.  I prefer to buy winter clothes on consignment because it seems winter things seem not to show their wear so much.

One of the things Mother tried on was a leather and feather coat that was priced at hundreds of dollars.  It did not come home with us but she enjoyed trying on. In contrast, I bought 2 sweaters, 1 tunic, a skirt and two Tommy Hilfiger handbags all for under $30.  I love all of it!

For the page, I used a lot of unusual things. I just got a Gelli Plate and I love it, too!  It is taking me awhile to get the hang of getting prints I like.  I probably did about 10 before getting the one I used for the background here.  Part of the fun though are the unexpected surprises you get when playing with paint and stencils.  I plan to do some videos on the Gelli Plate later on.

Also, I created the flower with some fabric scraps. The feathers are in celebration of the exotic coat.

Here's the video at YouTube:



And here is the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Little Reading Books

My mother is not a sentimental person. But these little books were special to her or she thought they would be special to me as she saved them - it seems like all of them. When we finally found them a few weeks ago, there must have been a hundred of them!

Here's the journaling:

“You would sit and read those little books for hours,” my mother told me. She would read the books to me and then I would learn the words and read them over and over. When I went searching for the ‘Little Golden Books’ nearly 5 decades later, she said she didn’t have them even though she told me she had kept them. Finally we got on the same page and she had two boxes full of my ‘little reading books.’  There were dozens and dozens of them. The only book I remember specifically is ‘The Button Tree’ which I had at the shop and is lost, but I know all of these books were around me as a young child.  It must have been a stretch some weeks to add one of these to the shopping cart and I love her so much for buying, reading and keeping them.

For the page, I used pages from a couple that didn't survive storage or more likely my overuse that well. Sometimes I have to find other ways of documenting memories without the perfect photo.  I created an e-book on just that dilemma and ways to remedy it last year.  It is called No Photo?  No Problem!  You can find more about it here.

A Silhouette die cut and a little stamping finished off the embellishments.

Here is the process video at YouTube:


And here is the sketch for this page:

Last year's sketches as well as the 2013 Sketchbook are on this page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Basketball Star

One of my scrapping goals this year was to use my Silhouette to its full advantage.  This month's LOAD has really helped along with that goal as I've used the Silhouette on most of the layouts.  For this page, I downloaded the basketball frame from the Silhouette store.  The stars were really easy to create in a border.

The only real challenge here was the lack of paper.  Hunter green - the color of the basketball uniforms - is not a popular scrapbooking color.  The only cardstock I had was a piece just big enough to do the frame.  I had to so a bit of piecing to get the border.

Here's the process video at YouTube:


And here is the sketch:

More sketches in the 2014 sketchbook.

Thanks for stopping by!

Almost forgot Valentines!

We were just talking about Valentine's Day last Saturday.  We went out to dinner with my parents who had received and Outback gift card for Christmas.  Saturday night is NOT the night to go the Outback.  My husband and I seldom eat out in the evening anymore anyway or on a weekend.  He considers one of the greatest joys of retirement to be that you can eat out, visit attractions, and shop when everyone else is at work.  We talked about how impossible it would be to eat out anywhere in our nearby city next Saturday for Valentine's.

Somehow that did not jar my memory that I had not made any cards until today.  This card is patterned after a scrapbook sketch from my 2014 Sketchbook.  It was really easy to convert the sketch to a card.

I've used mostly BasicGrey Highline papers and some punches.  There is no stamping at all on this one.

Here's the Process Video:


And here is more info on the sketchbook.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

What is normal?

I did today's LOAD prompt from my husband's point of view.  "What book title would describe your life?" I asked him.

His response:  The New Normal

I can not wait to share this with my stepdaughter.  Now anyone who knows him knows that he is the opposite of what most people consider normal.  Unconventional would be a better way to describe him.  BTW  The title didn't have to be a real book.

For the layout I used a variety of extra photos I had of him.   There is one where he had been stung by a wasp just before we went on vacation. I can't remember now what he did to aggravate the wasps but something that he ought to have better sense than to do.  The photo in the lower right corner is of him with his shirt on inside out and upside down.  He didn't even realize what he had done until I pointed it out.  The dining photo was taken on his birthday a couple of years ago.  We drove 2 hours each way to eat at Boston Market - his favorite meal.  He loves all kinds of food but he really wanted to go there.  Now these are all very mild compared to some of the offbeat things he has done over the years but I had to work with the photos I had. :-) 

I put a few notes about the photos in the hidden journaling and made most of the focus on the photos and title.  The collage came together quickly.

Process video at YouTube:



If you like two pagers, check out the Two Page Terrific class.

So what book title would describe your life?

Thanks for visiting today!

All that glitters...

can be gold or silver or bronze or any of the metallics this scrapbooking year.  For this layout, I used a LOT of gold.  I didn't really start out to use so many different gold elements. Well, maybe I did because I browsed my stash for everything gold.  It wasn't my goal though to see how many different ones I could use.  I used a lot of them.

The page is about one of my favorite author's books - Judith Krantz.  Her novels opened up this exciting world for me that I have only read about in books.  At the time, before reality TV, TMZ and honestly the evening news which can focus way too much on Hollywood sometimes, Scruples and the novels that followed were just that - novel for many of us.  So I wanted a look that was a glittery as the book's content.

The background paper is dark brown that really sets off all that gold paper and stenciling.

Here is the process video at YouTube:



And a new sketch:

Thanks for watching today!

Silver Metallic Paint

My favorite product right now is Golden's Iridescent metallic paints in silver, gold and bronze.  I just love them on everything!

Today's LOAD challenge was to use Red, White and Black only on a layout.  Hmm...that was challenging alright.  I threw in some silver reasoning that is just black and white combined with a bit of glimmer.

The page celebrates New Year's Eve 2014.  I'm reusing a sketch from the 2014 Sketchbook.

I really like this title from the Silhouette store.  The gold foil paper is so old.  I remember using it on a special Christmas card I made in 2003.

Here is the process video at YouTube:


Thanks for watching today!

Lots of Fonts

There's a rule when making a PowerPoint presentation - no more than 3 fonts.  Well, I've broken that rule completely today.  Good thing this isn't PowerPoint.  Ha!

Today's Layout A Day prompt was to play with fonts on your page.  I really didn't set out to have 7 different fonts.  It just sort of happened that way after I found the paper I wanted to go with this photo and the Prima frame.

This will be the title page for our 2014 album.  I added some extra text to the yellow stripe paper with stamping.  The paper is Jubilee 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye.  I love this color combo and the adventure theme is perfect for us though we are not what most people would think of as adventurous.

Here's the Process Video at YouTube:



Thanks for stopping by today!

Simplicity Movement of the mid 90's - Layout and Video

I thought at first this morning I would have to go off topic for LOAD today which focuses on a specific children's book and nighttime reading rituals.  I covered a little of that in a layout last year.  When I started through my photos though I had the perfect story.  It isn't childhood bedtime reading but in my early 30's.

In the mid-90's there was a bit of a simplicity movement.  People were finding themselves overwhelmed with all they had to do, the vast number of choices in activities and products to buy. We were all being pulled in lots of different directions. Sound familiar?

I guess this still applies. Doing the page about two of the many simplicity books I read - Simplify Your Life by Elaine James and Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach - reminded me that my life has changed dramatically in 20 years but my need to appreciate the everyday and enjoy simple rituals has not.  I put the Simple Abundance book by my bedside and plan to read it again.

Here's the journaling:

During my early 30’s, the simplification movement hit full swing and it could not have found me at a more perfect time in my life.  I had achieved my lifelong dream of designing and building a house.  My job was stressful and I needed ways to relax in my new home refuge.  Along came two books that I read but every day sometimes in the sunroom but usually in the evening before bed – Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James.  Their messages of cutting out all the unnecessary parts of life to get to what really mattered resonated with me.  Some of the advice was extremely practical and other elements were more philosophical. I tried speed cleaning the house which didn’t quite work for me, created a master grocery list that did and I used one for years, reconsidered my travel wardrobe in a way that helped tremendously when I traveled regularly for business a few years later.  Many of Ms. St. James’ suggestions were things I was already doing such as saving half my income or using it to pay off my mortgage, drinking water, and packing my own lunch for work.  I loved the retreats to my parent’s vacation condo where I could think and recharge. I’ve reread Simplify Your Life a few times at different stages of my life.  I found the quotes in Simple Abundance inspiring.  I highlighted many passages of the author’s own words.  I think this is an excellent time to revisit this ritual and reread Simple Abundance.  My life has changed from when I read the book.  In my 30’s I had a corporate career, a mortgage and a husband working 65 hours a week.  Now I have greatly simplified my routines yet I face completely new challenges in caring for my retired husband and aging parents.  I wonder if I can find the same comfort and inspiration in these pages again.

For the page, I used a super simple layout style in keeping with the theme.  The sketch is shown below.

 Process video at YouTube:


Sketch:

More sketches are in the 2013 and 2014 Sketchboooks here.
This page uses a lot of cardstock. More on using cardstock on your layouts in the Creative Cardstock class here.

Thanks for stopping by today!

First day of LOAD - Layout and Video

It's the first day of LOAD - Layout a Day and I'm already off the theme - books from our childhood.  I'm sure I'll have many stories about childhood stories.  Today though the prompt really reminded me more of television characters.

I watched at lot of syndicated TV as a child as well as some great 70's comedies like MASH and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.   My all time favorite was the 60's The Lucy Show.  This was the one she did without Desi.  In the later years, her character moved to California and got an apartment and a job.  I loved it and pretended to be Lucy.

The page gave me some challenges as I kept dropping things, cutting things wrong and then my microphone stopped working.  In the meantime, I have done a voiceover for this video.  It gets a bit loud in places.  I'm sorry for the volume switch; hopefully, I can get things fixed for future videos.

The page uses my 2014 Sketchbook.  More info on that here.

Process video:


Now if I could just twitch my nose or blink my eyes and get my headset mic to work again.

If you would like to get in on LOAD, it's not too late.  Here's the link.

Thanks for stopping by today!