Scraplifting

You @ 5.5

Among my planned projects for 2011 are pages for my sons' half-birthdays as a way to capture some specific details about them at a moment in time. I had the photo ready and needed a page with plenty of space for text, when I saw "The Final Defense" layout from Autumn Baldwin during her week at Write.Click.Scrapbook. The result is a pretty exact lift, but I'm pleased with it. I've gotten more pages done this month than most others, and having good inspiration has been a major factor in helping me get pages done.

I signed up for Big Picture Classes' "Embrace Imperfection" (a FREE workshop!) and hope to keep this streak of inspiration and completed pages going in February.

Cheer on a Snowy Day

Valentine's Day Cheer on a Snowy Day

This was our 5th day of snow in less than 4 weeks, and I needed a bit of cheer. Not to mention some replacement for the tired and dried up Christmas wreath.

Enter Tumblr inspiration and this idea from Real Simple for paper garlands. All it took was pink scrapbook paper, quick fold-and-cut hearts, and string, and now I'm greeted by this happy little Valentine's Day garland at my door. I actually kept opening the door this afternoon just to smile at this. I think pink adds that taste of spring we need on a snowy day.

Now I'm looking around for more places to hang more garlands and other shapes I can make.

Valentine's Day + Tumblr = Love

Right now I have found two new loves that go together perfectly -- Tumblr and Valentine's Day project ideas. I love all the pink and red hearts, crafty cards of love and papery projects popping up all over the Web. And having finally worked out my Tumblr page to display better, it's the perfect way to gather all that {love}ly inspiration.

Along the way, I've also rediscovered my admiration for Martha Stewart's projects. I can't remember the last time I looked at her site and now I don't know why I've been away so long. I'm sure I was tired of the perfectionism, but oh what pretty projects I saw there.

Need to plan a few projects for the boys' classes. Might also make something to surprise my friends at work.

Summer Memories 2010

Summer Memories 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa_CT

Last June I wrote up a list of activities for our family to do during the summer. My sons are fans of the Disney show, "Phineas & Ferb," so we called it the "Robby & Joey Whole Lot of Stuff to Do Before School Starts this Fall" list. I had more than 70 activities on the list ranging from big things like a weekend at Hershey Park to smaller activities like a snack-time picnic in the backyard. We checked them off with the date and in most cases I captured them with a photograph too. But I hadn't figured out a way to document it in my scrapbook.

Then last week, Autumn Baldwin got me to jumpstart my scrapbooking with her posts over at Write. Click. Scrapbook. She created a text-only layout to capture activities from her family's summer list, which gave me the perfect jumpstart for getting this layout done. Thanks Autumn and WCS!

Recent Random Thoughts

Two random thoughts running around in my head recently:

1. Too much multi-tasking lately and not enough caffeine. I'm generally good at multitasking, in fact, I sometimes have trouble with single-tasking (have to "do" something while watching TV), but lately I'm either not getting enough caffeine or I'm just doing way too many things. Like entertaining the boys on a snow day while trying to do my full-time computer-intensive job from the dining room table. Or doing a testing process for said job between midnight and 1:30 a.m. while trying to decorate sugar cookies for the NFL party -- pipe icing here; check for autocapturing of user ID over there. Not a good plan.
2. If one prays to God asking for patience, she isn't the best person to be able to wait for God to answer that prayer in His own time. Certainly it's not for me to judge His plan, I'm just thinking it's a bit ironic.

Need to get back to this blog to get out some of the many other ideas running around in my head and maybe inspire me to get those ideas into the realm of reality. Ahh, for patience.

Things You Can Make with Tinker Toys

For Christmas last year, the boys got a barrel of Tinker Toys. These toys are frequently spread out on our floor as works in progress, and the boys create some pretty imaginative things. Here are just some of things you can create with Tinker Toys:

• an umbrella
• a steering wheel/ship's wheel
• a skyscraper
• a ferris wheel
• an arrow
• an "up 'n' down thing"
• an anchor
• a hand trolley
• a crutch
• a cane
• a key
• a hook

Love to see what these two will come up with next.

The Story Right Now

More inspiration from Camp Scrap over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. For a journaling prompt, May challenged campers to tell a story about something going on right now in our lives, some little slice of current life.

Since Joey's been singing "God Bless America" almost constantly lately, I picked that as my story. Given the July 4th holiday, it was an especially timely story to tell -- and a chance to use patriotic papers -- too. To make this layout even easier, the Ella blog had a great sketch posted by Donna Januzzi and using that made this digital page come together in no time. I was proud of myself for figuring out how to make a clipping mask for the word "sing" to be able to use the striped paper for the letters, and using a shape tool to be able to make a digital scalloped border.

Thank you to May and Donna for being my inspiration and for helping me get this sweet story captured. I love when I can finish a layout every few days, even in the face of work.