A bit of history...a bit of heritage...a few layouts

I have been slowly (but not so methodically) scrapbooking my family's heritage photos. My mother and father both had a large collection of old photo albums -- the sort with black pages that held the photos in with photo corners (really the best kind). In the summer of 2004, I cornered my mother and had her go through each of the albums with me; she and my father both tried to remember as much as they could about the photos, the people and events they portrayed. Of course, they did not remember everyone or every place -- but they did remember alot. I coerced my mother into allowing me to take the albums home (they lived in Canada at the time, and I was in Connecticut). I promised to scan the photos and return the albums. I started the scans right away in my (not-so) spare time. Sadly, my mom passed away unexpectedly just three months later. I cherish the photos and the stories my parents had about the photos. I did finish scanning everything by Christmas time that year, and made photo CDs for my 5 siblings. It was an emotional Christmas.

It took me nearly three years to dive into these boxes of photos. I have slowly been scrapbooking them -- some days it is too hard to see my mom in the pictures, so I just pass by that pile of photos to be scrapped that day and work on other things. I did three layouts this week using the photos that I wanted to share, though! I hope you enjoy looking at them.

Graduatin' Gals 1946: The page at the top is of my Mother and her friends celebrating their high school graduation in 1946. As you can see, I scanned Mom's diploma. Also, if you look close, you will see that I placed a pull tab behind the top right picture; my mother had handwritten a list of who was in the picture on the back of the photo, so I scanned that, too. After all, it is in her handwriting! I stamped the title, the bistro chairs and French Girls. After I stamped the title and the images, I traced the title and colored selected edges of the images with colored pencil to make them stand out. It is a gorgeous soft highlighting effect that pops IRL.
Honeymooners 1948: The pages above are from my parent's honeymoon. I scanned the little newspaper clipping (Travelogue) that was in my Mom's album -- it is a charming reminder of how things were done back then. A note on this one -- the "Travelogue" actually covers a stamping mistake! We all make them, don't we? In my hurry to stamp the title "The Honeymooners," I picked up the "9" instead of the "e" -- unmounted stamps are backwards! I think the title works just as well as "honeymooners" -- well, at least it works better than "th9 honeymooners" !

Je T'Aime: This last layout celebrates a photo taken of my parents in 1972, at my oldest sister's wedding. I love my dad's sideburns -- he was so stylish! The journaling is on the tag is tucked behind the photo -- it talks about how much in love my parents were, and what good role models they were for marriage. I love this photo of my mom -- she is thin, happy, and looking directly into the camera -- and I know SHE loved this photo, too.

When I finished this layout, I couldn't help feeling that it needed one more thing. My scrapping friend Val suggested that I add a bit of glitter, so I used a fine-tipped glitter pen to trace the letters. I love the effect (see below). Oh -- the Eiffel tower is from a stencil from the Club Scrap kit -- I used Tricia Morris' fabulous duoprinting technique with Glimmer Mists to create the effect. It shimmers in real life (and yes, all of that came in my Club Scrap Kit, too! All of the pages were created using Club Scrap's Bistro kit (July '07). I just love that club!

Thanks for sharing a bit of my heritage with me...sorry this post was so long, but I hope you enjoyed the layouts and the stories...

Pat

Scrappin' Chicks Gone Wild

Thursday's mail came with my Club Scrap Pizza Box. I was so surprised -- my kit usually doesn't arrive so fast after a holiday, but I am constantly amazed at Club Scrap's customer service. It just so happens that I took Friday off to scrap with some friends, so the timing could not be better.

I had these pictures from a crop I went to in New Jersey (SDV: Scrapbooking Dream Vacation). My friends and I try to get away two weekends a year to crop like lunatics, and this layout uses the pictures from our last getaway in February. The photos had a distinct yellow cast -- something I could have easily fixed in Photoshop, mind you -- but when I saw this paper, I decided to use them as they were! They are perfect for this paper. The theme of the kit this month is "Bistro". The paper has a whimsical French feel...I had so many ideas pop through my head when I saw the kit! Love, Travel -- and Girlfriends -- things that I imagined myself using the paper with. There is a fabulous texture to the paper, too -- I just don't think there is another company out there that produces such high quality paper. (noooo, Club Scrap does not pay me or compensate me. I just have been a very loyal fan since June 2002! I am kind of like that -- get me enthused and I am a fan forever -- kind of like a puppy ... oh but I digress...)

Did you notice the word "Wild"? I had fun stamping that! I stamped each letter on white paper with magenta ink. Then inked one of the other stamps in the kit (little French Bistro stools -- so cute) with black ink, and I stamped those images randomly over the letters. I just cut those out, attached each letter to black, cut out again, then put a THIN layer of Glossy Accents (aka Crystal Effects or Dimensional Glaze) over them and let them dry. The effect is a glossy word that just POPS!.

The pages above were made with the kit (except the work "Wild" -- those are Club Scrap's "Big and Tall" alphabet letters). All of the paper, stamps, beads, ribbons, smaller stamped images and fonts, tags and other items on the page are all CS. I LOVE the circle embellishments (see it above the photo beneath the word "wild"?). The kit is an amazing value, I think -- I actually made 6 pages already and still have 8 full 12"x12" papers left - plus a ton of embellishments!

I will post some of the other pages this weekend...Hope yours is fabulous!

Friday's Blogger's Challenge

This week's Blogger's Challenge was to use the card on page 108 of Stampin' Up!'s new Idea Book and Catalogue for inspiration. I have to say, I am not very good at copying and stealing because my submission looks NOTHING like the original! I just have to put my own spin on it, I guess. Maybe I will go back to the drawing board and try again...I like this card, in any case!

Stamps: Stampin' Up!, Baroque Motif; White, Blush Blossom and Not Quite Navy Inks and Cardstock; White Gel Pen; Ribbon.

Oh -- the winner of the snowflake card from Last week was randomly drawn from the comments. Congrats, Susan! I will mail your card out tomorrow.

Would you like the card above? Leave a comment on this post this week, and I will post the winner next Friday.

A Gift for my Hostess

We're off to a barbecue this afternoon, even though it is raining! I made this magnetic note board as a hostess gift. She is a good friend of mine, and I know that she really does enjoy homemade gifts, so I am hoping that she likes this. The bubble stones and the metal tags are both magnetic, so it is useful, too!

Stamp Credits: Club Scrap: Paper, Stickers, Magnetic Board, String, and Vellum. Stampin' Up!: Alphabet Stamps

Flap Fold Thank You Card

On Sunday, my family and I went to a barbecue with some good friends. We had a great time! This is the thank you card that I am sending her today. I used the flap fold technique from the June TJ Newsletter.On the left is the card closed...the right is with the first flap open... and the bottom is the card closed. Don't you just LOVE the little fork and knife set? Just some miscellaneous charms that I had in my stash --truthfully, I thought I would NEVER use them! It just goes to show you -- buy as much as you can because you never know when you will use it! They add the perfect touch, I think...

Stamp credits: Stampin' Up! (Think Big), Carmen's Veranda (tablecloth stamps and ants) and Image Tree (Alphabet stamps inside the card).

I bought those Carmen's Veranda Stamps at a stamp convention. I also bought two other cool stamps: a huge lobster, and an extra large ear of corn. I can't wait to use the corn stamp for my 4th of July hostess thank you card!

I hope you and your family find some time to enjoy a happy 4th of July!

Good Technique Gone BAD...and I'm organized again

Well, here it is. A good technique gone bad... This one just did not turn out how I thought it would. I was going for a very textural, lacy, almost spidery effect, and ended up with this blobby-holey thing (that is a technical term!).

I was attempting to duplicate a gorgeous technique that I saw demoed at a stamp convention. The technique directions called for Fusible Webbing. I was excited, because I thought: "I have some of that and I have never used it! Here is my chance!!"

So I pull out all the supplies: Starburst Stains from Lindy's Stamp Gang, Moonglow duotone embossing powders, my heat tool, the cardstock and Fusible Fibers. Anyone see anything wrong with that? Fusible Fibers and Fusible Webbing are NOT the same thing. Not at all. When I heated the fusible fibers, they were great at adhering themselves to..... themselves.... Not to my shimmery cardstock! Back to the drawing board.

So that is how I came to this technique. Again, my thoughts went here "OHHH! I know! I have some of that Heat and Bond stuff! I can use THAT!" So off I go -- sprayed the cardstock (okay, I admit it, my fingertips, too), adhered the Heat and Bond, dumped on duotone EP, and heated it...and these huge, ugly holes erupted. ohhhh... Heat and Bond is not the right stuff either...and although this is kinda cool (notice, it is kinda with a little "k", not a capital "K"), it is not a technique suitable for the Technique Junkies!

Why not, you ask? Well, mainly because I have a few criteria for what I include and what I do not. I have been producing newsletters for 5 years; I think my formula works MOST of the time. Of course, I have made a "few" mistakes. Beaded Toothpaste cost me alot of subscribers (everyone has a lapse in judgement SOMETIMES).

Each time I consider a technique I ask myself a few simple questions:

1. Does this have appeal to a relatively large audience?
2. Are the supplies easy to get, or can I offer substitute ideas?
3. If not, is this a product that is new/fresh/hot on the market?
4. Does this have a quick and easy appeal?
5. Is this something that I would be proud to send to my own family and friends?

Let me tell you, this mess failed #1, and most certainly #5. I did end up making two ATCs and a card from the blobby-holey paper (that technical term, again!), but I am still not using it. I love the idea for ATCs, but I wouldn't send a card using it. Would YOU? By the way, I did find the correct product in my stash yesterday while I was cleaning, so the "real" technique will be filmed for a future newsletter. Just in case you want to go shopping : )



Although the card at right isn't something I would send out, the "A" was a cool discovery. That happens sometimes -- one failure leads to a cool idea.

Don't you just love the saying on the card? "Art is not what YOU see, it is what you make OTHERS see." Isn't that appropriate?

Stamp credits:
Dream ATC: Stampland, Rubber Cottage, Stampers Anonymous
Predict the Future ATC: Club Scrap
Art card: Innovative Stamp Creations



Finally...my room is clean!

Chaos Reigns!

Wow, this is just not pretty. This is the top of my desk, and to the right, the floor behind my desk. Well, I think it is, anyway. It has remnants and vestiges of the last three projects I worked on piled all over it (see the snowflake stamp, glitter and paper from yesterday?). The floor has all kinds of plastic containers filled with paper (remember, I just can't stop buying it!). There is "stuff" everywhere in my stamp room. I vowed to clean it up yesterday, and I have made tremendous headway -- I am almost done and will finish tomorrow and actually show you where I work. In "Clean" mode. I am not a slob -- although you can't tell it by the pictures! I just had too much to do, too little time, and had to make some sacrifices. I filmed 15 techniques in 4 days, and then had 50 cards to finish -- that would be enough to send the best organized person into a tizzy (except, maybe, for Barbara E!).

I have a project to tell you about tomorrow, too -- a technique that didn't quite work out -- one that the junkies will never see, but I will show you here. There is a fine line between art and garbage sometimes... and this isn't art! It will give you insight into how I develop techniques and what criteria I use before I publish something in the newsletter, though, so some of you may find it interesting.

In the meantime, I am off to a barbecue tonight with my family -- we have some fireworks and some apple pie, and I am taking the hostess some beautiful sunflowers. How much more American can that be?