This and That

I am a social and chronological srapbook. Basically, most of my scrapbooking gets done at crops or other craft gathering. Thus far, I've also been a straight chronological scrapbooker. I start with January and go through December. I get all the holidays, birthdays, camping trips, vacations, etc. but not so much of the little things like where we like to shop, silly habits and quirks of family members and the like. I also don't do a book for each of my kids (Shock! What a bad mom!!) I don't do any other sort of mini album either. Well, once I did a mini book of a vacation my husband and I took together but I swear-nothing else. It's always confused my simple mind to do anything different. Now that my kids (and me too) are getting older, I'm thinking of changing my ways a little, but more on that another day. For now here is my basic process. This is what I will probably never change.

I scrapbook the traditional way with printed pictures, paper and embellishments bought at a craft store, adhesives and trimmers. I love it. It's like putting a puzzle together. As soon as I pull out an envelop of pictures, I immediately separate them into smaller stacks like the first day of school, swimming lessons, etc. Next I take the top stack (remember-I'm obsessive about going in chronological order) and lay all the pictures out to narrow down my choices.

As soon as my pictures have been picked, I hit the books. I have three books I consistently use: Becky Higgins Sketch Book (the first one), Easier-than-Ever scrapbooking (Creating Keepsakes), and Imagine (Close to My Heart). I also have some templates I bought at a Making Memories warehouse sale that I love.

I always have to sketch out my layout, even if the book is there. I'm a guidelines kind of gal. I like the look of a page, but don't want to be influenced to much be someone else's designs and tastes. I've also found after using these things for a few years, there are a few layouts I use over and over like the one below. I finally had the courage to tweak my standard 6 (4 x 6) pictures to fit 4 vertical ones and one horizontal. And thanks to my "imagine" book, I've also been more courageous in learning to use patterned paper in different ways.

Which is my next step after sketching. I usually find my patterned paper and build my cardstock choices around that.

Then the fun part-making all that work come to life. I'm not huge on embellishments, but sometimes I'll issue myself a challenge like using my stash of stickers, flowers, etc or trying something new like chipboard or buttons. It keeps it fun and interesting.

(Sorry about this one-blogger kept turning the orientation on this photo. I'll keep working on it.)

(Same with this one. Sorry again.)

You'll notice something missing from both layouts. Journalling. Never been too good at getting it done. I'm working on it. :)

Spring is in the air!!!!

Do you remember these cute banners I bought a couple of weeks ago from Peachy Cheap?

Well, I just had to show you what I did with them!!!  I love Kathyrn's tutorial on Nanny Goat.  

But since I had already bought my chipboard, I had to do something a little different.  I also made a summer banner with the other banner I bought from Peachy Cheap and I plan on making other banners with chipboard I'm going to cut with my Cricut.

-Anisa

Peachy Cheap

Everyone likes a good deal, right?  I think for me, it's more the temptation.  I like to be tempted just to see how strong I am.  (By the way, I'm not that strong.  I am often on the phone with Cami...."tell my why I shouldn't buy this.")

Anyway, I love the website peachycheap.com  Every day they have a different scrapbooking deal.  A couple of weeks ago, I bought both of these garlands.

On Tinkering Ink's site, they are each $8.  I bought both of them for $8.98 including shipping.  It's so hard not to buy their product every day.... today's is especially tempting for me.  Go check it out!!!

By the way, go to Little Nanny Goat and you will find a tutorial for a banner.  That is what I plan on doing with my garland.... they are so cute!!!

-Anisa

A whole lotta love...

So, in my last house, I had a plate rack on either side of my entertainment center that held cute metal accents.  At Christmas time, I put Christmas plates in them.  They just didn't work out in my new house, so I never hung the plate racks.  This past Christmas I couldn't bear to not put up my cute plates, so I had my hubby hang one of the plate racks up in my kitchen.  After Christmas was over, I thought it would be more fun to keep the plate rack seasonal instead of just buying plates to go on it.  So, I came up with this great idea.  I would cut out wooden squares and decorate them with seasonal scrapbook paper and embellishments.  The ones I did for January did not turn out cute, so you don't get to see them until I redo them for next year.  However, I love my Valentine deco squares! So, here's how you would make them...

Supplies:

• 9" wooden squares (I got mine at Lowe's and had the nice gentlemen that work there cut them out for me)
• wooden heart shapes (these you can buy from your local craft store or wood store)
• Scrapbook paper
• paint
• stain
• sand paper
• mod podge
• glue gun
• embellishments (ribbon, chipboard shapes, etc.

How to:

1.  Paint

 wooden squares (I just painted mine white)

2.  Paint wooden shapes

3.  Sand all painted stuff.

4.  Stain all painted stuff.

5.  Cut out scrapbook paper (a little smaller than wooden square)

6.  Mod Podge paper to wooden square.

7.  Glue wooden shape to wooden square

8.  Embellish to your own desire.... what I did was I used my Cricut to cut hearts out of chipboard.  Then I heat embossed some pink stuff on the chipboard hearts.  Then I just tied a ribbon on the heart and glued it onto the wooden heard.  

Didn't they turn out cute???  (You should have seen the january ones)

I plan on making these for every month and I'm excited to get started on my March ones... I need to get going on that soon.