Fall Continues to Be BUSY

I love my blog but I continue to be uber busy at work, that by the time I get home, the idea of getting on the computer is not even an option. Who knows what inspired me today? I also took a short break from scrapping. I was part of Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day and yes I did 31 layouts in 31 days. Actually a little more. There was a day or two in there where I actually got 2 or 3 layouts done in one day. So LOAD 10/10 was really great. It let me explore story telling techniques and it let me scrap about me too, which I rarely do.

On another note, I saw 2 homes today in 2 totally different neighborhoods (Bronx and Brooklyn), that were already fully decorated for Christmas. Thanksgiving is not even a glimmer in our eyes. I am so not ready.

Here are some more of my LOAD creations.

This two page layout is one of my favorites. I love the way these photos came out and he was genuinely into his blow up guitar.

Fall is great but busy

I've been slacking on my blogging. I am usually pretty good about keeping up. Now that I am a parent, Fall is nutty, especially b/c daycare is not part of the routine anymore. My son is in a real school now. It's only PreK, but the school goes up to 8th grade. But he loves it. And I love it. He is learning by leaps and bound and he is so much more verbal than he was just 3 months ago. That's one reason why the fall is hectic.

I work at a college, so of course Fall is major. Everyone's coming back. New students are coming in. People are acclimating and re-acclimating and several weekend events that require my presence. Oh yeah, and I have a new boss. Change is good and challenging at the same time. So that's number two.

Problem number 3 is the 3 year old with a social calendar. Birthday parties, swim classes, apple picking, homework, ay ya yai! I love that stuff, because I'm equally social. I love that stuff, because it gives me more photo opportunities to scrapbook. I love that stuff because I want him to have every opportunity I can possibly provide for him. It wears me out and weekends become glimmers of the past. I need my housekeeper back.

There's a lot going on with my scrapping too. I was invited to be the October Guest Designer for Memory Works, which was really nice. Oh and did I mention I joined LOAD 10/10. Yes. Well I did and I love it. A layout a day; 13 so far.  It's the only thing that's letting me unwind each night. I need to get quicker but the creative process whether 30 minutes or 3 hours is what does it for me. Go figure! Here are some of my favorite LOAD submissions.

Here is a montage of the projects I did for the Memory Works Guest Designer Gig using their Halloween express kit. I made a mini album out of paper bags and put all my childhood Halloween pics in it. The album is called Vintage Halloween. I love it.

I also used their new Ele.men.tary line to showcase some of my favorite photos.

  

Here are some of my LOAD submissions, both Digital and Paper.

    

Pictures of the Week

Congratulations to Michele from Timeless Daydreams. She won a prize for commenting on Lain Ehmann's post. Now on to my pictures of the week.

NYC Skyline...the lighting was just right.

San Gennaro...San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy - Great street food!

Guest Post by Lain Ehmann

Lain Ehmann from the Layout a Day site has graciously agreed to do a guest post on my blog. HOW EXCITING.  When she asked me what I'd like her to write about, I knew right away - scrapping boys and men in a world of pink and cutsie. Thank you Lain for your response and for agreeing to be a guest on my blog.

Don't forget to leave a comment and be entered into a random drawing for a fabulous prize!

Imagine you're sitting down at your craft table, just minding your own business, when all of the sudden, a genie appears in front of you. He is wearing the typical garb of MC Hammer pants and bare chest, and once you get over your shock at seeing this large half-naked being in front of you, putting footprints on your Tim Holtz stamp pads, he issues you a challenge. You are to use pink, polka dots, rhinestones, and flowers on a layout… for BOYS.

If you can do it and like the results, he'll give you a week on a desert island with Hugh Jackman. If you can't, you must forfeit your entire stock of Cosmo Cricket papers and embellishments. Can you do it? Do you dare try?

C'mon, woman! Hugh is at risk here – of COURSE you do it!

After all, you're a scrapbooker. You can do anything!

Now, granted, you probably won't face a situation like this (if you do, I want you to call me – or your doctor -- IMMEDIATELY.) But still, we often face similar challenges. In a world that seems to be overrun with pink, frilly, cutesy, princess-themed scrapbook supplies, we need to eke out a space for our X-Y chromosomed offspring and relations. It IS possible to use "girl" stuff on "boy" pages.

Here are a few tips to help you out:

1. Choose your pinks carefully. You're better off with a bubblegum (i.e., stronger) pink than a really soft, baby one.
2. Use hard lines. You're going for a more masculine look, so opt for straight lines and edges, and a more linear approach to your page. This will counteract the other "feminine" elements.
3. Select embellishments in "man" or "neutral" colors. Notice the flowers on my layout? They're brown. Cool, huh?
4. Contrast is great. The strips of patterned paper and the brown background balance the pink and the polka dots.
5. Don't worry so much. Sure, you probably wouldn't put your son in pink polka dots, but if you put his picture on a pink page? No biggie. He'll get over it – and so will you.

Remember that what is "boy" and "girl" is often a matter of interpretation and not an absolute. And if a week with Hugh hangs in the balance? I'm sure you'll do just fine. J

About the author: Lain Ehmann inspires, entertains, and educates her readers (and drools over Hugh) at www.layoutaday.com. Stop by to learn how to make your scrapbooking fun, fast, and fabulous!


Here's my take on Lain's post.

Back to the Grind

What a week! September has got to be the craziest month on record for the world. Between the temperature changes (at least in the north east), back to school and increased traffic (yellow school buses everywhere), the days are getting busier and shorter at the same time. Have you noticed it's getting darker earlier already? My life is no different. I work at a college so of course August through September is very busy. This year is no different. It's perhaps one of the busiest and most stressful on record - my records anyway! My son starts a full day PreK program at a local parochial school. I mean, he's been in daycare for a while, but there is a different feel to this. It's actually a school with children from preK to 8th grade - TEAR. But it provides plenty of photo ops and I can't wait to scrap the memories to come.

On that note, don't forget to check out Memory Works latest life documented line - El.e.men.tary! Such a great collection. Interested? Let me, your friendly neighborhood Memory Works Consultant, know!

But back to the stresses of life. Thankfully, I'm a scrapper. It makes me happy. It helps me relieve stress. It relaxes me. In spite of how busy I've been, I've managed to scrap by buns off. Like I said, it relaxes me. Or maybe I'm just subconsciously getting ready for Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day in October.

Speaking of Lain, she is going to be a guest blogger on Brooklyn Girl Next Door next week. Stop by to read her post on Monday. Don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a cool prize. I haven't decided what that prize is going to be, but I'll make a decision by the time her post is live. See you then.

These layouts were inspired by Big Picture Scrapbooking's Big Idea Festival. Karen Grunberg's contribution really inspired me. I loved how she use small photos (1x1.5) in a grid format to show the happiness of her family right now. I chose to document Summer 2010.

  

Here I finally made some time to scrap some of this summer's birthday parties, using Memory Works Simple Stories line. Love it!

  

These next few layouts finally got me to use my stash. I've had most of these papers for quite some time and rediscovered them. The newer products are on the "Red Carpet Shower" layout are from My Mindy's Eye So Sophie Line.

    

I made it my business to do lots of journaling in these layouts; beyond the date, place and event! It was certainly therapeutic and I'm happy to add thoughtful words to my layouts.

Did someone say Holidays?

I'm definitely not ready for Christmas, but this is the Labor Day holiday weekend and next month IS Halloween. So I thought I'd get my holiday mojo started with some Halloween Cards that will be donated to the troops. Check out the Card Making crop over at Serenity in Him.

I had a lot of fun making these. I don't usually send out Halloween cards, but like I said, they are going to the troops. Hopefully, they'll enjoy receiving them as much as I enjoyed making them.

 

This last one was my favorite. The front says, Witch Way...

The inside says, to the TREATS? Loving the Wizard of Oz witchy boots rub-on.

Gatefold Album

I got this album idea from Lain Ehmann's Scraphappy.org site. She used a 9.5 by 20 cardboard piece but I just couldn't find a piece of cardboard that big. So the creative juices got flowing (probably because of a less than stellar work day). I pieced together 2 10x6.5 patterned paper pieces using a corset look. Lain's book also only has the smaller booklets in the middle. I decided to add some more patterned paper to the inside and outside covers of the album and inked any areas that were too white to better match the black and white patterned paper (MME Meadowlark).

It was a fun and easy album to put together.

Pictures of the Week

My son is just naturally silly and comedic and attention seeking. He also loves to spread his toys out everywhere.

    

Ok, so this is just my new shower curtain. But I absolutely LOVE the pattern and color scheme. Looks like patterned paper, NO?

What is with the tongue?

Serenity Created with Christine - Card Challenge

My friend and fellow cropper, Christine, is hosting her first challenge over at Serenity Created. I wanted to support her and here's my creation. The challenge:

to create a card using some kind of embellishment you purchased over a month ago but have yet to use. We all have purchased something we "had to have" then watched it for a week then two, meaning to use it but just somehow can't.

Everything I used on my card was purchased over a month ago AND I've been wanting to use it. It took Christine's challenge to get me using my stash. Thanks Christine. The card foundation is basic Kraft paper. The patterned paper is Daisy D that was sitting in my scraps basket. I was happy to finally  use it b/c I love the look of it. The white ribbon is from Michael's. The green ribbon I received from a ribbon swap among Memory Works consultants. The flowers are prima and the Happy Birthday tag which is probably what I've wanted to use the most and felt was a must-have at the time is from Elle's Studio online shop. Not sure who makes the nylon butterflies. I got those at the Scrapbook Expo in Somerset, NJ. You can't tell in the photo but I spritzed the flower with some clear, but shiny Iridescent Gold glimmer mist. The inside of the card is blank. I hope you like it. 

All over the internet

I am all over the web lately. I'm participating in all kinds of challenges and taking classes here and there. I can't even keep it all straight. Memory Works has just launched it's new Simple Stories kit called El.e.men.tary. It's gorgeous and I can't wait to get my hands on it. My son is going to parochial school PreK starting in September and I know I am going to go nuts taking photos of him in his little uniform. I am so excited for him to be in school officially. Memory Works is having a great sale going on. Just email me if you are interested in any product or having a party. They're doing great things over there.

I've been participating in Lain Ehmann's Scraphappy "club."I really like it. She had a special offer for LOAD alums and I took advantage of it. But once that offer is over, I'll need to make a decision. But so far so good. If you know Lain or checked out any of  her web pages or blogs, you know that lady really loves Hugh Jackman. LOL!

I'm also playing along with Big Picture Scrapbooking's BIG IDEA FESTIVAL. That's been really cool and the projects and layout ideas, along with the prompts, are awesome.

 

Ohh and after listening to the last Paperclipping Roundtable I checked out Dedra Long's blog and joined her "One Weekend 2 Shots" flickr group. It started back in June, but I'm sure I'll catch up soon enough. If I look hard enough, I'll probably find photos I shot from the weekends I missed. Hmmm.

Here's my first installation of Dedra's flicker group:
King of the Toy Explosion.

Of course, Paperclipping is one of my fave scrapping sites. Noell Hyman has a great video out, her latest, on her system of creating mini books which works on both traditional and digital. I also participated in the August Challenge. I am getting a lot of mileage on the wedding album i just completed. Check out my last post for a slide show of the mini book and layouts.

Elle's Studio is hosting a free Journaling class and that has been really interesting. Seeing how other folks process the idea of journaling is encouraging and helpful. The ideas are all over the map, but the key is to get something down. Write the basics - date, time, location, event. Write the emotion - what feelings does the photo or event conjur for you? Record words - did anyone in the photo say anything of interest or fun that could be included. Every once in a while, I even refer to a quote book or idea book to really capture the story. Anything goes!

This weekend, I got my very own copies of Photo Focus and The Big Picture by Stacy Julian. I am absolutely loving those reads. I have been wanting to take her BPS class called Library of Memories, but now I may not have to b/c I own Photo Focus. I'll be finished with it by the weekend and ready to implement some of her great organizational techniques.

I love scrapbooking and wish I could make a living out of it. For now it's just a hobby that I love. That is certainly good enough for me.

Wedding Mini Album

I found this "Mini" Album at my local scrapbook store (not just scraps in LI) by AdornIt.com. It's actually a pretty big and sturdy chip board book.This is the completed wedding mini book that I showed sneak peeks of last week. The wedding was a red, white and blue theme but it was in August and it was a beach theme so picking colors was a challenge. I wanted to make sure that teh blue pages had a red accent and vice-versa.

Here's the finished product. I used paper from my stash. I used the Lush Line from MME and a wedding line from Stampin Up. I used papers from the open stock at the lss. The products are all over the map.

Scrapfit Challenge

Scrapfit turns 1 this month and I've decided to  enter their layout challenge using the recipe on their site. Check them out and they have a blog hop running to - www.scrapfit.blogspot.com. The recipe calls for
1 brad (the bling over the letter I), 1 photo (my doggie), 1 ribbon (over the photo), 1 button (above the ribbon) and 1 rub-on (the dog's name, Chewy, on the actual photo. They also wanted to see some confetti in the form of mist. Yep, check - the upper right hand corner has some clover green and candy apple red glimmer mist.

This layout is out of my style on a lot of levels. The diamond shape die cut for one is not something i would normally do, but I couldn't resist the reference. I also don't use a lot of red and green together, even at Christmas time. But hey, it's ok to step out of your comfort zone once in a while to try new things.