Another Complete Scrapbook!

I managed to carve out some scrapbooking time this week. The current batch of prints I have to work with are for the boys' albums, from November 2011 through the start of April 2012. Included were some Cub Scout photos. These were the prints I needed to finish Aaron's Cub Scout album once and for all. You may recall that in February he crossed over in to Boy Scouts, and I was determined to get his Cub Scout album current by that time. I managed to accomplish that task, but then there were the pages to do for the Blue and Gold Banquet and Arrow of Light ceremony. I finally got those pages done, and I can officially say that album is complete, including a title page and a photo for the window in the cover! Since I had the supplies out, I went ahead and did Caleb's Scout pages as well (they were from the same day).

With the exception of a few random pages, the only photos I have left to work with now are last December's Disney trip and Christmas 2011. I suppose it will be nice to work on them in the appropriate season (and only a year late). The only problem is, working on Disney pages will only make me pine for another trip. I still haven't ruled out another Disney-themed Spring Break, leaning toward a cruise, but that decision isn't ultimately mine. 

Here are the latest Cub Scout pages. As usual, they are in my ultra-simple style.

Paper and Stickers: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV, K & Co.
Stickers: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV, K & Co.
Stickers and Rub-ons: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV

Rub-ons: K & Co.

Cricut Cartridge: Alphalicious

Embossing folder: Cuttlebug

Finished 2010!

Yes, I finished my 2010 scrapbook, even down to the title page! It's about time, too. Being this far behind in my scrapbooks is a more recent phenomenon, but the new normal, I'm afraid. Between the Disney album and the "regular" album, I did an awful lot of pages for 2010.

Next up is going back to the boys' books, and trying to get them caught up. I'm telling myself it shouldn't take as long as I think, because as I was going through photos, I discovered (with the exception of last year's Christmas Disney trip) that I have taken way fewer pictures than I have in the past. I think subconsciously I know how far behind the scrapbooks are, and the fewer photos there are to scrap, the easier it will be to get caught up.

But naturally, since I've finally caught a slight wave of motivation, I have run out of printed photos. I ordered a batch yesterday, thanks to 101 free prints from Shutterfly, but they are not scheduled for delivery for at least a week.

This is another big group of layouts, but it's the rest of them for the album!  I admit, a few of these are definitely of the "slap the photos down and be done with it" variety. If you've been following along with me for any length of time, you surely know by now I'm not out there to win any prizes for my pages. And, if you have been following me for awhile, thank you. I know there aren't many of you, but I appreciate you taking the time to look at my work, amateur as it may be.

Papers: DCWV
Punch: Fiskars

Papers: K & Co., DCWV
Stickers: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV
(Could this one be any simpler?)

 Papers: DCWV

Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Punch: Fiskars
Stickers: American Crafts

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Tear Drop

Papers: DCWV
Punch: EK Success
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV
Punch: EK Success
Stickers: American Crafts
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type, Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV
Stamps: Stampin' Up
Cricut Cartridge: Alphalicious, Calligraphy Collection

Papers: DCWV

Goal Met!

As of this moment, I have achieved my scrapbooking goal of being "caught up" to two years behind in the family album! Of course, I had initially wanted to reach this goal a month ago, but better late than never, I suppose. I scrapped Halloween 2010 today, so I made it just under the wire.

In other news, I finally finished reading Les Miserables! I can't believe it took me ten weeks to read to read one book (okay, with four or five other books interspersed). I have stuck to reading lighter fare since finishing it. I will try to take a break from some more intensive reading for a little while to make some headway on the 2010 scrapbook.

After I scanned the batch of pages below, I went ahead and laid out the rest of the pages for the 2010 album. I can see the light at the end of it now. I think I only have nine layouts left to complete the album, so if I can keep some motivation up, I can get it finished in a week or two (and hopefully not four or five or more...). I already decided that the next project will be going back to the boys' albums. I realized that theirs are now officially a year behind. I need to get theirs caught up, since I use them to jog my memory when I get around to mine.

I'd also like to get started on my 2011 Disney Cruise album. I'm telling myself that won't be as major of an undertaking as the 2010 Disney World album was. For one, I have the experience of a "big" project under my belt. Also, more importantly, I didn't take as many pictures on the cruise as I did at The World, so there is less to work with. What brought this on is I'm fantasizing about another Disney cruise. Actually, I keep debating between a cruise and Disney World. It's still fantasy at this point, but even in my fantasies I know that both is not an option!

Here are the pages I've thrown together over the last month. I keep saying I need to post them more frequently instead of in large batches, but I never seem to manage it. If the next post isn't for another month, I hope it will be the last of the 2010 pages.

Papers: Bazzill, Paper Studio
Cricut Cartridge: Opposites Attract

Papers: DCWV
Tags, Stickers: Making Memories
Ribbon: Offray
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Punch: Fiskars
Balloon: Karen Foster

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: All Mixed Up

Papers: Provo Craft, DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: George and Basic Shapes
Punches: Fiskars, EK Success
Stamps: PSX
Sticker: SRM

Papers: DCWV (including some OLD stuff)
Cricut Cartridge: Alphalicious

Papers: DCWV

More Pages Already

I can't believe I already have more pages to post and it hasn't even been a week. If I can do four more layouts before the end of the month, I will be officially *only* two years behind! I could have gotten one of them done, or at least started, if I hadn't distracted myself by going back and reading all my old blog posts. I know, there is something seriously wrong with me. At least I'm doing laundry in the process, so that hour wasn't a total waste.

I find it a little ironic that one of the layouts I did is of the boys first TKD tournament. We had another one this weekend, and it was my first time competing. It was not something I had felt too strongly about ever doing, but decided that if I was going to try it, this would be the one. It was a national tournament that was being held locally, our school being the host. There would be a greater number of competitors among color belt adults, so I had a better chance of being with ladies of my same rank. More irony is that I won a 4th place medal in sparring, when my fear of sparring is what kept me from even trying class for the longest time. I feel like I accomplished something, maybe proved to myself that I could do it. However, I am in no hurry to repeat the experience. I enjoy going to the tournaments and watching my boys compete (they also won 4th place for sparring), but I can't honestly say I enjoyed myself when it was my turn.

Anyway, here are my pages from this past week. Hopefully I'll have more soon.

This one was realizing I could cram the rest of this trip in two pages, rather than four. Lately I've been too lazy to crop photos, but I do like doing less pages.
Papers: Scrap Book Wizard (old stuff), DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: George & Basic Shapes, Lyrical Letters, Mini Monograms
Random stickers from my stash
The white block is just a way to cover my journaling, since I included some personal information that would be better not to post.

Papers: DCWV, Scrap Book Wizard
Cricut Cartridge: Jasmine

Papers: DCWV
Unknown stickers
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: George & Basic Shapes
Rub-ons: Making Memories

Papers: Provo Craft, DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Zoo Balloo

2010 Again, With a Side of 24601

As I was using up the last of my printed photos, I debated what I was going to work on next. Do I keep going in the boys' albums and try and get them caught up (they are a year behind)? Or do I delve back into the family album, which left off in July 2010? Before I find that album even more woefully behind, I opted for the 2010 route. I ordered prints to finish out the year, and right now my unofficial goal is to get "caught up" to two years behind. To accomplish that goal, I need to complete 10-11 layouts (most of which will be 2-pagers) by the end of the month. Not an impossible task, but given my pace of late, a difficult one.

There are the usual added distractions. Not only are we entering "Birthday Season" (both boys with birthdays two weeks apart), plus the other fall activities (I don't know why this time of year seems especially busy for us. Maybe it's just every time of year these days!), I am trying my best to read Les Miserables. It is my all-time favorite musical, which I've seen four times over the past 20 years, and listened to the soundtrack (currently I have three different recordings on my iPod) countless times. I decided it was time to tackle the book, and it has been quite the undertaking for me. I am generally a fast reader, finishing your average best-seller in 2-3 days. When I decided to read Wicked before seeing that musical last year, I was surprised that book took me over a week to finish (and, in case you're interested, it was WAY different than the musical). Imagine my frustration now that I am only a little over halfway through Les Miz, and I've been reading it for over six weeks! Granted, I've read three other books during that time, but still...I was actually a little glad when I found out yesterday they pushed back the release date of the movie to Christmas day. I doubt I'll go see it opening day now, but at least I have two more weeks to get through the book!

I have managed to get a few more scrapbook pages done since my last post. While I was waiting for my print order, I did a couple for my portrait album. These are the 5x7's and 8x10's from the studios that used to be in frames. Rather that try and fit them into the regular chronological albums, I started a separate album just for these photos. They are more simple than my usual simple pages, and I generally only work on them when I've run out of other printed photos. These are fun for me since it usually means I get to look at baby pictures of my boys again.

I should quit babbling and either get to scrapping or get to reading! Thanks for looking.

This is one of those papers from the DCWV Doodlin' Around stack that I thought I'd never use.

Another super fast page with a DCWV paper. This is my niece.

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Punch: Fiskars
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type

Summer's Over

Once again, I took a summer scrapping break, it seems. It's a little hard to believe that it's been nearly two months since my last post. With the exception of today, it's also been that long since I've gotten any scrapbooking done.

I have managed to become extremely lazy and unmotivated when it comes to scrapbooking. I haven't figured out if this is simply a dry season, or if I just don't have the passion for this hobby I once had. And, like others out there I'm sure, the further behind I get, the more discouraged I become. The boys' albums are just shy of a year behind, and the family album is over two years behind--a new personal record!

I did manage to get a couple of layouts done today, which I copied from the pages that had been sitting on my desk waiting to finally be scanned and posted. Hopefully now that the boys are back in school and we're getting into a routine again, my body clock (or something) will tell me it's time to get back into scrapbooking mode.

The pages I did today used up the last of my printed pictures, so I have a brief sense of accomplishment there. I took advantage of 101 free prints from Shutterfly this week, so am waiting for those to arrive and hopefully get back on track to finally finishing my 2010 album.

I also realized this week that it's probably been a year since I bought any new paper. Of course, we all have more paper than we know what to do with, but maybe a nice, new DCWV stack could get the creative juices flowing again. Hmm...

This may seem like a lot of pages I'm posting at once, but this is two-month's work. In better times, I could do this in a week. I am not going to bother with supply lists on these, since I did most of them too long ago to remember. It's safe to say that most of the papers are DCWV.

I hope to post again before another season changes.

 Same photos, same papers, different albums. It works for me.

 Duplicates again.

 When I realized I had the same number and orientation of photos, I copied again.

 And one more set of copied pages.

No Craft Room at Hogwarts

I am childless this week, which means I should be spending the quiet time scrapping, but once I start reading, it's hard to stop. I decided it was time for my now-annual rereading of Harry Potter, so that squashed any hope of making real progress on the boys' scrapbooks. What is it about Harry Potter that completely sucks me in? The irony is that I never had any interest in reading the books or watching the movies when they first came out (I really am not a fan of fantasy). I only started reading them when Aaron was getting ready to read them for the first time. He was only six at the time, so I was curious about the content. I got completely hooked, and now feel the need to read the books once a year. I also got the complete set of movies for my birthday, which is how we're trying to encourage Caleb to read the books now. We'll watch the movie, then he reads the book and we can't watch the next movie he finishes it (He and I started the movies over again while Aaron and Dad were at Scout camp, though, when I decided to read the books. Don't tell him that I watched Prisoner of Azkaban without him).

I did manage to get a few pages done before we left for PA last week, and did some the other day. I feel ever-so-slightly accomplished, as the boys' books are now officially less than a year behind (but not by much!). I have resorted again to doing exact doubles of pages to move things along.

I have one more day before I need to pick up the boys. Maybe I'll drag myself away from Hogwarts for a few hours tomorrow and see what I can come up with. In the mean time, here are some pages from last summer.

This is the page for Caleb's album. Aaron's is identical, with the exception of there being a photo of him instead on the left.
Papers: (Old!) Provo Craft, scraps
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Sticker: Paper Studio

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Bo Bunny, Felt Fusion
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Paper Studio
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection

This is another I copied exactly
Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Stickers and tags: Provo Craft
Rub-ons: Making Memories

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Sticker: Paper Studio
Punch: Fiskars

This time, I used identical designs, just changed the papers.
Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Sticker: Paper Studio

Sometimes you (okay, I) just have to slap down photos and be done.
Paper: DCWV
Punch: Martha Stewart
Rub-ons: Making Memories

A ten-minute page using the Doodlin' Around Stack from DCWV

Scouts and School

It seems like I am getting short bursts of scrapping energy. One day last week, I managed to churn out six pages! It does help when you duplicate previous pages and keep things simple otherwise. Caleb's Cub Scout album is "caught up," in that all the photos I had printed are scrapped. Of course, that only takes me to January of this year, but it does make it the most current album I'm working on. I am slowly trying to make progress on the boys' regular albums. They are both now a year behind, which is better than the two years behind my album is.

And, as if I didn't have enough ongoing scrapbook projects, I seem to have added another one. It's pretty simple, though. I decided that the boys' school pictures would go into their own albums, rather than being part of their regular albums. I have several reasons for this decision. One, I think it will be nice to have all the school pictures in one place to easily watch their growth over the years. Two, it will be easier to maintain these albums from a chronological standpoint. I keep their school pictures in frames until the next year's are taken, so it has been a challenge at times to squeeze those pages into the albums after the fact (when I've actually had their albums current, anyway!). I can be pretty OCD about keeping my albums in chronological order. Once I decided to go through Aaron's albums and pull out all the school pictures (individuals and class photos), I had a time of it trying to keep them in chronological order. The mix of one- and two-page layouts made it more difficult. It seemed that every gap coincided with a two-pager and I had to rearrange and end up with things out of order. A little tough to swallow (some of you can relate, I'm sure!), but I'm happy I decided to do it this way. Caleb's was much easier, since I only had one page to remove--a combination of me being behind and him not having been in school as long.

Hopefully I can get some more pages done soon. Usually posting some to the blog gets me a little motivated. Motivated or not, it gets a little tough in the summer to do any scrapbooking, if for no other reason than one of the boys is camped out at my desk on my laptop on a regular basis. Maybe I'll have myself a mini scrapping marathon next month when they spend some time at Grammy's house. Who am I kidding? I'll be too excited at having the TV to myself and end up watching 18 hours of North and South or some other guilty pleasure TV (that's what I did when they were at Grandma's house last week {hanging my head in shame}).

Anyway....here's the latest batch.

Papers: DCWV, K & Co
Die cuts, rub-ons: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type
Punch: Fiskars

(I think this was based on one of Amy's sketches, but really I just copied this page from Aaron's album)
Papers: DCWV
Stickers and rub-ons: K & Co, Making Memories

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: K & Co, Paper Studio
Stickers: K & Co

I used the same sketch as above for this one. These are for different albums, so why not? I like how different they look even using the same sketch
Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: Provo Craft, DCWV (the background actually had a "Dick and Jane"-type birthday scene in the bottom right corner. I turned it upside down and covered it with the photo)
Stickers: Paper Studio
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Opposites Attract
Sticker: (maybe) Paper Studio
Sorry for the photo instead of a scan. For some reason, my stitching program kept doing something wonky on this page. I wonder if it had something to do with the graph paper background? I don't know anything about the program so it was easier to do it this way.