Friday, January 27, 2012

Another Disney Day Complete!

I am so excited that I'm getting so much done this week on my Disney album. I put off this project for so long, so it's nice to see it finally taking shape. I am getting these pages done quickly and, unfortunately, they look it. I feel like they are looking the same, but my goal is preserving memories, not winning design contests.

A big help in letting me move along so fast is Amy Alvis's  4x6 Photo Sketch Blog. I've probably mentioned it before, but her sketches have been invaluable to me. If you are a traditional scrapper, I highly recommend checking out her blog. I turn to it almost every time I scrapbook, and if I don't use her sketches exactly, I usually base my pages on something I've seen there. When I know I've followed a sketch closely, I include the link in my page descriptions.

Today I finished the second full day of the trip. Something ironic I noticed when I was working on these pages is, for not actually doing much in World Showcase, we sure took a lot of pictures! I've got three more days to go, and I have no idea how all these pages are going to fit in the album I got at the parks. I'm not even halfway through, and I have 45 pages!

Here's the latest batch:

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Jasmine
Sticker: Disney


Sketch: I used the same one as above, but flipped it, knowing that this page would be next to the China one in the album
Papers: More old stuff! Scrap Book Wizard
Cricut Cartridge: George and Basic Shapes
Sticker: Disney (actually a freebie in some junk mail)


Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection
Sticker: Disney
Punch: EK Success


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

Papers; DCWV, Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Tag: Disney
Punch: EK Success


Papers: DCWV, Recollections
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Frame: Disney
Stamps: Hero Arts


Sketch: Amy Alvis (I made some minor changes for my layout, but I essentially stuck to this sketch)
Papers: DCWV
Sticker: Disney
Rub-ons: Making Memories


Papers: Paper Studio, Provo Craft
Stickers: Disney
Punch: Fiskars

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Moving Right Along

Naturally, since I have another project I should be working on (finishing Aaron's Cub Scout album, not to mention some baby blankets that need to knit), I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride with the Disney album. Even though I'd like to get the Scout album caught up in time for the Blue and Gold banquet next month, I think I'm going to ride this Disney wave for as long as it lasts. It's been a long time since I've been this motivated to get any scrapbooking done.

I finally tried the characters from my Mickey Font Cricut cartridge, and I must say I'm pleased with the results. I think putting together all the layers was a lot easier with the Design Studio, since I could see just how little of a piece of paper I could get away with and cut all the pieces at the same time.

Anyway, here's what I've done in just the past two days.

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV, Disney
Cricut Cartridge: All Mixed Up


Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Sticker: EK Success
Brads: Paper Studio


Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Punch: Fiskars


Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font


Papers: DCWV, Disney
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Punch: Fiskars


Papers: DCWV, Disney
Cricut Cartridge: Mini Monograms
Punch: Martha Stewart

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Derby Day and Disney Day 1 Done!

How's that for a lot of "D's?" I thought of doing two separate posts, but figured if I did one, I'd forget the other, so you get everything together.

Today was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby, which is always one of the highlights of the scouting year. This was the first year that both of my boys were competing in the race, although since they race by rank, they weren't competing directly against each other.

Caleb chose a pencil design for his first "official" car (he made a car last year for the open class division--any siblings or parents were welcome to make cars that were not part of the official race). Dad did the cutting, but the sanding and painting was his job. His car was definitely among the most popular, even if it didn't turn out to be among the fastest. He came in third out of nine in his division, which is not a bad showing, but only the top two finishers of each rank advance to districts.

Aaron decided on a slightly less creative design this year. It was pretty much your standard race car, but he did design the paint job on his own. He was the defending pack champion, but I don't think he felt any pressure (he's not really that kind of kid). His car wasn't fast enough this year to win it all, but he did take second place out of nine in his division, which is enough to advance to the district race.

I was proud of the sportsmanship both boys showed, especially Caleb. He has a tendency to get overly emotional when things don't go as he'd planned, so I'm happy he held it together when he realized that his brother was moving on and he was not. Actually, I think he may not have fully grasped the situation; in any case, there were no meltdowns and for that I'm grateful.

It's a good thing I've gotten some more Disney scrapbook pages done, since I'm going to need to take a break from it soon (I knew Scouts and Disney somehow were tied together...). Next month, Aaron will cross over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and I've decided that his Cub Scout scrapbook needs to be complete in time for the occasion. That means Disney will have to take a back seat while I get the Scout album caught up.

I have reached a milestone in the Disney album this week. The first full day of the trip is finished! I only have four more days to go. I admit, though, that as I'm working on this album, I really think the 2011 trip is going to be showcased in a photo book instead of a traditional scrapbook. I already have over 25 pages covering a day and a half of vacation, and I'm not even using all the photos I have. I just hope I'll be able to fit everything into one book!

Anyway, here is what I've done this week.
Papers: Disney, EK Success
Stickers: Disney
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Punch: EK Success

Papers: Provo Craft, Disney
Stickers: Disney

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Disney
Cricut Cartridges: Jasmine, Alphalicious
Other: Stickles

Papers: DCWV, unknown
Stickers: Disney
Cricut Cartridge: Mickey Font
Stamps: Hero Arts
Punch: Fiskars

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Progress on Disney

While I don't feel like I'm going like gangbusters, I do feel like I'm making some progress on the Disney album. I've already done more pages this month than I did in November and December combined (which really isn't saying much).

I have fallen back into the habit of doing my pages chronologically. That way I'll know how my two-pagers and one-pagers fit together. This album is lending itself to more two-pagers than I'm used to doing these days.

Here's the latest batch of pages. One thing I like about these is that I've managed to use some of my really old paper and they don't look terrible. They're not going to win any contests, either, but hey. I'm also managing to use a fair amount of pink and purple. For those of you have known me a long time, you know I LOVE to use pink and purple whenever I get the chance (since the opportunities can be slim with two boys).

Anyway, here you go. Thanks for looking. I know my blog doesn't see a lot of traffic (and that's okay!), but I do enjoy looking at the stats and seeing the other countries some of the hits come from.

Papers: (Old!) Provo Craft, Paper Studio
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, Lyrical Letters
Punch: EK Success

Papers: Provo Craft, DCWV, Disney
Snaps: Making Memories

Sketch: Amy AlvisPapers: Provo Craft (more old stuff!...Slab IV)
Stickers: Disney
Cricut Cartridges: George and Basic Shapes, Lyrical Letters

Papers: Provo Craft (including Slab V)
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, Stamped

Papers: DCWV
Embellishments: Disney
Brads: unknown

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Opposites Attract, Mini Monograms
Stickers: Stickopotamus

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

First Pages of 2012

January is traditionally my most productive scrapping month, and I am trying to get the ball rolling. Right now, the only photos I have printed are for my 2010 Disney album. Having just returned from our Christmas Disney trip, I hope to ride those memories to make some real progress on the 2010 album.

I did take a little detour from Disney, though, and did a page of our 2011 Christmas card. I do this every year, and it is always nice to get one page done from recent memory (of course my 2010 card page is still sitting loose waiting to join an album).

Just to keep me honest (and foster my OCD), these first two pages are actually my last pages of 2011 (and the only ones for December). For those keeping score at home, my 2011 page total came in at 156, which is not my best year, but also not my worst.

I seem to be keeping things even more simple than usual, but at least I'm getting pages done.

Papers: DCWV
Number stickers: Frances Meyer
Punch: Fiskars



 Paper: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection
Sticker: Disney

Papers: DCWV, Disney
Punch: Martha Stewart
Eyelets: Making Memories

Papers: Creative Imagination
Other: Disney postcard