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

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.

Scrapping Scouts Again

Since Aaron has an entire Cub Scout scrapbook, it's only fair that his brother get one, too. I bought the same album and tracked down another Cub Scout paper pad. I still had plenty of embellishments left, knowing that I'd be able to save them for Caleb's album. Then about two weeks ago I was sitting at the pack campfire, watching the boys cross over into the next rank, and I realized that Caleb had already been in Cub Scouts for a year and there were no scrapbook pages to show for it!

My current project, therefore, is getting that album caught up (at least until January 2012, since that's all I have photos printed for). So, with the exception of one "everyday" page I snuck in before I realized I needed to work on the Scout album, that's what all this batch of layouts is. One thing I like about doing the Scout pages, though, is that they go pretty quickly, and it doesn't matter if they all look the same. They are much easier to work with, too, because of the great Scout products K & Co puts out. Some of these pages are literally sticking the photos down and adding some journaling. I don't mind these types of pages, since I think I've said before that my scrapbooking is primarily for memory preservation, rather than artistic expression.

Caleb's Cub Scout album will end up being shorter than his brother's, though. He just crossed from Tiger Cubs to Bear, and will skip the Wolf year. He decided to do this since he is skipping second grade and going into third grade in the fall. He decided rather than staying with his den he started with, he would rather be with the rest of the third-graders. He knows most of them anyway, since he was in a second grade class with them part time most of the year. I'm glad he decided this way, since he will finally be able to identify with one grade (he split his time between two grades for the past two years).

Anyway....(sorry, I get a little sidetracked sometimes) here is a bunch of pages I've done over the past week or so. I know some of these are not much to look at, but my out of town family at least likes to see the photos.

Papers: DCWV, K & Co
Punch: Martha Stewart
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, Lyrical Letters
On this page I used one of my favorite tricks. The green paper is actually from a mat stack, but by putting the white strip across the page, I could "stretch" it to fit the whole page.

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV, K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Stickers: K & Co
I used my other favorite trick on this one. I only had one sheet of the yellow cardstock, so I cut it into 3" strips and stuck it to some patterned paper that I knew I'd never use. The other papers just went on top. That's another reason I love these sketches so much. Many of them you can get away with using small amounts of paper.

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Stickers: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Alphalicious
I used the same trick on this one. I can use up ugly patterns and conserve my more precious solid cardstock (although a lot of the time I really only have one sheet of a color)!

Papers and stickers: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV, K & Co.
Stickers: K & Co
Punch: EK Success

All Supplies: K & Co
(This one goes into the "at least it's done" file)

Papers: DCWV, K &Co
Stickers: K & Co
Embossing folder: Cuttlebug

Another "It's done" page
Paper: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type

Cub Scout Album Finished (Almost!)

I knew I had taken a break from scrapping and blogging, but I didn't realize just how long. Last time I posted, I was trying to finish up Aaron's Cub Scout scrapbook before he crossed into Boy Scouts, as well as get the Disney album finished. Unfortunately, neither of those things has quite been accomplished.

The Cub Scout album actually did get caught up before the Blue & Gold Banquet/crossover, which was a month ago already. With the exception of two or three pages I need to do of that day (and, naturally, I don't have those photos printed yet), that album is done.

Here they are:

Sketch: Amy Alvis (it's the first one in the post)

Papers: DCWV, K & Co.

Cricut Cartridge: Opposites Attract

Papers: DCWV, K & Co.
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Punch: EK Success

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



Papers: DCWV

Embellishments: K & Co.

Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

I sewed the half-sheet of cardstock to the background to make a pocket to hold some of the fliers, etc.

It's a little hard to believe that Aaron has moved into Boy Scouts. It's not so much the scouting aspect I have trouble with, just the fact that he is growing up so fast. He will be off to middle school next fall, and I at least feel better that we finally decided on a school. We had been debating for a couple months about whether to send him to our home district middle school, or apply for open enrollment at a neighboring school. We applied, and he was accepted, but ultimately we decided on the home school anyway. I'm still stressing about it a little, hoping we won't be short-changing him, since our final decision was based more on community factors than academics. I trust he will do well wherever he goes.

And, as is often the case, I went off on a tangent. This is also why my scrapbooking has gotten so sporadic as well. There is so much else to distract me. I've been on a reading kick lately (along with my newest addiction of collecting free Kindle books), and trying to get baby blanket knitted. I am one down and one to go on that front. Plus, we've gotten an early spring here, so with the weather so beautiful, it's easier to sit outside and read than stay in and scrapbook.

Anyway, I plan to do another post shortly showing my Disney progress. Stay tuned for that.

Taking a Break From Disney

I know, I said I was going to keep plugging along on Disney while I still had the motivation. I guess I must have lost it. I pulled out some photos to work on a page over the weekend, and then couldn't bring myself to do it. What is a little frustrating is that I was starting to feel like I could see the end of project. Once I finally get that album finished, I will still be almost a year and a half behind. I think I left off at July 2010 before I finally started on the Disney album.

I do have good news, though. I am fairly certain Aaron's Cub Scout album will be finished in time. I have it caught up except for the stuff that happened last month. I still need to get those photos printed, though.

Here are the latest Cub Scout pages I've done. These are probably even simpler than my usual simple pages. That's just the way this whole album has gone. Having all the Cub Scout supplies really has made for easy pages, though. If Cricut ever comes out with a Cub/Boy Scout cartridge, I will be totally set!

Don't worry, I'm sure the next post will Hollywood Studios!

I'll make my descriptions a little less repetitive. Unless otherwise noted, all papers, stickers, etc. are K & Co.

 Other: Cuttlebug embossing folder

 Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type

Additional papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Punch: Martha Stewart
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Additional Papers: Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Cricut Cartridge: Tear Drop
Cuttlebug embossing folder

Papers: DCWV
Stamps: PSX
Rubons: Making Memories
Punch: EK Success

And, just for reference, this is the photo I'm referring to in my journaling. I didn't have the page saved on my computer. This is from September 2007 and he had just turned six.

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