(Lack of) Summer Scrapping

In some ways it feels like summer vacation just started, and in others I am counting down to back-to-school. We are in week four of summer break here and, while we claim not to be as busy this summer as we were last, I still feel like we are doing an awful lot of running around.

The boys and I are gearing up for an extra-long weekend trip to my parents' house. Hubby is running low on vacation time (and hanging on to some just in case a can't-pass-it-up Disney deal comes along!), so he will be staying home with the four-legged children. He'll be happy to leave the windows open, even though the forecast is calling for 90 degree temps. The Battle of the A/C is a common one in our house, as I live with one of the few men in this country that is not bothered by heat, and thinks it is perfectly acceptable for the temperature inside the house to reach the mid-80's. I do not find this acceptable (if we didn't have central air, that would be another story). But I digress...

I actually went three weeks without doing a single scrapbook page. For me, this is a long time. I finally managed to get some pages done in the past week, on the days that we didn't have the windows open and the humidity pouring in. I refuse to scrapbook when it's humid, as my paper gets warped and it's a generally unpleasant experience.

Anyway, I feel better that I got some pages done. When I've had any length of a break from scrapbooking, the first page back always feels like a "fix." I don't care what it looks like, I just revel in the fact that I got one done. Of course, since I'm leaving town, this latest burst of scrapping energy will be short-lived, and I'll have to get myself back into after I get back.

In the mean time, here are my latest pages, most of them for my youngest son's album.

Papers: DCWV
Punch: EK Success
Letter Stamps: PSX

Papers: Provo Craft
Stamp: Stampin Up
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, George & Basic Shapes

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Paper Studio, Stickopotamus
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Sketch: Amy Alvis

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Paper Studio
Sketch: Amy Alvis
(This page really is straight. The stitching program just did something goofy with it)

Finding some Mojo

It figured that once I finally had a stack of nearly 500 photos to scrapbook, I lost my motivation. Maybe it was feeling intimidated by finally tackling the Disney album, or simply getting lured away by other distractions, but I couldn't seem to bring myself to work on any pages, even when I had the time.

Fortunately, earlier this week I had a brief burst of scrapping energy and cranked out a few pages. The boys are out of school for the summer (see yesterday's post), so it will be a little harder to get to any scrapbooking, if for no other reason than one of them will frequently be camped out at my work table, playing on my computer.

While I have a few minutes on my computer, here are my recent pages. As usual, there is nothing fancy about them.

Papers: DCWV
Punches: EK Success
Rubons: Making Memories

Papers: Scrap Book Wizard, Paper Studio
Punch: EK Success
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, Lyrical Letters
Other: Stickles
(I duplicated this layout for my other son's album, only reversing the side the title was on)

Papers: K & Co., Stamping Station
Letter Stickers: Frances Meyer
Brads: unknown

Papers: DCWV
Punch: Martha Stewart
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Tear Drop
Brads: Paper Studio

School's Out!

Today was the last day of school for my boys. I definitely think they are happier about this than I am. I am looking forward to taking a break from the daily routine (although I take great comfort in my routines...Monday is Laundry Day, you know). I am happy to not have to set my alarm for the morning, but I will get frustrated when I don't get myself moving to get to the grocery store before lunchtime.

The challenge of every mom in the summer, I suppose, is to keep the kids fairly occupied without resorting to eight hours a day of TV watching/video game playing. There will be several weeks that they will have something to do for at least part of the day, whether it's Cub Scout camp or vacation Bible school. There are plenty of things I could do with them. We have memberships to the zoo, the museum center, and the theme/water park. However, none of these places is much less than twenty miles from our house, and with ever-increasing gas prices, hopping in the car for an 80-mile round trip is less than appealing.

Added to the mix of keeping the kids entertained is keeping them relatively quiet. My husband works from home three days a week, with much of his job consisting of conference calls. On the occasions where I can convince them to get away from the TV/wii, their activities tend to be noisy. They are boys, after all.

Today, though, I should celebrate my fourth-grader getting straight A's and my kindergartner doing well also (primary report cards are much less concrete, as I'm sure many of you know). I will also celebrate getting to sleep in tomorrow (although the boys will still be up before 7:00am, I'm sure. It will take them a week or so to shift to a later sleeping schedule).

Tomorrow I can dwell on the fact that in just eleven weeks, I will finally have two children in school full-time.

Some New Pages

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted. I've gotten some scrapbooking done, but not much. I seem to have lost my motivation, even with this giant pile of photos ready to be scrapped. I'll use the excuse of the miserable weather this spring, but I'm having trouble getting motivated to do much of anything these days.

It seems like there have been a number of Cub Scout activities going on in our house. This weekend is the annual camp out, and the youngest is even more excited for it this year, since he actually gets to go as a tiger cub, instead of a younger sibling.

I guess it's only fitting that most of my latest pages are for my older son's Cub Scout album.

Embellishments: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV
Title sticker: SRM
Brad: Eyelet Outlet (I think)

Paper and letter stickers: K & Co.
(Sometimes you just need to do a "premade" page to get things moving)

Papers: Provo Craft, Scrap Book Wizard
Punch: Fiskars
Stickers: K & Co.

Papers: Provo Craft
Stickers: K & Co.
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

2009 Finished!

I am generally a daytime scrapper, as my brain power diminishes greatly after dinner. Last night, however, I had started on the last layout for my 2009 album while the boys were watching their newest Netflix obsession, iCarly (It started with Sponge Bob, then Johnny Test, then Wizards of Waverly Place, then Phineas & Ferb. We don't have cable, so Netflix Instant on the wii is about the best thing that's happened in our house). You know how it is, though, when you get started on a page and then decide you just have to finish it.

Once I realized I could recycle a title from a previous layout, I was in the home stretch. This morning, I even did my title page (I never count those as actual pages), so I think this album is actually ready to go on the shelf.

I am now officially out of photos to scrapbook. I did manage to catch a 5-cent sale the other day at Winkflash (not the 4-cents I was hoping for, but still a good deal), so now I am waiting for the 498 4x6 prints I ordered to ship. They should come sometime next week, and then I will be overwhelmed with choices. Do I get the boys' albums current? Do I start my 2010 album? Do I dive in to the Disney album?

I have a few days to think about that, so here's the last of 2009. Christmas in May sounds silly, but that's what all these pages are.

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection
Punch: EK Success
Chipboard stickers: American Crafts

Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft (this was a chance to use up some scraps of old papers I've had sitting around)
Cricut Cartridge: Stretch Your Imagination
Stickles

Papers: DCWV, scraps
Punch: Fiskars
Sometimes you just need to do a "stick the pictures down and be done with it" page. It's always nice when I can make one of these "pre-made" papers work.

Papers: DCWV
Snaps: Making Memories
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Calligraphy Collection, Tear Drop
Stamps: Unknown (thanks Bonnie!)

Six More to Go!

I only have six more pages to complete my 2009 scrapbook! You'd think being this close, I'd have more motivation to scrapbook, but this has not been the case. Maybe since I don't have my next batch of photos printed yet, I'm savoring the last few pages I have to work on. Yeah, I'll go with that theory, instead of the one that with all the rain we've had the past month, I've been feeling too blah to do anything.

We are entering the home stretch for the school year here. Our last day is June 1. I'm looking forward to lazier mornings, but I am not looking forward to listening to the boys bicker. They do enough of that as it is; I don't want to listen to it for the extra four hours a day they'll be home together.

Our youngest's first T ball game of the season is scheduled for this Saturday, but who knows if the fields will ever dry out enough to play. All the rain has cut down a little on our busyness, since practices have been cancelled. The oldest opted not to play baseball this year, so that's a little less running around than last year.

Maybe over the next week or so I can crank out the rest of my 2009 scrapbook. I'm also hoping to catch a good sale to get my photos printed. Instead of tackling my 2010 album next, I think the next project will be last year's Disney World trip. Maybe I'll set an unofficial goal of getting that vacation's album completed by the time we go on our next vacation to the beach at the end of July. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, here are my latest 2009 pages.

Papers: DCWV
Border punch: Martha Stewart
Stamps: Hero Arts
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Fabric stickers & fiber: Plaid

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Chipboard letters: American Crafts
Punch: EK Success
Cricut Cartridge: Mini Monograms

Whole Lotta Layouts

It's been a stormy week here, so rather than being out running around in the rain, I actually stayed in and did some scrapbooking. The good news is, I am down to 10 pages to finish my 2009 album. The bad news is, I'm still waiting for a good sale to get some more prints made. If I finish the album before I get my next set of prints, I always have my fall-back project, the portrait album (this is a separate album of the studio 8x10s that used to be in frames).

I said before I was going to try not to post big batches of pages all at once, but I'm doing it again this time. Some of these I just didn't get around to posting before we went on vacation, and some I actually did all in one day.

Papers: DCWV (the background actually was a Christmas paper that I was able to cover up the holly and cardinal)
Border punch: Fiskars
Rubons: Making Memories
Letter Stickers: EK Success
Stamps: Stampin Up, Inkadinkado

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: old freebies from Creating Keepsakes

Papers: DCWV
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Cricut Cartridges: Mini Monograms, George & Basic Shapes

Papers: DCWV
Rubons: Making Memories
Cricut Cartridge: ZooBalloo

Papers: DCWV
Border Punch: EK Success
Stickers: Paper Studio, American Crafts

Papers: DCWV
Border punch: Fiskars
Sticker: EK Success
Brads: Paper Studio

Papers: Provo Craft, K & Co
Die Cuts: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Tear Drop
Embossing folder: Cuttlebug