Hot Chocolate

Worked on my oldest son's Hot Chocolate page today. Did not do anything, but use the cricut to cut a few accent pieces.

Instead, helped mom with her perpetual calendar. She decided to keep the wood look and add Mickey embellishments. She put a Mickey face on one side, a Mickey icon with the words Mickey Mouse on the other, and love (heart) that mouse on the back. We got all those pieces cut out and she glued them together. Then, she decided on the font for the months and days. Of course, she is using Mickey font.

I am going to use the DS to weld the letters of each month together for her. Then, we just have to cut, paste, and modge podge. She said that she didn't plan to do anymore tonight, but I bet she is home cutting the numbers as I am posting this blog.

We would have gotten more done today, but it took the DS 1/2 hour to update. What a pain. It was not the best time spent, but the DS is one of the best scrapbooking tools I own.

I will post pictures and .cut files when we are finished.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

New Year's Resolution

Yes, my plan is to scrapbook more, spend more time with my family, spend less time worrying about the small stuff, finding a full time job.....

Scrapbooking tomorrow. Hopefully. See you then.

Have a safe and fun evening.

Time Management

Well, I ran errands, played with my son, made soup, played Wii with family....

Where oh where did my time go? I need some better time management, so I can schedule some scrapbooking time. I plan to do some tomorrow. Hopefully, it will work out.

Have a nice night.

PLanning Layouts

So, now I have figured out what pages I want to work on next. Now, I am going to check out some paper and embellishments for them and set those aside. This way when I do get time to work on pages, I will have all the material ready to go. Then while the family is watching Spongebob, I will layout the pages with my sketches.

You would be surprised how much time it saves when you layout your pages before you begin scrapping. I use some sites to help with this process. scrapbooks etc. is a good place to get ideas and so is scrapbook.com.

Organizing Pictures

I never realized just how disorganized my pictures were until I tried to organize them. First, I put them in envelopes by what occasion. Then, I sort what pictures I want to use on my pages and which ones I want to put into regular photo albums. Then, I write down what pictures I have in a notebook. The order depends on what pages I want to work on first. Then, I write the sizes and whether they are vertical or horizontal. Later, (hours, days, weeks, or sometimes months later), I sit down with some layout sketches from magazines, friends, online sources, etc. and draw up how I am going to layout the pages using the pictures. Sometimes I choose the papers and embellishments then the layouts and sometimes I choose the layouts and then the papers and embellishments.
By doing this, I save myself a lot of headaches while scrapping. Usually I stick to the layout I have chosen, but sometimes I will change certain aspects of it. However, the stress of figuring out what to do is non-existent when I follow this format.
Hope this helps when you can't figure out what to do with your pictures and how to make the most of your scrapbooking time.

Posting Layouts

Well, my son wants to play and watch some Christmas movies, so I am taking a few hours to spend time with him. Happy Looking!

1st Year Layouts: June

I found this paper and left this layout til almost last. I wanted to do something creative and cute with the monkey edge. So, this is what I came up with.

Then, I wanted to create some journaling with out losing the design, so I put the journaling on strips and used foam stickers to attach it to my page. I think it turned out nicely.

1st Year Layouts: April

This is the month my baby sat up on his own. He did it in Pam & Roger's front yard while we were all out enjoying the spring sunshine. It was a glorious day.

1st Year Layouts: March

For March, I used only a small part of the March paper. Instead, I opted to use more patterned paper than I normally do. I decided the flower stickers matched well and would not take away from my little boy and his stuffed Tramp.

On the right page side, I added another flower sticker and some journaling. I also made sure that March was readable in both pages.

1st Year Layouts: February

Here I wanted to stay away from the traditional Valentine's paper. I found some burgundy weave paper and added hearts, but not too many.

1st Year Layouts: December

I found this beautiful snowflake paper in my stash. I used foam stickers to make the snowflakes stand up.

1st Year Layouts: At the Hospital

Here is the beginning of my son's 1st book. I decided doing all his wonderful pictures would be too much, so I did one double page spread for each month.

I found some great paper that had the name of the month in different colors throughout the page. I matched these pages and that is how I created the color combinations. 



This is his hospital stay. Just a few hours old.

Pictures of Layouts

Okay, so I don't have a $500 camera and our scanner is 8 1/2 x 14. Thus, I am having the most difficult time getting pictures of my layouts for this blog. It is a pain. I have tried several different lighting modes, used the close-up, and set the camera on a solid surface. Nothing seems to work.

My husband is coming to my rescue, something he can do wonderfully. So hopefully soon, I will be posting my layouts.

Til then, check out my other blog for Christmas morning fun at JoJo's Blog.

Cricut .cut files

Okay, so I did some cut files with the DS. They turned out great. I made a Disney word book, a mickey border, and some journals. I want to put the cut files up here, but am not sure how to do it. Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

Perpetual calendar

Yeah! I finally found a blank perpetual calendar. I ordered it from Etsy.com ( http://www.etsy.com ); there was only one left, but if you are looking, keep checking the site. That is what I had to do. Now, if it comes on time, I can make one for my mom for the holiday. I will post pictures as soon as I have them.