Wedding pages

I have had these pictures in my RTG file since probably right after the wedding (of my nephew) almost one year ago. It is the last large bunch of photos on one event in my file. The rest of the pages-in-waiting I will do when i have only a small amount of time to scrapbook. I knew these wedding pictures would take up a number of pages as well as a decent chunk of time. Right now I have a little time so it was the perfect project.
I originally set aside some Making Memories double sided patterned cardstock I thought would be very "wedding" - simple and elegant - and just right for these photos. I have also been planning on taking my own wedding photos out of the very-bad-unsafe album they have been in for 22-1/2 years. I decided - ya know - since I cannot find anymore of that Making Memories cardstock I'm keeping it for MY wedding pictures! Therefore I needed to find something else that would work with the pictures from my nephew's wedding. I flipped through all of my paper. Nothing. Not only did i have no cardstock that coordinated I had no paper. So yes that's right - I had to break my Suzy rule and go buy some cardstock. Hey - it's gonna happen as my supplies dwindle I figure. And I'm not gonna make a habit of it! I knew i needed to pick up a glue pen (i love the 2way glue pens by EK Success) so on Thursday I headed off to AC Moore. I don't know when they did this but AC Moore here has added some Bazzill-by-the-sheet. Perfect. I picked up the number of sheets i needed in a nice green. I also found a patterned paper by Basic Grey, Beatrice, from the Perhaps line I thought would go nicely. I used some Quickutz fonts (Empire Minis and Paige Classic lowercase) and some pens for journaling here and there. Overall i'm very pleased. I took about 40 photos and fit them onto 4 two-page spreads that are nice to look at and best of all they're out of my file and into the finished pile.

My next project is this:

What is it you say? Stay tuned!

A Different Kind of Album - Special Project

I mentioned the other day i was hoping to work on a special project over the weekend. And while i did a portion of it, I had to wait til yesterday and today to complete it. Since it was a birthday gift for the husband i needed him to be out of the house. He seems to pop up in my little room here at random times. Most of the time I don't even hear him approaching LOL. Stealth dh. (not really - its more like i get into my own little world and don't hear a thing. bombs could go off and i'd still be sitting in this chair happily working away on some project.)
Onto the gift.
I have noticed that since my husband took up golf he has these scorecards laying all over the house. I thought why not make a little album for him to store these? He can tape/glue them in when he comes home from playing golf. I think he'd like them all in one place (i know I would...) where he can review them - see how he's doing over the course of a year. (yes, he is an analytical sort).
Now a few months back I ordered a lovely little binding machine called a Bind-it-all . I had been looking for a binding machine that was affordable for years and this defnitely fit the bill. It had arrived a few weeks ago and i was wondering when i'd get an opportunity to try it out. And then I had my little brainstorm about the scorecard album.
I printed off pages for the inside: one side where he can make notes about the game he played and the right side where he can attach the scorecard. I used my Quickutz Studio font and golf dies and i think it came out cute as can be. (i wished i could think of another name for his album - it does seem a little juvenile - but then again he gets a little silly when he even thinks about playing golf. he loves it so). I'm looking forward to giving it to him tomorrow - i think it'll be a big hit.
Oh i should say the Bind-it-all was very easy to use. If you have one (or plan to get one) you just need to heed their advice and play with it before you use it on a real project. It really was worth the time i took playing with punching the holes & understanding how to make them line up correctly and using the different settings. With this book I cut two thickness of lightweight chipboard for the covers abd glued them together. Then i covered the covers with a colored paper (an old Making Memories watercolor collection blue! you can use up your old stuff!) - and then used a layer of Bazzill (the blue and a strip of green) on top of that. I know now i should have gone ahead and punched the holes at that point and embellished later (that white/green/title section got a little beaten up in the bind-it-all because it just got too thick).
Okay i'm off to the races - actually i have done the races already - i need a nap.

Working with what you have and GASC

I have been working with what i have for a few months now. Trying not to buy anything. Finding ways to use my stash (which, people, is considerable. I have a room full of scrapbooking, stamping, sewing and art supplies. Literally a room full of shtuff) I've mentioned before that in my favorite Rebecca Sower book she talks about not getting all concerned about having the perfect shade of cardstock. I aspire to this point of view. I am a color person. So lately I find that

yes - I can use up my stash - but to do so I am using up my neutrals. Things that go with anything. And avoiding color - cos if I use color it has to coordinate. It can't clash. My teeth will hurt if it does ok? So the other day - Thursday I guess it was - I decided i'd do some more laundry (see previous post) - and do a birthday layout. My daughter's last birthday. I looked through the photos and then went to my carsdstock and paper and thought WHAT am I going to do. I finally - i mean i spent maybe 10 minutes pondering the possibilities - chose this Bazzill orange. The daughter's favorite color is orange. There was some orange in the photos (miniscule as it was ) and better still - there was blue - which always will compliment the orange. (get your color wheel out if you are puzzled). Next I went to my patterned paper - I really need to use this stuff up. I flipped through a lot of paper and finally i happened upon this Imaginisce paper. (I have no recollection of buying this paper - at all.) And you know - it went really nicely and had stars all over it. I thought - she's my star so why the heck not. Some Quickutz Zoe font added and i was pretty much done. There were a lot of photos that birthday for some reason. I ended with 3 pages. Yes, I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut out the photo of the cake (or rather the Ice Cream Pie - its a family thing). If you don't have the Creative Memories Cutting system, I highly recommend it. They have theeee best cutting stuff around.

Onward

The Great American Scrapbook Convention rolled into town again this year. I've gone every year. I hate to say it but it was not the experience it has been in years past. The first few years it was wild - you could barely move around and the noise was just incredible. Now granted I got there not long after they opened on Friday. I am sure that today it will be a lot busier. However, I wasn't finding the shopping so great. It's possible, because I have so much stuff, I just wasn't finding it tempting at all. I think its more that there just isn't the product that is knocking my socks off. I think its peaked out ladies. I've been saying this probably the last two years - the industry is gonna peak out and fall hard. Just too much all the time and really fast and finally there will be nothing i have to have.

Having said that - I did indeed buy a few things. First - I spied one scalloped circle giga punch by Marvy Uchida. I have the scalloped oval and was kicking myself I hadn't gotten the circle. There it was - and i wasn't going to hesitate cos I only saw the one.

I also happened upon a booth by a company I don't think i've seen before: Distinctly Me They were the nicest two ladies with some lovely products and, as I told them, the nicest layouts on display at the whole convention. They had the most classic layouts I've seen displayed. Not tons of product all over them - just well designed, good looking pages. And you could see their photos. The pages would sell anyone's products the way they were done. Anyway i bought a package of very pretty cork embellishments as well as a bottle of something called Paper Glide made by Inspired Crafts . They demonstrated this product for me and I was sold - it makes dry embossing very easy to do - the stylus just glides right over your paper.

Okay - I need to do non-Suzy things now. I do have a little special project I hope to share in the next few days. We'll see how much time I get to work on it over the weekend.

Yeah Yeah Yeah and distractions

Yes, Mondays can be planning days (see the schedule) or they can be actual scrapbooking days.
I decided since I had this in my head - had stuff in the RTG file, I'd go with it and make this page.
I love this silly picture. When i found it in that pile of pictures i was really surprised. I hadn't remembered the Beatles wig. What a hoot. Anyhow, I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts for my kids. I normally pencil in the journaling so I'm straight but I didn't this time and it's rather obvious. Oh well. Not going redo - this is Suzy. She's a doer - not a re-doer.
If you look closely you'll see a spot next to the first "h" in yeah. I think its a drip of glue. Another possible reason to re-do but again I resisted the temptation.
These are, simply put, distractions.
(you could argue they're a perfectionists nightmare - and believe me, they are tugging at me. But i'm a recovering perfectionist. I'm doing pretty well just posting this and all the rest of my imperfect layouts. )
Every day is filled with distractions. Tons of reasons not to get things done.
My little Suzy schedule is my method of dealing with the distractions.
I am good with a list/schedule.
It helps me see past the distractions to my goal of getting my scrapbooking done.
And so far - it's working like gangbusters. I am very pleased with my progress.
I've got a stack of layouts done - o'course now I need more scrapbooks to put them in but hey, one thing at a time.
I'm not getting hung up on what everyone thinks is "scrapbooking". I'm doing my own thing and its working well.
If i veer off the schedule - sorta - like today doing a page instead of planning more pages - that works too. Ya gotta be flexible.
I could give a fig if anyone likes my pages but i truly appreciate when someone stops by here and says kind things. That's always nice.
But my purpose here is to get my scrappin done. Enjoy it.
If I help someobody else along the way, with my Suzy ways, well then I'm pleased as punch.
Oh - almost forgot - I used Wordsworth Fun Letters Alphas for the title.
And now - I'm off.

birthday layouts are like laundry

no sooner than you're done with it then it starts all over again
know what i mean?
i don't really mind doing them.
actually i enjoy looking at the pictures
i get nostalgic
birthdays past
i'm kind-of-a sappy sort anyway
especially about my kids (although i don't think they'd describe me that way)
however, i digress as usual
The point is my RTG file is full of birthday layouts waiting to be done.
Since yesterday was Thursday (my kids day - see the schedule to your right) i chose to do my son's last birthday (it's practically his next birthday! a big one at that)
I looked at what i had - a few pictures and a variety of birthday cards. There seemed to be a lot of green so i went with some green patterned paper. I mounted it on top of some white cardstock so it wasn't so flimsy.
I'd made a birthday card - hey June remember that class? - and thought it would make a good title - why make another when i had a perfectly good card to do the job right?
i did want to put a caption under the main photo - my son making one of his silly faces at me - he really is most cooperative of my picture taking - but he also is a little bit of a clown.
On the left side i made a pocket for all his birthday cards (i can't help myself - i save every card). The one with the pirate caricature of my son was drawn by my daughter - she's pretty darn amazing isn't she? And, for him - the card was perfect. He loved it.
So there you have it.
Just like most of the layouts i've been doing since adopting my Suzy philosophy - there's no award winning layouts going on here. no amazing design.
There is, however, lots of scrapbooking getting done.
And I'm happy with that.
oh - a few products i should note - Purple Onion Designs Submarine alpha for the "this is what 20 looks like" caption and some very old (but who cares cos its festive and birthdays are all about the festive) Making Memories green paper with dots. Also if you're curious - thats a MiMi accessory tote holding some other rubber stamps i have (decided against using them - they didnt have the right look and didnt fit the space well). I love this little piece of organization. I dont bring myself places to crop much - but just having 3 sets of tiny stamps all in one place is wonderful.

Using stamps and lost & found

so i pulled these pics out of my RTG file and began to work on it yesterday. (i had to put the whole thing aside - these people actually wanna eat everyday - go fig!) I just finished it this morning in an unprecedented early morning scrap. Anyway....

I decided to use my Lizziebelle stamps from Purple Onion Designs as i thought they'd go nicely along the wave. The title was going to leave a very empty upper left hand side of the layout. As i was thinking about that little dilemma and playing with some quickutz beachy dies (i settled on the starfish as you can see) I recalled doing a tag a few years back that had a beachy theme. (yeah, i like the word "beachy" this morning). I dug through a shoebox i have filled with little projects hoping to find the tag. I can't always find what i'm looking for in this room despite all my best efforts at organizing. (Ask me where to find a particular brad or pencil - yeah i can tell you that - they've got a home - my drawings and little projects - well they're kind of here, there and everywhere, kwim?) Fortunately the tag was in the shoebox and i made an audible squeal - not only did i find the tag, but the color i remembered using on it was just so right. Problem solved.

I got to thinking i really should stop my practical ways of making things for certain projects. Lately it seems i'm not making things for the sake of making them - and i really should. It happens that i was able to use my lost and found tag - but if i hadn't made it in the first place i'd probably still be wondering what i'd be doin to fill that empty spot. Well this is a discussion I should save for small smackerels huh? ok. back to your regularly scheduled Suzy program....

As i said, I used my Lizziebelle stamps and stamped them with a turquoise ink (SU!) and colored them in with a white prismacolor. I'd tried a few different color inks on some scrap paper trying to decide which ink would work best and all-in-all i'm pleased with the results. I have to say I spent way more time on this layout than I've been spending - given my new Suzy philosophy. But every once in a while that's okay. I did feel much more Suzy in that i didn't agonize overy a single thing.

Okay - onward. Today is thursday so I'm gonna go check out what i have in the way of RTG page stuff on my kids.

R and me

Here's another fast one of my brother and me

The large R was made using a stamp i carved of his signature

I stamped in versamark then embossed with gold ep

I wish i could remember where i got the red/gold cardstock

i used as a border

but i do know i used Artchix german scrap as the trim

the photo has some hidden journaling underneath

The picture is pretty cool itself as it has some double exposure going on - i love the look on his face

Suzy's back in town

i've been otherwise engaged. busy. whatever.

i know its monday but i have no planning to do - but i do have a fast page. nice and simple the way i like to keep it.

a scrap of patterned paper, some buttons with floss, and that scallop punch and pen and ink.

one of my favorite pics.

i did some drawings of this picture

seen here:

http://smallsmackerels.blogspot.com/2007/06/been-making-few-things.html

for possible inclusion into the layout

but i decided to go with this, as is.

okay michelle - i ain't slackin no more! :-)

more busy

just have had to put my scrapbooking on hold -EEEEEK - i know. not for much longer. just too many other things i'm sposed to be doin. kinda stinks but thats what is. i have done some drawing and cardmaking when i've had a little free time. Cards that needed to be made and get out the door - i just missed the mailman and now the latest 2 cards will be late. oh well. hopefully over this weekend i can dip into my ready-to-go file and make a page or two. thanks for your patience