There's Hope for Unfinished Layouts - Standing Tall Together

This is the last layout I completed at the Crop Re-tweet. Believe it or not this layout has been sitting in my unfinished pile for well over three years. My best friend sent me these pictures and I just knew that I had to create a layout. So...I turned to my Pagemaps binder found a sketch for a two-page layout and got busy during a crop I attended when I was a CM consultant. From the start, I had trouble pulling it together, and over the years pulled it out over and over again, only to put it back in it's protective envelope. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't coming together, especially since I was starting out with a trusty sketch, which as we know can be turned and tweaked to make it fit your pictures and ideas.

Well while pondering this layout yet again last weekend, my friend and co-cropper said to me, maybe you should try a one-page layout instead, because it seems that you have too much space to make it a two-page layout. Light bulb moment and a big 'ole duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Why didn't I think of that? It's just been in the last couple of years that I've actually done one-page layouts, having always done full albums or at least two-page spreads. So why NOT do a one-page layout instead? Permission was all that was needed for me to move in a different direction, permission that I could have granted to myself had I been thinking outside of the box.

The layout is very simple and in my opinion it doesn't need lots of "stuff" because the pictures tell a story all by themselves. I am so glad that pictures are finally seeing the light of day on scrapbook page. The lesson learned was of course "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"

P.S. As I look at this layout onscreen, I am contemplating changing the journaling box from pink to same color used in the photo mat and then matting that with the pink. But...if I don't ever get around to doing it, that's okay too.

Preserving the Past - Grandma and Grandpa

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a weekend crop retreat in Tucson, my very first! I was invited by my friend Helen, whom I met through the Sistas Scrap Too MB over at cricut.com. To say that I had a wonderful time with the Scrapbook Chicks at their inaugural Crop Re-Tweet is an understatement. Had I not had a child and a job to return to, I might not have come home at all. Scrapbooking really is cheaper than therapy, but I digress.

I took everything with me, including the kitchen sink, and yet only got six or seven pages done. I have to do better. I'm on a quest to organize all of my embellies so that they're accessible at home, yet easy to grab for a crop. So yesterday, I purchased one of these at Michael's (with a 50% off Joann's coupon) in pink and purple. But again I digress because this is not the reason for my post.

I decided to pack layouts that had been in various stages of completion and work on those first. I began with two pictures of my grandparents and a sketch that was posted in April over at the SST Cricut MB. You can see the sketch here. So I got paper and embellies together and took them to a crop I went to in May I think it was. That kit never got touched, so I brought it with me to the retreat and am quite pleased with the results. This is the first time I have EVER done a layout about my grandparents and I have been scrapbooking for ten years.

I made an unintended slice through my grandmother's photo but was able to cover it with the embellishment and journaling tag. I was also drinking a bottle of water that had begun to sweat and a drop or two fell on my grandfather's photo. I decided that it didn't show and made the decision not to reprint the photo.

So before I end this post and share my pictures, let me tell you what I learned this time around. First, while it is important to scrap the everyday moments and events, it is equally important to preserve your history. Don't forget to tell those stories from the past. Second, if you make a mistake on a layout or damage a picture, it can often be repaired or disguised. Take this opportunity to see where your creativity will lead you. And finally, don't drink water over your layouts! Thanks for looking!

More of My Favorite Layouts

Thanks for looking!

Pages From My Sorority Scrapbook

I am on the scrapbook committee for my chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. My job this year was to design all of the section title pages. I had approximately a month to get all of the pages done and these are a few of the layouts that resulted.