Category Archives: Scrapbooking

The Family Narrative

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NYTimes.com - Sarah Williamson

NYTimes.com – Sarah Williamson

Recently Becky Higgins wrote a great post, “Project Life Can Save the World”. In it she wrote about the importance of the family unit.  I would recommend reading it.  However, her basis for the blog post was an article in the New York Times titled, “The Family Stories That Bind Us”.  I strongly recommend you read this article.  If you have time for only one, pick the Times article.

A layout I completed to tell a story about me.

A layout I completed to tell a story about me.

How important is the family narrative?  This article makes a case that THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do for your family is to make sure they know the stories of who and where they, you, and your ancestors came from.  The positive stories, but also the stories where your family came through a tough time.  The big stories and the everyday stories, as well as the big events and traditions and the little sayings and doings. These stories give our children a sense of belonging which in turn gives them confidence in who they are.  They are able to weather the tough times.

A layout from my Project Life Album of 7 on the 7th. Been doing this for 2.5 years. Just photos and journalling. Love seeing our lives change in these pages.

A layout from my Project Life Album of 7 on the 7th. Been doing this for 2.5 years. Just photos and journaling. Love seeing our lives change in these pages.

Because I am packing to go on a scrapbook retreat next weekend with my sister and my niece this story really made sense to me.  Sometimes I feel guilty spending time on scrapbooking or going on a retreat, but documenting our stories is a good thing for me to do.  I enjoy it.  It relaxes me.  It makes me happy when I go back and look through my pages and remember.  However, it is also good for my family.  No, this isn’t the only way that my boys know who they are and where they have come from, but it is a part of conveying that narrative.  I am telling and recording our stories…and that is a very good thing.

How do you tell and record your family stories?  Do you journal, scrapbook, video, blog, or something else?

December Daily Journaling

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Source: Write Click Scrapbook - Amy Sorenson

I know it is already December 5th, but I am curious, do you do a special scrapbook project for December?

Every year, Ali Edwards does a December Daily album. It looks like a wonderful idea, and I am sure I would love it in the future, but I have never tried it.  Just don’t think I could keep up during this busy time of year.

However, how about a Christmas Book of December Days by Amy Sorenson.    She wrote about it on Write Click Scrapbook.  It is very similar to a 5 Year Journal concept.  One that I wrote about at the beginning of the year about my Journal. I have not done well with it at all this year.  Once an a while I write in it, but I don’t do it often.  I do love then I do find previous year entries. The beauty of this book is that I can keep adding to it every year whenever I do.  My philosophy is…it is better than nothing. Each time I write, it is one more memory captured.

The 5 year journal concept for Christmas sounds more doable.  What do you think?  Do you journal about your advent and Christmas?  Or are you barely surviving the season?

Being Pampered is So Nice

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Over the last couple of months my computer was really acting up and getting so slow.  Doing anything on the computer was time-consuming and frustrating.  Last Monday we had someone come over to see if it could be fixed.  Bad news, it couldn’t, my hard drive was going.  Good news, my hard drive hadn’t gone, and I still had my data.  It has been really hard to blog or work on my Etsy Store.  But last night I got a new hard drive installed.  Today I got most of my programs working again. My computer is FAST.  I think I am back in business.

In the meantime my sister, Lynette, and I  went to a scrapping retreat at a Bed and Breakfast 30 minutes north of where I live in Washburn, North Dakota. Doris, the Creative Memories Consultant hosted.  The bed and breakfast, Devonshire House was so lovely.  It was a restored hotel from the early 1900s.  The rooms each had a theme.  Most of them a different country.  Ours was the Apple Blossom room.

The breakfast’s were always candlelight with harp music playing.  We were treated like royalty.

Betty, the wonderful owner, complete focused on the details.  It made all the difference to our comfort.

It snowed most of the time, and we even had Christmas music playing.  No, I am not ready for Christmas, but for some reason I felt like I had been whisked away to a winter wonderland, so it felt, right.

We got some scrapping and chatting done too. I completely relaxed, so I was ready to fast to week, especially without my computer for the first couple of days.

Have you gone on any retreats lately?  If not, plan one.  Everyone needs one.

Recent Scrapbook Layouts

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Here are a few of the layouts I completed at Maplelag.

When I saw this photo of Big M. I knew I had to do a layout to feature it.  So I just wrote about this man the first things that came to my mind.  I really like how it turned out.

I love to mix my layouts up with current photos as well as older ones.  These photos were from 2003.  We took our boys to two different live shows. The photos weren’t great, so I kept putting it off.  However, this time I decided to just scrap them, because I wanted to record that we did take the boys to shows they really enjoyed…Dragon Tales and Bob the Builder.  I didn’t want to do separate layouts, so I put them on one page in a messy style.  Not my favorite layout ever, but I love that I have finally captured these memories.

My favorite movie of all times is the 1988 movie, Beaches.  There is a part where one of the characters notices that her hands and her daughters are similar.  She digs through photos to find ones of her Mother’s hands.  I have noticed that my hands are looking more like what I remember my Mom’s looked like at my age, so I did a quick 8 x 8 layout to capture those thoughts.

There is a trend of 6×6 paper pages in the scrapping industry. I like the paper because the scale is smaller than 12×12 paper.  There where two photos I took this year that I wanted to capture the memory.  I did not want to do a large layout for these photos, so I did small layouts.  The first one is a view I see every morning when Z is working on his school work.  He is a junior this year, so we only have 1 3/4 years left to do this.  Wanted to freeze this memory.  The other layout is of JV with his hair long.  For years we always buzz cut it, but now it is long enough to stick up.  I love doing quick and easy, yet cute layouts to capture a memory.

Finally my favorite layout I did was this Mr. Spider layout.  I was able capture some photos of our garden spider spinning a web around a grasshopper.  I used some fun paper from Creative Memories called Enchanted and the rustic fence border punch from their new border system.

I am looking forward to another weekend retreat that my sister and I are going on next weekend.  I have more I want to scrap. I can’t seem to find time to scrap unless I go on a retreat.  How do you find time for your hobbies?

Maplelag Weekend Recap

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It was a beautiful weekend in Callaway, Minnesota at Maplelag for our scrapping weekend this past weekend.  Look at the view of the lake when the sun was rising.  It was breath-taking.  My sisters, niece and I took a few walks.

Most of the trees were yellow along the paths.  Many leaves had fallen, but it was still gorgeous. We came across a snake.

Ok, it was just a garter snake, but it still was a snake.

We even went walking at dusk into dark.

But never fear, I had my stick to protect us from bears.

But just in case you think we just took in the beautiful weather and scenery, here we are at our scrapping tables.  We actually all got a lot done over the 3.5 days.  I finished 22 scrapbook pages and one mini book, got caught up on Project Life, and made 27 cards. Definitely productive.

The four of us had plenty of laughs. My sister, Sue, had a birthday in September, so I brought her Mrs. Beasley, a doll she had when she was little.  Mrs. Beasley scrapped with us.

Help, where are you? I have to go to the bathroom.

She let us know when we ignored her.

This was our third year that the three sisters have gone on this retreat.  Here we are in 2009, our first year.

Here we are in 2010.

We didn’t go in 2011 because my niece got married that weekend We got dressed up instead.

And this year, 2012. Starting this yearly scrapping retreat with my sisters, and now my niece, is a wonderful thing that I look forward to every year.  I have two wonderful sisters, and a fantastic niece.  My other niece hopes to join us next year.  Looking forward to it already.

Do you do any retreats with family to just get away?

Switching Gears

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I had a wonderful weekend.  I went to an auction sale on both Saturday and Sunday.  I had a great time and found some fun items.  The sale on Saturday was outside in the backyard of the person selling the items.  It was set against beautiful hills.  It was sunny, no wind and 60 degrees.  It was absolutely a peace day.

But I probably should have been getting ready for next weekend.  I am now switching gears to scrapping.  The photo above is my floor.  I am trying to get ready for a Scrapbook Retreat with my sisters and niece.  We are headed to Maplelag, MN near Detroit Lakes for a 3 day scrapping and relaxation retreat.  With a little bit of hiking and a lot of chatting thrown in, it is a blast.  We arrive at 1 pm on Thursday and leave on noon on Sunday.  All meals are provided.  I really can’t wait.

This will be our third year doing this.  Last year we missed because my niece got married on the weekend of the retreat.  We kept teasing her that we weren’t sure which was more important, but we did go to her wedding. Happy 1 Year Anniversary, Lynae.

However, I haven’t scrapped since early spring so I have a lot to get ready for.  I will try to do a post on purchases from this weekend, but there will be fewer posts this week.  Then next week I hope to get back into my blog, It’s Still Life Etsy and of course, junking.  I have finished putting tthings away from last weekend’s funky junk vintage sale.  Everything is now inventoried or donated.  So glad a lot of it sold. It feels great.

Do you have a hobby that takes you away from it all?

Design Challenge – 1

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I love taking classes at Big Picture Classes.  I just started a new one called, Design Challenges from Elizabeth Dillow.  It started today.  A fun part of this class is that Stacy Julian will be creating a page based on the challenge and then showing it to us via video. 

The first challenge was to make a layout based on a familiar form.  I took it as something that I see everyday.

I knew immediately that I wanted to make a layout based on the My Classes page on Big Picture Classes.  Above is the view when you click on the Design Challenges page to sign up, but you get the idea. 

I am not a digital scrapper, however, I decided to try this layout digitally.  It went so quickly.  I am so pleased with this layout that captures my boys…right now.  The gray lines state specifics about each of the boys, and the right hand column are things that they both do right now. I would not have done this layout without this class.  Life is changing so quickly; I know I am going to love looking back on it to see what the boys were into at this time.

You can still sign up for Design Challenges through May 2. I don’t get anything for telling you about this class. I just think it is fun and motivational. If you want some motivation to scrap, go check it out.

Morning Light

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The house we have lived in this past five years has the back facing to the southeast.  This means our dining/living room (which are connected) have streams of morning sun. 

In the winter we have short days, cloudy skies and little sun.  We just do not get a lot of sun.  So one morning I had to capture the morning sun streaming into our house.  The light of a new day.  A reinforcement that God is good and He is in control.

I finally scrapped again.  I haven’t scrapped since I finished LOAD at the end of February.  It so a simple page, but now that we are finished homeschooling, I hope to get in some scrap time.

Have you captured the morning light in your home?

Layout a Day in February – Part 2

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I am actually glad that February is over.  It was an awesome month full of the boys’ activities, but I still fit in a few minutes here and there for my hobby of scrapbooking. However, I am tired.  A few things were put off this past month. I think I need to do some deep cleaning. 

Here are a few more layouts I completed.

Three more 12 x 12 layouts and one 12 x 6.  I have been wanting to try a 12 x 6 layout.  This one seemed perfect.  It is a picture of the house where Big M proposed to me.  I wanted to write the story.  Since it was going to be journal heavy, I opted for this size.  I will definitely do more of this size in the future.

Here are two layouts that are 11 x 8.5 and a two page spread of 8×8 for my Photos I Love Album.  I have an album where I do a two page spread in this similar style.  It is one photo that isn’t necessarily a photo that is technically perfect, but one that brings out some strong emotional feelings.

Here are three layouts that are 8.5 x 11 and one 12 x 12.  You will notice that there are no pictures on the one layout.  I wanted to do a layout about my dream of seeing Versailles, so I found a photo of a map and did a fun layout, then journaled about my dream and put it behind the layout with a pull out tab.  I think I will be doing more of this type of layout in the future.  I scrap memories, not photos. Sometimes I do not have a photo for the memory I want to scrap.  This was a fun way to get that memory down.

The 12 x 12 layout of Everyday Counters was the last layout I did.  I just took photos of my things on my countertops earlier this month.  I think it will be fun to see what was there in a few years when my boys are gone.  I wish I could see what was on my Grandma’s countertops.  So I keep that in mind when I scrap.  What would I like to know about my Grandma or my Mom?  Then I do a layout of what is happening right now.  Technology and life changes so fast and it is easy to forget. 

So that is it.  Most of my layouts from this month.  Yes, I scrap all sizes of layouts.  I do whatever I feel like doing for a particular story. I will take a few days break and get back into my Twelve class.  So I hope to get 12 layouts done this month.  But I won’t be too worried if I don’t. 

Do you scrap different sizes or do you scrap all of the same size?

If you want to see the layouts up close or with some explanations go to my Flickr account.

Linking up to: …Sunday's Best Linky Party!

 

Layout A Day In February – Part 1

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It has been a busy month.  Winter finally arrived in North Dakota causing road issues.  We are supposed to get a blizzard tonight. I am still hoping it misses us.  In February, Z has been busy with swimming.  His high school team has done well and so has he. They took 2nd in their Regional tournament last weekend.  He will be swimming at the State Meet this coming weekend.  JV has had basketball all month long.  He is playing in the 7th grade B2 championships tonight.  We have hit a hard stretch in homeschooling as well, so busy with that.  Junkin’ continues to be slow.  Haven’t been able to find time to hit an auction sale with all of the boys’ activities, and the few times I hit a thrift store, there hasn’t been anything of interest.  I continue to have some sales in my ETSY Shop, but I have been neglecting my shop, so I need to refocus on my shop next month.

In between all of that I joined LOAD with Lain Ehmann.  Yes, I am crazy. I have been doing a layout almost every day.  I think I missed 2 days. This has fit in well with my Twelve class, but I have not been keeping up on the homework.The prompts have been on Past Perfect so many of my layouts are from the past, but not all. I thought I would share many of the layouts I created.

These layouts are all 12×12 or 8×8. If you want to see them with more information, you can go to my Flickr page for more details. Come back tomorrow to see more layouts of all sizes.