Yo Ho, Yo Ho

Another layout from our Disney trip -- these are from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  The photos are horrible, way dark, etc.  But -- I love some of the details -- the lamp over David's head, the arch behind Scott.

I ran across this sketch challenge at Scrappin-Peeps (the new message board a bunch of ClubCK alum have put together).  So I pulled these pics to go, but still wasn't sure -- then remembered there was a distressing technique challenge at 2 Broke Girls.  So I filed my photos and paper edges and inked my title and journaling  card.  The journaling, by the way, is dialogue from the ride.  Not my most favorite layout ever, but I like how it came out.

Trouble

These photos are from 1997 -- Ben just a year.  It was the summer he learned to walk.  He crawled so fast, he couldn't be bothered to slow down and learn to walk.  That train was a favorite.  The photos were all taken at Bob and Lois' "farm" in Le Grand, CA (outside Merced).

Love the blue background for these photos.  Inspiration comes from several places for these pages -- love it when various challenges all come together.  Two challenges on 2 Broke Girls -- a quote (Be the best version of You) and Word (He or She).  At Child's Play the inspiration was the game of Trouble.  Well, when I think of Trouble, I think of my baby Ben.  LOL.  So, I went looking for a sketch and found one at Let's Scrap.

Here are my pages:

Comparing Scars

This photo is from last Thanksgiving -- after dinner, we went back to my Aunt's house.  She and David had a chance to compare scars from similar carpal tunnel surgeries.  It cracked me up to see them.  My aunt's usually much more prim and proper.

I used a sketch from Let's Capture Our Memories  - their second for the month of May.  And I was inspired to scrap this photo of my aunt, who has always been a mother figure to me, but even more so since my own mom passed away, by the challenge over at 2 Broke Girls.  I am loving their challenges!  Both of these sites are fairly new to me and with the closing of the CK forums/Club, I'm sure I'll be relying on them for inspiration more and more.

Here's my layout:

I used my new Plaid mask/stencil (way cheaper than the "scrapbooking" ones) for the pattern behind the photo.  And a "border strip" 6 x 6 page from the Nikki Sivils packet I won forever ago provided my journaling/title strip and flower embellishment.  I added an old "band aid" die cut (have had since Ben was born!)  Love using up my stash!  Although David would probably say I love shopping for more stash even more than using it :-)

Links to where I have photos

Old  CK Gallery 

Flickr Photostream

It's (not) a Small World after all

This layout is for several challenges and is,again, from our trip to Disneyland.  The hidden journaling on the tag that starts out "Waiting" talks about how I get bored and start taking pictures.  And the boys love it.  Not.

The journaling at the bottom explains why that picture of people we don't know on the boat is funny.  They put too many, fairly large, people on the boat and it bottomed out.  They couldn't get it to float.  So they had to bring over a thing for some of the people to get out and then re-position everyone.  I would have been mortified, but they were laughing about it.

So -- challenges that this layout was inspired by:

Sketch from Let's Scrap for this week
The color is for About a Boy's challenge to scrap with white plus one
I chose my title and music notes for 2 Broke Girls inspiration challenge

I think that's all.  A lot of people wouldn't scrap these pics -- but they are a part of our trip and the kinds of things we do to amuse ourselves LOL.

A couple more

I've got a couple more layouts to share -- again for a smattering of challenges.  This first is from our Spring Break trip to Disneyland -- the Haunted Mansion.  I love the architecture and all the details from this attraction.  My title comes from the song the "heads" sing in the graveyard scene "Grim Grinning Ghosts" -- and I'm had it swimming around in my head for days. (When you hear the knell of a requiem bell, Weird glows gleam where spirits dwell, Happy haunts materialize, They begin to harmonize...Grim, grinning ghosts come out to socialize....)

For this one, I used the May Stack-a-holic sketch from DCWV:



I only had one photo and I turned the bulk of the sketch on it's side.  But -- it's where I started :-)
I used some old papers -- the background is one page from the Heirloom Stack, then I did some fussy cutting of another  page for the "banner" at the top and the photo mat.

The next layout is different for me -- pastel!  I do so much with deeper, richer colors; but there were several challenges that all came together in this one:

Still more pictures from Disneyland -- Toon Town this time.  I think I'll still add some journaling strips to the left bottom, but not sure.  This is from a sketch at Let's Scrap:

Challenge 162 for this week is to use pastels and a stamped image (by birds and their motor home on the left page).  Also at Love to Scrap!Challenges you had to choose either pastels or primaries and add your stamped image (always a stamped image).  Since I needed an embellie, I turned to buttons, thanks to Child's Play Challenges.

My Boys

These pictures were snapped while we were waiting outside the restaurant on Thanksgiving for my aunt and cousins to arrive.  Ben looks like such a hipster with his Vonnegut in his back pocket :-)

The layout is based on a sketch from Let's Scrap and was inspired by the challenge to do a layout in all brown at 2 Broke Girls.  The journaling on the side is from a Club CK download and challenge.  Love my challenges :-)

The picture of the layout isn't great -- it's on my desk/table with overhead lighting at night.  But one of the challenges is about to close...LOL

Wallop -- Cats have Staff

This is for several challenges again.  Photos my son took of our cat, Wallop.  The journaling card I pulled off of Facebook and fussy cut.  I know the middle photo is coming out horribly, but it's night time and this is as good as it gets right now.

The pp is G45 "French Country" -- I used both sides of it.  Love their papers.  Cardstock is just some I had around -- probably Coredinations.  To do the paw prints, I used a CK font "Good Dog" and cut a strip with my Cricut/SCAL and then used ink to "stamp" them  

The layout is based on a sketch from Let's Capture Our Memories.  I was also inspired by CK's 1-Hour Challenge to stamp a background and the challenge to stamp a bird cage or bird at 2 Broke Girls.  I love challenges -- they stretch me and add to my scrapping.  

Not My Circus

I found this monkey die cut (a freebie from SVG Attic) and then the quote on Pinterest  and I knew what I wanted to do with these photos.  Backstory -- we'd been to Thanksgiving Dinner (early) with my aunt and family and made our traditional stop at Downtown Disney on the way home.  We got hungry (it was an EARLY Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant, ok?  No seconds, etc.) and stopped at Rain Forest Cafe.  After eating, I got them to sit on the bench with the big monkey.  Then they got the brilliant idea that he needed one of Scott's cigarettes.  Really.  Where do they come up with this?  Must be their father's genes.  So here's my layout:

As I was working on it, I began to see the irony in it.  Thus, it's companion page was created:

My journaling: 

 "How Ironic The phrase “Not my Circus, Not my Monkeys” is a literal translation of a Polish Proverb, that more closely means “not my problem.”  Once I’d finished the layout, I realized how ironic it really was -- of course they’re “my monkeys”!  And yes, it’s “my circus”, this crazy life I lead.  And in a broader sense, the photos are from Rain Forest Café, which tries to impart to its guests the concept that the loss of the rain forest IS our problem, even if it’s not in our backyard.  I still like the layout and still will continue to try to deny ownership of some of the crazy things “my monkeys” do."

@The Park

Another layout from our spring break trip to Disney.  This one is from the hub and the other end of Main Street.  Lots of ducks and flowers and my 3 guys lazing on the bench.

The paper is Fawn Lawn -- the stuff I won from CK.  When I got it, I thought I'd be using the other sides (arrows, stripes, etc.) more than the flowers.  But I love how it works with this layout.  The cardstock is Coreinations (their Parisian pack) and the butterflies are from Studio 112/JoAnn's $1 bin.  The sketch is from Let's Scrap.

This layout is for several challenges -- The NSD #1 (book) at Let's Scrap.  And for The Lorax challenge at Child's Play Challenges.  The quote from the Lorax that I used is found in the journaling block on the far right:  "They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past; but sometimes I think progress progesses too fast."  Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and enjoy the flowers, trees and ducks.  It also is for the CK Weekly challenge to do a layout about flowers (wild or otherwise).

CA Mission Style

Photos of details from California Adventures.  For a Scrapbook Generations manufacturer's challenge (MME -- I used Lost & Found) and from a BPC sketch.

So Proud

Yet another graduation layout, yet another few challenges.  Based on a Scrapbook Generations sketch, CK's challenge to use Washi Tape, and Big Picture Classes' challenge to handwrite my journaling.

Laramie

So many challenges, so little time :-)

Today I used a Scrapbook Generations sketch, and inspiration from Child's Play  (Jump Rope) and from Big Picture Classes challenge #6 and CK's Blog (use paper scraps).  Using scraps is pretty easy for me -- I do it a lot.  All the paper except the Kraft background and the white matting are from scrap drawer.  Yay! I used "rope" (Baker's Twine -- which I hadn't used in ages) for the initial letter in the title.  I was going to use it for the whole title, but the letters were smaller than they looked and my Zip Dry glue is drying quicker than zip -- I think I need a new bottle.  Challenge number 6 at BPC is to push yourself outside of your usual techniques, supplies, etc.  I was going to stop with one border at the top, my matted photos and a title -- I am usually a pretty basic scrapper.  But I pushed myself to do more, add more, dig out some supplies I don't usually use.  So I used Washi Tape (well, Recollections tape) more than I ever have -- including making a flower.  I hadn't used my Baker's twine for a long time, so I used that on the title. I added some quotes.  And I'm so glad I did.  It's good to be challenged.

Photo Bomb

Asking the important questions in life -- Can you Photo Bomb your own photo?  My guys can.  Sigh.  I might not have scrapped these photos from DH's graduation.  I mean really?  But About a Boy has a challenge to capture your boys being boys.  Well, mine are all grown up, so they don't play in the mud with trucks....very often....any more.  But photo bombing is sooooo boy-of-a-certain age.  I borrowed a sketch from 2 Broke Girls (it's their DT call sketch)  and their challenge to share -- use two challenges in one layout.  So here it is:

This is my first layout today, (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day.