Last graduation page.

Whew!  I'm done with the graduation album.  It was a fun project to do, but I'm glad it's done.  This is a layout of Ben and one of his friends, in front of the mural that his friend was involved in painting at their school.

Here's the sketch I used, from Let's Get Sketchy:

And I was inspired by the Graffiti challenge at Frosted Designs -- if you look closely, you'll see some misting peaking out from under the photos and embellishments there.  

Next I'm working on finishing the last few pages of our vacation from 2008!  We went on a Mexican cruise, did Disneyland and Universal Studios and visited family.  We had a great time  -- don't know why I haven't finished this up before.  The biggest problem I'm having?  I've grown and changed SO much as a scrapbooker since then.  There are a couple pages I'd like to rip apart and "fix".  And I'm trying to make these last few pages look like they go with the rest.  Ah well -- I'll probably end up adding some to a couple pages and leaving the ones I'm doing now pretty plain.  And then THAT album will be finished!

Almost Done!

Just a couple more layouts to go and then Ben's graduation book will be done!  Here is my latest installment :-)

 I was inspired by several challenges on this one.  I had made the decision to make the whole album in a burgandy, white, and black with some accents color scheme.  But after a while, they start looking the same -- which is why I love challenges that push me outside my box!  Lasting Memories had an Asian theme challenge -- never would have considered this pattern paper without the inspiration:

It's on the left, bottom.  To go along with it, I used some old, old, ollllld mullberry paper.  It's hard to see in the photos, but there are flower/leaf bits in the paper.  The pages started to come together -- but it still wasn't done.  Love to Scrap Challenge Blog had a challenge themed "Let's Fly Away" -- so  I added the "Landed Here" card (with an old-time plane on it) and then added the arrow pointing to VAAS (the name of the high school).  Since a stamp of some sort was required for the LTSCB, the "Fine & Dandy" and "Simply the Best" stamps filled in some space that was looking a bit bare.  Although they don't really fly away, the pin wheels came from this inspiration also.  

Next cam a challenge that I thought I might have to pass on -- Scrapbook Circle's Gold Challenge.  Bling is just not my thing.  But then DCWV came out with their September Stackaholic sketch and I LOVED it.  As I was flipping through my DCWV stacks to decide what to use -- the gold foil accents from the Tradewinds stack popped out at me.  Love this stack.  But it is REALLY hard to photograph.  I added some washi tape and ribbon and that gorgeous bling swirl.  

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

Oops, forgot my title.  Here's another look at each side:

And some details:

And my last layout (for now :-) -- is our dinner at Brent's.  I used the right side of this Let's Scrap sketch:

And here's the layout:

It's also for the Lasting Memories challenge, "Let's Celebrate".  After all the stress the last few weeks before graduation, we were definitely celebrating!

Another Blog Post? Already?

I have been really working hard at finishing up Ben's graduation photos.  And then I can move on to older ones.  LOL.  I've been tempted by Shutterfly's 99 for 99 cent prints, but holy moly, I've got tons of photos still to scrap.  And they'll do it again :-)

So today -- inspired by several challenges again, I have two double page layouts.  Here's the first one:

 Pictures of Ben with two of his BFFs (who graduated the year before) - along with some teachers, administrators and staff -- including the Police Officer on Campus (Officer Flores).  Ben was never in trouble with Flores, but he got to know him over the years.  Neither of my boys are intimidated by cops -- and often talk to them when they run into them here and there.  The left page was inspired by this sketch from Pretty Little Studio:

I pulled out the folder tab from my stash from ages ago and sorta turned the sketch sideways.  Then I did the companion page (right side) to go along with.  Both pages were also inspired by this color challenge at Let's Capture our Memories:

I used the red and black and light yellow -- with some tan but not quite the same shade.  I had been sticking with black, white and a more burgandy, but these photos look great with these colors -- and it made a little change from the stark white.  The background is from a Recollections stack and all the rest is scraps and bits and bobs -- love using up leftovers.

Here's the next spread:

These were for different challenges.  The left side (the Tynis) is based on a sketch from Sketches in Thyme (newly returned and with a new DT)

And the right side is based on a sketch from Let's Capture Our Memories:

Did you notice I even added bling?  I am so not bling-y.  But I added a few pops on the journaling card and the ribbon across the right top.

There's so much inspiration out there -- and I'm loving being able to spend some time scrapping while my guys are working.  Thanks for checking out what I've been doing.

Seriously? More Graduation?

More graduation -- and more challenges.  I've really been getting back into the swing of scrapping after a long time of not doing much.  AND I've done some organizing/sorting/getting rid of.  Yay me!  I can't believe some of the little bits and bobs I've kept.

I also made a "Happy Fall Y'all" banner for my mantle.  DH and DS came home late (they work 'til midnight) and didn't say anything.  This morning, DH had been up for hours, was talking to me, stopped mid-sentence to stare at the fire place.  "What's that?"   sigh.  Yes, well, it makes me happy.

So -- here is the first 2-page layout.  The right side is based on a sketch from Paper Secrets:

Here's my take on it:

I especially like the font (cut from my silhouette) on the newspaper print.  Here's the 2 page spread:

I love the font (Gilligan's Island) for the Seriously?  You don't notice that I sent the "e" through my Xyron X the wrong way and so it's backwards.  Oops.  And somehow I lost the dot under the question mark -- so I thought I'd just add it with a white chalk marker, right?  Only then it blurped.  So I added a hole punched circle.  "Seriously" is all about the shoes -- and my journaling explains that Ben DOES have nicer shoes and we even offered to buy him new ones if he wanted/needed them.  But he insisted on wearing old, blown out, slip on sneakers.  But at least he had a shirt, tie and pants on.  As a parent, you pick your battles.  sigh.

This next layout is a twofer -- I used a Let's Scrap sketch (from their new blog, woo hoo!) and a challenge over at Scrap Our Stash (I love how they inspire me to use up stuff  -- like the pencils in that border, had them for years -- and the school doilies/chalboard label?  Got those in an RAK two or three years ago).  Here's the sketch:

And the Scrap our Stash challenge gave you two lists -- you need to include at least one from List A and at least 3 from List B.  I included Lined or Ruled paper (the grid paper) and Chalboard paper (my title label) from List A.  From List B, I included Pencil or Pen (the pencil border), Alphas (background paper with lettering), Numbers (one of the doilies with the flashcards), Apple (apple doily).  Such a fun challenge.

Here's my layout "High School Hijinks" (Ben and his friend Corey messing around with Mr. Harris, one of his favorite teachers):

I love that I caught Mr. Harris adjusting his glasses, LOL.  I think I was talking to Dana about the bicycle paper -- the red on the right is the reverse of the blue on the left.  the title is on the chalkboard circle.  I had fun with this one.  

Thanks for checking in!