One, One, Two, Two.

 

That's one birthday, one scrapbook paper line, two celebrations, two layouts.

All of the paper packs I bought at the last LSS yard sale I attended turned out to be sets. The one set, It's Your Day by FancyPants, worked perfectly for both the birthday layouts I wanted to do for Kelsey.

The first layout showcases the party she had with her friends:

 

 

 

And then there's this one (which I did crop, but must not have saved)  from her actual birthday, which we spent in Toronto for the Tigers/Jays game. Before the game, we had time for supper at Wayne Gretzky's (a miracle in itself, considering I got us lost) where our server discreetly presented Kelsey with this #99 brownie puck. Kelsey was relieved there wasn't a big song and dance like at many restaurants!

Both layouts used pieces of the same 'strips of patterns' paper and a patterned background, unlike my usual cardstock base. The first layout also used two journaling cards, one matted onto another. The title on the first one was already part of the paper, while I stamped and embossed the 'celebrate' on the second.

Yard Sale Results

Today, I went back to Scrapping Turtle to pick up whatever was left of my yard sale items and spend my store credit. Of the $20 of product I dropped off, $15.50 sold with only a pack each of paper and journaling cards left over. After wandering the store, I left with these goodies:

 

I needed a new bottle of my favourite glue  and a Distress Ink re-inker in Broken China, which would have more than used up my gift certificate (especially since I got the big glue bottle), but that seemed so boring. I was eyeing up this journaling stamp set when I dropped my stuff off last week and decided to pick it up along with a few sheets of project-specific papers. All in all, it cost me an additional $21.42 for everything. Looking at the picture, it sure doesn't look like much but the majority of my purchases really are good investment pieces and it all makes me very happy!

Yard Sale Haul

One of my favourite LSS's, Scrapping Turtle, holds two yard sales each year where customers can sell their unwanted scrappy items for store credit. Yesterday was their fall sale, which I took full advantage of as both a buyer and a seller. Earlier this week, I sent in a small stash of items, including some unloved paper, stickers, embellies, journaling cards, ribbon, a double copy of a Cricut cartridge and a wrong-sized Xyron refill. If it all sold, I'll be the happy owner of a $20 Scrapping Turtle gift certificate. Not a whole lot, but I sell for cheap to get rid of as much as possible!

Coincidentally, what I picked up at the sale cost me $20. Here's a shot of what I got:

 

Lots more paper, a couple acrylic stamp sets and an embellie pack that I bought solely for the ric rac it contained. Below is a closer shot of the beautiful green, purple, white and pink ric rac:

And here is a shot of the stamp sets. One I bought for being really pretty, the other because I thought it could be useful. There was a really fun Halloween set I debated, but I've already got numerous Halloween stamps that don't get enough love. Also in this shot is some  yellow and white ribbon/lace, metallic leaves and some old fashioned die cuts that were all in the embellie pack, none of which I'm particularly fond of:

When I dropped my stuff off, the owner told me there were a lot of people unloading their Cricut cartridges. I was pretty excited about this, because most of their customers are die-hard manual die-cutters...or so I thought. I got there a little better than an hour after they opened the doors and not a single cartridge was to be found! Disappointing, but not enough to want to be part of the opening rush. The lineup starts somewhere around one hour before the doors open and it is a crazy, mad dash once they do. I've only gone once and that's when I learned the benefits of going an hour or two into the sale.
You see, the first wave of people grab up anything and everything they think looks interesting. Then once they've collected all they want or can carry, they go off to a corner to sort through their stash or simply reject items at the check out. I'm not aggressive or motivated enough to push my way into the crowds, so scavenging through the leftovers after the crowds have slowed and the tables have been restocked is a far more effective strategy for me. Maybe I don't get the cream of the crop, but I've never walked away empty-handed or unhappy!
Later this week, I'll give an update on how I fared in the selling department and what I bought with my gift certificate.

Me Layouts That Almost Didn't Happen.

The blog title really says it all. Me layouts. Some scrappers hate to do them, some love them. While I don't mind having my picture taken and I've made a few me layouts, there are many, many more that I've thought up of but never made. Me layouts seem.....indulgent and narcissistic. But they are just as important as layouts of our kids, husband, extended family and friends. This post is about two I had to talk myself into making because of the importance of the story behind them. 

 I very nearly didn't print the pictures for this first layout because they're not really all that complimentary. But they were funny, as were the stories behind them.  I used a Pagemaps sketch to create this (sorry, I made this layout months ago, so I'm not sure exactly which one anymore) and I chose the patterns and colours to mimic those in the pictures. The circles were made from glass rims and lids dipped in Mr. Huey's.

 

Now for the next layout. The picture on the right was taken for pure curiosity purposes. The fact that it was made into a layout had more to do with finding the perfect patterned paper (MME, Lost and Found 2 double-sided sheet with the oval mirrors pattern on one side, the tape measure on the other.) and me being pretty impressed with the results I saw when I compared the two pictures.

The journaling tells the story:

The title was backed onto the UPC strip at the bottom of the patterned paper. I love it when they give you a sample of the backside of the paper on those strips! Every usable bit of that paper was utilized for this layout. The butterflies are compliments of my scrappy friend, Sondra, who die cut them for me from her homemade paper stash. The colours worked perfectly. Thank you, Sondra!

And, just to show you why that last layout meant so much to me, here's the layout I made one year ago about attaining my weight loss goal. Since then, I've been successful at maintaining my weight somewhere between my original goal and five pounds below it.

I'm happy I got these layouts done. They're important moments to me that have helped shape my family's story. Some of my me layout ideas? Not so much. But I guess that's why they didn't become any more than an idea.

A Simple Birthday Layout

This layout practically fell together. All of the paper, save the kraft background, was from my scrap bin. There was so little cutting required, it was almost as if the scraps were made for this layout.  Even the title was a quickie design off a Cricut cartridge. Best of all, Scott loves how it turned out!

Good Stuff

This is one of my favourite pictures taken so far this year. Cole was sitting with me while helping Scott with some of his birthday scratch tickets when Scott took it. I changed it to black and white to blur a vein showing on my forehead and to neutralize the bright, busy background. I'm glad I did, the black and white photo allowed me to have some colour fun with the layout.

All of the patterned papers are scraps. The circle is a combination of patterned paper, stamped and embossed black cardstock and some trim I found in my latest bag of thrift store ribbon. The paper ribbons were made from the UPC strips on the bottoms of the patterned paper and outlined in black ink. The colours were just too pretty, and perfectly coordinated, to waste!

Why I Love My 2012 Album.

For Christmas, my mom got me a We R Memory Keepers album, and while my Pebbles Inc albums of the last couple of years were good, these babies are awesome! It's all in the page protectors. WeR took the regular 4x6 sleeves and made them something more interesting:

I love how they mix up sleeve sizes and orientation. It gives me so many more options.

Sometimes, I even use them for their intended time-saving abilities, like this layout where I had more photos I wanted to use than I could fit on my layout:

Mostly though, the time I save is with picture placement, leaving me some extra creative energy for titles and journaling. This Batman inspired page is my favourite so far:

The symbol is clip art I found online. All of the blue on the symbol, I filled in with Glossy Accents. The star and title (which I really think should be spelled 'shazaam' but it wouldn't fit, and seeing it's not a real word, I took artistic licence and made it work) were cut from my Cricut, the journaling tag was made from a Halloween stamp, the ric rac was in a scrap ribbon pack I got thrift store shopping....and is an amazingly perfect match to the blue I used. Also an amazing fluke!

One thing I'm not so fond of: they're all top-loading. I'll have to put some tape on the doggie and Batman pages to keep the titles in place. Otherwise, I'm downright smitten!