This is it! This is where all the magic happens! I made these layouts to show off my fabulous scrapbooking area. Adam was such a trooper to give me this room to do with as I pleased (although the computer and piano are sharing my space right now, hmmm- might need to change that..) I embellished the pages with chipboard swirls that I painted black, and embossed with clear powder.  I used some Stampin' Up stamps with black ink, random flowers and brads.  I journalled about my love for scrapbooking on a piece of vellum. The room has changed quite a bit since I scrapbooked these pics in 2009- I now have a huge clip-it-up type shelf with a ribbon holder (that my dad made- it rocks!), adjacent to the shelf of cubes. And my room is an utter mess- these pictures make it look nice and neat, but don't believe it, they are deceiving!

Addicted!

So, I'm slowly becoming addicted to the world of blogging- really not sure why I didn't figure it out years ago. Oh well, here I am now! And as you can see, I did NOT figure out how to scan the pictures, but instead how to crop them and pose them all pretty-like. FYI, the biggest scanner I could find in Red Deer only would scan 11.5x17- and all us scrapbookers know that generally layouts are 12x12.  I had my sis-in-law/BFF (yup, I still rate my friends, lol), phone around and to purchase one was an even more difficult task; which usually equals EXPENSIVE! So, we played around on her computer for hours, while listening to the kids slowly killing each other in the background (it was almost a 'Lord of the Flies' situation), and found a program to crop the pics for free!! Not only did it crop the pics how I wanted them, but also re-sized them so that they are fewer mega pixels- therefore taking up much less space on my blog.  Wow, what I have learned in just a few days.  Just watch, in a year I will be a computer genius!!!

This layout is one of my faves of the girls! The picture was taken in the summer of 2010 at Wilderness Village.





To embelish this layout, I used random embroidery thread, compliments of my mom:) I layered different colors/sizes of flowers, which are a staple in my scrapbooking.  The clear ribbon adds a hint of something fun along with the 'Beautiful' rub-on. Really, who cares about the embellishments though, look at those beautiful girls!!

Thanksgiving, 2010: This is the 2nd year we have gone to The Jungle Farm to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family. This year, Adam was working, so the kids and I were joined by Nana and Papa, Adam and Ashley and family, and friends of theirs.  It was a much warmer year to go and we had a blast! Even more fun, was creating these layouts to remember the day by! I used a combination of Stampin' Up papers, and some fun paper I got at Scrapbooker's Paradise. Two of the sheets of paper from Scrapbooker's Paradise that I used had squares of  "embelishments", that I cut out and used on the layouts, including the black and white 'seeds' paper, article/pea cut-out, 'ready,set,grow' circle, cow cut-out, award cut-out, 'October' square, and journalling square.  I took a strip of paper and folded it to have a ribbon-like effect, and weaved ribbon through the folded paper on the second layout. The layouts were accented with Stampin' Up buttons and random pieces of ribbon.  The red border along the pictures in the first layout is a rub-on. 

Confessions...

Ok, so I must admit I am FAR from technology-savvy. My husband just showed me last week how to upload pictures onto the computer (yup, seriously). So, I am quite proud of myself for somehow navigating my way through setting up a blog site- all for the love of scrapbooking (awwww).  So, tomorrow brings another challenge for me- attempting to now SCAN the pictures so it doesn't look like an 8-year old set up this blog site. Good thing my sister-in-law knows what shes doing, after all, this was her idea to begin with! God love her...

Oooh, ooh I have a blog!

How exciting! Now, I can't really trade my husband for paper, though sometimes its tempting. My love for him is pretty much equal to that of scrapbooking (kidding, geez...) Perhaps this will turn into a men-bashing blog instead of its original intent! All jokes aside, I love my husband.  I love my kids. They are who I scrapbook, and why I scrapbook.  Without them, I'd be out of a hobby! I love this hobby, and very much value the preservation of our memories through this pasttime of mine.  I look forward to some good conversations, perhaps a few debates, insight, more ideas and building on my creativity.  Bring it on!