Happy Monday!
Today is a holiday in my province – Family Day. For the last several Family Day’s we’ve spent it up at my sister-in-law’s cabin at Sasquatch Mountain Resort hanging with their family and also my husband’s cousin’s family but … this year we couldn’t swing it time-wise, and then my eldest came down with Covid. Sigh. No fire side chats. No hotly contested Croquenole tournaments. No après ski (or snow shoe for me) beverages.
And we’re not even all together today! Sigh. Time to retreat to my Scrap Cave and catch you up on what I have made for LOAD222.
Day 8 – Ross “We Were On a Break!”
For today we were to talk about what we do when we are on a break, be that Spring Break or a coffee break. Or we could talk about what we need a break from. And for technique we were to use a “broken” effect like paper tearing or distressing.
Since I’m attempting to get more stories from our UK trip in 2017 documented (in essence, a 3-week long ‘break’) choosing any set of photos would have been okay. These ones where we are having a post 9-hour international flight plus 30 minute bus ride into the centre of Glasgow snack, seemed doubly appropriate! My uncle had met us at the airport and ridden with us into Glasgow Central train station. He would take a train heading in one direction, while we were bound in the opposite direction to meet up with my Aunt Jean. While Greg bought our tickets, we bought sugary pastries and sugary and caffeinated drinks. Anything to keep the eyes open LOL
I found a sheet of paper from a Shimelle collection (Sparkle City?) that was covered in coffee cup images which I used to mat the photos – tearing it down the right hand side first. Everything went on a woodgrain back ground to bring in the colours of the train station building from the top photo. A grouping of journaling cards and accents in the lower right corner with the title was all that was needed to finish this page.
Day 9 – Phoebe “Smelly Cat”
We were scrapbooking about our pets for Day 9, or if we didn’t have pets, something from nature. For technique we were to use paw prints or botanicals. I think I managed to cover everything with this 6×8″ page for my 2021 December Memories Album. I’ve done quite a few layouts about our dog Scout, and wanted a new story to tell, so while flipping through my photos of him, I came across this one. As I say in my journaling, my girls are “too big” to want to go and see Santa but I was determined to get a photo of SOMEONE with the Big Guy, so Scout took one for the team. LOL.
I haven’t started my December Memories Album “officially” yet so it was a bit out of my comfort zone to jump right to December 19th – I typically do my December albums chronologically so as to keep the story both straight in my head, and consistent in voice. But a scrappers gotta do what a scrappers gotta do to get that LOAD layout completed! This year I treated myself to a Self Care Advent calendar from Cara at The Hooting Pirate. Each day leading up to Christmas Day I opened a package that was usually wrapped in a paper bag, and always sealed with a number sticker. I decided right then to use both the stickers and the packaging on my pages as a way to always remember how fun it was to open my very own Advent Calendar (seriously, if you get the opportunity to buy yourself an Advent Calendar GO FOR IT!) I also used some incredibly cute holiday dog stamps and dies from Avery Elle to create fun accents for my page.
Day 10 – The Frame
Do you remember how the peep hole on Monica’s apartment door had a frame around it? Well, in case it’s not obvious from the layout above, we were challenged to use a frame on our layout today. The story prompt was to scrapbook about something where you’re an observer, like looking through a peep hole. That didn’t resonate with the project I was working on, so I focused on using the technique prompt instead.
I have a lot of frames in my stash. It was all the rage to make your photos look like they were taken with an Instax camera several years ago, so many manufacturers came out with die cut frames. I’ve got several packets from Studio Calico in both card stock and vellum so I used a combination on this layout. As I had them all laid out on my desk, I realized they were in a mostly rainbow order so I embraced that by first using a black and white background, and then placing rainbow coloured embellishments in the corresponding frames. Oh, and the entire layout is in a frame of green card stock. Yep, think I nailed that technique prompt!
Day 11 – Geller Family Cup
For this day we were to talk about our competitive side or a competition you enjoy. For technique we were to use a Varsity font for our title. I am competitive but not as competitive as the rest of my family (I blame my husband) and I wasn’t really “feeling” the story about my own competitive side so … which of the many competitions that my children compete in should I talk about?
Total no-brainer. The fact that Marley’s Senior Girls Volleyball team made it all the way to Provincials this year (for the first time in about 10 years for her school) and then beat out some pretty tough teams to reach 7th in the province in her division! After not being able to play last year due to Covid, and not being able to watch a lot of her games this year (also due to Covid) getting the opportunity to be one of the parents allowed to watch on their first day of competition was awesome! I have always loved volleyball. In high school I was too intimidated by the “cool girls” to try out, but I played intramurals in university and then even joined a team as an adult for awhile too. I’ve never considered myself an athlete but volleyball has always been a sport I identify with. To see my girls (all of them) love it too is thrilling. To have watched Marley grow as a player over the last 5 years to this point where she was captain of her team and clearly a pivotal player on the court, is so heart warming. I hope she continues to play once she leaves for university, finding an intramural team of her own.
Day 12 – Joey’s Jobs
For Day 12 we were inspired by all the different jobs Joey had, to talk about the dreams we’ve chased and what it took to reach them. For technique we were to use clouds. This layout came together pretty easily. I am living my dream right now! In July of last year I opened an Arts & Crafts store with my friend Amanda. I now get to talk about all thing crafty all day long! I get to buy crafting supplies and show people how to use them. I get to invite creative and non-creative people alike into my space to bond over a craft. It’s amazing how crafty everyone really is!
I chose this photo of myself taken on our Grand Opening day in our store. Behind our desk hangs this piece that says “Do what you LOVE what you do” in our signature mint colour. I was pretty sure I had a piece of cloud print from Shimelle’s Starshine that combined our mint with our darker blue and sure enough, I did. I paired that with some newer papers from Pinkfresh’s Some Days 12×12 collection. I just love how soft this layout is.
Day 13 – The One With the …
I don’t often make double page spreads but sometimes, the number of photos I have to tell one story dictates more square footage! This was one of those occasions. For our prompt today we were to take inspiration from how the producers of Friends titled their episodes “The one with the wedding dresses”, “The one with the thumb”, “The one where everyone finds out”, you get the idea. And we were also to use a number. So this is called “The One With … the 3 Sisters”. Because I have 3 girls so they are the 3 sisters, and the mountain range behind us is also called the Three Sisters. See what I did there?
This range is located in Glencoe and was one of the last stops on our bus tour. As you can probably tell from the photos, the weather had turned a bit and it was windy and a bit rainy (it is Scotland after all!) Greg took the girls on a little hike down a nearby path, but I stayed behind to take photos of the hills with my DSLR camera. I may have a panorama photo somewhere but I haven’t printed it off. Taping a couple smaller ones together gives you the same idea.
The other thing I rarely use is photo-realistic papers like this one from Heidi Swapp. Somehow as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to use these photos on it. Took me long enough to get it done, but hey, I’ve been busy! And to keep from covering too much of the paper, I just kept everything else small and simple. No massive layers behind the photos, just simple mats and a few embellishments.
Day 14 – My Lobster
Being Valentine’s Day, of course we’d be scrapping about love. Specifically, who is our lobster, or someone in our lives who we are meant to be with. For technique we were to use an ocean or beach technique. Staying with my photos from the UK, these faces are all my lobsters! And bonus – we are at the seaside!
For the technique prompt, I found a Vicki Boutin paper with a wave pattern on it, then tore it to accentuate the wave. I actually tore it twice and layered the pieces up to create more of a wave effect. All in all a pretty simple page as most of it is photographs, but it just goes to show that sometimes you don’t need to do a lot to create a lot of impact.
Well, that’s week two all wrapped up. Today is the 21st so once I complete today’s layout, I’ll have completed 3 weeks of this LOAD222 challenge. Look for another post from me soon. And I’d love to hear from you. Do you like this post? Would you like to see more regular posts from me about scrapbooking and card making techniques? I’m also considering reviving my Words on Wednesday posts. What topics would you like me to cover? Post your thoughts in the comments. Cheers!
Have a great week everyone!
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