Busy Weeks Ahead!

As if they weren’t already busy enough! The Dance Quest performances are coming up this next weekend. We’ve already had many nights of long rehearsals and have a few more to go before the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon shows. Then, the big push to get everything ship-shape for DEA really starts, as that is only a couple of weeks away too! We had the nasty stomach virus going around town over the weekend too, and that didn’t help matters any around the house. I’ll probably be trying to catch up on all of the laundry that needs to be done for the next three weeks.

Here’s what I’ve managed to scrap recently. A mix of old and new ;)

I finally remembered to ask Mark for copies of the photos of his mom he scanned for the memorial service slide show. This is her high school senior portrait. It had some bad tears across her face, but I fixed them up in PSE and you would never know now. credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Impressions of Simplicity by the Studio Girls, Colour Theory: Creme (Alpha) by Flergs, fonts: CK Heritage, Bookman Old Style

Though I’m not officially doing a P365 project this year, I did still manage a photo a day in January. I’m not doing quite so well in February, but I’ll still put together a monthly page summary of what I do have probably LOL credits: 365 Remembered Vol 2- January Lauren Reid at SweetShoppeDesigns; Ice Storm by Flergs at scrapbookgraphics; fonts: Baby Boston

I may not be taking a photo a day this month, but I’ve got lots and lots of photos of dance rehearsals!! Here a just a few of Brenna's ballet group practicing their part in the Dance Quest production.
 
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Lola Rose and Glitter Foliage by Tangie Baxter, Dusk to Dawn (flowers), glitter style and Blaze Alpha by Flergs; Cookies for Kidz Template by Crystal Livesay from SweetShoppeDesigns; fonts: Arid ITC and Century Gothic

And  a few pictures from our last trip to the zoo before the winter weather came. I was finally able to get good pictures of the mountain lions and Marty the moose. They are usually sleeping when we are there. 
journaling: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is always good for an afternoon of fun and adventure. No matter how many times we go, there is always something new to observe and learn about the animals.
credits: Wild Hearts- papers, elements and alphas, Set My Soul on Fire elements(staple) by Pixel Works at scrapartist.com; Jumpers 33-36 by Crystal Livesay at scrapbookgraphics; fonts: Century Gothic

P365 Photobook Finished and Printed

I finally got my P365 album all put together and completed. There are several companies that print custom photobooks- the two  that I have always heard good things about for both quality of the printing and customer service are Shutterfly and MyPicTales. A year ago, the Christmas gift that The Crew was given by the Studio Girls at scrapbookgraphics was a photobook with layouts made by everyone on the Crew and a layout made for each of us by one of the designers. I ordered mine through MyPicTales (MPT) and was very pleased with the quality of the printing and the book itself. So, I decided to use them again for my album this year. The book software, Taleweaver, that they provide for putting together the books is pretty easy to use; I had watched a video from my local copy shop that is now printing photobooks in-house that uses similar software so I it didn’t take me too much fumbling around at first for me.

I can’t say enough about all of the help that Wendy gave me while I was working on this, particularly when I was trying to get the cover to look right. Her templates were a huge help to make sure everything was in the right place to not get cutoff during the printing and assembly process. I didn’t really have to worry about bleed on my pages inside the book this time because of the page design I used throughout, but I have used them in the past for other projects where that was important. Wendy, who also works for MPT as a customer service representative and printing consultant, spent a lot of time with me answering my questions and helping me get the cover looking just right. Thanks, Wendy!

I ordered my book Monday afternoon, it was printed and shipped  by Wednesday, and in my hands Friday afternoon. Even better, it was just like I wanted it! :)

Here are some pictures of my actual book. Those who have been following my blog for a while know that this isn’t the cover I originally designed for my book. I liked the other one, but after putting the whole book together I decided it just didn’t flow with the look of the pages. So, I made a new one using the awesome “Snapping and Scrapping” kit from The Daily Digi. I started with one of the quick pages that came with the kit, and dressed it up to use as my cover and the altered it a bit for the back cover and the title page too. credits: The Daily Digi Scrapping & Snapping at TheDailyDigi.com; MyPicTales Toolkit: Templates Only by Wendyzine at scrapbookgraphics

title page credits (shown below):  The Daily Digi Scrapping & Snapping at TheDailyDigi.com;  Clipping Masks Vol 1 by Natali Design at scrapbookgraphics; fonts: Carpenter ICG, FO Empty Wrapper Lowfat, FO Howie's Stamps Lowfat

The monthly pages are first up at the beginning of the book, and then the weekly pages are in order after them.

Here’s a link to all of my P365 blog entries over the last year, if you want to see all of the pages closer. Or you can view all of the pages in my P365 photo album at facebook HERE.

MyPicTales was looking for books they could print and use as samples at trade shows they would be attending, and I decided to submit my book to their call. I got an email yesterday saying that they had indeed picked it to use- does that count as being ‘published’? LOL! I got a small credit towards another book, and an entry into a drawing for a much bigger credit. Maybe I’ll get lucky and win that too?

Taking a picture of yourself taking a picture is always an interesting production. This one was the best of that day's bunch- and despite it being a bit blurry I think it turned out OK. Thank goodness for Photoshop where you can correct a lot of photo mistakes (or at least reduce them a lot)! I did this page with the same photo that I used on the title page of my book.  
credits: everything at scrapbookgraphics: Darkroom by Tangie Baxter and DeCrow Designs, frame from Warm Wishes by Peta Boardman, White Space 4 by Hillary Heidleberg, Ultimate Staple Stash by Maya; fonts: Snowshoe

P365: December 2009

I can’t believe I made it all the way to the end of the year!

credits: Mistletoe Magic by Dani Mogstad at sweetshoppedesigns; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

 
credits: Party Central by Flergs and Eva Kipler at scrapbookgraphics; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

P365: November 2009

 
credits: Give Thanks and Fall Foliage by Pixel Works at scrapartist.com; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

P365: June 2009

credits: A Perfect Day by Flergs and Kaye Winieki at scrapbookgraphics; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

 

It’s hard to believe the year is half over already!

P365: May 2009

credits: Springaling by Kaye Winieki; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

 

P365: April 2009

 

credits: Peter Cottontail by Irene Alexeeva at scraporchard (previously at scrapbookgraphics); 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson

Project 365 2009 - January

So far, so good this year. I've fudged a little with taking more photos on one day than I need and using them in a day where I didn't take one. It works for me, and that flexibility will help me keep this up, I think.

Credits: Ordinary Day by Bluebell Designs at scrapbookgraphics; 365 Project Templates by Amy Pearson; staples from Denim Blues by Flergs at scrapbookgraphics; font: CK Script

New LOs

the Project 365 commitment is going well so far. Here's my weekly layout for the P52 version going on over at Funky Playground- we actually have to scrap a photo a week for it. Celestial Seasonings' holiday tea Candy Cane Lane is my winter favorite, especially at night after the house is quiet. It's a mint tea, but not quite as strong as regular peppermint tea. I really enjoy it so I stocked up this year while it was available in the stores.

credits: Peppermint Twist by Amy Hutchinson at AfterFiveDesigns; P52 Week 4 layout by Tracy Blankenship at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; 365 International Edition by by Monica Guerra Leiria (mglScraps) at scrapbookgraphics.com; stitch from by Dianne Rigdon from Life is a Bistro Bonus alpha; fonts: CK Constitution

My 2008 Year In Review layout for the annual exchange with my scrapping friends I crop with every month. We're running behind this year and it looks like we might not be able to all get together until February now, but at least my pages are done. All I need to do now is have the copies printed and trimmed.

journaling: 1- We met Irene Bedard, the voice of Disney’s Pocahontas, at the Denver Indian Market on January 19; 2-Brenna turns 5 and 3- Bryce turns 10 in April; 4- Touring the Mollie Kathleen goldmine with my sister and her kids during their visit in June; 5- visiting with Dale in July; 6- visiting my grandparents and cousins in July; 7 Brenna goes to Kindergarten; 8- Beth and Carissa turn 10 in August; 9- Mark and I get away for a few days in September to Savannah, Georgia; 10- Sarah turns 3 in October
credits: Vintage Linens by Shabby Miss Jenn, from DigiFiles1 at TheDailyDigi.com; Template 75 by Yin Designs; Fraying Fabric templates by Rachel Young at scrapartist.com; Clearly Stated by Mikkel Paige at oscraps.com; fonts: CK Becky

I did this layout for the mgl playday at scrapbookgraphics last week. The photo was taken after the Michael Card concert in December 2007, so that is why we are all dressed up.

credits: Chocolate Covered Cherries by Monica Guerra Leiria (mglScraps) at scrapbookgraphics.com; Keep it Simple 1 by Janet Phillips
fonts: Bickley Script

journaling: We finally got the kids a Wii, and they love it! One of everyone’s favorite games is bowling in Wii Sports. Even Brenna can play this one and is good at it. Carissa is the bowling champ though, having rolled a 7-pack (a series of 7 strikes in a row) once and a 6-pack twice.
credits: Bowl-o-rama by Dani Mogstad and Traci Reed at SweetShoppeDesigns; template by Jennilyn, Lauren Grier CT blog freebie; Bad Sewing Machine -Don't Be Square and -Round N Round by Traci Reed at SSD; fonts: CK Nitelite

It's haircut day in our house, so I need to get Sarah ready to go as the first round of appointments is right after I pick Brenna up from school. Round 2 is for Beth and Carissa after they get out of school. Beth and Carissa want to grow their bangs out since most girls at dance have theirs that way, I guess we will give it a try but they are going to have to start keeping their hair a bit neater without my prompting every morning for them to be able to keep it that way ;)

Project 365 and other new layouts

Well, we survived the first week back at school this week. It sure is hard to get myself out of bed that early after two weeks of being able to sleep until the time my body wants to get up. So, we are officially back in full routine again- school, dance, music practices, etc. Beth has caught the nasty sinus bug we were passing around (and evidently still are), so she's been the one laying on the couch all day coughing. She was feeling a bit better today than last night, so hopefully with another day of rest she will be on her way to getting over it. It's a good thing I stocked up on Sudafed and cough medicine a few weeks ago, as we have been going through a lot of it the month.

Project 365 is once again a big buzz around the digital scrapping community this new year. I didn't really participate last year, but I certainly took more than enough photos to qualify number-wise- they just weren't necessarily one a day. I decided to jump in and go ahead and put together my photos from last year in a photo-book format using the awesome set of templates Amy Pearson is giving out at scrapbookgraphics in the P365 forum. I'm really loving the clean lines and white space on these and how it really lets the photos shine.

Credits: Amy Pearson's Project 365 templates and Monica Guerra Leiria (mglscraps) Dreams In Color Collection from www.scrapbookgraphics.com, font: CK Becky

I've scrapped through March so far. If you'd like to see the rest of the pages I've done so far, I'm posting them over at facebook. You can see them HERE. As I get more done I'll be adding them there.

And this year I've started taking photos for P365- we'll see how long I keep it up. I have a feeling it will devolve more into what I did last year, but that worked out pretty well I thought. No pressure, no committment LOL Here's a layout I did of my first 7 pictures. I used TracyB's Templates With Attiude Combo 1 set, which she made specifically to go with a P365 project. She is also co-hosting a P52 challenge over at FunkyPlayground and will be giving out templates once a week- check that out here.

credits: Everything at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns.com: Templates with Attitude Combo 1 by Tracy Blankenship; I Love Winter Wellworn Solids and Embellishments by Jaime Young; Everyday Whites by Corina Nielsen

We've had a couple of pretty big snowstorms during the last month and I scrapped some of the pictures I took.

journaling: Winter finally arrived in full force December 15, 2008- frigid temperatures, the lowest recorded in well over a century, snow, ice and freezing wind kept us bundled up inside the house with the fireplace turned on to chase away the chill. Usually the temperature will warm up enough during the day to melt off the accumulated snow and ice on the trees, but not this day.... I took these pictures in the middle of the afternoon.
The breeze would gently blow and knock the snow off the branches making it seem like it was snowing still.
credits: Snowberry by Franziska Altmann at scrapbookgraphics; Templates with Attitude Trios 1 by Tracy Blankenship at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; fonts: SP Wonderful Wendy

journaling: Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.
credits: Frostbite and Frostbite Extras by Saxon Holt at scrapbook-elements; Templates with Attitude 10 by Tracy Blankenship at funkyplaygrounddesigns.com; I can See Clearly layer style by Misty Cato; Acrylic drop shadow layer style by Traci Reed
fonts: Journaling Hand, LB Angela Squiggle

and I did this layout the other night for this week's Studio Starts challenge at scrapbookgraphics.

journaling: Brenna is so happy to be in a dance class this year and looks forward to Monday evenings when it is her turn to wear tutus and dance shoes.
credits: Victorian Strawberry by Flergs and Kaye Winieki at scrapbookgraphics.com; Worn Overlays by Manuela Zimmerman; The Bricks Lightroom Preset by Kelsey Smith; fonts: CK Becky