Picture-less Memories

 One of the challenges of scrapbooking for me is recording memories that have no corresponding pictures. However, the story is important and I want to be able to document it in a visually appealing way. This page was a lot of fun: I love these colors and bold patterns with special journaling blocks. I intend to slip a tag with more details about my experience in the pocket near the top of the page (It didn't photograph well)

This is a close up of the sideways pocket on the page: also it's a great picture of the hand-made card that a third grader made for me :)

My goal this year is to try to document as many picture-less memories as I can! 

Dogs and Hexagons

I love going elsewhere to crop: I may have a great room that houses all my creative paraphernalia, but there's just something very inspiring about leaving my house and cropping! Of course, planning to go on these crop outings take almost as much time as the crop itself: packing the paper, storing and organizing the embellishments, picking and printing the pictures...sometimes I think of converting to digital just to minimize the amount of stuff that I have to transport! But then I start cutting and pasting and playing and I just can't imagine how digital scrapbooking could be as right-brained fulfilling :)

Another thing I love doing is taking challenges: I find it very stimulating to try other people's sketches- especially when they are proposed in a challenge. It reminds me of when you were a kid and you would do things not normal to your personality when taunted with the words: "I dare you!" So, it's like a cropping dare!

So this is a page I did over the weekend in response to a friend's sketch challenge: hexagons :) Joy Anderson  (who is in fact, a cool person) posted this challenge on her blog: http://imjoy-iscrap-imhappy.blogspot.com/ and so I had to give it a try :) 

I loved the way this turned out: I am usually opposed to so much white space on a page...it could have been more bare, but I couldn't do it. I also increased the size of the hexagons (which by the way are a pain to free-hand) to showcase the pictures better. Joy's sketch was for digital scrapping, but I love the way this turned out in my book! Plus, by getting me out of my comfort zone, I made a really visually interesting page that I definitely wouldn't have done otherwise! 

What inspires you to get creative?

What to do with white paper

Well, when it comes to my creativity, sometimes the one thing that can kill my creative mood is a sheet of blank, white paper. You know, the way it stares at you so starkly and taunts you: haha, you can't cover me! And then, there are times that a blank sheet of white paper is the perfect way to start a page! Especially when I happen to have a really cool skeleton stamp and amazing paper that would be just a bit too much on its own...

These pages I did this past week (I'm still catching up on years past...the plight of every scrapper): I LOVE the way my makeshift border of anatomical skeletons look on this white piece of paper (thank you Tim Holtz..) Also, the white paper anchors the colored patterns much better than black paper, which is usually my go-to color for Halloween layouts! 

Chris went as the Devil's Advocate and I went as the Corpse Bride..hence the clever title meant to capture both our costumes.

Since we were going to a costume party, I wanted it to have a fun sort of feel: so I brought out the dancing skeleton ribbon :)

More of a close-up of the fun elements- it's hard to see the serious glitter on the orange enchantment card, but trust me, it's glitzy. (Especially the spider web: normally I am opposed to spiders but for Halloween layouts, spiders and I are friends)

Pages to share

Yikes these random thunderstorms here have been wrecking havoc on my sleep schedule! However, I have been able to complete some awesome pages during my internment at home :)

I love using funky bright colors for Christmas layouts!

Nothing like alliteration and hand-made trees to make a great title!

Wedding Photo Book...

These amazing photos were taken by a seriously cool guy named Chris (not my husband)- and my bestest cool friend Nicole arranged it! I made this book to showcase the pictures and show off that I can look pretty darn cool in pictures!

Because blingy angel wings are always in style...

This awesome tag is compliments of a Tim Holtz Design class...I fell in love with the vintage goodness!

This page is one of my favorites: the butterfly on the clock was done using a mask technique and paint- the stamps were colored using my new distress markers :)

How is a raven like a writing desk? Or a typewriter?

Engagement Book

Despite not being cool myself, I do make some pretty cool things: like this book I made for Chris and my engagement photos:

I had to scrapbook my awesome shoes :) 

The amazing design Chris drew for our invitations...he is definitely the cool one between the two of us!

How I determined that I just wasn't going to be cool

July 2011 is when I first began to get the glimmers of the idea that no matter what, I will just not be cool in this lifetime.
The setting: the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Concourse C. I was flying to Chicago to visit my cousin (who is, despite her repeated denials, cool) and I decided to obtain ice cream. Ben and Jerrry's ice cream to be exact.

Well, of course my gate was at the farthest point from where I stood- so I had to get ice cream before making the long walk down the concourse. I settled on mint chocolate chip on a sugar cone- sounds tasty, right? Well, if you are a klutz carrying all your luggage since you were determined NOT to check a bag but don't own a small enough roller bag...ice cream in a cone is a poor choice. I had 2 bags (purse and carry-on) slung over one shoulder, snoopy jacket around my waist (for the cold of the plane), and the ice cream cone in the one hand. I had planned to sit there and eat my treat, but while I was ordering, the empty area had filled to the brim with people who had laptops and lattes.

So, I decided to walk to my gate.

Bad idea.

The ice cream, while nice and soft, immediately started running down the side of the cone- onto my hand. As I walked, I had to dodge dozens of people because again, the terminal magically became the most popular place to be!
As I walked and saw perfectly good ice cream drip to my hand, I thought, "let me just lick that up before it hits the ground." And as I did, someone darted in front of me, causing me to startle and mush the ice cream onto my face. So I can't see out of one lens of my glasses- it is covered in green minty goodness- and my nose is freezing for the same reason.

People are slowing to stare at me now- and of course I chose to walk in the very center of the terminal so more people can see this show. I reach up to wipe my face with the arm laden with bags while at the same time steering myself closer to a gate, any gate so that I can stop walking.

As I wipe my nose, my carry-on bag loses its grip and slides down off my shoulder- followed by my purse. I can't pick them up off of my elbow because the other hand is occupied with the ice cream...and I still can't see out of one eye and my nose did not get thoroughly wiped. So here I am, hobbling down the terminal no longer eating the ice cream but letting it melt freely down my arm, my bags hitting my knees, and I have sticky green stuff with black specks all over my face.

Not a pretty picture.

I finally make it to a bathroom- yes, my ice cream came to the bathroom....and dumped my bags and gave myself an ice cream headache as I scarfed down the ice cream that you can see peeking over the cone. Once I got to the cone part, I had to move- I was blocking the line you see, so I inched to the outside of the bathroom, acting like I was nonchalantly waiting for someone in there while eating a cone. Once the cone was done, I mopped myself up and re-positioned the bags on my shoulder (which hurt after improperly getting them across the airport). I emerged from the bathroom able to see out of both eyes and no longer had green stuff running down my cheek, feeling victorious.

That feeling subsided, however, when a random kid pointed to me at my gate and said, "hey mommy! lookit- it's the lady who had snot on her face!"

Sigh. This is how I KNOW that cool and me just don't mix.