LOAD 220 - second attempt

I don't know why Blogger is blocking my photos. I even tried changing out the web versions for the original hi-res photos and it's still showing as a big empty square on my original post, despite the fact that the photos were there when I first posted. I seriously don't get technology sometimes!  So I'm trying again with a brand new post...

"Can you SEE me now?"

LOAD 220

My first attempt at participating in Layout A Day in many years was an epic fail.  In 29 days I managed only 4 layouts!

There was Jay's Birthday layout and my Christmas Cards spread which I shared HERE.

And these (both of which are self-explanatory):

Hopefully by May's round of LOAD, I'll be in more of a groove with my job search efforts and able to participate more fully in LOAD!  Have you ever tried a LOAD challenge?

Memorandum Monday & LOAD 26

Happy Leap Day!  Popping in to quickly say hello to all my fellow Memorandum Monday-ers.

I spent my weekend thrifting, researching, and restocking The Shop.  One thing we bought was a Homer Winslow print titled "In The Mowing".  I never took any art history or art appreciation courses in high school or college, so all I knew in making the purchase was that Winslow was a famous artist.  What I learned in the research is that he was largely self-taught and considered one of the most influential American artists of his time. He did pencil sketches, oil on canvas, and ultimately watercolors - and it was with the watercolors that he truly made his name.  So now I know a little bit about Homer Winslow.

I didn't do any LOAD layouts for Saturday or Sunday. And as it turns out, I was just fine with it.  I have accomplished a lot this month - with all the layouts needed to complete Rachel & Becca's K-6 School of Life albums and a lot of other stories told as well.  So I was perfectly content to create this layout with Krystal Hartley's new "Fresh" kit.  I actually went outside and took the photo just to create the layout!

And then, just for fun, I made this page for my planner:

WHat did you do for fun this past weekend?

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A few of you asked about my friend Chris Witte and how her family was doing after her death.  It has been two years and I know it wasn't easy, but they all seem to be coping well. Her oldest daughter, Kristin, had two young boys at the time. She also inherited the care of her sister TaylorAnn who was only 18 and a freshman in college. Kristin is expecting her third son any day now and TaylorAnn is a Junior in college and doing well. I stay connected via facebook and whenever I send a care package to my girls, I send one to TaylorAnn as well - it's no harder to send out three than two! Luckily, they have a broad extended family and a wide range of Chris' friends who were willing to adopt them for a bit, so they've had the support they need to deal with the tragedy they went through.  Thanks for asking!

 2004-2005 School Year highlights.  For the School of Life albums.

 I did this page 4 times, changing out two photos and a bit of the journaling. It will be printed as a page for each of the girls' School of Life albums and our family "Places We Go" album.  Love it when I can make the work stretch that far!

 A page for Sarah's 7-12 grade School of Life Album

Documenting the making of beautiful smiles. I was originally going to do a separate page for each of them, but couldn't find any photos right after the braces came off that really showed those beautiful smiles - that was the period when all my photos of them are of hands in front of their face (thank heavens they eventually outgrow that stage!)  The pictures are each about 2 years apart.  It is amazing to see the growth in a span of just four years!

LOAD 17 - 20

 I told this story on my blog last July.  And I included that second photo in my "Best of 2015" layout.  Now I have the story fully scrapbooked and saved for posterity!

 I started this layout with a Studio Rosey Posey blended template that I had to modify drastically because I had more journaling than would fit! Another blog story turned layout.

 Made with a Connie Prince template and Krystal Hartley's newest kit called "Get A Clue".   I'm glad to be including our shared hobby turned business in our "Things We Do" Library of Memories album.

Here's another story that was included in my Five Faves list last March - finally told!  Connie Prince template and "Life is Good" kit by Kimeric.

And here is the only digital layout that I created during the crop in January - which completes my Five Faves list from last March! Although it took me nearly a year, at least these stories have all been told!

Memorandum Monday & LOAD 13 - 16

Back again to play along with Sian's Memorandum Monday!  I missed last week because, well, LIFE. You know, it has been totally kicking my butt lately.  

Valentine's weekend we had temps in the single digits (think -15 for you Celsius folks). It triggered a fibro flare that left me tired and just plain miserable. I even missed creating & posting a LOAD layout for Valentine's Day. I was too tired to go out for dinner. Yuck. Honestly, I was ready to throw in the towel and call LOAD done for the month.  But I spent Monday creating two layouts and got myself caught up.

Work has been stressful too, with a copyright infringement issue that I just can't seem to get resolved. So there's that.  And all the tracking and careful eating and keeping up with things that I do all week just seems to fall apart on the weekends. 

This past weekend was a bit milder (thank you!!!). Jay and I made it out to several thrift shops and an indoor flea market and had some interesting finds.  And I learned that just because someone tells you something belonged to their grandmother doesn't mean it is old!  We bought a totally kitschy "Betty Boop Diner" indoor/outdoor thermometer, which, upon research, is being sold today!  Ah well, it still looks good at the shop, so live and learn! I actually learn new things about old stuff nearly every weekend as we purchase and research things for the shop. When I have something truly interesting, and can remember to save the links, I'll share!

 Frame Cluster is "Memory Keeper" by Kimeric

 Quick Page from Bohemian Beauty Collection at Sweet Shoppe Designs

 Happy Birthday Template from Cindy Schneider with modifications.  Sarah's Sweet Sixteen was on my list of "Five Faves" last March that never got done. So I finally get to check another one off that list!

 Using Kimeric's "Picture Perfect kit.  Another School of Life album page done.  I'm nearing the finish line of the K-6 album pages!!! I only had to change out one photo to make a similar page for Rachel.

LOAD 9-12

 blended template by Studio Rosey Posey

Kits "Medieval Faire" and "Gypsy" from Studio Tangie

 A quick page template - you know, for those nights when you just don't have the time...

template from Katie Pertiet with a lot of modifications.

Memorandum Monday & LOAD 6-8

The weekend saw an unplanned visit home from college for Becca - she was just homesick! Of course, that had a ripple effect, from which I learned... if all the weekend plans get changed, the stuff you bought to make dinner works just as well the next week! That saved me from having to go grocery shopping today which was a very good thing - as I had an eye doctor appointment today - the one where you have your eyes dilated... and I learned - it is very hard to do computer work with dilated eyes.  I now have a massive headache.  Another lesson learned!

 I loved the email from Goodreads telling me what I had read in 2015 and was thrilled to turn it into a page.

 Cathy Zielski's template said "Slice of Life" - a little creative photoshopping and it was perfect for this layout!

 This story was on my Fave Five list last year - now it is finally scrapped! And it took two pages to do it justice.

LOAD 1-5

Playing along with LOAD this month - my one opportunity this year to really make some progress on my digiscrapping!  Here's what I've accomplished so far:

 Day One - two page layout about 911.  I did the journaling back when this event actually occurred, knowing at the time that I was living an event that would end up in history books. But I hadn't been able to bring myself to create the layouts until now.

 Day Two - already finding it hard to keep up, I grabbed this QuickPage from Studio Miki "Holiday Trimmings" collection.

 Day Three and another QuickPage.  This is a really old one and I can't remember the artist.

 Day Four - stacked papers & elements from Studio Rosey Posey's Shabby Magic kit.  Frame from Studio Flergs Estranged Kit. I really wanted to use this photo bigger, but it was a screen grab from their facebook feed and poor quality so I had to keep it small. Brittany has been a friend since grade school and her relationship with my daughters is honestly more like a sibling than a friend!

Day Five.  Finally documented opening the shop.  The majority of the bits of this layout come from Studio Rosey Posey's Graziano Kit, although I mixed in a few papers from her Discovery of the Heart kit. The elements just feel perfect for the vintage vibe of our shop!

Scrapbooking Shares

It just occurred to me that I never posted the last of my LOAD Challenge layouts from February! OMG...

For your viewing pleasure....

Pursuing My Passions - Scrapbooking

WARNING: This is a LONG and PHOTO HEAVY post! :)

This is part three in  a four part blog series about my passions and how I'm pursuing them this year.  I'm doing this as much to get it all organized and straight in my own mind as to share with you what I've been up to lately and why I've been so absent from blogging. So here goes...

One thing leads to another.  But scrapbooking was the genesis of it all.

Don't get me wrong, I was a creative before scrapbooking... crochet, sewing, quilting, embroidery, macrame, etc. ... selling at craft fairs with hand made dolls, teddy bears, and baby quilts ... in fact, I even did "scrapbooking" back in the days when it meant putting pictures on white backgrounds with a single line caption and no embellishments or *GASP* in magnetic albums!

But Scrapbooking is where it all began.  In 1999.  With an album purchased at Disney World and supplies and stickers from Michaels. Because I wanted to capture in full detail our family's first trip to Disney in November 1998.  An album full of photos cut into shapes with fancy edge scissors and covered with sticker sneeze. An album that, while it makes me cringe, still captures the wonder and joy of that first trip to Disney World.

After that album, I learned about Creative Memories and acid free and a whole new world opened up. A wonderous world with endless possibilities and I was hooked.

Now that I was scrapbooking, I wanted more and better photos. Jay was always the family photographer. But 95% of his photos were of just our three daughters, individually, in pairs, as a group. He had a singular focus. I wanted more. So I got into photography.  But my skills at people photos leave a lot to be desired! I gravitated to nature photography and still life.  

2001 began two successive rounds of being an independent consultant for start-up direct sales scrapbooking companies and having my "style" heavily influenced by the product lines presented.

Scrap in a Snap featured bright,  busy patterns printed on glossy cardstock with cartoony embellishments. Which made for fun happy pages.

Top Line Creations had a more natural palette with lots of slightly-off-kilter geometrics. Which made for more subtle and beautiful pages.

In 2006, I was introduced to digital scrapbooking... which led to online education... which led to blogging... which led to more online classes and exposure to more styles and more things to be passionate about... like She Art... like Mixed Media... like Art Journaling (both digital and the messy kind)... and it all started with scrapbooking... but I digress...

So, Cheri, what are you doing this year to pursue your love of scrapbooking?  Why, thanks for asking!

Right now I'm participating in LOAD215.  The next LOAD is scheduled for October and there is a good chance I'll be ready for another round by then. 

 I don't have any "scrapbooking" classes on tap for this year, although I may go back and finish up a class or two from my Big Picture list - we'll see. 

Ha! Just made a liar out of myself. Had this drafted and I hadn't signed up for anything, but I literally JUST used my 11 year anniversary gift card from work to sign up for a six month membership in "Champions" at Scrapaneers.  So I'm hoping to improve my digital scrapping a bit and maybe learn my way around my new PSE13 - so much has changed since PSE10!

I'm taking inventory of all my paper scrapbooking albums/projects - seeing what work needs to be done to finish off a few albums and what needs to be let go. Using the "Start Fresh" planner and then making plans to get those pages done! 

I'm attending a weekend scrapbooking retreat in mid-April. Hopefully another chance to work through a lot of the girls' School of Life albums.  And possibly a day crop at the beginning of May.

I'm slowly reviewing and purging my digital scrap stash. It is so easy to let things build up when they are "hidden" on your computer (although certainly not neatly put away... the files are a disorganized mess!). 

I'm trying to pare down both paper and digital supplies to make the process of scrapbooking simpler and more in line with "my" style... 

and I'm trying to figure out just what my style is... by ruling out what it isn't... what doesn't bring me joy...  

I admire so many styles out there, but I don't aspire to be the next Cathy Zielski or Shimelle Lane or May Flaum or [fill in the blank with your favorite scrapbooking celeb].  I just want to be the best Cheri Andrews. I want my pages to be recognizable as ME, not as a copycat somebody else.

  
So I think this is a year of paring down, simplifying, finishing up and of discovering just where scrapbooking goes from here in my life.  One thing is for sure... it isn't going away!

What are you doing to pursue your love of scrapbooking?

Scrapbooking Shares

More from LOAD215:

 Actually had to go online and BUY a scrapbook kit (Kickin' & Screamin' by Libby Pritchett at Sweet Shoppe Designs) for this... but it will get a lot more use as I work through the girls albums! Soccer may have been short-lived for Sarah, but it was a big deal for Rachel and Becca.

 Here's one of the BIG advantages of digital.  I created this base two page layout. By swapping out the individual photos (bottom two above, top left below) and changing up the journaling just slightly, I was able to customize a set of pages for each girls' School of Life album.  So from two... I got six pages!

 Just for fun - the kit is "Jack Frost" by Studio Courtney at ScrapbookGraphics

Needs no explanation, but makes me yearn for Summer. I'm ready Rinda!