100 Layouts #16 - Christmas Magic 12/25/05 (completed 1/9/06)
Topic: Christmas

Christmas Magic 12/25/05

Journaling:

Christmas 2005 - Left, Aaron in the traditional photo with the stocking on Christmas Eve. I think maybe he's getting too old for this part to be all that exciting any more. Although he isn't too old to wake up before 4 o'clock on Christmas morning.

As usual, Santa was very generous. As, of course, were the parents :) Highlights: Aaron got the gigantic Starscream Transformer and a three-in-one Bionicle set from Santa. At the top of Jesse's wish list was a 300 Gb external hard drive, which Santa also came through with, along with Pokemon Colosseum and Lego Star Wars GameCube games.

From the families: Aaron got the Harry Potter Lego Durmstrang Ship set from Dad, Xiaolin Showdown TCG Starter Set from Mom, a Bionicle from Jesse, Harry Potter Goblet of Fire GameCube game from Grandma and Grandpa, and a book and $40 from Nanny and Grandad.

Jesse got a Yu Yu Hakusho DVD set from Dad, a hard-to-find Pokemon Gold GameBoy game from Mom (found it on eBay), a Harry Potter Goblet of Fire Soundtrack CD from Aaron, StarWars I, II, and III DVDx from Grandma and Grandpa, and a set of Winston Churchill's English history books from Nanny and Grandad.

The piece de resistance, as far as I'm concerned, was the complete set of original series Pokemon videos Nathan and I gave the boys. It took some doing, but I managed to assemble the complete set (26 volumes) from Bookman's, Planet Neo, and eBay. Yay for eBay!

After the gifts were opened, it was a nice relaxing day, with too many goodies, a too-huge turkey dinner, music, football, assembling Legos, and just enjoying the day.

Of course, Jesse and Aaron deserved gifts; the main question was, what about the kitties? Were they naughty or nice? Aaron and I agreed that Shiro was nice, but Tora, hmm... Of course, he's just a kitten and doesn't know any better. Evidently Santa agreed, because he brought the kitties a set of Bobble Bop toys and a canister of cat treats.

Supplies: Patterned paper and die-cuts, KI Memories; phrase stickers, Pebbles Inc.; charms, unknown; computer font, CK Typist.

Aaron gave me two full sheets of those Christmas phrase stickers for Christmas one year (could have been 2005). It's going to be a real challenge using them all up. 

100 Layouts #15 - Christmas Tree 2005 (completed 1/5/06)
Topic: Christmas

Another really simple page, based on an old Becky Higgins sketch. I use a lot of sketches, because I'm pretty much incapable of coming up with an interesting, well-balanced design on my own. I have a hard time visualizing what things are going to look like.

Just a strip of patterned paper (Daisy D's, I believe), some gold ribbon, and a Making Memories metal eyelet-charm. The quote says, "Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall." (Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas) I had seen this quote before, attributed to Oscar Wilde, which just didn't seem quite right. LOL

This was the year after Nathan and Aaron came home with a, well, really little Christmas tree that looked lost in the living room so I had them put it in the family room for the first time. I realized then that I liked having the tree in the family room because, seeing how I spend about 90% of my time in the kitchen during the holidays, it was nice to be able to see the tree right on the other side of the kitchen counter instead of having it hidden away in a room that I hardly ever went into. So after that we started scaling down the Christmas tree size (a little) and putting it in the family room every year. 

100 Layouts #14 - Oh Brother (completed 1/4/06)
Now Playing: AFI
Topic: Cats

Another layout I wasn't sure I was going to post. I'm still grieving over losing Tora, but it's been almost two years and the other day I saw this layout again and it didn't hurt quite as much as before.

A comparison of Tora and Shiro, the two brother kittens we adopted. Photos from fall 2005.  I love love love this boy paper from Reminisce. I'm usually not very good at using papers that have a title or border printed on them, but this one worked out well. I cut the letters from the alphabet paper.

 

100 Layouts #13 - H-J-W-J (completed 1/3/06)
Now Playing: Angels and Airwaves
Topic: Portraits

I had a hard time deciding whether or not to post this, since it has my niece and nephews and their full names. But I hate to have too many locked posts (especially since no one's asking for permission to see them ). So I brushed out the names, just left the initials, and made the image small enough that their faces aren't identifiable.

H-J-W-J

Group shot of the cousins from the big family reunion in late December 2004.  Basic Grey, including some of the die-cut tags which I used for the monograms. I have a hard time figuring out how to use the tags and stuff that come with collections. Love them, have to have them, but have trouble using them. Brads are either Making Memories or JoAnn.

100 Layouts #12 - Wise Men (completed 1/2/06)
Topic: Christmas

Right, then. Yes, it's been a while. but I just moved my scrapbook albums from where they were invisibly lurking under the end tables in the living room to some proper bookshelves in the computer room, allowing for more visibility and easier scanning. And I'm launching a new scrap-my-stash challenge, which I also intend to blog over on my angelfire account, so I thought I'd get caught up on this one too. (Oh, and I'm tired of messing with the cuts, so the images will just pop up in the main view. I'll try to keep them small enough that they won't take forever to load.) 

Pretty simple layout, used up some gold metallic cardstock I had hanging around for years. This was the last year that Aaron participated in the Christmas pageant at Nathan's old church. He had a speaking line as Melchior, one of the three Wise Men. 

100 Layouts #11 - Cookie Artistes (completed 12/31/05)
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Christmas

Cookie Artistes

 Another one of those annual events that I get kind of tired of trying to find a layout idea for every year. It's easier with fun new supplies to play with - I used more of the KI Memories "Beautiful" kit that I used for my birthday layout. Journaling: "Aaron and Nathan; our annual cookie decorating night. 12 Dec. 2005"

 Supplies: Patterned paper, die cuts, epoxy words: KI Memories; letter stamps: Susan Branch, All Night Media; brown marker: Zig.

Yeah, I know I'm a little behind with the layouts :) I actually ended the challenge last December, but I won't say yet if I successfully completed it or not!

100 Layouts #10 - K - Be Yourself (completed 12/31/05)
Topic: Birthdays

Back to doing these in order, now that the Grand Canyon trip is done. I don't really like to do layouts about myself, but since we're encouraged to, I try to do one every year with my birthday pictures. I also don't like pictures of myself, but I was having a good hair day this day, so it's okay.

The Panorama stictching function on Photoshop Elements 5.0 (which Nathan gave me for Christmas this year) is AWESOME.

 

K - Be Yourself

Journaling: "My 43rd birthday. Aaron reading the wrapping paper - Nathan upholds the age-old tradition of wrapping gifts in the Sunday funnies. Nathan gave me the American Idiot CD by Green Day, and my parents gave me an ASU sweater (luckyfied , since the Devils beat UA this year) and a Michael's gift card. 11/21/05

"One of the great things about being in my 40's is that I feel less and less of a need to conform to other people's definitions of what I should be, leaving me free to live the process of becoming who I really am."

I know it sounds kind of new-agey self-help, but hey, it's better than going, Oh no, I'm over 40, my life is over.

All supplies: KI Memories

 (Oh, I remembered that when scanning, I have to tell my scanner not to "correct" the colors. But bulky items on the pages are going to make some shadowed areas anyway. So it's never going to come out looking exactly lifelike.)

100 Layouts #49 - Art Lesson (completed 5/27/06)
Topic: Scenery/Nature

I haven't updated this blog in quite a while. One of my kitties disappeared (literally; he went out one evening last August and never came back in) and I've been grieving over it. For a long time I lost my heart for doing this, and for scrapbooking in general because I had done so many layouts of the kitties, and I just couldn't face it. But now I'm back. Any other layouts I've done of Tora are going to have to wait a while to get posted, if ever. Just makes me too sad.

But on to more cheerful things. Here's the last of my three layouts from the Grand Canyon trip last April.

 

 Art Lesson

Journaling: *After the movie and souvenier shopping to the Desert Watch Tower for lunch and art lesson with Mrs. R.

*Tower (and Bright Angel Lodge) designed by Mary E. J. Colter, one of few prominent female architects of early 20th. cent.

*Brief panic when boys got away from me inside tower and climbed to top. Tower is gorgeous inside; wish I'd had presence of mind to enjoy more and take pictures.

*Breathtaking views from the lookout. Some kids getting a little too close to the edge for me; mine stayed waaaay back.

*Mrs. R. tells children to look for colors, lines and shapes, and to "draw what they see." Very impressive artworks!

 We have the world's greatest art teacher. No mere coloring pages and making collages of construction paper here. She actually teaches about real artists, art history, styles, and media. The pictures lining the school hallway are always really interesting when she's been doing Picasso and cubism. So a big part of the Canyon trip is a drawing session at the rim. This particular overlook is blessed with both some historic architecture and spectacular views.

Materials: More weird mustard colored cardstock (it's actually more gold than green; the color didn't come out right in the scan); Chatterbox patterned paper (flowers), um, whatever the stickers and font I used in the other layout were. :P

100 Layouts #48 - Sunrise at Bright Angel Lodge (completed 5/20/06)
Topic: Scenery/Nature
Here's the second layout of the three I did about the Grand Canyon trip.



Journaling:
*Breakfast on the terrace at Bright Angel Lodge - Juice, fruit, pastries, and, yes, Ding Dongs ("the breakfast of champions" - Miss Jenny)
*Don't lean over too far. Keep both feet on the ground. Respect the ledge!
*Watching the beauty of the Canyon emerge from the early-morning mists.
*Cold cold cold!
*Nature walk along the Rim Trail. Adults on the edge, kids to the inside!
*Nervous. Very nervous. But having fun, anyway.
*Amazing facts about the Canyon, the historic lodge, the Native Americans who lived along the canyon rim and walls, the plants and animals.
*Off-trail joggers right along the edge. Don't try this, kids!
*Awesome IMAX movie. Feels just like flying over the Canyon and running the rapids.
*Meeting some of Miss Jenny and Miss Camille's reptilian friends on the bus en route to the Desert Watch Tower.
*12 April 2006

It's almost impossible to take a bad picture of the Grand Canyon. (It is, however, very possible to have a bad picture taken of oneself standing next to the Grand Canyon. I know no one looks their best after being awake on a tour bus all night, but still. That one will never see the light of day.) Despite the longing to create ultra-artistic, Hall-of-Fame-worthy layouts, I decided to keep this very simple, to let the pictures really stand out. I had a hard time coming up with a background color (getting low on cardstock where I have two whole sheets in the same color). I had several pieces of this weird mustard color, that I bought back when I was challenging myself to buy cardstock in colors that I didn't think I would use. So I bought a bunch and, guess what, I never used it. But it turned out to be the perfect color to really bring out the colors in my beautiful photos! Who'da thunk.

I like bullet-style, or factoid-style, journaling, because I don't have to think in complete sentences. :)

I might have cheated a little bit on the no-new-stuff rule. My mini-stapler just wouldn't reach very far, so I got a full-size stapler. But since it's something we need for the house, it isn't really a new scrapbook supply, right?

Right.

Supplies: patterned paper and rub-on letters - Chatterbox; letter stickers - Debbie Mumm, Creative Imaginations; library pocket template - Templates by Chia, houseofstirfry.com/chia; chalk (to tone down white background on patterned paper) - EK Success; computer font - CK Keystroke.

Used up: two sheets of weird mustard-colored cardstock.

100 layouts #47 - Road Trip (completed 5/18/06)
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: washing machine
Topic: Travel
Finally finished this, three weeks after my last layout.

Journaling: "We’re off on our grand adventure to the Grand Canyon! The kids were so excited about going on an overnight road trip, it was like a party in the school parking lot. Except the buses showed up over half an hour late – no one had told them how to find the school. Mrs. W. and Mrs. G. finally had to drive over to them (parked 4 miles away) and lead them to the school. Once the buses got there, we boarded (each class on its own bus), settled in with pillows and backpacks and gameboys and books and snacks and a movie on the bus DVD player, and off we went! Aaron and I sat by our field trip buddies, Austin and Caleb. We stopped in Phoenix around midnight to change drivers and pick up our tour guides, Miss Jenny and Miss Camille, and headed to the north country. Even though the lights got turned off north of Phoenix, not much sleeping got done – not by the adults, anyway. We changed drivers again in Flagstaff around 4 in the morning, and arrived at the Canyon at dawn, sleepy and stiff and cold but excited to be there! 12-13 April 2006"

First of the Grand Canyon trip layouts. This field trip was such a big deal I decided not to try to squeeze everything into one layout. Plus I have too many great pictures!

For this layout I chose a black background, to highlight the excitement of leaving late in the evening on an overnight field trip. When you're 10 years old, this is a really huge thing. Also, it makes those excited little faces pop right out of the page. I'm kind of proud of the border I came up with, with road sign dingbats (they read: Road Trip, I really gotta GO, Next rest area 317 miles, Are we there yet?, Go to sleep, 99 bottles of beer), and I got to use my reproduction vintage Grand Canyon postcard.

Materials: Patterned paper - Doodlebug Design; reproduction Grand Canyon postcard - DMD (I think; in a kit of travel ephemera); "road trip" sticker - Art Warehouse, Creative Imaginations; "road trip" dingbats - CK Family Trip; definition stickers - Colorbok; computer font - CK Typist; eyelets - Making Memories.

Used up: last scrap of my tan, black and red striped Doodlebug paper (sob), a bunch of black eyelets.

I hope the next layout doesn't take me three weeks.

EDIT: I hate when I do this. The dates on this layout should be 11-12 April.