100 Layouts #18 - Snow Kidding! 1/2/00 (completed 1/15/06)
Topic: Scenery/Nature

A pretty simple layout, made for Jesse's album with pictures I took for him on his camera. Snow where we live is a pretty rare occurance, but not unknown - most years we'll have at least one day with a little bit of snowfall, even if most of it doesn't stick. I got to use up a whole sheet, plus some, of some Provo Craft snow paper that came in a Christmas slab. Other supplies: Letter stickers, Creative Imaginations; rub-ons, Chatterbox; stamp-edge scissors, Fiskars; "Winter" eyelet charm, unknown, probably Making Memories.

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.