Include Memorabilia Challenge - Maria

This layout was based around a picture Spencer had drawn in June of 2007, to show him how sad he would be when Greg was on a business trip. Those big sad eyes and frown were just too cute not to keep!

The original drawing was on yellowing paper and was too large, so I scanned it, reduced the size, and printed it out. I used paper and tags from a coordinating line ("Hopscotch" by K&Co, I think), and changed the photo to sepia tone since the background colors were distracting. I have become such a fan of using flowers - even on a layout about boys like this one!

Weekly Challenge #9

This week's technique challenge is to do a layout that includes memorabilia. Here is a link to an article about how to include different kinds of memorabilia, to help get you started: http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Scrapbook_Basics/Getting_Started/399.php

This week's journaling challenge is to do a layout about your favorite movie (or movies), TV shows, etc. - this could just be a list, or include answers about such things as: What do you watch? Why do you like it? What was your favorite show ever? You get the idea! Have fun with this!

Crinkle paper on a layout challenge and Interview Challenge - Shauna

This is my crinkled paper layout. My son was in a confrontation with the neighbors dog. He ended up dirty and bruised. These were the perfect pictures to use for this challenge. I spritzed the paper with a little water which helps you to crinkle the paper into smaller balls. After smoothing the paper out I ran a brown stamp pad over the bumps to make it look dirty. I dry embossed the edges of the paper then ran the brown stamp pad over the edges also. He is so proud of this layout, he's been carrying a picture of it around for two days.

Interview the subject of your page challenge - Maria

This interview with my boys took place over two days that were a few months apart, which is why I didn't date it, but just put their ages. I kept the layout very simple, as I wanted the emphasis to be on the journaling, and didn't want to distract too much from it. I got such a kick out of their answers! I plan on doing this again with different questions in the near future. It will be fun to show this to the boys someday and see how their reality turned out, compared to their vision of it. (You can click on the image to see a larger photo where you can actually read the words!)

Layout without photos challenge - Maria

I am a picky sleeper. Things have to be just right in order for me to sleep. This subject lent itself well to doing without a photo, because it's an ongoing thing, and I really didn't want a picture of me sleeping. The paper I used was from the "Once Upon a Time" pack by DCWV, and didn't need a lot of extra embellishments. I did do the visual triangle thing with the red flowers, and tried to offset the weight of the large flower on top by using three flowers on the bottom left and using three chipboard tiles next to the medium-sized flower on the bottom right.

"Weekly" Challenge #8

The flu, and then bronchitis, have been running rampant around our house. It's awfully hard to feel like scrapbooking when you can't stop coughing!

I'm not sure whether or not challenges will actually be posted weekly at the rate we're going here.

The technique challenge is to do a layout without photos. Do you have something that you'd like to scrapbook about, but didn't take any pictures of? This one is for you!

The journaling challenge is to do a layout where you interview the subject of your page. This can be your kids, spouse, sibling, parent, friend . . . anyone!

As always, feel free to jump in wherever and do what you feel like and are capable of doing. There's no penalty for not doing each part of every challenge. (:

Scrap an emotion challenge - Maria

I've been working on using more authentic journaling in my scrapbooks. Sure, it's great to include birthday parties and trips to the zoo, but I'd like my children to get to know who *I* am by reading my scrapbooks, and that means writing about some of the painful things, too.

This layout was part of the "Book of Me" that I've been slowly putting together. It was hard to do, because it made me realize just how painful these memories still are. However, I also believe that being able to face them is a step towards healing them. Hopefully one of my next layouts in this album will be about how I was able to forgive the people involved and come to some peace about it.