Summer Scrapbooking

Happy August, Nesters!  Today I have some layouts to share.  I subscribe to the Scraptastic kit club, and this month marks their 4-year anniversary.  To celebrate, they hosted a crop the weekend before last.  And amazingly, I finished four pages!  (I'm such a pokey scrapper.)

I used past kits to create each of the layouts, and honestly, that helps the process go so much quicker for me.  

The first page was part of a Bingo challenge; you had to include everything from a row, column, or diagonal of a Bingo card on your page.  I chose a diagonal (so I could use the free space in the middle!), and had to incorporate mist, multiple fonts, a border punch, and an older kit (this one was from last summer):

I even heat-embossed my title.  Fancy.  ;)

For the next page, I had to use at least four patterned papers.  I actually used five.  Yay for plain-ish patterned paper!

On this next layout, I had to choose a title from one of the Top 100 songs from 2010.  "Smile" is by Uncle Kracker, though I live under a rock and had never heard it before.  True story.

The last page had to be created using a certain color scheme.  This is the photo that we were given for inspiration:

And here's my page:

I have a feeling the color swatches were based on that patterned paper, because it was a perfect match.  

Before I go, I want to share a behind-the-scenes picture.  This is what I deal with every time I try to photograph layouts:

 It's a good thing he's so cute.  :)

My Disney Album (Part 1)

Hi, Nesters!  I'm sorry I've been quiet for a couple weeks (I've been dealing with some side effects from my hypothyroidism), but I'm here tonight to share the first several pages in a vacation album I'm creating.

In the spring, we went to Disney World (it was a very generous Christmas present from my in-laws).  While I've traditionally scrapbooked several layouts from our trip (you can see a few of them here), I still had quite a few photos left over (some of which will probably never make it to a 12 x 12 page).  I decided to use a Simple Stories Snap album to scrapbook the rest of these pictures.  I purchased most of the Say Cheese line of products to use in this album - and aside from a couple sheets of older Jenni Bowlin alphabet stickers, that is all I'm using for this project.

This is the album:

It's the faux leather finish (I actually bought this half-price during an after-Christmas sale), and it reminds me of the We R Memory Keepers albums.

For the first page, I used one of the die-cut pages from the line:

For this page, I backed the die-cut card with a second 3 x 4 card for the first space.  The second space on top is another 3 x 4 card.  I backed my photo with a 4 x 6 card to fill the bottom (you'll see this throughout the album as I had most of my photos printed at the digital size).

For this spread, I added a few stickers on the left.  The bottom photo on the right-hand page has a transparency (from the Say Cheese line) on top of the photo.

The card with the 'H" has a small brad in the middle for a bit of dimension. 

On the left-hand side of this spread, I used several stickers (the alpha on top is from Jenni Bowlin).  On the right, I used a die-cut page from the collection and added the white doodling.

Here you can see the back of the die-cut page.  The opposite side has space for 4 x 4 photos (I trimmed mine, but this would be perfect for Instagram pics).

The blank page on the right will eventually hold a pocket with some tickets and receipts from our trip.

On the left, I adhered the photo to the page and doodled a small border around it.  The right-hand side has a few more stickers from the line.

In the top-left corner, I added a brad to the middle of a 3 x 4 card.  I kept the rest of this spread pretty simple.

And here's my last spread (for now!):

As you can see, I'm really trying to keep things simple here.  We're going back to Disney in September, so my goal is to get this finished before then.  

I also filmed a short video walking through the album.  The narration on the video is how I would talk through this album to a friend, so you get a slightly different perspective on the pages.  (And please excuse my voice - my allergies are acting up.)


snap disney album from Dawn Hopkins on Vimeo.

I Did It!

I am so excited - I made it through the Layout-a-Day challenge!  Today, I'm going to share my last few pages.

Before I begin, though, if you missed my previous layouts from the month, you can see them here, here, here, here, and here.

On the 29th, our prompt was about favorite foods.  I thought this story about our sundae from Winnie-the-Pooh would be a perfect fit:

I have absolutely loved these little wooden alphas + numbers from Studio Calico:

For the next day, the prompt had to do with our secret place (like a treehouse or such).  I was really having trouble with it because I didn't have anything like that when I was younger (and neither do my boys).  My 10-year-old asked what the prompt was and I told him it was about a secret place, a place that was special and makes you happy. Without hesitation, he replied, "Then you should make a page about Daddy." So I did. :)

As you can tell, this layout goes along with the previous one.  This is moments after getting the sundae (and just before my boys went at it!).

These sequins were actually from a Halloween pack, but the yellow was just perfect for this layout.

And, finally, the last day.  The prompt was about a favorite vacation.  This one was a no-brainer.  :)

I'm in the midst of scrapbooking photos from two Disney trips.  The ones from last September are going in a regular scrapbook, and the ones from this spring are going in a Snap album.  For the last day of LOAD, I decided to make the cover page for the September pictures.  (And I got totally lucky with the fireworks shot!)

Here is the finished stack of layouts:

I'm so proud of them, they're still sitting out.  Maybe they'll make it into their albums by the end of the month.  ;)

I'm Almost Done!

The month is almost over, and - so far - I've kept up with a layout a day.  I can't wait to take a picture of the entire stack this weekend!  I'll be sure to share it with y'all next week.

Today I want to get you caught up on my layouts from the past few days.  When I last posted, I had made it through day 21.  So here is the page for day 22:

When my Dad saw this layout, he protested a bit at the last sentence.  And then I pulled out my college graduation photos that he took.  

I love those little Studio Calico wooden letters + alphabet.

For the next day, I created a layout with some older pictures of my eldest son (he'll be 12 in October).  These are not the greatest pictures in the world, but I absolutely love the look on his face.

 After I had attached the wood veneer accents onto the page, I decided to paint them.  If you look closely, you'll see a bit of the paint ended up on the picture.  I kinda look the look of my mistake, though, so I kept it.

For my next layout, I went way back to my college days.  I wanted to use fun colors to help tell my story.

I love the little die-cut star vellum piece:

The one really fun thing about LOAD is that I've been bouncing around with photos...I've got pictures from 1977 up to more recent ones.  The next layout features pictures of my boys from this past December:

 I couldn't completely forget my border punch.  :)

This next layout took forever to finish (no pun intended).  My in-laws were in town, and it was hard finding time to complete my page.  

I smartened up yesterday, and went with a super quick page:

Finally, here is today's page:

This is a horrible picture of me, but when I heard today's prompt (bed-time rituals), I knew I wanted to use it.  In case you're wondering, this was not a staged photo...my roommate really took a picture of me napping.  At least my bed was made.  :)

These layouts bring my grand total to 28.  Even my husband is now checking to see if I've got my daily layout finished.  I think he's more proud of my pages than I am!

I'll be back next week with the last three layouts from this LOAD challenge.  And then, if I'm totally honest, I'll probably take a bit of a break.  We're making a few renovations to our home, and my craft room will be moving, so I'll be busy with that.  I'll post about the new room (which I'm sharing with my boys) as soon as it's done.  

Happy scrapping!

The LOAD Layouts are Still Coming!

Howdy Nesters!  Dawn here with more LOAD layouts.  I'm still a bit shocked that I've kept up with a layout a day for just over three weeks now!  

I left off at the halfway mark.  Today, I'm going to share six additional pages - including a page that I really dislike, but more on that in a bit.

First up is this one from Day 16:

(If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to read the journaling.)  The prompt had to do with getting into trouble...since we call our youngest "Trouble", it led to this page.

I've been loving the extra dimension of foam lately, though midway through cutting foam tape to put behind that title I was having second thoughts.  I like the look of the finished product, so it was worth it.  :)

And here is the next one.  This layout was really quick for me (yay!) and I love the fun colors.  The prompt had to do with television (which we don't watch much), but it got me thinking about movies, and then 3-D movies, which led to Disney (yes, this is how my brain works!).  :)

I used orange ink and then Glossy Accents on the wood veneer glasses to get a similar look to the 3-D glasses in the photos.

And it's not a Disney page without a little Mickey.

The prompt for Day 18 was the dentist.  And I ended up with Goofy.  It made sense in my head.  :)

 Once again, I couldn't forget the mouse:

Here is Monday's page.  Originally, the journaling was supposed to go directly onto the craft cardstock, but I made a typo.  I think it works with the yellow polka-dot paper too.

This page is near and dear to my heart because I've had very well-meaning people question my decision to be home with my family.    

As you can see, this is an older photo, but it's one of my all-time favorites.  I have another picture from that session next to my computer.  It makes me happy.

You know what else makes me happy?  Stars.  Lots and lots of stars.

You know what makes me unhappy?  This page.

I've been working hard to use up the last few scraps from those original two kits, and I think it may be time to add the rest of the remnants to some other kits.  I just wasn't feeling this page.  I like the story, and I like the picture, but the layout as a whole doesn't work for me.  However, I dislike the idea of recreating the page way more than I dislike the page, so it stays.  

But on to happier pages.  This was yesterday's layout:

I actually scrapped earlier this month about his stay in the hospital, and yesterday I took a much more light-hearted approach to some of the photos from that time.

I went a little crazy with the foam dots again on the title.  And I love the little yellow frame. 

This was another layout where I flubbed the original journaling.  I cut this piece of paper to cover my mistake, and I like the end result much better than the original.  

I have today's layout finished, but I'll wait until next week to share it (just because I need better lighting for the photo).

So that's it - whew!  I'm curious, though...what do you do with the layouts that you don't love?  Anyone take the time to redo them?