Something New

I wanted to post some of my "art" for lack of a better term. I have never thought of myself as creative, but I do love to scrapbook, and have gotten into swaps involving altered things, ATCs (Artist's Trading Cards), and greeting cards. The top photo is the last ATC I made for a swap; we had to do something for the letter A. I cut the apple on my Cricut, and was really pleased with the way it turned out. The brad was one I found in a package with different colors of postage stamps. I really love the way this turned out, although most ATCs are more collage-y and altered. I am not sure that I am completely comfortable with a lot of the techniques, not the mention the content of some ATCs that you will find on a search, but I like the clean lines of this one.

The other two photos are scrapbook layouts I did yesterday. I did five all told, and these 2 were my favorites. I get frustrated looking at magazine layouts that ooh and ahh over children, and layouts made about a cup of coffee or something like that. I scrapbook to document the life of my family--nothing more, nothing less. I want each page of my scrapbook to show something that we did; an event that occurred in the regular day of family life. Consequently, I start each year's book with summer vacation or summer sports, have a page dedicated to the beginning of school (my favorite day of the year), and follow through with birthdays, get-togethers, Homecoming, holidays, and so on. I like to see my scrapbooks as sort of a diary of our year.

I also hate journaling. I will put a note on a page sometimes, but I can't stand the "letter to your child" kind of journaling. Mostly, I think that 99% of that kind of journaling is a load of crap. I mean, really, most days, I am struggling to talk to my kids about something reasonable, instead of just issuing commands (like: get out of bed--it's 2:00 p.m., or get off the phone--the house is on fire, or get in the car--school starts in 2 minutes). Rarely do I look at my child and think, I love this child so much my heart will break the first time she talks back to me, or this boy of mine is such a bundle of joy--I hope that everything good happens to him (knowing that he flunks each grade he starts and would rather stay at the YMCA all day long shooting hoops than come home and spend 2 minutes with his little sister). I don't think this makes me a bad mom; on the contrary, I think our family is normal. I am just realistic. I wonder if the scrappers who gush about their baby does the same for their last child as their first.

Anyway, the first layout above is when my husband took my kids skiing to Frisco. I used a layout sketch for this, but I changed in slightly so that all the photos on the left side tilt up like a mountain, where the sketch had them kind of hodge-podge-y. I cut out the titles with my Cricut.

The second layout is Thanksgiving of 2006. I liked the colors and papers, although I think I might need to go back and outline the green chipboard letters on the lower right-hand side of the page. Anyway, I liked the way this looked, and am pleased with the book so far.

I wish that I had a 12x12 scanner, so I wouldn't have to take a picture of my layouts. My husband spoils me enough, so I just should leave it on my wish list.