Caught up ... for a few days, anyway!

Yay... finished the pages for Skylar's second birthday to go in her birthday album. With her 3rd birthday in just 10 days, I officially have one album caught up (if you don't count the fact that I haven't actually gotten the pages printed and in the book, yet!)
Here are the pages...




Now, to decide on a theme for birthday number three ...
If you are new to visiting my blog, thanks for visitng and please leave a comment and tell me how you found me!! I've been playing around with Twitter & Facebook in an attempt to find what works best in my effort to document my existence. It would be helpful to know how these things are working!
Have a great day! :)

The birthday book.

As promised, here are shots of the first year's section of Skylar's birthday album...

Each year will start with a gated 6x12 inch spread like this ...

Followed by a full-size 12x12 page like this ...

Notice the gift list on the left ... and a pocket for cards on the right.

This opens to another 12x12 page on the back, followed by several photo pocket pages for all the pics I wanted to include but not necessarily scrapbook.

I created a few photo-size cards to highlight a few other memories, like the one you see here ...

But for the most part, the photos speak for themselves...



And that's about all. The next birthday will come next ... once I get it scrapbooked!!!
And speaking of birthdays, a big {Happy Birthday!} today to my dad!!!

Birthday #3 is just around the corner...

It's hard to believe, but Skylar's third birthday is now less than a month away. In addition to the urge to come up with a theme of some sorts so we can have a little party with her and her little friends (a theme which can be SCRAPBOOKED, of course!!), her impending birthday has reminded me once again that I have yet to get her birthday album together.
I did actually START it, though ... a couple months ago, in fact. I decided on an album and format, designed the pages for birthday #1, even ordered prints of the photos I didn't use on the layouts. I just didn't get around to actually purchasing the album ... until this week.

Fancy Pants Designs - 12x12 Fancy Gated Album

I just LOVE the album I picked out and I'm very anxious now for it to arrive. It's made by Fancy Pants Designs and what I love about it is that it is gated, meaning it opens from both sides, like double doors. PLUS the unique feature of this album is that it also has binder rings on BOTH sides. I have not found any other 12x12 albums with this feature (if you know of some, PLEASE let me know!!) So, what that means is that I can use the 6x12 clear protective pages, also made by Fancy Pants Designs, plus the regular 12x12 sheet protectors and photo sleeves, in all kinds of cool combinations. I plan to make this a combination album rather than strictly a scrapbook ... that way I can incorporate the zillions of photos I seem to take on birthdays, plus the cards, snippets of wrapping paper, etc., without feeling the need to scrapbook every single thing (which I would NEVER get done!!)

Fancy Pants Designs - 12x12 Page Protector Refills with 4x6 Photo Pockets

Fancy Pants Designs - 6x12 Page Protector Refills


I still need to scrapbook birthday #2, which may or may not happen before Skylar's birthday on May 2nd. I will follow the same format each year, though, so it should be a little easier once I get the ball rolling.
I will share photos of the album in progress once it arrives and I start getting it all together...  In the meantime, feel free to click on the links above if you're interested in getting one of these great albums for yourself! The link will take you directly to Scrapbook.com, where you can also make a purchase, if you so choose.
Have a great day!

Life by lists.

I love lists. I think maybe because they are so easy to write, much less intimidating than sitting down to write a paragraph sometimes. So when I see someone else making a neat list, I often feel compelled to follow suit.
That was the case when I happened upon the blog of one of my husband's co-workers. On her blog, Tracey has two lists - one is 100 things about her and the other is 101 goals to be completed in 1001 days. You can find out more information about the latter here. In the meantime, I'm thinking I'm going to start working on both lists for myself, which you can expect to find here on my blog at some point.
I also added another list here to my blog ... it's a list of the sites that I find inspiring, entertaining ... and often both. Check it out on the left-hand column of my site. Check back often, as I'm sure the list will be growing soon, especially since I've recently acquired a whole new list of blogs maintained by my fellow scrapbookers at Designer Digitals.
Until next time, here's my latest scrapbook page ...

a Day in MY Life...



So, I finished up my first "Day in the Life" album this weekend. It is a rather detailed look at a somewhat typical day in my life, including more than 130 photos and 30 pages!! I'm glad to have it finished so I can move on to other projects, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out ... You can view it at Shutterfly by clicking here.
Let me know what you think!! :)

Making progress.

I can check two projects off my list. I finished my gangster layout yesterday ...

and I also created a sixth layout for the Designer Digitals contest.


If I happen to do another page I like better than one of the six I already submitted, I may swap one out. But if not, I've completed the contest requirements, so at least I'll have a shot at being considered!
The other items on my list are much more time-consuming, but eventually I'll share when I get them completed.

My current projects...

1. A "Day in the Life" album. 


I spent last Thursday taking photos all day and jotting down our activities so I can make an album depicting a typical day in my life. Turned out, it wasn't entirely typical - Jacques came home a little early and took 3 of the kids with him to the 7C basketball tourney, leaving me with just the baby and a few hours of (somewhat) free time. 


The album will still be a pretty accurate glimpse into my life at this stage, though... I have all of the photos (136+) on pages and now just need to go back and do the journaling and some embellishing.
2. Scrapbooking my uncle's 60th "gangster" birthday party.




It's not every day that I see my parents dressed up like a scene from The Godfather! We had fun celebrating my uncle's 60th birthday with a theme party in Great Falls this weekend and of course, I took lots of photos. I sat down last night to put together a fun page with some of my favorite shots - when I get that finished, I'll be sure to share...
3. Planning a layout (or 2) highlighting memories of my gramma's house.



My aunt & uncle live in the house that was my grandparents and I always loved visiting there. I took several photos this weekend of that house so I can incorporate them into some pages about my memories of the house - and my grandparents, too. 



I used to always say that my Gramma Stephens was my "favorite person in the whole world" and have been wanting to document some of my memories of her for quite a while now. Hopefully this first step will help me get that done...
4. Deciding what to do for my final entry for the Guest Designer contest at Designer Digitals.

I decided to go ahead and give this contest a try. DesignerDigitals.com is my favorite digital scrapbooking site, both their store and their gallery. I upload all of my pages there as they are completed and most of the digital goodies I buy are from that store. They are currently running a contest where you upload 6 layouts during the month of February, with the chosen "guest designer" winning the opportunity to be a guest on their design team for 8 weeks, during which time they receive all of the new products for FREE. I've submitted 5 pages so far, including the one above, and have one left... still deciding what to do for that.
Wish me luck!!
5. Working on a little gift album. 
It's a surprise, though, for the recipient, so I won't be sharing details of that until later!! :)

It's about time...



So I managed to pull myself away from the computer this weekend and finally rework the watch I wrote about on Friday. It took a while to be able to relax and enjoy the process without feeling like I should be doing something more "productive."


But eventually I was able to do that and I like the results. Of course, I had to do it twice... I seem to always make watches and bracelets too big the first time around. But that's okay, too. It's how I do most things - make a "rough draft" to start with, then fine-tune it until I like the end result. Here it is...

 
While digging through my jewelry supplies, I also came across some beads I'd forgotten I'd purchased to make a name bracelet for my baby girl. So, now I have another project to keep in mind the next time I feel a need for more balance.
I'm thinking that will be pretty soon! :)

Balance.

I just love this watch. Or rather, I love the potential I see in this watch. I picked this up at one of our local second-hand stores in November for about $2 and have been meaning to take it apart and restyle it ever since. But somehow that hasn't happened... first I got sidetracked with the holidays, then my scrapbooking bug took over, and then most recently I've had some grant application deadlines sneak up on me.
It's all about BALANCE, which is something I've never been very good at achieving but continually feel I need more of. I have a tendency to go, go, go when there is something I'm interested in, only to burn myself out on it and then not want to touch it again for a while. After almost two years of not really feeling motivated to scrapbook, I'm suddenly feeling extremely motivated and want to do it ALL the time. I want to take advantage of this new-found energy to do a bunch of projects I've had in mind, but at the same time I don't want to burn myself out and take another two or three years to get going again. So I'm trying this time to find more balance before that happens.
So, this weekend I am making it a goal of mine to take some time out from everything else to design this watch. Perhaps I'll do it between Super Bowl commercials, since I'm not much of a football fan. (My husband, on the other hand, is a Steelers follower, so I'm sure he'll be glued to the set!) I'll put a photo of the new and improved watch here Monday ... hopefully my saying that will help me follow through on this plan!!
Have a great weekend! :)

Family scrapbook: winter play

Here's another addition to the Rutten Family 2009 scrapbook...
 
This was created in Photoshop 7.0 using the Wonderland kit by Atomic Cupcake.

Me: inspired.

After making my "16 things" list this morning, I was inspired this evening to do a couple layouts for my album about ME. The first is my list and the other is just a record of one of my favorite ways to spend a few quiet minutes at home.



The "story" image above and the overlay below are both by Ali Edwards from designerdigitals.com.




Birthday memories

I was inspired to start my 2-year-old's birthday album this weekend, which is going to be a gated album with a combination of 12x12 and 6x12 layouts and photo sleeves. Her first birthday is nearly complete - now I just need to get everything printed and purchase the album. Here's a peek at the layouts that will go into this book...







These were all created digitally using the Kaylee kit from Atomic Cupcake. I also have 60 photos that will follow these pages in protective sleeves. The two sets of narrow layouts will go into the gated 6x12 pages and I'll slip her birthday cards into the one that says "cards."
Now I just need to do her second birthday and I'll have ONE album all caught up!! :)

Testing out a "blended album" approach



Just enjoying a quiet weekend at home and managed to put together the first calendar page for our 2009 family album. I'm trying a new approach this year, referred to in the industry as a "blended photo album." Basically it's a traditional photo album with photos slipped into sleeves but you add scrapbook pages and/or scrapbook-like elements mixed in.
I've decided to do this with the bulk of our family photos, since we take so many every year and there's no way I'll ever find time to scrapbook them all. I'm going to do this album chronologically, with each month starting with a page similar to the one above. Hopefully by the end of 2009, I'll have a finished album instead of what I have at the end of 2008, which is a ton of photos still in my computer!!
BTW - I scrap-lifted the design for this page from one I saw at digitreats.typepad.com. Love her stuff ... be sure to check it out!!

Time to BEGIN

If you're a fan of Ali Edwards, you know she encourages everyone to choose a "word" for the year ... something to serve as a daily reminder and guide toward whatever area is a priority for you at the moment.
My word for the year is: BEGIN.
I've decided to incorporate my word into a project I've taken on this year, and I plan to share my progress along this way with you on this blog. I just turned 39 a couple weeks ago and somehow this, my 40th year, seems like a big turning point for me. More on that later, I'm sure.
My project is a scrapbook album focused on ME at this stage in my life. My many roles, my goals, my interests and hobbies, my priorities, my hang-ups. And as you'll discover if you follow along with me, one of those hang-ups is moving beyond the planning stage to actually DOING. Hence, my word for the year.
Inspired by the colors in a bouquet of pretty flowers my father-in-law shared with us last week, I've designed a new digital kit focused on my word for the year. At the moment, I'm hoping to make this an annual project. I will be making that kit available for sale later this month. In the meantime, I've used some of its pieces to create a first page for my album... a BEGINning.
Here it is...

 
This page will eventually go into a fun 8x8 acrylic album I found on eBay from a store called www.inkognitoart.com (it's on the top of the pile - literally & figuratively - in the photo in my scrapbook page). I've never used acrylic before, so this will be another fun challenge. More on that later...

An easy way to save those holiday cards, letters and photos

I discovered a great new use for one of my kitchen gadgets and just had to share.

Every year, we get a nice stack of holiday cards, letters and photos, which, of course, I want to save. But I usually end up tossing them into a drawer for "later" and, well, later never quite comes. So, this year I decided (with the help of my word of the year - BEGIN) to actually DO something with those holiday wishes.

I have now started a scrapbook album devoted exclusively to our holiday cards and letters. Nothing too fancy - it's basically a binder with clear protective pages where I can slip each item into. All of the items for each year go in one section and I'll add cute index pages for each year once I have a chance to visit a scrapbook supply store. I used a white binder with a clear cover, so when I have time, I can make a cute holiday-themed "cover" to slip inside the front, back and spine "pockets."

The part I wanted to share is how I created the inside pockets for the items that are smaller than a standard-sized page. We don't have any suppliers in our area that offer more than your basic 8.5x11-inch protector. And I wanted a way to store smaller sized photos and cards without using a whole protector page for each. I knew (from experience!) if I wait until I could go shopping for specialized pages, the project would never get started. So, I used my vacuum heat sealer from the kitchen to create my own pockets on the pages.

I enjoy freezer cooking and was fortunate to receive a Foodsaver Professional III sealer last year for Christmas. But I'm guessing just about any sealer would work if it has the option of sealing without "vacuuming." Basically, I just laid my protector page in the sealer where I wanted a side seam and then used the manual seal option on setting 3 for heat sealing time. I sealed the top of the page closed, then added seams to make smaller pockets within, depending on what specific items I wanted to put in each page. To make openings to slide the items in, I then used my rotary paper cutter and removed the original seam from one side of the page. It worked really well and I plan to use this method again for my other scrapbooking projects, especially when I'm in a hurry and don't want to wait for an order of special pocket pages to arrive by mail.

Now that this album is started, it should be easy next year to just add another section. Plus, this will make it much easier to go back from year to year and see how people have changed!