Pages 1-7 complete!

This is the cover for the memory book. I used gold tissue paper for the binding and flower. "MOM" is made up of golden stickers that I bought at Walmart in a set that cost about $1. The orange background is cardstock, cause my Mom's favorite color is peach (this was the closest I had). And the "what i like about you" is a punch-out that I just glued onto the cardboard square.

"Spring" is cut out from a magazine I have called Real Simple. The flower background is from the cover of the May issue of that magazine. The green "hill" is made from cardstock (the faux grass was done by hand with a regular ballpoint pen). And the word "gardening" was handmade by a black retractable sharpie.
*My mom loves to garden.

The square on the right, has a base that consists of a yellow-goldish cardstock. The black patterned square is paper. The dots are different: I used a single hole-puncher to punch out dots from a cardboard gift box that I haven't used in a while. Why not, right?!  All of the topical phrases and brand name are from Real Simple magazine.
*My mom deserves to have time to take care of herself, and I want to encourage that to happen for her.

"Traditions" is a punch-out that I glued onto the gray-ish flowery torn paper beneath it. And beneath the paper is another patterned paper (that was seen on the last decorated cardboard square). At the top is a thick cardboard border that I glued.

The next square (as well as the other two that follow it) consists of a favored summer outing. The green, pink, and light blue (underneath the word "pool") dots are from the cardboard gift box I mentioned earlier. It's difficult to see, but the "Life Made Easier" phrase at the binding, is from Real Simple magazine (it's the magazine's tagline on the cover). I used the blue and yellow cardboard circles from some item I found laying around the apartment (I can't recall what it was). The "sun's" rays are twisted gold/bronze tissue paper. The smiley face is a sticker. And the word "pool", each letter, is a sticker.

This isn't as good of a picture, unfortunately, but both of these squares consist of traditions we did with Mom.
The left contains to traditions, just as well as the right. The top left is decorating Christmas cookies. The "cookies" are buttons, and again I used the single hole-puncher to make "confetti-like" sprinkles as if decorating. Red tissue paper is the base.

The bottom left is painting Easter Eggs. The base is cut out from the cardboard gift box where I punched out the dots. I used them to signify eggs for this topic. The "e g g s" are each a sticker in a designated "egg". The 2nd "g" got cracked by the ring...

The top right signifies our traditional Valentine's dinner where Mom would make us a dinner (usually steak), and make us a poster with a long note on it that would include words of our favorite candy. However, instead of writing the word of our favorite candy, she would put the literal candy bar or sweet in its place. Clever mama :-)  The heart is a cardboard tracer. So I got a hot pink post-it note, traced the paper, cut out the shape, then glued onto the tracer. The background is red tissue paper.

The bottom right is of our traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast. Everything was green. Seven-up, scrambled eggs, kiwis (obviously), apples (Granny Smith), and other surprises. She would use her special green food coloring to make the morning creative.

Progress
I have mapped out the themes of the next 13 squares, and am hoping to get a few more accomplished this evening.

Feel free to share what you're up to and any ways I can improve!

Mother's Day mini scrapbook

Now that Tour de Engagement is complete (only need a cover), I decided to start a mini scrapbook for Mom for Mother's Day on May 8th.

My friends Gen, her daughter Angel, and I went to a couple of scrapbooking stores today (Hobby Lobby & Archiver's) to get some ideas; as well as to spend some quality time together :-)

Gen found out that I didn't have a cutter, so I now have another tool! This is better than an X-Acto in that you can measure item on which you want to fit the paper/cardstock, then measure the cardstock on this tool to match it up. It also saves you some time, and gives your straighter, nicer-looking cuts!

I found my husband's single hole-puncher! This will help with the the details of the mini scrapbook itself.  In this picture, I have made notes as to what kind of themes may be included in the scrapbook, and how many pages (or in this case boxes, as you will see) it will consume. This helps me keep a tab on my topics, themes, and how many pages I have total.

This is the mini scrapbook! Gen and I found it at Archiver's and thought it would work really well. It's plain and just cries out, "be creative!" Love it. There will be pictures from my mother's past, her family, friends, and now her family and some Bible verses that encourage her as our mother and as a child of God.

I'm looking forward to seeing how God works in this project. I pray it blesses my Mom.

Feel free to comment!

7th page completed!

Okay. Either scrapbooking has become addicting for me, or God has just allowed me to be creative more quickly than just in a week's time. Could it be both? Hm...

This is a collage of some of our professional engagement photos. The yellow mark in the bottom left part of the top left-hand picture, is the light fixture in the room. So...disregard that part of the collage. Everything else is either scissored out of its original form, or is overlapped by another photo.

Feel free to comment, or ask questions!

Pages 4, 5, & 6 complete... with journaling!

Above is page 4 of Tour de Engagement. This page is different in format in that it was special place for me. Each time I would come and visit Nick in the summer, I would always leave town getting a frozen chai from this coffee shop: Cafe Ah-roma (as the name says on the bottom). This was our 3rd stop.

details on page...
-the foil-looking material is actually called metal accent sheets. Scissors work great on cutting this metal. do not use an X-Acto.

Coe Lake was our 4th stop. Because of our busy day, it was now nearing sunset at this beautiful small town lake.

And whaddya know!?  He proposed at our 4th stop of the day: Coe Lake.

details of page...
--the grayish paper is from a book of wedding/romantic paper that I picked up at Walmart for only $5 (as opposed to Michael's which was selling the same thing for $12).
--the hearts on the top and bottom are from the set of strawberries that was on the Godiva page earlier; there are still a few hearts left so I may be using more later.
--the quote off to the side is punchout from the same book I got from Walmart.

*I got a lot done this weekend and am now a few weeks ahead of where I thought I'd be--GOAL REACHED!

3rd page done!

Here is the 3rd page!  

PHOTO: This is an online picture of Southpark Mall that I burned onto a CD-R and took it to Walgreens 

and had it printed out for something like 60 cents. 

DOTS: The dots on the side are made by hand by a black Sharpie marker for journaling.

BOTTOM IMAGE: There are five pieces to this collage that are all cut from Real Simple magazine. The four corners of the collage are actually advertised rugs that were in the magazine. And to emphasize the partial chocolate theme to this page, I cut out (first with scissors) various chocolate from the magazine. Then touched it up with an X-Acto.

BOTTOM RIGHT IMAGES: The "X" and "O" are also from Real Simple magazine. Again I first used scissors, then used an X-Acto for touch-up. The "2nd" contains three different stickers to complete the 2, n, and d. 

STRAWBERRIES: The strawberries were designed to cling to cell phones as a decal. But I found these strawberries and knew I needed to use them for this page. 

Tour de Engagement: The 2nd place we went was at Southpark Mall in Strongsville, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). We walked around for a bit, and then walked into Godiva Chocolates (Chocolatier). We bought two chocolate covered strawberries that were connected at the tips by hardened milk chocolate. We later went out to the car to eat them; such a messy task!

I believe Tour de Engagement will be the title of this scrapbook; or at least this portion of it (depending on whether or not I include the wedding photos AND engagement photos in the same scrapbook.

4th page ideas are in the works!

Feel free to comment & asking questions!

no more mirror images!

I found my camera adapter, thanks to my husband :-)

Here are the photos of the first two pages of the scrapbook so far...

I took them out of their sleeves so there would be no glare...
Also, this picture below describes our 1st stop on our 4-stop journey: Cleveland Metroparks. We walked the trails and then ended at the waterfall (i love waterfalls). Then headed to our 2nd stop...

aaaaaand here's the beginning to the 3rd page!

Southpark Mall in Strongsville, Ohio was our 2nd stop on our 4-stop journey. Inside the mall, we got chocolate-covered strawberries at Godiva Chocolatier. No scissors have been used so far on this page. The "G O D I V A" letters are stickers. "Chocolatier" is handwritten.

It's a BEAUTIFUL WARM day outside so I will be reading by the lake.

I'm excited for time with Laura on Tuesday to learn more about scrapbooking/cooking/sewing/life.
And Wednesday with Gen and her family!

Lots of learning to be done...
A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.
--Proverbs 1:5 NASB

Tools & 1st and 2nd page

I'm not a photographer. Nor does my camera have an adapter that can transfer the photos taken with it to a computer. As a result, the pictures I am posting here (at least for the time being) are taken with Photo Booth. It is a Mac application that normally takes a picture in its mirror image. Hence, these photos will be as if I showed them to you in a mirror. I'm hoping I'll find an adapter to my camera soon...

After using scissors for my 1st & 2nd page, I realized that I could no longer choose to be resourceful when it came to cutting. So I purchased the cheapest X-Acto knife I could find: $2.47 @ Walmart.

This is the first acid-free glue stick I purchased. At less than $3, I was not afraid to buy it as "my first adhesive."

This is my completed first page. It was completed last week.
I purchased a $5 book with various bright-colored cardstock again from Walmart. The hearts are cut from a wedding gift bag that was given to us on our wedding day. We have tons of them left over, so I thought, why not use it?!  The "e n g a g e d" stickers are from a packet that I also bought at Walmart (only $1). These photos on the page are some of our engagement photos done by Brian Koehneke. The reflection is off of the computer screen.

My 2nd almost-complete page! This is where I begin the series of our engagement. We went four places on our engagement day (November 28th, 2009). And I'm planning on making at least one page (as seen above) of each event. I have my pictures in order of sequence.

More on this picture....
1) The pink strips of cardstock on the side are to explain about why we went to Cleveland Metroparks, and why I chose to place those pictures on this page. I have yet to write the description. Nick and I are still working on what we want to explain about each place we visited that day.

2) Next to the logo, I cut out (not with an X-Acto mind you) just Nick and I from one of our engagement photos. For future reference, I will use the X-Acto.

3) The red image next to Nicholas and I is a "Real" logo from some sort of box I found in our apartment.
***I learned that taking random things from literally anything, and using it to benefit your project, is a worthwhile and lifetime-changing idea. I learned this from Gen.

Page #3 is in the works!

my 1st grown-up scrapbook.

I wanted to start this blog so that I would have an online log of the process of making a scrapbook. I'm an ENFP, and I know that most of my projects begin with a great idea, then cease just as quickly as they started. However, this project is different. I am going to embark on brainstorming, designing, and handcrafting our engagement & wedding scrapbook!  

My goal is to create one page a week. When I say one page, I literally mean 1 piece of cardstock (NOT front and back). This is a good goal for me because in the long run, I'll have it almost finished for our 1st anniversary in August. 

To keep my word, and keep this blog creative, I will post my progress each week. Please hold me accountable. I'm not one for scrapbooks, but the content of this one in which I will be creating deserves dedication for the sake of remembering our wedding.

My approach may be a bit unorthodox. I will not have the glitzy tools most pro scrapbookers use. However, I will be using and re-using literal scraps I find around the apartment; as well as from extreme discounts at Hobby Lobby or other stores like it.

Feel free to post any tips you have regarding scrapbooking. For I am an amateur-novice, and would appreciate any help you would have to share!

blessings