Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

Stacy Julian

I've been a fan of Stacy Julian's since I bought the book The Big Picture and read it on the airplane ride to visit my Grandma Grace, I think it was the summer of 2005.  It is now 2012 and I'm still a fan and I'm enrolled in her Twelve Class at Big Picture Classes and it is as awesome as I expected.

That's my screen on February 12th - Stacy does an online Chat with the Twelve students on the 12th day of each month.

I had been a fan of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine but wasn't very familiar with Stacy until I read her book.  I fell instantly in love with Stacy Julian and her philosophy.  I'm not alone, thousands of scrapbookers across the world share my love of Stacy.  I've been a fan and a follower of hers for seven years now, I've taken several classes with her at Big Picture Classes, and although we've never met in person, I can tell you, she is pure awesomeness in every way.

 

So when I wanted to get the word out on "Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (March 21)", I knew that one blog post from Stacy would make a huge difference in the number of people "going" to this celebration of life created by my friend Julie "Rosenstud's"  late husband Bruce C. Rosenberg.  At this time we are at 2,900 "going" and I have the goal of having 10,000 going by tomorrow - is it possible?  I think so! Here is the Link to Stacy Julian's Blog. 

Chances are if you are reading my blog, you are a scrapbooker and chances are you are a fan of Stacy too.  Here are twelve links to my blog posts all about Stacy Julian and Big Picture Classes and Library of Memories:

1. Stacy Julian's Twelve Class in 2012 at Big Picture Classes

2. 12 Scrapbook Layouts about "You" meaning "Me" for Stacy Julian's Twelve Class 

3. How I Organized 60 Layouts Using Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Album System

4. Custom Made Storage System for My Library of Memories Albums

5. Library of Memories Storage System "After"

6. What Makes a Scrapbook a "Simple Scrapbook"

7. Stacy Julian's Creative Crop Challenge 10+10+10

8. Stacy Julian Appreciation Week Layout

9. Stacy Julian's Freedom Friday Challenge

10. Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Community: 1st Challenge: Red, White & You

11. Stacy Julian's Have More Fun Class: "No Toe Dipper"

12. Stacy Julian's Free BPC Class "Cocoa, Daisies and Stacy"

So Thank You Stacy for the blog post to get the word out about "Ice Cream for Breakfast (March 21)" Day and thank you for years and years of inspiration and scrapbooking fun!

If you'd like to support this blog and get Stacy Julian scrapbooking goodies, please check out these affiliate links:

 

 

Scrapbook Layout Inspired by Jared Andrew Schorr

One of the Triggers for Stacy Julian's Twelve Class is a piece of art by Jared Andrew Schorr called "Keep Your Head Up"; It is a colorful picture of dinosaurs which he makes by cutting paper.  Inspired, I started on making one of the dinosaurs when my kids kept coming into my scrapbooking room telling me the other one was lost and I had to go find them - then one would lead me to a giant pile of pillows and covers and I had to look around the room until I finally found the pillow pile on the 5th or 6th guess and then the hidden one would pop out.  We did this little routine about 6 or 7 times.  While they kept coming in they saw the dinosaur making and they quickly wanted to join in the fun.

I think Allison's pterydactl really adds to the effect and I will definately remember making this page.  {WOW - I just did spell check and I actually got pterydactl right on the first try!}

Journaling:  "These photos (in the layout) were taken in 2007.  That's five years ago now and I can remember when you two played "pretend that" all the time and now you both have your friends so you don't play together as often but just tonight you played "I can't find Allison" and she'd hide under pillows and Mac would encourage met to find her just like old times.  And while I made this page you two came in and made dinosaur drawings for me.  I love you - Mommy 1/8/12."

 

Show & Tell Time: Project Life & Twelve in 2012 Class

I made a couple u-stream videos about my Project Life Albums and my pre-class assignment for the BPC class 12:

PROJECT LIFE - HOME MADE ALBUM VS. BECKY HIGGINS KIT:

 

After making this video, I actually had my husband sign me up for the Amazon Affiliate Program,  I want to share what I love on this blog and if Amazon could reward me for that - great - but I will only recommend things I really love, sound good?  Good.

This is what I use and recommend for Project Life:

1. The Core Kit - the journaling cards are more than worth the price - I was reluctant to get them but I think they are awesome and I think that in 2012 will be successful at keeping up with Project Life because of these journaling cards.  I bought the Amber Core Kit, but I have been seriously tempted to get the Turquoise Core Kit; and I am excited about the Clementine Core Kit which should be available soon.  I think that if you love this system and can afford it, getting more than one kit would be fun since the cards could be used in other projects; however, if you are trying to be a bit more frugal like me, then I'd recommend just picking one - there will still be more than enough to use in this project and have some left over for other projects.

2. The Page Protectors - sure you could do Project Life without them, but the journaling cards and the page protectors make the whole system lightyears easier than trying to make them on your own - trust me I tried last year and I can now say that the Project Life system really works, even though I'm only a recent convert - I am really in love with how easy it is.  I bought the Page Protectors in Style A - the 60 pack and I also bought the multi Page Protector pack in 60; I'm tempted to buy another 60 of Style A since they often go out of stock and they are in stock right now.  I think that if you wanted the bare minimum, I'd recommend getting the 60 pack of Style A or the smaller pack if you just wanted to try them out to be sure you liked them before committing to 60 of them - although I love them and 60 pages will take you though the entire 2012 year, so I recommend the 60 pack.

If you want other page protector configurations, I have also bought these and like them very much - although for Project Life, I recommend starting with Design A and then branching out to these other types of page protectors - and I am including the standard 12x12 C-Lines that I've been buying for years and I think are the most economical:

3. A 3 ringed 12x12 scrapbook album - I have several different types and these are the ones I like and use:

One item from each of the above 1-3 should be sufficient to get you off to a successful start in 2012 with Project Life.  When I ordered my items they took less than a week to arrive, but I ordered before Christmas season so I don't know if the holidays effect shipping time.  I am seriously considering ordering another pack of the page protectors style A since the multi-pack page protectors are currently out of stock and the 60 set of style A is seriously useful.

PRE-CLASS ASSIGNMENT DIVIDER BIN FOR THE 12 CLASS BY STACY JULIAN AT BIG PICTURE CLASSES:

 

I bought a bin at the craft store for my pre-class assignment for Stacy Julian's 12 class at BPC, I couldn't find the exact one on Amazon but this locker style bin is very similar to the one I have and very cute - especially the little locker label thing:

 

Twelve in 2012

I am so excited to have signed up for Stacy Julian's Twelve Class at Big Picture Classes.  I can't wait for class to start!  Yes, I'm that nerd in the front row with two number 2 freshly sharpened pencils laid out neatly in front of me and my notebook opened and ready to take very detailed notes.  I love learning and I am always inspired by what Stacy Julian has to share. 

The pre-class project is to repurpose an open bin that you already have, I used a "Stacy Julian Green" metal locker style bin that I picked up at Joann's Crafts a few years ago.  It is about 10 inches deep, 10 inches front to back open at the top and 1o inches across at the top and about 7 inches at the bottom so I had to cut the divider sheets for the unique shape of the bin.  As per class instructions, I made 12 divider sheets with cardboard bases and colorful patterned paper and binder clips; I added the envelopes from Ditto.  I also sewing machine stiched the paper down to make the patterned paper stick down better; I am actually in the process of finishing the stitching on all of them.  The black and white checkerboard at the top is duct tape!

See you in class!

P.S. Stephanie - here's a link to the envelopes I used - they are Ditto by Hampton Arts, colorful binder clips from Office Depot, and the awesome patterened duct tape!

Did you see there is Hello Kitty Duck Tape??? And the Black Damask and Houndtooth look awesome too and the Candy Cane??!!  I love that they are making fashion colored duct tape, it is a happy, happy thing.

Pink Lemonade and the Summertime List

Inspired by another Color Challenge at the Big Picture Classes Blog - this 12x12 scrapbook layout is based on the Pink Lemonade Color Scheme:

 
There have been some really cute Summer Lists on Pintrest - especially that one on the chalkboard with the colorful chairs in the foreground.  I haven't figured out which wall in my house to paint with chalkboard paint yet, but in the meantime, I did hang this layout in my kitchen:

 
I should probably add "clean up the giant pink girl mess" that you see in front of Dandy in the living room, but that reminds me of another Pintress word photo that goes something like "Please excuse my messy house, my children are busy making memories."   That also reminds me that I should probably photograph those clusters of pink girl stuff that are all over the house because they too are temporary, and someday, I'll probably miss them.

I did get the chance to go shopping at my local scrapbook store Whim So Doolde and the middle of that layout is a piece of Crate Paper patterned paper that looks like vintage girl book spines - so cute.  I got a bunch more patterned paper today and some things from the Ditto line and some other yummy embellishments from Sassafrass and Basic Grey.  Yay.

Monochromatic-Ally & Storing Scrapbooking Embellishments by Color

 
I saw a challenge by Wendy Smedley on the Big Picture Classes Blog to make a monochromatic layout and I made a double page 12x12 layout of my daughter for a post-bound album I'm working on for her.  It was easy because the background paper was already color-blocked.  The page took much longer than I normally take to make a page, however, because I used lots and lots of rub-ons.  Creating this 2 page spread was a fun way to get into my color organized embellishments.

 
And that's how it looks in the book - I put it towards the front of the book & I like this layout because it takes Ally from when she was a tiny baby (look at that one in the top left of me holding  her up - she was only about a month old then) an the lower right photos are very recent.  Ahh how time flies.

So how do I decide whether to store embellishments by color or theme?  If the theme is dominant then the embellishment gots into a themed embellishment bin but if it is more generic then it goes into the color bins.  I like having two systems.  I was born under the Gemini sign afterall ;)  Katie.

Scrapbooking by Numbers: 10+ Photos & Scrapbooking in the Present

I flipped through the Becky Higgins Sketches Book over the weekend while floating in my little row boat and found a great scrapbook sketch for  two page layouts with lots of photos. Here are three of my interpretations of that one multi-photo scrapbook sketch:

1. My cousin Catherine's wedding:

 
I had a ton of photos from a film camera - the wedding was in 1999 or 2000, so I cropped some of them and got 11 on one two page scrapbook layout.  I trimmed it up with odds and ends embellishments including chipboard words, rubons, transparency butterflies, patterned paper, and dimensional tag stickers.  I didn't do a ton of journaling but did write down how I am related to my cousin - so that my kids would know in case they ever wondered when they saw this layout.

2.  This doesn't exactly follow the sketch but its pretty close and I fit 10 photos onto 2 pages with this layout.  I was on a roll with the older photos - so I pulled out some from the summer of 2008 and found a bunch of my husband and daugther - neither of them were available when I was doing the journaling - if they were I probably would have asked them about the photos to get the story, but I told the story I knew - that I had just gotten back from my 20 year high school reunion and they showed me their silly tricks when I returned:

 

3. This next is very similar to the one in the Becky Higgins Sketch book - I even found the exact same brown paper with the little green flowers that she used back in 2006 - those scrapbooking yardsales keep me well stocked in premium paper that's out of date; I think this one was Crate Paper and I don't care that its old - it is a very nice heavy weight, it is pretty and doesn't look too dated to me, and the best part is I probably got it for ten cents.  

This layout that I made which features my son at age 6 in the summer of 2008 broke my heart just a little because he's so much bigger now that he is 9 and, well, he used to love hanging out with me and while he still does, he does less now than he did then.   Plus I realized that I had little in the way of journaling from that summer; I probably have a notebook or something somwhere, but it wasn't handy when I made the layout and I looked at my blog archives from the Summer of 2008 and it was all about scrapbooking instead of about what my kids were up to.  So I'm thinking I'm going to start blogging a little more about the current events of my life for future scrapbooking reference for myself.  

After I made this layout this morning, I created a Florida Scavenger Hunt, told both kids that we were going on an adventure, and we spent the day out in the world until sunset finding treasure and making memories. 

 

That's 11 photos on that 2 page layout - I'm thinking that maybe I'll do more 2 page layouts; I used to do a lot of them but have been doing 1 pagers for the last couple years.  I'm feeling the 2 page thing coming back - not as a trend in the world of scrapbooking - but in my own little world of scrapbooking.

Ok, I'm filing these under the Scrapbooking by Numbers: 10+ Photos and I'm going to make better efforts towards my Becky Higgins style Project Life Album and writing down more everyday about what is going on in the present - so when I scrapbook the pictures I took today someday in the future, then I'll remember all the fun stuff we did and what we talked about.  And I'm sure someday, my big kids of 7 and 9 will look tiny to my future self.

Here we were today in pictures on our Scavenger Hunt Adventure:

And I didn't write down a whole lot other than what I found on our scavenger hunt, but Ally & I did make this little video which I'm sure will jog my memory if it needs a reminder someday in the future when I try to scrapbook a few of these pictures.   I tried to upload the video here but ran into some problems, I did upload it to my picasa web album, I really need to do more video - the kids are so completely cute - especially their voices.

Time to Spring Ahead :)

 

 

Perfect Just The Way You Are

 

I've been taking the FREE (yes free!) class at Big Picture Classes by Karen Grunberg called "Embrace Imperfection" and while listing to the Week 1 Slide Show audio, I made this page.  Lately, I have felt like I'm not the perfect Mom and that we aren't doing the best we can for my son who has ADHD.  We've had a couple of very challenging days recently and we just aren't sure what the perfect answer is.  I tend to freak out a bit when I don't have a good plan.  We are struggling our way through this.  But we are trying to convey to our son that we love him and we are doing what we think is best for him and that we're not perfect either - that we're just trying to figure out the best solution. 

The journaling that ended up on the page was not the original journaling - it started like this "Last night was rough, the second hard day in a row during a week that should have been easy and fun.  Mac, I want you to know that Dad and I are not perfect, but we are doing our best And that we do what we do because we love you.  Know Always - we love you just the way you are.  We know that God picked us to be together because we belong together.  We all have challenges - your Dad and I have our own - And we want to do the best in helping you with yours.  We think you are perfect Just the Way You Are. Love Mom"

 

The journaling was too big for the space I had left for it so I cut and pasted (literally) my journaling and condensed it down a bit to fit.  I intentionally put the pictures crooked on the page (suggested in the class slide show) and then I stitched around the photos and didn't get that perfect either - I wish I could say that was intentional, but fact is I had some sewing machine issues but just went with it.  I used some American Crafts Thickers but didn't have an Letter "e" s left so I cut up O's and filled in the horizontal lines; I also didn't have a "T" but made one from the letters I did have left over.  After I had the journaling and the title down it didn't look like "enough" but I didn't want to busy the layout up with a lot of embellishments so instead I took a Copic Marker - and then a sharpie - and highlighted the letters with red marker.  Then I grabbed the fine tip sharpie and filled in the spaces in the letters in my journaling.  I took the picture of my layout on my son's Lego Desk - which you might remember used to be my Ikea Scrapbooking Desk - now it is completely covered with legos - but hey, that's why we put it in his room.

 

I'm finding the class "Embrace Imperfection" to be exactly what the doctor ordered for me lately, I tend to want to make everything perfect and sometimes get on a mission to get it done.  But raising children - especially one with ADHD - isn't something you just get done, it is an ongoing process that is full of imperfection - mostly on our part, but we are trying our best.  Last night we actually talked to him for the first time about what ADHD means - before that we had never even said "ADHD" in front of him and we just called his therapist "the talking doctor" - as in there wasn't a chance that she was ever going to give him a shot, we just to talk. 

With Mac turning nine - the last year of single digits, it makes me think of the next 9 years and I hope that we will continue to *try* to not be so hard on ourselves as parents (speaking mostly to myself there) and that we will do the best for him and that he will continue to be happy and feel loved. 

We love you Mackey Boy, always have, always will.

The Village

Page inspired by Stacy Julian's Cocoa, Daisies and Stacy BPS FREE class:

Photos I Love Albums

Thank Goodness for Stacy Julian

To get me back on my happy track of scrapbooking and scraplifting.  Here's another page I made inspired by Stacy Julian's new FREE class on Big Picture Scrapbooking called Cocoa, Daisies and Stacy:

 

P.S. Stacy - Right this minute:  my son is dancing around blowing that kazoo you sent me from the Have More Fun Class! 

September Mini Book - Scrapbooking the NOW

Stacy Julian put a scrapbooking challenge out to make a mini book about right now and keep it in our purse for one year.  Here's mine:

 

   

September - Web Surfing Hiatus for Me.

This was in response to a message from Stacy Julian in the Have More Fun class about only focusing on the September album:

"Ok I'm in.  I'm thinking that for the month of September:  I'm going to stop looking at other blogs, boards & magazines and just do my own thing.  I'm probably going to keep posting on my own blog.   And I'm probably going to keep on scrapbooking my own other projects, but I could probably cut out a lot of the - "oh look what she did"s.  Ok I think I'm good with this.  Hmmm.   Although I think I might need to join a 12 step program to stop looking at all the scrapbooking stuff out there.  But seriously, ok I'm in.  Ok I'm committing.  For real."

So starting in September, you can still check in with my blog and see what I'm doing but I'm not going to be surfing the web or looking at inspiration books. 

SO, loyal blog readers, PLEASE LET ME KNOW - email me or leave a comment -  if I've won a contest or anything exciting happens or if SIMPLE puts up a page call for publication - I still have a major goal of getting a page published in Simple Scrapbooks.  Please keep me in the loop?  Thank you!

Creativity and Productivity

Gwen Stefani has a commercial about this - I'm not sure what product she's selling, maybe its a computer, I don't know - but she talks about how creativity can be hard but when it flows its like magic.  I feel like I've had a little bit of that magic flow lately and that I've been able to be very productive in the creativity department. 

So I'm happily making pages and mini books and photo album scrapbooks and posting them here and on the new Simple Scrapbooks website and getting nice feed back and generally feeling pretty good and  happy.  And I'm having FUN - which is what I signed up to do this summer by taking Stacy Julian's "Have More Fun" class. 

So sometimes Stacy puts up the Thursday lesson on Wednesday night, so last night Iistened to it - it was over an hour long - but I'm totally loving it - she's talking all about creativity and spirituality and all that fun stuff... Until she says something like - I want you to stop all of your other scrapbooking projects for the month of September and just focus on this one. 

At first I think - Oh there's no way I can do that, I'll just dismiss it like I did last year in Library of Memories with her suggestion of the storage binders - which a year later I'm now using.  I want to trust her.  I want to have more fun.  But giving up all my other scrapbooking just doesn't seem like fun to me.

Plus I'm worried that if I stop the daily momentum I have with creativity that come October, it will be gone.  I don't want to lose it.  I know, I know, I remember the song from the 70s about "hold on loosely" but I guess I just don't want to let go.  And I know what a busy time of year October - December is for me - not only because there are three major holidays and my daughter's birthday, but it is the busiest time of year for me at work.  The last quarter is BUSY.  I just don't think I could crank up the creativity train during that time if I'm not on a daily regimen already...

I know, I'm probably over-thinking this.  But its on my mind and sometimes it helps to just spit it out on the blog.  What do you think?  If you are a scrapbooker (or any other creative kind of thing) and you feel like you're in a groove, would you stop because you were taking a class that told you to focus on just one thing?

Signed, Undecided.

P.S. I am not one that loves the State of Indecision.  I like to know whats-what.  I wanted to know the gender of my babies as soon as possible.  I like to find out the scoop as soon as I can.  And if I'm ever alone in your house, I will snoop - quite throughly in fact.  Just a word of warning if I'm going to be a house guest.  But bottom line is I like to have all the facts and I like to have my mind made up.  I think I have an open mind,  I just don't like the chewing on a decision - weighing the pros and cons - part.

Park Book - Photo Album Scrapbook!