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I felt pretty thrifty after scrapping with just scraps yesterday.  It felt great actually and made me think that maybe next week I might do a bunch of posts about scrapping on a budget - 'cause who doesn't need ways to extend their supplies?

So that will be next week  - budget scrapping :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

And the other thing to consider when you see your final photos is that they are not final. :)  Never under estimate editing and cropping.  Check out this photo.

Love it but it didn't look like this straight out of the camera.  Look at this before and after.

You can see how I changed it from not so great to a much better photo.  All I did was rotate it a bit so she looked like she was standing straight and then I cropped it.

Possibly this might help someone out there who is scrapbooker and wanted to improve their photos.  In a nutshell  - look at some photos by others you like and figure out what it is you like about them, take lots (and lots) of photos at any event and after the fact, see if you can edit any photos to improve them. 

So you might have seen that I am starting to work on a summer album for each of my kidlets, Harper and Magnus.  I started the covers last week but hadn’t decided where I wanted the albums to go yet.  All I knew was I wanted one for each of them and I wanted work on them throughout the summer.

This past weekend I put some more thought into them and came up with a plan.  I decided I was not going to treat them like tradition mini albums that have a cohesive theme and use coordinating product throughout the album.  I am going to treat each page like I treat a scrapbook page – individually.  I have a very general theme that is based on each kidlet & our summer vacation but that is about it.  I plan to add in anything that catches my interest about them throughout the summer break.  It can be big or small, something we do, something that is said or even thought – theirs or mine.  Pretty loose but it leaves a lot of opportunities open.

So I decided to title each album – Harper Was Here & Magnus Was Here.  Very general but captures  the idea of the album – a snapshot of our lives this summer.

I started to work on the covers but was really itching to start on some inside pages.  So I put the covers aside to work on during a time when I don’t have a story to tell and worked on some inside pages. I plan to make a summary page at the beginning but again I will work on that later.

So here is the first page in Harper’s book.  Something big.

I got Harper to add her own writing to make it personal.

And here is the first page in Magnus’ book.  Something small.

Just a funny that Magnus said the other day. 

(Ignore the spelling error in the journaling - it has since been corrected.)

This is how Harper feels....

This was her yesterday before she left for the last day of school.  Oh ya, she was bouncing off the walls she was so happy. :)

So that made today our first day of summer vacation.  Funny how summer doesn't feel like it has started until the kidlets are out of school.  So this is how we celebrated...

(most digital items on this page are from freebie kits on the MM site). 

Tomorrow is soon enough to follow the rules with getting dressed, limited video game playing and healthy eating. :)

(And I am proud to be THAT mom - I mean what is the harm??)

Look what the MyCraftivity newletter says today...

This is just a screen shot of the newletter so the links won't work but to see the entire newletter click here.

Have to admit that I am kind of excited to think it is on sale for real now. :)

For the MyCraftivity shop click here.

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Back with scrapbooking later today.

So I realized that I never mentioned that the lovely Ronee Parsons new book, Modern Memory Keeper, was available.  It is probably because my copy hasn't arrived and I haven't seen it page by page.  I always need visual cues for my memory to kick in, lol.

Anyway, if you plan on attacking that stack of heritage photos you have and making a scrapbook this book is a great place to start.  It is all about heritage scrapbooking but it encourages you to have a fresh take on it and this includes the colors you use (no browns here!) to the stories you pick to tell.  I had the wonderful opportunity to contribute some art to this book and I definitely learned a few things along the way.  First, I learn that I actually like to scrapbook heritage photos.  I know, weird, but I never had an urge to do it before.  I got some stories down that I would never have tackled before.  Second, I learned how to "mend" a photo.  I had a very old photo that had some damage and was torn in half but I learned how to "fix" it digitally and you know what?  It wasn't nearly as hard as I imagined it would be.  Shockingly not hard.  I was able to mend the photo and reprint it for family members and they couldn't believe it was the same photo.  It still had all its heritage charm but the tear was gone!  There were other things I loved but those were the most important things I took away from working on this book.  I cannot wait to get the book so I can learn some of the other things that are included.

This is one of the stories I would have never got down if I hadn't worked on the book.

It is filled with funny stories about how all our Grandparents got their nicknames.  It seems nobody in our family is content with calling them Grandma and Grandpa!

I made the ablum completely from scratch using cardboard, patterned paper (mostly A2Z and Bo Bunny) , transparencies (handcut and edges painted) and zipper ties for bindings.

This is also another page I created for the book which uses memoribilia.

I copied a love letter from my Grandfather to my Grandmother and included it on the page.  I needed to scan it and print it because the letter now belongs to my Aunt but she lent it to me so I could copy it.  I stapled the copied letter at the top so you can lift it and read all the pages.  It is kind of nice to have this personal item in my scrapbooks now.

I can't wait to see the whole book. :)  Congrats Ronee!

And guess what?  My missing luggage has arrived!  So I thought I might show you what I am up to today (fingers crossed).

Remember I told you I went on the shopping floor at the GASC this past weekend?  Well this is one of the things I got in my mad dash.  These albums are by Melissa Frances and measure I would guess about 8-9" high.  The half shapes fold out to a full shape which looks really great as a finished album.  The best part?  They were 3 for $5!  Yup, I had to ask again 'cause I couldn't believe it.  They had tiny ones too but I went right for the biggies!  In my mind I planned the star for a "Magnus" album and the flower for a "Harper" album.  I thought we could fill them together over this summer break (last day tomorrow!).  The third album - no plans yet but something will come to me. :)  So today I plan to get the albums started - you can see I have already started to pull papers (under the albums) for the covers.  I can't wait to get scrappy!

I also picked up this from the same Melissa Frances booth.  Made of wood and painted cream, about 12" long.

Not my usual thing but as soon as I saw it I thought - jewellry box.  I am going to cover it in bits of papers and maybe some photos and use it as a jewellry box.  It was on sale for $9 which was a steal I think but they knocked it down to $5 because one of the latches was broken.  Woohoo!  I love deals! 

Especially deals that I don't have to search for!  I mean, it took me all of 5 seconds to find this super deal.  Can't wait for the next GASC to see what I will find there! Grand Rapids here I come!

First, I have recovered from this.

My loooong day/night at the airport and the tiredness.  I think I probably waited all of 5 minutes (out of politeness of course) after my husband got home from work yesterday before I went for a nap.  I told Austin to wake me in an hour and well, he tried but apparently I wouldn't wake.  3 hours later I finally dragged myself from bed.  Slept through dinner, slept through everything.  2 hours later I was back in bed after tucking in the kidlets and slept for another 12 hours. Definitely feeling better this morning!

So back to the GASC.

On Saturday my schedule was this...

Book signing in the middle of all that.  All the advance copies of Cut Loose sold out but will be available soon online and at local stores soon. 

But this schedule might also account for some of the tiredness!  I had a crazy schedule but it was my own choice.  I love to teach scrapbooking so I jam my days with as many classes as possible.  I never feel the tiredness until after the show.  Looking at this photo I realize I was listed as a 2008 MMM on my class sign - guess I must have graduated ;) a year later, lol.

So the day was great.  Lots of really full classes, full of really wonderful scrappers.

A few highlights...

There were these three....

Trouble, with a capitol "T" I tell ya!  Trouble!  These lovelies were in a few of my classes and were having a great time and I loved laughing with them.  I was pretty sure I was going to have to call security ;) to kick them out they were having "too much" fun, lol.  Just kidding of course.  I love to seeing people at these events just really enjoying themselves with friends and enjoying the hobby they love.  Plus the woman on the left...she was being converted to scrapping by the other two.  Being brought over to the scrappy side!  And she rocked the craft knife like a pro I tell ya.  I would have never know she was a "newbie".

And of course on Saturday I had my Cut Loose class which is modelled after my new book.  There were lots of ladies cutting loose that day!  Might have frightened a few ;) but we took a deep breath and dove right in. :)

The above two ladies were the sweetest things.  And when they asked to take a photo of us all together this is what they got....

Yup, had a really great time!

Oh and I did get to do about 5 seconds of shopping on the show floor.  Bought some amazing deals but of course they are in my missing luggage. :(  Good thing I didn't have lots of time to shop cause I might have had to buy a second suitcase (which I am sure would have gone missing too...!) 

Hopefully it will arrive today and I can start getting scrappy with them.  Of course my paper cutter and all my basic tools are in the missing luggage so kind of hard to scrap without them. :)

Hope everyone is having a great day out there, where ever you are!