Advent crafts

In preparation of Christmas this year, I created an Advent tree with various activities planned for each day. So I hit Hobby Lobby last week for craft supplies, and discovered the greatness of foam. I love that stuff!

So the first four days were spent creating Christmas mobiles, made of these foam pieces. Day one was the base of the mobile, day two was the tree, day three was the ornaments, and day four was the gift box. The letters were pre-cut and pre-stickered, so that was super easy. The ornament balls on the tree were strips of foam run through my Xyron, and then hole-punched. The ornaments just have marker drawings on them. For the gifts, I ran wrapping paper scraps and ribbon through the Xyron, and stuck them to foam scraps. I think they turned out great!




Snowmen that we made last week:



Poor Quentin - he's too little to be involved in any of this, and I'm not making stuff for him. I will when we make dough ornaments, though.

Completed album

One of the albums I worked on (and finished!) during the month of February was Isaac's view of life. He loves to take pictures, and these pages capture some of his best photos:

Update

February was a busy scrapping month for me. I joined a message board for scrappers, and one of the challenges was to do a layout a day (LOAD). Although, it was really do a layout 20 of the 29 days. It was a lot of fun to try to fit that in most days, and I was able to get a lot done. Although toward the end of the month it got very difficult to focus, what with my morning sickness.

Here are some of my favorites from the month:

Pictures are ordered!

I started out with over 1700 pictures loaded to Shutterfly for this order. That's a lot of pictures, and I knew I didn't want them all. So I whittled it down, first to 1010, then 907, and then finally to 759. But oops! I forgot to load the pictures that Bec had to load onto a CD for me. So of those 350 or so, I ordered 88 (but still have another 70 to print).

I am going to have a lot of pictures to start my new projects! Yea!

I did finish my last two pages to finish up Isaac's beach pictures. I also finished up Audrey's baby book - the last page is all about family, so I used pictures of us at the horse farm.

The diet is done!

I completed my 51st page today! Woo-hoo!

I still have two pages left to do of the pictures I actually have left, so I will get those done before breaking into my new stash. Which I just went out and bought today. It was so much fun to restock my alphas!

I will start on Audrey's book next, but I have to order pictures. It's taking me a long time just to resize them, so I don't even have them uploaded to Shutterfly yet. We have so many pics, and iPhoto is really slow (I think it's from upgrading to Leopard), so it may be awhile. I just need to have pics before February 8, my next crop night.

New pages, but what book?

I still had some pictures from June (after Isaac's birthday) - notably from the beach. I really wanted to get some of these in a book, so I did three more pages today. I still have no idea where to go from here as far as a book goes. But I at least have these layouts done.

47 completed pages, and 3 to go. I am really feeling the squeeze on my diet; I will definitely be ready to shop soon.

I am done!

With Isaac's book, that is. I have completed through his third birthday, so I am only 7 months behind. Considering I started the month having not finished Christmas 2006, I'd say I'm catching up quickly!

I completed 5 pages today, bringing my stash diet total to 44 complete - only 6 to go! I guess that means I get to start on Audrey's book now. I will have to order pictures, since I have not printed any since her birthday.

I always do these at night, so I can't get good pictures when I'm thinking about it. I'll try to take some tomorrow (I hope the camera battery is charged).

I am running out of titles

I have just completed another 4 pages in my scrapbook! That brings me up to 39 complete, 11 to meet my goal of 50. I have never done so many pages in one month, and it feels so great to get so much done!

I didn't care too much for the other two pages, so I'm not posting them here.


I have Isaac's 3rd birthday pics to do, and then I am done with this book. I haven't yet decided if I'll continue with separate books for them, or start making a family album. Maybe I'll do both.

A frenzy after the lull

After taking a five day break, I am back in the swing of things. I completed another two pages this morning, bringing my total to 35 done. Only 15 pages to go! Of course, I am still on Isaac's book, with two pages to do before tackling his birthday.

So I will probably have 40 pages for his book total, and then I'll do 25 for Audrey's, setting my stash diet goal higher. But I'll reset it when I actually finish Isaac's, so that I feel as if I'm making progress.

Here are the two that I did today, from last year's church picnic.

A lull after the frenzy

The first two weeks of January saw me complete 29 pages during my stash diet. It was really insane to do that many that quickly, as I then hit a wall. I went 5 days without touching my pages, as I just couldn't get motivated, and had no inspiration. But then yesterday, I finally had ideas again.

I was experimenting with some new methods, thinking those would help me execute my ideas better, but they really didn't. I think I'll stick to my old ways of looking at the pictures and letting them plan the page instead of trying to fit pictures into a pre-conceived layout.

Maybe the reason I wasn't having much success was that the pictures I was working with were ones that I could not figure out how to use before. So if I don't like the pictures, I probably won't like the page. I am one of those scrappers that thinks the pictures are more important than the paper and embellishments.

I completed four more pages, bringing my total to 33 done, 17 to complete.

Crop Night!

I went to my crop night last night. I did 12 pages, but I was just not feeling very inspired - I may have to revisit a couple of them to tweak them.

That brings my total completed to 29 - only 21 to go! I am over halfway there! I think that I may extend my diet a little longer, too - I have a lot of stuff!

My Rice Krispies Treats Spread!

I have been waiting to do this spread since April! I am so excited to have finally gotten to this point in my pictures. I think the pages turned out really cute!



Two more completed, which brings my total to 17 done, 33 to go!

Same old thing, two more done!

I really need to stop doing these pages this week, so I have something to do on Friday's crop night. So 15 done, 35 to go!

I completed 2 more pages - a favorite things spread. That's sort of a stretch, but hey, that's what I had for pictures. More specifically, one page is about Isaac and Audrey adoring each other, and the other shows him with Mr. Lamb (his lovey) and his grandpa.

I am on a roll!

I completed two more pages! That leaves me 37 to go.

These two were Isaac helping Daddy outside with yard clean up. I used my new ZIG Writers to draw grass borders on my paper, and I think it turned out really cute! They're a little blurry, though.




Isaac knocked the book off the table, and the cover ripped off - I think I need to separate the book into two so as not to put so much stress on the cover. But then I'll have to add a couple of pages to have good end and opening pages - otherwise I'd be splitting a spread.

Four more done!

During Audrey's nap this morning, I was able to spend some time doing my pages. I completed four! I think that brings my total to 11 done, 39 to complete. Woohoo!

Two pages are just him being goofy around the house, and the other two are of him playing Scrabble - I used a scoresheet (the printed board side) as a background, and made Scrabble tiles to fill in the page. When I get new batteries for my camera, I'll post pictures.

I made an envelope!

I don't have an envelope board, so I had to guess. I made two practice ones first, and I used the good one as a template.

I used the envelope to hold a printout of my very first blog post, recounting the attempt at potty-training Isaac. I tucked the flap around the background paper and attached it on the back, and made a "Potty training journal" sticker. The top photos are mounted only to the envelope, so that if one wanted to, they could take the page out of the protector, lift the envelope, and pull the journal out.

Here are pics:




The opposite page:


And, oh yeah, that brings my completed pages total to 7! Only 43 to go!

Two more done!

I just completed two more pages! I have five down, 45 to go. They were playing outside in the snow, and playing inside because it's too cold outside. I think they made a nice juxtaposed spread.




My next spread will be potty training, the first attempt. I have decided to borrow an idea from Glitter Adventure and use an envelope as part of my layout. This will contain my blog entry detailing the first day of training. I hope it turns out as I hope!

How's my diet?

Well, I received a Hobby Lobby gift card for Christmas, and didn't make it out there before New Year's, so now I have extra incentive to finish my 50 pages! As a reminder, I plan on doing 26-28 pages to complete Isaac's book, and then 22-24 to start Audrey's book before I buy any more supplies (besides adhesives and blades).

Today, I completed three pages. Finally. These particular three are from Christmas 2006 - specifically Isaac's Christmas program. We lost the pictures that were taken with the camera, and I had to get stills off the camcorder. Well, our camcorder wasn't working so we had to get that fixed. Then I just procrastinated watching the video and capturing stills. I did that yesterday, and then printed them, using my new photo paper.

That is so convenient, being able to print at home. Of course, I will still use Shutterfly for most of my photo printing, but there are times when I need a picture or two right away, and Shutterfly just isn't feasible. And I don't always want to run out to Walgreens to pick up prints, either.

Anyway, I have only 47 pages to go! Crop night is in 9 days, so I should be able to pound out a bunch then! Yea!