I finally went to a crop.  It seems ages ago that I actually sat down with friends and scrapped.  There is nothing else like it.  I create things all the time in the solitude of my crafting space, but I very much prefer sharing a 2am-er at MOMENTO with Jean B., Dr. Arlene, Lisa S., Dawn K., Ellen S., and Maggie (and friend!).  Friday was so great!  I’m already looking forward to the next one, or thinking of making one of my own.  LOL!  I’m just hoping that Laura (and Maria?) will join us next time.

Here are a few of the pages that I finished.

  My little OBX Clam digger.  I used some Bam Pop! Volume 3 collection as well as Tinkering Ink Perfectly Posh paper and diecuts for this layout from our trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2006.  I’ve put these photos in a little mini-book called ‘Colors on the Coast’, but I decided I wanted a layout in the big book as well.

The background ‘jellyfish’ paper was dirtied up with Distress Inks in Antique Linen and a bit of Worn Lipstick for fun.  This I sprayed with Glimmer Mist in Bronze.  It was too much stark white with all the sand in the photos IMHO.

I layered under the photos with vellum paper in fuschia and orange that was a RAK from Lisa.  This played up the colors from her swimsuit and shovel.

Little C. especially likes the little characters in the lower left corner.  I told her those were the ‘clammies’.

Then I moved on to a page featuring my little buddy and his daytrip with Daddy this past summer.

  I used papers from Rouge de Garance and felt from Fancy Pants.  The chipboard letters are from different themes of Cosmo Cricket collections.  My favorite photo, the one where he is ‘water bending’ a la Avatar characters — is framed with a Hambly Urban Chic window transparency in white.  I put a lovely quote transparency strip along the side from Karen Russell’s Narratives line by CI.

This was followed quickly by a ‘self-scraplift’ of the same trip, different day, but this time Bugaboo went with Daddy.  (each child get’s their own special daytrip at least once during the summertime).

  Same products, different colors and shapes.  As I always say in my Scrapbook Blueprints class – different photos, different colors and who cares if it’s the same layout?  Only the scrapper notices this IF they do at all once their in an album.  KWIM?  So here we have BIRI boy and BIRI girl.  (BIRI stands for Block Island, RI in case you were wondering).

And the last one I’ll post for this evening is the requisite first day of school layout.  Once again, I was blessed with a clear day – and by clear, I mean no other cars on the road as the Bus approached!

   I was inspired to use an enlarged photo as my background ‘paper’ after looking through Dawn’s Alaska album.  I was tinkering with the Epson Scrapbook Central, that was giving Ron some trouble at the store.  For my final test, I went through the same procedures he had been doing, from scanning a photo to printing through the kiosk to the big mamma printer.  It worked, and I used the resulting print for my background.

I used a Hambly transparency overlay in Gold over the background photograph and then layered the two photos on top over a green fuzzy patterned paper from Scrappin’ Sports and more (I think it was meant to look like a tennis ball closeup – but it was perfect grass too). 

I also used some rubons from their school collection on journaling spots from Heidi Swapp.  The fourth grade set had a great little poem about a ‘trusty backpack’.  The chipboard letters in the title are from Cosmo Cricket.

One little fun detail that is hard to see in the scan, but I used Glossy Accents on the bus’ headlights.  It really pops in person!

I’ve sorted all my ‘physical prints’ and uploaded all of my ‘scrappable’ digital pictures from 2007 to Winkflash and now I’m ready to get them printed out and organized for the next crop.  I’m really looking forward to it.