Last page of my Michigan trip album

I finished scrapping the last layout of my trip to Michigan and had the backside of a page leftover, and PLENTY of pictures!

I used Campin' Critters for the sign at the bottom and 50 States to cut out Michigan.

This layout will be entered in the following challenges:
Pamela's World of Scrap--I used sketch number 177 from the sketchbook.
Paper Playtime #12 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Transport (My husband is by his bike in the upper right picture.)
CAS-ual Fridays--travel

Michigan album title page

I had saved the title page of my album of our Michigan vacation for last, since I knew I would want to use leftover pictures on it in some way.  There were LOTS of leftover pictures!  My husband gets a little camera-happy and I need to get better at narrowing them down before I print them.  I could probably make a whole other album with the leftovers!

I even used pictures to cut out the title using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

This page will be entered in the following challenges:
Pamela's World of Scrap--I used sketch #180 from the sketchbook.
Paper Playtime--#12 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Transport  (This album is of a trip during which we took boats, a car, and our bikes.)
CAS-ual Fridays--Travel

Sunset layout

Last summer my husband and I vacationed in Michigan.  On our last night there, we took a rowboat out on the small lake at our campground.  We took along a bottle of wine we bought locally and the fudge we had purchased on Mackinac Island a few days earlier.  We got some beautiful sunset pictures.  I was taking forever choosing a layout (I've found I always like layouts better when I find them online rather than when I slap the pictures down myself.)  Today, I happened to find a layout via Pinterest that had the same number of photos I was working with, and in the same direction.  That had to be the layout for me!  And, even better, the layout was part of a current challenge!

Here is what I came up with:

As I was taping down the last items on the second page, I realized that I had focused a little too much on each individual page and not the 2-page spread.  The line of black stars across the middle doesn't line up at all.  Oh, well.  I'm not going to tear it apart now.  At least the pages coordinate.

The black circles were cut with a punch and embossed using the Tiny Stars folder by The Paper Studio.  Here is a close-up of the embossing on the black circles:

The sentiment on the left hand page ("Recipe for an Enchanted Evening") came from a tourist booklet I picked up in Michigan.  The black stars are from Doodlecharms.  The "Under the Stars" sign on the right hand page is from Campin' Critters.

This layout will be entered in the following challenges:

Pamela's World of Scrap--layout #237b (I flipped the left and right pages.)

Desert Island Craft Challenge--#56 diecut/punch, dry embossing, sentiment

Paper Playtime--#12 Everything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Transport

CAS-ual Fridays--CFC105 Mapquest/Travel theme

Take me to your reader! layout

I just got back from an awesome weekend scrap!  I am continuing to work on my school album.  One of the first family events that was held at my school after I started working there was called Take Me to Your Reader.  I found a cute little alien on the Life's a Party cartridge to use in the layout.  The font I used is from the same cart.  (Thanks to Barb at Bug Bites 411 for giving this cart away for her blog hop this summer!)

This layout will be entered into the following challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown #75--lots of circles
Make it Monday #64--anything goes linky party
Cute Card Thursday #191--green and grey color combo.  I have to admit when I first saw this challenge, I passed it up, thinking I'd never use those colors.  Then I came across this green paper that went so well with the shirts the people in my pics were wearing, and it just happened to have little gray circles.  Although it looks almost black in the picture, the words and part of the alien spaceship are also gray.

Catching up on my school album

I have been teaching since 2003 and had initially been keeping my school pictures in a regular slide-the-pictures-in-the-slots album.  The problem was that every year we get a staff picture and a class picture that are too big to fit, so I decided to scrapbook my school pics.  I had a scrapbooking day at my sister's house this weekend and got a few pages done.  This one is to showcase the letter of recommendation I got at the end of my internship.  (I erased a few of the identifying details for privacy.)

All three of the images on the left side are from Doodlecharms.  The strip of pencils at the bottom is from  The Paper Studio's "School Days" paper pack.

This layout will be entered in the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday #188--sketch challenge

Scrappy Moms Stamps Terrific Tuesday Challenge--Doodlecharms

More Than Favors Wacky Wednesday #57--anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown #72--primary colors

Scrapbook page re-do

Four years ago, when school was out for summer, my then-boyfriend of 3 months and I embarked on a road trip to New York City--to get married!  When we returned, of course I wanted to scrap the pictures of all of our adventures.  My new husband even helped me.  There were two pages that always bothered me though.  They were soooo simple.  One of them was the first page of the book:

The apple die cuts are from the Ellison machine at my school!


Four more years of scrapping and cardmaking experience and a couple of challenges I saw this week inspired me to redo that first page.  Here is version 2:

The map in the background is a road map that was being thrown out at school.  The letters are from Opposites Attract.  The apple is from Doodlecharms.  The buildings are from Plantin Schoolbook.  I plan to use the leaf of the apple to recreate the journaling from the original page.  I tried cutting out the gray top layer of the buildings from silver glitter paper.  I increased the blade depth and the pressure and even did multi-cut, but wasn't able to cut through that paper.  So, it is plain gray for now.  I have to admit, I haven't adhered everything down yet, because I want to see if I can find some kind of spray shimmer/glitter for those buildings.  Does anyone out there have any advice for cutting glitter paper or for any type of glitter that you can apply evenly over a large surface?

This page will be entered in the following challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #62--Remember this: special person, time or anniversary
Paper Cutz challenge #94--beach or travel
Totally Papercrafts #69--get fruity (The Big Apple!)
Celebrate The Occasion #16--School's out!  must include an apple

School Days layout

I went scrapbooking with my some friends last weekend.  I've given up on scrapping all of my pictures (I'd never keep up!), but I try to scrap big trips I go on.  I haven't been on any trips lately, so I decided to scrap my pictures from school--the staff and class pictures won't fit in a regular slide-the-picture-in-the-slots album.  This is the title page I made:

I actually used the design from the cover of a stack of paper by The Paper Studio for inspiration.  The word "School" is from Opposites Attract.  "Days" is from Cursive 101.  The apple is from Doodlecharms.  The pencil is from Locker Talk, but I was using my Gypsy and didn't have the manual with me, which is helpful sometimes to figure out layering.  To make a long story short, I tried stretching an image on the Gypsy, it didn't turn out so well, and I had to make a few "adjustments" with a scissors.  So, this pencil doesn't quite look like either of the ones on the cart.

This page will be entered into the following challenges:
Paper Cutz Challenge #92--teacher appreciation
My Time to Craft #142--use a die cut