A Little Bit of 2011 in Review

I belong to the Jenni Bowlin monthly scrapping and paper crafting club. Each month I receive a box of paper crafting goodies in the mail. Each kit in 2011 contained a calendar Bingo card that matched the month of the kit. They were exclusive to the kit until this year.
About the time July rolled around I was wondering what I would do with them. I thought a mini album would be fun. But I had to wait until December to get all 12 months. Now you can buy the whole calendar set from Jenni Bowlin.

This last week I put the album together.




I started by adhering pattern paper to the back of each Bingo card with decoupage medium. The back side of January became the front cover. The back of February became the opposite page of the January pages and so on. The final page was a piece of thin chipboard covered on both sides with pattern paper. Between each double page spread I inserted a smaller journaling card, postcard or tag. An extra spot for journaling, photos or embellishments.

I printed four photos for each month, except for August,
as I guess I had nothing to take photos of??
I only had two to choose from!
I was busy with work that month, and I guess we didn't do anything
or go anywhere.

I sized and printed each photo for the mini to 2x3 inches. 

I placed the photos on the bingo card, patterned paper pages or on the center tags.
I went through all my word phrase stickers and small journaling spots and used them as accents on the pages. I usually don't use these much on my regular scrapbook pages.

Most of the journaling was written on center inserts.

 

To hold the album together I used my new Bind-It-All. I used just a short 6 post long binding coil, as I did not want to limit my photo or embellishment space. 

I had fun creating this mini, and since I will not get around to scrapping 2011 anytime soon, this will be a quick way to look back on the year.

I have another two mini's I made recently, one using my Bind-It-All again. I never really thought I would use a Bind-It-All, but I found a deal at Tuesday Morning and am loving using it! 

Scrappy Time

Today I am heading to my friend Narda's house for our mini scrappy retreat. She has her house all to herself this weekend and she invited me to come over and scrap. I of course said yes!

I have my car packed to over flowing, but don't want to forget something. We have a little collage project we will both be working on and I have lots of stuff packed for the collage, two mini albums, cards and some scrapbook layouts. I know I will not get it all done, but I will try my best!

Below is one of my latest projects. I needed a backing board for taking photos of layouts, cards and other crafty stuff. One of my favorite bloggers, Lisa Tutman Oglesby, posted this tutorial here, about photo styling. She made a similar photo board and that is where I got my inspiration. I made mine into an easel and only used recycled boards (we have a barn full) to create it.

I used existing tongue and groove scraps already cut to this length. About 20 inches.

I laid the boards out upside down on my table, locking the tongue and grooves together then laid two lengths of 1 x 4 on top and screwed all the boards together. I then added another 1 x 4 attached with a hinge, so I can use it as an easel. 

On the front I added a single strip of tongue and groove to the bottom as a rest for my layouts. 

A good wire brushing to clean up dirt and splinters and I was done. I think I will be adding a handle to the top, at the back, for easier carrying. I can use it flat or pop out the hinge and use it as an easel. 

I practiced taking photos and photographed my little Valentine greeting I display. 

This card was my recent birthday card from my friend Narda. Isn't it beautiful? 

I love having crafty friends!

Since I finished the board I wanted to try it out. And I am going scrapping this weekend and wanted some inspiration so I went through some layouts I have made. 

My hubby after shoulder surgery in his red felt tree skirt cape. 

He could not put on a shirt so I bought this cape as a joke.

My hubby turned 60 and we found this t-shirt in Old Town Sacramento just before his birthday and decided it would be his birthday shirt. I love when I have an easy title to come up with!

I scrapped some older photos recently. This one is two of my nephews back in 1961 or '62.

This photo is my sister Sally playing in the water in our front yard. 

The journaling is a scan of the back of the photo, written by my mom. 

This is one of me and my mom when I was small. I loved to hide behind my mom's big skirts. I used a sketch from Becky Fleck's Page Maps for this LO. 

My nephews Steven and Gregg playing cowboys in our front yard. My little nephew Gregg always was a very dramatic victim. He "got shot" with style! 

Another of my nephews at Christmas. 

My sister Sally and me with our Uncle Chester. He really was our favorite!

The candy aisle at Winco! There is every kind of bulk candy you could want!

Me and my sister Lou (the mom to the boys above). We were out shopping one day and found this card, and each secretly bought it for the other. We had a great laugh that night as we exchanged our cards. We both had no idea we had both bought each other the card. 

My son Henry and my hubby, back in 2000. I don't know what was so funny to Henry,
but I am so glad I caught this grin on film!!

My laundry is done and now I am off to scrap!!! Have a great weeknd, I know I will!

12 of 12 in 2012 February

On Sunday it was the second 12th of the month this year and I am participating in
the 12-of-12 in Twenty12 project. 

On the twelfth of each month, I take 12 photos of what ever is going on that day. This is something more manageable for me than Project 365. 144 photos instead of 365. 

And this is a leap year so it would have been 366!

After I take the photos I am making a two page layout with journaling describing each photo. 

There are photos depicting the simple everyday things like what we had for breakfast, 

what we worked on that day. 

I start taking photos in the morning and continue until evening and then scrapping 

the twelve photos on a layout, Or you can post on a blog, what ever works for you. 

If it is a day with a big event, your photos can all be about that event, 

or like this past Sunday, just around our ranch. 

My two page layout is above, and each individual side of the layout below.

All of my layouts are going in a separate album. The layout below is my title page, 

that I just completed this month. 

I will be making all the layouts for the album from my big stash of basicgrey paper. I am also using the same Quickutz alpha dies for each layout and numbering each photo in Picasa. But the arrangement of the photos and basic grey paper line will be different each month. 

You can see my January 12 of 12 layout here. 

Look for March coming up about mid March!

Twelve of twelve

Project 365 is big with the start of the new year. I have seen lots of posts on blogs, Facebook and twopeasinabucket. It seems like everyone is doing it! I did Project 365 in 2009 and really enjoyed the project. But toward the end of the year, finding new ideas for photos sometimes was difficult. 

I don't have small children so there was not a lot of playtime, school 

and sports photos to fill up my pages. 

But I loved photographing the every day. The simple things in life 

we can easily overlook and forget. 

While on Two Peas the other day I came across the 12-of-12 project. Take 12 photos on the 

twelfth of each month, for all of Twenty Twelve. 

12-of-12

in

2012

I figured I could easily do that! 

So on Thursday the twelfth I got out my camera in the morning and started photographing. I took three  photos in the morning, three at noon, three in the afternoon and three in the evening. Easy peasy!

I was so excited to get this project underway, I uploaded the photos the next day to pick up while running errands on Friday the 13th. 

Since I wanted smaller photos to be able to put all 12 on a two page layout, I made a collage in Picasa, two per 4x6 print, so I could scrap 12 3x4 or 4x3 photos and save on processing. I also added the numbers 1-12 to each photo in Picasa, so I could match my journaling to each photo. 

Last night I scrapped my first 12-of-12 layout for January. 

I used some old Basic Gray papers for the January layout. I have a big stash of Basic Grey, so I may use Basic Grey for all 12 layouts.

Here is my first layout. I hope to remember to post each layout as I complete them each month, ending the photo project on 12-12-12. 

I already will have a change in my house, as I discovered a crack in the mug I took my first photo of for the project. 

A New Day

"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in it's place is something that you have left behind . . . let it be something good." author unknown

And a happy field of daisies is always a good way to start the day!

Happy Saturday!

Decoration Inspiration

My friend Jenny loves to decorate and paint her home! We joke if you stand still long enough, she will paint you! But she has beautiful taste and has been on a painting spree lately. You can see her work on her blog.

I don't know if it is because Jenny has inspired me, or it is spring cleaning time or a big family reunion at my house in June, I have several decorating projects on my mind. The biggest would be my gallery wall in my long hallway. It is similar to the one below, but not nearly as neat and organized as I have added to it over the years.

photo display seen here

I love this look, with all different frames, as I have now. But I have been wanting to update my gallery and make most of the frames black. I love this cohesive look, but I know I will also would like to add in a bit of metal or color.

Seen here at Reinvented

 I saw this photo of the frames hanging from picture rails and like this idea also, as you would be able to rearrange you photos at will. Decisions, decisions!

Mirror seen here

When looking for photo galleries I saw this mirror at Pottery Barn and remembered I have an old mirror in my attic that used to be on a dresser I now use in my craft room.

(The black dresser in my blog header photo).

It is now just has an old and discolored oak finish and could use a bit of color.

Another project to add to the list.

Bottle lamp seen here

I also saw this lamp in the May/June issue of Country Living. I have many old jars and bottles I could turn into a lamp. In Country Living they filled the bottle with dictionary pages. This would be fun to change out with the seasons. I love the shells and sand for summer, Snow glitter and Styrofoam balls at Christmas?

The possibilities are endless!

great table seen here

I also saw this table at Funky Junk Interiors and Donna has a wonderful tutorial on how to paint old signs. I love how she turned the "sign" into a table! And you can see it again in the May 2011 edition of Romantic Homes! I will be checking out the newsstands!

Lots of projects to look forward too. I need to "paint" my entire house desperately but until I have my long unplanned break from work coming up in September, it will be little projects to tide me over.

That is unless I can bribe Jenny with Starbucks, and she will paint for me. After all, she will eventually run out of rooms to paint!!!!