End of Year Review...

Sadly, I can't find my list of goals for 2011 (I don't do resolutions, just some basic goal setting). I also can't find my 2012 day planner that I bought several months ago - GRRR - something tells me that should play into one of my 2012 goals!
Anyway, what I remember of my creative/crafting goals & my resultsa are below... Tomorrow, I'll have a post with my 2012 creative goals.

My goal going into 2011 was to create 52 scrapbook pages. For me this was a HUGE stretch because up until 2011 I've been lucky to get 10-15 pages done per year. But, because of a couple different things, I not only hit that goal, but BLEW IT AWAY!  At the end of January, I stumbled onto a website that mentioned Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day. I looked into it and decidedly immediately to try it. I knew that I may not succeed in  making a layout every day for February, but even if I fell short, it would help me get more pages done. I also did Layout A Day in May & October. In March (after LOAD ended and I was going through withdrawal), I decided to try my hand at blogging. Add those 40 pages to the total and I would estimate I've done between 130 & 150 pages this year. 

I attended an evening crop & an all day crop, and organized the first ever Crop for a Cure (Southwest Virginia) in May. It was an all day, fun filled crop to benefit Susan G. Komen Greater Roanoke. It was a success & I took Susan G. Komen a check for $885 in August! 

This year on my blog, we did 40 Mystery Scrap Layouts from 31 different inspiration sources including 2 each from April Foster, Celeste Smith, and Diana at Wicky Sticket (P.S. check out her blog to see the amazing way she's making a difference in the lives of a group of girls in Jamaica. We did 3 pages based on Laura Vegas oages (funny story - when I was lucky enough to get to go to an Archivers Store in Kansas City while visiting my sister, I saw an example layout in the store with a picture of her kids) (You know you are an obsessive scrapbooker when you recognize the kids of published scrapbookers!).  Anyway, I then had to google to try to see if she lived in that area. Sadly, she does not. Anyway - back to my list!

We did 4 pages from Kari Ann Sweeney. I love every page she puts on her blog! Must be the name.

My favorite page from Mystery Scrap this year is this one.  

What is your favorite page this year & what makes it your favorite? Did you stretch your creative muscles?  Did you scrap a favorite picture? Did you try something new? Use your favorite piece of patterned paper?  Leave a comment - I'd love to hear about it.

Mystery Scrap Week 40 (Friday)

Studio Calico is a fantastic site for inspiration. Each month they have a kit for sale & then add ons that you can purchase separately. I've never bought any, but it's only a matter of time. Here is a link to their Design Team Gallery - any and all of these make for terrific inspiration and use the most recent kit release - this time it's Brooklyn Flea (here is the link to the kit). Make sure to check out the other designers - it's a virtual who's who list of scrapbookers - most if not all are regularly featured in magazines.  This week's page is another scraplift of April Foster (I think we did one of hers just a couple weeks ago.) Check it out here.  It's the middle one.
I pulled 4-5 scrap pieces of double sided, patterned Halloween paper and started punching circles. After I placed my picture on the left edge of the page, I put the plate over top of it and drew a circle in pencil. Then I started randomly putting down the larger two sizes of circles. Then I put some smaller circles on top of those, then I added my embellishments. On April's design, she kept each circle mainly monochromatic, but I decided that mine would be more fun & playful by mixing up the colors. Don't stress out about a pattern for your circles/punches, just go with it. For my text, I didn't want white strips on white paper, so I cut a piece of the Halloween orange paper to 4x6, set my document size in Word to 4x6 and ran that through my printer. Now, here's my scraplift...

A couple notes - I just realized that I forgot that I wanted to add little letters to the Title so that it would say SCARY CUTE.  Second, please ignore any orange cat hair on my black tablecloth if you see any - apparently some little kitten decided to climb on the table while we were out of town! Everyone have a great weekend and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mystery Scrap Week 40 (Wednesday)

This week is a little tricky to explain, so I'm going to have you gather some supplies and then Friday, when you see the inspiration page & my page, you can decide exactly how to proceed.
Grab all of your circle punches. If you don't have circles grab a punch of some sort (heart, star, etc).
And, grab some paper scraps (patterned, card stock, etc).
Grab a bunch of buttons, and any other embellishments that would fit on your punches
Type your journaling on the computer
Of course you'll want chipboard, stickers or any other letters to make your title...
Oh - I almost forgot - grab a dinner plate. :-)
See you Friday!

Mystery Scrap Week 40 (Monday)

The page I used for inspiration this week is pretty different for me (at least I feel like it is).

Just need one photo this week - a 2.5x3.5" portrait oriented. See ya Wednesday.

Mystery Scrap Week 39 (Friday)

I really enjoyed the page this week. It came at the end of a month long crazy crafting spree (pictures of that to come). I'm pretty sure my husband wants to move out from Thanksgiving to Christmas in our house. Not only is my scrapbook/stamping dedicated room a mess, but I wind up taking over both the kitchen & living room as well and he has to watch tv with the sound of punches crunching away or the ATG gun squeaking every time I put down some adhesive.  Anyway, I finally finished all of my Christmas treat type projects (including the calendars I make every year), and figured I'd knock this page out. It came together very quickly, though I'm not thrilled with the corners of my border punching and I may add a couple more small embellishments in the title section. I've also decided I need some new border punches - I have two that I use ALL the time.  Another reason I liked this is because the journaling tags on the original layout (here) look very similar to some that I have (Doodlebug) LOVE them!  I don't know if they are the same, but I am guessing they are.
Here is my version of this layout using photos from my recent Operation Write Home card making session with my ZTA Alumnae chapter!

 

 I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas (or Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Holiday!) 

Mystery Scrap Week 39 (Wednesday)

I think in my sleep deprived state Sunday night/Monday morning, I neglected to give you accurate measurements... The landscape photos should be 3"x6" (qty 2) and 4"x6" (qty 1).
So, now on to the supplies you will need if you plan to play along this week...
1 piece of 12x12 solid color cardstock (light)
1 piece of light colored patterned paper 12"x 9" (ish)
1 piece darker colored patterned or solid color paper 12" x 10" (ish)
border punch
title - stickers, chipboard letters (1"), cricut or Pazzles cut letters
journaling tag ~4" tall (you'll only use the right half)
journaling tag - 1.5-2" tall (you'll only use the left half)
bakers twine 18"
1-3 tiny embellishments (buttons, gems, flowers, stars, etc)

Mystery Scrap Week 39 (Monday)

Less than a week until Christmas! Is everyone ready? I'll be keeping this very short, because I am NOT ready and I have lots left to do...
This week's page starts with 3 landscape photos, 2 3" tall and 1 4" tall.

Mystery Scrap Week 38 (Friday)

This week marks the anniversary of when Chris & I started dating nineteen years ago.  (December 12) so I chose this layout by Susan Weinroth using Studio Calico kit from November to do a side by side layout using a picture of us taken about a month ago and one taken of us early in college at a fraternity formal.  We'd probably been dating for a year or two when the picture on the left taken. The one on the right was from just a few weeks ago. You can't see it because of the glare, but that last grey heart says TOGETHER.  Earlier in the week I mentioned doing something that I've never done before on a page - I don't think I've ever scrapped any older pictures (aside from when I was very first introduced to scrapbooking via Creative Memories. Even then, the oldest pictures I ever worked with were from when Chris was in veterinary school after we got married.  Happy sort of Anniversary!

Mystery Scrap Week 38 (Wednesday)

The supplies you will need for this week's page are:
1 12x12 base piece of solid color cardstock
1 6x12 piece of solid color cardstock
Make one dark and one light
1 1"x12" strip of patterned paper, border punched paper or border of some sort
1"x4" piece of paper to print typed journaling or to handwrite journaling
18 punched pieces (repetitive design) use a variety of patterned papers, cardstocks or if you want, you could use all the same
scraps of paper for additional captioning (if desired)
Title - Cricut cut letters, chipboard letters or stickers. Take your title, count the letters & subtract from 18. Grab that many embellishements - could be buttons, gems, smaller punches, etc.
So - if my title is 8 letters, I'd need 10 embellishments. 

Mystery Scrap Week 38 (Monday)

This week's page is really special to me and also something I've really not done before. You'll have to come back on Friday to see why!
Select two portrait oriented pictures and they should be 3.5"wide by 4.5" tall.  I'm using a comparison of two things.

Mystery Scrap Week 37 (Friday)

Bella Blvd has some of the cutest lines right now - Winter Wonderland & Spring Flings & Easter Things. On top of that Laura Vegas (who we've scraplifted before) is the Design Team Coordinator, so OBVIOUSLY it's got to be fabulous.  Our page is under the Winter Wonderland Collection - a grid on brown background paper. What do you think - how fun is this line?  I'm hoping Santa will bring it to me for Christmas.
Here is my page (it's my sister, her little boy & husband (looks pretty good for having a baby less than two weeks prior, doesn't she!  I'd love to see your interpretation! Have a great weekend!

Mystery Scrap Week 37 (Wednesday)

Supplies you will need this week are:
1 solid piece of 12x12 cardstock for the background
5 pieces of patterned paper 3"x3" (see where we're going with this yet?)
(if you have any kits with coordinating patterned paper, this would work perfectly)
stickers (1" or smaller) for title - you will have - you guessed it! - 3"x3" for your title
4-8 embellishments - varying sizes - you can go as large as 2.5" if desired
1 small strip of patterned paper - can be the same as one of the above or a 6th pattern ~ 3/8"x 2.25"
teeny tiny letter stickers (if desired)
See ya Friday!

Mystery Scrap Week 37 (Monday)

How is it Monday again already?  It really seems like all weekends ought to be at least 3 days, doesn't it?
Fun page this week - inspiration is on the blog of a designer that I can't wait to try. They've got a new line out right now that I am absolutely drooling over.
For this week's page, grab 4 square pics 3"x3". Check back Wednesday for the list of supplies!

Mystery Scrap Week 36 (Friday)

This week's page comes from April Foster on the Studio Calico page. See it here.
I picked a photo of our Thanksgiving table.  Because it was just the four of us, we enjoyed our dinner on our china, but in our pajamas. Hmmm, maybe a tradition in the making?
Here is my scraplift. 

Everyone have a great weekend!