Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Halloween Album

I have long thought about making a few holiday albums where I can document an event that happens over and over every year, and thus, stop documenting it in such great detail in my family album. I have finally done this for Halloween.


Two things led me to this, 1. Creative Memories came out with a really cute orange, fall album, and 2. Jessica Sprague created this album in October's Creating Keepsakes that I could scraplift:


A lot of hers is digital, but I did mine all traditional. Here's how it looks so far:











I was just going to do it for Ryan's (and future children) pictures, but since I named it "Beatty Family Halloweens" I thought I'd go back and see if I couldn't find any halloween shots of me and Scott before Ryan arrived. My favorite is the year we went as University of MD's basketball and football coaches. Both sports were doing great at the time and it was fun to dress up that way.


I had a bit of trouble/am not totally satisfied with how the white lettering turned out. I used Stayzon ink and some clear stamps. Rub-ons might have worked better, but that would have been a lot of rub-ons. I also have done a few extra pages so they will be ready to go in future years (see the last page that says, "pirate" for this year?). Happy that it's done.


BTW: this is also the first time I have used CM's new side load pages. I did these pages front and back on 1 piece of 8x8 black paper each and just slid it in. Worked great! Hooray for CM finally doing this kind of page!

TFL!

Monday, October 6, 2008

An interesting piece on scrapbooking

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I think a lot about scrapbooking. I wonder how it has become what it is today. I wonder (especially since I sell products) what will happen to it in the future, especially if the economy continues to falter.

I do not see it as a frivlous act, I believe in the importance of recording and sharing one's stories. I also love the community it creates.

What I don't know is how I feel about the fanciful celebrity of it all. I mean, do I really need the latest and "greatest" product, paper or embellishment? I like to be innovative and creative (creativity is probably the other big reason I scrapbook. Being creative makes me happy), but do pages need to be perfect to be important or satisfying?

I came across this post today. Be warned, the site from which this comes is kind-of snarky, but they have their purpose. And I found today's post important and in line with my reasons for scrapping. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Clear Cards

Archiver's had a make and take many weekends ago, and one of them allowed us to try making a card with clear acetate (kind of like heavy duty transparencies). I had seen this, too, on Hero Arts blog (lots of great ideas here!). I got sucked in, bought some acetate and stayzon ink in white. Here's the result:


I stamped a variety of flower stamps (all from the same set by Hero Arts) in white stayzon on the clear, then stuck a smaller white card inside where I stamped "Happy Anniversary." This way I can still write a message inside. I also used a little bling in the center of the flowers.
TFL!