Unleash Your Inner Archive Junkie

"Been there, done that, and scrapped a page about it."

When you put it that way, scrapbooking sounds fairly simple right?  Well, it is!  You might have read my very first blog post where I said "I think that’s what really drove my interest for creating beautiful scrapbook pages, the fact that there are no rules, no guidelines to follow, no instructions to go by, you just simply…create."  Sure there are hundreds of techniques for decorating your pages, but that doesn't mean you have to be familiar with or know how to do all of them.  What's most important is that you decorate your pages to your liking (if it's a gift, you may want to tailor it to what the receiver will like, but keep your special touch present).

 

"Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose."

This is why I love making scrapbooks.  Sure we all have our photos in old boxes or stored in our smartphones, but how often do you take a look at them and sit back to enjoy the memories?  Scrapbooking is a creative and beautiful way to put your memories on display.  When I spend hours and hours scrapbooking, I want to make it a page that I will want to look at day in and day out.

 

"Scrapper's Creed:
No scrap of paper bigger than my smallest punch shall be thrown away."

Since nothing on a scrapbook page is perfect, it isn't hard to figure out where to use those excess scraps of paper.  Find a very basic color scheme for pages that you want to use up left over odds and ends.  A layout like the one below makes it easy to do this.

 

Source: Pinterest

 

 "Warning, scrapbooking can be hazardous to your wealth."

While this can be true if you're not a smart shopper, most times you can find what you need on sale at a store, online, or make it yourself!  Read my papercrafts budget post for more ideas, tips, and tricks to saving money on your scrapbooking needs.

  

"When life gives you scraps, make something with them."  

 Each of these scrapbooking quotes was found here.  The scrapbooking.com website is a great resource for finding relevant quotes for any decorative theme you can think of.

 

 

Live, Laugh, Scrapbook. Repeat

Scrapbooking on a Budget

Scrapbooking can be expensive if you buy everything premade.  Here's a few tips on how to cut down on cost.  The main tools you will need are scissors, an X-acto knife, glue sticks, and your photos and memorabilia.  Always check out your local dollar store, you'll be surprised at what you can find to decorate your pages. 

• Buy cardstock when it's on sale.  I don't recommend going to Michael's or Joanne Fabrics unless you have coupons there because they are really expensive.  Check out stores such as Target, Meijer, Walmart, and K-mart.  This is a great deal on a 48-sheet pad of patterned cardstock and will last you a while.  You can make your own cutouts from stencils you find online rather than buying premade packaged cutouts.

In addition to the inexpensive paper here, I added my own drawings of balloons in the background.

•  To fasten your photos and other things to the page, look for gold brads at the dollar store and paint them with nail polish instead of buying the different colored brads at a craft store.  During holidays I like to go the day after and stock up on discounted ribbon and whatever else I can find.

• Buy punchouts and stamps, each one is an investment that can be used over and over.  I have the basic punchouts such as hearts, snowflakes, and stars.  Here you get 12 punchouts for only $20! That's a great deal and well worth it.  Stamps with different patterns can be used over and over as well.  

Here's a close up of a page I made for my mother as a birthday gift.  I layered three sheets of different paper behind the picture and made little gold hearts with my heart punchout to put all over the page.  If you punchout the shapes in a line on a sheet of paper, you've also just made a punchout border so you don't have to waste that paper.  
 

 

Above are two simple inexpensive pages made for my mom.  The frames were on sale for $10 and you'll most likely have to go to a craft store to find them.  It looks like a lot of work for these pages but all I did was layer patterned paper behind the photos.  The lettering is printed out on a computer, cut up, and glued.

Cassie Crawford has a great serious on YouTube for scrapbooking on a budget, check out and subscribe to her channel BigCraftLittleBudget for great tips on saving money on your papercrafting needs.

This is probably the simplest page I've created, with word pattered paper for the background and black cardstock behind the photos with a couple stickers I found on sale.

Here, it looks like a lot is going on, but the only thing I did to make it stand out was color the background paper!  Sure it was tedious and took a little time, but adding the pops of color throughout the page makes it much more exciting.

Do you have any tips and tricks to scrapbooking on a budget?  What's your favorite go to trick to make your pages stand out?

Dogs are People Too!

"If love alone could have kept you here, you would have lived forever."

Meet Casper the black lab, he's running around in puppy heaven right now with all the squeaky toys, tennis balls, treats, and bones he could imagine. 

Casper was two years old when died.

If you have a dog, you know they are a member of your family, and my heart was broken on March 11, 2014 (yes, less than two short months ago) when he was hit by a car.  That afternoon I came home from work and ran upstairs to let him outside, my normal daily routine.  Casper never ran, he was always by side other than when he was doing his business.  I don't know why, but for whatever reason Casper ended up running into the street.  I live directly on Moravian, which is 45 mph, and when I heard a loud "thud" I knew what had happened before I even turned around.

I watched him roll to the middle of the street as I frantically ran out into traffic.  I could have been hit, I wasn't even paying attention when I looked up and saw cars stopped in both lanes; all that mattered was my companion, my loyal partner through thick and thin, was hurt.  The thought that he could die didn't even cross my mind.

The car that hit him didn't stop (what a coward), and as I tried to lift him out of the road a young girl pulled over to help, she wasn't strong enough to help me  and with her bottom lip quivering and glossy eyes, she apologized and got in her car to leave.  I thanked her and it was then that reality hit and tears streamed down my face that Casper might be dying.

As I held him I assessed his wounds: broken arm, probably needed stitches, a few more scrapes but those will heal.  I told him he would be okay as long as I could lift him to my car to a vet. 

I sat there on the side of Moravian in a puddle, holding Casper in my arms on my lap, all 60 lbs of the most loving creature I had the honor of caring for.  As blood trickled out of his mouth and his nose, I knew he was leaving me.  I said his name and with one last glance up at me, he was gone.  He was at peace, but I was a devastated wreck.

Telling that story is incredibly difficult for me, which is the reason I won't have a personal scrapbook page to show you to honor his memory.  When it's a little easier for me I will upload my memories of Casper fully decorated.  For now I will show some pages I searched for of ideas and inspirations I will use when I do decide to create my layouts of Casper.  The pictures above are the ones I will most likely be using and I'll probably create two pages side by side dedicated to him.

I love the simplicity of this "In Loving Memory" layout.  A simple color scheme with a few facts such as the adoption date of Java, first thoughts when they met her, and what they loved about her personality.

 This separated picture layout has always been one of my favorite because of the character it adds to a page by simply cutting and separating a photo.

 This is a playful layout and I love the splash of color throughout the page.  Casper loved his toys and I have plenty of photos of him holding onto his toys or bones for dear life.  I want to look at my layouts when I decide to create them and be reminded of happy, fun memories of him playing, swimming (he LOVED to swim), and cuddling with me.  In his two short years with me he made the biggest impact in my life, more than I could have ever thought possible from an animal.

This is how I will always remember my best friend, always by my side <3

  

Honor Thy Mother and Father

This Sunday is Mother's Day, and let me tell you, my momma (and my daddy) is extra special to me.  I was born in 1989 and given up for adoption, and in 1992 after being a foster child in countless homes, I was adopted by the two most loving parents I could ask for.  Since I was a foster child in their home during the time I was made available for adoption, they were given first pick, and they picked me!

Here's the official adoption letter stating my parents' interest.  Whenever they get angry with me I always say "hey, you chose me, deal with it!" and then my father will usually make a silly comment like "yea, don't remind me", but he's only joking.

The most common question I get is "have you ever tried to find your real parents?".  My answer is always something along the lines of "I have my REAL parents, they are the ones that chose to give me a better life".  I often reflect on the life my gave me, and let me be the first to say, I couldn't imagine my life without them and I am truly blessed.


I remember the exact day I went to live with my parents, which is strange because I don't remember a single day of my life before that.  I got out of the car and walked up the two steps of the front porch, through the front door, and straight to the kitchen table where my parents had a coloring book and a box of Crayola markers.  I sat there silent, and as my dad recalls, I colored so carefully inside the lines for a three year old.  I like to think that's when my creativity started, with my dad sitting by my side then, and that hasn't changed throughout my 21 years as his daughter.

Here is my father and I, on a typical weekend when I was little I would wake up early and climb in bed with him; it was always the highlight of my week.


Now, let's get back to Momma's Day!  My mom has always been the one who worries about everyone and everything.  She's the sweetest person and consistently goes out of her way to make others happy.  She's always been there for me no matter what kind of dumb decisions I've made, and you might think "well yea, isn't she supposed to be?".  I've seen too many parents neglect their children when they've made stupid mistakes, and to me those are the times kids need their parents most.

In this day and age I feel like parenting isn't anything like it used to be and there are way more kids having kids.  My parents were 35 when they adopted me, and it wasn't until I started hanging out with friends that I realized they were older than most parents.  I have come to realize now that I couldn't be more thankful to have such wise people raising me.

Here's a few pictures of my momma and I.  The quote in the right corner "A mother's love is forever" has been demonstrated by this beautiful woman to me time and time again.  I strive to be more like her everyday and live a life she would be proud of, and she is.

Last Mother's Day I made her this hanging wall collage with different patterns of paper, a couple photos of us, and some embellishments.  Mom's love handmade cards and paper crafts and this took about an hour to complete.  The hardest part was cutting everything to fit perfectly in each square.

The dangling letters on each side of the middle photo say "hugs" and "kisses".  The glitter hearts on the right are actually heart punch outs from a 12 x 12 sheet of sticker paper.  This is a much more inexpensive way to use generic shape stickers rather than paying $2.99 for one sheet of the same stickers.  A little time and effort to make something special for my mom has always meant more to her than buying her something.

My parents are my strongest critics and my biggest supporters and to be loved by them is the greatest gift I have been given.  So tell your mother (or father, aunt, sister, whoever fulfills this role) how much they mean to you this Sunday and the other 364 days of the year!  If you have any stories about you and your mom or parents, I'd love to read about it, so leave a comment :)

Happy Monday all, enjoy your week!