LOAD #31

I did it!  I created 31 layouts this month, and most of them were double-page spreads thanks to Studio J and the Express Collections!  I'm so proud of myself and excited to get my printed layouts.  Many of them are destined for additional bling!  Can't wait to put on the finishing touches and then to store these fantastic memories in my albums.

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LOAD #30

Layout 30 is done!  One more day and I will have completed a layout a day for the entire month...woo hoo!

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LOAD #29

The photos on this layout are a little dark, so I may go back and lighten them up prior to printing, but I'm far too tired to do it right now.  We lost power in the middle of the night and woke to phone and smoke detector batteries chirping.  It was very annoying. Super glad that it was pajama day at school today...LOL!

This layout about my Aunt Mary's 70th birthday part is another Studio J Express Collection!  I added more eyelets, because I'm going to either add Glitz Gel or Sparkles to the center of them once I get the print.  Love adding the bling to my Studio J prints!

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LOAD #28

Ah, Rome...lunch was the best of times and worst of times here!

"Our quest for lunch on day one began with me asking a vendor for the best pizza in Rome. She gave us directions to Francesco's. We had seen it advertised as the best pizzeria in our guide book so were excited about eating there. Yet, excitement turned to annoyance when we couldn't find it, so I just settled for a place that sounded similar and seemed to have a good deal. I should have known that the waiter was trying too hard to get us to eat there. I also should have walked away after I saw the revolting, oil-soaked bruschetta. Neal was so disgusted by the entire meal that he didn't finish eating and left the table. He did snap a photo of Angie's so-called pizza...with olives hidden under a slice of lunch meat... ugh! Seriously, how is this place still in business? When Neal returned, he wanted to show us something...he had found the other restaurant!"

Thank goodness we had another day in Rome, because we went back and had lunch at Francesco's the next day.  It was delicious.  I still need to write a negative review for the other place, because poor, unsuspecting tourists need to be warned to stay far away from that dive! I won't even begin to tell you what the bathroom was like...it isn't the kind of story I can tell on a G-rated site like mine.  LOL!

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LOAD #27

Busy weekend ahead, so here is a quick Studio J Express Collection layout of the Disney cruise I took with the family in 2008!

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LOAD #26

Because learning never ends, this is how my teaching partner and I spent our duty free lunch period a couple days this week!  Who needs to eat when you can make cards, right?!  I'm glad this layout gave me the opportunity to document what he has been teaching me over the past couple of years.  Through example, he has taught me that I can lighten up and have more fun even while enforcing the rules.  It has made a huge difference in my attitude and the atmosphere of my classroom this year.

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LOAD #25

I seriously spent too much time on this layout tonight.  It is one that I should have done on the weekend.  Even so, it was totally worth the time spent...I love this layout!  Can you believe this is Studio J?!  Guess which kit I used.

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LOAD #24

The constant meetings at school are making this LOAD project more and more difficult to do. Thank goodness for the Studio J Express Collections and the fact that I have already uploaded photos that I didn't use during the Studio J Boot Camp. You can tell I didn't put much time into the journaling, either, but it still gives the general idea that I love hanging out with Carol at CTMH events.  These events are my favorite part of being a consultant and I'm really excited that they are bringing back the Album Retreat this year!

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LOAD #23

This layout is from the Studio J All About Me Express Collection.  I love that the CTMH artists created these little Polaroid images for my photos.  Fits the vintage theme of a Beatles tribute band.  This was such a fun show, so I'm glad Neal took photos.  He did a great job considering how dark the theatre was and the fact that he wasn't using a flash.  As you may be able to tell from this photo, I take every opportunity to dance that I'm given...and then some!  Seriously, life should be a musical and the norm would be breaking out into song and dance whenever the mood inspired.  :-)

On a mildly related side note:  I attended a 3 hour SMART Board training after school today.  It was in my classroom, so I didn't have to go far!  Near the end of the workshop, the trainer encouraged us to recreate a couple of the slides he put up on the SMART Board.  He was fairly astonished when I completed the task in under 10 minutes saying that it had taken him an entire day to figure out.  I told him that I'm a digital scrapbooker, so I'm used to piecing together various shapes to form new images and working in layers!    

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LOAD #22

The LOAD prompt today asked us to scrap photos from a different perspective.  It made me think of these photos of my family walking away from me this summer.  When I started looking at the actual photos, I found it humorous that my sister was laughing and all smiles when my cousin was listening to her new heart valve, but not so much when her husband was listening to it...LOL!

This layout is from another Studio J Express Collection (Little Man).  I'm so thankful for these collections, because I'm exhausted and don't want to stay up late.  This LO went together quickly, so now I can do some chores and go to bed early.  Woo hoo for Studio J giving me time to scrap AND live my life!

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LOAD #21

Like I said yesterday, I'm a huge fan of the exclusive True Friend kit in Studio J!  These frames are so fun.  You can watch the video tutorial below to see how I created this layout.  If you click on over to the Freebies page, I've even provided the layered PSD files so you can add your own photos and recreate this layout.  Be sure to save the files as PNG after you use the clipping masks for your photos.  Once you load the PNG files into the No Limits layout, they will be transparent so that you can see the background paper below.

To create the chevron paper, I drew a 12x12 text box and filled it with Chocolate.  I then copied the border 23 times.  By selecting all 23 borders holding down the Shift key while clicking, I was able to use the align and distribute tools to make sure my pattern was even.  I then selected the background paper, copied all 24 items, pasted, and dragged the newly pasted paper to the other side of the layout.  With everything still selected, I was able to send it backward beneath the actual photo.  If you do this prior to dropping in the PNG file, all you will see is the big, grey X of the No Limits "pattern."

On a related side note:  when I showed my husband the layout, the first thing he asked me was why I didn't do a better job lining up the chevrons where the two pages meet.  REALLY?!  That's what he notices.

On an unrelated side note:  when we were in Micahels on Friday night, I was looking at the Smash books, and he said, "Couldn't you just make your own smash book?"  That guy cracks me up!

I really hope you will use the free download and post the page(s) you create on my Studio Scrapping Facebook page!

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LOAD #20

I seriously can't believe that I haven't played with the new, True Friend, kit is Studio J until today!  It is AWESOME!!!  As soon as I saw the hybrid layout on page 12 of the new Idea Book at convention, I knew I wanted to recreate it.  Yet, I never bothered looking at the rest of the kit.  You have to log in to Studio J to check it out...I'm not even joking!  The papers are darling, but the My Stickease is even better.  I can't wait to use the super cute frames and borders.  I have a feeling this is going to be my go to kit for awhile.  LOVE IT!

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LOAD #19

Not going to lie...there was a part of me that didn't want to a layout tonight.  Neal and I ran errands in town and then came back to Yelm to grocery shop.  I know...exciting Friday night, right?!  It really has been a long week and I'm tired.  Yet, it's day 19 of LOAD, and I can't give up now!  Thank goodness for Studio J Boot Camp and the new Express Collections.  I already had these photos uploaded and ready to go for Boot Camp.  I never did get around to using them, so this was the perfect time to tell the story about my mom learning to text.  I opened a Studio J Express Collection and was done before I knew it.  The nice thing about waiting so long to scrap this memory is that I had the added perspective of my mom keeping me informed of my sister's progress during her heart surgery through text messages.  Those brief notes made me feel like I was there.  I don't think I relaxed a second until I got word that her heart was beating again and she was breathing on her own.

So, I just realized that I don't have the history of those messages since I got a new phone this summer.  :-(  Does anyone know if it is possible to get them back?

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LOAD #18

I find it a little ironic that the LOAD prompt today was about sports considering I just made a sports layout yesterday.  It's funny, because I'm not athletic at all and now I have created two sporty layouts in as many days.

These photos are from our last sea day on the cruise.  Neal and I decided to use the time to enjoy the recreational facilities on board.  I donned a pair of skates and rolled on in to the inline track.  I haven't skated for a while so it was really fun to get back into it.  I even broke out the backward skating!  Now I want to go skating all the time!  After skating for awhile, we went up to the rock climbing wall.  I thought I was going to be a lot better at it than I was...I was terrible!  I only got 5 feet off the ground and gave up.  Neal, on the other hand, absolutely "rocked" the rock wall!  He made it up to the top so fast...I didn't even have time to get a picture of him ringing the bell because he finished so quickly.  It was really impressive.  I think the guy on belay was also impressed; he gave Neal a big high five!  Luckily, my sister showed up in time to get photos of us together.

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LOAD #17

LOAD #17 is done...think I'll go to bed early!

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LOAD #16

I've been home for less than an hour and have already scrapped the photos of my club meeting tonight!  I love how fast Studio J and the Express Collections let me record my memories.   All I had to do was drop in my photos and add some journaling.  I did add a bit of a drop shadow behind the word "life," but that was it!  Super fast and easy.

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LOAD #15

Today's LOAD prompt asked us to incorporate frames on our page.  I immediately thought of the photo of Kelly and I at the CTMH Convention in DC.  This is one of my all-time favorite convention photos!  Yesterday, I mentioned that there are many reasons I love being a consultant, and seeing my friends at convention and other events is top on that list!  I've spent so many fantastic moments with Carol & Kelly over the years.  I can't wait to share a convention experience with my own team!

This layout comes from the Schools Day Express Collection in Studio J.  I added my photos, changed one word in the title, and wrote some brief journaling...that was it!  Now I have time to break out my paper crafting supplies since this was so quick and easy!

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LOAD #14

I love that Studio J allows me to tell stories as they happen.  This layout documents the adventures in sewing my crop buddies and I had last night!  Since I'm so enamored with the technique of sewing on pages right now, I added a lot of digital stitching to my Studio J layout.  Plus, how perfect is this Stella kit for telling a story related to sewing?!  I will admit that the stitching around the center die cut was very fussy as I had to lay each one individually, but it is totally worth it.

Karen wanted to recreate the treat bags on page 57. This is a close up shot I took of it at the CTMH convention.  There are so many great reasons to become a consultant, but convention is by far the best!  Not only do we get fantastic training (both lecture and hands on), we get to inspect the Idea Book artwork in person.  I'm already signed up to attend convention at Disney World next summer!

Now that I look at my detailed shot, I am realizing that they used purple thread.  It looked black in the Idea Book.

The LOAD prompt was all about using black and white on the page.  I opted for sepia photos which I feel is close enough to BW!  :-)

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LOAD #13

I usually do my layouts at night, but I'm scrapbooking with some friends this afternoon and imagine we will go late into the night. I used an All Boy Studio J Express Collection for this layout.  I added the purple and don't think it really works.  I was trying to draw out colors from my brother-in-laws shirts.  Oh, well, it is what it is and I'm not messing with it.  We can't love them all, right?!  I'm just glad I got to tell the story of how he saved the day for me TWICE on our trip!

Now, I'm off to get ready for a day of paper crafting!

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LOAD #12

It's Friday night, so I decided to celebrate the 12 on 12 in 12 Project by using a template and building most of the LO in Photoshop.  I brought it into the "No Limits" LO in Studio J to add the background paper, title, and a few small embellishments.  I love that the "No Limits" LO lets me use all my other digital scrapping supplies right alongside my CTMH products.  I didn't add much else to this LO because I'm going to use bitty sparkles on the final print.

The journaling talks about "My Mundane Life," but I actually have some fun memories of the day.  Who knew?!  I also couldn't narrow my photos down to 12, so I used 15 on this page!

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LOAD #11

I've already scrapped a layout about the kids graduating, so this time my focus was on the things that change and those that remain the same.  I miss Tumwater, but I still have my friends and I visit the school once a month for scrapbooking!  I could write so much about my time at THS, but this layout does a great job of summing up this bittersweet moment.

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LOAD #10

Like I said, interesting things kept happening on the 12th!  This time it was a power outage at school that lasted two days.  Our building was the only one in the district without power.  The good news was that we made it 1/2 a day, so we didn't have to make it up at the end of the year.  The bad news was that we had to sit through a meeting at the district office the next day.  I'm a teacher...I am not built to sit that long.  That's why I call those meetings "teacher torture!"  Of course, now that I say that, I'm realizing that I can sit for far longer than 7 1/2 hours while scrapbooking, so I guess it's all about priorities.

Best part of my early release day was attending Stacy Julian's chat for Twelve!

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LOAD #9

I'm so happy to be working on my 12 on 12 in 12 Project layouts! It will be fun to complete my 10/12/12 layout on the actual day this Friday.

Looking back at these photos reminds me of the stress we were all under at the beginning of the year.  My MIL was diagnosed with cancer on 1/12 and my husband was returning from her surgery on 2/12.  It all happened so fast.  The fantastic news is that they caught it early and she is doing great!

I'm excited about the fact that I purchased my plane ticket for Vegas tonight.  I'm looking forward to a reunion with the Folger family at the NCTE conference next month!

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LOAD #7 & 8

Well, I was going to start this blog post saying that I can't believe I didn't blog yesterday, but I really can!  I had such a great day playing with my new club of Croppin' Cuties in the morning and then scrapping this layout for my THS club in the evening.  It was getting late, so I decided to post the right side of the layout since I didn't have time to finish the title.  Unfortunately, my phone and computer weren't playing nice, so it took me far longer to upload the photo than intended.  Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper and simply went to bed after posting to the LOAD Flickr group and FB.  Luckily, everything went well tonight, so I'm posting both sides of the LO.

My THS club is doing the Moonlight WOTG next week.  I always struggle with Halloween layouts, because my husband and I turn off the lights and watch a movie...we aren't big into celebrating this holiday.  I have one layout about Halloween across the years in my album, and that's it!  My friends find it funny, because I've been in a ton of plays and go to Star Trek conventions, so I really am the type of person to dress up.  Honestly, I have lots of costume ideas, but I'm far too lazy to execute them!

So, I was excited when I saw the LOAD prompt for 10/7, because it started with a quote by Marmee March from "Little Women."  I played that character in Olympia back in 1999!  Luckily, I had just enough photos to complete the Moonlight WOTG layout.

This is what I uploaded for LOAD #7.  I  had every intention of including barn red accents, hence the sign, but I ended up changing colors midstream tonight when I finished the title page.  Once again, I was simply too lazy to fix it.  I'm not too bothered by it since I don't know that I would have ever scrapped these photos without the prompt inspiration.  I'm pretty excited about this, though, because I really think I should scrapbook photos from all the plays I've been in or directed to add to my "All About Me" album.  It will be fun to have a visual theatrical resume!

I did change up the 2nd page a bit after finishing the title page.  I added tulle, journaling, sparkles, and a little black ink brushed on with the blending pen so the lamp post didn't look like it was floating in space.

So, here's my question...how do you adhere tulle?  This was the first time I worked with it and I did not do an awesome job.  Oh well...the layout still makes me happy.

In addition to the Moonlight WOTG, I used shapes from Artiste & Art Philosophy, Black Tulle Ribbon, and Pewter Badge Buttons.

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LOAD #6

I'm taking a bit of a break from the vacation photos to catch up on Twelve at Big Picture Classes.  In my journaling on this layout, I discuss my fear of trying to document my boring life.  Don't get me wrong, I love my predictably, mundane day-to-day existence.  I like that I get to spice things up once in awhile with a fun trip or Star Trek event, but the rest of the time, my life is rather dull.  So, it has actually been kind of surprising to me that the 12th of each month has had some sort of major event from my MIL being diagnosed with cancer to the power outage at school to the FBLA trip to State to my neighbor going to the hospital to the CTMH Convention in Texas.  What this is teaching me is that when I take the time to document my life, I realize how amazing it truly is!  I think this is why people are loving Project Life so much.  They get to celebrate the moments--small and large--that make life worth living.

For today's layout, I needed one that had 12 photo slots, so I looked through each of the Studio J Express Collections.  This is layout 09 from the Year in Review collection.  The only things I changed on it was the title, added 3 photo mats, and added stitching to the sticker by the title.  This was the quickest layout yet, because the story is so vividly burned into my memory.

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LOAD #5

I started feeling sick right after school, so I'm cutting it close with getting my layout uploaded.  Good news is that I made it and am on track for a layout a day...I will do this!  For this layout, I actually deconstructed the Year in Review Express Collection LO 5 so that I could use the Dakota kit.  The prompt today asked us to use wood grain on the layout, so Dakota was the perfect choice.  I could have spent more time with the flags in the upper right corner.  They are much more narrow in the Express LO, and I like that look better.  I just feel the need to stop messing with it and go to bed!

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LOAD #4

Today's LOAD prompt is very fitting as it asks me to scrap about "the journey or process."  Clearly, I'm focused on my travel pages right now, but I think the last two days have made it clear that the journey and the company I keep are far more important than the final destination.  We loved seeing the sights, but it wouldn't have been as meaningful without sharing it with the people I love.  This is one of the main reasons why I scrapbook.  I get to live the experience, reflect on it deeply during the scrapbooking process, and then enjoy the memories for years to come as I look through my albums.  This process is so important to me, I simply can't understand why everyone doesn't do it!

The prompt also mentioned weight loss journeys which reminded me of this page.  In it, I documented my 45 pound weight loss journey several years ago.  I went on to lose nearly 60 pounds and was so proud of myself for completing a cleanse and breaking my sugar addiction.  I was working out at least 5 times a week and felt amazing.  I've fallen off the wagon over the past few years and gained back 10 pounds.  As active as we were on our trip this summer, I have been so lazy since getting home.  I don't really know why.

The good news is that my awesome neighbor is motivating me to walk with her daily.  I'm going to make daily exercise a habit again so that I can feel as good as I did in these photos!  I'm really thankful for Studio J, because I would not have had time to exercise and create a two-page spread each day...have I mentioned that I'm the world's slowest scrapbooker?!

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LOAD #3

Our trip to Italy this summer was so fantastic!  This was the first time that my husband and I got to travel alone with my sister and brother-in-law.  We had some great experiences on our vacation, but the best part of the trip was spending time together!  We celebrated my sister's birthday in Athens and my brother-in-laws birthday in Rome.  As Neal and I called this our honeymoon, we also celebrated our 22 anniversary...even though we were married in May...LOL!  All good things come to those who wait...right?

As you know, I'm doing the LOAD Challenge this month, and today's prompt took us to this color combination on The Play Date Cafe.  I really like that the Studio J Express Kits allow me to substitute color in the paper and other embellishments, because I was able to add a bit of Barn Red to my layout.  I think the muted version of these colors really make my photos pop off the page.  It makes me so happy!

I can't wait to get these layouts printed and into my albums.  I want to share the excitement with you, too, so watch my blog for more details on how you can win a free Studio J 5-pack (including shipping and page protectors)!

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LOAD #2

Can't believe how easy the layout was today!  I worked on it while listening to the Project Life Webinar with Jennifer Woodbury and hosted by Lain Ehmann from Layout a Day .  You can watch the replay for a week, so be sure to check it out. My friend, Mimi, is doing PL and loving it, so I've been wanting to give it a try.  I'm really inspired since completing a Smash Book during our trip to Italy this summer! It was such a joy to scrap daily and collect the little bits and pieces of life along the way.  It is also making it so easy to create a LOAD about the trip, because my journaling is done.  The longest part of my process is finding/editing the photos.  Have I mentioned that I love the Express Collections?  I seriously L. O. V. E. them!

LOAD #2 is about our long trip starting with standing in security at Sea-Tac to calling mom to thank her for the Euros to meeting our driver in Rome.  We decided against getting a car while we were there which was a wise decision...those drivers are crazy!  Even so, they clearly know what they are doing, because I don't think we saw an accident the entire time we were there.  Thanks to LOAD and Studio J, I'm going to have this entire vacation scrapbooked by month's end!

Jeanette is giving away 20 of these stars on her website today, so be sure to leave a comment.

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LOAD #1

Happy October! Now that I have a month of school under my belt and no travel plans in the near future, I'm ready to get back to my creative endeavors.  I'm challenging myself to create a layout a day with the ScrapHappy community.  The only time I actually completed the challenge was my first time six years ago, so I'm really determined to make it happen this time.  Luckily, it also coincides with CTMH's Studio J special, so I'm going to create most of my layouts using Studio J to save time and money since it is buy 9, get 1 free this month.

I used layout #8 from the Travels Express Kit.  Seriously, the most time consuming part of this layout was narrowing 150 photos from our tour of Crete down to 5!  I love that these Express Kits allow me to drop in my photos and journaling without any additional fuss.  Honestly, I don't usually use quick pages because I don't like the lack of customization.  With this page, I was able to customize the title, add a shadow to Crete, and add a cocoa frame around the focal photo.  I'll further bling it out when I get the final print by adding bitty sparkles...they are my not-so-secret addiction!

Watch this quick video to learn more about the Studio J Express Collections.

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