Two more layouts for MotherLOAD

More layouts for MotherLOAD

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted photos of these layouts yet.  The prompt for the top photo was to create a layout with a photo you've already scrapped before.  The prompt for the bottom photo actually started during the "training" phase of MotherLOAD.  During one of the training weeks one of our tasks was to take a photo of a favorite ritual.  Ours is a Sunday pancake breakfast and the Sunday paper. 

Day 17 Layout

I've managed to stay on track for the most part during MotherLOAD.  Only 11 more days left.  Its gone quick!

Family Layout

Sorry for the glare on this photo.  Even with natural light it can be difficult to get a photo with the glare.  This is my younger son and his family. 

Day 12 & 13 layout

 I don't think I'll ever get tired of making layouts with my grandson's photos!  Gotta love that cute little face!  Wonder what his mama looked like at the other end of the spoon?

MotherLOAD - Day 9 & 10

 

I've not been able to keep on track each day of MotherLOAD over the last week because of my surgery and some complicatons.  Right now I'm back on track and will post the other layouts over the next few days. 

Wonder - Day 10 MotherLOAD

Due to my surgery last week and some complications related to it I've missed Day 8 & Day 9 but with Lain's Simple Sunday sketch I was quickly & easily able to put this together. 

Days 7 & 8 MotherLOAD

For these 2 days I cropped some photos from October 1985.  One of the day's challenge was to use something from the past which is where the Mrs.Grossman's stickers came from.  Sorry for the glare on the photos - hard to get nice photos on grey, cloudy days without natural light plus I've been finishing later in the evening when there is no natural light. 

Day 6 MotherLOAD

As I am having surgery today I picked something really simple to do.  I've had this laser cut diecut from the Maid of the Mist for several years and decided to use our photos from 2007 that I've been working on to use it.  I set this aside last week to do today.  It only took me about 15 minutes (probably my fastest layout ever!) to adhere the diecut to the back sheet and then the photos in their spots.  In retrospect I think what I would do different in the future would be to just use the diecut of the ship on my layout but I can live with this layout.

Day 5 MotherLOAD

 Here is the right hand side page of this 2 page layout.  You saw the left hand page in yesterday's post.  Because I had more photos than what would fit on a page layout I pulled out my Close To My Heart (CTMH) Flip Flap Memory Protectors and created a mini booklet of photos in the upper left corner of the page.  Scroll down through the following photos to see through the booklet.

Day 4 MotherLOAD

Left side page
 Day at Niagara Falls
Check back tomorrow to see the right side page

Pages do not get any easier than this!  Journaling and pictures of the falls coming in tomorrow's layout!  One of the things helping me get a layout a day done is having several sets of photos that I want to do layouts of and putting coordinating cardstock & embellishments with it.  Another thing that is making a HUGE difference to my getting so much done lately is how I re-organized my embellishments....I think I'll have to do a post about that!

More layouts for MotherLOAD

Day 1

Day 3

More layouts for the Big Picture Class, MotherLOAD (layout a day) that I am taking.  Each day there are prompts that you can choose to follow or just work on whatever you want.  I followed the prompts for each of the first 3 days.  Day 1 was to create a layout about goals or aspirations.  Day 2's (see yesterday's post) prompt was to create a layout about smiles.  Day 3 was to use your snack bag of items (we put these together during earlier weeks' training).  I had the brads in a snack bag along with several other embellishments. Having a lot of fun and I'm so pleased that I'm getting each day's layout done!  Its the most scrapbooking I've done in years!

MotherLOAD layout Day 2

Something to smile about.....

One Little Word Blog Hop

'Illuminate'

My apologies -for the second month in a row I've not completed the month's prompt.  However, I didn't want to drop out of the Blog Hop two months in a row so I thought I would at least write a blog post about where I ran into trouble and my current progress. 
July's prompt really threw me for a loop.  We were asked to choose 9 songs that were meaningful right now..  Well, I love music, almost all kinds, but I can not tell you the name of a song to save my life!  Or who sings it.  Definitely not a candidate for that show Name That Tune!  I know other people did a variety of things but nothing came to me - my mind was a blank!  I did a search on my word 'Illuminate' to see what I found and the songs that came up were unfamilar to me.  Between dealing with a medical problem since January and working on Finding Photo Freedom I just didn't have it in me to do the prompt.
So along comes the August prompt and I'm thinking this is easy.  I can get this done this month.  Still had no idea what to do for July.  However, in August I'm finishing Finding Photo Freedom, starting MotherLOAD and preparing for surgery in early September! 
So, here is where things stand....the Finding Photo Freedom class is done and I can work on the remaining items a little bit at a time.   The marathon part of MotherLOAD  begins today, Sept. 1st but I already know that I won't be able to complete a layout every day of Sept. because of the surgery so I'll do as many as I can and not worry about the rest.  Whatever I complete is more than if I hadn't taken the class!  As for  One Little Word my plan is to complete both July & August as time allows.  I have an idea (FINALLY!) of what I want to do for July.  I'm going in a different direction than Ali but I think it will be fun and it still involves music.  And August won't take long to do its just deciding my take on it and what direction I want to go.  I want to take time with the process and have it be meaningful rather than just rushing through it to get it done. 
Thanks for reading through to the end. 
One other thing that I almost forgot to include.  In July & August I was also involved in the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap and Blog Hop and the Big Idea Festival over at BPC one weekend in August.  If you're interested you can click on the links to the right for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap blog hop.  It officially was held this past weekend but the links still work.  The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap will be held again in early 2012 so check out my blog post9the one before this) if you think you might want to particpate.
So to continue on the One Little Word Blog Hop visit

Lisa         at               http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

Here are all of the September 1 OLW Blog Hop Participants

Margie                  http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog    

Monica B              http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Julie Ann               http://julieannshahin2.blogspot.com

Jill                          http://jillconyers.typepad.com/

Cheri                     http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/

Melissa                 http://blog.mshanhun.com/

Kathryn                 http://www.katlodesigns.com/

Amanda                http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Sam                       http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/

Chrissy                  http://getcraftywithchrissy.blogspot.com/

Lynn                        http://www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/

Lisa                        http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

Jen                         http://byjen.com

Nikki                       http://www.inkyart.com.au/

Cassie                   http://craftycassiescorner.blogspot.com/

Jamie                     http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com/

Cindy                       http://seriousplay.typepad.com/

Thanks for hopping by!

Puppy Love layout

I created this layout with photos from around 1975-76 of my first dog as an adult.   Snoopy (yes, she was named after Charles Shultz's Snoopy) was such a sweet and lovable puppy.  (My dogs are all puppies no matter their age.)  She was an AKC registered Brittany Spaniel - I don't remember her fancy registration name anymore.  She would have definitely been a great bird dog for a hunter.  We almost lost her one day when she took off after a flock of birds while we were having a picnic.  Fortunately she finally listened to us, stopped and returned.  She also loved the water and would jump in without hesitation.  She's still wet from a swim in the photo underneath the title "Puppy Love"  Don't ya just love her face?
I'm using the Close To My Heart kraft cardstock again but I don't remember where the other items came from.
An update on my classes - Finding Photo Freedom is winding down although this is something I'll be working on for as long as I'm taking photos.  I have a great system in place but now it will need time and attention regularly to maintain.  We have another week after this then I'm on my own along with the LOM community.  More about that later.
With MotherLOAD we are still in "training".  I have several items to do on my training log and need to post some photos and layouts over there.
Thanks for stopping by!

Our First Father's Day layout

I have been getting some layouts done now that the Finding Photo Freedom class is winding down and the MotherLOAD marathon has not begun yet.  Here is one of my son and his son enjoying their first Father's Day. 
I am loving Close To My Heart's kraft cardstock.  I think it's great for masculine pages and outdoor photos.
The journaling cards and letters are from Simple Stories Life Documented Kit. 
Watch for another layout tomorrow!

Projects update

Layout for Finding Photo Freedom and MotherLOAD
(photos are from 1975)

 

Photo Central has moved from dining room to living room



Dining room is now Layout Central

I'm keeping up with Finding Photo Freedom and MotherLOAD fairly well.  I don't get all of the tasks done in the week they are assigned but I'm working consistently on my digital workflow, still organizing straggler photos (like bunny rabbits more keep popping up!), and just getting a good sense of what I have, what's done, what needs to be done and beginning to work on creating layouts regularly.  Right now my 2009 photos seem to be missing (there's only 97 from that year but still what could I have done with them?  They should be in a storage binder but it ends at 2008 and I just realized this.  I have then on CD so I can reprint if need be but....I don't like mysteries like this!  Earlier this week I was having problems with Picasa and as typical I just needed to let it sit for a day and come back to it.  Problem solved and everything is sorted properly.  I was pleasantly suprised this week when I got all my albums in one place and went through them page by page that so many were actually finished and the others only need 2-4 things done in them.  I also found a large number of layouts that were completed but had no home - I hope to remedy that soon. I've made a list of what needs to be completed in which albums and where gaps in albums are.  I will be taking all my pages out of these albums and moving them to We R Memory Keepers Classic Leather 3 ring albums as time and money allow.  I just ordered my first 3 in cobalt.  We're in Week 7 in Finding Photo Freedom and we actually have 2 weeks for this task list.  MotherLOAD is in its 3rd week and is starting out slowly and will build as we get to the Marathon part in September.
So as things shift I've moved all my albums, my storage binders, category drawers, cold storage box, memorabilia box, family tree drawer, 2 piles of more things I just found this morning and a box with all my film cartridges, index prints and negatives are now in my living room,  Lily, our dog, is not happy as that corner is where her doggie toybox used to be.  The dining room (previously Photo Central) is now Layout Central.  The dining room table has all my Project Life and A Week in the Life stuff in the far end and this end is ready for layout making - I have 2 double layouts in the making right now.  I do need to do some catching up on my Project Life album. I just picked up some photos I was waiting for this morning and should be able to work on that tomorrow.  So that's where I am for now....

A Week in the Life, Composition for Collage, Finding Photo Freedom, Mother LOAD



Horizontal compositional structure - Composition for Collage



Three full storage binders - Finding Photo Freedom

I thought this would be a good time to provide an update with where I am with the Big Picture classes that I am taking this summer along with some of my other projects.   Top photo is my horizontal compositional piece that I finally finished.  I just really laugh every time I see that piece.  Kind of my view of how life goes - your sailing along just fine and then a duck comes along blocking your way!  Hope you enjoy it and get a laugh from it as well!  Just a fun piece and trying not to take it all so seriously!  This Thursday is then end of Composition for Collage - I'll be working on a grid compositional structure piece between now and then. 
Bottom photo is the 3 storage binders I have filled (more in them then there should be).  I've ordered 3 more binders from scrapbook.com and they should be here Tuesday.  I'm not sure at this point but I may need to order 1-2 more.  These are Pioneer 3-up storage binders.  In Finding Photo Freedom (formerly Library of Memories) storage binders are where the photos you want to scrapbook in the future go.  This is after purging & rating.  I'll try to remember to take a photo of the inside and talk a little more about this in the future.  I'm just keeping my head above water with the two classes these last 4 weeks but I'll try to go into more detail in the next few blog posts.
I need to finish up my postcards this next week for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap - its due July 15th (where did June go?).  I'm trying to decide whether to use one of my compositional structure pieces from the Composition for Collage class or the piece I did for One Little Word this month.  Stay tuned!
Ali Edwards posted the code for this year's A Week in the Life if you want to pick that up for your blog.  Just go to http://www.aliedwards.com/ and check out her blog post for June 23rd.  She also posted links (same one I provided in my last blog post) to resources for A Week in the Life.  If you are thinking of doing Project Life in the future this is a great opportunity to see if you like this style of scrapbooking.  A Week in the Life is a more intense, in-depth type of Project Life. 
As Claudine Helmuth's Composition class ends, Lain Ehmann's MotherLOAD (Layout a Day) class will begin.  Very exciting!
Hope your finding creative time as summer swings into high gear!