Museum Visits, 1 Paper and 3 Digital Layouts

We usually keep very busy during the Summer with museum, zoo, and park visits . . . But this year we're been busy tending to sick children each week! Here's hoping that this new trend is over! Who would expect the flu and bronchitis during the Summer! Right now everyone seems on the mend and I even managed to find a little time to scrap during Club Scrap's PSL Summer Camp (Pro Scrapping League, where teams compete to score points by creating paper layouts, cards, or digital creations and earn prizes and discounts each week)!



Club Scrap: Perfect Ten - ALSB #8 (I used the same base cardstock, but with prints from the original kits instead of the Perfect Ten prints); Private Eye 10/08 - Green Print, Stencil; Gimme a Ring 1/09 - Bisque Print, Dark Maize;
Ranger: Distress Ink Pad - Brushed Corduroy; Ink Applicator Tool;

Uatchet really enjoyed scoping out the artifacts at the Boston Museum of Science with the magnifying glasses! I loved the look of this layout in the Perfect Ten Special Edition Kit, but couldn't bear to give up the prints, quite yet! Instead, I created the layout using the same ALSB instructions and the same colors of cardstock, but with their original kits' prints instead of the new Perfect Ten designs. I have a few more layouts coming that were approached in a similar manner!



Club Scrap: Concrete Jungle Digital Kit 6/09 - Template6, CSJRStencil1, EMBFiber8, EMBTag31, EMBTag32, EMBTag38, EMBTag40, EMBTag42, Sticker16; Perfect Ten Special Edition Digital Kit 6/09 - DigitalBackground1;

We took a few friends with us to the Boston Children's Museum on a Friday night and had a blast! I still can't believe that Nekhebet did a slam dunk!



Club Scrap: Private Eye 10/08 Digital - Stencil Xtras12, CS_Paper5, CS_Paper6, Paper1, Paper3, Paper5, Stamp08; PSL Summer Camp Prize - Week4_1a_1a;

Sebek and Nekhebet teamed up to examine the insects embedded in amber at the Harvard Museum of Natural History!



Club Scrap: Memoirs Digital Kit 7/09 - EMBFiber03, DigitalBackground3, Print2, Print5; Concrete Jungle Digital Kit 6/09 - Font; Artifacts Digital Kit 2/09 - Template4;

After taking a free watercolor and chalk workshop at the Peabody Essex Museum, Sebek immediately needed new supplies for the week away from home! White the girls played, met new friends, and learned new things, Sebek kept sneaking off to create!

8 Layouts of my Son

In honor of his birthday, I'm posting 8 recent layouts of my son, over the years! Please forgive me for the photos of layouts, I took them quickly when I had just made them and planned to scan them in, but I want to get them posted today! Half are paper and the other half are digital layouts, enjoy!



Club Scrap: Centennial - Classic ALSB #6;
Scrapbook Takeout - Antique Autumn 11/08 - Chipboard Stickers; Pot Pourri 7/08 - Thickers Glitter Chipboard Alphabet Roller Rink Tangerine Gold; Eclectica 6/08 - Maya Road Stitched Ribbon;

These first three layouts are from the waiting period before his little sisters were born, when he got to take a visit to my parent's house to hang out, get tattooed, and take a night visit to the beach!



Club Scrap: Retreat 2006 - Let Me Count the Way Design Classic ALSB;
Scrapbook Takeout: Antique Autumn 11/08 - Felt Bird Shapes, Basic Grey Designer Rub Ons; Eclectica 6/08 - American Crafts Vinyl Stickers in Orange Sprinkles;
Ranger: Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap;



Club Scrap: Time & Space ALSB;
Scrapbook Takeout: Parisian Vintage Chic 5/08 - Thickers Velvet in Cream; Ribbon;
Basic Grey: Distressing Kit (used on photo edges to file away some of the image);



Club Scrap: Bugs Remix 08 - ALSB #12 (includes Generations, Interior Designs, Retreat Cream, plus Bugs artwork);

Sebek and his friends were busy checking out his birthday cake complete with a painted on puzzle scene and handmade chocolate critters on top! You've got to love his shushing while they sang to him!



Club Scrap Digital Kits: Common Threads 3/09 - Print1, EMBXtra1, EMBXtra2, EMBXtra3; Gimme a Ring 1/09 - Template2, EMBFiber09; Mirror Mirror 11/08 - Plain4; Serengeti 11/07 - CS06, CS08; PSL 09 Prize - 4b;

It was such an unexpected treat to hear Sebek read his essay about me in front of his entire class!



Club Scrap: Academy 8/07 Digital Kit; Digital Inked Edges Vol. 1; Assembly Line Scrapbooking Idea Deck Vol. 2 - 9 of Hearts Left;

Not only was Montreal's Botanical Gardens filled with lovely plants and butterflies, but there was a small school playset in the middle of the greenhouse and Sebek had a blast in it!



Gimme a Ring Template; Inked Edges Vol 1, Artifacts BBF;

On out last trip to Montreal we were surprised by an array of street art stenciled onto the sidewalks and crosswalks! Since Sebek is named after the Egyptian crocodile god, I had to scrap this photo right away! I used the photograph of the title as my background "paper" and added the crocodile back in, creeping over the frame from the Gimme a Ring digital template!



Club Scrap Digital: Avant Garde 3/08 - DPaper11, DPaper12, Tag63, Tag80, Tag87, Xtra74; Be Still 9/07 - Xtra02;
Font: Clingy;

On our last visit to the Boston Museum of Science, we got to perform experiments! Here's one shot where Sebek and Jay successfully floated a paperclip on top of a glass of water!

5 Layouts From my Childhood and my Children's

Here are a few layouts that I completed earlier, some digital, some physical! You may notice that I create 8.5"x11" layouts for my life before kids... I just love being able to work in different sizes without having to create mini books all the time. So, years ago I decided to scrap in 12"x12" for my main albums and 8.5"x11" as my "Book of Me" and have never regretted it! Plus, for those older photos, I'll often only have one image per event or just smaller photographs!



Club Scrap: Bridges 2/08 - Dark Brown Plain; Academy 8/07 - Tan 8.5x11 Print; Autumn Splendor 10/04 - Dark Brown Plain;
Scrapbook Takeout: Journal - Scenic Route Save the Date Chipboard Circles;
Cuttlebug: Funky Circle Frames;
Ranger: Adirondack Ink Pad - Espresso; Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain;
Zig: Memory Writer - Chocolate;

When I saw the "Save the Date" and "Good Times" chipboard shapes, I just had to break out those "funky circle" die cuts and get playing! The slightly brown tinted photograph worked well with an assortment of brown cardstock, inks, and embellishments for a fun layout!


Club Scrap: Chapter One 6/07 - Blue Print, Blue Plain, Stencil;
Scrapbook Takeout: Tell Your Story 3/08 - Jenni Bowlin Printed Tickets; 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Stickers Inspiration, Heidi Swapp Journaling Spots Mini Stars and Moons;
Making Memories - Transparency;

I just loved taking this photo and layering up a frame for it, starting with a transparency and cardstock, then overlapping stickers and embellishments, and text printed and painted onto the background paper! And I worked to pick up the main colors from the photo, blues, pink, white, and grey



Club Scrap: ALSB Idea Deck Vol 2 - Jack of Spades (left); Cruisin' 8/08 - Translucent Print, Light Coral, Black, Stickers;

Forgive me for the quality of this photo, but it really helps to show off the sparkles in the papers from the Cruisin' 8/08 kit! All but the translucent paper have the full sparkles when you look at them in real life... but using them for fishing photos wasn't what I expected! However I think it worked out great! I moved the photos just a little from the plan on the ALSB recipe card and added some skinny scrap strips to echo the strips in my daughters' jackets and love how it all fell into place! And the girls always have a blast at the Cub Scout Fishing Derby, never afraid to get their hands dirty!



Club Scrap Digital Kits: Common Threads 3/09 - Plain1, Template4; Gimme a Ring 1/09 - Print6; Cruisin' 8/08 - DP05; Fizz 1/07 - Trans22; Wheel & Sprocket 8/06 - Trans25; Let Me Count the Way Digi Demo - Paper04; Digi Inked Edges Vol. 1 - 12x12b;

The template from the Common Threads 3/09 Digital Kit is SO FUN! You can alter the style of each layer and cut all kinds of papers and colors to fill them, move things all around to your heart's content! It just screamed out Hula Hoops to me! With our vibrant photos of the Hawaiian themed weekend on the ski slopes with the Girl Scouts, I just had to go bright and load on the colors! I grabbed the shadow from another photo of my daughter hula-hooping and added it in turquoise to the background, then added a few digital stamps from some favorite past kits and digitally inked edges to finish off the layout.



Club Scrap Digital: Artifacts 2/09 - Plain5; Gimme a Ring 1/09 - Plain2; Bistro 7/07 - CS07, CS08; Surf's Up! 7/06 - Trans17, Trans22; Oh Baby - Trans09, Trans24; Inked Edges Vol 1 - 12x12c;

For this layout, I was inspired by Kim B's layouts in the 3/09 DigiRaps with all of the great vertical lines and small photos with embellishments sharing on vertical strip! And with the cartoony duck photo prop, I had to get a little cartoony on my layout! I switched the photo to black and white and upped the contrast, then gave it a bold black border stroke. I found the great dotted frame from Surf's Up and selected the border for the frame, stroked it in a new layer, and moved it to the side! When I grabbed the dotted line and text images, I also applied a heavy border stroke to them in black, but chose to ink the edges of the paper strips. I grabbed the great duck stamp and "colored" it in with the background yellow paper as the final touch!

North Shore Music Theatre - Digital Layout, Freebie, & More!

Club Scrap: Gimme a Ring 1/09 - Club Stamp Digital Kit;
Adobe: PSE 7.0 Cookie Cutter Shapes, Layer Effects and Styles; Altered Hues;
Font: Honey Script;

Thanks to my mother, my girls and their cousin were able to go to one of the last scheduled performances at the incredible North Shore Music Theater! After watching the High School Musical 2 show, the cast came out to request donations in a final attempt to keep the theater open and a large number of them walked around with donation buckets, while the leads gathered at a table to sign autographs and take photographs with their fans. The girls were thrilled to pose with Addi McDaniel, who played Gabriella!

It was a magical performance that was so special to them and so trendy... but feeling like a part of the effort to keep the theater open is what will keep this particular musical dear to their hearts forever!

About a week after the show, NSMT announced that they have one more performance scheduled for February 7th, 2009. It will be a stage production of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day! It may be just a hair young for us, but we can't miss it at only $10 and potentially being the final performance ever at this 55 year old not-for-profit theater in the round!

Anyhow, if you've ever enjoyed a performance at this theater or want to support it, please go to their website and help out! There is hope that enough donation will keep it afloat while it continues to provide live theatre, concerts, and more to the North Shore community, provide teacher's guides and discounted or free admission to schools, and teach theater arts directly to our youth at their academy!

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On another note... I enjoyed making this layout so much that I created a free digital template from it, a 2-layer Quick Drop Digital Layout for Club Scrap's 6x6 Page Swap using their Free Digital Demo, and another layout based on the swap page!

I can't give out the layered QDDL here, since it uses Club Scrap's materials, even though they are freebies. Please grab yourself one of the kits and join the swap! Layouts are due by the end of the month! But here is a preview of it (the actual swap players will get it as two flat jpegs without a white box for a photo since I'm too anal to want to control anyone else's photo dimensions)! However, the free digital template that I've created matches this layout, but is 12x12 and saved in grayscale. Please download the full template at http://neithj.googlepages.com/NeithTemplateStarsSqr.zip!

 

And... here is that other layout... Unfortunately I did not use my own camera this Christmas and am still waiting for the high res copies of everyone else's photos, so I only have this grainy emailed photo for now! Rest assured, the photo will be replaced by the higher quality image as soon as I have it! This layout used my new template as well as the Club Scrap Free Digital Kit Let Me Count the Ways!