StudioScrapping with Amy Ulen - You've taken the photos. Now keep the memories.™

LOAD #14

Posted on October 14, 2012

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! 🙂

LOAD #13

Posted on October 13, 2012

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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!

LOAD #12

Posted on October 12, 2012

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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!

LOAD #11

Posted on October 11, 2012

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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.

LOAD #10

Posted on October 10, 2012

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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!

LOAD #9

Posted on October 9, 2012

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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!

LOAD #7 & 8

Posted on October 8, 2012

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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.

LOAD #6

Posted on October 6, 2012

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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.

LOAD #5

Posted on October 5, 2012

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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!

LOAD #4

Posted on October 4, 2012

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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?!