Virtual Scrapbooking – September 2020

I am really enjoying these virtual crops. This month was a three day event so I took a vacation day to scrapbook. Twelve challenges! I was better prepared with my photos and I found it easier to follow the challenge maps.

The challenges are great for adding variety to my scrapbooks. All too often I fall into a rut of repeating the same style. I love how this method helps me to try new things, often things I hadn’t considered before.

Challenge #1 – This was a quick and easy layout. I relied on a pack of coordinating papers and embellishments which enabled me to complete it in no time.

Challenge #2 – Since there are no photos to commemorate his college graduation because of COVID, I used this layout to catch up on my son’s high school graduation.

Challenge #3 – I really liked this layout. To complete it, I combined vintage photos with a Family Reunion photo from last year.

Challenge #4 – This one was a bit of a departure from the challenge map as a result of the photos and embellishments I chose. The embellishments are appliques from one of my Grandmother’s aprons.

Challenge #5 – Such a great layout! No journaling as the certificate covers it all. I am so pleased with how this turned out.

Challenge #6 – This was was a two part challenge. A departure from scrapbooking, it involved created a card and a border. The card design was perfect for creating a more masculine card. The border I created to use on a future page and I have the perfect photo in mind!

Challenge #7 – Again, I relied on a pack of coordinating papers and embellishments to complete this layout.

Challenge #8 – When my son was little he wanted to take his stuffed hippo to school which was not allowed. To get him to leave his beloved friend behind, I told him that Hippo wanted to stay home so he could make dinner. I staged the photos so that my son could see that Hippo really did make dinner!

Challenge #9 – This was the perfect layout for this set of photos of my Grandmother.

Challenge #10 – More graduation photos! I used tiny proof photos to create coordinating embellishments.

Challenge #11 – I really struggled with this one. I took a break to work on sorting through my genealogy files and happened upon these of my Uncle, which with a few modifications, worked!

Challenge #12 – I really love this layout! I haven’t added embellishments because I used such blingy papers. I’m not sure they are needed, but I can always add them later if I change my mind.

Virtual Scrapbooking – August 2020

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been three years since I’ve added a post to this site! I logged on and found four drafts waiting to be posted. It’s crazy how life can take you away.

During that time, rest assured that I have been crafting. And since COVID-19, I have been crafting a lot! Quarantining and social distancing have brought some positives back into my life — namely relief from the busy-ness of things to do all the time. Or things I thought I needed to be doing. I have also found my crafting to be a wonderful stress reliever during this crazy time.

In July of this year, I discovered a virtual scrapbooking group through a good friend who sells Creative Memories. I always feel bad that I don’t make more purchases from her, but if you saw my craft stash, you would know why. I have actually limited myself to purchasing only those things that I will use immediately or are so unique I need to seize the opportunity. I have learned not everything is so unique and there are things I can live without. My new mindset is to focus on actually doing crafts rather than collecting materials.

Each month this group hosts a weekend virtual crop. Challenges are posted and then participants go about creating a layout of their interpretation of the “map” that is posted. Flipping or rotating the layouts are other options for creating the pages.

I lurked in July to get a feel for how it all worked. Then in August, I dove in.

For this first crop, rather than agonizing over what pictures to print, I decided to work with what I had. I have been wanting to start a family history album for years. This was a perfect way to get started. I struggled some with selecting photos for the layout challenges because the photos I had didn’t always fit perfectly. But I remember, the challenges posted were ideas. This was still my scrapbook and certainly I could improvise however I chose.

Challenge #1 – This was a perfect example of trying to make the photos work for the layout. I did two of these utilizing a flip with the second page.

Challenge #2 – This time I did a much better job following the map. The original photos had been colorized using the My Heritage app. The app does a very good job but doesn’t always get the colors exact. I used blue and yellow silk flowers as embellishments to bring out the original colors of the wedding.

Challenge #3 – I flipped this layout and used the reduced copy of the marriage license as one of the photos.

Challenge #4 – I did not have enough vintage photos of the size shown in the challenge, but I did have plenty of smaller ones, so I combined two into one for this layout and also improvised.

Challenge #5 – I improvised this layout based upon the photo sizes I had. I did two of these pages utilizing a flip for the first page.

Challenge #6 – I was able to follow the challenge pretty closely with this one. My only disappointment is that the camera did not capture the colors well. This is much prettier in person.