I’ve been scrapping today.

So far 5 layouts are done and 4 of them are printed. The above layout I did for my assignment for Sweet Tomato Designs Creative Team that I’m on. She has this new kit out FOCUS (she is collaborating with two other designers on it too, the link will take you to her store and more info about it).

It feels so good to just focus on the photos, papers and elements, finding the words and titles that goes with them – and stop worrying about everything else for a few moments. It really helps me use my creativity as well as it helps me telling our story. Getting the words down. I love taking photos and I LOVE making something with them; makes them even more meaningful to me.

I only wish I could remember to write down the things MT says. Sometimes it is GOLD, other times it makes me laugh out loud. He is a funny guy, but he also is a thinker and cares about other people. And then he is a boy; loves to play with guns and swords and being a hero. I can’t remember caring that much about such things (I might have forgotten, though.) – but this is really important to him – even though he knows movies and games of that kind has to wait until he is old enough. Like 30 or something….

Anyhow, this post went in another direction than planned. Expect one of my coming scrapbook pages to be about MT Not that they aren’t already are mostly about him anyway…

Ok, getting back to what I planned to write about. My 365 – kind-off  project of the year. I’m not doing it in the same way as last year. Then I took a photo each and every day (more or less), but I never got even close to scrap the photos like I planned – and my dream of making a book with all the photos in them was something I gave up on during the summer (I still haven’t scrapped all the photos from our summer vacation, even though most of them is sorted and ready to go.. Ahem). So this year I’m still taking photos each week. I’m focusing on capturing the moments of everyday and the happenings in our life as well. Each month I take 12 photos on the 12th (got the idea from Cathy Zielske), then I try to get those photos scrapped as soon as possible. So far January and February are done, in March I forgot to take photos on the 12th – but I’m covered by another project that month so that is okay. This month I remembered to take photos (although not until noon), and off course I still have  a layout to make with them. In addition to this monthly layout I’m trying to do another thing: making a weekly double pager (or sometimes two double pages) with my favorite photos of the week.

That’s what I’ve been doing today (mostly) – and it is so much fun!! I keep it simple, write in Norwegian and they are for me and my family and friends – and not for the whole world to see – so I can use any photo I want (like MT with his friends and photos of my family too). I found some templates that are suiting my style and easily can hold a lot of photos – mine are made by Kitty Designs at O’ scraps (I’m drooling over some of her newest templates at the moment; they got curves). I let each week have one background color, this way there is a connection and it’s easy to see when the weeks shift. I love papers with structure in colors or cream and browns. Sometimes I use patterned papers as accents with the photos. I use only a few elements, maybe some stitching or some ribbons. And that is it. When finished I print it out here at home (size 8×8) and stick it into an album. And I can’t help myself from looking through the pages from time to time. I love these pages.

Please come by my house – and I’ll show them to you – but for now, here is one example:

And next time I’ll tell you all about how much I love Pioneer Woman for giving actions out for free. Actions for Photoshop Elements too! Yay. They make my editing so much speedier, not to mention better! Ok. Another post. Now it’s time for some geek fun here at my place, The Big Bang Theory is on tv tonight (the only thing I watch all week long)!