Keeping My Crafty Hand In

Keeping My Crafty Hand In

And we come to the final LOAD page for the month. This is how I’ve been keeping myself from going completely stir crazy, with bits of lettering and coloring, list making, and a few scrapbook pages. This teaching gig is a bit time consuming.

oh happy day || noexcusescrapbooking.com

The page started with a preprinted black and white background that included the “Happy Day” part of the title. A few pieces of scrap scrapbook paper, some super-old letter stickers, (Can you say 15 years old? Thank you!) and some self-adhesive gems made this a quick and easy layout.

I don’t have time for anything that takes a lot of time. That should change in June though. School’s almost over for the year! Hooray!

I’m really looking forward to a solid week or three of not waking up to an alarm at 6am every day. How about you? What’s on your agenda for the summer?

I Am the Annoying Older Sister

I Am the Annoying Older Sister

I refuse to admit I’m falling behind. Behind and scrapbooking are two ideas that belong nowhere near each other, in my opinion. However, this layout was for a LOAD prompt from last week. So you can decide for yourself if I’m “behind” or not. 😉

your nose is purple ||noexcusescrapbooking.com

Let’s see, a few things to note about this:

The glitter S’s and E are adapted numerals. Why do I run out of those so quickly? The purple is a font I cut out with my silhouette on mirror cardstock. I like mirror cardstock. It’s shiny. 😉 I can’t remember which font it was. I’ve got a lot.

I finally learned how to take a screen shot of my iphone. I’ll have to practice that some more so I can capture some of the more epic chats I’ve had with my sister.

I think the newest product on here is the gold acrylic fun from Heidi Swapp. I need to use up some stash people!

So, how have you all been doing? Make anything new and fun lately? Share!

Enough

Enough

When it comes right down to it, I’m a pretty simple scrapbooker. Most of my pages have a linear design. I find it really easy to build pages this way.

The latest page I made as a sample for this May’s LOAD is a clear example of this.

enough ||noexcusescrapbooking.com

Just look at it! A single strip of stamped paper acting as photo mat and anchoring spot for journaling. Even the embellishments on this are really minimal. Three single sequins. But the whole design really ties it all together with the theme of the page. I read enough. There’s enough on this page to tell the story.

And that’s really the point of scrapbooking without excuses. What ever you do is enough. And it’s pretty amazing too.

Feeling Appreciated

Feeling Appreciated

You may not have noticed, but I’ve been super quiet around here lately. Preparing and reminding myself about the topics I’m teaching in Biology and Chemistry has been absorbing all my mental energy. I’ve only done a little writing as well. I’ve had my project life album sitting on my desk for months, waiting for me to add journaling. In short, scrapbooking hasn’t been a big priority lately. Which is normal. You have to expect your scrapbooking output to vary depending on your circumstances.

So I was super pleased and grateful when Alice Boll asked me to be a featured scrapbooker for the first LOAD she’s running. Finally, an outside deadline for making pages! Hooray!

Today’s prompt was all about chores, and I’ve actually been keeping track of them this year.

it never ends || noexcusescrapbooking.com

Are there any chores you keep track of? It’s rather depressing and simultaneously empowering to realize how much stuff gets cleaned around here on a regular basis.

I’ll be back later this month, and share the other pages I’ve made for LOAD. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more class prep to do. We’ve got to get them ready for their regents exams in mid-June!

Wait. It’s March?!

Wait. It’s March?!

The best laid plans have a habit of falling through around here. I was so pumped for LOAD. The last LOAD led by Lain. A reason to scrapbook every day. I was going to get so much creating done.

Well. That was the plan. What actually happened?

Four paper pages done, one digital page done, and one more page begun, but not finished.

I didn’t even make it a week people!

I blame my job. It’s emotionally draining.

But you know what? That’s a terrible excuse. And we don’t make excuses around here.

Plain and simple, life got in the way, and I let scrapbooking slip into the backseat again. And that’s okay.

I’m not into guilt. I’m not going to make myself feel bad because I didn’t scrapbook as much as I wanted to during February. Life is to short to feel guilty about not making as much time as I would like for a hobby that I love.

And that’s the thing.

I LOVE scrapbooking. I love all the bits and pieces that it’s made of, from paper and tape runners, to glitter glue and photos, and most importantly stories I want to tell my family.

My youngest asked me the other day why I don’t tell stories like my husband does. The thing is, I do. But it’s on paper. I am terrible at telling a story verbally. But give me a piece of paper and a pen, and I’m off.

punch buggy red||noexcusescrapbooking.com

My favorite page from February

Bonus: Ten years from now, when my husband can’t remember the story he told so engagingly last night, I’ll have a record of at least part of it in my scrapbooks, where we can relive the moment, all over again.