Scrappy Sunday

I scrapbooked a lot this week, really, a lot.  Ten layouts done, ten stories preserved.  Lots of fun and mess.  I capped off my crafty week with a lot of crafting and talking time with Tracie today.  It was lovely. 

As there are so many, I'm going to bundle them up for you and skimp on the details.  I will mention though that I am participating in Shimelle's online crop this weekend so a few of these are responses to those challenges.  The rest are a mix of my own ideas and inspiration from my usual sources (Studio Calico, Shimelle, etc...)

Worth noting in this set is a tiny bit of stamping brought on by recent challenges.  It is amazing how much longer it takes me when I try to stamp, no clue why.  That layout at the top left is a very easy design I've done many times in subtle variations, but had all sorts of trouble with this time... I'm blaming the stamping.  The bottom right was inspired by a challenge to keep the pages simple and this picture is just right for that along with a lot of journaling to tell the story of B's shift from 4.5 to 5. 

I wanted to pull out just a couple to highlight this week that were my favorites (and one below that isn't).  The above is probably my very favorite this week.  A gorgeous photo coupled with just a couple products that help it shine even more.  It may look tricky, but all I actually did was to cut out the edge of the design already on the page and overlap it over the photo.  So while it may look like layers and dimension I added very little to the paper itself -- just the title stickers and the Amy Tangerine washi tape on three edges.  The story is from his 4th birthday blog post and I'm so happy it is on this gorgeous page. 

This, in contrast, is my least favorite page of the week.  I was doing a challenge to find inspiration from a very lovely page.  It just didn't quite work out in practice for me.  I walked away and while it is better now after some tweaking it is still not right/bothering me...It was and is frustrating. 

After tinkering and frustrations with the page above this was the very next page.  It was fast, designed based on nothing but the idea of using grey, yellow and one other color.  It is simple, more graphic and even though neither of those are the most typical descriptors of my style, I love it.  Things to ponder....

Meanwhile, I hope there was some craftiness in your week!