I really liked the technique used for this page (above) . You use the border punches on the strip and join the pieces to make a large frame (seen on right-hand page). I just thought it was rather clever and I like learning cost-effective ways to use your supplies.

I thought I would also post a little tip I learned after coming home from the convention… if you do not have a scallop border punch, you can actually use your corner rounder punch. Just take the corner guide off and punch along the bottom, lining up the half circles. I like quick tips like this so that you don’t have to go buy other tools.

I wanted to post this one because David and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary yesterday. He was not here to celebrate with me because he is in the Dominican republic to see his dad (who he hasn’t seen in over 2 years). This page is in the front of our scrapbook and says, “We have ups and downs, but we always figure things out because you cannot break our love.” We have been through a lot, but our relationship has become so much stronger because of it. I never thought I could love him more than I did before, and I am finding that I love him more and more each day. Happy Anniversary, Babe!

My second anniversary marks the fourth year that I have gone to the Creating Keepsakes Convention (CKC). It was this past weekend and my friend Susan and I had such a ball together (while spending far too much money on so many yummy products). We were also able to spend some time with our old friends Theresa and Betty, plus a few new-comers. I did not take as many classes this year, but I hope to post some of the pages in the weeks to come.

These two were from the Donna Downey inspired class, using her sketches (I changed them a tiny bit, as always):

And this one is my own creation based off the same class. The papers are Basic Grey.

These ones were from the Scenic Route classes, which were possibly the best classes ever.

(The one below I changed a bit):

And this was from a Speedy Scrapbooking class taught by Jessica Sprague… I think it was a one pager that I added an additional page (the stuff came in one of those All-In-One Scrapbook kits by CK):

And these were a few that I did with leftovers from the same class:

This one got changed a bit. This was the SEI Wild & Crazy class from last year, and wild and crazy it was… a little too much for this girl. Here is what it orginally was supposed to look like: sei-wild.jpg. I think my changes toned it down some, while still maintaining many of the pages characteristics. I also ommitted the interactive elements… they just weren’t for this page. Maybe I can utilize them somewhere else.

This one is from last year’s Basic Grey class. It was a one-pager (left) and I added the right page. I always scrap so horizontally, so I felt I needed some vertical play on the opposite page. I also added the Prima leaves… I’ve had those for a few years and never used them… they found a home here.

This was Rusty Pickle’s class and I adore it! It was so much fun to add the burlap for texture. This page looks pretty true to it’s orginal (rusty-pickle-bloom.jpg), but I did move the elements around a little… flower from the left to the right and omitted the little accordian elements to get more photos on the page. I kinds wish I had printed the pictures in sepia instead of black and white, but I guess it gives some good contrast so the pics don’t blend in too much.

This was the page we did in the Jessica Sprague class and it was just so darn cute! I think I omitted the bling for the center of the flowers and added some brown brads instead. It just wasn’t feeling the bling for a David page. These papers and stickers are American Crafts.

I have many more to share, but I thought I would get these few out there. I also did a few from this year’s classes but have not scanned them yet. God, it feels good to be scrappin’ again. I cannot believe I went a year without it.

Scrap Simple: Using Minimal Design to Create Beautiful Scrapbook Pages. Now I wasn’t really sure that I had to have this one (I have a slight compulsion to buy books), so I went to the author’s website HERE. I thought her stuff rocked, so I ordered it.

    

And then I got an e-mail from my old scrapbook store in Virginia pointing to a site full of sketches for scrapbooking called Page Maps. Well they too have a book coming out late February that comes with laminated cards full of these sketches called Scrapbook Page Maps: Sketches for Creative Layouts. So… you guessed it. I pre-ordered it.

And in case I haven’t already mentioned, these rock too!

  

The Becky Higgins one I mentioned not too long ago and is recent to the collection, and the Ali Edwards book I got for Christmas, but the last I got over the summer and I love it too! You should check it out. They rock 5 out of 5 stars in my book. I’ll let you know on the others when I get them in February.

Compulsion? Yes. Isn’t the whole darn hobby that though? Indeniably, YES!

Such an awesome store… And with 2 locations!

I have always wanted to see what they are all about. Now I can say I have been to one. It was a pretty nice store, but I liked the local store a lot better.

Friday
9:00 – 11:00    Shop
11:10 – 12:10   BasicGrey – Latest & Greatest (embellish IT!)
12:30 – 1:30    Lunch
1:50 – 2:50     Wild and Crazy (SEI)
3:10 – 4:10     Up to Date and Magnetic (Simple Scrapbooks)
4:30 – 5:30     I Can See Clearly Now (Paper Crafts)

Saturday
8:30 – 9:30     Snapshots of Life (Making Memories)
9:50 – 10:50   10 Things Every Scrapbooker Should Know (Creating Keepsakes)
11:00-1:30      Lunch/Shop
1:50 – 2:50    “Bloom” Two-page Layout (Rusty Pickle)
3:10 – 5:10     Focus on Friends and Family (Creating Keepsakes)

I am going with my old girlfriends from my old scrapbook store and I am so excited to see them and take some classes. We always have a BALL!