In the Storm

4 Songs

I made this crazy, busy page of 4 songs that have been important to me in my life over the years. Obviously this isn't a complete list of songs but I simply chose the first 4 that popped into my head and shared why they were / are important to me. This page is a total scraplift of a lady in the Facebook group Craft the Story. However, my page is entirely digital. I tried to make all of the pieces to look like chipboard (which was the original page). Love, love how this one turned out. In addition, this is a prompt I snagged from one of the 10 challenges offered in the August Scrap Challenge, again from the Craft the Story Facebook group.

August Scrap Challenge

In August the Ali Edwards Facebook group held its annual August Scrap Challenge hosted by my friend Traci Brookes whereby Traci and her team of three, challenged the scrapbooking community to - scrap. They posted 10 different challenges. Our goal was to create a scrapbooking layout based on those challenges. I participated again this year and completed all 10 challenges.

Today, I am sharing all of the challenges and all of the pages I created for those challenges. This is get-out-of-the-end-of-summer-scrapbook-funk type of scrapbooking. I love it! This year the challenges were seriously outside of the box and within the 10 challenges actually offer so many more scrapbooking jumping off points, or story sparks. Below, I put the challenges in order, however, that isn't necessarily how I scraped. We had a deadline of August 31 which, thankfully, I met that goal.

Challenge #1  |  4 Seasons and De-stash your stash / Use your stash. Document 4 seasons or think outside the box. I decided to document my 4 seasons that I have been swimming (I begin swimming regularly - again - in July 2020); thus I have been swimming through 4 actual seasons.

Challenge #2  |  Dig into your ideas folder and scraplift a page. Always a fun challenge, and super easy. As I scrap digitally, 95% of the time and hybrid, 5% of the time any pages that I scraplift are almost always either tradition physical pages or hybrid pages which I translate into digital pages. That is what I did here.

Challenge #3  |  OUTSIDE. The challenge was simply outside. This page will be going in my mini-album WATERFALLS album that I am slowly making headway on.

Challenge #4  |  4 Stories, 4 Elements, Same Story Kit. I used the AMPERSAND Story kit and told 4 stories with 4 elements surrounding Jeff and I's Saturday morning breakfast dates.

Challenge #5, Start with the story + Use a Story Kit or Just Write Word prompt. I used the latest Story kit one word prompt TEACH as my jumping off point to tell the story of TEACH.

Challenge # 6: Use these 4 things: a shape (in this case I used a circle), strips of paper, chipboard, and photo(s). I used the OLD/NEW Story kit to document how we refreshed our master bedroom.

Challenge # 7 - A sketch. The challenge offered a 4 column / 4 square sketch that we are to use to create a page from. I took the challenge literally and created my page around the literal 4 column / 4 square sketch and told the story about Athena's routines and how she has become Princess Athena to us.

Challenge #8 - Find a quote in your stash and create a page around it. I used a quote card from the BREATHE Story kit, and embellishments from the same and created a personal reflection page.

Challenge #9 - Choose your own adventure (4 books, 4 movies, 4 songs) that were influential in your life + de-stash your chipboard. I choose 4 books plus the READ Story kit for my 'adventure' and told the story of the 4 books(sets) that have had a huge influence on my life.

Challenge #10 - 4 Elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water). Document and capture a story about one of these elements. I chose to document Fire & Air of the recent photo I captured in August - the fire rainbow cloud, sometimes known as.

July Joys.

'Watching the sun set over the Savannah River on the 4th of July as we relax and enjoy the soft breeze from the water waiting for the night to usher in fireworks. We set up chairs along the riverwalk, watching the boaters and people watching which is always - interesting. This is our tradition. I am so thankfulul we were able to share it with Ashley, Brad, and the grandkids this year. Also, tradition is visiting Savannah Sweets candy store. John, Jarrod, Brad, and the kids walked up Riverstreet and bought out the store. Not really, but they bought way to much candy $$$.'

Today, I'm sharing another 12 x 12 page that simply highlights the sunset photo that I caught overlooking the Talmadge Bride over the Savannah River as we waited for the night to set in and the fireworks to begin. I love the offsetting of the photos for a little striking drama to the page. And, as the page is made centered around the photo it is eye-catching. 

It's also representative of every other 4th of July downtown Riverstreet, as we wait for the fireworks to begin. We're always there to catch the sun setting and most every July 4th we actually see the sun dipping below the horizon beyond the magnificent Talmadge Bridge. Almost every July 4th we've watched little boats and very big container ships pass by as we relax, seated along the riverwalk where we've set up chairs to do just that.

Movies that Make Me Laugh.

Today I am sharing a quick page, 12 x 12, that I made using the LAUGH Story kit by Ali Edwards. I am subscribed to her Story Classroom which comes with the digital kit - perfect for this 95% digital scrapbooker. I realize that this page has zero journaling, but I think the title and the photos of movies tell the entire story. 

Movies that make me laugh.

Sure, I could dig deeper into the story and tell you that The Proposal is laugh out loud, hilarious, although there are parts of it that are stupid and cringe-worthy. And, I cannot tell a lie, but Beverly Hills Cop is stinking hilarious and I still roll on the floor (not really on the floor because I wouldn't be able to get up) laughing.  While I adore almost all of the Die Hard movies it is Live Free or Die Hard that is the most laugher worthy - it's all about the cast of characters that make it so, too.

I recently watched Legally Blonde because it showed up on Hulu and Reese Witherspoon's character is a riot. RED (and RED 2) - don't get me started...who said Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't funny? When paired with Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold - hysterical. Of course, my favorite scene is the crappiest line but the most funny and for my daughter Ashley and I, we both use it often for a good laugh, " What kind of a sick b**ch takes the ICE CUBE trays out of the FREEZER?"

I thought the humor and sarcasm in The Martian was magnificent. I recently read Project Hail Mary, the author of The Martian and similar humor was written in that and I could so see it being made into a movie as well.

You know, there is so many movies that I laugh at and really these are just a few. Mostly for their sarcasm, that sarcastic humor that sends me roaring laughing. And, man, do I love laughing out loud. It is so good for my soul.

Fireworks 2021

I have quite a few traditional digital scrapbooking pages I've created recently that I haven't shared here. I plan on changing that over the next week or two, and get those pages up and recorded here.

Today's sharing is and 8.5 x 11, going back to my roots of that first album I ever created, an 8.5 x 11. I incorporate all sizes of pages into one larger, 12 x 12 album so I am album to create a page in any size that suits my fancy or the story I want to tell. 

I super love how this page turned out of two of my grandsons, Wyatt and Samuel, as we waited for the fireworks on Riverstreet to start this past July 4, 2021. I used a huge mix of designers and products from my stash to make the page 'feel' like a fireworks page without it being overly so. And, I loved how it turned out. The page is eclectic but I think it highlights the photos and story well.

Journaling: Since 1998 and almost every year thereafter, we've gone down to Riverstreet on the 4th of July to watch the evening fireworks display. We set up chairs early along the riverwalk and watch the boaters and people watch. Ash and her crew were home before they PCS to New Jersey and we loved sharing our tradition with the grandkids.

Television as a Kid.

Sometimes stories are prompted when we're in the middle of a conversation with someone and we're sharing about then, and remembering when. Oftentimes stories are in the now, but I love looking back and being reminded of days gone by, of those yester - years. I recently saw a Photoshop digital template geared towards years of television watching and I was inspired to return to those days as a kid when, looking back, pretty much all I did was watch television. I realized now it was a part of my introvert makeup. However, it was a time of good television, too.

I created the page based on the years I actually remember, which seems to align with when we moved to Florida - until I left home and joined the Air Force. Boy, did this TAKE. ME. BACK. I decided to include my favorites (although I realize I had several) of each year and then included in the long columns other shows that were memorable that I watched.

Digitally, these are 2- 12 x 12 pages and I used Ali Edwards' digital Story kit WATCH.

Hello Story 3.

I finished out the Hello Story 3 class by Ali Edwards with Lesson #3 - Repetition. Telling a story using the design theme, repetition. For this first page I was heavily inspired by a page Ali had created for the Story kit WATCH, in which she used repetition. I used a mix of Ali Edwards and Humble & Create digital elements to help tell my story.

On the left side page I used multiple repetitive design elements: I repeated the WATCHING prompt on each photo; the 3 x 4 grid photos are repeated; the half circles plus stitching are repeated; and the B&W plus one color is a negative use of repetition, as well.

On the right side page I repeated the half circle repetition with the I WATCH prompt, as well as the stitching, to tie the two pages together.

This was a fairly quick page with multiple repetitive pieces: The vertical stripes on the left side as well as the sun embellishments. On the right side I repeated the 'painted' journaling spots plus the LOVING journaling prompt.

This week's lesson completes the class for another winning class by Ali Edwards. You just cannot go wrong with her classes. I have in mind to go back through both Hello Story and Hello Story 2 classes and create more pages for each of the lessons in those classes as well, as my starting off point for stories.

Hello Story 3.

Such a fun exercise! I was inspired - everywhere. For this first page (of 4 pages!!!) I scraplifted a page Ali Edwards made quite a few years ago which she used as an example to this week's Hello Story 3 story structure / theme: Tell your story with NO PHOTOS. I have created this same page before in Spring of 2020 when we first got hit with COVID-19 and it was so interesting to look back on what was going on AROUND HERE, then, and look and now.

This is another scraplift, only I dug into my saved pages from various sources and found this NO PHOTO page from a December Daily album page of all places where someone documented 5 gratitudes on Day 5. I translated it digitally, of course, because that's how I roll these days.

For this NO PHOTO page I am telling the story via a 'list' as well - because lists are my jam, too! This is a list of habits in my life that are making me happy, and / or, new habits that I've started that are good for me. I was inspired by a Cheri on Instagram @15minutescrapper.

I remember last May, amidst everything COVID-19, needing some semblance of normalcy, I created a Summer Manifesto for me and my family and I loved that even in the middle of COVID and lockdowns and social distancing and things closed, we were able to scratch things off my summer bucklist, anyways. I knew I wanted to create another Summer Manifest for 2021 when life has been returning to normal and more things are open and the opportunities are out there. 

This was a great way to document Summer Manifesto - NO PHOTOS required. I used a GRID pattern and filled each square with an Icon and a bucket list item. Definitely, a favorite page!

Hello Story 3.

Today I am sharing the projects I created for the class, Hello Story 3, by Ali Edwards. I have taken Hello Story and Hello Story 2, already, a 12-week and 3-week class, respectively, and this is another 3-week class. We have finished week 1, which was all about telling our stories using CUT PAPER techniques.

For this first page, I used this art piece that I found on Pinterest as my inspiration. Using digital products by Humble & Create, a scrapbooking digital designer that I admire, I 're-created- the art piece using digital 'CUT PAPER' to tell my story. No photo necessary because the 'cut' paper is the design focal point. Then, I told the story of what I am currently listening to, what sounds are on repeat, and what songs are my current playlist. A story such as this could easily be told monthly, or in seasons, or yearly in order to capture the whole picture.

For this page, I used this page as my inspiration piece and told the story of what needs to be all in my head, rather what is in my head. Those things I am telling myself, again and again, until it is ALLIN MY HEAD. I replicated paper weaving which we learned from the Hello Story 3 classroom, digitally, and I used the digital .png letters Ali provided in the digital downloads section of the class. Here is a good time to mention: Every single solitary class I have taken by Ali Edwards, and I have taken almost every one of her classes, are worth every single penny I spend. She puts so much into every session, every class, every project and she just keeps hitting them outside of the park. They are phenomenal! The inspiration for telling our stories is beyond imaginable.

For my third project I went big title, big lettering to tell my story about God's mercies being new every morning and paired it with one of my many, many, many sunrise photos that I captured from the 6th floor of the control tower where I work. The inspiration was strictly from the big lettering I'd seen in Ali's projects, and others taking the class who went big with letter cutting. I am super thrilled with how 'outside of the box' I went with all of these projects. I can see how much fun they'd be to create by hand, rather than digitally. But, I love how they turned out, digitally, too.

Together Equals Happiness.

This is a traditional 12 x 12 scrapbooking page using non-traditional scrapbooking supplies and I have created it digitally. Traditional scrapbooking is not old-fashioned, or out of fashion. However, in the community of scrapbookers that I follow and the Facebook group I am a part of, there are fewer and fewer traditional scrapbooking pages being created, or at least, being shared to the community. And, sometimes I miss the old way of scrapbooking. I don't mean using physical paper and products, but creating a page digitally, like in this case - a 12 x 12, which became the traditional way to create a scrapbooking layout post-Project Life, or 6 x 8 size, as the most popular current-sized pages. 

I used one of Ali Edwards' Story kits, the TOGETHER story kit which is made up of journal cards, chipboard, stamps, and embellishments. I used the journal cards as my 'paper' to create the circles, added some chipboard and embellishments and added a stamped title. Because I created this digitally I was able to size all of the product, especially the cards, to fit my needs.

I used the design tool - a visual triangle to tie the page together. It is one of the few design tools I can wrap my head around and pull off fairly decently. The visual triangle is met in two different ways: the three black and white photos, or the three clusters of circles. It makes the page a stand-out and gives the page a cohesive appearance.

Of course, the subjects of the page, us + our grandsons, is pretty sweet, too!