Picture Day 2010

Hello again, everyone!  So this afternoon at work was field trip day - two hours of skating at the local arena, reliving my youth spent figure skating and coaching 7 and 8-year-olds how to skate.  We had a blast but boy did we come back tuckered out.  I can safely say that I will be curling up extra early in bed tonight once this post is published!  And of course I will need to snag some of the photos the parents took today to scrap later on.

But today we're back to my current series of class photos through the years.  This time it's my class from three years ago, covering academic year 2010-2011.

Picture Day 2010

I decided to return to the Fancy Pants Down by the Shore collection for my background paper; a yellowish/green, blue and white stripe.  I really like how bright and cheery the tropical papers in this collection are and they work really well for children's-themed LOs.  I added in some MME Oxford Lane paper for a photo matte and a Carta Bella Hello Again journaling card and that cute paper chain people border.  Carrying on the camera motif, I decided to use this awesome camera washi tape from Webster's Pages.

I decided to stack up all of the different borders I had pulled, which gave me space to layer the journaling card on the bottom of the page - a nice change from putting it on top again.  I also decided to take advantage of all that white space at the top of the photo and put the title there and bring the embellishment cluster down into the photo - keeping things tight helps to maintain the focus on the photo and leave some breathing room around the sides.

Also related to the camera motif, I added in some View Master reels.  This embellishment cluster combines some washi tape, stickers, spray mist and a scrap of yellow paper I didn't use on a preview project (don't you just love when that happens?).  I also used one of the Hello Again papers - the black sheet with the funky white text.  I cut out some of the words that I felt related to school and sprinkled them in with the embellishments.

And here is my journaling card with stats.  Some more sprinkled words and View Master Slide, washi tape, spray mist and coloured paper clips.  Having recently watched one of Corrie Jones' videos where she used feather accents on a LO, I was inspired to do likewise so I pulled these out from my Studio Calico Sundrifter pack and I really like the effect - a bit elegant but still having a playful element.

This week I also finally got around to scanning my current year's class photo and also the staff photo so I'll be adding those to my next photo order to round out the series.

Picture Day 2011

Today I'm sharing another layout in my recent series of class photo scrapping.  I have to say, I really enjoyed making these two layouts.  I think part of the reason is because it's easy to use a simple sketch design and then just rinse and repeat, as it were; and since the photos are always a year apart, there's no real fear that anyone is going to be comparing them side-by-side (and honestly, I wouldn't really care if they did).  I also think I've enjoyed these LOs because I often like scrapping photo enlargements - they're a nice change of pace from 4x6" and they really make a great impact on a page.

So, here is my class from two years ago now...

Picture Day 2011

I really liked how the giant polka dots from the 2012 LO had a fun and colourful child-like feel and I wanted to repeat that with the background paper again.  This time I pulled out Echo Park's Here & Now collection, which I've been dipping in and out of but haven't really made a dent into - yet.  The diagonal stripes brought in a lot of colour without being too over-powering.  I also decided to work in some corrugated cardstock - the navy colour helped pull out the navy in the stripes and somehow I think corrugated card reminds me of school supplies.

I decided to go big and bold with the camera motif this time around and included this banner strip across the top.  And since I was using a lot of pink with the matting paper, it seemed fitting to pull out all the stops and go seriously pink (and glittery!) for the title, too.

All those straight horizontal were feeling very harsh by this point, however, so I added in the twirl of embroidery floss to help break up the lines and give some softness to the page.  And I'm totally loving those chunky cork arrows.  I haven't added banners to my pages recently and I love banners so popped a few of the ones from the Here & Now sticker sheet onto the top edge - staples, bling and done!

Finally, a little journaling card - this one is from the Studio Calico Sundrifter die-cut pack - with the class stats and a little hint of chalkboard with another camera, some extra bling and a fun star paper clip and I called the LO complete.

Now I'm (im)patiently awaiting this year's class photo to finally arrive - I plan to use more chalkboard themed supplies for it.  In the meantime, I still have another handful of years of class photos left to work on but I may have to put those on hold, as the photos for a very special project arrived today - expect a sneak peak soon!

Oh, and to those of you who have left comments that these pages have helped to give you some ideas and inspiration for scrapping your child(ren)'s class photos - that's great to hear and thank you for sharing that with me.  :)

WIP Wednesday

Is it only Wednesday?  This week was the start of lessons with my new class for the academic year and I'm exhausted.  It's been an extremely rough start to the year, I'm sad to say.  However, the one shining star this week was the arrival of my new 2Peas order - yeah!  I'll see about getting a little video together later this weekend to share with you.

In the meantime, I've started pulling some supplies for a new layout I have planned, although I just discovered tonight that I haven't printed the photo like I thought I had.  Hmm.  I'm not the type of person who makes layouts without the photos - I like to work from the photo first, then choose papers and then finally embellishments.  However, I'm sure I can manage for just one layout and it will be an interesting exercise for myself.

Supplies pulled so far:

Buried on the bottom of this pile you might be able to make out this lovely photo-realistic chalk pastels paper by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages.  I've been wanting to challenge myself to use this side of the paper for a layout for some time now and this is it!  I've also pulled a number of goodies from my new goodie box - exclusive 2Peas star paperclips (smaller than I had assumed), SC cork embellishments as well as FP cork arrows, Thickers in the funky Kensie font, SC Sundrifter die cuts, CP The Pier stickers, MME enamel dots, labels and tile phrases - just to name a few!

I was really hoping to get started on this layout now but after the day I've had today, I just need to sit and veg for a bit.  Look for an update come the weekend, though (with any luck).