Camera Shy

There comes an age where your child gets tired of mugging for the camera, and starts to avoid it. We are testing the waters of this age right now. It depends on the day or time, just as when I offer food. Sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she won't even try it. I am talking of the same food. It can vary that much from day to day. This is the way it is with pictures. I pull out the camera and hold my breath a little. "Will today be a day that she'll let me take a picture?" Someday, I can see myself explaining to her why there are more pictures of her brother than of her when she was 7. He doesn't mind the camera yet! Until this phase passes, and I'm sure it will, I will content myself with the photos that I can get. The little glimpses into life as a 7 year old. Without pictures, I'll be sure to journal in her album of this time. I'll tell her how thankful I am that I can trust her to play nicely with her baby brother so that I can get a shower or make dinner. I'll remind her of the girl who won't play in her room when it's clean because she doesn't want it to get messy again. My collecter who hoards TV tickets for a week and then uses them all in one day. A little lady who gives herself a shower and brushes her own hair, and smooths the bumps out with water because she wants to look her best. My grown up daughter who made heart cookies in her Easy Bake Oven all by herself after breakfast. Lastly, a beautiful little girl who still picks a huge handful of daffodils for her mama.

Scrap Happy!

Celebrating one!

Celebrating one for me means my little boy's birthday! All year, I took his picture once a month in his crib. I made sure to have the same sheet on the bed, and put his little beanie baby next to him. It really helps to show how much he grew in a year! (photo above)

I also had his picture taken once a month and ordered wallets of his professional photos. (as well as the 4 months I took his monthday pictures myself) I knew I wanted to do some kind of page layout that showcased all of his months. Here is the finished product. It's amazing how much they change in one year, isn't it?! (below) I was rusty from only scrapbooking digitally, but once I did a page or two, I was back! It was fun doing these page layouts for my son's birthday photos.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

This one is so fun! The photographer made him mad when she put his hand in the icing and then put it to his mouth, She was frozen when he started crying, but I yelled, "Take a picture! Take a picture!" Above was the result. I used a 8x10 paper for the mat/background and used just a few party embellishments. I really wanted the title to stand out, so I used white letters and went around each one with a pen. I cut out the paper from beind the photo, since you won't see it anyway, and punched out squares to finish off the page.

Birthday Boy

This page is very much like a page I could do online in a digital album. I love it because it's crisp and clean. All I used were letter stickers of various sizes and a paper background. I just layered the "Birthday" on top of the lighter colored "Boy" letters.

One

I love this page, too! It's so simple. A simple yellow background matched the yellow in his shirt. I used 2 sizes of circle punches to make the open circles and put letter stickers inside. There is one cupcake sticker under the O. This page changed as I designed it, as so often happens. I like the way the word "one" is here because it goes with the jersey look of the shirt he's wearing. This just shows you that you don't need a whole lot to make a page. You just want it to all go together. The less you put on a page, the more likely it is that that will happen.

Happy Birthday puzzle.

This page was born out of my desire to mat these pictures in blue. However, I don't have any more blue paper, so I used the green and kind of made a puzzle mat. That's when I realized that I had a puzzle punch that I had never used! When using a new punch, know that the first couple of punches will have oil on the edges. Do some practice punches that you can toss. Once again, all I have on this page is a small amount of paper, some letter stickers and one party diecut. I want everyone to notice the photos, another reason to keep it simple.

Just for fun: I put a number one or the word one on each page of my son's birthday pages. I started doing this for my daughter a few years ago, and she and others who look at the album, really have fun looking for the birthday numbers.

I'm currently working on my daughter's album when I can sneak away for a few minutes. I am enjoying scrapbooking and trying not to get caught up on the fact that I am so far behind. It's a hobby for crying out loud! If I was all caught up, what would I do with my time? Ha Ha! That's a joke, I always have at least one event being planned, project ideas I want to try, and a room or 2 that need cleaned. Not to mention...the laundry!



Scrap Happy!