Work in progress

I've been wanting to scrapbook a trip for a while. In 1990, my grandmother and I took a bus trip through the British Isles. When she passed away in November of 2006, I asked that her pictures of the trip be sent to me, and my mother made sure I got them.

I wanted to do this project to really organize it, and to save the photos. The ones I have are stuck in a magnetic album, and only some can be removed. And some of them are fading. I used up three rolls of film, and I can only find the negatives for one of the sets.

So I bought lots of stickers and organized the photos (thank goodness both of us wrote details on the back of the photos!)





And I bought an album just for this project - my first themed album.



And everything just sat there on my coffee table. Eventually, I realized that my perfectionism was preventing me from starting. So I started last night. I decided to layout the photos, and then go back and add more details.

This is our first stop on the tour - Hampton Court Palace in London, England.





It feels good to have started!

Two challenges for one person

There were two challenges I wanted to try, and I ended up using both, to scrapbook pages dedicated to my favourite dancer, Vera-Ellen.
(If you're thinking "Who?", she is best known for appearing in White Christmas. I have a website dedicated to her if you want to know more.

The first challenge was, " Fill the entire background of your layout." I borrowed the idea I used for the banner on the Vera-Ellen website, and filled the background with black & white photos, to back a stunning colour photo I had from White Christmas.





Click here for largest version.

The second challenge came from Sisterhood of Scrap: "Create a layout-any size, or a card, with at least 3 different patterned papers and at least 3 hearts"

Vera-Ellen actually collected heart shaped items, so it was an easy decision to use this challenge to create a page to go with the other.





Click here for largest version.

There is a lot more scrapbooking I can do on Vera-Ellen - pages dedicated to my favourite of her movies for example. I wonder which challenge will inspire me next?

Figuring this out

I was working with teeny tiny stickers today - dots. I tried using tweezers to pick them up and move them, but I just ended up wearing the dots.





It took some thinking of how to resolve this. "What if I cut the paper right next to the dots?"





"And then I can slide the sticker off the paper and onto the page!"




It worked! And I felt smart! :-)

Newest project

Thanks to a bad cold and a brief foray into dating, I haven't been scrapping much. But I'm healthier and definitely solo (he broke way too many dates) so it's time to scrap again!

I decided to try this sketch that I discovered at Sisterhood of Scrap. This was a learning experience!

I've never had a problem before, transforming a 12"x12" layout to 8.5"x11". But the circle of flowers turned into a square. So I got out my brads and created a circle out of them.

I think some of the paper flowers crowd out the photo, which is what I wanted to be the centerpiece. And I was too sick to go buy chipboard letters for the title. But overall, I am satisfied with this page.

Mamma Mia layout

Ever since I saw a performance of Mamma Mia this summer, my ticket from the show sat on my computer desk, asking to be scrapbooked.

There was one problem - photography wasn't permitted, so I didn't take any pictures. (I would have needed a serious zoom lens considering where I was seated even if I had felt like a rebel). So how do I scrapbook something when all I have is a battered ticket?

With all the recent excitement of the trailers for the movie version (coming next summer) (squee!) I decided to start at the official website, where I knew there were pictures of the actors.

Lo and behold, I filled three pages with bounty from the Internet.

First challenge - the performance I saw had an understudy (Whitney Claire Kaufman) in the part of Sophie. I wanted to scrapbook the cast I saw, so any press photos featuring the regular actress couldn't be used.

Second challenge - there have been cast changes since I saw the show, and one of the actresses no longer had her headshot on the official site. Fortunately, she has a personal website, so I could grab a photo of her from there (same photo as used in the programme - I would have scanned it as a last resort).

By Googling several reviews, I was able to find several press photos which I could use, including some outstanding high resolution ones. I also found some photos on Flickr, from a rebel who did take pictures of the show, and stole used part of one.







The "Mamma Mia" lettering was done on my Cricut. This was the first time that I used brads, and I really like them. It took a lot of research to create these pages, and I'm proud of them.

Why Solo Scrapbooking?

Welcome to my new blog! In which I shall document the world of a solo scrapbooker.

So what is solo scrapbooking? To me, it means scrapbooking from the single person's point of view. Or a person who doesn't have a lot of scrapbooking friends locally, and tends to use the Internet.

To me, it mostly means scrapbooking outside the box - scrapbooking about something other than one's family. Because if you look at scrapbooking magazines and websites, 99% of the layouts include a spouse and/or children.

My layouts are part of the 1% not including a spouse or kids. I'm a little tired of walking into Michael's and being confronted with all the wedding or baby stickers. I'm hungry to chat with others.

It's not that I hate married people or children. It's not that I think I am lacking something or that something is wrong with me. It's just that it sometimes feels that the scrapbooking industry doesn't know what to do with me. So I'm speaking up.

I am a single woman, with cats. I went to a crop once, and nobody knew what to chat with me about, because I was the one person who didn't have pictures of my children with me. They were relieved when I pulled out pictures of my niece and nephew. :-)
So I don't go to a lot of events. I prefer to chat online. And I am living a solo life. I am a solo scrapbooker.

It is my aim to share my layouts with you, that fit into that 1%. To challenge you to focus on you. To share resources. And to have fun. Because if scrapbooking isn't fun, what's the point?