I’ve had an itch to scrap lately, so I did. I came up with two new layouts:

This one I made colorful since it highlights my daughter’s recent school carnival. I printed out the photos in 3-4″ sizes and used my 2.5″ square punch to get uniform sized-photos. I then rounded the corners, and staples the photos and papers together…something I saw Laura Kurtz do on one of her layouts. Once the photos were all stapled together, I taped them down to the paper and added my embellishments, which came with a kit from Scrapbook Circle (Grandma’s Attic).

This one is using an old patterned paper from My Mind’s Eye, cut down to 8.5×11″. I don’t like this layout so much. It looked much better in my mind, and looking at the completed result does nothing for me. I may do this one over. The stamp is from Studio Calico. I never would have thought I would use it, but it seemed appropriate here.

What I’ve noticed (this is part of an on-going process of self-improvement) is that 1.) I always have to stamp a date on the back of the layout. For some reason, I find it important to know when I created the page since it often times is far different from when the experience actually took place. I do recommend doing this; you never know when you look back on things like this and say to yourself, “when did I do that?” Or, maybe I’m just being anal. Whatever. I also notice that 2.) I am working much quicker than I used to, and the jury is out as to whether that is a good or bad thing. I used to spend an entire day putting together one, maybe two, layouts. Now I do one in 30 minutes or less, sometimes on the same day the event has taken place. I like that I’m not devoting so much time to one or two pages, but does that mean I’m getting sloppy? Judging by the second layout above, I would say yes.  I’ve also notice that 3.) I have way too many products to purchase new things for each new layout. I’m just using what I already have on hand. If I don’t have it, find something else in the overgrown stash.That’s it.  4.) I have started using more photos that I’ve taken with my phone instead of hauling out my camera for every little thing. It seems to be faster, as well.  Last, but not least, 5.) I have noticed that it is about time to start a new album. The current one, which I began in January, is getting pretty darn full. I like that! So this will be album 1 for 2011 (Jan-May), and on June 1 I’ll begin #2 for June-Dec. Or should I wait until July? I’m still learning and figuring out things. 6.)And I’ve noticed that, too.