Some New Layouts and My Twins Announcement

I've been getting farther and farther behind in my scrapbooking. Having three children under the age of three and working full time leaves me with very little free time to do anything! But this week I just started scrapping every time I pump. Yes--I can scrapbook and pump at the same time! There's another reason why digital rocks! I managed to get about twelve layouts done! Hooray! Now I'm only about three layouts "behind" in each book. And that's THREE books I'm working on right now--one for my Year Six yearbook, which I am calling, "Year Six: Room 2 Grow" and then I have Scarlett's 1st year baby book, and Ripley's first year baby book. One thing I've noticed is that my style has changed a little bit from how it was in previous years. I am so busy with so little time that my pages have become a lot more straightforward and simple--lots of picures evenly placed, with minimal elements and "froo-froo." Anyway, I thought I'd share a few layouts from all three that I've done this week!

From Scarlett & Ripley's Books: With their books, I don't have time to scap them completely different. So I do one page for one baby, then re-do it for the other, changing the colors a bit, maybe swapping out a picture and updating the journaling where needed.

All of the above pages used a kit by Diane Rigdon--I am doing both books all with one kit.

And here are a few pages from my Year Six book:

In this one, I used the Diane Rigdon kit, Ma Bebe, that I am using for the twins' books. I use it in my Year Six book whenever I do a major page about the twins. All my maternity pages used this kit as well. So yeah, I'm going to be SO sick of this kit when I'm all done!

For this page, I used Lindsay Jane's Flower Power kit. I just love her kits. They are SO big and so diverse that you can use them for several layouts and not re-use anything. I love her glitter styles--I don't use styles much, but Lindsay Jane makes them for all her kits. You just load the style in your Style menu, and whatever layer you have selected takes that style. Very easy. That's how I did the glitter borders for all the pictures.

I always do a page each year about work. I think it's a huge part of your life that is easy to leave unaddressed in scrapbooks. The hard part is that there are rarely any pictures for work. I never have any of my husband at work, that's for sure. He works at a hospital. Luckily this year I had pictures from the baby shower my department threw me in May. For this page, I used the School Days kit by Aprilisa at Gottapixel. I also used several actions from Atomic Cupcake--the Med Torn Bottom Action, and the Sketch & Paint action--never used that one before. It's how I got the brown coloring along the top. Oh, and I also used the Distressed Edge action along the top. LOVE that action. And I made the teal ribbon all by myself! Go me!

I don't know why, but I just LOVE the way this page turned out. Sadly, I had issues saving it, and had to re-do it all again after I finished it! I was so mad! For this page, I used Connie Prince's Backyard BBQ kit. Wow. All these pages were made with kits from Gotta Pixel! I used a lot of actions on this page too--mainly the Folded Tear action--HIGHLY reccommend that one. I use it A LOT. And then I used the Cut Out action, which I have never used before and I love how it worked out. I did it on all the pictures--that's how I got the white border around each picture.

For these pages, I actually used my Ma Bebe kit from Dianne Rigdon, but I recolored it from red to peach so that it matched the hats and ribbons in the pictures. Here's an upclose shot of the announcement I made for my twins births--I can't BELIEVE I never posted it on this blog! My sister Nicki did such a FABULOUS job on the photography! Don't you love the little knitted hat? She made that, too!

It's Here! My 2010 Yearbook from Cherishbound!

There is nothing more exciting than getting that package in the mail that is your new scrapbook! I got mine a few days ago, and let me tell you, I was tracking it real closely on Fedex. I couldn't WAIT for it to arrive! Too bad the midwest storms made it two days late! The most exciting part is seeing the cover--seeing what it looks like all bound and glossy. Then I look inside and I think, "Oh yeah. I already have every page totally memorized." But I like to check for margins, making sure nothing was cut off (nothing was) and then I dread the spelling errors I missed--and unforutunately I DID miss some! Darn it!

In this post I talked a bit about how I organize my digital scrapbooks. I do one big yearbook for each year. Now if I were richer I'd get copies for each child and all that, but as each book costs $100+ to print, I don't. Though the nice thing is, I CAN if I ever win the lottery and can afford it! And I just have to say--yes, I suppose $100 or more is a lot to print a book--but not really. It's hard bound, glossy pages, 120 pages long--I'm not complaining. I think it would cost somewhere near that to print it yourself or at Costco, and it wouldn't look near as nice and neat.

My yearbook, like all my others, was printed at Cherishbound. Remember--if you would like to print your own books at Cherishbound, you can got to this post and click on the Cherishbound logo. That will allow you to sign up for their services without a consultant. I love Cherishbound. I find their books to be such high quality. I know that printing is one of the biggest questions people have about Digital Scrapbooking, so I took some more detailed pictures of my book in an attempt to really show you what it looks like and the kind of quality I'm talking about.

So what now? I am already feeling that pressure to start my 2011 book. Last year I don't think I started my 2010 book until about May or June. I get a little burned out I guess. But as I'm one of those lucky scrappers that actually CAUGHT UP I want to keep it that way! And come July, I will have twins and very little time to scrap anything! So, my goal is to have my 2011 book as up to date as possible before the twins get here. Because really, I'm making THREE books now. My 2011 yearbook, and then a baby book for each twin. Those, of course, won't be printed until the babies are a year old, but I try to keep up so that I don't forget everything! Even if I just keep a journal of what's going on and scrap it later. I think with the twins (did I mention I'm having TWO girls???)  they will each get their own book, but many of the pages will be exactly the same, or I'll just change them slightly for the name of each twin or something. And maybe I'll have a different kit for each twin, so that the page is scrapped exactly the same, but in different papers. I don't know! I haven't even officially chosen NAMES for my girls yet, and I'm already planning their scrapbooks? I am a true scrapper at heart, obviously. With Afton's book, I actually made my own kit. Now--I'm NOT a designer, but I knew enough to make a few simple papers and elements. I actually scanned in her baby blankets and stuff and used them as backgrounds. But with three little girls, I won't have time to do that again! Hope I can find really good kits for each twin this time!