Snippets of Scrapbooks

My niece has been here visiting for the past 3 weeks and is going home soon.  It's been fun having her here, even if we didn't do anything great or crazy.  The girls drug out the scrapbooks last week and had a fun time reminiscing about the old days.  Really, they talked about how everyone looked in the pictures, but it reminded me of why I scrapbook in the first place.  I want to keep those memories as fresh as I can for all of us!

This was our first time meeting our little Great-nephew.  (We called him Baby Junior)

We weren't very excited at all! : )  

{I included a smidge of doodling on this page; 

the tassels under the chevron paper and on the letter stickers}

First day of school from 2011.  

{I used paint and washi tape.   This was a quick page!  

The longest detail was cutting the watches from a sheet of paper.  

I think the watch paper is from Webster's Pages, and the other is from my stash. }

8th Grade promotion in 2012! 

{This and the next page are a little blurry, though.  Some is camera user error (I should be using a tripod) and some is camera error (the picture looked clear on the little screen!)}

First day of work at a candy store.  He worked at an awesome place over the summer!  

{I used a lot of Simple Stories papers on these last two pages.  Love them!!  The make putting together a page so easy, and I feel like I get lot of bang for my buck because they get used and not just stuck in with the rest of the stuff that collects dust.}

To make these pages even faster and easier, I used papers that did double duty; I cut details from them to use as easy embellishments on the page.  Adding a little bit of ink or paint around the edges of elements on the page is a quick way to get things to pop off the page, too.

I'm planning on doing a lot more scrapbooking this year.  It always seems like such a hassle to get everything out, but it should be worth it to me.  I'll make it worth it to me.  I'll even invite my children to help me, although I doubt any of them will take me up on it.  At least for any length of time.  And each page will be counted as one Drop of Awesome.  You have to read this post by Kathryn of Daring Young Mom! So worth reading!  Especially if you're having a bad day.