Simplifying my Scrapbook Page

While I haven't been doing a ton of scrapbooking lately, I've been trying to scrap some of last school year's photos.  That way I won't feel quite so overwhelmed when I start to print this school year's photos!  When I was looking at the pictures of the scrapbook pages, I noticed a common design thread running through these pages:  Grouping my photos into a block.  

There are a few reasons why I think that look works for me:

1. It takes the guesswork out of trying to position my pictures in just the right way.
2. I can fit a lot of pictures onto one page or a two page layout.
3. I use a lot of 4x6 uncropped pictures, and I don't like to overlap them very often.

Even though these two pages can stand on their own, they also work as a two page layout.

One more thing I used a lot on these photos and pages was a thin line of white paint to make the photos or paper stand out without cutting extra mats.  In the Pumpkin guts single page above I double matted the finished Jack-O-Lantern photo, but grouped the three related photos together with a single mat behind.

As you can see, the Halloween pictures were out that day!

I'm linking here!

Nauvoo Women's Retreat

This past weekend my mom treated Emily and I to the Nauvoo Women's Retreat. It was really wonderful and uplifting. We did not sign up for the first day's sessions since we travelled in that morning, hitting a couple of thrift stores on different towns on the way up. When we finally arrived, we met up with my sister Monie and my aunt Ramona. They were both involved in the Re-enactment of the first meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. I took the pictures she put on her blog post, so I'll steal them and add them here with a little more information.


This first picture is of Monie and the actors who portrayed Joseph and Emma Smith. They are married in real life, and were very nice. His name is Stewart Peterson. Does he look at all familiar? He didn't to me, either. But I have see him in movies before and didn't realize it. He was in Where the Red Fern Grows and Seven Alone , along with some others films, when he was young.

This is upstairs in the Red Brick Store, where the original meeting was held 167 years ago. Monie portrayed one of our ancestors, Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy, and had a small speaking part. They all look funny because they were in the middle of singing a song! Monie is in the middle, and Ramona is on the far right without the bonnet. She took hers off to give to a baby behind her to play with.

I'm going to have to blog about the retreat with several posts, since the presenters were so amazing! For a tiny little conference (about 150 women were there) I was so amazed at the wonderful speakers and talent who participated.

Go visit some others at Talk About Tuesday!

Birthday Bash on a Budget

We celebrated Joseph's 7th B-day last month, and he really wanted to invite a few of his friends over for a party. Andy gave him a new fishing pole as an early present, then Aunt Mellisa and Uncle Adam got him his own tackle box and gear, so we decided to have a fishing party! I made up some invitations using my circle punch and some cute paper, then printed out an invite to go inside. I also had some clear envelopes which make them so fun to send and receive!

Then, for the actual party day, I picked up Joe and his friends from school, and Dad, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, Uncle Ben and Uncle Adam took them all out to the neighbors pond to fish. Unfortunately, the fish weren't really biting that day.

The treat bags had individual bags of goldfish, some balloons and blow toys, and candy in them. I punched holes and strung the "fishing pole" swirly straws with the dangling fish on them. The fish were just funny shaped wooden pieces, and Joe painted them, then we finished them off with the names of the party-goers with a Sharpie.

Joe also wanted a fish shaped cake, so I took the idea from the grocery stores and made cupcakes, arranged them into the shape of a fish, then frosted them all as one. I used 24 cupcakes and 1 tub of frosting tinted orange, but the frosting was barely enough. I then used gel icing to detail some scales and cinnamon red hots to make the eye. Not real artful, but he liked the finished product! It worked great on my huge, blue platter.

Dinner was Bobbers and Worms (spaghetti and meatballs) with Rods (breadsticks) and cucumber salad and Jell-O Jigglers.

We used brightly colored paper plates and napkins, and not including the dinner, I spent less than $20.00. Not bad.