First Ultrasound Appointment Layout

I tend to not put my scrapbooks together in any order. When I first have a set of pictures, I will go through and identify all the different layouts that I want to make with them and the general order for those layouts. I make those notes on a legal pad along with any initial thoughts I have about the embellishments and format for the layouts.

Then I pick something that jumps out and inspires me and start there. Because I generally (one current exception which I'll discuss later) use top loading, post bound scrapbooking albums, I can rearrange if needed to put the layouts in a different order.

Here is my first layout from the Baby C album. It is from our first ultrasound appointment.

The layout comes from a crop I went to with a lady who sells Close to My Heart (http://www.closetomyheart.com/). I usually build layouts around the pictures that are going into the layout but she builds the layout first and then picks the pictures later. It means that I have a bunch of layouts that I created with her that I am just waiting for the perfect pictures to pop up. I don't like to do it that way but it was a lot of fun getting together with other ladies who enjoy scrapbooking and I will eventually find a use for all the layouts that I created.

Since it was a Close to My Heart crop, all of the materials are Close to My Heart. I know that I need to get better at paying attention to all of the materials that I use on a layout if I am going to blog about it so I will work on that.  I also need to figure out how to get better shots of the layouts so that they have better color to them and you can see all the structural elements. I will work on that as well!

Scrapbook Escape

I love to scrapbook! I don't do it all that often and will probably do it even less when the baby comes but I love to do it! It helps take me away from whatever is happening and immerses me in happy past memories. I can lose hours when I'm sitting at my scrapbooking table.

I first scrapbooked in 1997 at the age of 13 after getting back from a missions' trip to Russia, Mongolia, China, and the Philippines. I had a ton of pictures and my mom found out about this group that was meeting to put together "fancy albums". I went with her to my first crop and had a lot of fun. The crop was put on by a lady who sold Creative Memories (http://www.creativememories.com/) so my first scrapbooking supplies were all from them.

I quickly got hooked and did my whole missions trip in a beautiful scrapbook. One of these days I'll have to pull it out and post the first layouts that I did. They definitely weren't not complex but they captured my teenage self and the trip well!

I think my next album was a Christmas album starting with my parents when they were little, going to their first Christmas together, and then moving up through each year. My mom was supposed to continue it but I think that it has been placed upon a shelf and only goes through the late 1990s.

I've since amassed a good bit of scrapbooking supplies (although my stash probably doesn't even begin to compare to some of yours!) and have been working on scrapbooks ever since.

Right now I am expecting our first baby, a little girl, in November 2011. My plan is to have the "pregnancy album" all up to date and finished before she comes so that I can do my best to keep up with the many, MANY pictures that we will make when she arrives! I know it is an ambitious goal!

I live out of the country and don't have anyone to share my scrapbooks with besides my husband. Although he loves them, he does what most non-scrapbookers do and misses the scrapbooking elements that I worked so hard on. I created this blog to give me a place to share my ideas and layouts, get new ideas of ways to make them even better, and have some place to show the world the memories that I have created.

Welcome to My Scrapbook Escape!