nsd.

yesterday i ignored everything i should have gotten done and spent the day scrapbooking since it was national scrapbook day. studio calico was hosting a bunch of challenges, so i used those as a little push to be creative.

the first layout i made was based on a sketch and was made with the joyland studio calico kit. this page was a struggle and didn't come out as i had envisioned, but that's ok. the first page is always the hardest for me. in other words, my energy of activation is pretty high for the first layout as i'm overcoming the energy barrier for creativity. i tried to use the sketch as a catalyst to speed things up, but it wasn't as effective as i'd hoped. yes. i'm a nerd. it's time for finals, so i'm in science mode. :]
the sketch called for three photos, but i substituted those little frames instead. i didn't think i would like those frames as much as i did... i may need to pick up another package because they are handy. you'll see more of them later in this post.
oh and for the record, when i showed james my layouts, he said this one was his favorite because it's about the softball tournament. i guess that just goes to show that even if a layout isn't my favorite, it's still nice to include it in an album. he likes my layouts more for the content, which i can appreciate.

the second layout was also made with the joyland kit and was for a challenge to scraplift yourself. the layout i lifted is in this post. lifting really helped me overcome the energy barrier. :] the original layout is still one of my favorites, and i think this one is right up there now too.
i knew i wanted to have more journaling than was on the original layout, so i added this text box. my photo was also larger, so instead of clustering my embellishments into a rectangle, i substituted the larger photo and added my embellishments elsewhere. and instead of machine stitching with no thread, i did some hand stitching with thread.
i made those little folded flowers because i've been seeing them a lot lately, and i think they are so cute. they definitely add lots of dimension to the page, so i might have to keep this one out of my album and find a frame or some other way to display it.
and i should also mention that the topic for the layout came about because i've been noticing some seriously lame titles and journaling going on here lately. haha. i'm trying to improve that, and this layout was a definite step in the right direction for me. it was fun to actually plan out my journaling and get some thoughts down about our relationship that haven't really been documented before... even if i did get the paula abdul song stuck in my head for a while as a result. ha!

i was going to put joyland away at this point, but i do like to try to get three layouts per kit, so i decided to make one more... that way if i don't get back around to joyland anytime soon i'll still have met my layout goal for the kit.
here are some more of those cool frames i used in the first layout. i had a lot of fun making little layers for each frame here and those little scrunched flowers are made out of tape from pink paislee that i also punched through as well. here's a tip: place decorative tape like this down on paper in order to punch it. i just used plain copy paper so it wouldn't get too thick for the punch. :]
again i tired to improve my title work and journaling here. my journaling isn't exactly profound, but it's better than some of my previous attempts.
the photo looks a little bit washed out in the photos of the layout, but it's actually one of my favorite photos. my dad took it as we were about to get on thunder mountain at disneyland. you can see the blur of the train arriving in the background, which was totally unplanned but looks pretty cool.

the fourth layout was for a challenge to scrapbook about your mom. i switched to the quilting bee kit and honeycomb add on at this point, but i used the sassafras glitter alphabet from joyland because it matched pretty well, and i love the smaller size of the letters.
my mom's favorite disney character is sorcerer mickey. i love this photo of her with victoria because she didn't know i was taking it, and i think it has that spontaneous look too it.

i used some blue mist here that matches mickey's hat really well in person. i have only two maya mist colors in my collection, so i was thrilled to have the perfect shade of blue.

the fifth layout is another one that i really like, but it did not photograph well at all. :/ it really does look better in person. it was for a challenge to scrapbook photos from your phone. these are ones that i've taken on campus recently. people tend to give me strange looks when i'm pointing my iphone at trees, but i'm starting to get used to it. i was actually planning to do a wordless wednesday post here with a bunch of these photos, but i never managed to get that done. oops!
you can barely see my journaling along the white borders of the photos, but it's there. :] and i'm happy that i came up with "campus in the spring" for my title after writing my journaling because before i wrote it, all i could come up with was "spring" or "springtime". haha.
i'm not 100% sure that i'm into the butterfly trend, but i'm trying to use them here and there. i don't mind them of this layout. i decided to keep them really neutral and just painted the bases black and left the tops in the natural chipboard color. i wanted the color of the blossoms to be the focal point, so i think it worked out well to keep the butterflies really simple. i added some stickpins though to give them just a little extra touch.

i was going to be finished with my national scrapbook day festivities after the fifth layout because it was time for dinner, but i wanted to complete the scrapbook your opposite style challenge. since i knew that minimalist would be a good option for my opposite, i had a feeling i could finish the layout pretty quickly. and i did. :]

i started by splattering some black paint onto to kraft cardstock... i couldn't just leave it completely untouched no matter how opposite i was trying to scrap. another tip i picked up somewhere along the way is to dilute the paint with water for best splattering results. next, i just cut out some of the doilies from the patterned paper using a craft knife and layered the centers using foam tape for a little dimension. the photo is another that i'd taken on my iphone. it was during the trip to apple hill last fall. i was feeling carsick in the backseat of joey's car, but trying to make the best of the trip anyway.

there was also a challenge to find inspiration from your tumblr account, so i used a quote that i saved a while back in my tumblr [which i haven't added to for a while, i realize] for the title. james came in while i was hurrying to finish and told me which letter was next since i was stamping the letters from right to left and had to keep thinking about what was next. he definitely sped up the stamping process.

i actually like the minimalist look quite a bit when i see other people doing it, so it was fun to give it a try. i'm pretty happy with my layout and based on how quickly i assembled it, i'm thinking i should give it a try more often!

all in all, i had a pretty productive scrapbooking day. maybe next year i'll be able to have some friends over to scrapbook or something more social, but my plans were definitely last minute this year.

in other news, my last anatomy practical went pretty well. i thought i got a perfect score, but it turns out i missed one question. i'm trying to figure out which one it could have been, but i'm thinking maybe i just had some misspellings. my mind kept going blank on spelling during the practical. now i just have my final exam in lecture on thursday, then i need to grade the last round of lab reports for my students before i head off to vallejo for my pharmacy school interview. eek! at least it will be summer afterwards. i'm looking forward to spending some time at the beach this year, since i didn't go to tahoe at all last year.

i still need to post photos from the softball tournament last weekend, so i'll try to do that soon. i hope everyone enjoyed the weekend! :]