National Scrapbook Day: Before, During, and After

Along with all the scrapbook challenges, there were dozens of games going on during the National Scrapbook Day event at A Cherry on Top. I played along with most of them. Not only was it a lot of fun, but I won a prize for one of them! I also won a bunch of Cherry Points. 

One of the games asked us to take three sets of pictures of our workspaces: before the challenges started, in the middle of the action, and at the end of the weekend. I thought it would be fun to share those photos with you. 

I always do a thorough cleanup before NSD. Here's my scraproom the day before the event started. 

My desk pretty much never looks like this. 

Here's what my room looked like in the middle of the day on Saturday after I'd been scrapping for a day and a half. There are in-progress layouts on the desk to the right of the door and on the counter under the window. There are two groups of layouts on the floor. The ones are the far right are done and ready to be scanned. The ones to the left are ones I started for specific challenges but hadn't finished. There are piles of paper on the floor behind my chair. 

This is closer to what my desk usually looks like. In the photo, you'll see piles of sticker books, rub-on packs, paper scraps, and the first stages of the layout about our bonded buns. That little notebook between my paper trimmers and the layout is what I use to record the supplies I use on each page. I've used the same system since 2008. 

I took this picture on Sunday afternoon. All of the completed layouts are off the floor, scanned, and in albums. One incomplete layout is on the floor, because I still hoped to finish it for a challenge (yet it's still not done now, 2+ weeks later). The in-progress layouts that were under the window are now piled on top of the remaining ones on the desk to the right of the door. There are still papers on the floor, but fewer than before. 

This year, I did a really good job of cleaning up between projects, so there wasn't too much on my desk in the after photo. That's the layout about Picnic Day. I'd pulled a bunch of different yellow and blues papers, which you can see underneath the stack of photos. No green papers - I hadn't decided yet to use green on the layout.  

I'm glad this NSD game inspired me to photograph my work area, as that's something I rarely do. I'm also thinking that taking photos I knew people would see might be what led me to do a better job cleaning up between projects than I usually do. Win-win!

National Scrapbook Day 2025

Saturday was National Scrapbook Day. It's literally my favorite day of the year. I love all the challenges, competitions, games, giveaways, and inspiration. I love hanging out (online) with other scrapbookers who love the holiday as much as I do. 

Last year, I discovered the amazing National Scrapbook Day event hosted by A Cherry On Top. I had a great time, so that's where I celebrated again this year. 

 

The event itself was Friday through Sunday, but the fun is still going on. There are approximately 60 scrapbook challenges and most don't close until May 18. I love that there are so many challenges, as it lets me skip the ones that don't appeal to me and focus on the ones that excite me the most. 

And speaking of exciting, I've had so much fun with all the games this past weekend! I loved all the trivia, word puzzles, riddles, gallery and store searches, guessing games, scavenger hunts, and icebreaker activities. It's a good thing the challenges don't close for two weeks, because I spent a big part of the weekend on all the fun games! I did manage to finish seven layouts; I'll be back tomorrow to show you the first. 

Scrapping Brayden's Adoption Announcement

I had so much fun scrapping Brayden's adoption announcement. I'm so excited that he's officially a deRosier now. This page was inspired by the National Scrapbook Day Shape Layout Challenge. 

Brayden's Adoption (affiliate link)

For this challenge, we had to pick a number (1, 2, or 3) and a letter (A, B, or C). After making a choice (mine was 2C), we found out what those meant. Anyone who picked the number one would be making a layout with hexagons. Number 2 was hearts and number 3 was triangles. I thought that was that, but no! The letter determined which of three layouts for each shape you needed to scraplift. That's different! I scrolled down and discovered that my inspiration needed to come from this gorgeous page (unfortunately, I don't know who made it): 

My page is quite a bit different than this one, but I'm hoping you can see the inspiration. I have a single photo on a large heart. The heart is cut apart (mine is cut in half instead of in strips) and sprinkled with hearts (instead of flowers and butterflies). I took inspiration from the scallop-edge trim to the right of the photo and moved it to the left on my page. That layout has a 'love' script die-cut in grey; mine has a  'family' script die-cut in grey. I used vellum for all the hearts and put vellum flowers on the ends of the script; this was inspired by the overall vibe of the layout.

This was such a fun challenge to do. It really made me think. I'm pleased with how I adapted a romantic, pastel wedding layout to an orange rabbit adoption layout. (Orange layout, not orange rabbit. Should I hyphenate rabbit-adoption to make it more clear? English is weird.)

Welcome to the family, Brayden! We love you and are so glad to be your forever family. 

Washi Tape Card

I own a lot of washi tape, so I was really happy to see the It's a Wash Out challenge on National Scrapbook Day. Washi tape is great for so many things, including making backgrounds for cards.   

Another Year Older Card (affiliate link)

The blue paper, the sticker, and the sequins are the only things on the card that aren't washi tape. I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Who is another year older and wiser today? My dad is celebrating 76 today! I would love to be there in person to join the celebration, but I'm there in spirit. Happy birthday, Dad! I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait to see you in July. 

Very Cherry Color Palette Challenge

The Very Cherry Color Palette Challenge asked us to make something inspired by one of six gorgeous cherry-themed palettes: Cherry Blossom, Cherry Pie, Cherry Cabinets, Cherry Tomatoes, Cherry Limeade, and A Cherry on Top. Guess which I chose! 

Cherry Color Palette (affiliate link)

The answer, of course, is Cherry Limeade! As you can see, I used the darker red plus two of the greens to make my card. The punched circle was inspired by the cherry itself. 

We were allowed to use a single neutral (in my case, white) but very sparingly. I had to fight the temptation to add more. I could have put a strip of white behind the red washi tape so that the dots ended up white instead of green, but putting it directly on the pale green was more in line with the spirit of the assignment. This was a really fun challenge that pushed me creatively. I love that.

Neighborhood Lawnmowers

I love where we live. Our neighborhood backs up to beautiful hills, green and covered with wildflowers in the late winter and spring, golden in the summer and fall. I love everything about our hills when they're green, but with the gold comes significant fire risk. When I first moved to this area 20+ years ago, city workers would come through and mow the hills regularly. A few years later, they started grazing cattle on the hills. The cows do a good job of keeping the grasses in check. 

This year, we had an especially wet winter and the grasses grew like crazy. We were delighted to see the ranchers dropping off a large flock of sheep, who got right to work. The sheep grazed on one hill for a few days, then the ranchers moved the fences so the sheep could chow down on the next hillside. It took about two weeks for the sheep to mow our hills. I loved walking by to see their progress. 

Neighborhood Lawnmower (affiliate link)

This page was inspired by the "All right, Mr. Demille I'm Ready for my close-up" Layout Challenge for National Scrapbook Day. There was only a single requirement: there must be a close-up photo. When I looked through my unscrapped printed photos, the only close-up I found was of this sheep. I fussy-cut around the sheep, then layered that photo over the photo of the hillside covered in sheep. I love the way the black space between the two pictures puts all the focus on that one particular neighborhood lawnmower. Another fun National Scrapbook Day challenge completed!

#Thwarted (A Story of Bunnyproofing)

This layout about bunnyproofing is a great example of something I never would have made without the challenge prompt. The Blowing Bubbles Challenge required us to make a layout with only round elements. I don't use circles often in scrapbooking, and I'm certain that I've never made a page with nothing but circles. This was such a fun challenge and really pushed me to make something different. 

 

#Thwarted (affiliate link)

We've had a baby gate at the top of our stairs since just after Trevor was born almost 18 years ago. We kept the gate closed briefly when he was crawling and then toddling, but he was such a cautious, rule-following child that we didn't need to close it for long. When Trevor was five, we adopted Trouble and the baby gate went into use full-time. Eventually, Trouble earned upstairs privileges. The gate remained open except when we traveled and reduced Trouble's territory to make it easier on the bunnysitter. 

When we welcomed Brayden into our home, he didn't even know how to use stairs. He was much, much more cautious than Trouble (who had immediately claimed the entire house as his own) and barely left a small area of the living room. So the gate stayed open. 

But Brayden was a quick learner, mastered the stairs, and became extremely interested in exploring the upstairs, which is entirely carpeted. Brayden doesn't like the slippery hardwood we have downstairs, so he's particularly fond of playing upstairs. Unfortunately, he is also fond of chewing the door frames upstairs when he's unsupervised, so the gate had to stay closed. 

But rabbits are nothing if not determined. Brayden, a 3-pound rabbit, figured out that he could just barely squeeze through the 2-inch gaps in the baby gate that kept 6-pound Trouble out. So Steve used a piece of plexiglass to cover the gaps. And with that, Brayden was thwarted. 

For now, anyway. 

Celebrating 52 in Chinatown

This layout, about celebrating my 52nd birthday with a food tour in San Francisco's Chinatown, is a great example of why I love challenges so much. I chose practically every element because of the Mixed Manufacturer Layout Challenge from the National Scrapbook Day event at A Cherry on Top. In this challenge, we had to make a page with items from at least ten different manufacturers. And there's a twist - you also have to use one item you can't buy at a craft store. Can you spot that item?  

Celebrating 52 in Chinatown (affiliate link)

If you guessed the dark orange flower, you're right! I made it to coordinate with the two flower stickers. The rest of the items are: 

1. Bazzill - gold cardstock
2. Scenic Route - red patterned papers
3. Echo Park - birthday lion sticker
4. Jillibean Soup - present and 'One Year Older' die cuts
5. BasicGrey - large orange flower sticker
6. PhotoPlay - small yellow flower sticker
7. We R Memory Keepers - gold washi tape
8. Bella Blvd - 'adventure' sticker
9. Me and My Big Ideas - tiny 'love' sticker, 'birthday' sticker, cake sticker, 'Now' sticker
10. American Crafts - numbers

Technically, I also used four more manufacturers. I cut the papers and homemade flower with my Fiskars trimmer and scissors. I colored the homemade flower with Ohuhu markers and I adhered everything with a Tombow tape runner. For the journaling, I used a Zig pen. 

I'm really happy with how this page came out. It has a lot of elements on it, but ultimately it is still my clean and simple style. What a fun challenge!

Perfectly Imperfect Lionhead

My favorite day of the year, National Scrapbook Day, was on Saturday. As always, I spent the whole day scrapbooking, completing challenges, playing games, and chatting with friends. It was so much fun!

I'd heard that A Cherry on Top puts on a great NSD crop, so that's what I did this year. Oh my gosh, it was incredible! There were so many different and creative challenges and games. If I counted correctly, they had SIXTY challenges. And dozens of games. It was almost overwhelming how much was going on. But what a fantastic problem to have! The challenges were the perfect difficulty level for me and I love what I created. And the prizes! ACOT will be awarding 100 prizes once the challenges close. (Most of them are open until May 19 if you want to join in.)

I'll be sharing the projects I made over the next few weeks. Today's is about Brayden and I made it for the Cinco de Mayo Pick Five Challenge. We had to pick five items from a list of 12 to include on our page. I chose: only one picture; white title; punch (the heart); decorative edge scissors (on the right); and grid design paper.

Perfectly Imperfect Lionhead (affiliate link)

Brayden is a lionhead rabbit, meaning he has a mane like a lion. When we first started fostering him, he was 10.5 months old and just had the mohawk (and whispy "skirt" fluffs on each flank). Right around his first birthday, the rest of Brayden's mane came in. It's super cute, especially when he tosses it like a woman in a shampoo commercial. 

This picture doesn't show the sides of his mane all that well, but it does show that Brayden is brachycephalic. Dog breeds like pugs or French bulldogs are prone to health issues because of the shortened skull; similarly, brachycephalic rabbits can face health issues, usually respiratory or dental. So far, thankfully, Brayden has been perfectly healthy. 

I am strongly opposed to selective breeding to create designer animals with these health risks. Worse, breeders' attempts to meet a breed standard means that any imperfect specimens are rejected. That can mean different things, ranging from bad (selling them as pets when there are already countless domestic rabbits without loving homes) to much, much worse. I don't know the circumstances behind Brayden's birth, but it's possible he's one of the thousands and thousands of lionheads who are intentionally bred and then rejected based on a single physical flaw. It's very upsetting. 

I titled this layout Perfectly Imperfect Lionhead. Brayden is perfectly imperfect. And we love him just the way he is. 

Trevor's Eagle Project, Documented

I blogged about Trevor's Eagle project right away, but now it's finally in the album 13 months later. 

 

Trevor's Eagle Project (affiliate link)

I really struggled with this page. I wanted to show a lot of pictures of Trevor's two workdays, but I also wanted to include the before and after photos from the installation. That meant a double-pager. Once I finally got the photos the way I liked them, I went back and forth with the colors. I switched out the papers countless times before settling on the khaki with a small black border for the photos and the green patterned paper as a background. It took awhile to figure out how to do the title. I added the journaling and thought I was done. 

At the last minute, I decided there was too much empty green space. I added the 12 flags along the left that list the points of the Scout law. I liked the way it looked and decided the layout was definitely done. I scanned the page and put it in the album.

I liked it in the album, but when I saw it on my monitor, it looked really unbalanced. I added the 7 Scout ranks on the right and I'm much happier with the page. 

Silly Peafowl!

We have a colony of approximately 200 peafowl that live near our neighborhood. We usually see a few in people's front yards or on the sidewalks when we drive by, but it's rare to see more than a handful at a time. If you go looking for them at the 6-acre nature center where they're actually supposed to stay, you're lucky to find more than a dozen roosting in trees, foraging on the ground, or otherwise hanging out. 

There was light rain on one of Trevor's first days of driving practice. I suggested he drive us by the peafowl property to see if we could spot any in the rain. They weren't at the nature center; instead, they were crowded onto neighboring porches and eaves, sheltered from the rain!

Silly Peafowl! (affiliate link)

I had Trevor stop so I could take some pictures. It was so funny seeing dozens of them all packed like that when they normally don't hang out in large groups. It was equally funny that a few of the peafowl perched on the roofs, just getting wet! There's always a kid in every class (and always a boy) that intentionally stands under the downspout at school on a rainy day; apparently, there are peacocks like that too. Silly peafowl!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

This is a layout I've been wanting to make for a long time and I'm super happy with it. I like seeing 30 of my favorite things all on one page. 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things (affiliate link)

I did not take all of those photographs, nor did I steal them. PicMonkey has an enormous library of Shutterstock images I can use with my subscription. I opened a 6x4 collage, set the spacing to zero, searched for the photos I wanted, and dragged them into place. I repeated that four more times, giving me five photos to print, each with six items on them. Once I had my prints, I adhered them to a 12x12 background, then used a 6x4 journaling card to hold my title. 

I'm strongly considering making a companion page with a few of my least favorite things. I think that would be a lot of fun, too. If I do, this will be #1 on the list. 

CHA / AFCI

This is the second of two layouts I made for a BYSS challenge on National Scrapbook Day. As I'm sure you can tell, this one really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Nothing about this page is something I would usually make. 

CHA / AFCI (affiliate link)

The challenge was to use three different stencils and three different inks to create a background for a layout. I'd decided my page was going to include a waterfall of my 7 badges from CHA / AFCI trade shows I attended over the years, so I used the badges for my color inspiration. I didn't really think through the fact that most of the badges wouldn't be showing!

Here's my stenciled background before I added anything on top: 

I started by adhering my 2011 badge directly to the page, then used washi tape to attach the 2015 badge slightly above the 2011. I continued adding 2016-2020. I added a photo of myself next to the stack, then used letter stickers to spell CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) and AFCI (Association for Creative Industries).  

I didn't plan out my journaling at all. I just started making bullet points about my experiences at the shows: 7 shows in person plus one online; my changing section membership; 2 years as a Creator VIP; show locations (LA, Anaheim, Phoenix); etc. 

I don't love this page and that's ok. I made it purely to try something different, which makes it a success.

I have three more pages to share from National Scrapbook Day, but I'll be interspersing them with other projects I've been doing. Tomorrow is an animal craft. 

Celebrate 51 - Making a Franken Page

I mentioned that two of the seven scrapbook pages I completed on National Scrapbook Day were for challenges at Bash Your Scrapbook Stash. This is one of them. Can you guess what the challenge requirement was? 

Celebrate 51 (affiliate link)

If you guessed that we had to use random scraps to create a background (called a Franken Page) and then use that for a layout, you are correct! It probably wasn't hard to guess, as that's the only element of the page that is out of the ordinary for me. We were expressly forbidden from making a grid, which would have been my natural inclination. Oh, how I love a grid! 

I made this page to document celebrating my 51st birthday with Sheena and Jennifer. My color palette for this page was inspired by the dessert plate. It was easier than I expected to make a haphazard background that I actually liked using nothing but scraps. Here it is before I trimmed the edges to make them even. 

As is almost always the case with challenges, this pushed me outside my comfort zone. But I still found a way to make it work with my style. I could see doing a Franken Page again. 

Scrapping Our 12-Hour Vacation to Nowhere

The second page I made on National Scrapbook Day was this one, documenting our 12-hour vacation to nowhere on Christmas Day. 

12 Hour Vacation to Nowhere (affiliate link)

The whole situation was super annoying at the time, obviously, but it was a really fun layout to make. I chose seven photos: a screenshot of Trevor on the news; the board showing our delayed flight; Steve impatiently waiting in the line from hell to Baggage Services; tons of unclaimed baggage; a screenshot from the Southwest app when our flight was finally canceled; Christmas dinner at Panda Express; and a picture of my suitcase when it finally arrived. I added the newspaper headline from Dec. 26 onto the photo of the all the baggage. 

I went all in with the Christmas paper, borders, and sticker. Waiting 12 hours to go nowhere would be lousy any day of the year, but for that to be the way we celebrated Christmas really adds insult to injury. I picked word stickers like "blah" and "done and done" to line the edges. I had fun with the title too. I'd originally planned to call this the 12-Hour Trip to Nowhere, like I'd titled the blog post, but when I came upon the red 'Vacation' die cut, it struck me as funny how festive it looks on this page about a really bad day. 

(Outdoor) Adventure Documented

Saturday was National Scrapbook Day, my favorite day of the year. While you non-scrappers were doing things like watching the coronation of King Charles or rooting your favorite horse to victory in the Kentucky Derby, I was making scrapbook layouts for 12 hours straight. I completed 7 layouts (two of which were for Bash Your Scrapbook Stash challenges) and nearly finished an 8th. I also watched all of the NSD classes at Scrapbook and Cards Today and checked in with my various scrapbook communities. 

This is the first page I made: 

(Outdoor) Adventure Documented (affiliate link)

Five of the photos are from the whitewater and kayak trip Trevor took with his Scout troop last September. The other two are from their rock climbing trip in December. Trevor earned the merit badges for all three skills, which is what prompted me to make this layout as a stand-alone, rather than mixing the photos in with October and November's monthly trips. I love that Trevor has gotten to try so many cool things through Scouting. 

I started by making a grid of the photos, then fussy cut the 'Adventure' title piece. My plan was to add the DOCUMENTED sticker underneath and have that be the title, but after I glued it down, I didn't like how much empty space there was above the tent. I found a cute kayak sticker, but it would look ridiculous floating above the tent. I didn't have anything else that could reasonably float above a tent, which left a word sticker as my best option. I chose OUTDOOR and I liked how it looked. 

Until I realized the rock climbing photos are indoors. Argh. It makes me twitch, but I decided to leave the sticker there. 

Hopefully this isn't a slippery slope for me. If ever you see me put "Best Day Ever!" on more than one layout, you'll know OUTDOOR was what started it all. 

Twos-Day (2/22/22 at 2:22)

Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day, one of my favorite days of the year. While I normally enter a bunch of challenges on NSD, this year I only did two. I spent the rest of my day making layouts without following challenge guidelines. I'll be sharing those pages with you over the next few weeks, interspersed with other posts.

The first layout I made on National Scrapbook Day was for the Paper Weaving Challenge at Bash Your Scrapbook Stash: 

Twos-Day (affiliate link)

I've never done weaving on a layout before and I really enjoyed it. I started with two sheets of striped patterned paper and a coordinating background paper that complemented my photo. I've had these papers for 15+ years and I hate them because of the wavy lines. If the stripes were straight, I might have used these papers 14+ years ago. 

I cut each paper into 1/2" strips, making sure no wavy lines appeared in my strips. Then I used washi tape to secure a row of twelve strips (each 12" x 1/2") to my desk. I cut the remaining strips in half to make them 6" x 1/2" and started weaving.

After I had a few strips woven, I was able to remove the washi tape and glue down the ends. I continued until the weaving was complete. 

I had two extra strips. I used one of them for the journaling on the layout, which tells what Trevor was doing at 2:22 on Tuesday 2/22/22. 

After I finished this page, I looked back at the two pages I made in 2011 when the calendar and clock were full of ones. When I photographed Trevor at 1:11 on 1/1/11 (age 4), he was drinking hot cider at the kitchen table after spending the morning with friends at Scandia's Clubhouse. As a four-year old, he attended preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; since 1/11 was a Tuesday, he didn't have school.

When I took pictures eleven months later at 11:11 on 11/11/11 (age 5), Trevor had the day off from kindergarten because of Veteran's Day. We had a trip coming up, so he was on his bedroom floor getting a jump on his Independent Study work. Oh, how I miss the days when his homework took 10 minutes a day and involved crayons!

At 2:22 on 2/22/22, Trevor (age 15) had the day off from 10th grade following Presidents Day. He had just come home from a 3-day Scout training and was completing the Spanish homework he hadn't been able to do over the weekend. 

It's quite a coincidence, and a blessing, that Trevor had the day off school for each of these. He would have been home from preschool before 1:11, but at 11:11 he would have been in his kindergarten class and at 2:22 I wouldn't have picked him up from high school yet. It's fun to have these little glimpses into everyday life.

Cousins at 12

The final challenge I completed on National Scrapbook Day, from Scrapbook and Cards Today, was the most difficult for me. At this point, I'd completed 10 layouts and had been scrapping all day long. The challenge was to make a layout using pink, orange, turquoise and white. I hadn't printed any photos that would work with those colors, so I dug through older pictures and came across my nephew's school photos. I chose the one from age 12, Trevor's age now (for another few days!), to do a comparison of the cousins at the same age.

Cousins at 12 (affiliate link)

I started with the striped paper that had all the required colors, plus green. I journaled in orange on white and lined that up with the photos. I added horizontal strips of cardstock in blue, pink, and orange, but I didn't like how it looked. When I pulled out the pink and replaced it with green, which is prominent in the background of Timothy's photo, I liked it a lot better. The layout is really plain, but I'm ok with that. With no competing elements, the focus stays on the photos. 

Trouble is 8

The National Scrapbook Day birthday challenge at Scrapbook and Cards Today seemed easy enough, but I didn't have any birthday photos printed. At least, not of the humans! I'd printed a photo of Trouble napping in his farm box, legs sticking out, that was taken right around his 8th birthday. I decided to use that photo to tell the story of how we've added rugs and runners on the hardwood floor to make it easier for our sweet bunny to hop.

Trouble is 8 (affiliate link)

Fun fact about rabbits: they don't have pads on the bottom of their feet, as Trouble is so kindly demonstrating in the picture. Because of this, most rabbits struggle on smooth floors; some refuse to go on them at all. Not Trouble. He didn't really care about slippery paws on the hardwood floor when he was younger, but he struggles now as he's aging. The rugs help enormously. He can hop from one to the next and goes out of his way to avoid the slippery floor. All the rugs and runners make it much harder to sweep/vacuum, plus they are not exactly enhancing our interior decor, but I don't care. It's a small price to pay for the furry member of our family as he enters his golden years.   

Alfredo Linguini

At first, I was stumped by the Scrapbook and Cards Today Disney challenge for National Scrapbook Day. I didn't have any printed photos from Disney trips and no untold stories. And then I realized that Pixar counts as Disney, and that I still needed to scrap the pictures of Trevor's Ratatouille-inspired Halloween costume. Woo hoo!

Alfredo Linguini (affiliate link)

I went with black and white only so as not to overwhelm the nighttime photo. The gingham paper suggests the checked pants that chefs often wear. I'm really happy with the idea to dot the final i in the title with a chef's hat sticker. 

Here's the tutorial in case you'd like to make your own Linguini and Remy costume. It's one of the easiest costumes I've ever done. 

Trevor will be 13 soon, so I don't know what his plans are going to be for Halloween this year. I hope he still dresses up, regardless of whatever he decides to do. We always have so much fun designing and making his costume together.