Bash Bowl 2023: Ravenclaw Pride

Unfortunately my team, Twisted Scissors, was slaughtered by the Scrappin Banshees in last week's Bash Bowl game. But that only makes me more motivated to contribute to my team this week. This is the first layout I made. 

Ravenclaw Pride (affiliate link)

This is the playbook for Week 2: 

This challenge wasn't quite as hard for me as last week's, mostly because there aren't any required lumpy items. It took some effort, but I did score a touchdown. The white/silver washi tape has staples (metal) holding it in place. There are a bunch of sequins, including some that are flower-shaped. (There's a "no double-dipping" rule, but this works because the flowers aren't the only sequins.) The hexagons are on the cardstock, using the same stencil/technique as on my Bumblebeast layout. (If I'd known hexagons were coming, I wouldn't have put the stencil away!) For the stamped images, I did 3rd generation stamping with white ink onto the background cardstock. I like that it's really subtle. 

About the layout itself: I've identified strongly as a Ravenclaw since I read the first Harry Potter around age 28. I'm still a big fan 25 years later. The transphobia of JK Rowling bothers me significantly; it also confuses me. She literally wrote the story that starts with a boy who is different than everyone else, doesn't know why, and isn't allowed to be who he really is. Vernon and Petunia try to suppress the wizard behaviors, but that doesn't change who Harry really is. Call me crazy, but I see parallels. Anyway, while JK Rowling is the author, the world of Harry Potter has become bigger than her and I'm a fan. Ravenclaw Proud! 

North Carolina 2022

The BYSS World Series is over and I'm happy to report that my team, the Scrappin' Banshees, swept it 3-0. The last game was really close, but we pulled it out! Now that it has ended, I'm back to my regular scrapping, at least until their next contest starts. 

First up, this page about our time in North Carolina in January. As is the case with most places we visit, we loved it and could have spent much more time exploring. There's always so much to see and do. I picked photos of some of our favorites to include on the layout. Steve and I are each on the page twice. Trevor appears four times. Can you spot them all? Look closely!

 

North Carolina

In putting together the layout, I started with this sticker set from Paper House Productions (affiliate link here and below) and built the color scheme around the title sticker. I layered that over a heart I cut from cardstock. I added Black Diamond Stickles to the state sticker, which I paired with the flag and the cardinal. 

North Carolina, we'll be back!

London 2019

I finished the final page from our 2019 Europe trip during the Victoria Marie online crop. Ta da!

London 2019 (affiliate link)

For this layout, I started with the photos (as always). I had a heck of a time choosing just a few pictures to represent the scope of what we did during our time in London. I prioritized the people pictures (and managed to include everyone except my dad) and then filled in as many other things as I could fit and still leave room for a title and journaling. I handwrite my journaling 99% of the time, but I opted to print it this time to fit everything in neatly. 

My favorite thing about this page is the sticker border along the bottom. I was inspired by Victoria's Spooky Border Challenge, which had us create a festive border on a layout. We were allowed to do non-Halloween themes, so this was the perfect chance for me to use a bunch of London stickers that Paper House Productions had sent me. I didn't plan it out; I just started putting stickers down and hoped for the best. I'm really happy with it. I'm going to remember this idea and use it again in the future. It's a great way to embellish a themed page without taking the focus away from the photos. 

I love that the whole trip is in the album now! It was such an epic vacation with so many great memories. 

The Making of Harry Potter

In April 2019, Trevor and I experienced The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros. Studio in London. It was absolutely incredible. We loved every minute. I'd go back in a heartbeat. 

The Making of Harry Potter (affiliate link)

As usual, I really struggled trying to decide which pictures to include on the scrapbook layout. I used 75+ photos for the blog post about the visit, so you can imagine how hard it was to narrow those down to the seven I used!

Once I picked my photos, the layout came together easily. I made my photo grid, constructed the title using three stickers, added a journaling box, and anchored the layout with the sticker strip across the bottom. The last touch was adding the Hufflepuff sticker next to Trevor and the Ravenclaw sticker by me. 

I'm so happy with this layout and thrilled to have it in the album. Only two more pages to go before I've finished scrapping our 2019 Europe trip. 

35 States (So Far!)

Our family's recent trip to Montana inspired this layout. Steve, Trevor, and I have now been to 35 of the 50 states. I marked each state we've visited with a red dot; the date is the first time Trevor visited that state. The blue dots are places we haven't been yet. 

35 States So Far (affiliate link)

We have approximately 2 years and 9 months to visit the remaining 15 states to meet our goal of taking Trevor to every state before he's 18. Several people have told me that we should get an extension on the goal since COVID kept us home for a year and 3 months, but I'm still hoping to meet our June 2024 deadline. I think it's still doable, assuming nothing crazy happens (like, say, a pandemic). 

Camping Adventure 2021

To prepare for the upcoming Scout summer camp that we're in charge of, our family did a one-night camping trip at the site back in May. We explored the campgrounds, brainstormed ideas and thought about logistics for camp, and took a ton of photos. 

Camping Adventure 2021 (affiliate link)

This layout came together very quickly because all my photos fit nicely in a grid. I adhered the pictures on the kraft paper, matted that, and put it on the plaid paper. To make the title, I layered seven stickers on top of an eighth sticker. I added two extra stickers in the top left and finished with journaling. 

Looking at these photos makes me even more excited for summer camp! The Scouts are going to have such a great time. 

What Happened When I Discovered My Initials Are an Airport Code

About 99.9% of the scrapbooking I do involves putting photos from special occasions, trips, or everyday life onto pretty paper, then adding detailed journaling to preserve my memories. This page falls into the 0.1% of layouts that don't. This layout has no photos, includes no journaling, and doesn't exist to document a memory. I made it solely to play with product and share something neat with you. 

Travel Goals (affiliate link)

As you know, every airport has a 3-letter code designation. Our family usually travels out of SFO (San Francisco) or SMF (Sacramento), and occasionally from OAK (Oakland). We've flown into some locations whose names were baffling at first, such as YYZ (Toronto), MSY (New Orleans), GEG (Spokane), and FCO (Rome). I recommend reading about the history and naming conventions of the AITA designators - it's interesting stuff.

On a whim, I looked up our initials to see if there is an airport matching each. Sure enough! My initials, CMJ, designate Qimei Airport in Taiwan. Steve's initials, SDD, are used for Lubango Mukanka Airport in southwestern Angola. Trevor's initials, TSD, match those of Tshipise Airport in the northernmost part of South Africa, just next to the Zimbabwean border.

To be perfectly honest, even though I titled the layout Travel Goals, none of these places are high on my travel bucket list. And if I were to visit them, I'd likely be flying into larger airports. Still, it's neat to think about visiting "our" airports some day. In the meantime, we have a much more realistic travel goal to accomplish and under 3 years to do so!

Mystery Hike, in the Album

Remember the Mystery Hike I made up for Trevor's Scout troop? After it was featured on the Bryan on Scouting blog, I heard from dozens of Scout leaders across the country who used my hike as inspiration for a mystery hike in their own communities. It was awesome to know that I helped get hundreds of kids outdoors and exploring their communities safely with their families. 

Mystery Hike (affiliate link)

Scouting wasn't meant to be done from home on a computer screen, but I applaud the Scouts and leaders who are making the best of the situation. We all look forward to the return to in-person Scouting eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

MCI-DEN-BOI

I've been struggling with how to scrap last summer's family reunion in Boise. I had enough photos for two pages, but they would be back-to-back rather than side-to-side once I put them in the album. So I wanted to treat the event as two 1-pagers instead of one 2-pager. 

I decided to cut down all of the activity photos to squares and set them aside for the second page. The first page would include our group photo. When I started digging through my travel product, I came across the "You Are Here" journaling card that happened to have Kansas City printed on it. We'd flown from Kansas City to Boise (via Denver) to attend the reunion, so I came up with the idea to fussy cut a Boise photo and use an arrow to connect the two cities.  

Kansas City to Boise (affiliate link)

I included just a single line of journaling to explain that we'd gone directly from our Missouri/Kansas trip to the reunion in Idaho in order to maximize our vacation days. The second page, with all the reunion activity photos, has lots of journaling. I'll share that page tomorrow. 

Nebraska 2017

I hope you all had a fun National Scrapbook Day! 

When I think back on all the traveling we've done over the past few years, a few trips stand out. Our June 2017 trip to Nebraska is one of them. Nebraska exceeded our expectations in every way. (Except the frequent thunderstorms and blistering heat. I'm not a fan of midwest weather.) We packed so much into our five days. There's no way I could have included everything we did onto one layout, but I did my best to pick photos that show the highlights.  

Nebraska 2017 (affiliate link)

I'm looking forward to when we can start traveling again, but in the meantime I'm really enjoying scrapbooking prior trips that hadn't made it into the albums yet. Fortunately, I have no shortage of trips that still need scrapping!

Well-Traveled (With All the Stickers to Prove It!)

This was one of the most fun layouts I've made in recent memory. I started with two photos from our travels (one from Delaware and one from Texas) showing Trevor with admission stickers to the places we'd visited those days all over his jacket. I added a title with a variety of stickers, then added die-cuts. I ended up using 8, which is easily double the number I've ever used on a single 12" x 12" layout before. The final touch was adding my journaling to the two lined die-cuts. I love how it all came together. 

Well-Traveled with All the Stickers to Prove It (affiliate link)

While I am eager to return to a time when it is safe to travel, being under a stay-at-home order makes me appreciate the travels we have done. What fun it has been to look at previous travel pages and make more to add to the albums!

Tuesday Lunch at the Segundo DC

During Trevor's Thanksgiving break, I took him to lunch at the Segundo Dining Commons. That's where I ate three meals a day during my time in the dorms at UC Davis. Actually, they've built a new facility and gussied up the place since my days there from 1990-1992. But it still brought back so many good memories. 

For Trevor, it was the chance to see a bit about what dorm life is like. The DC was not at all what he'd expected; the number of choices, the quality and variety of food, the options for restricted diets, and the sheer size of the facility all exceeded his expectations. He said he would be very happy to eat three meals a day there once he starts college! 

We had plans to meet friends and eat in the Tercero Dining Commons on campus (where Steve ate during his time in the dorms) but COVID-19 interfered and we had to cancel. We'll make it there eventually.   

Tuesday Lunch at Segundo DC (affiliate link)

Most of the stickers on this layout come from a football collection, of all things. I've been challenging myself to use (or give away) neglected supplies and I'm pleased with myself for using football-themed product on a page that has nothing to do with sports. 

Volunteering at the Food Bank

Today's layout is all about our work with our local Food Bank. Our family has supported the Food Bank financially and volunteered at the warehouse packing food frequently over the years. (I even held Steve's surprise 40th birthday party there!) 

Last September, Trevor began work on the Citizenship in the Community merit badge, which requires 8 hours of volunteer service to a charitable organization within the community. Of course, he chose the Food Bank. We worked three two-hour shifts in the warehouse bagging produce ("we" since volunteers under age 16 need a parent with them) and two 1.5 hour shifts distributing the produce. This was the first time we'd done distribution. We loved it so much that we have done a regular biweekly shift ever since! In October, we attended Empty Bowls for the first time and really enjoyed it. Empty Bowls will be an annual event for us now. 

Food Bank (affiliate link)

As I'm sure you can imagine, the Food Bank provides an essential service and is remaining open during the pandemic. More people than ever need food and the Food Bank needs healthy volunteers and financial donations to keep up their mission. You can donate or search through volunteer opportunities here.

I am taking California's stay-at-home mandate very seriously, but after careful consideration and learning about the policies the Food Bank has put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I did my regular food distribution shift last Friday. We had a record number of people come to get fresh produce. I am very glad I am able to help provide this essential service. We're all in this together. 

Family Faves, Fruit Edition

For a long time, I've wanted to make a layout comparing the foods that everyone in our family likes and dislikes. (Yes, of course Trouble is a member of the family.) When my friends at Paper House Productions sent me sheets of fruit stickers, I made this. 

Family Faves (affiliate link)

I started by digging through the bin of printed photos that I never scrapped to find a picture of each of us that I could cut into a square. Then I arranged the fruits in the proper places below the little thumbs up and thumbs down stickers. As you can see, all four of us are fans of apples, pears, and strawberries. (And pineapple, but that wasn't on the sticker sheet.)

I think this might be the first layout I've ever made that has 'journaling' in the form of stickers. I didn't write a single word on this page, yet there's a lot of information there. I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Bear Valley 2019

We spent a fantastic weekend in Bear Valley with Trevor's godparents back in July. I was really excited to scrap the trip because Paper House Productions had sent me the PERFECT paper to use with my photos. Check it out:

Bear Valley 2019 (affiliate link here and below)

I don't normally use papers like this "Call of the Wild" paper; it bugs me to cover up so much of the design with photos and I don't like the paper competing with the photos. But in this case, they complement each other beautifully. The title on the patterned paper didn't work for me, so I covered it up with the strip of brown and used it to house my journaling. The rice paper border helped ground the journaling. I put my own title in the upper right, then added a visual triangle of stickers as the final touch. 

Pisa 2019

I've completed another page about our April adventures in Europe. This layout is all about our day in Pisa. 

Pisa (affiliate link here and below)

I chose seven photos to use, only one of which included people. That's unusual for me - normally, I like to have more people pictures than scenery photos on a layout. But I had to work with what I had and we'd taken tons of photos of the architecture and almost no pictures of each other. 

I received two sets of Italy-themed stickers from Paper House Productions, which I combined with stickers from Reminisce and Simple Stories to embellish the page. But I didn't use them as is. Take this sheet of dimensional stickers, for example:

If you look carefully at my page, you'll see that I took apart the "Discover Rome" sticker and cut the background diamond to use in two different places. I layered "Buongiorno" to cover "la dolce" and tore "Ciao" off of "Bella" to use at the bottom of the page. As another example, I'm sure you noticed the Leaning Tower sticker. I couldn't make the sticker fit anywhere without covering things I didn't want covered... until I stuck behind the photo of our family. I had to chop off the top, but I like the way it draws the eye to the one and only people photo. I love the challenge of seeing how I can make embellishments work for me.

Harry Potter Travel Game Holder

In addition to their annual framed layouts, I made Harry Potter themed travel game holders for my goddaughters' birthdays. Paper House Productions sent me some adorable Harry Potter goodies (affiliate link here and throughout the post) and I couldn't wait to dive in and try them! I made a Hufflepuff tin for Ellia and a Griffindor for Kylinn. 

Inside each: a Magic deck, curated specifically for each girl by Trevor; Tant Fant, and the materials for a Native American stick game. There's plenty of room if they want to add dice, cards, or other game pieces. 

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Harry Potter Travel Game Holder

Materials:

• tin container 
• cardstock (black and gold)
• circle punch
• Tim Holtz label dies
• Harry Potter House stickers
• Harry Potter micro stickers
• Harry Potter washi tape
• strong red line tape

Steps:

Cut a strip of black cardstock the length of the lid. Apply red line tape and secure it in place. Punch a black circle and apply the desired house sticker to it. Use the dies to cut a label from gold cardstock. Attach the black circle to the center. Add narrow washi tape to the center of the black cardstock, then edge it with wider washi. Attach the label in the center. 

Obviously, you can change up the decorations any way you'd like. For Ellia's Hufflepuff tin, I put the narrow washi on both edges of the black cardstock, then added the wider washi below. I used a different label die and adhered it horizontally instead of vertically.  

Fill the tin with games (or collectibles, money, or anything else) and your gift is ready to give!

Too Close for Comfort

Last summer, we had a car accident on our way up to my inlaws' cabin in Bear Valley. A large piece of wood, the size and shape of a large cabinet door, came flying end-over-end from an oncoming truck. (Yes, oncoming.) Steve was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Trevor was in the back. There was no way to avoid being hit. One corner of the board slammed into the very front of the hood on the passenger side, then the second corner hit higher on the hood, and the third corner came through the windshield. The board stopped inches from my face. I was covered in glass, but because it was safety glass, I didn't have a single cut even though I had to pick out dozens of pellets of glass embedded in my arms and legs. CHP came promptly and we got towed to a nearby town. The friends who were scheduled to join us at the cabin later that day swung by to get us on the way up, so at least we had a great weekend after the horrible start.    

I scrapped about our fun at the cabin just a few months after the trip, but it took me a full year before I could print photos from the accident on the way there and scrap them. 

Much Too Close for Comfort (affiliate link)

I kept the layout very simple to let the photos (and my journaling) tell the story. The yellow stickers are from Discover the USA by Paper House Productions; the designer probably wasn't thinking of car accidents when she designed this road-trip themed collection, but it totally works. As difficult as it was to make, I'm very glad to have this layout in the album. 

Camp Emerald Bay

Last year, Trevor's Scout troop went to summer camp on Catalina Island at Camp Emerald Bay. They had a full day's drive and then spent the night on the USS Iowa before taking the ferry to the island. At camp, Trevor earned three merit badges (Environmental Science, Pioneering, and Mammal Study), tried ocean kayaking for the first time, and paddled a war canoe with his friends and spent the night on the beach. He had a great time. 

Camp Emerald Bay (affiliate link)

As usual, there were so many great pictures that I had a hard time narrowing them down for the layout. I ended up with 9 photos that best represent all that Trevor did. I made sure that all the Scouts in his troop were pictured. I adhered the photos to brown background paper, added a spot for journaling, and put the title in the open space in the scenery picture at the top left. Then I added all the cute stickers and embellishments from Paper House Productions' Great Outdoors collection. The layout was a bit top-heavy, so I added two strips of washi tape along the bottom to ground everything. If you look closely, you can see that I added the names of all the Scouts on the trip in the orange/white washi below the photo of the USS Iowa. I'm very happy with the finished layout. 

Iowa 2017

Another page with goodies from Paper House Productions! This is from our June 2017 trip to Iowa. 

Iowa 2017 (affiliate link)

After narrowing our Iowa photos down from hundreds to nine, I was left with a grid of pictures but no place for a title or journaling. My solution was to use the sky in the upper left photo for a title. I cut the heart sticker in half, centered it behind the "Discover" sticker, and added letter stickers to spell Iowa. I wrote the journaling on a piece of white cardstock I cut into an arrow shape, then layered it over the right center photo. I put the date below the bottom center to complete the visual triangle. It was missing something; the heart sticker on the upper right photo was the perfect finishing touch for this very simple, photo-heavy page.