My Latest Pages

Here are my latest pages. I've scrapped a lot of doubles this month as well as a few "art journal" type pages.

Bold Double Templates
In the Forest by Scrap Orchard Designers

I'm trying to finish up my 2012 album. I was on a roll with these double pagers, but I still have a way to go to finish up my 2012 album.

Bold Double Templates
A Day Out by the Scrap Orchard Designers

Bold Double Templates
Kit by Bella Gypsy Designs

These two pages (the above and below) make me so happy! Actually, most of my pages make me happy but there was just so much joy those first few days we were all together.

Bold Double Templates
Delightful by Designs by Megan Turndige

 And a special 1 year later page. This one also makes me very happy.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 10
Hard Candy Alpha and Happy Travels by Tickled Pink Studio
Celebrate Everything by Bella Gypsy Designs

I did a little something different with this page. Sometimes I like to change up my clean, simple way of scrapping and do a little something fun with my photos. I just knew I needed to scrap this photo I took of my daughter's drawing a little bit differently than my normal way. I love how it turned out.

Make It Snappy October Templates (available in my store soon!)
I Heart Dad by Big Dream Designs 

More 2012 photos. I love that I was able to include so many photos on one page. It really encompasses our weekend away.

October Template on the Scrap Orchard Blog
Spunky Chick by Laura Banasiak Designs

 Then a sweet family photo page. These pictures were taken in 2012....still have to fix that date!

October Template Challenge in my SwL Group
All Organic by Sugary Fancy Designs

We had a lot of special moments in our household in the last few months. Whenever I have journaling that tells a story or conveys more of my emotions I like to put it on more of an "art journal" type page.

Artsy Journal Templates 3
Mr. Little Man by Sugary Fancy Designs

Artsy Journal Templates 3
Be True by Tracie Stroud Designs

Artsy Journal Templates 3
Sorrow by Tracie Stroud Designs

So, there are the latest pages I've scrapped. How are you doing with your scrapping this year?
-Liz

Art Journal Page: Why We Chose International

Artsy Journal Templates 3
Sorrow by Tracie Stroud Designs

Since starting our adoption journey, I’ve been asked several times why we chose international adoption over domestic adoption. Sometimes it's friends asking this question (in earnest) and sometimes it's skeptics. I can get very....hmmm, passionate about this question. I want to say, "A child is a child no matter where they are!"

I decided to make a digital Art Journal page about how we chose international adoption. I always like to Art Journal about things I'm passionate about. It helps me to get my emotions down on paper. I'm not much of a writer so I think that the creative process of making the Art Journal page really adds to the emotions I'm trying convey in my writing.

Here is the journaling from my page:

How We Chose International Adoption:

When we started our adoption journey we researched….we researched a lot, but mostly focused on domestic adoption. We even signed up to go to a Domestic Adoption Seminar. Through our research, we found that there are actually more people waiting to adopt domestically than internationally. There are also more restrictions put on families who already have bio-children. Regardless, we were still going to go to the seminar. The seminar was about 3 hours away. We made arrangements for a babysitter and even reserved a hotel room….we might as well make a nice getaway out of it! The week before the seminar we found out that something fell through with the domestic part of the seminar, and they were going to have an international agency there instead. We already had the babysitter and the hotel, why not!? Well, of course, after going we became very open to international adoption. Honestly, we just wanted to give an orphaned child a home and a family. Through this turn of events (which we believe was totally God ordained), we started our journey to adopt from China.

I love my husband’s saying when we discuss this question, “Where do your borders lie?” Personally, my love for orphaned children does not stop at the United States border but extends to all corners of the world.

That is our story. I'm sure everyone's stories are different. 

Here are some statistics we found during our research. It is heartbreaking.

-There are over 400,000 children in the United States living without families in temporary foster homes. 115,000 of these children are eligible for adoption.

-Around the world, there are 153 million orphans. 17,900,000 of those orphans have lost BOTH of their parents and are living in orphanages or on the streets.

No matter how you look at it all of these children need a home...no matter where they are.
There is definitely much more I could say on the matter but I'll stop there.

-Liz

P.S. If you want to read a little bit more about domestic vs. international adoption I think this blog post is very informative. 

Journal Card Inspiration

There has been a new trend in the digital scrapbook (and traditional scrapbook) world the last year or so. Have you heard of pocket scrapping, journal cards, or Project Life? I love journal cards but I don't use them in the traditional Project Life way. I thought I would show you some different ways to use all of those fabulous journal cards you see out there. 

Let's get started. A

On this page I used a journal card in place of a photo.

There was a spot here for a paper and some journaling. I just added a cute journal card.

 I just slipped some journal cards under the frame here. It added a great title and a place for some journaling.

 I used an InstaLife Card on this page. The square one worked perfectly in the photo spot.

I added a journal card here where the journaling was placed on the template.

 This template had the perfect spot for a journal card.

My Creative Team also likes to use them. Here are some of the pages they made using Journal Cards. Can you spot them all?

by Tiffany

by Tiffany

By Jenn

By Tracy

By Tracy

By Tracy

By Christine

By Donna

By Donna

Take those Journal Cards and add them to photo spots, journaling spots, or a paper spot on a template. There are lots of different things you can do with these cards.

-Liz

1 Year Later

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 10
Hard Candy Alpha and Happy Travels by Tickled Pink Studio
Celebrate Everything by Bella Gypsy Designs

Journaling:

The first picture is from the night we were finally home, together with Lydia. The second one was taken exactly a year later.....it was the best shot I got! But I love that it shows Lydia smiling and fitting right in. She’s sure been a joy & a blessing to our family.

I like that this page just shows a snapshot of how the girls have grown in the last year. I think I'm going to journal a more detailed page of how much Lydia has grown the first year with us....look for that one soon.

-Liz

We All Make Typos

Have you ever made a typo on your digital scrapbook page? No fear, I'm afraid we've all done it and I'm here to make you not feel so bad.

After I finished the above page and posted it on facebook I realized I had the date wrong (it's supposed to say 2012). While I would like to think I'm that caught up (scrapping photos the same month they are taken), I'm nowhere near that point. It seems to happen that most of the time I don't notice mistakes on my pages until I've posted them somewhere:  facebook, gallery, blog, etc... Sometimes I don't even notice until I have my pages printed...or my school teacher sister looks through them and points out all my spelling and grammar errors. Thanks sis.

One time I even had the layout printed as a big ol' poster for a gift. I did a blog post with pics of it and everything. I didn't even see the typo until the person to whom I'd given it pointed it out. Nice.

Do you see it? Apparently, I'm living 90 years in the future.

Check out the VERY FIRST page in Lydia's album. Not kidding. The very first thing I noticed when I opened the book was a spelling error, it stood out like a sore thumb. I misspelled accepted and spelled it excepted. Lovely. I took a pen and fixed it....well, sort of.

Then on this page in my 2011 album, I typed the wrong person's name. It should say Nathaniel, not Zach. When his mom saw this page she pointed it out to me.  Oh well, it's already printed. There's nothing I can really do except (see I used the word correctly here) make fun of myself.

Here on another page, I typed the wrong whether. Apparently, according to the online version of Merriam-Webster Dictionary, that spelling means a castrated male goat. Ugh! I think I might have to take a pen to that page as well.

And just to prove that I'm not the only one who makes mistakes my Creative Team shared with me some of their big boo-boos.

Here's a page by Jenn. Can you spot the mistake?

This page is from Donna. She's from Pennsylvania....and she promises that she knows how to spell it correctly.

This page is from Tiff. Can you spot the letter she left out?

So, don't feel bad if you've made a mistake on your page and it's already printed. We all make mistakes. It gives us something to talk about....and perhaps laugh about. There you go, you're making more memories!

-Liz