Spring Cleaning...

It’s finally Spring, and while many people think about Spring Cleaning, I think more about Spring “Catching-Up.” Not so much in cleaning, but more in organizing, throwing away, planning for the rest of the year, etc. I’m doing the same thing with my scrapbooking too! I’ve pulled out some albums that were “almost done” and tried to find ways to finish them. To me, there’s nothing worse than pulling out an album to show someone and getting to the last page and finding a lone picture or a piece of scrap paper with notes on it for “when I get to it.” So my first two layouts are “Reflections of ‘07” which is the last page of our 2007 Family Album, and “Family Ties,” which is the last page of our 2008 Family Album.

Both layouts were created with the appropriately-titled Kaiser Craft “Reminiscing” line of papers. I love the muted beiges, browns and blues because they give my “current” layouts a touch of heritage, which will hopefully be meaningful in the years to come. Coupled with some coordinating Bazzill card stock, Marah Johnson (Creative Imagination) flower brads and fibers, American Crafts Thickers and ribbon, miscellaneous buttons, and a Hambly overlay frame, I put together two layouts in short order!

Although I usually hesitate to make a page with nothing but journaling, lately I’ve been inspired to write a lot, so the “Reflections” page, with it’s perfectly aligned lines was all the encouragement I needed to TALK about 2007 instead of just showing the pictures. I did that in the pages that preceded it, so once again, I opted to sacrifice art for the sake of the story! Next month, maybe I’ll find a way to combine the two.

Finally, this month I created two cards using the fabulous March Goodies Kit and some Stickles in “Waterfall.” The first is based on this month’s card sketch, and I made it for my mother’s Name Day—a holiday mostly celebrated in European countries or within Orthodox religions. It celebrates not the birth of the person, but rather the birth date of the saint whom the person was named after! Apparently, Saint Evangeline was born on March 25^th! The second is an anniversary card for my in-laws, who are celebrating 56 years!!!