Was anyone else in 4-H as a youth?

4-H was big when I was growing up in a small town in Wisconsin.  It was an important part of my life for many years, but unfortunately, I can't think of any photos that I have that would represent that time in my life other than the one in this layout:

The January Studio Calico kit, County Fair, couldn't have been more perfect for this layout.  The blue floral paper from Crate Paper is what made me think of this photo.  It reminded me of the color and pattern of the dress that I was wearing.  I looked over the rest of the kit and the gold cardstock, and the red and the green patterned paper were perfect coordinating colors.  The BasicGrey chipboard ribbon added a perfect touch!  I knew that I had the papers and embellishments for a great page, but I didn't really have any ideas.  I took a peek at the Sunday sketch from Studio Calico, and the page came together quickly after that!

I flipped the sketch on the side and used all stars instead of the circles.  I used much more confetti than there was on the original sketch - it was fun!  

I tried to find a 4-H symbol for the Silhouette, but there wasn't one.  I found one online and I actually figured out how to manipulate it in the Silhouette software to be able to cut it out.  

Journaling reads:

     4-H was such a big part of my life for many years.  I was a member of the Sunnyside Shamrock 4-H group from the time I was eligible to join in 4^th grade until I quit sometime in high school when I became too busy with other activities.  I served as President my sophomore year in high school and my mom and Nancy      Graese were the group leaders. 

     The St. Croix County Fair was always the highlight of the year.  I took projects in baking, sewing and for a year or two I showed rabbits.  I spent so much time at the fair!

     Our group had meetings once a month on Sunday nights and then we had a fun event about once a month.  This event was usually going to the sports center in Menomonie to swim or going roller-skating.  We would also go caroling at Christmas time. 

     I have very few photos that would represent the time that I spent in 4-H.  In this photo, I am on the left and Rhonda Aeschliman is in the photo with me.  Rhonda was a classmate of mine.  I don’t remember the event in particular, but we were in some way promoting the dairy industry or possibly the ‘real seal.’

     

                                    Journaling by Brenda

                                                 1-24-12

Have a great week everyone!

Bowling Layouts

My most recently completed layout was totally inspired by this retro bowling sign for the Silhouette. 

Love it!  My parents took the whole family out for pizza and bowling the day after Christmas, so I had some recent photos to work with.  I looked through the Studio Calico kits that I had and thought that the colors of an older kit, Summer Camp, would be perfect.  The strip of paper at the top even matched the stars from the Bowl sign.

The photos are four of my nieces and nephews that bowled that day.

Here's a close up of that BOWL sign.  I layered it over another Silhouette layered banner.  How fun is that!

I had created another bowling layout about a year or so ago and went to take a peek at it in my Studio Calico gallery.  I couldn't believe that I used the same kit for two different bowling layouts - how funny is that?  Here is the other layout:

Have a great week everyone!

Very Americana

I was thinking about what to post this week and I realized that the last three projects that I made were somewhat similar, so I thought that I would include them all in this post.  These three projects all had a vary Americana feel - red, white, and blue; stars; and gingham!

The first project is a layout that I created about my chance meeting with Warren Kimble.  My husband and I spent a summer weekend at our condo in Vermont and went for a drive on Saturday morning to find a fun  spot to have lunch.  We ended up in Brandon, VT and took a walk around the town.  We passed a Warren Kimble studio and I saw an older gentleman in the store.  I said - Craig, could that be THE Warren Kimble?  Is he still alive?  We looked it up on Craig's phone and sure enough, it was him working in the studio.

We went in and were surrounded by original artwork of one of the most famous American folk artists.  He had unique items that he had collected - say maybe an antique chair - that he had painted on.  He had some really unique pieces that we asked about and he explained the process of creating them to us.  He was so nice!

I didn't get a photo (even though my camera was hanging around my neck), but I did grab some business cards.  I used the business cards and a photo from the internet for my layout.

My next project is a card that I made using some of the product from the January 2012 Studio Calico kit. I wasn't crazy about the Basicgrey banners from the kit, but they were perfect for a card.

And my last project was a layout about my nieces who spent time at the ocean for the first time on their visit to see us in Massachusetts.  It was such a hot day - over 100 degrees that day!  

I used the December Studio Calico kit for the most part, but added a few bits from the November kit.

Have a great week everyone!

Paris mini album

I'm so excited that I finally finished my first ever mini album!  I had finished all of the pages before Christmas, but I hadn't started the journaling.  I bought the album at a scrapbook store in Paris and I decided that I was going to create the album of our trip there.  I knew that I would need more pages than the album had, so I decided that I would buy some postcards and type the journaling on the postcards and include those in the album.  I love the large postcards that I found and I think that they look great in the album.  I love that I was forced to do a lot of journaling (five post cards worth!) as I normally don't do a lot of journaling.  I kept the color scheme fairly neutral, using mostly Crate Paper's Portrait collection.

I used my brand new Silhouette Cameo for the Eiffel Tower, the map of France, and the 2011, and a few other items.  

Me in front of the scrapbook store!  I love that I found this store thanks to the Studio Calico message boards.  No matter what question you ask, someone can usually help you out.

I used a combination of black and white and color photos.  

I included a lot of ticket stubs, receipts and pamphlets.  The pamphlet for Notre-Dame was a horrible green color, so I scanned it and printed it on a neutral color.

The page on the left is probably my favorite page of the album.  I just made a grid of nine 2"X2" photos of some pieces of art from the Louvre.  So simple, yet I love the way it looks.

I used bits and pieces of lots of things from my scrapbook stash and from my Studio Calico kits.  I loved having no rules for this album.  Some of the products that I used was old, but I didn't care as long as I was happy with the way it looked. 

I could have created a whole album of photos of my nephew and husband eating sorbet!

I used the font "1942 Report" for my journaling.  I can credit Studio Calico for that, too.  I use that font all the time now after reading about it on a message board.

I had to use a washi band-aid on this postcard.  I got a little excited about trimming the postcards for the album and made a boo-boo.  You would never know that it was a mistake though - it looks so cute!

I love this business card and silverware wrapper from a restaurant that we ate at.  I didn't have to add much else to the page to make it adorable!

Thank for taking a peek at my first mini album.  It was a lot of fun and I'm sure that I'll be creating more soon.

Have a great week everyone!