8x8: The River Cone

You know those pieces of patterned paper that have strips of almost every pattern in the pack? I never know what to do with those. When I saw this photo, I decided to cut the paper up and use the strips that matched the cone. Then I topped it off with some pearl bling and a fun embellishment.

8X8 Page: the Border

Crossing the border from the USA into Canada is one of the coolest parts about heading to the lake. This photo was taken through the front window of the car so please forgive the black shadows. I love how it captures the remoteness of the area. Used up lots of scraps on this page.

8x8 Pages

I find one of the easiest ways to get back into scrapping is to start with smaller pages. There's less pressure and they are usually clean and simple so you build up some confidence getting a few done quickly. I'm perpetually working on an album documenting our summer traditions at the Lake. I interviewed family members to see what things they loved and wanted to see captured in the book. I am going to spend the next week highlighting some of these pages.

The first one is one of my favorites.

I had this skull and cross bone paper that I honestly thought I would never use. I didn't want it to overwhelm the page so I layered over it and did some inking.

Dusting off the scraps

After a long summer off, there is only one way to jump back into a huge pile of scrap paper - go on a retreat! My first ever! A friend of mine has gone to several Scrap-a-way-Retreats and I decided spur of the moment to try it out. In one word...it was AWESOME! The women attending were all really friendly and funny. The owner, Rosanne, puts so much thought into the themes, the games, the prizes and treats. I went Saturday am to Sunday pm and next time I am going to start the trip on a Friday because I didn't want to leave.  Here is a pic of my favorite layout from the weekend.

 

The circle stamp is actually the top of my marker!

I highly recommend you check out a scrap retreat if you need to find some new creative energy. Meals were included so all you had to do was scrap! Amazing!