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Christmas retreat

Thanks ever-so-much to Peter and Ida Wilson for donating a scrapbooking retreat weekend to raffle at our  Pam's Pals cause!  After all was said and done, we wound up with a group of 9 for the weekend of the 11th and we had a great time.  A lot of people passed on this great opportunity because it was "too close to the holidays" or they were too busy, but I tell ya', you don't know what you're missing!  December is the perfect time for a scrapbooking retreat, because it takes you away from the chaotic hustle and bustle and gives you time to just breathe, relax and do a little something for yourself (and you know you've been neglecting yourself for a long time!).  I also found that it was the perfect opportunity to finish up a lot of the handmade gifts that I hadn't been able to finish at home.  So thank you Scrappin' Around the Corner in Denton!  I'm sure we'll be calling you again next year!

Boy Scout Layout Ideas and more....

I teach a beginner scrapbooking class for the parents in our Boy Scout troop each year.  My focus is on teaching them proper preservation of photos and memorabilia as well as some easy techniques for embellishing pages without breaking the bank.   Here are a few pages we've made in these classes and a few I've done for my own scrapbooks.

For this "Court of Honor" page, I used a flattened bottle cap, a couple of circle punches with some leftover paper, and ribbon to create a cute doodad.  The photo mats were embellished with a corner punch I bought for $1 at a garage sale.

How simple is this one?  We used a Crop-o-dile to punch holes at intervals around this photo mat and then laced it with some hemp cord purchased at the dollar store.

A tag, some buttons, ribbon and a Dymo label maker were all I used on this color-blocked page.

The "pole" on this fishing page is made from a grill skewer stained with distressing ink.  The "fish" were a graphic found on the internet that we printed onto shrinky dink paper.  The "lures" were made from jewelry eye pins, construction paper, and some loose feathers from a boa -- and don't forget the googly eye!

Even a more formal page is dressed up with a bit of ribbon and a bit of glitter.  The fleur-de-lis was stamped on cardstock with a glue "ink" pad and then glittered.  The title is a combination of stencil, die cuts, and a stamp on a tag sticker.  A dotted outline around the word "scout" makes it standout from the background.