They Grow Too Fast....

When my two precious boys were little, they would always sleep with their arms above their heads and their hands in loose fists (call it a product of being twins - they have a need to stretch)...both of them in the same crib able to fit (lengthwise) across the width of the crib. Yesterday, I went to check on them before going to bed myself and noticed Zach sleeping with his arms above his head and his hands in loose fists, but now...almost three years later...he's almost the entire length of his toddler bed.

Where does the time go?... and can someone please tell me how to slow down the clock?!

Six 6" x 6" Scrapbook Layout Sketches

In one of the responses to my Sketch Survey, I was asked for some ideas on how to make 6" x 6" scrapbook layout pages.

As you have seen, I do tend to focus on 12" x 12" layouts, but I will be the first to admit that smaller scrapbook pages are actually much easier to make. You don't have to focus so much on filling space, so you become very efficient and your emphasis is turned automatically to the pictures.

Since you don't have that much room to work with on a 6" x 6" page, the biggest picture you can use is a 4" x 6", which is perfectly acceptable (and makes the same kind of visual impact that a big picture would make on a 12" x 12" layout), but leaves you with little room for any journaling or embellishments.

So...that leaves us with 3" x 5" pictures or, better yet, wallet-size pictures. I love wallet-size pictures! Why? They have the same shape as a 4" x 6", but they take up less "real estate," so you can put lots of pictures on big scrapbook pages and more than one picture on a 6" x 6" scrapbook page.

While it's hard to find on my site, I do have a collection of sketches that I did almost a year ago (click here to open the file) that includes a set of 6" x 6" sketches. I just haven't gotten around to getting them loaded into Flickr.

To the person that asked, I hope this helps (and I'll work on getting more 6" x 6" double-page layouts drawn up), and to anyone else who has any other questions...don't ever hesitate to send me e-mail, I'm always ready and willing to help!

Winter Has Arrived...

OK... For those of you in the mid-west, winter arrived a long time ago and you're more than ready for it to leave. But...it's snowing on the East Coast!!! :-)

I'm very big on needing my four separate seasons and a winter without snow...well, isn't winter in my book. So, I am happy to report that it is snowing in VA - FINALLY!

Now, let the fun begin as the meteorologists begin to hem and haw over how much we might actually get!

Sketch of the Week

I hope you are all enjoying the Sketch of the Week and that it's helping to get your creative juices flowing. I realized that while I tend to live in a 12" x 12" world, there may be some of you out there that prefer to scrap on a smaller scale.

So...help me, help you. Take two seconds to answer these questions and future Sketches of the Week will lean with the majority. This is a "scrapocracy" after all!

Happy Scrapping!

I'm Back...and so is Jack!!!

Hope you all had a nice week. I'm back from what can only be described as a somewhat lackluster trip to Atlanta. I will admit...the onion rings at The Varsity are the best I've ever had and the CNN tour is a must see, but the weather was yucky, so it put a little damper on our trip.

Anywho, I'm back and trying to catch up on things. Since I'm buried beneath five piles of laundry (and Jack Bauer (24) is back tonight), my Sketch of the Week will be up tomorrow instead of today.

And since tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, let us take a minute and remember the sacrifices of those who came before us. As I sat in Ebenezer Baptist Church on Friday evening, they had one of Dr. King's sermons playing and his words, spoken more than 40 years ago and during a very different time in our country's history, were eerily relevant. He spoke of today's young people being cynical and disillusioned and our men only having war to "look forward to." Let us all be thankful for the freedoms we have, for the freedom our Men and Women in uniform continue to protect and for those who are willing to stand above the crowds and have the courage to give those who still don't a voice...a chance.

Take care and happy scrapping.

Sketch of the Week - 7 Jan 2007

Sketch of the Week - 7 Jan 2007
Originally uploaded by choubox.

Here is your sketch for the week. I realized after I posted this that I forgot to put the measurements on here. The big picture is a 5"x7" and the three small pictures are wallet size. The thick black stripe is 3" wide and the smaller gray stripes are 1.25" high.

I'll be partially out of the loop in Atlanta this week. After my success in Vegas at a LSS, I was hoping to stop by the Archiver's down there, but it's just too out of the way... Oh well, I don't need anymore paper anyway.

Happy Scrapping!! :-)