Enjoying Camp Scrap!

Last week I started May Flaum's Camp Scrap class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, and though I haven't gotten to spend as much time at camp as I'd like (darn that job!), I have already found lots of inspiration.

In her pre-class email, May (I hope it's ok to be on a first-name basis), challenged us to just get something scrapped, to get the creative spirit going. I pulled out the picture of Robby at Hampton Beach that I'd been holding on to for a year and just scrapped it. I didn't worry about having a "worthy" story or whether I should wait and get it enlarged or whatever usually stalls me. I just sat down and made a layout with it. I'm so glad I did -- I do love that photo because it looks like such a typical beach photo, but the facts give it a twist.

Then came the start of the class -- first the inspiration for texture and embellishment from May and Nic Howard, then a layout using strips of paper, and this layout with a photo I'd been holding on to for 2 years and some paper I've saved for almost as long:

You can't see from the photo, but I added a lot of texture to the edges of those strips -- punching, distressing, tearing and cutting fringe. Way more texture and patterned paper than I typically use. And another photo and story saved. Then when I added this one to my stack of new layouts, I was struck how similar I had unwittingly made them -- an unintentional scrap-lift of myself. Gave me a little chuckle.

I'm loving this camp -- if only it were sleep-away!

First Day of Summer!

Summer is here! Having just spent Sunday at the beach in Westbrook and celebrating Robby's pre-school graduation last Friday, I was really getting into the spirit of "summer vacation." With the boys being in day care full-time, they never get to enjoy the fun of summer vacation. With Robby starting kindergarten in September, this seems even more important this year.

So I've come up with a plan. We're establishing "Robby & Joey's Whole Lot of Stuff to Do Before School Starts This Fall List." Taking a cue from our friends Phinneas and Ferb, "we're gonna do it all" this summer. I've made a list -- so far I have 74 items on it -- of things we can do every day to make summer a little more fun. They range from things we can do on a weekday after school to ideas for weekend plans, from the silly to the ordinary, from things we're bound to do several times during summer to random things the boys ask to do.

I can't wait to get started on our own version of summer vacation!