InterNational Scrapbooking Day

In honor of International Scrapbooking Day, I browsed through my layouts and selected some favorites to share. Some are older and reflect my newbie style and lack of knowledge of design principles. Others are newer. All jumped out at me as I was scrolling through all the layout photos in my iPhoto scrapbooking album.

1. I Scrap Because...

As I recall, this layout was an 8x8 I did as a class assignment. I love the square design, each one containing another piece of the journaling, and I loved that collection by Basic Grey, Urban Prairie.

2. Delectable

This was one of the first scrapbook pages I ever did. I printed a map of France from the internet and traced it on the back of that patterned paper, then cut it out.  I used a menu of the restaurant and pieces cut from a brochure as embellishments. Not great design, but I love this page because it does a fine job of illustrating a good memory.

3. YoHoHo and a Bottle of Rum!

For this layout about an awesome Hallowe'en party four years ago, I actually traced a bottle onto brown paper and cut that out to include on the page. Also, I used a lot of chalk ink in brown to distress and age the papers, making them look more pirate-y. (Yes, that's a word. I just made it up!)

4. South Bound, Destination Texas

This layout appeals to me because of the mix of a map paper and a cie cut paper, along with the line on the map from Michigan to Texas. Just a little different and eye-catching.

5. Little Dancer

That ballet slipper die cut was originally pink and came from a scrap pack I bought for $1.99 from Archivers. I embossed with purple and some glitter, and it worked like a charm. I love the purple, and I love the glitter border around the photo. I also liked using a clear die cut journaling block. I've always liked that effect.

6.  Isis

Another layout that took a some creativity and innovative thinking. The title I created by printing it out on card stock, then cutting the letters out and painting them gold, then outlining them in glitter. The embellishments were created by scanning a piece of decor I have with those images on it. I then printed it out on card stock, cutting each image out. For the journaling, I used the papyrus font, the same I used for the title. The background was an Egypt paper from the travel section of the LSS and works perfectly.

7.  Bringing Home Baby Brother

I like this layout simply because of the subject matter, my sweet little brother. :)

8. First Date (In a Long Time)

Mmmm...Country Drive by Echo Park Paper. So yummy!

9. Forever

I love this layout because of that photo of me and Daniel at our wedding. I love all those leaves. I love that it was the result of a challenge to do a layout using only card stock, no patterned paper. And I love that word: forever.

10. Good Friends

Great photos that make me smile, cool burlap flowers, a cool die cut and nifty patterned paper--what's not to like?

It's fun to look back at scrapbook pages, not only to indulge in happy memories and moments--which is really kind of the point of this memory-keeping business we're doing--but also to see how I've developed as a designer and artist, how my pages have changed, how my influences and inspiration have shifted.

What are your favorite pages you've done? If you feel like blogging about it, be sure to leave me a link so I can take a look.

Happy Scrapbooking Day!