LOAD - Alternative Scrapbooking

Another day, another layout - and I'm loving it.  To be perfectly honest - I'm loving my life right now which is unbelievable in a way that words cannot express.  I'm happy in this moment - and that's huge for me after the last few years I've had.  I think it's partially because I'm being creative - telling my story.  I'm not getting hung up on the "big" things like not being married or having kids.  I'm not questioning whether my life is "worth" scrapbooking or my audience.  I know who it is - me.  I am worth it and that is enough- what a phenomenal shift.

So what the hay does this have to do with LOAD?  I'm happy to be creating each day and I really credit this class and other new circumstances in my life.  So - on to today's challenge.  Mondays are titled "Mother May I" by my scrap happy teacher Lain Ehmann.  This Monday's assignment - scrap an alternative page.  Do the thing you normally wouldn't do.  Now let's be clear - you don't have to follow the assignment.  You can do whatever you want - but Lain is an evil genius.  At the end of each assignment she suggests trying the assignment if you're feeling any "resistance."  So let's just say - I was feeling a little resistance and I decided to take Lain at her word and give it a try.  I started with something new I found on Shimelle Laine's blog - it's a starting points "challenge" for each week.  This week's starting point was really a lesson in layering (even for a girl that loves to pile it on like me).  Shimelle has started to post the starting point on Saturdays and her finished layout on Sundays.  Have I mentioned how much I love her blog!

Source Image 

I knew from the beginning I would not be doing a 12 x 12 page - which broke my heart a little.  I decided to go with a standard 8 1/2 x 11 page and put it in a horizontal orientation - something I did when I first started scrapbooking.  I have to say - I like rocking the square much better than the rectangle.  I wish I would have thought about it and taken a picture at the starting point stage - but I didn't so here's the finished project.

It's been a long time since I've done a page on the boys.  I love these dogs so much and they are too far away from me.  I haven't seen them in almost 20 months - not that I'm counting or anything.  It just sucks.  I miss seeing them - even if it was only once or twice a year.  I really am happy with the finished product despite it being outside my comfort zone.  However, it was nice to go back to a somewhat familiar place.  I don't have any grids in this size paper so I was "forced" to go with a solid gray background.  I think it worked out okay.  Let me give a quick product run down.  Papers are from Archivers (gray), My Mind's Eye (Stella Rose) and Authentique.  The embellishments/brads/stickers are from My Mind's Eye and American Crafts.  The journaling card and letter stickers (Thickers) are from American Crafts too.  I have no idea where the flowers are from - sorry.

So that's it for today.  I tried something new.  I layered like nobody's business.  I participated in a challenge.  I knocked out Layout #5 for the Mother LOAD.  I took a trip to Borders (my third) and don't intend to go back.  I wish I would have thought about that more when I was there today.  It's just a little hard.  I know it sounds lame - to be broken up about a store closing - but I am and that's just it.  So - I hope everyone has had a nice Monday.  I'm looking forward to work tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to crafting tomorrow.  I'm looking forward - I can barely believe it.  It's so great.  Anyhoo - Until then..