Scrapping a Get Well Message

Aloha, all!

     Last week I posted a scrap page featuring our lovely black cat, Cholla.  I had it lying out on a table, and our house sitter noticed it and asked why I hadn't done something about our dog, Hoku.  With all that's going on in our lives right now, creating a scrap page featuring the dog just wasn't anywhere on my priority list.

     First, a brief aside about what's going on (and why I have a house sitter).  My husband, Harry, has become very ill, and is a hospital on the island of O'ahu.  We don't live on O'ahu, and that's made life somewhat difficult.  Right now I'm back on our island – the Big Island of Hawaii – and crafting just wasn't in the picture when I returned home a few days ago.  I had to get some business taken care of and pack for both me and my husband for a prolonged stay away from home. 

     As I spent some time talking with Harry on the phone the first few days I was back, it became apparent that he really missed his daily walks in his garden.  And he'd asked me to pet the dog and scritch the cat for him a couple of times.  I first thought that I'd go around the yard and take some pictures so he could see what was growing at the moment and maybe take some pictures of the pets.  Pictures.  Aha!  Pictures go in a scrapbook, don't they?!  And so I decided that I'd make him a scrapbook to have with him while he's awaiting surgery, which may not happen until next week.

     This has given me the opportunity to use my craft room which I so thoroughly cleaned out last week (no, I didn't know I'd be gone for so long!) AND to focus on scrapbooking during National Scrapbooking month.  The scrapbook was of the quick 6 x 6 kind, but I had fun as I did each 2-page spread thinking about the techniques I was using, and how I could share them with you.  So, over the next few weeks, I'll be doing just that – sharing my scrapbook pages with you, of course with my thoughts about quick and easy techniques.  The bottom line in all of this is that you should approach a scrapbooking project with the idea of having fun doing it.  I've seen too many people struggle and freeze up when faced with a pile of photographs and a room full of paper and embellishments.  That's OK if you're entering a contest.  But, if you're like me and most scrapbookers, you just want to have a memory book that's fun to look at as time goes on.  It's just not scary!

     OK – so here's the first page to show off (though not the first page in the book).  Of course, Harry misses his pets, and I did, indeed, have to make a page featuring Hoku the Dog, to go along with Cholla's page.  The stamp set that I used for this page is D Is For Dog.  Did you think I had C Is For Cat and not the dog's stamp set, too?  Not hardly if I wanted to keep peace among the pets.  Here's another copy of Cholla's page so you can see how these two pages go well together as a 2-page spread.

     I had already made Cholla's page with the Melon Mambo, and somehow the pink wasn't going to work for Hoku the Dog.  He's just not a pink person.  But, even with the Soft Suede (an In Color that's going to be continuing as a standard color in the next Stampin' Up! Catalog!), I could tie the two pages together with lots of different techniques. 

• I scored the card stock in the same pattern to texturize it.
• I stamped and cut out the bones from the D is for Dog set to match the fish from the C is for Cat set.
• I used Crushed Curry (sniff, going away) as the photo mats
• I used a square rhinestone brad for the dog's collar to go with the round one I used for the cat's
• I used 1/2" Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon on both pages.

     The pictures are not the same size and the colors are not the same.  But the two pages work just fine together!

     I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post while I'm away from home.  But the photos are all ready to show off.  I just need to find some time for myself to write them up!

     Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and I hope to be back in my craft room before long.