Girls Weekend: The Scrappy Breakdown

So after last week's post introducing you to Alex (Gal in the Middle's new man), the question arose: Is Gal a really slow furniture builder or am I a really fast scrapper. Gal's response to that cracked me up: she said she was slow AND I was fast. lol! Not so much true: she was NOT slow...she was amazing!! I was sort of fast...but only because I'm a lazy scrapper.

Confession: I complete a minimum of 4 albums per year (1 family album from Jan 1 to Dec 31, and 1 album for each of the kids from one birthday to the next). Plus, I love to give albums as gifts and my favorite way is to give them completed albums where all they have to do it stick the photos into them. Plus, we usually go to Disney World every other year and that's another entire album. So, that means I don't have time to spend gobs of time on each and every page of my album. I need them done so my photos and memories are stored as safely as I can make them with journaling so everyone knows what's what long after I'm gone. Looking pretty is icing on the cake. So here are my secrets:

1. I sort my pics as soon as they get printed into the right box of my power sort box. They stay in order chronologically and I always have a pack ready to go when it's time to scrapbook.
2. I use a separate Power Pallette for each album. Then I never have to worry about what colors/papers go together and all the papers, stickers, titles, mats, etc. are all together. During girls' weekend, I worked on Bubby's album. For his album this year I am using the Make a Wish album kit and the Black and White Power Pallette together.
3. I keep my layouts simple. I gave up rounding corners and special shapes before I had 3 kids; everything goes together very quickly that way, and if I have some extra time, I can always take a little extra time on a few pages. Besides, frilly, super-embellished "stuff" is just not my thing.
4. I don't journal when I put my pages together. I keep my pens by the couch, pull out an album and journal while I watch tv.

So here are the 16 pages I did while Gal put Alex's life back together:

Some of these pages were hard to do, because I was scrapping the last trip my kids and I took with my dad before he died in January. These pictures were of the rocket at the Alabama Welcome Center. My Papa retired from the Air and Space Center in Huntsville, and we had talked about visiting there last summer. But we decided to wait on the center until the kids were older and just visit the huge rocket at the Welcome Center. I am so, so glad the kids and I took this trip with my Daddy.

On the way home we stopped at the ultra-cheesy Dinosaur World in Cave City, Ky. True tourist trap. But the kids loved seeing all the dinosaur models and being carted around and catered to by their Papa.

These pages were of the kids and my Daddy at my Granny's house and when they were part of the "Crazy Hat Gang" at home last summer.

Here was a fun day at the Great Mohican Pow Wow at the Mohican Reservation in Loudonville, Ohio, just down the road. We here the drums from our house every pow wow, even though it's probably 5-6 miles away. I would have freaked if I was a pioneer hearing those drums. But the dancers were amazing!

These were an afternoon of fun on our Slip & Slide...

And our trip to COSI's Farm Days in Columbus (coming up soon if you're in Ohio)...

Bubby in one of his rodeos last summer...

Then another rodeo and fun in the sprinklers...

And finally another rodeo. So there they are, my 16 pages compared to Gal's creation of Alex. I think we were both winners!