I'm all about the stories

As I FINALLY fill in the album gaps with some of these older pictures I find that about 97.5% time I choose photos and scrap them to tell a story. Who were are (were), what we did, what was funny, what really mattered. Sure, every once in a while I come across a picture that I just adore and want to showcase and be extra creative with, but mostly that is not the case. Photos in boxes and words crammed up in my very small brain are not shared and remembered, and that is my primary focus and goal with scrapping. Yes, I love it, but the purpose behind it is even more important to me. Even more so now as these are the "older" photos in my kids' lives and they will never know the stories of their early days if we (I) don;t tel them.

So, yesterday was a big fat zero of a day for scrapping. After getting home from work Saturday night/Sunday morning after 0200, then reading for a while to unwind, I was up by 0700, working on chocolate chip cookies and a fruit fly costume. Jones, child #3 and the freshman at WSU Pullman,  told one of her girlfriends, who had been home for spring break, that we had some bug eye glasses. Tatum, who has been one of Joani's best friends since we moved here almost 8 years ago, is like another daughter and I was glad to dig through the attic and the costume tubs looking for said bug eyes. Jones must have loaned them out because they were no where to be found. Tatum needed a fruit fly costume for a speech she is giving this week and I felt horrible that we'd let her down. So I googled and found a few pictures that were my motivation for the costume. (I love Google images!) Anyway, ugly as it was (it's a fruit fly!!!!) Tatum was very happy, she took some chocolate chip cookies and protein bars with her back to Pullman (she goes to WSU too) and I felt a whole lot less guilty. Church, a much needed nap before work and, well, no scrapping, no blog.

So, today I'll share a few from Saturday's scrap time. As I spend more time at my scrap desk I find the pages are coming together much more quickly. Maybe because my focus is the stories and photos and I spend way less time (on most of them) with the creative part, but maybe because I'm in a swing. Or so I like to tell myself :)

Why, you may well ask, did I include this one to share? Because I used prehistoric product! I won that title at a CK show, or maybe the one Paper Kuts did, at least 10 years ago...heck,maybe more! It was in the prize package for their page l/o contest, back when they did those and I actually entered them. And the little white splashes are from a punch created by Hoki Sato... the absolute queen of punch art and an incredibly beautiful and sweet lady to boot... about 10 or so years ago. The page totally makes me smile... the old product, Hoki AND the cute little boy, even though the page is just 'eh.

Yes, that is diet coke in my darling sons bottle and NO, that was NOT a common occurrence. All I can say is that my husband and BIL were in "charge" while I was at work and that is what the journaling is about. Bottle, tv, lack of clothes. yeah. BUT, the really cool thing (and what got me 5 extra points!) is the word "hanging". Provo Craft stickers, bought during my first trip to Utah in like '98 or '99.... and I used them!!!!! Plus, the l/o took less than 30 minutes to put together which is absolutely unheard of for me.

And a little more creative. Totally about the story. The kid was a collect-them-all kind of guy and his very first obsession (of many!) was toy guitars. I wasn't wise enough to take a photo of the entire collection, but he's holding a green plastic one in one photo and he's looking through a magazine with guitars in it in the others. I had no guitar accents in my stash so I made a paper piecing of one based off of clip art found on the 'net.  I also used those itty bitty Doodlebug rub-ons (love, love, love Doodlebug and Cynthia Sandoval, always will).

And this one. I've had bakers twine for a while now, but have only used it on cards. Used it to tie on the subtitle here. Also, the title itself is a computer printed word filled in with a water color brush and ink pad... another title choice. And I swear, though it may look otherwise, we DID clothe our children when they were little. Really.