My very own scrapbook retreat . . .spread out over several weekends :-)

I really wanted to attend a scrapbook retreat several weeks ago.  It was held at Camp Sumatanga . ..one of my favorite places.  It was not meant to be.  I was disappointed but I know that I made the right choice.  I needed to do a couple of family things . . .but I was still disappointed.  I've never been to a crop or to a scrapbooking retreat or to a scrapbooking party or even just to someone's house to scrapbook together.  I'm actually a little hesitant to put some of my recent pages on the blog . . .because what if I'm not doing it right.  What if my pages look really stupid compared to everyone else's pages?  Well, who cares, right?  So here are some of my recent pages.  I've been trying to branch out and I've been checking out some of the websites where you can actually see layout drawings but I never like any of them just like they are . ..so I add or subtract and mix and match papers . . .until I get something I like.  The first pages are of Amy's baby shower at work.  We love to celebrate together.  We actually just love cake.  Actually, I just love icing.  Who cares about the cake??  Amy's pages aren't matchy matchy because Amy is not a matchy matchy kind of person.  This is the first time I've ever mixed lots of patterns on a page but I didn't want the pages to be "too girly" because Amy is not that way either.  I cut the title and the pregnant silhouette using my silhouette SD machine.  I sure do wish I had the cameo.  That is the newest machine and it cuts on 12 X 12 paper.

I had a really hard time with this layout.  I kept working and kept working and Laura even helped with this one.  It is pretty simplistic but it turned out ok.

I enjoyed making this one about our supper club.  I love rick rack and so it was fun to use rick rack and also to cut the big white rick rack using my silhouette SD.

I made this layout a few week's ago.  This is my niece, Grace.  This is the first time that I have used a banner on a scrapbook layout.  Last night, I was reading a scrapbooking blog and found out that banners are "all the rage" right now.  Well, I'll be.  I did something "in style" and didn't even know it!!

I love this layout.  This is the first one that I finished during the weekend of the retreat (that I didn't attend).  I just marched myself right upstairs and sat down at my table and made a layout.  I pulled the colors from Laura's shirts.  The journal block tells that she and Dustin went on 180 mile ride between Christmas and New Year's.  I loved the swirly shapes that remind me of bike tires!!

This layout is also very simple.  I think I just like simple layouts.  It is not that I'm not capable of putting 42 different papers and lots of flowers and things made out of coffee filters and all sorts of others things on my pages.  I am.  For some reason, that does not give me pleasure.  I think I'm a minimalist at heart.  I don't have a lot of things sitting around on tables - you know . . .doo dads, knick knacks, chotchkies (I had to verify the spelling on that one and according to Urban Dictionary - a chotchkie is a small piece of worthless crap, a decorative knick knack with little or no purpose.)  I don't have a lot of those sitting around.  My scrapbook pages don't have a lot of those either.  I think they are just fine and lovely when I see them but I just can't get into them.  I may do some layouts with old photos of my parents this year and on those, I might use a little more stuff so they don't look so modern.

Not sure what pictures I will scrap next . . .I have a million, I believe!!