Did you groan internally when you read my title? I did too.
Well, we got a bit carried away today, and we didn't finish our layouts until about 11:15 p.m. MST. We didn't spend ALL day working on them, but a couple of hours at least. What can we say? The power was out TWICE today, which interrupted our photo-printing activities. And we had three pint-sized helpers offering us advice, trying to steal our red dry-dot adhesive dispensers, scattering buttons from one end of the room to the other, and insisting on doing all the punching and pushing of the orange slider (on the trimmer) on our behalf. It was adorable.
The best quote of the day? After seeing all the wondrous works my iPhone could perform (serving as the flashlight in the bathroom while the power was out, taking photos, entertaining toddlers, acting as the timer while we scoured the Michael's shelves for scrapbook products), 7-year-old Maddie was pretty impressed. While she was looking for some adhesive, she turned to me and said with a totally straight face, "Hey Angie, does your phone turn into a glue stick too?"
Here are the highlights of today's Project Runway-esque adventure!
Here I am explaining the rules to my rapt audience. We had 15 minutes and $5 and we had to find everything we needed to create a single layout. (Tools, adhesives, and fonts were considered free.)
Wendy's asking for a little bit of clarification, and Maddie is making sure she understands all the rules with perfect clarity. (Bridget is just used to having her picture taken.)
Browsing for patterned paper, which was 30 percent off, thank you very much.
Eureka!
Let's see, pink...or royal blue...? Well, pink of course. Do you see the rest of this outfit?
Team Maddie and Angie, who joined forces for the shopping portion of the day, came in at $4.97 and $5.13 respectively.
Purchases in hand, these ladies are ready to do some scrapbooking!
"Sure, this punch is bigger than my head, but I can handle it," thinks Gracie Dillow, age 4 1/2.
Here's a girl who knows how to use an adhesive remover. Wonder who she learned that from?
Hair up, comfy clothes on, Wendy is getting serious about her layout.
And now for the big reveal...
Gracie wowed us with her use of monogram letters, these tiny hearts, and her creative cutting approach. Speaking of monograms, that's THREE A's (for Angie) compared to one W (for Wendy). Not that I'm competing for Gracie's affection or anything...
Maddie (age 7) purchased two sheets of patterned paper, one rhinestone word, a sheet of tiny heart stickers, and a $.49 ribbon roll. Quite a shopper AND a scrapbooker-in-the-making, eh? (We seriously did NOT help her with this layout any more than she helped us with ours.) A couple of names are blurred to project privacy.
I had these two photos with me, so I took commenter Dierdre's advice yesterday and created a layout with them. My purchases: two sheets of cardstock, one sheet of patterned paper, one sheet of letter stickers (included upper and lowercase), and tiny word stickers from making Memories. I used Elizabeth's tiny round punch, scallop punch, and her Martha Stewart embossing button punch to make this design happen.
Wendy bought a sheet of patterned paper, two sheets of cardstocks, some blue-and-white file folders (used as patterned paper), and some sparkly stick things, which gave her "glitter face" for the rest of the day. She ventured the farthest into the non-scrapbooking section of the store and found some true bargains along the way.
Since Elizabeth knew she had only 15 minutes to shop, she forced herself to really scan and skim, instead of studying everything carefully (as she'd usually do). To help her make quick choices, she decided right away to use black-and-white photos and focus on a go-to color combination (orange and pink) that she knew would be easy for her to use under pressure. She ended up with a sheet of patterned paper, a package of vintage tickets (which she ran through her printer), and orange cardstock.
We learned a few fun things during our Project Scrapway adventure:
1. Scrapbooking with children is much easier when there's a 1 to 1 adult-child ratio.
2. It's so fun to have "expert" scrappers nearby when you need instant advice about why something is simply NOT working. (Wendy: "I think you need something round over there." Me: "You're so right!")
3. Orange seems to be a popular color among the adults.
4. The Martha Stewart embossing button punch is an amazing tool.
5. Shopping for supplies is twice as fun when you have friends along, and the 15-minute time limit served to enhance our creativity rather than limit it.
Thanks for joining us on our adventure. Come back Wednesday afternoon to see what we have in store for you next!
