picture pages, picture pages

This post is really going to be about some of my favorite recent scrapbook pages because it's been a while since I've shown you all something scrappy, but I have to share a funny story first.

Picture this: I'm giving the spelling test today. On our list is the word lady. My sentence: I'm sure you'd all say that your mom is a very nice lady. Seven out of eight students immediately turn into bobbleheads, shaking yes in thunderous agreement. Student K raises her hand and says, "Actually, my mom isn't really all that nice." How do you move on after a comment like that?

Oh, please. . . allow me just one more.

We're having our Bible lesson. We've been studying Hannah and Samuel, so this was kind of a different day, focusing on prayer more than the Bible characters. There was a little object lesson using the five fingers to help us remember who to pray for. OK, so when you hold your hand out, the thumb is the closest to you so it reminds us to pray for those who are closest to us - our family and friends. Pointer finger points to the sky, so we are reminded to pray for those who point us to God - pastor, Sunday School teachers, etc. (You see where this is going.) Tall finger helps us to pray for our leaders and people we look up too. Immediately I've got kids flipping each other off. So I'm like, oh crap! This isn't what we're after here. One darling boy C. yells out, "Don't stick your middle fingers up. It's bad." We moved right on along as fast as we could go.

In case you were wondering, the fourth finger is the weakest finger, the only one that can't stand up on its own. So we pray for the people we know who are weak and sick. The pinky finger is for us. Pray for others before we pray for ourselves. But it will always be the tall finger that will remind me to pray for these kids.

I've learned a valuable lesson because now when we go over this, we just touch our tall fingers. We don't stick them up.

Now it's time for picture pages.

My friend Barbara and I were scrapping last Saturday and we were chatting about how she's a very linear scrapbooker. She mats almost every single picture and when I look at her pages, the lines just pop out at me. I love it because it's just so easy on the eyes. I'm rather linear too. But this layout of spring break 2007 proves I also have strong tendencies towards being symmetrical as well. I made it a while ago, but it's one of my all time favorites. It should be, because that title took a stinkin' long time to glue down. Each letter was individually, painstakingly attached with Creative Memories Tape Runner. This was way before I discovered the Zig Glue Pens. I love my cricut, but boy, do I need the Design Studio software.

The title block on this next layout was a neat little trick I discovered by accident one day when I was using a new punch I got for Christmas. It's a file folder tab punch, and somehow I made that little pointy in the middle of the ends looking thing. It's probably hard for you to see. Sorry. By the way, you can walk behind the falls in these pictures. It's so very cool.

When my mom and nephew came out to visit, I wanted to make sure I got a picture of him stepping in the ocean for the very first time. You don't even know how much I love this picture. But here's a clue. It's the only 8X10 I have ever adhered to a scrapbook page.

This is the other side. . . the pictures of my mom are dark and shadowy, but the expression on her face is hilarious. People, the Pacific Ocean is COLD!!!

And here's one more beach page from their trip. I cut out all the circles from the same line of papers. I just wish I would've inked the edges before I stuck them down.

Notice anything on all those pages? They, like among 100 others or so, have absolutely no journaling. I have a serious problem. I know.