Mood:  on fire

Just for fun, I'm going to start off with my VERY FIRST LAYOUT EVER, and the story of how I started scrapbooking.

In the Fall of 1998, I was raising two youngs boys, ages 2 and 9, who were both real handfuls. I was depressed, and badly in need of a creative outlet. I had seen some scrapbook pages that a friend of mine had done, but didn't really think it was my thing. Then, in the mail one day I got an offer from a mail-order scrapbook club, Memories in the Making, by Leisure Arts. The layouts in the brochure looked really cool and the introductory offer was pretty good, so I decided to send away for it.

While I was waiting for my package to come, I spent hours poring over the brochure, imagining all the beautiful things I could create. I guess I had suddenly decided that maybe scrapbooking was my thing after all, and I could hardly wait.

And finally, one day, it came. I opened the box and looked at all the beautiful papers and stickers and the album, then I went and dug up some extra prints we had of Aaron's 2nd birthday that year (even at that early stage I knew better than to cut up original prints) and made my very first layout.

When it was done, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I couldn't believe I had made something THAT COOL. No matter how many layouts I make, no matter how my style evolves, no matter how out of style the goofy cropping and random stickers are, I will never forget that feeling of, "Oh wow, I actually made that myself!!"

I think it was pretty clever, using a magnet number to trace the "2" on my very first layout. The balloon stickers were from the original kit, but the Thomas the Tank Engine stickers were a later addition, after Hallmark began making acid-free versions of their licensed stickers. The confetti stickers were also a later addition, from a goofy sheet of early Provo Craft birthday clown stickers. 

Maybe not the best first layout anyone has ever done, and it reflects a lot of the things that were done in the primitive days of scrapbooking that we cringe at now. But I will never be embarrassed by this layout, or want to hide it or take it apart, because of what it means to me. 

Mood:  bright

Ok, I've gone on my last shopping spree, I've received my last internet scrapbook order (for Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo collection, which is just too darn cute to even be allowed), I've bought my last paper holder (about the fourth one after I vowed to not buy any more paper holders), I'm tripping over packages of chipboard, clear stamps, and ribbon on the floor, I've got thousands of photos on CDs and on my computer, and I'm up to my eyeballs in idea books. Time to get some work done, use up some of the stuff I've stockpiled, and get my credit card paid down. Plus, I really need a second hard drive and some more RAM, and the Rurouni Kenshin box sets I've been wanting forever were 25% off at Animenation last weekend, so of course I had to order them.

From the 100-Layout Challenge I did two years ago, I knew that only doing 100 layouts without buying anything new just wasn't going to make a dent in the situation. So I've decided to *insert drumroll* make 200 LAYOUTS with the stuff I already have. And I'm going to do 150 of them before the end of 2008.

OK, you can stop laughing now. I actually started on June 21, and as of yesterday, I'm already up to #11. I'll be posting each layout here, just to show that I can do it, along with other layouts I've done that I think might be of interest. I've also decided to continue updating my blog for my 100-Layout Challenge, just to get that done. Plus it's a great motivator - I did it once, I can do it again twice over with all the cool stuff and great ideas I've accumulated. Plus it's fun to see how my style has developed. So follow along and see if I can do it, and maybe someone who sees this will also be encouraged to get some serious scrapping done.