School Kits 4th Grade Miss M

I am now officially done with both girls' school LO's!! WOOOO-HOOOOO!!

Well that is until June, but it'll just be for THIS school year! So YES, I can say that I am officially caught up on these Becky Higgins' CK School Kit of the Month LO's. I have been struggling towards the end of these since they do follow the same collage style, & I try to limit myself to using just the elements from the kits. Which I think is my problem. If I branch out using other embellies/stuff from my stash the ideas seem to flow better.

The lesson here?
Think outside the box.

These are the LO's for Marissa's 4th grade year.
I love using tools/things that have been hanging around my desk for awhile & revisiting them. See the black "Fourth Grade" border strip? That's the label maker thingy (sorry can't remember the name of it) that you punch each letter individually, the font is on a circle wheel that you turn to position to the right letter....you know what I'm talking about. ;)





This second LO took me a LONG time to get to because of the whole loss of mojo/holidays. The above LO was done in the Fall but I like to post the school years together so this is the LO that kept me from sharing.



The kicker is that it's nothing fancy, so honestly I don't know what took me so long to get done, but I'm glad it is.





I've been scrapping a lot but nothing that's orginal....lots of scrap lifting which helps the mojo flow. Lord knows my mojo has all but dried up. Have some ideas for various projects & hopefully once I get past this block I've been having I can get my groove on. Wish me luck! ;)

School Kits 1st Grade Miss G

I've been playing "catch-up" a lot everywhere in my life lately. Whether it be emails, mail, laundry, cleaning, organizing, blogging, laundry, reading, scrapping, exercise, laundry....wait did I say laundry already? Just checking to see if you were paying attention. ;) Anyway you get the idea.

I'm behind in stuff.

However, these school LO's are **almost** done.
Yes, I said done.

Yes, I know soon I will have this years school pics to deal with.
Let me live in the glory of now. 'Kay??

As for Miss G, I am officially done with her school LO's. Say it with me....
WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!

Marissa's will be done soon. I already have 1 LO done but I've been procrastinating about the second one. My mojo has just about dried up with these school LO's, but I'm getting there.

These LO's have been done & just sitting on my desk since sometime in October I believe. Why did it take that long to blog them? I was waiting to finish Marissa's LO's so I could take pics of them all at once. Yeah it sounds lame even when I write it.....

These are Gianna's 1st grade year.....the 1st LO.....


I really am coming up short on ideas without making these all look alike. I'm getting bored. But I'm hoping I can remedy that problem with THIS downloaded from Kerri Bradford's site for the Silhouette.


Since there's so much to journal, I just hand write it. Nothing fancy....


Kept them very similar since there were so many pics. I tucked a few extras in with the journaling pocket.
Hope to get my to do list down to a more manageable list, so that I can get my mojo going again & get these school kits done. Wish me luck!

School Kits Kindergarten Miss G

I have had these laying on my desk for too long & finally made a point to take pics so I have something to blog. ;) When I get these done the last thing I do is the journaling. Since I handwrite it, I procrastinate about it.

Now I only have to work on THIS school year & I'll be done until next summer!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel & I'm excited about it!

Gianna's Kindergarten year was the same year that Marissa was in 3rd grade & I must have volunteered a lot that year in both classes (or they had a lot more going on) because I had to make three LO's for this year just like Marissa's. I tried to limit the number of pics but part of the problem was they were already printed & since I hate to waste prints, I went with it.

LAYOUT#1

Once again the banners find their way on the LO's....

I try to use as much of the kit that I can without using it all & then have nothing to last for future LO's. (got that??) The border stickers that come in the kit I use in small amounts. Wish there were more of those in the kits than just 2 sheets. On the other hand, the photo corners & fasteners I have plenty of & use as much as I want--they were plentiful in the kit.


LAYOUT#2
This LO was obviously made when I was lacking creativity. Looks like I just slapped the pics down & call it a day, but since it's done, I'm not stressing over it.
I knew I was going to use the banner stamps on the journaling card but it looked sorta plain (still does) so I added that little owl.


The second page I use more of the border sticker that came in the kit plus a border punch.

LAYOUT#3
I think I redeemed myself with this LO & made it pop more. I think when I limit myself to "just" the kit the ideas freeze.

I can't seem to make a LO with a border punch involved. A few select ones never leave my desk.I tried using more of the alphas instead of just the numbers on the MM Tiny Type stickers. It's not even funny how many sheets I'm messing with just for numbers. Now I just need to print off Gianna's 1st grade & Marissa's 4th grade years & scrap those, then I'll be caught up!! YAY!! My goal is to get them done before vacation. Wish me luck!

School Kits Pre-School 4 Miss G

This summer seems to have been dedicated to scrapping the girls' school pics. I'm tired of them, but I'm **this close** to being all caught up before school starts in Sept. So that's my goal..we'll see what happens. ;)

Here's Gianna's second year of pre-school. Again I tried to stick mostly to the school kit (& the QK dies). I also seem to have an addiction to banners. I've been using THIS stamp set from Maya Road. So perfect & fun for these LO's, I think. I keep it simple by just stamping onto different papers or cardstock, then cutting them out. Easy.


I can't tell you how many packages of those MM tiny type numbers I've been using for these LO's. Everytime I go to Michaels I add a few packages to my basket. I go through SO many "1's" that I finally printed my own to "match". I think I need to print a sheet of "3's" next....

This is the second LO for the year. I used THIS cricut cart for the apple. So cute, right?



I seem to have a hard time coming up with filling in the "blank" spots without making them all look the same. I don't think she was learning math in pre-k but it fit & looked good enough for me.


So the pre-school days are done. I feel confident that I can get caught up to date. Wish me luck!! ;)

School Kits Pre-School 3 Miss G

As burned out as I feel about these school LO's I am determined to get them done & in the albums. This is just the start of Gianna's school years, but with all the ones I've done for Marissa, I'm starting to feel the need to put these aside. Problem is I know if I do I won't go back, so I'm pushing through it, taking my time so I don't feel blah about them. Got that?

This is Gianna when she was 3 in her 1st year of Pre-School. She was so tiny!! I can't get over that she's now going to start SECOND grade in the Fall!!

As always there are 2 LO's for each school year.....

I've been modifying the library pockets that come with the kit a little, but I like that I'm using a lot of the kit. There are a few pieces that never seem to "gel" for me when I try to use them but for the most part the kit is being put to good use. And of course, my QuicKutz dies have been put to good use. The A B C letters are the Diesel Alpha dies. Great set! I get such a good feeling when I put my stash to good use! ;)

School Kits 3rd Grade Miss M

We're back from Disney World! It was great! The weather was HOT & SUNNY instead of the chilly, dreary rain we left in. And the best part?? We celebrated Marissa's TENTH birthday there! She had a blast, but more on that later...

Since I've been gone awhile, I figured I'd share the last 3 LO's of Marissa's 3rd grade year that have been sitting on my desk just waiting for me to take pics of. As always, there were a lot of pics to choose from so instead of 2 LO's for the whole year, I ended up with 3 LO's. Somehow fitting since it's for 3rd grade. Work with me....

Used Studio Calico "Natalee" (??) stamps for the title on the library pocket. I think they're my favorite stamps.Can I just say how much I love banners???These are the last ones for Marissa until the end of this school year. Then I can do 4th grade & be all caught up. YAY!! But I don't plan on making 4 LO's for 4th grade. They're starting to look alike to me & while I want them to have a consistancy I don't want them to be all the same. KWIM??

Now I get to start the ones for Gianna!

School Kits 2nd Grade Miss M

Anyone else getting sick of seeing these school LO's? I'm sorta getting tired of making them. I am up to Marissa's 3rd grade year & then I get to start Gianna's school years. Luckily I'm not as far behind on her's. ;) The thing that doesn't make it "too" boring is that I try to make the LO's similar but different. They don't lay together in the albums & are broken up by other LO's from the years, so I know they don't even have to look similar. I just think it's easier to make them if I limit myself to product & design. I really try to stick to just the product from Becky's School Kits. Of course I toss in a few things from my stash here & there but if I didn't they would look all alike. Seems like I have so many pics from each year that I just can't get them all on one LO. In my line of thinking the more LO's I make the more of my stash I use. ;) I start the LO with all wallet sized pics. Then as I go along I trim them down to make everything fit. And where would I be without my collection of QuicKutz (now Lifestyle Crafts) ?? Years ago I bought so many of the dies & now I'm really thankful I did. They've really come in handy. The journaling is simply a folded piece of cardstock. I draw lines with my ruler & write my journaling. I dress up the outside of it & voila! This is the second LO for her 2nd grade year. On the day that I was just about done with this LO I got some "happy mail" from 2Peas. Inside was THIS stamp set & I knew how I was going to use it! I'm not even going to admit how many "banner" stamps I now own.....no way! ;) I even used one of the library pockets that came with the kit for this LO. I don't often think about them since they're larger than the space I usually have left but in this case it worked perfectly.

Now I'm up to 3rd grade & I've got the 1st LO framed out on my desk. YAY! The crazy part is I have A LOT of pics from 3rd grade. So I might just end up with 3 LO's from that year! Hoping to have those ready to share soon & I can stop being such a lame blogger!

School Kits 1st Grade Miss M

After much procrastination, I started working on the CK Becky Higgin's Kit Of The Month School Kits again. There's no reason why, just that I seem to require a certain amount of procrastination to start a project. After starting I wonder why it took me so long to start since the project didn't take as long as the actual procrastination.

Got that?

This LO came together in a flash. The journaling took the longest, of course, but even that was done in no time. I decided to go outside the box with these a bit & use some of the embellies I seem to horde but not use enough that weren't part of the kit. The "first grade" block is one of those older woven label embellies that didn't match so I colored it with markers. Not perfectly matched but better than it was. See the "school days" over my hidden journaling? It actually an OLD rub on from Me & My Big Ideas. It's fun & sparkly....but it wouldn't rub onto my block. So I left it as is & just cut the whole thing from the plastic backing & adhered it down. Waste not, want not. I set my mind on having that on my LO & it went.....Kicking & screaming but I won. I always do. ;)
This LO is more true to the kit. I added very little from my stash to it.

I know the second page is all about Field Day but I was short on pics so I went back & printed more of these since I couldn't find more of the art show on my external hard drive. Grrrrrr....

In the end I realized if I can bang out a few more of these I'll be up to Marissa's year this year won't be so far behind. That's got me motivated for now so bear with me since there will be more of these coming. Hope I'm not scaring anyone off. I do have something else to share that's not school related, in the next few days. ;)