Under a Buck!

I had a great weekend!

1) My ribs are still sore and achy, but not as painful as before!
2) We had Grayson's third b-day party in our (almost) complete basement!
3) I scrapbooked for the first time in our (almost) complete basement!
4) It was the Family Day holiday here in Alberta, so it was a quiet, relaxing day!


Grayson had a great time at his party. He wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine theme, and he got it...decorations, cake, games, hats and loot bags all with Thomas! We had a few of his friends over and they had a great time running around with lots of room to spread out in. They played a lot in his new playroom - where ALL his toys are now contained in one space (a parent's dream!!) Here are some party pics:

After the party, I had a great time finally spreading out all my scrapbooking stuff! My new table and cabinets have not been assembled and installed yet, so I just used the folding tables that we used for the kids party, but I was thrilled to be able to have all my supplies in one place and actually get some scrapping done! AND, I did a two page spread for UNDER A BUCK! Here it is:

Summer Vacation by Noreen Smith. 12 x 12 double layout. Scenic Route Paper, Creative Memories Paper, Circle punch and Vellum Stickers, Memory Makers Brads, McGill Mini File punch.

Can you believe it? Less than a loonie??? YES-SIR-REE! Last week my LSS (Scrapbookers Paradise) was having a 4 for $1.00 paper sale, so I went to town- I probably bought 50 sheets! And, they had a bunch of other great sales as well - I got chipboard letters, raised embellishments, die cut pages, and a couple of back issues of Digital Scrapbooking and Canadian Scrapbooker magazine all for $40.00! WOW! Michaels was having a 3 for $1.00 sale, but you can't beat .25 per page, can you?! Just shows you that you can be a frugal scrapbooker!

Anyway, when I sat down to get caught up on last summer's holdiay photos, I chose one of the new patterned papers I had purchased and found a few scraps of coordinating solid colored cardstock in my stash. I cut the patterned paper into strips (it was a paper by Scenic Route with a variety of patterns and the three strips of lettering) and positioned them to outline my photos. (PS...I got 9 photos on this layout!) For embellishments, I punched out three circles from the back side of the same piece of paper with my CM Circle punch and added three little brads (Memory Makers) that I already had. I punched a tag with my new McGill file punch (cute, eh?) added two vellum title stickers from CM and finshed off by journaling. So, I figured everything added up to about $1.00 (OK, maybe $1.10!) You can really stre-e-e-tch your supplies when you don't wallpaper the entire background, and using your tools to make custom embellishments from patterned paper really saves $ (and time trying to finding matching items.) I love it! And I especially love the picture in the bottom right hand corner of my Grayson standing in the back of our Jeep warming up after his watery adventures! That's the beauty of scrapbooking, eh? The pictures and stories help capture those moments you want to relive again and again!

Have a great week, and I'd love to hear your comments...

Noreen