The Mother Load week 2

I signed up for another class at Big Picture Classes, "The Mother Load".  We are currently "in training" for the layout a day in September and I am already behind!  Each week we get a layout assignment and a photo assignment to help prepare for the LOAD.  It is week 3, and I have one layout and 2 photos done!  For week 2 we were to create a layout in our usual way and pay close attention to our process.  I discovered that once I had selected my photos and a sketch, the basic layout goes together pretty quickly.  However, when it came time to add the title and embellishments things slowed way down.  I spent a lot of time looking for stickers that would work for the title, as I had a fairly long title to fit in a relatively small space.  I usually cut my titles with my cricut, but don't like to do letters that are smaller than 1" as they are just too tiny to manage very well.  So I pulled out my bag of alpha stickers and dug through it pulling out every red one I had until I settled on these.  I was one "c" short, so I cut an "e" to make one.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do for embellishments.  I used my "Life's a Beach" cricut cartridge to cut some anchors and helms as I wanted a nautical feel to my layout.  I was going to use 3 of each along the side of the journaling box, but just couldn't find a pleasing arrangement. I probably cut 3-4 shapes for each one that ended up on the final layout.  I kept running back to the cricut to cut a slightly different size, or a different color until I finally settled on the final arrangement.  With this layout, I definitely know where the time was spent.  On the next layout I do, I will keep an actual log of how much time is spent on each task to REALLY get the picture of where I need to streamline my process.

Oh yeah, here are the photos I submitted:



My newly labeled paper stacks



Here is a view of the cabinet I store (most of) my paper stacks in.  So much better.

Doing a bit of organizing to prepare for LOAD was the assignment for week 2. I had spent quite a bit of time on this earlier in the year, but I did do a little project. I labeled the spines of my paper stacks so that I can see at a glance which is which instead of having to pull each one out to find what I am looking for.  


Self portrait

Another photo assignment was to take a self portrait.  This photo was taken by my dd Sonya (7 years old).  She is getting better at holding the camera level and zooming in on the subject.  For this shot, I told her I didn't want my knees or the windows behind me to be in the photo.  I think she did a pretty good job!