Scrapping my U of I years

This blog has been silent for a while, but only because I've been hard at work on scrapping my life like I set out to do last August.

I recently wrapped up a book chronicling my two years finishing my bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Those two years shaped my life in an incredible number of ways, and I felt an intense desire to get the photos out of the sticky-page albums and properly scrapped. While the book isn't as huge as I expected, it's big enough that I can only share a sample of the pages here. I picked some of my favorite layouts as an example of how the book turned out.

I'll start with one of the first layouts, which comes after my opening page (my acceptance letter). I was thrilled to find the perfect place for one of several U of I bumper stickers I've accumulated over the years. The journaling is about the years I spent loving the U of I as a kid and how my dream finally came true when I was accepted and became a student. (At the bottom of the right-hand page is my student ID card.)

I also did lead-in layouts to both academic years. Here's an example:

A big part of my years at U of I was where I lived -- Illini Tower, a certified private housing building near the Quad. I included layouts documenting each of the suites I lived in, and here is the first one I lived in, fall semester of my junior year:

One long-standing U of I tradition is Dad's Day weekend in the fall and Mom's Day weekend in the spring. Dad's weekend revolves around football, while Mom's weekend features a flower show and some other, more "girly" events. Illini Tower held a special brunch for each weekend.

Of course, we made friends with several of our neighbors and floor mates, so I had to do a layout dedicated to them.

Oh, and let's not forget my 21st birthday, at the start of my senior year. One of my favorite memories from that birthday was going to TGI Friday's with our neighbors and being given the entire arch of balloons from the front entryway to take home. It was a good thing my neighbor, Brian, drove us there in his SUV!

One of my favorite U of I memories (and layouts) is having season tickets for Fighting Illini basketball both years. Here's my layout for junior year's season:

Another hugely influential part of my time at U of I was the time I spent attending and singing in the choir at St. John's Catholic Chapel, the U of I's Newman Center. My faith grew by leaps and bounds there; it's where I realized that I was going to pursue my faith for the rest of my life by my own longing rather than at my parents' urging. With the 4:30 Sunday choir, I sang contemporary music that spoke to my soul and spirit, songs that bring back a rush of feelings and memories when I hear them at the contemporary young-adult Mass I attend with my husband now. 

Of course, some of the best college memories come from having family visit, and this layout has pictures from a weekend when my mom brought my grandma and my cousin, who was in a stroller at that point. (My aunt might have been there, too, but she wasn't in any of the pictures. She must have been the one behind the camera!)

This next layout is another of my favorites, although the event itself didn't thrill me much at the time. Illini Tower held a casino night for residents one weekend, and although I'm not a big gambler and never have been, I went along for the ride. I was stumped at first as far as how to decorate the page, but just in the nick of time I remembered a mat pack of travel-themed paper I had packed away in a cabinet of my scrapping room. I hit the jackpot (ha, ha) with some casino-themed paper that worked perfectly.

No U of I book (of mine, at least) would be complete without a layout dedicated to the Quad. It was part of my daily life during the week; there weren't many days during my time at U of I that I didn't cross that grassy courtyard with the criss-crossing sidewalks. And I had classes in many of the buildings surrounding it.

Finally, I did several graduation layouts, including the graduation Mass during which I sang with the choir for the final time; my all-campus commencement at Assembly Hall; my College of Communications ceremony at one of the smaller auditoriums on the Quad; and a layout using some cool U of I paper I found at local scrapbooking store The Paper Boutique. I closed out the book with my congratulations-on-your-graduation letter from the U of I, but I didn't include it because it's nothing too visually exciting - just a 12x12 page with a letter. I love how it brings the book full circle after opening with my acceptance letter, though.

My final Mass singing with the 4:30 choir. 

 All-campus commencement at the Assembly Hall -- 

the moment I'd been waiting for!

 My College of Communications ceremony 

at Foellinger Auditorium 

on the south end of the Quad.

The final graduation layout wrapping up everything -- 

cards, graduation announcement in its cool, U of I case, 

my tassle and a picture of me with my cake.

I'm already well into my next project -- a scrapbook marking my almost 13 years at The State Journal-Register. My goal is to finish it before I work my last shift on Aug. 24. 

Finished family vacations album!

Finally, after what seemed like a year (but in reality was probably closer to two  months), I have wrapped up the family trips album. Previously, I posted photos of pages I had done of Los Angeles and a high school trip to Washington, D.C. The remaining pages consisted of a D.C. trip in college, for a wedding, and a pair of Colorado vacations that I took with my parents when I was in junior high and early high school. Those particular trips had few photos and little information written on them, so it was hard to determine exactly where they were taken and when, but I patched together a general set of pages with a few memories.

Here are layouts from the second D.C. trip, which, in addition to the wedding, included visits to the Newseum and the National Holocaust Museum:

This intro page shows a few of the D.C. monuments on the left, 

as well as a picture with family members of the wedding party.

Here we have a layout dedicated to the wedding itself.

I wanted to keep my layout for the Holocaust Museum 

dark and simple.

The Newseum had lots of interesting exhibits outside. 

I don't remember if cameras were off-limits inside, 

but the outside pictures were all I had (above and below).

This D.C. trip was by car, and on the way back we stopped in Columbus, Ohio, to visit my best friend and her family. Here is a layout from that overnight excursion:

Finally, here are the pages from the Colorado trip, which I didn't like as much as the other trip layouts because of the lack of content. But hey, at least it's done, right?

A simple lead-in page.

I actually liked this layout because of the paper (Stampin' Up!) 

and these were some of my favorite pictures from Colorado. 

My dad gets credit for the close-up of the deer on the left.

It was the late '80s, early '90s, so I decorated 

the page accordingly. :-)

The last page of Colorado and the last page of the book. 

(I decided not to do this one in chronological order.)

I'm still trying to decide what my next project will be. I'm thinking about doing the reunion trip I took to U of I back in April with my old roommates Sara and Heather and our friend Stephanie. But I also have prints for some smaller projects that I'm tempted to knock out before I start a larger one. (The reunion is enough to fill its own book.) I'm also planning to scrap the photos and memorabilia from our actual college years, but I'm searching for a scrapbook with the U of I seal on the cover. I've seen them, but I'm having trouble tracking one down for some reason. I'm excited to start that project, though. My college memories are some of my fondest, and I absolutely love reliving them. 

A finished Paris album and other thoughts

After a long absence from this blog, I'm back to say that, although I haven't blogged about my scrapping lately, I have been scrapping. In fact, I have finished the Paris book, and once I have the chance to run over to Scrapbook Your Story for some page protectors, I'll be able to fully assemble it.

Here are two of my Eiffel Tower layouts. For some reason, I'm having trouble uploading photos to the blog, so I don't think I'll be able to add any more to this post. :-( Maybe I'll try again later.

There were so many great things to photograph in Paris that it was hard to narrow down my pictures to a reasonable number for the scrapbook. Natalie gave me a great idea to use one of the pocket pages that came with my variety pack -- a 12x12 with nine 4x4 pockets -- at the end of the book to make a couple of collages of cropped photos. As I was working on the book, I set aside photos that wouldn't fit in the main part of the book for possible use in the collages. I was able to use almost all of them that way. I would include a photo of the collages if I could get the photo feature to work! (Enter my frustration with technology!)

Now that I've finished my first hybrid album, I have to say I've measured the pros and cons. I love the ease of the 3-ring binder, but the pocket pages were a little inconvenient in the sense that they restricted me in some of my layouts. I can see myself using hybird books for future projects, though -- especially small, simple projects such as one I'm planning for a Christmas gift.

With Paris 2010 finished, I'm in between projects, trying to decide what to start next. I have a weeklong staycation starting a week from today, and I'm hoping to get in plenty of scrapping time. One project I need to do soon is a framed photo page in memory of Typo, the feral stray that adopted the SJ-R as her home more than 10 years ago and had to be put to sleep last week because she had large mammary gland tumors. I've gathered several pictures coworkers took of her over the years, and we're hoping, once I finish it, that we'll be allowed to hang it up somewhere in the building. Some other books I'm eager to dig into: the cupcake crawl, my reunion weekend at U of I with Sara, Heather and Steph this past April; a book of childhood family vacations (part of my long-term "scrapping the old, yellowing pictures" project); and a number of single layouts for my "favorite things" scrapbook, including Krispy Kreme, Einstein Bros. Bagels and meeting Boyz II Men. 

I decided to do a "favorite things" book back in March, during my last staycation, when I realized my tendency to take pictures of the things I love most in life. By "things," I mean things that are tangible (I should probably tackle people and concepts in a different book). For example, so far in my "favorite things" book, I have a lot of foods and food places -- cupcakes, Mel-O-Cream doughnuts, my mom's banana bread. I also have the old Doc Marten sandals I got just after college and wore for several summers, to the point of needing a strap repaired (after which I wore them for at least one more summer). And then I have a layout for all the Dave Matthews Band concerts I've been to. (I wore the sandals to a few of those!) It's fun to have a book dedicated to the small things that bring me joy. I'm all about taking pleasure in the little things. There just aren't enough "big" moments in life. We need to find happiness and contentment in the ordinary.

I'm sure in the coming days I'll become inspired for my next project. I have a few things to focus on before I can relax, though. I have a retreat next weekend on which I'm giving a talk, and I need to get through three more days of work. I'm more than ready for a week of leisurely scrapping, though. I know I can accomplish a lot in several wide-open days. Only seven days till then!