beware the dangers of whitewater rafting!

This week's challenge was to use five colors, no flower-patterned paper, and a four-word title. I actually came up with two possible layouts using four words, but this one called to me! There are five colors in the paper itself, and I used three solid colors for background. Love this paper!

returning to the scrapping fold

Amazing! After a four-year drought, I finally scrapped! This is the result of a challenge from the scrapping blog How Much is Too Much? The challenge was to use a one word title, nine squares, nine pieces of patterned paper, and nine brads.  Dusting the cobwebs off feels great! I think I might be able to handle doing a challenge once a week!

two loves

This is the first time I've really had to scrap in a long time!!! Jules sent me some papers for my birthday that worked great on this layout. I posted this picture on my blog several weeks ago, and realized at the time that these are exactly the kinds of things that need to be scrapped. This is my life, Juliet is one of my loves, and her antics bring joy to my days. So here she is in all her cute glory! (this layout is 12 x 12)

The second layout is one I did of my first gardening efforts at our new house. I had posted a picture a few weeks ago and was encouraged to use the "blog" entry as journaling. Great idea! So here is that layout, with additional pictures and some edited text. Thanks, Gail! (this layout is 9 x 9)

some of the saints

It's not a page that would appear in most people's scrapbooks, but it is meaningful to me as a pastor. The background of the right-hand portion of the page lists the names of people I buried while serving at St. Peter's, and below is a photograph of the columbarium there, along with a sculpture that is in the church garden designed and made by a parishioner. He died near the end of my tenure there, and it was my privilege to bury him. This isn't what I would consider one of my best layouts, but it is personally meaningful.

faith scrapping

Maybe it sounds obvious by virtue of its name, "faith scrapping." Though faith is an intangible thing, not an object, there are, nonetheless, moments and rituals in our lives that serve to document our journey. Weddings are perhaps the most photographed (and though a sacrament, often obscured as one), and gatherings for baptisms, if not the baptism itself, may follow. How we choose to document those events, beyond the photographs themselves, becomes the challenge and the opportunity to record the journey.

Some of the layouts here are an attempt to go beyond the obvious. The layout of Katie's baptism, for instance, is less about the event itself than the significance of it. The focal picture worked well as a lead-in to talk about light, and though the journaling is brief, it captures succinctly (I hope) the power of what baptism means. There is so much more that could be said, but perhaps it is enough to begin with these few words, and let other layouts trace her journey, her wonder, her epiphanies and her engagement with God and the world he created.

The other layout here is a first stab at a page for my ABC Gratitude album. This is the "b" page, listing things for which I am grateful that begin with the letter "b." Some of them can be represented with images, and most of those that appear on the page came from my own collection. (The beach photo is courtesy of my brother!) I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with this layout, which I put together on a deadline, but it's a start.

It's not easy to get any scrapping done these days with so much else going on, but at least now I've got a place to post my work when I can carve out some time for this passion in my life. As always, TFL! (thanks for looking...)