Running out of Photos?

I realize how ridiculous this may sound, but I've become so focused on documenting our lives through layouts and Project 365 that I'm pretty much up to date.  Yup, I said that - I've scrapbooked most recent things that I want to.

So, when I went to pack my things for a recent crop, I quickly realized that I'd need to search the archives to find some subjects.  A few years ago, my friend, Karen introduced me to Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom - a wonderful system of cataloguing your photos and organizing your scrapbooks.  It's brilliant and it works beautifully for any scrapbooker, making it easy to locate specific photos among your thousands.  Anyway, I pulled out my category drawer and found a bunch of old photos - from years past - that I had just never got around to scrapbooking.  I also found some old paper packs about the same age lol  And, those are the things I focused on at the crop!

This first layout is a kit I got - it was a make and take at the first Saskatchewan Scraps I attended.  I think it was 4 1/2 years ago, but could be wrong (that's a long time ago to remember for a brain like mine!).  I never put it together because I was stuck on what photo I'd use.  But, taking it along to the crop allowed me to think outside the box and when I set the recent photo from our Edmonton trip on the papers, I loved how the photo brightened it!  It also added the dimension I needed - I struggle using outdoorsy papers because I always want to use outdoorsy photos on them and the layouts end up looking flat.  But, putting a bright, indoor photo on this did the trick and I'm very happy with it!

I wish I could remember the manufacturer of this paper, but I can't - so sorry! 

This next item from the archives is something I've been meaning to use for ages, but keep forgetting!  In the fall of 2011, my sister had a plan to get her kids and my kids together for a formal photo shoot.  The photos we got were awesome, in large part due to the excellence of the photographer at, get this - Sears!  All four kids thoroughly enjoyed the photos and hammed it up.  But isn't it just sad that these photos sat in an envelope for 18 months?  I'll blame that on my swiss-cheese brain ...

The paper, chipboard and gems are Close To My Heart and the ribbon is Stampin' Up.  It's funny to me how the two companies are often seen as competitors, when their products tend to work beautifully together (although I've always been and always will be partial to CTMH :)

The column of wallet-size photos is something I've long wanted to do.  Interestingly, I ordered a whole page of wallets to give our family members in their Christmas cards, then forgot to put them in!  I was glad they finally got put to use lol.