Nashville – hclappyscraps

New Releases for February 1st

I have lots of pages to share today, so let’s get rolling!

First up are my LO’s for Simple Scrapper. I love that the monthly themes help me go beyond scrapping events, and tell different kinds of stories. I feel like I stretch myself with each one.

Journaling reads- My favorite parts of the day- watching the news together in the morning, because we’ve only been able to do that this past year. Snuggling with miss kitty after Jason leaves, because she’s only been doing that recently after years of standoffishness. Curling up together before we fall asleep, because we’ve done it for years and will do it for many more.

Credits:
Toad-ally Adorable kit by Aprilisa
January 2015 template #3 by Simple Scrapper
Inspired by a Story Starter from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (February 2015 #6)

Journaling reads- You make me cry every time you give me a card or letter. I know to grab tissue before I even open it. I can’t help it, your words mean so much to me.

Credits:
Quinn Storyteller collection by Just Jaimee
February 2015 template #1 by Simple Scrapper
Inspired by a story starter from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (Feb 2011)

Mandy has a sweet new release today called Touch the Sky, which I used to scrap another Louisiana road trip page. I love that I kept notes along the way, or I totally would have forgotten about these little details.

Journaling reads-
I-75 Northbound
Car talk- Once Upon a Time, Taylor Swift, fall colors.
Seen- cows, Adult Superstore, the jerk who was tailgating us get pulled over by the police.

Credits:
Touch the Sky by Mandy King

As soon as I saw February’s Monthly Mix at GingerScraps, I knew exactly what I wanted to scrap, staying with Melissa last year.

Journaling reads- Melissa let us crash at her house while we were in town for Jon’s memorial service. It was great seeing her, even though it was for a sad reason. We stayed up late talking, and we got to meet Aaliyah for the first time. February 1, 2014

Credits:
Best Friends collab by the Gingerbread Ladies (kit and template)

One more from the Best Friends Monthly Mix, this time using one of the templates. I loved the cards from the Honeymoon collection, so I let those stand in for a title and journaling.

Credits-
Honeymoon Collection Bundle by JB Studio and Meagan’s Creations
Best Friends template by Dagi’s Temp-Tations

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Yesteryear

Mandy has teamed up on a beautiful collab with Seatrout Scraps called Yesteryear. I really loved their last kit, so I was pretty excited to dig into these goodies.

One of my goals for 2015 is to go through an old photo album of my dad’s and put stories to the photos. I scanned in the first batch last weekend, and it was fun emailing back and forth with him and my aunt about them.

I’m not sure what the finished product will be, whether it’s a blurb book of photos and stories, or a few LO’s. For right now I’m just enjoying the process, scanning away and group emails, with a little extra Googling to learn about Nashville in the 1960’s.

These pictures spoke to me because I had no idea there used to be a ferry over the river. I’m interested in going to this site next time we’re in Nashville if that’s possible. (I think one of the docks is located on private property now). I’ve talked a couple of times how the river has been important in my personal history, and it’s also where Jason proposed, so it’s neat to see photos of it that my dad took when he was young.

Journaling reads- Cary took these photos near where the old Mcgavock Ferry used to be. The Ferry would take people across the Cumberland River between Inglewood and Donelson before Briley Parkway opened. The Ferry stopped running around 1965.

Credits:
Yesteryear bundle by Mandy King and Seatrout Scraps

Places + My Details- Downtown Nashville

This page is a great example of “curating a story”. I’ve had it percolating in my head for months.

The photo was taken in February when we went up to Nashville for Jon’s memorial service. It has already been featured in that week’s Project Life pages.

The journaling was written for a prompt for the My Details class in April. I was still unpacking the house and not scrapping, but I did a lot of writing for possible future pages during that time.

The design is a direct scrap lift of a page I made in May. I knew I’d be making more simple pages like that again.

The page came together in July, following the “one photo, many words” prompt from my Inspired Scrapbooking class.

I love how inspiration can come from several different directions and combine into something really special.

Journaling reads- Crossing the bridge and seeing the skyline was always one of my very favorite things. It was the transition place between my parents’ houses, and a few years later, between work and home. I would feel a sense of excitement, but of calm as well. Of belonging to a city that was thriving and busy, but familiar and homey at the same time. It did my angst-y teenage heart good to see that skyline, to cross that river. It was where I belonged, where I thought I would always be.

Another Nashville Love page from a year ago.

Five Pages | Inspired by Freebies

My scrapping budget is pretty tight right now. Moving is expensive! Luckily I’ve rediscovered one of my very favorite sources for freebies- Quality Digiscrap Freebies. I’ve been super inspired to make all kinds of LO’s. I’ve made a ton of LO’s without spending any money.

Sidenote: I absolutely believe in supporting the industry and I do so whenever possible. (Y’all don’t even want to know how much money I spent on scrapping in January). But every family has times when budgets are tight, and this is definitely one of those times for us.

You can find free digiscrap supplies all over the internet. I think most of us did a lot of freebie mining when we first started out. But that tends to taper off as we keep scrapping. Our hard drives are only so big after all. And the quality isn’t always fantastic. It can be pretty overwhelming to sort through everything that’s out there.

That’s why Quality Digiscrap Freebies is so great. You get a lovely curated list of fabulous freebies. You won’t love all of them, but with at least three new freebies showcased every day, you’re sure to find some great kits and templates to suit your style.

Here are a few of the pages I’ve made using supplies I found on QDSF. Everything on these pages, with the exception of the Becky Higgins template, was a freebie. Most are still available, but some freebies have an expiration date.

The first page is from last year’s trip to the Morikami. Jason’s beer came with the cutest beer cozy ever, a tiny kimono! So being the super sophisticated people that we are, we proceeded to set up little photo shoots with “Kirin in Kimono” all over the park. Hilarity ensued.

Journaling reads- The Adventures of Kirin in Kimono. We met Kirin in Kimono at the Morikami. We had many adventures together exploring the park. We walked in the woods, checked out the koi pond, listened to the Tico drums, and made new friends. We even found Mi-Chan in the scavenger hunt! A fun, relaxing day was had by all. Looking forward to hanging out with Kirin in Kimono again really soon!

Credits:
Celebrate Life by Studio Basic
February 2014 template by Little Green Frog

The second page highlights a silly text exchange between me and my sister. And yes, I told her if she made faces at me that I’d put them all over the internet. 😛

Journaling reads- J got a new phone and was texting me to tell me all about it. We were both excited for the better camera. Then the conversation took an ugly turn….

Credits:
Well Duh, We’re Sisters journal cards by La Belle Vie Designs
Everyday Life flairs by Megan Turnidge
Template by Becky Higgins

As soon as I saw this cowboy themed kit, I knew which photo I needed to scrap. Despite having grown up in Nashville, we are strictly city people. I have never in my life owned a cowboy hat, unless you count my sparkly green St. Patty’s Day hat. But my uncle Mikey actually did once own a cowboy hat, that he used to like to terrorize me with. (See how my mom gave me ice to chew on? That was to keep the screaming at bay). I hated that hat. Well I guess we all have our childhood traumas… which in some cases lead to anthropomorphizing alcoholic beverages (see above).

Journaling reads- This horse on wheels was one of my very favorite toys when I was very small. I used to love it when my mom would take me to Shelby Park to ride around and feed the ducks.

Credits:
Country Strong by Jenn Barrett
Everyday Stroll template by Zollio

So this next page is pure silliness (like the previous ones weren’t). Yes I like scrapping squirrels And no, I can’t spell squirrel to save my life. I mess it up Every Time. But whatevs.

Journaling reads- Jason is the “sqirrel whisperer”. We were walking around the park and this guy came right up to him. He was probably looking for food, but we’ll say Jason has magical squirrel attracting abilities.

Credits:
Go Take A Hike kit by Jadyday
FB freebie template by AK designs

For my last LO, I did a family portrait page. I would like to do more of those this year. I’m usually a “story first” or “products first” scrapper. But I have so many photos that are nice, but don’t necessarily have a deeper story. Most of them are photos of our extended families, especially Jason’s. Which leads to almost no photos in our “family” scrapbooks. So I’m going to add “scrap more family photos” to my ever-growing list of pages to make.

This one shows a picture of Dad and Jeannie, me, Jay, and my mom taken after Jon’s memorial service. I’m sure the church ladies thought it was incredibly tacky for us all to sneak down to the basement and start snapping pics. (and they’re totally right). But I almost never have my whole immediate family in a room together, so I wanted to take advantage of that. Better than doing selfies with the urn right? Though he might have thought that was funny… I hereby give permission to anyone who wants to take selfies with my urn. Just don’t knock me over trying to get that great long arm shot 😛

Credits:
Addiction add-on by Fanette and Mel designs
Fuss Free Freebie template by Fiddle Dee Dee

Okay this is an almost 1000 word post, so I’m going to stop here. Thanks for looking, and be sure to check out Quality DigiScrap Freebies!

Project Life 2014- Week 5

Project Life seems to be the only thing I’m keeping up with so far this year. The simpler approach is the ONLY reason for that, I’m pretty sure.

Last week we drove up to Nashville for Jon’s memorial service. We weren’t sure we’d be able to make it, but I’m so glad we could. It meant a lot to me that I could be there. Also, I have the Best Husband Ever. Seriously. It was a long trip and he drove the whole way. There is no one I’d rather be trapped in a car for 17 hours with.

I made four pages for this week, roughly one for each day of our trip. When I was doing double page spreads each week, I’d make a page for each day. Then on the facing page, I would use one large photo taking up the whole page. I decided to do away with the large photos this time around and just focus on photos and words. I cannot tell you how nice it is not to have to worry about papers and embellishments for these pages!.

The first page is about our trip up. I always take a lot of pictures at the beginning of trips to keep myself occupied in the car. I used all instagrams, except for the last one.I think that’s going to be my go-to method for doing pages this year with big events/ trips. Photos that I post on instagram tend to be my favorites. I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago when we went to the Morikami.

Journaling reads- This week we drove up to Nashville for Jon’s memorial service. It was a sad reason to go, of course, but it was really great seeing family and friends. We drove up on Thursday and stayed with Melissa. We packed a lot of visiting into a day and a half. I saw a lot of people I haven’t seen in years. We left right after the service on Saturday and drove to Macon. We finished the trip on Sunday and got home in time to watch the Super Bowl. We also got approved for the apt. this week!

Friday was the busiest day of the trip. Lots and lots of visiting.

Saturday was the day of the service and the start of our trip back home. We decided to split the trip down into two days, since Jason had to go back to work on Monday. It made things a lot easier.

We tried to get a lot of group family photos this trip. Candids are my favorite, but these are very special. It’s a tricky situation because on one hand, we were there for a very sad reason, but I was also really happy to see family and friends. Lots of mixed emotions. And of course you don’t want to shove cameras at people who are grieving, so there are several people I didn’t get pictures of at all. And I’m rambling….

I was going to use the last page for pics from our trip home, but I had a few random photos I wanted in there too, so it’s a mixture of both. This page doesn’t flow chronologically with the others, but I don’t care. We took a little over 600 photos that week and I wanted to include these even if they don’t make sense to anyone but me.

*Project Life was invented by Becky Higgins. You can learn more about it here. My Project Life pages can be found here.

Photo Walk: Downtown Nashville

I love downtown Nashville. So. Much.

I’ve spent so many hours walking these streets. Visiting my dad at work. Waiting on busses. Shopping. Going to plays and the museum. Running errands. Running for busses. Running to pick up my sister from school. Running to grab breakfast before work. And yes, falling on my butt once or twice from all that running.

I could write a book full of all the memories I have of this place. But until then, I’ll share a few photos we took when we visited Nashville back in November. I’m so glad we got to spend some time, just the two of us, walking around one of my very favorite places.

We took these in the space of about half an hour on our last night in Nashville back in November. They’re a mix of iPhone and big camera photos that I ran through Instagram with the Hefe filter.

Driving over the bridge.

This is new, I think.

I love the mix of architectural styles.

This is where my dad used to work. I would come here every day after school for years as a kid. As a grown-up I would meet him here for lunch (and sometimes a drink).