(More Than) 15-Minute Layouts

Despite the fact that I have a list of my Top Five (photos or stories or events) from the past three months that I want to scrapbook as part of the challenge I set for myself at the beginning of the year, I've recently scrapped three stories from this year that were not on that list! The main goal of my challenge was to help me scrap more of this year's stories during this year, so I'm actually very pleased with myself . . . and still hope to check a few off that Top Five list before the end of the month.

The INSPIRATION for all three of these layouts came from the BPC 15-Minute Layouts class. The assignment for Lesson One in this class, taught by Jamie Waters, is to pull together a kit of supplies to work with in order to create five layouts, each in 15 minutes. I chose not to put together a kit, but simply moved on to Lesson Two, took some notes and drew a sketch while I watched the video of Jamie creating a two-page layout in under 15 minutes, and then flipped through my 2015 Storage Binder to see how I wanted to use that INSPIRATION.

I ended up adapting the assignment and creating two one-page layouts. Each layout took me about 40 minutes. This first layout showcases photos from my trip down to the Houston area to scrap with my friend LeAnne back in April.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know Robbie always send me flowers when I travel overnight without him. These flowers arrived at LeAnne's house shortly after I did, and I loved the way the glass vase was surrounded by colored pencils . . . and the fact that it came with a box of chocolates. I used Robbie's note on the florist card as my title block. I also included a note about 5-year-old Logan's concern when he saw the pencils . . . "Do they have dirt on them?"

The next layout shares the story about replacing our old refrigerator back in February.

Journaling reads: Finally decided to get a new fridge and spent a good bit of time at Lowe's picking it out. It was delivered the next day, but ran so loud we could hear it all over the house. Had a time picking another one since the west coast dock workers were on strike. Then the one I picked out couldn't be delivered until a week later due to an ice storm!

I was inspired by the class materials to use a stencil to create the splotches in the corners, then to add a few sequins, stickers, and brads for dimension.

Lesson Three in the class provided INSPIRATION for a two-photo layout. I pulled a couple of photos that continued the story of Robbie's case of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trading cards and set to work.

Jamie suggested embellishing the background paper by adding strips of another paper to create stripes. I actually made my stripes by cutting pieces off the bottom of some of the extra trading cards. Each piece has an episode title and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it. Then I lined the pieces up across the page to create stripes. This rather labor-intensive step insured that this layout took well over an hour to complete.

I'm excited to add these stories to our 2015 chronological album and am thrilled with how quickly they came together (even if I spent way more than 15 minutes on each). How long does it typically take you to create a layout?