SMASHing

These are the pages I have finished thus far. If you want to get super snoopy, click to enlarge.

I've used a few cool tricks that may be worth mentioning for anyone out there who scrapbooks? I dunno, maybe I just want to remember them for later.

:: STAMPS. Stamps are the gateway to inspiration for me, for some reason. If it's boring, I stamp something on it. I actually have used pretty few stamps in these pages, for some reason, but they helped big time in the bottom left and top right pages.

:: Junk. I have kept the ugliest junk to put in this thing, and somehow it's all kinda worked itself out. A few examples: the doily in bottom right was a soup coaster from Mimi's Cafe, the tie-dye cloth is actually a Kleenex from Mariah's recent painting adventures (was going to be thrown away), the "Be happy" wood was a broken keychain, and the smaller of the two Zion's logos was cut out of a paper sack that held my postcards. Oh! And that brown stuff held on by the blue paper clip is MEXICAN TOILET PAPER (unused, duh). Not much sentimental value in these things as they are, but they make for super fun accessories. 

:: Good adhesives. When you are sticking things like satin bows and plastic credit cards onto paper, you gotta go for the real deal on "stick." I believe in glue sticks for paper on paper and everything else is fair game. I do not believe in double stick tape for pretty much anything because I have yet to experience a success story with ours. Brads, staples, and sewing stuff on = fun ways to add interest as well as hold something tight. Oh and paper clips! I do love paper clips.

:: If a page stands alone, leave it. This worked well for both of the right hand pages in both photos on row 2 above. If I were to add anything to either of those, it would probably be sparkle glue outline of the binoculars or something. But I definitely won't be adding any extra stuff to those since they offer a good rest from all the other busy-ness. 

[Side note: Every time I try to say busy-ness, I first write business and then spend 5 minutes trying to figure out why it's not conveying what I want to convey. Yeah, I know English, don't judge me, ok?]

It's been a blast to capture big events alongside daily life with very little rhyme or reason in this little book. I still highly recommend the SMASH system (by which I mean the record-whatever-you-darn-well-please system) to anyone and everyone. It's probably one of the most freeing activities ever. And think how much your posterity will love it! In the meantime, I'll keep you all posted as I finish more pages.